‘My love for our city will burn brightly in my soul.’ Coral Gables leader dies at 76
Jeannett Slesnick, a former Coral Gables city commissioner, mayoral candidate, real estate impresaria and the city’s first lady during husband Donald Slesnick’s decade as mayor at the turn of the millennium, knew her time was near.
So, with her family at her side at her Gables home, she managed an email that she sent to friends on June 23.
Slesnick told of her health journey that included a 64-day stay at Baptist Hospital where she underwent chemo after a third turn with lymphoma. She was first diagnosed in 2014.
Two years later, as she served on the City Commission, she beat breast cancer in 2016. Lymphoma, a broad term for cancer that begins in cells of the lymph system, according to the National Cancer Institute, surfaced again in 2020. More chemo. Then it came back again earlier this year. This time, the disease would be merciless.
In her email message, Slesnick, home but 55 pounds lighter and weakened to the point that concentrating proved a Herculean task, spoke of her love for her community, her friends and family.
“My doctor says I have two months plus left, but with my positive attitude, who knows! It could be longer,” she wrote. “Many blessings to all of you and thank you for believing in me, whether it be my real estate business with Ginger Jochem, my public service, or my social activities. I love you all and hold you close to my heart.”
On Thursday night, Aug. 3, still surrounded by family, Slesnick died at 76, six days after her birthday, her husband said.
A first lady leader
“It must be recognized that leaders can achieve greater success with the partnership of their spouse. Jeannett has been at my side in every office I have held, but the one that I would highlight is that while I was mayor, she spent 10 years of dedicated service to the citizens of our city as an active and involved first lady,” Don Slesnick told the Miami Herald.
“I have sadly lost my life partner whose love for her family, friends and community made me a better person. Her deep-rooted credo, taken from the Bible, was ‘love thy neighbor as thyself,’” said her husband, whom she met while both were students at the University of Florida in 1968.
The realty business
Jochem, with whom Jeannett Slesnick formed the real estate company Slesnick & Jochem in 2011, housed at offices at the Biltmore Hotel in Coral Gables, almost met her friend and business partner at UF in the late 1960s. She chuckles a bit when sharing her memories.
Jochem met Don first. She was dating one of his college roommates, she said, and graduated in 1967. Some months later, the St. Louis-born Jeannett Frances Black, who went to high school in Vero Beach where her family owned a citrus grove, enrolled at UF. She began her field of study, geography and cartography, in 1968. A year later, she wed fellow Gator Don on May 3, 1969.
Slesnick earned her bachelor’s from UF in 1972.
Jochem wouldn’t formally meet her business partner until 2003 when she joined EWM Realty and saw Slesnick, who had spent 25 years with EWM, in the office.
“It was just almost like love at first sight,” Jochem said of that meeting. The two got their broker’s licenses together and formed their own company. “We had the best time together ever. From the get-go,” Jochem said. The two also published Jeannett’s Journal, an online magazine that documented the Gables community.
“We were always on an adventure and, of course, I always marveled at her involvement in her community and her stamina. By 5 o’clock or 6 o’clock I was ready to go home but Jeannett and Don were still on for the rest of the evening. Her generosity with me was just enormous,” Jochem said.
A church leader
That indefatigable spirit impressed the Rev. Maribeth Conroy, the rector at St. Philip’s Episcopal Church in the Gables, the Slesnicks’ parish for 50 years.
Four generations of the Slesnick family are members of the church, Conroy marveled. Don’s 101-year-old mother Anne Slesnick Leidel; Don and Jeannett’s two children, Kathleen and Don III; daughter-in-law Ceci and the four grandkids. They were known to all sit together in the same pew for years.
“Such a unique and wonderful thing in the world today,” Conroy told the Miami Herald. “There was no job too big or too small for Jeannett to do.”
Jeannett Slesnick served as senior warden twice, a board-level position. Perhaps Conroy’s favorite memory is the one they could not share this last Christmas because Slesnick was hospitalized.
Slesnick’s particular job was to always dim the lights when the congregants sang “Silent Night” during the holidays. “I know she looked forward to that every year,” Conroy said. Last Christmas, Ceci and her father-in-law shared that duty.
“It’s hard to even imagine what St. Philip’s will be like without her,” Conroy said. “She left a lot of us with a lot of wonderful traditions and we just hope we can live up to being as faithful as she was.”
A familiar presence
For decades it was near impossible to pass through the Gables and not come across Slesnick. You knew her by her smile and infectious spirit.
You may have seen Slesnick in City Hall in her commission seat in 2015 until, concerned over development in the city, she resigned near the midpoint of her four-year term in December 2016. She sought to run for mayor against Raul Valdes-Fauli, whom her husband Don had defeated in 2001 to start his 10-year mayoral run. She lost the election by fewer than 200 votes and went for a rematch in 2017 that she lost by 123 votes.
If you didn’t run into Slesnick on the campaign trail, you may have seen her at Actors’ Playhouse at the Miracle Theatre, the historic former movie house turned performing arts venue that Slesnick and her husband championed. The pair were fixtures at opening nights.
“It is with great sorrow that Jeannett Slesnick has come to the end of her amazing life’s journey,” a tearful Barbara Stein said in an emailed statement she sent to the Herald. Stein and husband, Lawrence, founded Actors’ Playhouse in 1988 in Kendall and entered into a partnership with Coral Gables to use the Miracle Theatre building on Miracle Mile in 1995.
The Steins, speaking on behalf of the theater, called Slesnick “a truly wonderful altruistic woman who always championed the well-being of humanity in the most positive way. ... The community is in a better place today with Jeannett’s legacy living on for generations.”
Fellow elected officials, current and past, also praised their colleague or competitor.
In a statement he released to the Herald, Coral Gables Commissioner Ariel Fernandez called his former political rival “a dedicated public servant and champion for residents.”
On Friday, Fernandez requested that Coral Gables City Hall be lit in lime green Friday night through the weekend in honor of Slesnick. Lime green, he explained, “is the color of lymphoma awareness.”
Coral Gables Mayor Vince Lago, in a statement, said “Jeannett was an incredible force of nature. She was devoted to her family and community and will always be recognized for her numerous contributions to our city.“
And former Gables Commissioner Ralph Cabrera added: “Her civic work had passion written all over it and always done with class and grace.”
Memberships
Among Slesnick’s many memberships, she was a chairman of the board at the Coral Gables Community Foundation, a founding secretary of the Coral Gables Museum Board, a president of the Junior Orange Bowl, chair of the Coral Gables Garden Club, and a vice chair of Coral Gables’ Historic Preservation Board. She was selected the Rotary Club of Coral Gables’ “Citizen of the Year” in 2022.
“Jeannett was simply the best. ... She always had a camera in hand to capture her friends and family doing their good deeds, which I think we all did in part to follow in her footsteps of serving our community,” Coral Gables Community Foundation President and CEO Mary Snow said.
Her last public words
Slesnick, an ever gracious public speaker and proverbial social butterfly, “who did her best business at Publix,” the Coral Gables Foundation teased on its Facebook tribute, gets the last word.
On July 11, the Coral Gables City Commission proclaimed “Jeannett Slesnick Day in Coral Gables.” Her illness made it impossible for her to deliver her acceptance in person, so husband Don did the honors.
“I was surprised and humbled when Don mentioned the plan to recognize me at today’s commission meeting. Thank you, Mr. Mayor and Commissioners for your kind thoughtfulness — it is greatly appreciated. Please forgive my absence – but while my spirit stays strong – my body is forsaking me – not something I planned on. Know that my love for our city and my fellow residents will burn brightly in my soul, long after my departure to be with God.”
Survivors, services
Jeannett Slesnick’s survivors include her husband, Don; daughter Kathleen; son Don III; grandchildren Olivia, Julia, Chechi and Sebastian; and her brother Harold Black.
Donations in honor of Slesnick may be given to the Jeannett Slesnick Community Spirit Scholarship Fund at the Coral Gables Community Foundation.
Services are being planned and will be open to the public.
