Berkley’s mother, Auslander, dies

Suzanne Struglinski

Monday, July 21, 2003 | 11:01 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- The mother of Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., died this morning in Las Vegas after a 14-year battle with breast cancer. Berkley was at the side of Estelle Auslander, 74, when she died.

The congresswoman expects to return to Washington on Thursday after funeral services, spokesman David Cherry said. Services will be held 10 a.m. Wednesday at the King David Memorial Chapel, 2697 Eldorado Lane, off Eastern Avenue near Warm Springs Road.

Berkley has been in Las Vegas since July 11 with family after learning her mother's condition was getting worse. Berkley said this morning that her mother kept her illness a secret from her and younger sister Wendy Fleming of Los Angeles until recently because she did not want her daughters to worry.

"She wanted us to go about our lives," Berkley said.

Auslander moved to Las Vegas from New York 40 years ago. She, her husband, George Levine, stopped in Las Vegas with their children on their way to California, then never left the state, Berkley said. Her father was a waiter at the Sands hotel and her mother was a homemaker.

"My mother's life was her children," Berkley said.

Twenty years ago Estelle Auslander married Al Auslander, who survives.

When Berkley was 30 and asked her mother if she should run for public office or have a family, her mother advised her to do both and vowed that she would help her, Berkley recalled. When she ran for Congress, Berkley said, her mother was not surprised.

"She was my biggest supporter and my biggest critic," Berkley said. "She thought I was going to be president. For me, Congress was the ultimate, but for her it was just another step."

After a trip to Greece earlier this year with the Western Policy Foundation, Berkley brought back soil from the neighborhood of her grandmother on Thessaloniki to give to her mother. Berkley said her mother will be buried with the soil along with some from Jerusalem.

Other surviors include stepdaughter Debbie Sasser and husband Gene Sasser and stepdaughter Judith Auslander, sons-in-law Dr. Larry Lehrner and Fred Fleming, grandchildren Max and Sam Berkley and Melissa, Matthew and Megan Fleming, and stepgrandchildren David and Stephanie Lehrner and Brian Wood.

The family asks that donations be made to Nathan Adelson Hospice Foundation, 4131 Swenson St., Las Vegas, NV 89119, or to Temple Beth Am, 9001 Hillpoint Road, Las Vegas NV, 89134.