Connie & Hyman C. Tolmas
Hyman C. Tolmas was born in New Orleans on January 31, 1922. His mother came from Poland and his father from Kishinev, Romania, a region that shifted between various rulers. Neither parent was allowed to attend school in Europe because they were Jewish, yet both prized education deeply, speaking multiple languages and reading widely to educate themselves. The couple lived in Palestine for a year under Ottoman rule before being forced onto a ship rather than become Turkish citizens. Hyman's father arrived in America with little money, peddled chewing gum, fixed umbrellas, ran grocery stores, and eventually became a visionary real estate developer, building a shopping center in Metairie that still bears the family name. Much of the father's family perished in the Holocaust.
Hyman graduated high school at 15, attended LSU, then transferred to Tulane for pre-med, entering medical school in 1942. During the war his class trained intensively with almost no time off, graduating on August 14, 1945, the same day the Japanese surrendered. After serving in the Navy and completing his residency, he began practicing pediatrics in 1950. He cared for three generations of patients over 56 years and became one of the first physicians in the South to specialize in adolescent medicine, with teenagers and young adults eventually making up most of his practice. He also taught at medical schools and ran a long-running community program for parents.
Connie studied at Newcomb and remained a lifelong artist, keeping a private studio and gathering friends to make trinkets for charity. She was active in the Federation and served twice as synagogue sisterhood president. She and Hyman raised two children, Allen and Jeanie, and treasured Passover as a favorite holiday. Hyman was deeply devoted to his congregation, following his father's example of walking to shul, and served as its president for 28 years after his brothers had led before him. After Hurricane Katrina in 2005, the couple evacuated and settled in Dallas, where their son had lived for decades, and found joy in being near family and among welcoming friends.
Full Transcript
okay good afternoon and who are you I am dr. Ayman see told us tol mas and live here in Dallas now for the last almost ten years okay originally from New Orleans born and raised in New Orleans but after Hurricane Katrina in 2005 we moved we evacuated first to use them and then moved over to Dallas where our son moved about 38 years ago and that's where we should be because I grant include right here and so forth let me take you back for a minute okay where is your original family from your parents and graveyards my parents my mother was from Luntz Poland my father was from Kenneth Romania which alternatingly at times was
under bizarre rule of Russia and such on germanium ISM separate country they both grew up there my mother spoke seven languages English wasn't one of them my father spoke five languages English wasn't one of them neither one of them were allowed to go to Iceland the hobbies' reason why they would use and over that in those days if you were Jewish weren't allowed good eyes till they were very very interested and education and I'll get to that later on but they got married and they lived in Palestine for a year in 1915 under the Ottoman rule and the Ottomans passed a law that you have
to become a Turkish citizen so they were a young couple they had nothing they had a little rented running in Java the oldest port in the world with little meager possessions they will CrossFit on the street one day by the police that had them to come get sworn in as Turkish citizens they didn't want to be Turkish citizen so they didn't even go much chance to go collector there were neither possessions they marched him straight to his ship put him on a ship and they wound up to tell us out two years before that one of my mother's brothers had emigrated to America and moved
to New Orleans so it was a wonderful beginning when he got to this country my dad had a dollar twenty-five cents in his pocket and he peddled chewing gum two facts for a nickel and he did it in the rain blistering heat he didn't whatever kind of weather and he did it in front of a bank down and the president of mac wanted to give him a dime but didn't want the Gunther's one that great my dad wouldn't take the dime and the president told in one day after months of this young man one day you're gonna be worth for fortunately because you're not afraid
to work well he he did a number of things he fixed umbrellas he seven new umbrellas he got into the grocery business he ran a grocery store for my uncle max he had his own grocery store several grocery stores then got interested in the in real estate and so he went into real estate but he had a fantastic bird for education both of them did I know in days and nights that they didn't go out thank God when two nights a week he would go to bed for eight o'clock and wake up at midnight then go sit in the living room read the Encyclopedia three
or four times just to educate himself he got interested in the stock market when the crash came when the depression came he lost everything except our own and so forth but he didn't give up he came back he thought that the stock market owed him something he made detailed studies of this and he was very knowledgeable in it and he would go to the market every day he had four or five doctors that followed him for his advice and what they should smart man auntie his Hebrew name was with Salah interestingly the sermon had at the ferret is really day was fortunately old but Salah
