Quick answer: Susan Deixler is best known as Barry Manilow’s high school sweetheart and first wife. The pair met at Eastern District High School in Brooklyn, married in 1964, and had their marriage annulled in 1966. Since then, Susan Deixler has built a quiet, purpose-driven life as a care manager in West Marin, California, far from the spotlight.
Long before Barry Manilow became one of the most commercially successful recording artists in American history — selling over 85 million records, filling stadiums, and headlining Las Vegas residencies — he was just a Brooklyn kid with a piano and a girl he loved.
That girl was Susan Deixler.
Their story is brief by the standards of Hollywood romance: a high school courtship, an elopement at City Hall, and a marriage that dissolved within two years. Yet Susan Deixler’s name resurfaces every time the world takes a fresh look at Barry Manilow’s remarkable life — because for a short, formative window, she was at the center of it.
What happened between them, and what became of Susan after their split, is a story that is less dramatic than it might seem. She didn’t become famous. She didn’t write a tell-all memoir. She moved west, built a life of genuine service, and when the press came calling decades later, she answered with quiet grace.
This is her story.
Biography Snapshot
| Full Name | Susan Deixler |
| Known As | Barry Manilow’s Ex-Wife; West Marin Senior Services Care Manager |
| Date of Birth | Approximately 1944–1945 (exact date not publicly disclosed) |
| Age | Approximately 80–81 years old (as of 2025) |
| Birthplace | Brooklyn, New York, USA (not officially confirmed) |
| Nationality | American |
| Profession | Former Secretary; Holistic Healer; Care Manager |
| Years Active | 1989–present (West Marin Senior Services; as volunteer and care manager) |
| Known For | Being Barry Manilow’s high school sweetheart and first wife (married 1964, annulled 1966) |
| Relationship Status | Never remarried |
| Children | Two — Pauline and Daniel |
| Education | Eastern District High School, Brooklyn, New York |
| Net Worth | Not publicly known; estimated to be modest, consistent with a nonprofit care management career |
| Social Media | LinkedIn profile (Susan Deixler — West Marin Senior Services); no known public Instagram or Twitter/X presence |
Early Life and Background: Brooklyn Beginnings
Susan Deixler grew up in Brooklyn, New York, in the same borough and era that produced some of America’s most iconic creative voices. She attended Eastern District High School — the same school where a soft-spoken, musically gifted boy named Barry Alan Pincus was making a name for himself.
According to Barry Manilow’s 1987 autobiography, Sweet Life: Adventures on the Way to Paradise, the two teenagers could not have been more different. Barry was introverted, close to a tight circle of friends, and voted the class’s “best musician.” Susan was the opposite: outgoing, vivacious, and socially confident. He was a senior; she was a junior. Yet the contrast seemed to be the point. They were drawn to each other in the way that opposites often are — and by the time high school ended, they were inseparable.
After graduating, Barry enrolled at the City College of New York and the New York College of Music, chasing the music career he had always dreamed of. Susan went to work as a secretary. Their paths were already diverging — but neither of them seemed to notice it yet.
The Breakthrough Moment: A City Hall Elopement
In 1964, Susan Deixler was 19 years old when she and Barry Manilow decided to get married. There was no lavish ceremony, no reception hall, no guest list to agonize over. Their families were divided on what kind of wedding to have, and rather than let the arguments drag on, the young couple made a characteristically impulsive decision: they slipped out during their lunch break and got married in a judge’s chambers at City Hall.
It was quiet, quick, and entirely theirs.
Barry later described Susan in his memoir with the kind of warmth that lingers long after a relationship ends. He wrote that she was “adorable, small with great legs and a voluptuous figure,” with “jet-black hair, dark brown eyes, and a smile that lit up the room.” He called her the “perfect wife.” And he meant it — just not enough to stay.
The trouble wasn’t a lack of love. It was ambition. Barry was spending his evenings playing gigs, building something, chasing what he later described as “this wondrous musical adventure that I saw within my reach.” The apartment they shared in Greenwich Village became a place he came home to less and less. In his 2017 interview with People magazine, Manilow was candid about what happened: “I was out making music every night, sowing my wild oats. I wasn’t ready to settle down. We had a very nice marriage, it was great, but I was away every night making music as a young musician would be and it just, it wasn’t good for me and it wasn’t good for her.”
Susan did not take the split quietly. When Barry told her he was leaving, she told him he could take only his clothes. The piano — his most prized possession — stayed. The annulment was filed in 1965 and finalized in 1966. Eventually, she relented and let him take the piano too.
