Frances Goodman Golman
Frances was born in Dallas in 1923. Her father was born in Poland and came to the United States around 1915 at about age fifteen, arriving with siblings through Galveston and New York; her mother was born in New York and came to Dallas as a girl after her own father died, living with an aunt and uncle. Frances's father began as a worker for a cracker and candy company, then peddled fruit and vegetables from a horse and wagon, eventually building a respected produce business serving customers such as SMU and Dutton's cafeteria. He was known as an honest, generous man who welcomed strangers into the family home. Frances had a younger sister, Minnie, and a brother, and her maternal grandmother lived with the family until her death.
The family's first homes were on Floyd Street and Maple Avenue before moving to South Boulevard around 1929, chosen by her mother so the children could attend Hebrew school and grow up among Jewish neighbors. Frances attended the Harris Hebrew school connected to the Agudas Achim synagogue, learning prayers and the Hebrew alphabet, and later taught Sunday school there as a teenager. She recalled the sharp social divisions of the time between Orthodox and Reform Jewish families, including monthly Temple dances that gradually brought young people together. She attended John Henry Brown school and Forest High School, then the University of Colorado and SMU. She married Joe Golman when she was nineteen, in 1943.
Joe Golman served in the military during World War II, was stationed in Texas, and later became active in Dallas civic life, serving on the City Council and in the state legislature, where he was named Rookie of the Year and received an honorary doctorate. Frances supported his career while raising four children and hosting many gatherings, including Texas legislators and governors. She was active in synagogue life, serving multiple terms as president of the Agudas Achim ladies auxiliary and helping her mother organize the Mizrachi chapter in Dallas, which raised substantial funds. The family later joined Shearith Israel, and Frances helped welcome new rabbis' wives and Jewish newcomers to the city. She and her husband also belonged to the Columbian Club and many Jewish and civic organizations.
Full Transcript
13 2008 and we're talking with Francis Goodman Goldman and what is your address here here hmm 63 35 west northwest highway suite 511 okay and how do you like to be referred to Francis Francis okay and where when you were very young mm-hmm where did you live my parents first home was on flouride Street at the present time that's the home of the Baylor Hospital Children's Medical Center and that's on home and fluoride Street we move from there to Maple Avenue 29:12 Maple Avenue across from the Stoney Hotel the Stoney Hotel was not built when we moved there but it was built during the first
year so that we live there and it was a four place which my dad built and we lived there till I was six years old do you remember the date that we moved there yeah no I did not up until you were there until six years old so well they did you move we moved from there took 27 11 South Boulevard my mother wanted us to move to a neighborhood where we could be with Jewish children and at that time Dallas only had I think four synagogues sheriff Israel was the conservative wasn't conservative in those years sheriff Israel the Roman initial on Park Row temple
Emmanuel and two fareth Israel fairness well at that time was in North Dallas which shortly after they moved on Grand Avenue do you remember what year you moved to South Boulevard well I was in the first grade I think I'm 85 years old that would be 1929 now when you lived on maple mm-hmm was that at that point in time close to were little Jerusalem or juice Valley was yes it was do you remember those days I vaguely I can remember going to synagogue over there which I think it was a near Wolfe Street and and whatever the street oh and my grandparents my father's
parents lived on Lake Street which is no longer there and we've had no Jewish neighbors across the street at that time the mayor of Dallas lived Hugh Bradford his claim to fame was his daughter was married to Joe Rockmond orchestra leader Joe - was Jewish no because we used to play back and forth across street he had a son Mayor Bradford who was my age now are you first-generation to come to Dallas or born in that one in Dallas my father was born in Poland Ms rich : inches no longer on the map my mother was born in New York how do you know how
they happen to come to Dallas my mother's father died she was 11 years old she had an older brother and an older sister who lived in New York and her next sister in age was you might even remember her Rosie book do you remember her she had a delicatessen downtown on every street and she got married to Lewis Vetter he came to New York somebody made a show of those days and she had two children she lived on a kurd Street the house is still there doctor can live next door and so what my mother's father died my mother and her mother came to Dallas
and lived with my aunt and her husband you said they had a house on Akron Street about what area of accurate Street what was the cross street where Harry Kaplan's place it's the next block I don't know it went into every street I think was that considered part of the seniors neighborhood at that time do you know not exactly up further on Irving Street going south the Sanger's lived quite a few reformed Jewish people and that was a different world and my aunt and uncle Archie and Sarah Goodman lived there Felice understates no they lived around the corner there the a poised and there was