you know what's a little worth he was appointed by God to design and build the ark and the temple and my dad was in construction he did a lot of stuff he was a visionary I can tell you once and we'll get enough to forest and stick this is so interesting he was a visionary he bought a piece of property the year that I was born in 1922 I was born January 31st 1922 this piece of property was in a suburban area called Metairie Louisiana and it was a muddy road but this property bought was a canal unnavigable canal they navigated borders after he took
over they quit navigating it but the parish in Louisiana they had parishes instead of the counties the parish had the use of rope to use this canal as a drainage ditch I made a deal with the parish to late pipe underneath the thing and hadn't filled it in as a land mass I remember as a kid every Sunday we had Sunday dinner together as a family and after dinner we went out to either Pontchartrain Beach was was like a six or to the park to listen to a concert or something like that but before we went we had to go out to this God forsaken
place where the reeds the leads were 12 feet tall my dad could park the car for about 5 or 10 minutes get out and walk and envisioned in his own mind that one day he's going to make another Canal Street Canal Street is the main thoroughfare in New Orleans that is he was gonna build a shopping center and sure enough in 1938 over 75 years ago he started building that shop in town which is today the Thomas Center in Metairie it's named after him it's named after him but interestingly he was a wonderful loving one of the most charitable men I know and he gave
back as a matter of fact the last 25 years of his life every month he sent 20 sets to widows in Israel and stuff like that show us the picture that you have here huh show us the family picture that's why we have enter a portrait the funny picture is a picture that can you see it yep that's the tiny picture my mother for my two brothers my sister and myself mm-hmm and this was taken and it was on the front page of the New Orleans times-picayune that he did so well in this rate that we went to Europe in 1927 to visit my my
grandparents and his family and we went by ship it took two weeks I took the family the four kids a nursemaid and we spent three months over there now his family his father in Kishinev Romania was a manufacturer of batteries for pickles embarrassin wine stuff my tended to make the line he made it though so they were not wealthy but they were comfortable did anybody else come over besides at that point besides your uncle and your parents well my mother's side yep her five brothers came over to America two of them settled in Bogalusa which is about 80 miles from New Orleans Bogalusa some real
country town that's where you say I'm on vacation when I was a kid I went to Big John builders and what it was wonderful you know as a kid swimming home and have all the other stuff on my dad's side no he tried to get his parents to come to America this was 1927 they were comfortable and the hands was it's a wilderness why would we go there you see what I'm saying did they ever come visit they all wiped out in a holocaust his mother his father four of his five brothers one brother survived with his wife and two little girls in the caves
in Siberia for a year and at night this brother used to forage in the village in the garbage cans that get those scraps of food take back to his wife and his two daughters and he would tell them that he ate already after he died on Maui the movement as a young man but fortunately the year before my father died in 1968 he was able through Poland stuff like that to get a visa for one of the grown daughters granddaughters young man nieces whatever look his brothers can't come visit him and she spent about two months of New Orleans visiting us but before the Russians
would let her come they took her to Moscow and brainwash them saying you know don't tell him anything because when she came she had terrible ABS my tried to give us some medicine for him she wouldn't take it she had terrible toothache that try to take a deficit so look every place we took up oh we have this we have this in Russian certainly and you know damn well they don't for new friends and you know doing well if they they didn't what really got to her would when our son Talan made his Bar Mitzvah and she was sitting in the synagogue because she had
a son his age and the tears came because she realized that her son would never ever make the coordinates yeah my father was very very active in the Jewish community he helped to build a Jewish day school the communal Hebrew school which I attended for four years and learned nothing that and what would happen if we go to the public school get out of Korea clock and a little short lady that would drive eight guys will wrap it up with Davis who didn't want to be there any rate it was went on for many many a communal Weber school that's very very active in the
synagogue congregation 888 squad even though it name is Scott wasn't a spotted school he was on the board he had been the president and ironically when with all of us made our core myths was there my two brothers and I did they had my bris there and everything and our son Italian made his part myths were there and his interesting story that when my dad would we celebrated the major holidays Yom Kippur Rosh Hashanah you know and so forth used to walk to shul it was safe in those days to do that and so forth which was about a three and a half mile walk
