Charlotte Webberman
Charlotte Webberman's grandparents emigrated from White Russia in the late 1800s, living for a time in New York and Schenectady before relocating to Fort Worth, apparently to be near an aunt who had married and moved to the area. Her mother was born in Schenectady but grew up feeling like a true Texan, attending Paschal High School, and married Charlotte's father, a pharmacist from Brooklyn. Charlotte was born in Dallas at Florence Nightingale Hospital. She grew up on Travis Street in a mostly Gentile neighborhood, living in an extended family until her grandmother died when she was nine, and later moved to Homer Street. Her grandparents kept kosher, and she recalls gathering eggs from the family's chickens and making mud pies decorated with China berries.
Charlotte attended Ben Milam, Sam Houston, and other Dallas schools, and though raised at Shearith Israel, she was confirmed at Temple Emanu-El in David Lefkowitz's last confirmation class in 1948. She joined BBG and went on to the University of Texas, where she joined a Jewish sorority and made lifelong friends. After college she worked office jobs, including one traumatic experience of being let go from a company because she was Jewish. She met her husband Joe through friends. The couple moved to Shreveport and then to Pine Bluff, Arkansas, where they lived for 28 years while Joe ran a scrap metal business. There they were deeply involved in temple life, becoming the first couple to both serve as congregation president.
The family returned to Dallas after Joe developed brain cancer; he died about two years later, when Charlotte was in her fifties. She had already returned to college in her forties, earning a bachelor's degree, then a master's in social work and later a master's in gerontology from the University of Texas, and she became a certified grief therapist. She worked for an agency for some 20 years, leading caregiver and Parkinson's support groups, and volunteered with homeless women at Austin Street Shelter. Deeply proud of her Dallas roots, her overcoming dyslexia, and her three children and their families, she continues to volunteer, knit, and help others through Jewish Family Service, Hadassah, and Stewpot.
Full Transcript
good morning I'm Joe Ryan interviewing Charlotte Webb Berman here today is June 27th 2018 hello there hi Charlotte tell us a little bit about your family but you remember about your grandparents your parents where they lived etc and how you how they got here my grandfather came over from white Russia with my grandmother and I believe my grandmother married when she was fifteen because she had my aunt at sixteen so they came over in the late 1800s and I moved to New York Schenectady and I really don't know the reason that came to Fort Worth but I believe it was that my Aunt Ruth thing
had married someone from World Mississippi and moved to Dallas and so they relocated here because of that and then my mother was born in spinning he became when she was 12 and up and then there was a second daughter i cain't chesil and she was a year younger than my any crews but my mother was 16 years younger and so Oh my mother always felt like she was a Texan she was she was she was the Texan went to Paschal high school and but married my father who was from Brooklyn he had gone to New York to visit a relative in met him and then
he came to Texas so we're cases and came here twice that's great and you were born here I was born yes I was born at Florence Nightingale Hospital and uh I married a local Dallas person Joe Lieberman who was born and I believe Parkland and maybe st. Paul I really don't know but married someone local had a there was also born in Baylor same hospital maybe Dallas site what neighborhood did you grow up in and what kind of things did you like to do there I was born on Travis Street in the 3200 block between Lee and Oliver and it was a extremely Gentile neighborhood of course and we lived in a little house on the side but it had a little grocery store and some of my grandfather ran a neighborhood grant grocery store so I lived in an extended family until my grandmother died when I was 9 and then we moved
it seems like immediately from Travis Street close the drugstore I mean at the grocery store and moved to Homer Street off of FICCI but my neighborhood was all non-jews so what activities did you have as a child actually my grandparents take kosher so I grew up in a Jewish family but didn't I don't remember until I was probably 10 or 11 to actually go to a synagogue to therapy Israel but I had very little activities we were very poor I know remember like the rest of us in the 30s so but I remember having a great time we had a Chinaberry tree and my grandmother
would give me little lids to the jars and I would fill it with mud pies and decorated with China berries and I still like to cook and decorate so I think that was from childhood we also on Travis Street before we moved had chickens so I was in charge of gathering the eggs and all the chickens had nine so you couldn't actually eat them they were your pets did your parents have time for any type of involvement in the community or in the Jewish community in those days my mother worked in the grocery store my grandmother kept us and my father was a pharmacist so
