Frances Blatt
Frances Blatt was born in Dallas in 1926 to parents who had each emigrated from Russia and met and married in Fort Worth, Texas. Her father, considerably older than her mother, began his working life as a peddler in New York before settling in Texas, first operating a store in Denton and later investing in real estate in Dallas. Her mother came from a family of six children; after marrying, she was able to bring one sister and two brothers into the United States through Galveston, while three other siblings settled in Mexico. Music filled the household. An older brother who died young had played violin, and Frances's mother, who loved music deeply, encouraged Frances toward the instrument and her sister Bernice toward piano.
Frances grew up in South Dallas, where the Jewish community gathered along streets such as Forest Avenue, South Boulevard, and Park Row. Her family belonged to all three area congregations, with her more Orthodox father walking to services and her mother favoring the Reform temple where Frances was raised. She attended John Henry Brown elementary and graduated from high school, practicing violin an hour each morning before school. Her dream was to attend Juilliard, which she ultimately did, graduating in 1948 after earlier study at Northwestern, the American Conservatory of Music, and in Chicago. She returned to Dallas, married John David Black, a Dallas engineer, and they raised two daughters until his death from cancer in 1974.
In 1948 Frances joined the Dallas Symphony, where she performed for 25 years, including the orchestra's first Carnegie Hall appearance and tours across the country. She supplemented her income with regional orchestras, musicals, radio shows, and freelance work, and later taught, helping start a Suzuki program at Preston Hollow and Arthur Kramer schools. After her husband's death, she took over the bookkeeping and management of the family real estate business he had trained her to run, eventually becoming an independent broker. A tireless arts volunteer, she devoted herself to the Dallas Symphony and to Dallas Chamber Music, one of the city's oldest arts organizations. She was also involved with the Council of Jewish Women. Proud of Dallas's growth in the arts, she summed up her life simply: she was Jewish, but her life was music.
Full Transcript
is February 10 2010 my name is and I am here at the Jewish nice enter and we're going to take the oral history of Francis lat Francis tell me about your family well my father came from Russia and my mother came from Russia also hmm and they met and they married and about I guess I really don't walk by 1911 1912 something like that and my father's name was Aaron Thomas and he's related to a large group pilots family in Dallas and my mother's name was Sarah come and they meant in Fort Worth Texas and they were married there and my mother came from a
family and there were six children or three boys and three girls and when she came over she after she they were married she asked my father if he would help to bring her brothers sisters over to Russia and he said he would so the quality was then at that time that my mother never when she arrived in Galveston my father arrived Oh my mother brought in was allowed to bring in to one sister and two brothers to the United States through Galveston and she brought them in and then there were three others opposing this bill and they were not allowed to come to the United
States so they ended up in Veracruz Mexico later moved to Mexico City and that was the sister of two brothers and my father was quite a bit older than my mother about 25 years older than my mother my mother and he was sort of semi-retired when I was born I was born in 1926 and he was I say 25 years older he was as far as semi like completely retired he started out as a peddler in New York at many men should have a store in Denton Texas or I have an only sister living who was born in 1916 and she's still living and she
lives in Philadelphia and my father later had a store Denton Texas where they lived before I was born and then they moved to Dallas where my father invested in real estate and that's what he did when I was born 1920 baby come from New York to Dallas what he was working I don't know where he ended up in Texas but I guess he was told at that time that he could make money by being peddler selling things of that nature and that's how he started out and he had this then later he when he came to Texas I was before I was born all this
happened when they lived in Denton there were two of my mother's brothers it they had brought over from Russia which was women same historic town and one was Raymond comics my mother's maiden name Sara fine so they lived it they bought the store and my parents moved to Dallas and then my mother dearly loved music she sold beautifully and she did a lot of volunteer [Music] world well this world world - I wasn't around the world right now World War 2 was my mother's so a lot for thee or me and did that sort of thing but she'd love music and she got it both
