Founder of Pennsylvania Carpet Company and Wife De
Allentown, PA, January 9, 2006--The founder of a large Allentown carpet and flooring distributor shot and killed his wife and then himself Thursday at a Philadelphia assisted-living home, police said, according to The Morning Call.
A caretaker found the bodies of Woodrow and Sydel Weisberg in their high-rise apartment in Center City, according to investigators at the Philadelphia Police Department.
Woodrow Weisberg, 82, left a suicide note that blamed his wife's poor health for his decision to end both of their lives with a revolver, police said.
Sydel Weisberg, 80, had memory problems and would disappear for a day or two at a time, Woodrow Weisberg wrote in his note.
Woodrow Weisberg started Crown Floor Covering Co., in 1952 after serving in the Army Air Corps in World War II. The company later became Crest Wholesale Carpet & Flooring Distributors.
The couple lived at the Fountains at Logan Square East at 17th and Callowhill streets. The facility offers dementia care, assisted living and rehabilitation to its 300 residents.
''Our hearts are with their family,'' said Paul Lewis, Fountains' executive director, who declined to answer additional questions. Police also declined to release more details.
Woodrow Weisberg was depressed over his own and his wife's health problems, according to his son, Steven Weisberg of Allentown. His mother suffered from Alzheimer's disease for five years.
''He felt bad one day and was depressed,'' Steven Weisberg said. ''It's pretty tragic knowing what happened.''
Steven took over running the carpet company when his father retired 27 years ago to Boca Raton, Fla.
''He started it as a little business and it became a big business,'' Steven said.
The couple was married for 59 years. They moved to Allentown from New Jersey after World War II and raised two children: Steven, and Ellen Weisberg, who lives in Philadelphia.
As Sydel's memory and overall health deteriorated, her children found a place for both parents to live in the assisted living apartments in 2002.
Steven Weisberg said the arrangement allowed his parents to live independently. They had an aide who helped his father take care of his mother. But Woodrow Weisberg also had a ''bad heart'' and was not well, he said.
Their funeral service was private.
