Gloria Spiegler was a talented pianist who entertained members of the Concordia Club, Pittsburgh Golf Club and the PAA, as well as patrons of the Hilton and William Penn hotels.
She also taught others to play the piano and for 60 years gave lessons in her Squirrel Hill home.
Mrs. Spiegler, of Upper St. Clair and formerly of Squirrel Hill, died Tuesday, Feb. 22, 2005, in the hospice care at Jefferson Regional Medical Center, Jefferson Hills. She was 83.
Albert and Adele Raizman recalled Mrs. Spiegler's warm and affable rapport with members of the Concordia Club in Oakland.
"It was a pleasure to walk in the lobby of the club and to see and hear Gloria at the piano," said club member Adele Raizman, who was one of Mrs. Spiegler's students. "Gloria was always ready to accommodate a member who made a request for a song."
Oren Spiegler said his mother cherished her role as a piano teacher and was devoted to her students.
"At the height of my mother's teaching career, she had at least 75 students every week," he said.
"After my parents divorced in 1959, my mother -- who had a terrific work ethic -- raised me in her role as a single mother. She also cared for my grandmother who lived with us."
Born and raised in Monongahela, Washington County, Mrs. Spiegler was the only child of Max and Taube Silverman Siegle. Her father operated clothing stores in Monongahela and Donora. Upon his death in 1935, Mrs. Spiegler helped her mother run the business.
"My grandmother continued to operate the stores until she closed them in the 1960s," Spiegler said. "Throughout her life, my mother never seemed to tire. She received her work ethic from my grandparents."
Mrs. Siegle died in 1978.
Mrs. Spiegler was a 1939 graduate of Monongahela High School and was the class valedictorian. She enrolled at Carnegie Institute of Technology -- now Carnegie Mellon University -- and received her undergraduate degree in fine arts.
At Carnegie Tech, Mrs. Spiegler honed her skills as a pianist and developed her talents as a composer and performer, said her son.
"My mother wrote and contributed a large volume of music for Carnegie Tech's Scotch 'n' Soda Theater," he said.
In 1955, she married Kurt S. Spiegler, a mechanical engineer employed by Gulf Oil Corp. at the Harmarville Research Center.
"Dad had emigrated from Austria after World War II," Spiegler said. "He lost both of his parents in the Holocaust. My father was a noted expert and writer in the field of desalination."
Mr. Spiegler died in 2001.
During one of Mrs. Spiegler's hotel appearances Downtown, she had the opportunity to perform before National Public Radio jazz pianist Marian McPartland.
"My mother treasured a note of praise that Miss McPartland sent to her," her son said.
Although she was in her early 80s when she moved to Upper St. Clair in 2002 to be close to her son and daughter-in-law, Mrs. Spiegler -- ever the piano teacher -- established a class of students in her neighborhood and taught until her health began to decline.
Mrs. Spiegler is survived by a son, Oren M. Spiegler, and his wife, Colleen, of Upper St. Clair.
Visitation will be 90 minutes before the funeral service at 2 p.m. Sunday at the Aaron Center of Rodef Shalom Congregation, Fifth Avenue, Oakland, where Mrs. Spiegler was a member. Interment will be at West View of Rodef Shalom Congregation.
Arrangements by William Slater II Funeral Services, Scott.