a Jewish family that lived next door to my aunt I don't recall their name till yesterday I probably did and also the Fried's lived on that same block i what do you happen to know what brought your father to Dallas and what year he came in he came in about 1915 I think he was 15 years old and there were five brothers and two sisters in the family one of the sisters was already married so the oldest two brothers I don't know how they came to Dallas the oldest two brothers and I just found this out a couple of years ago came to New York
first and how they got to Dallas I did no the rest of the brothers and sisters came through Galveston and and that there is a shame we didn't find out about those things I know that growing up and Poland like all the others they were very poor and worked very hard and most anxious to come to America so they could have a better life and my father was 21 years old when he got married and in the beginning he worked for the brown cracker and candy company which was on the Morris Street which prompted him to learn how to be a really good cook make
beautiful sandwiches I would say things like that he loved to do that and then he bought a horse and a wagon it became a vegetable fruit vegetable peddler and worked on you know in the park cities his brothers all did the same but he must have been the most affluent of the brothers except the youngest brother the youngest brother was max Goodman and he when he came here he was able to go to SMU to school and the Harris family that owned a Harris's practically adopted him and immediately in a short period of time he became vice president has a big store in those days
they took him everywhere they went to the Opera to the symphony it became really educated and culture to them and he was a lovely fine man about what year or what era was that must have been about it I was born in 1923 must have been just before that time I think maybe a year or two one way or the other and he remained with the company until they closed uh do you happen to know about when your dad start peddling with the vegetables and fruits well right after they first got married the first thing he did when he got married was bought a little
house cost $5,000 and he borrowed the money and I have the letter from the man he borrowed the lottery money in that chest there and in good faith told him that he would pay it out and pay it back and the letter refers to how honest my dad was and what a gentleman and how much he enjoyed doing business with him and wished him the best of luck in his future where was their house on floor I'd said it was that was their first time then when they moved on Maple Avenue he got a truck and had a better route and all the ladies and
including the first mrs. Thornton and the bank different people from the bank always waited for mr. Goodman to call to come and they called him by that gave him the right stature that he deserved now did he deliver in the neighborhood yes how did he a day of function I don't know how we're doing places he went to Venice his business grew SMU was his first big customer customer and I do remember he used to take me with him on Saturday night where Dallas Hall is now was the only building there at that time and sent me on the table in the kitchen and the chef who was a fine looking bike man a bowl of strawberries or whatever he had made that day and my dad took his order for him for the week and then delivered it at the time designated by the chef then as times got better he serviced Dutton's cafeteria mr.
Dutton and he were good friends my dad didn't have any problem with being a Jewish and he was a good friend of Padres and the church and sisters at the convent there on Turtle Creek Boulevard I'm not sure whether that's still there or not it's right there is an inner turtle the city of Dallas on Turtle Creek and then he bought a building on quedas Street and he was there and his custom clientele grew and several Jewish men worked for him in various stages in the office some very successful young men who are now deceased worked in his office that they graduated from sob who
worked for him when they went to school and and worked for him until they were established themselves in business do you know about the year he bought the building on kada Street looked into it like a lot of other people they don't know from whence they came right I think that is because most of the Jews came coming from Poland in those countries had such a hard life they didn't want to talk about him and they didn't none of his brothers did and they all raised good families say I went to college then their children mm-hmm and of course they're all deceased now and have
been for many years I think I'll go max was the last one who died he was the youngest one of the family how was it when you moved to South Boulevard well when we moved to South Boulevard the reason we moved to that part of town as I told you is my mother wanted us to get a Hebrew education Hebrew school and we used to go to a little town is still there and in operation Garland Texas where she used to take my grandmother my grandmother her mother and my son left with my mother and dad from the day she got married till the day
she died tell him that my mother married till the day that my my grandmother died and in Marlon in the bathhouse my mother made mint Ronnie - Stan who was the mother Manuel - steena prominent young Dallas lawyer at that time he was going to law school and mrs. hoppin Steen talked to my mother about moving the in the area where her brother-in-law rabbi our brothers had just taken a new synagogue I think he was the first rabbi there I know he did not speak English he gave his sermons in Yiddish and so I would think that was I was about 8 or 10 something like that and of course we went to Hebrew school and then they established the head psycho Hebrew school at their goodness I was quite Orthodox most of the old-timers and at that time the temple did not have a Sunday school so there are many families not too many it
was still left whose children whose mothers went to the temple and the fathers went to the show some of them went to the Romania sure but many of the prominent Jewish families the fathers went to the agood asylum and the mothers went to the temple and so in turn the children went to school especially the girls at Temple but there was no in my time as a child mixing I was about 14 years old the first time I went to the temple well not into into the temple proper because I took dancing lessons they had a class there and that teacher just so we said
not just about three years ago her name was Marjorie knowledge and she no Cohen brothers and they had other classes there and mrs. Abramowitz as a matter of fact taught mrs. Lefkowitz rabbi Lefkowitz his wife to read Yiddish and Hebrew and she in turn taught mrs. Abramowitz to speak English and write English and rabbi left chords and rabbi Brahmins were very dear friends and they did the same for each other it was certainly a different world then yeah what about the women and the neighbors on the block and the folks that we lived on 2700 and 2600 were together today they're of a historical box in South Dallas on my side of the street there were a couple of there was a very religious family that lived there they were from Tulsa their name was Travis and they eventually moved back because Dallas was just not religious enough for them they had eight
children a couple of the sons became rabbis and the daughters married rabbis I think the daughters one daughter was my age and she married a rabbi who lived in Israel and a few other saved Orthodox families on the other side a couple of houses down the street there were a few Sheriff Israel family and the reformed Jews were ultra reformed they never spoke to my mother not that big I don't know why because it's just too religious formerly used to see her walking - I shouldn't say this probably but if I absolutely affect no that's we would see her walking to show on Shabbos with
my grandmother and my brother always walked with them and across the street lived a very prominent family who's his father was the first president of sheriff Israel they were very ultra reformed and the rest of the reformed Jews were ultra reformed I don't know whether they're children I don't recall and I don't know that I ever knew if they went to religious school which they called Sunday school in those days but they certainly did not mix with each other and our next-door neighbor was a particularly warm friendly good neighbor kind to my mother my mother was very young and my dad had worked hard and
at that age of his life they had a magnificent home with beautiful furnishings oriental rugs made on the premises help all the time none of those folks had that but they didn't keep him from keeping their nose up in the air years later I mean many years later I'd see someone on the night saying how is your dear mother that's about 40 years later that's the way it was I imagine it was the same in other communities I think but then you mentioned the fact that the women many of them went to Temple and the husband's remains an orthodox are conservative well where was the
conservative perspective and you know and with those women they can also kept kosher homes but I imagine that was because the husband's I'm not gonna use the word demand but it required it and wanted it and the children I'd know several women today just slightly younger who went to Sunday school at tempo the fathers went to sheriff Israel and two or three other families as a matter of fact my mother became the co-chairman of the first women's division with Reba wait wait'll and they selected my mother because she was from the religious group and I really believe who was instrumental in getting her interested in
working was Mars Jaffe who was a very young man at the time and he was busy in the Federation or the I think they still called it that and those about what year was I was about 15 or 16 and she was active did a lot of things and different members of the family participated I went on the first women's mission to Israel with Fanny Sanger and from Dallas Jane barren and enough I think of her first night her husband was an attorney and we were the only women from Dallas there were about 200 women who went on that mission you remember the year or
the year I was about 18 it's about 1972 I think when did Israel become a state 48 1948 it was long after that it was the first women's mission from the United States and I know there were 200 women now with these women from the reform group when they married or were they from the Loretha dr. conserva I'm when this mission no I want to go back home the women that went to Temple oh how is it that they know I think they mostly came from synagogues at that time I'm not too positive I guess if I sat down and analyze I could figure it out sure no I know a couple of our cousins of my husband's cousins went to tempo the mother went to Temple the father went interferes Israel another one of my present-day friends her mother went to Temple her father went to a good asylum another one of my cousins the mother and children went to Temple and the father went to I think he went to the North Dallas to Pharaoh service you know what about you jus let's go back to that your family hungry family what have you what was the extent of your Jewish education I went to steeper school at the Harris of Michael Hebrew school which was a part of the good asylum that was given to the built and given to the good asylum synagogue by mr.
Jaffe the father came to call his name and his brother-in-law mr. Kaplan his what his his wife's brother mm-hmm and I went to Hebrew school until I went to college which was when I was about 8 had you you mentioned that if I understood you correctly that you had gone to Hebrew school even before the Hertz heiko developed their school did I know well yes they had a Hebrew school in the ago disciple they did mm-hmm okay of course it's nothing like it is today the children learn so much and and looking back the important thing you went to Hebrew school it's a really serious Hebrew school was that we didn't learn to translate bad and I
feel like that's a really big loss I don't even think they do that a lot today they they understand the prayers because they're described too but I don't think they can read Hebrew and translate into English I could be wrong I don't know what did you learn what was the program at her cycle well we learned the prayers that were important to everyday life till this day I say that modei I mean when I opened my eyes in the morning and if I fall asleep at night don't say this Shania always wake up and say it during the night wasn't a great deal of emphasis
but we went we had to go there was no question we had a large enrollment and I know at the Hebrew school down and of course they had a more extensive program and had more qualified teachers mr. Levine himself then as years went by they had better teachers did you learn to read Hebrew do you learn the alphabet yes did you learn to write cursive there was a lot lacking but they made a tremendous I think step forward and trying to do the best that they could with the material that they had for example when I was 16 I taught Sunday school what did I know about teaching Sunday School they gave me a book I read the story they tell hildren told her back and so did other people whose children went to Sunday school there whose parents were active mm-hmm and this
was part of a good of something yes and we're your parents involved in my mother was present the ladies auxilary for a member forever and when after I was married and came home we got settled into a little house on Park Row mother said Frances it's time for you to be present of the ship of the sisterhood I called it ladies auxilary man I said I can't do that I was only about 24 years old I said that's too early family she says you have to do it there's no one else to do it so I did it for about 8 years I guess and
stayed active as long as the synagogue was there tried to keep then as people began moving out of the neighborhood that it was hard to get them to come back to the services there and when they finally closed the synagogue I was married then it was after I was married I was 19 when I was married I had been away at college a couple of years and so forth and then my family came to sheriff Israel with my husband Joe and I and on the last roles at sheriff Israel it's not the last rules now but it was I am right as time went on
or my parents mm-hmm Joe's dad had already passed away he was a very young man 52 years old when he died and my brother and his wife and five children and my sister and her husband and four children and Joe and I have four children and we still sit in the same seats although my sister and her husband go to the temple to live in California most of the time about what year was that now that you're talking about that was when sheriff Israel first moved and to where we are now where we are duties well what's it 56 mm-hmm and of course other members
of our family had several different members in our family president Jake golden juniors : my husband Joe go I think that was about it and basically most of the family go on family has remained it's um except a very few mm-hmm now where did you go to grammar school John Henry Brown school where you went oh you did we moved on Parker onto Park Grove in 1942 I just finished colonial street you live next door to the greens and beans next to the a blonds exactly yeah now after you went to you finished brown school high school and then from Forrest I I want the
University of Colorado and then the war came my dad made me come home because my brother had gone into the army station and knowing the Midwest and I went to school at SMU then I got married I was only 18 19 and Joe was at am and he was supposed to graduate school that spring mm-hmm and he was in the Army Reserve along with many others and they didn't allow him to finish school and so they went into the they were taken into the reserve at Mineral Wells most of those men that he went in with at the time boys mm-hmm have since passed away
Marvin Rubenstein George Goldman Marvin Moses when Mars Moses Morris Cohen was already and he was stationed there in minerals and cousin bears lived at the Baker hotel what was the community like when you got married well let's back up when you were a kid can you give us some insight as to what the community and your observance at home was like and then my family my father was not an observant man but whatever my mother wanted was fine with him we had a very observing home my dad met every stranger on the street that came to the market that didn't have a place to stay