my sister name is Bernice topless and nice and barren she married a man from the East Coast and they moved to Philadelphia and her husband's name is Ralph Aaron he's deceased and my mother said she loved music so much encouraged didn't she had a son who died before I was born he died when he was 11 years old when he played violin and my mother loved music I never knew - brother but my sister was the pianist graduated from SMU this major in piano and my mother encouraged me to play the violin mainly because my brother had played it so she I started taking violin
lessons for a young grammar school I knew when I was grammar school that my dream was to be a concert artist and go to Juilliard School of Music which finally I ended up doing and graduated from Juilliard but I didn't end up in some concert - I ended up as far as to the Dallas Symphony where I worked and played for 25 years what's good to that so you were born in Dallas and where did you live when you were talking 26:35 Forest Avenue South Dallas what what's the neighborhood like that well the Jewish people they always lived on enough they started sort of on
Peabody and they went all the way at Forest Avenue which is now Martin Luther King and then it was South Boulevard and Park Row and he kind of knew most everyone knew everyone started in the community there was the temple of Manuel in South Dallas and there was the Buddha cycle which was the conservative in South Dallas and the sheriff Israel was also in South Dallas my parents belong to all three my father was more the Orthodox and went to go to soccer there he would walk to services every Friday night and Saturday morning and I grew up in Temple Mayo because my mother was
more reformed so that's where I was going and my sister too what did you do for amusement when you're a child well I used to have a lot of parties that were certain neighborhood parties everybody that lived in South Dallas on Saturday night would go to different always a young young child played a lot with kids children in the neighborhood just played with them and I used to fight a lot with some of them when I was grammar school with some of the boys because there was a very slight touch of anti-semitism then because I remembered once that I never forgot that some of the
boys were fighting with you know playing the fighting and not serious but he said you're a Jew and it bothered me and I remembered throwing the Saint on this little boy that is the only touch I ever felt made my Center just growing up in Dallas as a job I'm not much into parties every Saturday was school I went to John Henry Brown elementary and then I graduated from Harvard in high school I studied in SMU the whole time I was at high schools taking violin lessons where my mother would drive me diligently once or twice a week age himself down and you practiced a
lot every day my mother would walk in with my orange juices since o'clock every morning and I was up in the practice an hour before school and one of my dearest friends is in it go with Jason from grammar school and still is one of my closest friends would come out of my house and I'd be practicing we went to high school she had always waiting for me then I practiced an hour and I love music still is and were you involved in music activities in high school oh very much so I my first job was in Albuquerque New Mexico I was 15 and I
played with the come from West Texas ranch girls my first job as an Albuquerque New Mexico in hotel and this lady whose name was Lucille Cunningham she was served with singing her and bass player of the group and her mother went with us and we played a job in Albuquerque it's my first experience working and then I played among private parties that the Dallas Country Club and our groups play their places and then later when I was in high school I started playing radio shows they had WFA and KRLD there was a gentleman in Anaheim attorneys fee it was very wonderful man and he helped
me a lot as far as work he was head of contracting for the Dallas summer musicals I started playing those I guess grabbed my last year in high school but and then after high school you went to my mother didn't allow me those in order to Juilliard because they didn't have dormitories in those days and she wasn't going to let her seventeen their or daughter come to New York so instead of going to New York she said you went to Northwestern because that's where my sister had gone she ended up graduating for missing me but she wanted North questions so that's where I'm left but
I was always very independent cuz I've worked you know the violin teacher there was really terrible and who said at the department coming from missing you have been sitting with the head of the department here was a far superior teacher if you know enough to know when you've had your relationship the good one-on-one is very important so I was very unhappy and I heard a friend of someone practicing in the practice room the master I said to he studied with she told me she studied with the Scott bullets down at the American Conservatory of Music so without telling my parents I immediately made contact with
him made arrangements were studied with him and it's up to us which this friend of mine that was practicing used to practice eight hours a day she was a quite a fine and that was always my dream to work professionally music then later I switched over to John Walker who was the concert master and I was in Chicago for two years then at that point my mother finally agreed that I could transfer to chewier so my dream came true to Julia and I went there and I graduated in 1948 and you studied with with ridicu and Misha Misha cough who was con semester the NBC
