Contact Donate
Menu
all Oral History
June 26, 2002

Bernice Meyerson

Bernice was born in 1918, the year World War One ended, and was the only grandchild on either side of her family for five years, which brought her a great deal of loving attention from grandparents in Kansas City. Both sides of her family were rooted there, but her father came to Texas as the oldest nephew of a great uncle, Jake, who had taken part in the Oklahoma land rush and later opened a winery. When Prohibition ended that business, her father learned the jewelry trade from a family friend and eventually owned a store in Fort Worth that later became Peacocks and then Sterling's. Her parents met in Kansas City and married after her father had settled in Texas.

Bernice grew up in Fort Worth, which she remembered as a warm and largely welcoming place with a close congregation of about 300 members. She attended Paschal High School, graduating early at fifteen, and worked in an optometrist's office. She met Brutus Meyerson, seven years her senior, at a temple event when she was sixteen. After being brought home from work by him each day, the two married in 1936, in a wedding held at the assistant rabbi's home in Dallas because no rabbi was available in Fort Worth. They began married life in an apartment on Hemphill Street and later bought a home on Stadium Drive.

The Meyersons raised two sons, Martin and Sandy. Their younger son, Sandy, was diagnosed with a rare cancer, neurosarcoma, around age three and died before his sixth birthday, a loss Bernice met with courage as she cared for him at home. She poured herself into service, playing music for community groups, volunteering at a veterans hospital and a school, and teaching Sunday school with a hands-on approach connecting Jewish teachings to current events. Married more than sixty years, Bernice took deep pride in her son Martin, her grandchildren, and great-grandchildren, and treasured the way her family had grown close over the years.

Read Full Transcript