X-Nico

4 unusual facts about Fay Kleinman


EMS Recordings

Skurnick died suddenly in 1952, leaving behind a wife, the painter Fay Kleinman and a daughter, Davida, who would become the theater historian Davi Napoleon and the mother of two boys, including jazz guitarist Randy Napoleon.

Fay Kleinman

One portrait of her grandson, Randy Napoleon at ten years old was purchased in 2005 by the Ypsilanti District Library in Ypsilanti, Michigan, where it hangs in front of the children's collection.

Kleinman survived two husbands, Jack Skurnick, who died in 1952 and was the father of Davida, also known as Davi Napoleon.

She later married Emanuel Levenson, a pianist and music director of an opera company who taught music at The New School in New York City.


Davi Napoleon

She was born in New York City to Jack Skurnick and Fay Kleinman and was educated at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, where she earned a BA in psychology while studying playwriting with Kenneth Thorpe Rowe, then did a masters degree at Michigan in early childhood education.


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