Merle Weiss, the ‘Eve of South Beach,’ dies at 88. Friends remember an ally

South Beach socialite, arts and gay rights activist, businesswoman, volunteer and visionary Merle Rosenbaum Weiss was the Dolly Parton of the local Miami community.

Sure, that’s a lofty reach. Dolly was universally singular. But with Weiss’ platinum hair, flair for fashion and, most of all, her beatific demeanor and embrace of everyone, Weiss shared qualities with the late country-pop music queen.

Weiss died Monday at 88 after battling lung cancer, her husband Daniel Weiss said. Her family and friends turned to social media to share memories and expressions of love. That’s fitting. Weiss was the epitome of social.

Merle’s mark on Miami

In the late 1980s and beyond, if you went to a nightclub, a restaurant, a benefit for anything and everything from Save-Dade to the Miami Book Fair, you ran into Merle Weiss. If you saw a movie presented by the Miami Film Festival, thank Merle. She was a Film Society board member.

“The magic that sparked the Miami Film Festival in the ‘80s,” co-founding director Nat Chediak said on Facebook.

If you attended Art Basel bashes when the visual arts fair first landed in Miami Beach a quarter-century ago, you saw Merle and Danny Weiss looking fabulous and upstaging the art.

“Merle was a rare bird,” her husband said in an email to the Miami Herald. “Remarkable was Merle’s what-you-see-is what-you-get persona. Upon first encounter — and every thereafter — Merle told you how she felt and what she thought. This radiant facet of character endeared Merle to most. It served both Merle and the community well in all Merle’s professional and volunteer and social endeavors. It made Merle particularly lovable and memorable.”

Chances are she greeted you with her usual, “Hello, Gorgeous!” If you dressed for any of these occasions in one of her outfits you bought at her posh Lincoln Road consignment shop, Merle’s Closet, you wouldn’t be remiss if you called Merle and Danny “The Adam and Eve of South Beach.”

That’s what editor Glenn Albin of the former social chronicler magazine Ocean Drive pronounced the couple in a 2002 Miami Herald story.

“Outrageous by suburban standards, but entirely cherished on South Beach. They were on the front line when there were no more than 50 pioneers getting together night after night dreaming about South Beach getting noticed,” he said at the time.

On a Facebook post, Albin remembered those days when South Beach was emerging from a decades-long slumber after TV’s “Miami Vice” reminded the world the island community once had color and pizzazz.

“Jerry Powers, my publisher at Ocean Drive, often pulled me aside and pleaded, ‘Why is Merle in every issue?’ And I remember saying to him at least once, ‘Jerry, she’s the reason that we’re all here.’”

Albin shared their last text communication from Saturday afternoon.

“Glenn, so beautiful. Love you madly. How wonderful that we were all thinking of one another at the same time. Love still makes the world go ‘round.”

A move to Miami Beach

Born in Philadelphia, on July 30, 1938, Merle Weiss moved to Miami in the late 1960s where she would later meet husband Danny, a University of Miami grad and attorney, and her life partner of 55 years. The couple moved to Miami Beach in 1985. Her three sons from a previous marriage were grown.

“I mean, I’m really lucky,” she told the Herald in 2002 as she reflected on life as one half of SoBe’s top party pair. “This is a man who doesn’t watch sports on television and loves to go shopping. He’s perfect.”

Her Merle’s Closet thrift shop, tucked near the South Florida Arts Center on Lincoln Road, opened in 1992. For three years, it served as an oasis for the community’s colorful characters like the drag queens who gave South Beach’s Ocean Drive and Washington Avenue hotspots like Warsaw Ballroom, Palace Bar & Restaurant and Twist its flair and flash back in the day.

“Who didn’t love Merle and Danny? They were everywhere tirelessly supporting the causes and people they believed in and cherished,” said Lisa Cole, Hilton’s director of Americas Communications.

A hip couple

The Miami Herald dubbed Danny and Merle Weiss “the hippest straight couple on the party circuit.”

She was a hoot, with her spotlight-catching hair, svelte figure and high heels dotting indentations on red carpets.

“The first time we went to Warsaw,” Merle told the Herald in 2002 about the famous gay dance palace on Washington, “we saw people dancing nude and simulating sex on stage. We loved it! We started inviting other couples who were our friends. They were horrified. But we had the greatest time.”

Long timers may recall Irene Williams, “a tiny woman who walked Lincoln Road every day in bright, head-to-toe color-coordinated (Purple! Red! Green! Orange! Pink!) outfits she made herself, out of towels, fuzzy toilet seat covers, vinyl, and the like,” the blog Culture View MIA posted in 2017.

Naturally, there was a friendly connection between Williams and the Adam and Eve of South Beach.

The Jewish Museum of Florida-FIU hosted the show “Irene Williams: Queen of Lincoln Road” that featured her outfits. Merle, dressed for the opening in matching pink Pucci dress and shoes and Danny in a pink seersucker suit, served as show sponsors.

Supporting causes

The Miami Beach Commission for Women presented Weiss with its Women Worth Knowing award in 2007 for her work on behalf of numerous arts organizations, the Winter Party and the Miami Beach Gay and Lesbian Film Festival.

“I reminded people how important it is that gays and lesbians have the same rights as everyone else,” Weiss said as she accepted the honor.

“The world is markedly less fabulous without Merle Weiss click-clacking through it on the high heels she wore until her last days,” said Miami attorney Elizabeth Schwartz. “Merle was the earliest and best definition of an LGBTQ+ ally, opening her arms and the doors to her Lincoln Road store to welcome those on the margins. Merle had a knack for bringing people together — LGBTQ+ and straight; the socially prominent and the club kids. She excluded no one.”

Merle’s Closet, and its founder’s brio, defined an era of the Beach. But her shop closed in 1995, hit by skyrocketing rents as the neighborhood revitalized into a tropical East Village that drew celebs like Madonna, Cher, Prince, Sean Penn and Sylvester Stallone to town and into Miami Beach nightclubs like Liquid, Shadow Lounge, Bash, Bar None, Glam Slam, Crobar and Groove Jet.

“She was one of the most memorable personalities on the Beach. Her presence was always luminescent and she and her husband Danny attended and supported a myriad of causes helping better all things,” said director and writer Richard Jay-Alexander. “She was fun, but a serious thinker and a kind and generous human being. And then there were the clothes. Every time she went out, any affair would turn into an event.”

Weiss’ life lessons extended to her family.

Said son Matthew Telepman: “Through her compassion for all people, no matter their color, race, religion, gender ethnicity or sexual orientation, I learned to not judge people on what I could visually see, but about what is in their heart and soul. That helped me to try to be a person who treated people how I want to be treated.”

Survivors and services

Weiss’ survivors include her sons, Matthew, Douglas and James Telepman; grandchildren Jakob, Gabriela, Blair, Zachary, and Josh Telepman; and husband Daniel Weiss.

Funeral services will be at 11 a.m. Wednesday, Oct. 7, at Riverside Gordon Memorial Chapels at Mt. Nebo Kendall, 5900 SW 77th Ave. in Miami-Dade.