he he worked at different stores Ward's and still Stillman skiller's and still its killers right and then he had his own drugstore on University but no my parents really didn't I do believe the mother possibly was a little involved with PTA I remember her making little bags of candy that I took for some holiday but so how long were you in that neighborhood I was there till I was nine until probably 40 and then what no probably 41 and then we moved to I went to three great schools I went to Ben Milam I went to stand Houston and then I finished a bottle but
I wish it was yeah then Ben Mountain Thank You Houston a bottle and then we moved to Homer and and then I was also there again in a totally Gentile neighborhood totally but although I was raised to there at the Israel my cousin Herbert chesil worked at temple Emmanuel and he taught Hebrew school and he told my mother you have to sin Charlotte and Ted the Hebrews do so I was confirmed from temple Emmanuel in David Lefkowitz his last confirmation class it's a famous name in 48 mm-hmm so I I did have original religious background as far as that went to Hebrew school and the
Hebrews still came and picked us up and took us to a little house it seems like it was on it was off of Mockingbird maybe it was on Preston Preston and maybe the coast of mockingbird mm-hmm and we went to Hebrew school just in the present in a little house in a little house baby I don't know what that was how old were you at that point so did you stay did you go to Hebrew school or Sunday school through high school oh no once I was confirmed I didn't but I joined baby Jesus so I was always involved in Jewish activities then when I
graduated from high school went to Texas and joined a sorority a Jewish sorority so then I had Jewish friends which one I was in d5o I don't think it's there anymore no no no it went off campus years ago I don't think they have any with 85 and SDT although you still have an estate team I believe yeah so now you're in college yes and how did you find yourself involved in college what kind of things did you like to do I love this Rory I love paternity first time I ever dated Jewish boys I loved it I bet I don't even in two years
and so I mean I wasn't a great student so I can tell you always a wonderful outstanding academic groups then I look I had I had I met French that I'm still friends with today in fact she was in my wedding and she lives in the Mitchell building in the Bonaventure so when he you took you were there for two years and then what did you - let's see I was there in 51 through 53 and then I worked I came home and start working what field were you in what were you working in Wow widow was oh oh I was just working in an
office I was just doing office work but I did have something very traumatic happened I was working for a universal gas and it was before I was married and so I worked there a year and had taught her promotion well when I was getting married and they realized I was meeting someone Jewish they figured out I was Jewish and because of that I was let go yeah you have proof that you had proof of that yeah just yes because I knew the HR person and she was she took it so terrible because I just couldn't understand it it was just terrible and up she said
Charlotte has nothing to do with you this is a very strict Baptist company and we don't hire Jews and we don't hire blacks and she told me that and she said I want you to know this because it has nothing to do with me we just don't do this and musically through the cracks because you had you talk very southern and you've had green eyes and you've had brown hair and we just didn't figure you out because my name my maiden name was Lehman could have been very German mm-hmm Wow yeah so that was my first traumatic experience how did you meet Joe well I
met Joe through the a friend that lived across the street on Homer her name was darling and she was dating a doctor and uh Terry had a friend oh that was also in medical school who was Jewish and she said Terry has a Jewish friend I want to introduce you buddy Leventhal and so she introduced me to Betty Leventhal and buddy was in med school and I was still at Texas at that time I and so I went out with buddy him admits to live with me in Texas for about three years my husband Joe picked on in the service and came home and so
buddy said do you have any friends you can pick six show up with and I said yes I have a lot of Jewish friends so I did and I think you know for several Jewish friends but then he asked me out my mother was enormous ly unhappy to say the least and but I start going with Joe and I ended up meeting Joe through his very best friend Betty LEM involved it was a shirt in most of it because he lives in the building Evaristo friends what did he do for a living my husband my husband only went to SMU a year and a half
