Ethel Kurland, 94
Ethel Kurland, 94, passed away on Sunday, Nov. 1, 2009, in Sandpoint, Idaho.
Private services will be held at a later date.
Ethel was born November 14, 1914 in New York City to Harry and Anna (Sohon) Kurland. She always expressed gratitude towards her parents for giving her freedom and trust as a young girl to explore what the world had to offer. At age 17 she lived in Greenwich Village, N.Y., with a group of friends where she created a job for herself. She would photograph passengers on ocean liners traveling to Europe and elsewhere around the world. Her clients included famous celebrities like J.F. Kennedy, Charles Lindburg, and Gloria Vanderbilt.
Ethel moved to California in the 1950s. She first worked in Hollywood for Fidelity Pictures as a script editor, then moving to Carmel, she was friends with famous photographers Edward Weston, Ansel Adams and writer Henry Miller. She later opened an art gallery in Pebble Beach, which she used to create a spay and neuter clinic for cats called “Cat’s Whiskers.” She also worked for Harcourt Brace Publishing in San Francisco, before moving to Sandpoint in 1984.
Ethel has always been an advocate for animals, particularly cats. She spearheaded the Panhandle Animal Shelter project in Sandpoint. Ethel has always inspired others in the various communities in which she has lived to organize spay and neuter clinics and animal shelters.
In addition to her love of animals, she enjoyed traveling the world especially in Spain, photography, theatre arts, reading and was known as a good conversationalist who appreciated the value of a good argument. She published an autobiography in 2007 titled, “The Courage of Ignorance.” In an interview recently Ethel was quoted, “It was a wonderful, charmed life, and I’d do it again in a heartbeat.”
She is survived by many friends, 2 nephews Ethan Benjamini and David Kurland and grand niece Lori Chavez.
She was preceded in death by her parents and her Sister Sylvia.
Memorial donations may be made to the Panhandle Animal Shelter, 870 Kootenai Cutoff Road, Ponderay, ID 83852.
Lakeview Funeral Home in Sandpoint is handling the arrangements. Please visit Ethel’s online memorial at www.lakeviewfuneral.com and sign her guest book.