Career Evolution: From Secretary to Caregiver
What Susan Deixler built after her marriage to Barry Manilow ended is not the story most people come looking for — but it may be the most interesting one.
She moved to the West Marin region of California, a coastal, rural stretch north of San Francisco, and she stayed. According to a 2019 profile published by West Marin Senior Services (WMSS), Susan has lived in West Marin for over 50 years — which means she arrived sometime in the late 1960s or early 1970s, not long after the annulment.
Over the decades, she transitioned from her early career as a secretary into holistic healing and senior care management. Her path into community service began approximately 30 years before the WMSS profile was written — placing her first volunteer work at the organization around 1989 — when she started caring for an aging neighbor who had no family nearby.
That experience shaped everything. Susan Deixler spent 14 years as a professional care manager at WMSS, coordinating rides, home-delivered meals, emotional support, and medical equipment for older adults living in a rural area where such resources are genuinely hard to come by. She became a trained practitioner of animal-assisted support, working alongside her Chihuahua rescue dog, Peaches, to ease anxiety in new clients and break down emotional barriers during home visits.
The Point Reyes/Inverness area where she works has just over 350 residents. There is little public transportation, limited shopping, and most medical appointments require a drive over the hill into the city. Susan Deixler became the kind of person a community builds itself around — known locally, according to the WMSS profile, as “a West Marin Original.”
Most Meaningful Work: A Life of Quiet Service
Susan Deixler’s most significant contributions are not recorded on streaming platforms or tracked by box office numbers. They are measured in the quality of care she delivered to elderly residents in one of California’s most remote communities.
Her philosophy is holistic in the truest sense of the word. She approaches aging not as a series of losses but as an accumulation of knowledge and wisdom — a distinction she makes deliberately with her clients. “Aging is not a loss,” she has said, “but rather a knowing of what you’re gaining, knowledge and wisdom.”
Her work at WMSS also included organizing food donations from local markets for a weekly community luncheon, helping clients access fresh produce, protein, and dairy at no cost. She educates clients, builds trust with their families, and checks in by phone and in person — the kind of ongoing, unglamorous, irreplaceable care that keeps people living independently and with dignity.
Susan also helped launch WMSS’s annual swimming program, An Afternoon at the Beach, which brings older adults to Tomales Bay weekly from September through November. Volunteers assist participants to the beach, where some swim, some stretch, and everyone socializes over hot chocolate and tea.
Personal Life and Public Persona: Privacy as a Principle
Susan Deixler has never sought the spotlight that came with her brief connection to Barry Manilow. When news broke in 2015 that Barry had secretly married his longtime manager and partner, Garry Kief, in 2014, journalists tracked Susan down for comment. Her response was measured, generous, and completely without bitterness.
“I wish him well. I’m happy for him. I’m glad that he’s found love and happiness,” she told the Daily Mail Online. Then, with characteristic directness, she added: “You have to remember that I’m not a celebrity. I have children, a life… all that was a long time ago. I’m a private person but I’m happy for him. I really am.”
On the subject of their marriage itself, she was equally clear: “What happened between us, our relationship, is ancient history and I don’t want to dig back into ancient history. It was 50 years ago.”
Susan Deixler never remarried. She raised two children — a daughter named Pauline and a son named Daniel — in the quiet town she chose for herself. Whatever her inner life looks like, she has never made it public, and that appears to be exactly as she intends.
Hidden Facts and Lesser-Known Insights
Most coverage of Susan Deixler focuses almost entirely on her two-year marriage to Barry Manilow — understandably so, given his cultural stature. But a few lesser-known details paint a more complete picture:
- Their personalities were notably different in high school. Barry was quiet and bookish, while Susan was described as socially confident and extroverted. The contrast defined their dynamic early on.
- Their families disagreed about the wedding. The elopement at City Hall wasn’t spontaneous romanticism — it was a practical solution to a family conflict over wedding plans.
- Susan trained as an animal-assisted support practitioner. Her dog Peaches, a Chihuahua she adopted from a former client, became a professional tool in her care work — used specifically to comfort new and reluctant clients.
- She has lived in West Marin for over half a century. That level of rootedness in a community of 350 people speaks to a deliberate, values-driven life that most celebrity-adjacent biographies never get around to describing.
- Barry publicly acknowledged their time together in his 2017 People interview — with genuine warmth and without deflection. He never attempted to erase Susan from his personal history.
