Marilyn Brizel, 86, of Fallsburg, New York, a retired reservations manager of Fontainebleau Miami, The Flagler Hotel, Raleigh Hotel, Laurel’s Hotel and Country Club, Kutsher’s Country Club, The Fountains of Rome, and New Roxy, Catskills Resorts, and a lifelong resident of Sullivan County, died Saturday, December 7, 2024, at home in Fallsburg. She was 86 years old.

The daughter of the late Irene Ida Gadon Elovitz and Eli Arthur Elovitz, she was born December 15, 1937, in Winthrop, Massachusetts. She was a 1955 graduate of Malden High School. She was a 1957 graduate of the now defunct Mary Brooks College in Boston, Massachusetts, earning an Associate of Science degree in Secretarial Science. She was the widow of Sullivan County Community College Math and Logic Professor and Trustee, The Flagler Hotel and Schenk’s Hotel co-owner, and Southern Tier Capital Corporation president and private businessman Milton Brizel. A previous marriage to the late Fallsview Hotel Ellenville talented bandleader pianist and entertainer Ben Gordon ended in divorce. She was predeceased by a brother, Fred Elliot of Peachtree Corners, Georgia.

Beginning her career at Olympic Hotel, and ending it at The Pines, as a top flight hotelier for decades, Marilyn was involved in hotel management, as well as managing reservations, sales, and conventions, and supervising staff, a testament to her exceptional organizational skills and commitment to hotel excellence. Always impeccably dressed and fashionable, she was a gracious hostess.

Marilyn was past president of the Fallsburg-Woodbourne Chapter of B’nai Brith, past president of the Fallsburg-Woodbourne Chapter of Hadassah, second president of the Fallsburg Parent Teachers Association (PTA) at Benjamin Cosor Elementary School, and past president of the Hotel Motel Management Association of Sullivan County.

Unknown to the general public, Marilyn also: organized, compiled and sent care packages to American soldiers on the front lines during the Vietnam War by secret courier; and organized, compiled and sent care packages to suffering families in the Soviet Union by secret courier during The Iron Curtain Cold War period. These care packages consisted of clothes, footwear, food, toiletries, basic necessities and print literature, and were smuggled out without the authorization or knowledge of the U.S. Government.

Marilyn is survived by her son, Robert Brizel, of Edgewater, New Jersey and his wife Dr. Lamara Brizel M.D.; a granddaughter, Ciline Brizel, of Edgewater, New Jersey; a first cousin, Cynthia Gadon of Bal Harbour, Florida; and several nieces, nephews and cousins in Georgia, Massachusetts, New Jersey and Pennsylvania.

A private graveside service was held Monday, December 9, 2024, at 12:00 P.M at the Sullivan County Veterans Cemetery, Sunset Lake Road, Liberty, NY, with the Koblenter Rebbe, Hasidic Rabbi Joseph Kolakowski of White Lake officiating. Funeral arrangements were handled by Colonial Funeral Home, Woodbourne, New York. A gathering of family and friends followed at Liberty Diner.