Symphony under Toscanini and I was very privileged to be able to play and have my violin lessons in studio 8 in BC's studios and digital watch Toscanini in person when the orchestra that's quite a thrill and then then I started working something when I was in Chicago I also worked I freelanced as a musician different jobs and also the New York finally told my parents - I forgot to take that thanks haven't eaten very well and when I came back I auditioned after I graduate - after several orchestras my parents really wanted me to come back to Dallas let's backtrack a minute and talk about
Jewish affiliations during your childhood huh you said that you're your family belong to all three synagogues right and my mother kept color shirt until my father wore diabetes in a chair to stop it and how did you family celebrate Jewish holidays every Friday night we went to one of my mother's sister's for dinner and we had Shabbat dinner there refried a night and then Saturday whole family on Saturday night they were all that side of the family her her sister and their children with my mother's house so we did that every weekend and maybe other holidays it was showing on tutorial somebody with a family
Passover and what interactions did your family have with the Jewish community belong to organizations they my mother did she loved any organization she belonged to the dogged her sister go to Temple and then she and my mother I took to stoke the Red Cross during yes and my father well he went to synagogue every week I really don't remember I wasn't to be honest with you that focused into observed all the holidays not winning the word that I was really focused in like Iranian career sure and did you attend Sunday school August affirmatively many well as well as my sister and I used to play
the common interest service every year it was the old temple before they start using child and let's now let's go back after after you were studying at Juilliard and I'm studying you came back to Dallas I came back to Dallas and I had a boyfriend and even work that I was rather serious with he was not Jewish and my mother tried to discourage it and fortunately I came back to Dallas and I'm a good man I never knew before it was my age the thing is John David black we married we met in 48 he missed a means friend of mine who is Carmen Miller
Michaels at this point and we met and what can I say we just clicked right away and we dated for about a couple of years married later I dated a lot of his friends before in the primary time in fact when I met him I think I was dating dave Andrews and I was also dating Harold Hoffman and I have a sort of the new girl on the box so I had a lot of boyfriends when I came back this I didn't even though I was born here I was new to Dallas right and daddy was auditioning he was very small in the number of
Jewish women brown we're not something many like today it's very easy to to me go out like today and was your husband originally from Dallas my husband was originally from Dallas he lived on Park Road and his parents had a bakery called the bike bakery delicatessen right on Forest Avenue I knew the bakery but I never knew him he does an only child I've been an entire black and he graduated from SMU at the age of 17 and it's quite a brilliant young man she most people start college at 17 then he went in the Navy and then he had a job at leading temp
cobalt or LTV at the time it was called chance fall and those states as an engineer when we met and we married we were very happily married and had two children I did mention to you that I had a brother who passed away was deceased yes yes so when we married we had two daughters and unfortunately my husband passed away in 1974 he was about 47 years old he had cancer he was a partner David Reese was called by Vangelis real estate when they first started their business in this bachelor uncle of mine by the name of Isadora come one of my mother's brothers paid
for the first building to buy tenders bought and that was probably in 1965 something like that where was the building it's on Greenville Avenue on the 1900 block fact I think the young Andrus boys on that building today and then after my husband became ill he trained me for a year he said you're going to take care of the books because he was the accountant for by Davis and he trained me very carefully so in addition to doing my music I kept off the books being an engineer who can fix everything in the house and he tried to train me there which was just disaster
but he that's where they bought their building an awesome partner after he was deceased I kept the books and I did the leases that they did was in charge of major repairs and so on so you are a busy lady I hate to child I was playing bang-ups you were a mother brother and playing the violin and fortunately for my older daughter came back to get her master's and you techno Texas Texas University in our I'm done she got her master's she stayed at home the first year my husband passed away which was a great great comfort to me because I have no children living
