Judith Leiber, 97, Dies; Turned Handbags Into Objets d’Art

Judith Leiber, the handbag designer whose whimsical creations were prized as collectors’ pieces and frequently displayed as objets d’art, died on Saturday at her home in Springs, N.Y., a hamlet in East Hampton. She was 97. Ms. Leiber died just hours after the death of her husband of 72 years, the painter, lithographer and sculptor Gerson Leiber, who was known as Gus. He also died at their home. Both died of heart attacks, according to Jeffrey Sussman, their biographer and spokesman, and they were buried together on Monday. In recent years the couple had mounted joint exhibitions of their work on Long Island and in Manhattan. Read more at The New York Times.