STAFF REPORTS
SALISBURY POST

Bert Weil Oestreicher, 81, of 228 S. Fulton St., died early this morning at Rowan Regional Medical Center.

The widow of longtime Salisbury businessman Irvin Oestreicher, she suffered a stroke about six weeks ago while playing bridge with the Dutch Club at the Salisbury Country Club. She had been in a coma at the Medical Center ever since.

A native of Savannah, Ga., she was born Feb. 12, 1918, the daughter of Julian and Hannah Schwartz Weil. She moved to Salisbury following her marriage to Irvin Oestreicher on Feb. 4, 1941, and immediately became deeply involved with him in numerous Salisbury interests.

Chief among them was Rowan Memorial Hospital, now Rowan Regional Medical Center. A member and former president of the Rowan Memorial Hospital Auxiliary, she helped establish its hospitality shop, volunteered in numerous ways and contributed generously and consistently to its needs.

Last May she received the President's Award from the center's foundation when it paid tribute to her for work and gifts through the years, including the most recent gift - $1 million in memory of her husband, who died in September 1997.

She was also a consistent supporter of the Salisbury Community Concert series, Livingstone College and numerous other cultural organizations here and throughout the state, including the North Carolina Museum of Art.

A member of the Round Table Book Club until it disbanded, she took great pleasure in the Le Jeudi Book Club, traveled all over the world, played an excellent game of bridge and was an enthusiastic - and winning - golfer.

In 1958 she became the second woman to score a hole-in-one at the Salisbury Country Club and the first since Mrs. R.W. Walker scored one on the same hole on March 9, 1928, a year after the club was opened.

Survivors are a son, David Oestreicher II of New Orleans; daughter Rachel Oestreicher Bernheim of New York City; and four grandchildren. Before she became ill, she knew a fifth grandchild, now due at any moment, would be a girl.

Services: 3 p.m. Friday, graveside at Bonaventure Cemetery, Savannah, Ga., 3 p.m. A memorial service later, in Salisbury, time and place to be announced.

Visitation: 6 to 8 p.m. Thursday night, Summersett Funeral Home.

Memorials: Rowan Regional Medical Center, 612 Mocksville Ave., Salisbury, 28144.