Barbara Gutow
Barbara Gutow was born Barbara Gillespie in Alton, Illinois, a town on the Mississippi River near the Lewis and Clark bridge to the St. Louis area. She was raised in a large, close family, with a father who was one of ten children, and remembered fishing, fried catfish, big Sunday lunches, and lots of laughter. Raised in a Bible Presbyterian Church, she grew up with siblings who took different faith paths, one Catholic and one Baptist, and she credits her parents with raising her to explore ideas, welcome diverse people, and help neighbors in need.
After graduating from North Texas State University, Barbara moved to Dallas with her roommate Susan to teach school and begin single life. She met Billy Gutow, a Dallas native raised at Shearith Israel who had finished law school and was working in his father's scrap metal business, when they lived in the same singles apartment complex. The couple married and were together 45 years. While dating Billy, Barbara studied Judaism and converted, working one on one with Rabbi Robbins under the warm guidance of Rabbi Klein at Temple Emanu-El, which became her family's spiritual home for their children Taylor and Craig and later their grandchildren.
Barbara devoted herself to community service across many Dallas Jewish and civic organizations. She served on the board of Jewish Family Service and helped with the Russian and Vietnamese resettlement efforts, preparing apartments and welcoming new arrivals. She helped found Community Homes for Adults, which grew from one home for six residents to multiple homes and independent living options for adults with disabilities. Through the National Council of Jewish Women she helped bring the HIPPY early childhood program to Dallas and supported the founding of The Family Place shelter, and she ran a large resale operation. She also served on the Golden Acres board and later brought her own Catholic mother, Esther, to live at Legacy for three years.
Full Transcript
good morning I'm Ruth Andres we're at the JCC on over 11 veterans day and we are joy to interview for bakuto more involved good morning it is a veteran's day today excited do another stay because we're going to find out your history tell me about your family your parents where when they were born and how they happened to settle business here or why they came to Dallas all once well my parents were George and Esther Gillespie and i was born in Alton Illinois which is where both my mom and dad were born and I still have family sort of floating around in the East which
is nice we I I moved to Dallas when I had graduated from college north texas state university as it was called at those days and so I came here with my roommate Susan berenberg to teach school and start our new single life and we both met our husbands here and i met Billy Guto when i was still single and teaching he was already finished with law school and he was working and we've never been married 45 years Billy's parents came from the Detroit area and moved to Dallas for work and so my husband Billy was born and raised here and has known people for his
whole life he still has friends from elementary school and preschool and all the way through college and it was one of the things I love most about him is that he had this solid wonderful background of friends family and his parents were just so giving and open and brought so many people into my life that it was one of Billy bhutto's best assets was his family believe me so what else would you like to know so we've been married 45 years tell me tell me I was like going up as a child in Illinois it was I'm that it was a good town Alton Illinois
was on the Mississippi River and and located right across the Lewis and Clark bridges going into East st. Louis Illinois he's st. Louis Missouri so I had this childhood being raised on the Mississippi River and I remember my grandparents fishing my parents fishing we ate a lot of catfish fried catfish and it was it was just a great way to grow up I had lots of cousins my dad had nine brothers and sisters that my mother had a brother and his sister so there was lots of family and lots of Sunday lunches with yummy food and lots of laughing and being together as a family and I i love that whole family situation and so when I met Billy and he had this great family situation it was
just a real comfort zone and I just loved all that did you know any Jewish children when you in school you know I really did not there must have been a Jewish population in Alton Illinois it wasn't it wasn't familiar to me I was raised in a Bible Presbyterian Church our schools were segregated and I just don't believe that I had in action until I was in college when people who were Jewish just didn't know anyone so how did that affect you and your parents when you decided to marry a Jewish man well I think that I had I'm sure that there were lots of
questions for my family and they asked a lot of questions but they also raised me to explore what I felt and explore all educational areas and to be open to new ideas and there were always a diverse group of people in our family and our friends growing up so to meet a new culture of people was quite exciting to me and the more I studied about Judaism which I did while I was dating Billy the more I found this this religion this culture which is so meshed that it really felt right in my soul that this was an avenue that I could study and learn
