Claire Hempling Obituary

Claire Hempling SILVER SPRING, MD - Claire Maxine Hernick Hempling, of Silver Spring, Maryland, died on May 30, 2015. She was 87. Born in 1927 to Emanuel Hernick and Leah Weiss Hernick, Claire Hernick Hempling grew up in Brooklyn, New York. She attended P.S. 161, Erasmus Hall High School and the Fashion Institute of Technology. She spent many fondly remembered summers with her Uncle Barney and Aunt Clara in Long Branch, NJ. In high school she met her husband, Harold George Hempling, who later became a professor of physiology and who died in 2002. They were married in 1948, and lived in Oberlin, Ohio; Princeton, New Jersey; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Bergenfield, New Jersey; and Charleston South Carolina. Claire Hempling was an active member of the League of Women Voters, Fair Housing, the Charleston (SC) Symphony Women's Association and the Friends of the Library. She swam daily and can be remembered for her great love of the ocean, music, theatre, dance and the visual arts. An active reader of books and plays, she corresponded at times with actor Eli Wallach and authors John Updike and Reynolds Price. Her musical passions included Johannes Brahms, Harry Belafonte and Frank Sinatra. Mrs. Hempling is survived by her three children, William Hernick Hempling of Metarie, Louisiana; Scott Hempling of Silver Spring, Maryland; and Leslie Claire Hempling of Swarthmore, Pennsylvania; and a grandchild, Thomas Emanuel Hempling. A memorial service in her honor will be held on Sunday, June 7, 2015, at 6:00 pm at Riderwood Retirement Community, 3140 Gracefield Road, Silver Spring, Maryland. In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made to the Friends of the Charleston County Library or the Friends of the Bergenfield Public Library. Visit our guestbook at www.legacy.com/obituaries/ charleston