in Dallas and so the children when they grew up wasn't my daughter Mitch grew up she versus married now and she her name is Sarah black I say alright but she didn't act with my mother and I was pregnant with her when my mother passed away my mother died young at sixty my father drove to 94 he lived with me for five years after my mother passed away and my daughter married a young man come on very fond of his name is David Lewis he is not Jewish but he observes every holiday I'm very very fond and they live in Austin Texas and they have
two children I have two great children there I had John Lewis very proud I'm gonna be graduated from UT he got a job right away in computer science which I think today's were all pretty great and I have a granddaughter this university to Texas or just from Ajo in computer science and Japanese minor so yes I have another daughter Barbara black Lowenstein Pittsburgh she's married as a child she adopted from Russia and that child is now a doctor five months and she's now living there living in Pittsburgh and she's 12 she went on she's 13 real fast we have a habit of doing that yes
they do well let's go back to you were a young married huh but you still I work in the music I work at music until I was 17 years old profession and then I quit doing professional play now I play the trance right place for myself but what were you doing professionally at that point well when I was young and married oh I had dropped out of school of the surgery because I felt I wanted by anybody tell us you worry but it's a symphony I can tell you I was in the Dallas Symphony oh yeah I was said it now okay I'll go back
at I started playing at the Dallas 50 in 1948 and I played this in 25 years okay and then after I realized my children needed some attention is the best one I started pulling out of the 70 and decided I would teach so I taught it Hillcrest High School while I started Suzuki program ed Preston Hollow and Arthur Kramer school there was a woman in Dallas that started with Japanese method of teaching ballet just by rote and this isn't he knit they've not one of the first teachers president Hall and I talked and I had a black I had private students as well and then
I also still played my ball in but I did all the musicals and I did that all this work all the time even when my husband was living and I was suddenly symphony too I went to the city the first time in 1969 their first appearance at Carnegie Hall and I was playing from them and there was some great conductors and there was and there's someone in your archives by the name of LEM Aronson it was a good friend of mine he played with I worked with left Janish darker and I'm probably the great conductor Schulte plus key and of course I love a fireman
conductor he I find straighten that's the only regret I had that I've had they'd have Turkish performing with them he separate what was the orchestra like when you first started with him it was small we didn't get paid very much at all so that's why we took a lot of jobs outside of there I would play in Waco I would playing Tyler and we Wichita Falls Symphony we'd all the people from the Dallas Symphony wouldn't do that to supplement their income we played a lot of extra jobs several musicals or shows or private parties just freelance who Lewis we condone conductors are not first first
year out like this with an anti karate in 1948 and 49 whom I dearly loved then Walter Hendel took over in 49 50 and I started in the second file is actually the first year then I was moved up to third stand first file ends with Walter hemming and I played with him all during his tenure and I played all the way through to James Reeves Jones all the different conductors but the High Line conductors we had many like we were on Walter and many bracelets but the the ones that I remember working with that I loved the most was anti liberati and Paul Westgate
he was a marvelous and she'll see those marks and as far as I'm concerned until we had yeah we haven't had a great so I feel fairly shy yes you did and were you in love you were in real estate at the same time and I was oh I became involved you're gonna say what my husband passed away and I freelance a lot like they had an orchestra down to Fairmont when they had the big band I was a concert mistress there and I would play there every night my daughter would work with me to she my daughter place violators face classrooms Barbara our goodbyes
and so she would we go down there we come home at 2:00 or 3:00 in the morning we head to his shows and I a lot of people talk about ice on the streamers and he and I had really cold weather and I remember coming home on central device on the street but it was fun playing with the big man with Jerry Wright who wrote you know music streaming for us and begin the beguine I'm towards Johnny Mathis as well as my husband is alive I was doing that then when I'm gonna keep passed away I took over the real estate part I was with
Bob beer and I started out actually was called in his head Stein and then I switched over to buy beer guess I figured I went back into real estate courses I thought well I'm gonna be in this work I should understand you said it more so I took a real estate license so I could play my violin at night maybe at the office eight o'clock in the morning and that really doesn't work out - no that's why I had to choose which is Morley as years went on you know statement still I still work I'm with Larry Goldman at development associates and were you involved