and raise my children by and it really just worked for me and I was very content with it and when my family saw how content I was then they never questioned again they just saw that there was this great family I was going to be hooked up with and I knew I was happy and that's really what they wanted for me as it turns out I have one sister who is Catholic and one sister who is Baptist I was raised presbyterian my parents for Catholics so you know ask me about any kind of religion I've got an opinion about it that's wonderful it's very liberal
and warm the very little education yeah under for us so I suppose that's where you felt comfortable getting involved in Jewish agencies and I like it because I think being involved is what my family always did they were involved it was about helping people seeing if there was a neighbor who needed something for dinner if they had someone who was ill or volunteering for the PTA whatever it was my parents were were conscious of other people and what their needs were and they helped where they could so voluntary in the Jewish community was right up my alley and I had best time I have had
the best time meeting the most amazing people right from the get-go people took me in and said okay let's learn let's do let's do it and I was excited about that and I have been privileged to work on so many agencies in our community jewish family services and help with the vietnamese resettlement which was a whole nother story which was so exciting the most gracious group of people the only knows what you know you were involved through a Jewish Family Service I was on the board at that time and had been for quite a long time and through younger set which was the young women's
group of educators and fundraisers for the Jewish Federation and we married together and helped with the the Vietnamese resettlement because we had had so much activity working with the Russian resettlement and had a huge part in that so we would look for the apartments we would need them at the airports we would set up the apartments and when we're going to target with my kids in my basket with other volunteers and their kids and we would be shopping for radios and linens and pots and pans and and then we would get to meet the families who had come into the home where we had made
the beds and set up the kitchens and Bob the milk and had everything ready and it was a great learning experience for my kids as well as a great learning experience for all of us who volunteered so when the Jewish community said we need to help with the brush and resettlement it was it was easy for the community at large to ask jewish family services in the Jewish community to help resettle the Vietnamese population coming in and because unfortunately we do that well we take people in and we make sure that they have a beginning at a new life and that's what our community does
very well so that was a great experience for me you tell me well how did you work with the language because I know the Russian Jews there were people here such as my mother-in-law horrible interest and then spoke the language of Russian people weather is really short and they took them to the doctor etcetera how did you work with the Vietnamese yes much the same way there really were people here in our community they were scattered around at other churches and that it was a citywide commitment that Jewish Family Service took the lead on so the process was very much the same we just found
people who were interpreters and he did the very same thing in the community to help them resettle so it was easy he might want to help the form we had the form mmm so tell me some of your other solute activities that you sure okay one of the best one of the well it's hard to know what the best is because this I mean if you don't volunteer you know you just miss out that's all there is to it but I had a just about 30 years ago I was on the Federation bored at that time and the idea of bringing a home for people
with disabilities what was it was time that we cared for a population that was mentally challenged as as the term was in those days and I was fortunate enough to be asked to look into this too from the Federation board to share this this committee of what became real estate people Housing Commission people in the city the educators this committee was amazing and we looked into the needs of our communities needs for a home for mentally adults and that turned into after a year turned into community homes for adults incorporated which was hi herb shore Carmen Michael and myself along with a great group of
people really got it started when we started with one home and where we had six adults and it was man fed that people would be able to live as independent of life as they always could but with a little guidance they became members of the community at large they had jobs they had they made their own beds they took turns going to the grocery store whatever you and I do they did but was supervision and now is it's grown to four homes some independent living apartments in over 30 years it has made such a significant change in a few people's lives that you just can't
even imagine because has done just what what our philosophy in life is and that is to make sure people have a chance to be who they can be and to have been able to open a couple of doors and then they just swung it wide open I mean we just gave them the door and opened it a bit but the individuals have just taken on life and they are a great community within our community they're out there doing bagel runs everything it's so it's it was it's such a pleasure to see something that you worked on for so long to really make a difference and