and he lived on Panama in South Dallas so he lived in South Dallas knew numerous numerous numerous Jewish people and he started with commercial medals and went in the service and came back and started with commercial medals he was transferred to Shreveport in 1960 we lived there a year and he had a customer that he called on in Pine Bluff Arkansas and Willie Sherman said had one son and said I would I don't know who to leave my business to would you like to come up here and buy into my business so we went up and looked at pimple up and lived there 28 years
o in this crack business and then my husband starting these seven scrapyard so he was in this grant business that's a long time in Pine Bluff Arkansas believe me so what did you do there for fun no no juice again but there again my background was I was very assimilated totally so we were very involved in the community Senate and the temple the temple we built a home and I lived one block from the temple so that was a temple and we we were there every Friday night and actually my husband and I were the first couple to both serve as president of the congregation
uh so we were very involved beneath the temple uh president sisterhood did all the meals everything very very involved in the temple there mm-hmm wonderful so oh very involved in the community and they were accepting appear totally it never felt a prejudiced one time my children all went to public high school one high school I never felt any prejudiced uh my daughter was in all officers of all social clubs you know there was no prejudice so how many children do you have I have three and where are they now oh I have one daughter in Plano in a son in Plano and I have a
son in Austin okay so you were there a long time what brought you back here uh my husband became ill he had out in 1989 he's sold his business we were gonna retire and he was 58 we were gonna retire and come back to Dallas and maybe even go to Austin I have a son in Austin so we really kind of wanted to go to Austin but out he became ill he had brain cancer and so we came back for medical reasons and family support and he lived two years after that and then I of course just remained in Dallas because at that time even
though I had a son in Austin I had a son here and my daughter was in California but it was really best that I stayed here and you still had friends here oh and a big support system oh I have a brother although my sister is deceased yes I love Dallas Dallas Hey surprisingly uh even though I raised my children in Pine Bluff you know Norma's Lee assimilated community all three of them have married someone Jewish oh that's great oh that's a blessing grandchildren I don't know if that is interesting to someone but but from most--it istic say so we were very involved fought for
my sibling so you lived here many years growing up then you moved away and now you're back I would like to know how do you see how has Dallas changed through the years totally as I mentioned uh well I went on a bus trip to South Dallas Sunday and uh from the Jewish Historical Society and uh I knew two people out of a bus load 34 maybe I knew three people totally totally new faces course a lot of younger people but it wouldn't yet had three congregations I understand it has 20 Jewish congregations now so I went in had I understand oh I don't even
know who I hate full of Jewish people we all do each other if we went to Temple or sheriff Israel or 2/3 central oh we immediately knew each other maybe not David but we knew each other of the same age now I hardly know anyone that's grown tremendously tremendously and I hope it offers so much I mean I when I was growing up one of the only maybe they had Jewish Family Service but my father was president of Hebrew free loan so we were always involved in that and I do remember that as a child but I don't remember a lot of other organizations I
don't remember council I don't remember possibly Hadassah as a child I don't really remember that but my mother was not a sisterhood she was not she was not a club joiner she liked bridge that's okay she did what you wanted to do that just stopped working but it is just totally changed with uh just just everything in all in and what they offer you tell me you had been doing social work how did you get involved in that okay with my children were teenagers I looked around and I had to only go into the University of Texas two years and I thought hmm I'd better
prepare myself for something I think I'll go back to college which I did yes I picked up a hundred hours of undergrad and I thought well by that time I had been so involved in volunteer work I wanted to be a social worker so I started Social Work and then I liked it so much I thought oh I'll go get my masters which I did for the University of Texas then I went to an agency Area Agency on Aging Oh as a social worker and she wanted me to cut the university she wanted me to come back to Texas to do an hours in gerontology