you know different times anyway I remember the depression but after my dad died in the 68 my two brothers and I would pick up a minyan every day so he could go say Kaddish for twice a day you know in the morning and in the evening and his skull was in New Orleans was after the Thomas brothers finish saying Kaddish for their father anxious father's going to close and some beautiful holes that I got it's about 125 years old and it's in town and would get a lot of visitors because when New Orleans has lots of conventions and people lost show us your button who
walked to school this is a only one in town if they could walk to that they come anyway happy we finished saying college me and my oldest brother Gerson was president for four years then ask of my middle brother was president for six years of the show and then after his turn and wanted me to take the president there's no way in the world I could handle the presidency you know very busy practice teaching at both medical schools I had a community program for 15 years on helping parents with that had a lesson kids accessibility they said take it on an interim basis so I
took it on an interim basis as president for 28 years my god after we will hear about scientists I have to have a board meeting by phone I'm gonna like a real press a real president I have is they have been present okay on that now you need to back up a minute and tell us about your college years and your degree etc and then what you did right after that okay my two brothers went to Tulane I graduated in mid term high school in 1938 I was only 15 years old at the time one thing the uppermost thing in my parents mind was education
because of that background so we all have two college degrees excuse me I graduated in mid term you could not enter Tulane and mid-turn in those days was 1938 so rather than spend a half a year in high school which been a waste of time I went to LSU which was fine I played the LSU the tide the band and so forth and I was there for two and a half years and then transferred to Tulane has pre-med got into Medical School in 1942 the rush to medical school during the war we were all in uniform we went through in 36 months no vacations no
time off we worked 20 hours a day seven days a week at the beginning of our senior year and Cass the Association of American Medical Colleges decided that nine months years was not enough there's too much material to be clean so they tacked on an extra month each year which left the class ahead of us finishing the internship if you are allowed to take a nine-month internship and then you got shipping orders finishing is the end of July and we had we weren't graduating to August 14th but we have to agree to start interning on August the first two weeks before we graduated so we
had final exams and everything you know we used to go 72 hours without sleep they don't know a story Charlotte we graduated on August the 14th 19 for in the morning that evening the Japanese surrendered 70 years ago Wow so we had a unique class we had two girls in our class and the wrestler died a third of us were Navy 2/3 army and they were all great there's still about 16 of us living this I just came back a couple weeks ago from my 70th class reunion III you've never been done it too late I had four of us back which was good that's
wonderful you know that's terrific and and then I practice Pediatrics for 56 years three generations and patients when I train back in the early forties after I got out of the Navy and took my residency training we would train to treat kids from the minute they're born during at 14 and then they become adults in quotation loss and so when I started my practice in 1950 all these words first two or three years I tell a mother you know Molly is going to be 14 and five months again another doctor between the tears of the mothers the tears of the kids okay our future not
the end of the Olivia now I got very interested in this the subspecialty of adolescent medicine was just beginning I was the first one in Louisiana one of the first in the south it wasn't much in the litter then when we hit the 60s and I found myself living with two of these people called teenagers the Vietnam War the hippie generation yeah probably idea I'm too young I miss that Yeah right I thought I better learn it and so 75% of my practice became teenagers young adults and son not so young adults a lot in their 20s and a number of them in their thirties
he didn't wanna let them go didn't want to let you go yeah and but it was a wonderful career three generations of patience the kids are the kids are the kids and that's wonderful for those first five or six years that we moved to Dallas every week I've got at least five or six calls and second or third generations wanting information I still get one into a winner yeah I just was so blessed we're so blessed to be here we've made so many friends like you Joe and Hector ferret and a lot of others everything Hashem has done the did a lot as she does
you know everything and we've had some ups and downs but yet more just a good lie handing down it's interesting the family who took care of the New Orleans the Connick family mm-hmm yeah he's Harry Connick that's and Harry Connick oh yeah I wanna I'm switching to your wife now for just a few minutes okay uh can I switch to Connie now oh yeah okay Connie so just just briefly tell us a little bit about your family where they were from before New Orleans and how you going to ask you that okay and how old were you at the time what are you doing is