it's good it has it so they made a difference in this community that's just fab it really has now it's been great all right because it's an interesting other projects tell us oh my goodness I've had a chance to work with the hippie program helped start with that with national council of jewish women which is a program for pre-school education it's a pet was a pilot program that came to dallas from israel and the national council of jewish women have have been involved with creating this hippie program that is still in existence in dallas working with the parents and the preschoolers getting them ready for
school and it's it has become an international program Dallas was very progressive in taking that on and became a real what I like what area is that mostly I mean other certain areas that you it the air the first area I think started in the oak cliff area but it was just a starting place it's the hippie programs are available to individual families so through the school system and it's there for alton to participate in so council has just some great things and council was also a part of starting the family place which is a home for battered women and children this was a difficult
project to get off the ground people hide their they hide their pain and they're embarrassed about their pain but it is now almost 35 years old the family place which started with one home on swiss avenue for a few families who needed emergency help to get away from the violence I think the world at large is much more aware of the humanist that the human effort to provide shelter for women and children and to help them get their feet on the ground to have a place to live safely and then with food and clothing and getting them into the kids into a good school and
teaching the women how to search for a job and other organizations come in to help with clothing and educational tools and the whole Dallas community because of NC JW have it's it's just blossomed into what it is today you have the pleasure of working with jury bureau who actually vomited yes absolutely absolutely yeah I mean there have been some amazing leaders in this city and coming from the Jewish community they they have seen needs and didn't didn't just look but they dug in and they've done things and the Annette Strauss is and the Jerry beers and carmen michaels and the list goes on and was
a wringer guess Hortense up via love Hortense just the best but the people were there and and they didn't want to just go to a meeting and have lunch with her girlfriends they wanted to be discussing important issues for our community and then do something about it and they did and i'm i'm happy to say that my children taylor our daughter and craig our son both married i got five great grandkids you've got to have 30 extra minutes for me to talk about how fabulous my grandkids are you know like like minor as special as anyone elses but maybe just a little better yeah well
telleo how did vocal elbow yeah originated did you sort help that I did not help with the vocal alcove um of course the volo family really took the horns on that and but it did come through NC JW and it's just city wise is amazing well where are the children little bit the good of new gathered women all of the children taken care of if they were gone all of a home or what that the battered wives and children at the family place originally went in to like that first home that we had on swiss avenue and they were taken care of there and they
live there again I didn't know that until they were able to move out into the community again so the family place was the emergency this is where you you win I mean you made a phone call and you went to a certain area might have been a grocery store in a neighborhood and someone came and they picked you up and they took you to the homes and the homes of course were not listed there were very quiet and they were popped up all over the city of Dallas because the needs were there all over the city of Dallas and that's how everything's are started in
in that emergency care and then vogel alcove came in for a more stable environment as as a next step but I didn't have the opportunity to work on the ground level on that I was sort of still over here yeah well it seems like you tell us up some more of your wonderful project well I think one of the worst projects i did with janice music it was described to us as a garage sale we were very young and didn't know the terminal raj sale was a huge major resale shop of of clothing to then people came and shopped and bought used gently used clothing
if it was chaotic it was just totally chaotic and for years it was just run by volunteers from through national council of jewish women to the point where we got it running up so well then so organized people would bring their things they're closed their furniture people would we was sorted we would clean it sighs it the whole thing and then we would have a couple of sales during the years and people came for like a week well that it was great that they needed it to be 12 months a year you know seven days a week or five days a week and eventually we
had to hire someone to take over and and then it ran even better it really did so this if that was an exciting project that Janice and I spent a lot of time on the floor of the warehouse i think is what we called it setting up for them that the sales that it raised a lot of money for council and therefore raised a lot of money for for the community projects at large so it was that it was fact you remember yeah sure so we had such a good tell me keep talking not because you have doctors galore there well there's there's like I
