Dorothy R. Sidelle

Dorothy Ruth Sidelle, 90, of Brooklyn, NY. Dorothy was born in 1935 and raised in Brooklyn, NY. An only child of Nettie Bernstein (later Lostfogel), she grew up in a loving and entertaining family with her mother and grandparents, her two aunts and three uncles, multiple cousins and large extended family, most of whom continued to live in Brooklyn and Queens.

 Dorothy attended Erasmus High School and then Brooklyn College, where she earned her BA in Psychology with a minor in Classics. During this time, she made a cohort of friends who would last her whole life, and come to encompass the spouses and families of these sorority sisters. While on winter break in Miami in 1955, she met Ronald Sidelle, and by the following June they were engaged, and in October were married. They had two children, Alan and Patti (now Patti Cornell), and remained married for 60 years, until the death of her beloved Ronnie in December, 2016. While Ronald was with the JAG in Washington DC, Dorothy worked in the Pentagon, and they hosted many parties for army personnel. In 1959 they returned to Brooklyn, where they continued to live until Dorothy moved to Simsbury CT in 2018 to be closer to her daughter Patti. She was a loving and ever supportive mother to her children, and later a doting grandmother to her four grandchildren. After Patti and Alan went to college, Dorothy returned to work in the purchasing department of Abraham and Straus, and was so able to anticipate the needs and whims of her supervisor the she earned the nickname ‘radar’. 

Dorothy and Ronald traveled widely in the US and Europe, and took a special safari to Kenya and Tanzania. Their cordiality and enthusiasm earned them several long-lasting and close friendships on these trips. Dorothy was well-known for her extreme generosity, and delighted in gift giving on birthdays and the holidays. Among her many other traits and skills, she was a fine and adventurous cook, and had a steel-trap mind for movie trivia, a testament to her frequent trips to the cinema with her grandmother, aunts and friends. Dorothy was loving and loved, and will be very warmly remembered. She is survived by children Alan Sidelle and Patti Cornell, grandchildren Sam Lerner, Ben Cornell, Finn and David Sidelle, and great-grandchildren Isaac, Maya and Noah Lerner.

Services will be held at 11:00 AM on May 6 at Weinstein Mortuary Chapel. Burial will take place on Thursday, May 7 at 11:00 AM at Mt. Lebanon Cemetery in Glendale, NY.