July 30, 2015

Clarice Post

Clarice Post was born in 1928 in the Bronx, New York, and grew up in tenement housing during the Great Depression. She recalled playing cowboys and Indians, hopscotch (which she called Potsie), and jumping rope in a little park across from her home. Her family had deep immigrant roots. Her father came from Hungary, where he had served in the Hungarian army, and told a dramatic story of avoiding a ship after overhearing men plotting to kill the Jews aboard, later making his way to America. He worked at various times as a baker's helper, a furrier, and in real estate, and was active in the union. Her mother's side of the family was more Americanized, and her grandfather ran a cleaning and janitorial service. Clarice had a younger sister, sixteen months her junior.

Clarice attended New York City public schools and Taft High School before earning her education at Hunter College, which charged no tuition, and later Columbia University, where she pursued library studies as master's degrees were first being required for librarians. She worked as a librarian, including at the Bronx High School of Science, where colleagues encouraged her career. She met her husband Simon when a chance visit brought him to her library, and after a whirlwind courtship they became engaged. She moved to Midland, Texas, in 1956 and married Simon about a week later in Lovington, New Mexico, at the back of a police station with a woman police officer as witness.

The couple's moves followed Simon's work with the Western Company, which brought them to Dallas. Their two sons were born in Dallas, though the family also lived for periods in Florida and Worcester, Massachusetts, before returning to Dallas upon retirement. In Dallas, Clarice sought out community, joining organizations and volunteering at a secondhand clothing store, and found a warm spiritual home at her synagogue, where she described the members as the friendliest people in the world. She and Simon enjoyed traveling together, including trips to Australia and Japan. She recalled living through World War Two and the Kennedy assassination, which occurred just after her son David was born. Her advice to the next generation was to have a good time, travel while young, and for parents to stay actively involved in their children's lives.

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