said there's just so many great opportunities and I think one of the best things I had had the opportunity to serve on the golden acres board for a long time and at that time herb sure and then later Marshall lindner came and there there be over the years there were more projects that are opportunities for different organizations in the community at large actually to come and help with our senior residences and provide programming whether it was just serving tea in cake in the afternoon baby made playing a game of bingo an organization would come that would bring their children their grandchildren and that interaction with
our senior community was was so unique and the herb really built golden acres from as a small group of people to an agency that was well respected nationally he was on the national board for the with the president's for care for the agent and really broke some ground and Dallas was a community to be recognized in the senior care and so over the years I've had great great times taking my kids and going to do different projects which of course just really has was better for me and my family I think that the residents always enjoyed it but boy when you walk out you just
realized that you've had a great afternoon or a great event and to the point where my mother Esther Gillespie who was that my parents were living in Houston and my father had passed away and my mother needed care and so she need I just said she needs to come here and be with my family and we brought her by ambulance over she was not doing well and brought her to legacy on central expressway and the transition was remarkable and we had done some leg work while my mother was in the hospital and I was in Houston with my sisters and had everything set up over
the phone and then when I got here pleasantly surprised that that everything was ready to care for my mom and she was with us for three years here in Dallas and my my children and my grandchildren her great grand kids I mean believe me if there there is not a person a lot of my mother Esther thought those great grandkids was like the gift from the gods you know and maybe they were maybe they were and so we had the opportunity to use the Jewish communities facilities that were open to everyone as they always are and my mother who was Catholic found a very loving
caring environment and legacy for three years and of course I suppose most people know that that legacy and our senior homes are open to all religions and all backgrounds and and it's true there were there was nothing there well there was everything there from my mother and that was I was a good thing and I hope that she had a good three years I certainly enjoyed having her and I hope family it was good pizza night was always fun we send in pizza well tell my men go as a family sounds wonderful yeah tell us so what I've got your involvement of the Jewish community
what synagogue and what involved with me into there as well as your children well Billy grew up at sharing Israel and this was in the olden days like I said it 45 years ago and sheriff Israel I think in the conservative movement here in Dallas was a little cautious about accepting someone to study and convert to Judaism that that was fine they were not comfortable with accepting me particularly at that time and I was sorry because they were so discouraging that Billy had grown up at sheriff is ruined did Sunday School in Hebrew school and Confirmation and the whole family you know but it was
difficult and so we took our business elsewhere we went over to Temple emanu-el and rabbi Klein who I don't know a person who didn't love rabbi Klein I mean he's the he wasn't the greatest orator but he was the greatest heart he really was and just sort of took me into his loving arms to Billy and me and said well we don't really have a program for people to study to convert but we'll just create one as we go along on a weekly basis and that's what I did I studied every week with Rabbi Robbins who is an assistant rabbi at that time and we
just sort of made it up as we went along I went every Saturday morning for services and we would / taken a lunch and go after a bar bat mitzvah we take some food into his study and we would work on in curriculum and we would talk about the Torah portion for that day and what holidays might be going on at that time and so I was sort of living it on a weekly basis and studying it on a weekly basis the program i think that temple emanuel has really grown to be very open to bringing people in very inclusive and so we found our
helmet temple emanuel and our kids taylor and craig went through preschool and sunday school varam bat mitzvahs confirmations my daughter was married there it was it's we've had all of our happy occasions and with our family there and now I have we just billing I had our daughter Taylor just there her daughter and Harrison haces Taylor and Harrison's daughter Avery just did her Bat Mitzvah she was amazing really amazing but these young people today and they just soak it all in and they get up there at age 13 with such confidence I do not know how they do it and so you know we're starting
a whole nother cycle and the last grandchild who is five just started you know with her preschool and area so we're good temple emanuel has been a great place for family to to be educated and to learn and to be in their fold I guess they've been through a lot of things with our family and we've been most appreciative of temple emanuel and and now we have this great rabbi stern and he's you know rocking the world and it's good because we our community at large needs to to grow and to be be able to learn and there's just when you came here did you