junior year any Luke um yeah so what were your 22 yeah okay so you went to Newcomb whether you are in New Orleans at the times okay okay I spent a lot of time still doing artwork and also a lot of volunteer work well alliteration Federation also do a lot of work with what the New Orleans senior moment on that well you did your stuff every month yet six or eight ladies over to make trinkets for the kids a charity oh that's nice and donated all that oh that's great so you guys stayed in New Orleans obviously yeah and raised a family so tell me
how did your family grow who's in your family well within your family not not not going back but your your present how did your family grow in New Orleans in other words what kids did you have and then what grandkids do you have it separate let her answer it so tell me about know each other that's absolutely adorable yes yeah and I was very I was involved in the Federation but you want to know about your family founded about the kid yeah about Allen and Jamie yeah well Allen and G were adorable kids and where did he go to college where did he have study
to he went he was very interested in the accused excuse me for butting in he's very interested in music yeah so for a year he went to southeastern will College and then transferred to Loyola for a year and a half Loyola is in New Orleans good University with a great music school and then you realize that some as professors or great musicians clearly what teaching repairing band instruments he better look around so okay Jeanie went to do you went to know she makes art even though you wanted her to go - she went - yeah where did she end up she went to she went
and it happen I likes you I know yeah okay Louisiana State University in New Orleans yeah yeah okay all right and can you think of anything else that you were involved in when the kids were young obviously you said you were a member of the synagogue where you active in the synagogue life if it's early sister with the president twice and that's a big job Wow fantastic I still was 40 when I was still okay we had on the side of the garage in our house in New Orleans we had a room so that was your private studio that was my private studio did you
sell your artwork no or was it just for fun once in a while we gave some of it away and that gave me my office how they had a lot of it yeah tell me what was your favorite if you can think back what was your favorite holiday that you celebrated your favorite holiday if you have one or what did you really enjoy you know preparing for but we used to enjoy and still enjoyed face up yeah yeah you know we use the you know the my parents house a lot when we were first married it a couple of funny stories about that phenomena that's
it did you do a lot of the preparation for the home for Pesach or Passover yeah I would say yeah I needed a lot of the work it's it's a tough it's a great holiday but it's a lot of work how did you get along with your in-laws was it good they loved it they loved them the interesting thing if my sister 19 I don't know when I told you this a night maybe I'm not talking tonight okay hours I was a black my two brothers were lawyers my sister was a lawyer the husband's a lawyer and that Darlie Dunn was all I became adopted
every family has a black sheep back it was a good kind of a life is a good kind of like yeah your life doctors not too not too sleazy that's a good job done down yeah my daddy understand your company okay so how far back did he go as far as settling in New Orleans I not New Orleans he was he still in Dallas where they in Dallas for you okay so they stay here okay yeah and they remained here yeah what is it like being back in Dallas now in your own words not your husband but what do you think about coming back here
obviously after the hurricane what do you think about coming back to Dallas now how do you feel about it I'm glad we're here because Gina and Alan and Shane and hair are here that's the best part of maritime I liked it but I still want that interesting side story I may have told you this two months before we were married and I tell you that scenario town two months we fully were married were engaged I was finishing my residency at a charity and gonna get married on July the night mm-hmm and two months before that connie says I want you to practice in Dallas well
now go back 65 years you know 1950 medically speaking I don't mean this in a derogatory sense but as compared to New Orleans which was the hub of medicine the two medical schools cherry Hospital the auxin clinic Bible at Dallas was a one-horse town they had Southwest Medical School but it wasn't any blossom yet Baylor Hospital was here and I think then st. Paul yeah and that's about it yeah a long time yeah and community or the others came along yeah the better facilities and everything in New Orleans you know it was like the one who was back and I said no I'm on practicing in Romans and her answer was and that didn't marry anybody you don't live in Dallas so I said give me my ring back but I like the ring so you said well man in about 40 years wait are you lady you're here yeah before it is late enough clinical situation got so bad as your lawns that I told how you know I'm so
fed up with this stuff gonna sell my practice we'll pick up and move to Dallas I'll go in with somebody and I answer well and me my friend see you couldn't make up your mind you were torn between two cities you know sheriff yeah for sure we're where we should be that's right and we're delighted you were happy and we're very happy to have you were there very thrilled and we thank you people have been so wonderful to us oh yeah and we we appreciate all that oh definitely and feel very blessed yeah I'm gonna end on that note yeah thank you we're blessed to
have you you