in anything civic organizations like I was very involved getting with them with the Council of Jewish whether they had a workshop in South Dallas I can't remember the name of the group we have children they were they had very major economic problems and learning products and we went over there reversed and I forget the name of but I did that and I was involved with the sisterhood but not extensively about not extensively counsel Jewish women in my life ever long - typical many well but I'm not overly involved let's talk about Dallas in general because you've lived in Dallas all your life big changes what
what was it like during your childhood what was this everything is wonderful go out the back door never walked it dorsalis never walk down the street to grammar school walk down to my friend Annie Jason we go to John Henry Brown I walked a high school weather was bad my mother would take me her father would take us it was an easy life we would go to school your homework over the movies maybe on Saturday take a streetcar go downtown and you mentioned that the Jewish pointed he was small then the Jewish community was small some parties with me on Saturday nights in high school
different homes there's some nice how do you think that what changes tremendous changes I'm very excited about this - Dallas I'm very involved in the arts I worked full-time as a volunteer work for the Dallas Symphony doing volunteer work and my room passion is Dallas chamber music which was started next to the Dallas of needs the oldest organization in the city 64 years old I took my monetary work very seriously I go toward 80s at 8:30 in the morning and things I have applying all day long and I love my survey about our founder was Elmer Scott I remember going through my husband and then
Dorothea Kelly took over we lived 103 she just passed away last year and we have a new artistic director and we have our first painting executive director it was all volunteer for many years until about five years so I take that very seriously because I love it and I want to see it continue I see the city of Dallas changing greatly I love our Meyerson symphony home I love the wind spirit there's some things I don't like but I'm very proud that we have what we have started with AT&T building what the Art Museum I think Dallas coming very excited very different from anymore which
I've always loved it more like small be the right how about the Jewish community do you think that that's changed as well I think so I think so I think that it's always changed a lot I mean there's so many synagogues now I don't know there hey I'm not overly involved as I said with with with the act but I've seen a lot of changes my I remember there wasn't a JCC when I was growing up and certainly the Federation has done wonderful things to here Dallas and having all the different synagogues and temples and Shoals I think it's wonderful sometimes they're too many rabbis
and some of them I don't know why they have to be quiet so many have never understood that now there's a room in sure--the Israel name the topless auditorium that's not that's my father's brother it was named at that topless has made mattress soft office and that was my father wasn't alive when that was built and I had an Aunt Becky tolerance that it's my father's sister in law and she lived almost 105 and I think her family kind of started that room they're browsers and what are you doing musically these days I play for myself my new chamber music move my own performance every
dish for myself and family and friends my daughter plays piano we get together sometimes in play and my grandson plays violin and my granddaughter plays flute some occasions get together and family things and who are the role models that you had people I gotta have it be putting menu in fresh Scotty where's Chrysler talking about down who's gonna answer they're important many female performers in that day I had a teacher once in New York who wanted me to go home when I accepted the job to play the sent me here it study some organs that you haven't reached her potential consequence that wasn't the case
but I love my years one of my ears going on with your life this is sort of it's just my life yeah it still is you wanting that one particular incident you biz is memorable well I was showing you at fine she's writing our new conductor something that I had that amuses me my first year in the symphony with that time to Ronnie and I we're on tour and we were playing a new work and I was sitting the very first stand of the frickin second violins and because I'm a substitute for someone else so I have this page turner and jarate is ready to
give it down big we're on tour in Oklahoma City and he's got his baton up and and I'm sitting and I'm like this and he wouldn't get the devil beat I can figure out what's going on and then finally I've realized I had my music in the wrong order we were playing the william schuman Stephanie not they told us forth so he couldn't give the damn me and so leg DeSean her so quickly I changed the music and he went on with the concert later on tour he sent me a napkin over AAS from the monster himself with crossbones this topless I guess I talked