avoid a jazz work my top school taught second grade in oak cliff which was fabulous I love teaching I Billy says I was very tough but I thought I was very fair so that seven year olds are like the best age ever and I really enjoy teaching I really did but once I started having kids I was fortunate enough to be able to stay home and be with my kids and that was a it was a choice for me and for Billy that I could make and we were fortunate enough that we could do that and nothing better than raising your kids there's nothing better
two jobs are you it sounds like you've had interactions of two adult community with your projects so yes yeah it's been it's been what it's supposed to be people working together that's all it is it really is you told us you were here teaching you with you I was here teaching I actually he was already out of law school and he was working for his dad who is in the scrap metal business and we live in the same singles apartment unit he lives sort of upstairs I live down here and in in those days there were many areas in the community in Dallas that just
young single professional people lived and worked and the environment was open and free and people met each other easily it was no dating online or I mean you know you actually had conversations with people and that's where we met so it was good I think about the fact that my roommate Susan and I were deciding between whether to move to this apartment or two to one over near closer to northwest highway and we decided on this location and we both met people in our group because of that one day of deciding between this apartment in that apartment we meant our future I guess or the
next step in our future as it says it's for sure the shared let's be sure love that word oh good so far cells like when the children were growing up this purchase to do well I think we I think the kids are just because of the media that there is so much out there they are so well informed and yet maybe they're not old enough to understand them for me I think there are just a lot more things to be afraid of we are kids we lived in one house in an hour Taylor and Craig went to school elementary than junior high school and then
high school and we lived in this one neighborhood much like Billy lived in one place and new people all through school my kids had that same great opportunity with just one of one of the things I love that we were able to do and they their friends from elementary school are still their friends and I love that concrete foundation that they have great great friends great families but I think that I mean they rode their bicycles they went down the street to each other's houses when maybe one mother looking out this door another mother waiting for the kids to come we were cautious but i
think it was freer and then I talked to my you know when I would talk to my parents and Billy's parents they thought their time was much free or two and that things have have changed i think they don't go out and play so much as maybe they take dancing lessons or gymnastics but i just think some things have shifted but but i see these bright young people growing up and they they have a future ahead of them that we couldn't even imagine they're just exposed to so much i think it's a good thing it's just hard for a parent or a grandparent some time
to grab hold of that i haven't understood the words to the songs at the last 10 years that they're playing on the radio and I've got my grandkids it back into the car but nonetheless um maybe you don't want to maybe I don't watch it yeah that's possible what's tell me um you've really given us wonderful spectrum of your activities if you had to tell us who are your role models but you tell us i mean you know you told us what you're most proud of I'm wondering could you identify a few of your old ones well I dr. sound sappy but Billy is kind of a role model to me his truth and loyalty to his friends and his family is solid and I like that I've liked having that by my side all of these years and I hope that our kids and our grandkids have seen that I hope they have that would be good but when I wouldn't I was newly married there were there were people like an Sakura and Jan is sweet in that hog Harriet Hoffman I know I'm going to lead people at but there there was a group of women who were already doing and I was fortunate enough to
be introduced to them out of early in my my marriage and they just sort of took me by the hand and said let's do it join the group got plenty of room you know break it on a barb bring it on and I just had a great opportunity to I was just with some of these women saturday night at an event for legacy that was celebrating 30 years of legacy or no 60 years of legacy yeah Wow time this lie and you know the Phyllis summers and Carolee these I had they were there they were working in younger set at the Jewish Federation and raising
money and doing educational programs and like I said they brought me along in those women made a difference in how this community grew and they're on their own small ways that really did and as a group this community has been lucky and we had the fanny shannon's to I mean really when we were blessed with some great leaders thank you you hopped on board and you just kept on going yeah my hop is not as strong as mr. Barris I'm not hopping as high as I used to but I thank you for the community what you've done is wonderful it's been fun and to bring my family along that they've been real troopers they've been real true first they have and my family is just the best thing that you can have when you're sitting around that table at your house and they're all laughing and telling stories about what they did at school that week and just a little twinkling eyes when the candles are lit and it doesn't it just doesn't get any better than that really doesn't thank you so much thank you for inviting me so