June 26, 1929 –

March 5, 2011

A memorial service and celebration for Annie Pearl Phillips DeTorres-Lenis, 81, of Miami, Fla., will be held Tuesday, April 5, at 2 p.m. in the chapel of Ivey Funeral Home with the Rev. Carlos Miguel DeTorres officiating.

Born June 26, 1929, in Colquitt, Ga., Mrs. DeTorres-Lenis died on Saturday, March 5, 2011.

As a young woman, Mrs. DeTorres-Lenis moved to Miami, Fla., where she met her first husband, Carlos Gonzalez DeTorres. For a short time, Annie Pearl and Carlos resided in Dearborn, Mich., a suburb of Detroit, where their daughter, Helena Ann, and a son, Carlos Miguel, were born.

As a professional in the 1940s, Mrs. DeTorres-Lenis worked as a sales clerk in her sister’s Children’s Clothing Shop, as a recording secretary in the City of Miami Sheriff’s Department, as an office clerk at Pan-American Airlines and as a bookkeeper at the Booker Insurance and Loan Company. In the 1950s, she expanded her work experience in Detroit as a professional dance instructor with the Arthur Murray Dance Studios and later as a key punch order processor for the Ford Motor Company.

Mrs. DeTorres-Lenis worked in a variety business administration occupations from the 1940s through the 1990s and was also an adult education teacher in the Miami-Dade County school system later in life.

She was also a skilled artist, seamstress and loved orchids and traveling with her children. She rescued many dogs from abused and neglected homes and shelters. She was an active member at Stanton Memorial Baptist Church in Miami, Fla.

She is survived her daughter, Helena Ann DeTorres; her son, Carlos Miguel DeTorres; four sisters, Sarah Taylor, Hazel Toole, Betty Humphries and Emma Wacaser; her brother, John Oliver Phillips; a brother-in-law; a granddaughter; a great-granddaughter; a host of nieces and nephews, grand nieces and nephews and great-grand nieces and nephews; her beloved life-long friend, Gino Soltani; and her two dogs, Pierre and Baby.

She was preceded in death by her parents; her husbands, Carlos Gonzalez-DeTorres and Hector Lenis; her elder sister, Ida Mae Lewis; five brothers-in-law and nephew.

Ivey Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements.