April 3, 2014

Doris Katz

Doris Katz was born at St. Paul Hospital in Dallas on October 4, 1916, to Sarah and Archie Goodman. Her mother was born in St. Louis, while her father had come from Poland. Doris recalled that her grandmother moved to St. Louis and later to Dallas, and that her parents met around that time. The family lived in a large old-fashioned wooden house with a reception room, a big living room, and a very large dining room where the whole family gathered. Her father rose at five each morning to buy vegetables and fruit that he sold from a truck as a peddler, and even in lean years he made sure the family ate well, bringing home leftover produce on weekends.

Doris grew up in a devoted family. Her mother was celebrated as a wonderful cook, so beloved by the synagogue men's organization that they called her Mama Goodman and turned out whenever she was cooking. Doris remembered her mother's roast, rubbed down by hand with a blend of sauces, and her ability to manage on very little. Her father was quiet and hardworking. The family belonged to an Orthodox synagogue in Dallas, where Doris was confirmed in a class that included a well-known rabbi she recalled as Dr. Gold, who later left for New York. As a young girl she attended Dallas schools and especially enjoyed sewing, progressing from a simple kitchen apron to a beautifully fitted black velvet dress.

Doris married Abe Katz, a man she admired deeply and described as brilliant and kind. He had come to the United States from Poland (or Lithuania) with only five dollars in his pocket, sharing a room in the back of servants' quarters and often surviving on bread and milk. He learned farming while working on a farm near Laredo, came to love it, and eventually built his own successful produce farming company headquartered in Corpus Christi. Though buyers in New York wanted to purchase his business, he preferred to be his own boss. Doris and Abe married in a family celebration at her parents' home, with relatives pitching in to cook and the rabbi and cantor officiating in the living room. Together they raised their children, including daughters Sharon and Carol.

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