Full Transcript
my name is Joe Rheingold and I am interviewing Estelle maggot today today is July 18th 2017 hello Estelle how are you fine good good good good so Estelle tell us a little bit about your background your grandparents your parents where they were from and where they lived well my grandparents emigrated to the United States in nine I'm not sure of the day it was the lady Tina wait a minute late 18-hundreds probably and they were from Russia I'm sure they came here because of the pogroms and I remember my grandparents they came to Sioux City Iowa which is where my family is from and for
some reason the whole family must have been on the cattle business at one time in Russia because that was the livestock country in Iowa and we would go visit them on Sundays and they had a huge family they had 11 or 12 children from 2 wives I remember and uh my father of course was one of them I think he was from the first wife who must have passed away in Russian this was the second wife that came with all these children and I remember them well my aunts and uncles and they came to Iowa and a lot of them went into the small towns
and opened grocery stores and what can I like to tell you about these grandparents did they know that it was probably a small Jewish community when they got there well actually we were surprised to them at one time our little Erin Sioux City Iowa it looks like a hundred thousand people there were three synagogues there we had a quite big Jewish population and I suppose that was for a lot of them came in another family came that were cousins so we were all just one big fat happy family there and Adele I I can remember growing up there and going to school there and walking
to school in the cold winter days and uh I was what else can I tell how big was your immediate family well my immediate family there were four of us there were three brother two brothers and another sister I was the youngest and dumb see what what else can I tell you I was the youngest and I can remember the grocery store we had a little tiny town called washed off Iowa and I started my kindergarten there and then we moved into the big 76 city and I finished my public school education there in Sioux City and did your parents stay there yes my parents
stayed in Sioux City and let's see what else my father fed cattle and sold them at them yeah Emily stockyards and I had an uncle over there a meatpacking plant that was convenient and anyway I did my many years of school there and then when I graduated I went to California without going to college at that point it was the world war 2 and we didn't have the means to send me and I went to California worked for a short time and then came back to Sioux City and went to work there for a couple of years and I met my husband who was in
the service in Sioux City at the Jewish Community Center hmm and he was stationed in Oh Tom called which was 100 miles away called Sioux Falls South Dakota and he would come into the Jewish Community Center and that's where we met and many of my girlfriends met their husbands there and Dell we dated and then he was sent off to Canada where he had a job in the PX during that World War and then when he came back in 1945 we got married in 1945 do you want me to continue sure did you make a decision to stay there alright some point were you ready
to leave no we were ready to go we got married in his hometown of Youngstown Ohio and we stayed there for a couple of years until I decided I was not too happy there and told my father we found a business for us in Sioux Falls South Dakota and so we drove we were newly married maybe in two years at that point we drove to Sioux Falls South Dakota where my father to purchase liquor store and buy and my husband became partners with him there and we stayed in Sioux Falls South Dakota where my first son was born in 1948 and we were there until
after his birth and then we sold that store and bought another one in suburb of Sioux City which was called North Sioux City South Dakota and we had another liquor store there and we did our business there for a couple of years and then there was an opportunity to buy my uncle's meat packing house with my brother who was the older one the oldest brother of mine so my husband and he purchased my uncle's meat packing house and that was the business that we for the next 30 years I would say until we sold it urban meatpacking business changed completely in the meantime we were
there in Sioux City and we had two sons and two daughters and we established a nice life there we had lot friends we've built a home and that was where our children went to school and when they graduated they were off to college did you have any opportunity to be part of the Jewish community while your family was growing yes we were members of sure Zion synagogue all our children were Berman's barn bat mitzvah there and Dell we were parts you know did are sure in the community I was very active in Hadassah and it was a life member and still AM and don't look
for that we stayed there until 1980 when the meatpacking company was closed because of the change and the way meat was processed and we moved to Dallas because our two sons but one son had married a girl from Dallas and was here and the other son came to go into business with him so that was our choice to come to move we knew that there was no reason to stay in Sioux City what business are they in were they in my sons were brokering meet here in Dallas and meet brokerage and my husband came and joined them at that point he had been we have
been in Florida for a short time and my husband was doing commodities and it became difficult for him because I blood pressure so we all felt it was better to make this move to Dallas and that we did in 1980 and we have been here since and it's not quite as cold here no that's what you used to know you said your son married a local native Dallas site yeah he was that we married a girl by the name of Cheryl leads the Leeds family okay now they're gone also she still lives here they have since divorced and he is remarried and my other son