so I said oh okay so during the summer so I started picking up hours than gerontology and then I got a master's in gerontology from the University of Texas and then uh when my husband died it was and I was young I was 57 I am and he died in 1989 how it was so devastating I thought hmm this is really difficult I'm gonna go back and become a grief therapist and understand is this terrible thing that happens to people so I became a certified service fantastic and so which helped me tremendously because I travel around the country to get different hours to be a
certified and no one entered that program so I would say 90 or 95% had lost someone that attracted them to them it wasn't just a job and you're still doing it now a little bit well I worked for an agency for 20 years I did caregiving support groups for Parkinson's hmm so yes wonderful thing is I didn't get my Master's till I was in my forties but it had a true calling I know when people say you have to have a calling I had it totally true calling oh oh yes that's wonderful what kind of things are you involved in now well uh the year
before last I worked for the homeless I went down to Austin Street shelter and they had started a program for homeless women and so I did a support group for that for a year and oh I had ten women from nine to ten and ten to eleven and loved it and uh it was a little difficult I had to go down central at eight o'clock all the way down through downtown to Austin Street and that was a little hard I didn't mind the drive but they brought someone in to be a co therapist with me that had no training she had worked for AT&T and
was a volunteer and they didn't know where to put her and out we were not on the same page anyway she felt like all you had to do was pray about it and I I think prayer is very significant but that doesn't keep you from being homeless and so I was involved with that out for 15 or 16 years even though I'm not a member of Temple Shalom I've done biscuits for stewpot and after my daughter entered her my grandchildren and the religious school there I got her adopted her and we're still doing that on Sunday mornings so I do that oh I still have
even though I I'm not in private practice anymore I still have a few clients I have a young a man that comes here once a month and visits with me for Social Work I have somebody calls me on the phone and I helped at a church last week in Bible School I go to a yoga class to a Presbyterian Church that's in the neighborhood and I also go there on Friday mornings it's called creative arts and we paint or knit or crochet so I love knitting so even though I don't have any grandchildren married I did it for my great-grandchildren and a hope chest something
he'll be gone but they could saw their great-grandmother made them blankets and so I do that and they needed someone to come for five nights to help with Bible School so I'm involved with that uh with Hadassah if Suzie ever calls I'll do mailings or whatever I'm New England say Jewish Family Service baskets whenever anybody needs wonderful I just freelance I don't have to have my name you think uh I just I do what I want to do it's great Pepa late night what at this point I want to ask you if you can think for a minute what are you most proud of I
had to I wouldn't just graduated from Vanderbilt on full scholarship especially and then another one is going to you TD on scholarship one just got his master's from the University of Rochester and I have a granddaughter that I graduated from Oberlin and I I think I'm proud of my children and my grandchildren that I'm also proud of my children they're wonderful spouses wonderful parents generous in the community and you said two of them live here in Plano yes I had a daughter mm-hmm that works for a law firm and then I had a sons that freelances he was he was an executive vice president Brinker
and left seven years ago and then he just does what he wants to do and I have a son that's attorney in Austin good is there anything at all that you'd like to add I do and I want to thank you Joe you're welcome for doing this and now I'm proud of my roots very proud I'm being from Dallas they say Texans always come back and yeah probably I don't think 220 things afterwards we can redo it it's freaky right now oh I want to mention something that was so important to me talking about earlier we know they've done Travis and we had chickens my
grandmother and I like so my grandmother made my dresses out of the chicken feed sacks ha ha but you to say feathers how was I ever ever but she was quite a seamstress which I'm sure she learned that young and she was ignore misleading she crocheted and I need and I wouldn't mention my dresses were made I don't have a chicken feed sacks and I was very proud of mm-hmm that's great it's where you get your artistic ability from you know looking back it's amazing what people are proud of isn't it yeah and their accomplishments yes yes my coachman and I should say that I'm
enormously enormously proud of myself I'm Dyslexic and I a graduate school and undergrad and because I work so diligently fabulous Wow so and that's why I think you choose social work or there's some reason you're trying to do it well thank you so much Charlotte for doing this I appreciate it he's been wonderful you