Net Worth and Financial Profile
Susan Deixler’s net worth is not publicly known, and no credible estimates appear in any published source. What can be said with reasonable confidence is that her career — first as a secretary, then as a holistic caregiver, and for 14-plus years as a nonprofit care manager — was never oriented toward wealth accumulation.
West Marin Senior Services is a community nonprofit organization. Care management roles in the nonprofit sector are typically modestly compensated, and Susan has spent decades in exactly that space. Her financial profile is almost certainly consistent with that of a dedicated community worker rather than a celebrity or business figure.
Anyone attributing a high net worth figure to Susan Deixler is speculating without basis.
Fashion, Influence, and Cultural Presence
Susan Deixler has never been a public figure in any conventional sense — no red carpets, no brand partnerships, no curated public image. Her influence, such as it is, exists in the texture of a small California community: the seniors who received care they couldn’t have managed without her, the volunteers she organized, the luncheons she helped sustain.
There is something quietly countercultural about that. Barry Manilow’s first wife — the woman he once called “perfect” — turned out to be entirely uninterested in the cultural machinery that surrounds celebrity. She did not leverage the connection. She did not write a book. She moved to a small town with 350 residents and spent 50 years making it work.
That, in its own way, is a kind of statement.
Social Media Presence
Susan Deixler maintains a low digital profile consistent with her private lifestyle. A LinkedIn profile under her name is publicly visible and lists her role as care manager at West Marin Senior Services. No verified Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter/X accounts are known to exist. She does not appear to seek public engagement online, and given her stated preference for privacy, this is entirely unsurprising.
Frequently Asked Questions About Susan Deixler
Who is Susan Deixler?
Susan Deixler is an American woman best known as the first wife of singer Barry Manilow. The two were high school sweethearts at Eastern District High School in Brooklyn, New York. They married in 1964, when Susan was 19, and had their marriage annulled in 1966. Since then, Susan Deixler has lived in West Marin, California, where she worked as a care manager at West Marin Senior Services for over 14 years.
Why did Barry Manilow and Susan Deixler’s marriage end?
Barry Manilow and Susan Deixler’s marriage ended because Manilow prioritized his music career over their relationship. According to his 1987 autobiography and a 2017 People magazine interview, Manilow was spending his evenings performing and building his career as a musician, leaving little room for domestic life. He described being “out making music every night” and “not ready to settle down.” The marriage was annulled in 1966, approximately two years after they eloped.
Did Susan Deixler ever remarry after Barry Manilow?
No. According to multiple published reports, Susan Deixler never remarried after her marriage to Barry Manilow was annulled. She has two children — a daughter named Pauline and a son named Daniel — but the identity of their father has not been made public. Susan has consistently described herself as a private person and has not shared details of her romantic life after Manilow.
What does Susan Deixler do for a living?
Susan Deixler worked for over 14 years as a care manager at West Marin Senior Services (WMSS), a nonprofit organization serving elderly residents in the Point Reyes and Inverness area of California. Her work included coordinating home care, transportation, meals, emotional support, and medical equipment for older adults. She is also trained in animal-assisted support and worked with her rescue Chihuahua, Peaches, during client home visits. Before her career in senior care, she worked as a secretary following high school.
What did Susan Deixler say about Barry Manilow’s marriage to Garry Kief?
When Barry Manilow’s marriage to longtime partner and manager Garry Kief became public in 2015, Susan Deixler responded with measured warmth. She told the Daily Mail Online: “I wish him well. I’m happy for him. I’m glad that he’s found love and happiness.” She also made clear that she considers their shared history firmly in the past, saying: “Our relationship is ancient history… I’m a private person but I’m happy for him. I really am.”
The Life She Actually Chose
Susan Deixler’s story is often told as a footnote to someone else’s — a brief romantic chapter before the main narrative begins. That framing misses the point.
She chose West Marin. She chose service work. She chose a community of 350 people over the gravitational pull of fame-by-association. And for over five decades, she built something real and purposeful there, without ever asking for recognition.
Barry Manilow called her the “perfect wife” in his memoir — a line that has been quoted endlessly, usually to frame her as a romantic artifact. But the fuller picture of Susan Deixler suggests someone who was never waiting to be remembered. She was too busy doing the work.
Emma Clarke is a content writer at Gaukurinn.is, specializing in celebrity news, pop culture, movies, and music. With a strong focus on accuracy and trending topics, she creates engaging and well-researched articles that keep readers informed and entertained.
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