erotic and with thee the score of the opening of the major was for sure if it's Cana and I had it framed in my house and I and I remember that going on tour with the symphony I had a lot of fun just a lot of fun of those babies out of love I loved where did the symphony toured all over the west coast just everywhere all the united states a to her not so much these scopes or the West and I love that that was a wonderful thing and then another funny experience we had that that I remember very vividly with Walter handle we
were playing a concert in Fort Worth and the Dallas Symphony went over we take the bus to go over there and we're all sitting on the stage ready to play Walter handle doesn't show up well there was a sort of ugly story about that but it was true he had a problem and an alcohol problem so we didn't have a concert so we all had cancel the concert get on the bus and go back home so look they're quite memorable exciting performances where people Walter all the great conductors Montreux and what a cheap Minh are you most proud of it's a very difficult question okay
it's a very difficult one for me to come here with an answer because you've done so much I think the fact that I was playing the dual role of being in real estate music at the same time was a difficult time for me but I managed to get through it and then in 1980 they Madras said to me he said you have a choice he said I will be your partner forever as long as I live and once something happens to me on my demise the relationship with my son severed the partnership and my answer to him at that point was no I thought about
it I didn't um right away or else we can dissolve the partnership on the line and I thought about it quite a bit and I had a custom to Mexico City I'm very close to my mother's brother he's like my brother we're very very close my parents helped pay for his education it's another story which I won't go into but very proudly my parents did for him but he advised me and we talked I decided I would sever the relationship Walker still communicate with the Davis I loved him and I knew him very well and became an independent we divided what properties there were at
that time that my husband father did I manage that and I still involved in real estate what are some of your most memorable real estate some of the stories that would what do you know okay well negotiating with people that seem that they do well in their business there was a most this reach out to us so you were leasing Oh at least definitely not has some very weird experiences that I wouldn't care to discuss but I had some wonderful experiences where people turned out doing very well do you don't like it better than my music no way but it certainly was how old were
your children whenever my youngest was 17 she had been to the adverse event yet over here and she came back to go to University of Houston because that's where she wouldn't be there her father knew he was ill he was turning my him so he did for about 11 you know it's after he was diagnosed and she told you she and is there anything that you would like to add that I haven't thought about I think I've been I think he's kind of summarizing and condensed it down a little bit my grandson through me he interviewed me one time and that's a little book that
he wrote about my life which I thought it was kind of funny he was young he was grammar school he hadn't write a report so God Lewis John Beckett he said after my husband very much can be photographed this Leslie certainly pulled it up to the balloons yes nice me all sorts of questions yeah he interviewed me in grammar school what a nice thing to happen it is a nice thing yeah actually quite questions in there mm-hmm and he's grown up now is he grow up a very proud he's one he's working it may be and also he's wonderful yet a man and does your
family get together very often he's very often we're coming in both up to the Opera this weekend again the next week for the outfit I told you musics of my life I know I'm Jewish but my life is music thank you very much thank you I am question whatever you like I think it would be nice if you think it's sexier I mean that's very far that's pretty far out from my time yes because a lot of people didn't understand it was my choice I met this very nice gentleman by the name of Eugene my boy about 30 years ago and he wanted to get
married after the first year I was devastated I didn't go out at all of his 47 and then after that I met quite a few nice gentlemen and they were friends and then I met this gentleman about 30 years ago and I had many proposals I was very lucky man those years maybe things were different but then they are today from what I hear and then I met this gentleman about 30 years ago and he asked me to marry him after going out within a couple of years I said no but we have been partners now 30 years and I was way ahead of my
time you know and is he also a musician he's not a musician but he loves music I need a love song in his famous Eugene very boy we're still together thank you thank you I thought I should I had baby in there know something like a little spice in there you