married a Dallas ight Len Horowitz I thought it was her she was a friend of mine from a long time ago and then I have a daughter who met her husband here at the Jewish Community Center she's been married 32 years another daughter was married in Sioux City in 1975 she married a boy from Phoenix Arizona so that's where her home is okay and we have I came here and I did not do anything for some time and then I became a realtor as most people do and I kept myself occupied selling real estate for a few years and I enjoyed it and I really
have not gotten terribly involved with the Jewish organizations except for the nodosa other than that yeah I really did not remember about was a member of sheriff Israel for some time some time and then we became members of templates along for a short period but after my husband got ill there was really I did not keep my memberships going although we bought Templars Shalom burial plots and that's where he's buried today and what else can I tell you do you have any grandchildren oh well grandchildren and Ihara 14 soon to be another one great branch oh my god so I have a tremendous wonderful family
with four children they've all married within our faith thank God and to do most of them still live in this area yes I have a great many to still live here I have one granddaughter with five grandchildren and they are leaving within the next few days they're going to make Ollie out to Israel so this is a sad thing for me because I hate to see them go but they're all very close by and I enjoyed some last Sunday who you have a great grandchild second birthday that's where I fell no I'm sorry we've enjoyed all these senses we have enjoyed our time Texas I
don't know what else what else can I tell you well let me ask you this there's some general questions one of them that I like to hear is what are you the most proud of what can I tell you the fact that I we had how many years did we let's see we had about 57 years he died in 2013 and we were married 1945 what was that that's about it so 79 9 63 years 63 is a marriage mm-hmm I have a wonderful husband I have a beautiful family and naturally I'm a pro-life grandmother of course and I mean I'm proud that I'm still
walking around at age 91 and if I hadn't fallen like even better shape but I'm gonna be just fine good and do you have any particular role models that you can think of through the years [Music] I really can't tell you but I can thank you you're a self-made woman so try to maintain a Jewish home my grandson happens to be I have a couple of grandchildren who become very Orthodox which is great and I probably would have been more so and we not lived in the smaller areas in Iowa but of course there were opportunities my husband used to sell kosher meat the seventh
to the East Coast so I couldn't become a little more observant but I didn't and that's the way life is you do whatever you have to do well it sure sounds like you have a wonderful family and strong connections and you know a good good inner circle which is so important it is and I'm here at the Bonaventure there's many of us that are of the same oh you know what else and so on I hope to be able to stagger mm-hmm you've been in Dallas now almost 40 years right 37 years so tell me this as just a curiosity how have you and your
own words seen the city develop and grow and change while you've been here much larger much more traffic and it's kept up with all the times and we're seeing so much growth it's becoming a little difficult but I'm still driving and I hope to drive until I after it although I can't drive now until I get my cast off here but uh drive more and we've we've enjoyed our weather is much better here it's very good here and I'm very pleased to be here very good is there anything at all Estelle that you'd like to add not really I'm sure AJ will enjoy hearing all
this maybe I don't know what you expected me to say he's a genealogy lover stay here about the family mm-hmm and I all I can remember is what I remember and I tell them but there's something but I just remember you said that you did know and you were close with a number of aunts and uncles that lived with near you growing up did most of them stay in that area or did any also leave oh they did most of them left I have one uncle who went out to Arizona and a couple of went out there Kansas City I mean they they all just
left Iowa and they're just my father stayed there a few others and the cousins so we and now that Tom Sioux City is dwindled there may be someone from Jewish people left it's very sad when you see a town that it had three synagogues and the Jewish Community Center now it has everything's combined into one building there and what about Sioux Falls and all Sioux Falls has grown that little town where we when we went there my son was born there was a handful of Jewish people think I don't think but they did have a look but the day that he was born was he
was born 1948 and a Jewish in a Catholic hospital and when it came time for the breast we had to bring in miles from Sioux City emmalin's Catholic nuns have never seen anything but like it but now Sioux Falls has usurped Sioux City and they have Citibank there were amazed at the growth at that time so it's just one of those things although I think I don't think they have any sales tax or they don't have any state tax or something that's why their growth is so baby there well it's a pleasure interviewing you and I'm happy that your family is really all doing well
thank you and they like it here that's good to know no it's wonderful it's wonderful thank you very much it's all AJ's gonna love it oh that's your grandson by the way yes got two beautiful little kids and he he have beautiful kosher wedding in New York you
