With full hearts, we share that Sydney “Syd” Peters died peacefully on August 1, 2025, in Los Angeles. Born in Portsmouth, Virginia on September 21, 1949, Syd was named after her beloved uncle, Sidney Rittenberg, whom she admired and adored.

Syd was a force—headstrong and endearing, private but socially captivating. Culturally Jewish, she was not religious but believed in the life force of love through food, music and animals.

Her life was full of complexity, adventure, and quiet strength. As the daughter of a WWII Marine colonel and a mother from Charleston’s notable Rittenberg family, she grew up moving constantly between military bases in a home marked by instability and emotional hardship. Still, she forged her own way, building a life far from those early wounds.

She held an adventurous career as a marketing consultant at Citicorp, which took her from New York to London and Paris. In NYC, she met her best friend Jean—her chosen family for over 40 years. She created a new chapter for herself, full of warmth, humor and grit.

Syd lived with decades of chronic illness, including a late diagnosis of multiple sclerosis, but met it with courage. Her greatest achievement, though, was breaking free from the patterns of the past when she moved to San Francisco. She joined a synagogue and had a Bat Mitzvah at 40. She found the boy next door, her husband, Michael (“the kindest man I’d ever met”), and together they adopted their daughter, Emma—creating the small but mighty family she cherished above all else.

Syd’s passions were specific: baking (best rugelach ever), cooking, knitting, Sondheim, children, animals—and Rachel Maddow. Her home was always full of quirky color (red, above all else), music and pets.

We take comfort in picturing her now in her dream house—a yellow cottage with red double doors and a white picket fence, enclosing Meyer lemon trees, Sondheim playing as she bakes a cake, her grandmother Minnie knitting nearby, surrounded by a jumble of dogs and cats.

She is survived by her husband, Michael Jay Peters, her daughter, Emma Rose Peters, and her grandcat, Miss Booty Peters.

To honor her lifelong love of animals, donations can be made in her name to the Pasadena Humane Society:

https://everloved.com/life-of…

We’ll remember Syd with her signature farewell, love you oodles.

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