put him in the truck and brought him home Sophie this man's gonna stay with us until he could get on his feet man that he met on the market or wherever he met them he brought him home until they had were financially able to move into their own place my mother made a few us as a matter of fact of women who were hadn't married and incidentally when my mother married my father she was not she's just 15 and she worked at Sanger's and went to school also and mr. Sanger told her she was too young to get married she shouldn't get married he treated her really lovely and all her girlfriends that she told us made fun of her because she was marrying an immigrant and that was a terrible thing to do she feel fared much better than the rest of them about what year was that they were married in 1917 how is it when you were living at home you know as a young child what were the holidays like and what was it like living with your grandmother or your grandmother being it wasn't the founder feel it's too bad I have 9 lovely
grandchildren myself it's nothing like that was we were very respectful of her we helped her she had poor eyesight my sister Minnie who is six years younger than I am she was a little girl she used to help her get her clothes out help her bathe sit on the porch with her and swing and they would sing little Jewish songs and we had wonderful holidays my mother always had all the Goodman family for Passover that was a big thing because they all had at least three one one or two of them had two children most of them had three or four children then when the
grandmother and grandfather when the grandmother died the grandfather I was 15 I think when he died he went to live with the oldest son lived with him for a short period of time and then went to live with the other son and but nobody did anything we had wonderful summers picnics the whole family and a park now I think it's still there but I believe it has an oriental influence called kid Springs it's a Japanese park you know cliff and every Sunday everybody brought their own lunches and we all sat together the cousins of comparable ages played together I used to walk I didn't write
on Saturday I used to walk on Saturday to meet my cousin Florence smiling she lived on a kurd Street sometimes we'd walk downtown together and not buy anything we just walk around and look around and then we'd walk back to her house I think all together back to my house might have been two miles but that was the big deal we loved doing it and some few of the some few of the men boy cousins to speak so to speak stayed friends all their lives several of them worked for my dad we got their start and whatever they did various different cousins on the Goodman's
side and also on my mother's side one of my mother's nephews her brother his sister who's now deceased moved to California just recently at the legacy I met mr. Ellen Tucker's that isn't it mm-hmm and I asked him if he knew my cousin Sam Fenner yeah Palm Springs he said he was my best friend and he told me of all the wonderful things that he did for the community there including locking the doors to the hall until everybody raised their pledge for the Federation in Palm Springs and he told me that my cousin Sam told him that my daughter my daughter my father taught him everything he knew about business and about life and he always grateful he had a wonderful life he and his wife are both deceased now but we all mingled the
first time I was in the company of boys and girls at a dance what the temple they used to have temple dances about once a month on a Saturday night I couldn't remember the fella I danced with I don't think he ever got married I don't think because of that but the reformed guys stood on one side of the room the Orthodox girls on the other eventually in two or three times all that began to disappear now who organized those dances how did they come about I think the temple they were far ahead of their time and trying to keep the young people together and
in the temple in lot of the families did go from generation to generation but so did they had sheriff Israel I think so did they had to Farrah thizzle the Romania show as they called it was very small the Wallman families belong there they always went there on the holidays though the kids went to sheriff Israel to Sunday school and so forth I don't know who organized the rest of them and I'll go to something they have you know nice Sunday school a good group of kids we used to have every kind of a picnic in our yard long after the synagogue closed do you
remember the year they closed the good side don't say I was married at 19 43 and I would say about five or six years later I think pasta 57 mm something like that rabbi Brahma is retired he was at poor health he was still a young man by today's standards were there these special experiences that you remember about during your high school and your even during yours you know years in Brown school you know everybody looks back and talked about forests and in high school everybody was Jewish but that wasn't so the that was not so and then I went to a reunion few years
ago we didn't know anybody that was there hardly any of the Jewish we went because they dedicated a library lounge to Herald sight he had been a teacher and he went to forest High School and helped a lot of young people and but that wasn't so and in brown school I never experienced any anti-semitism we didn't really in in my family we did move out of the Jewish circle because my dad and my mother my dad was a Shriner and a Mason and my mother was an Eastern star that's this ring she was only Jewish woman in there they met in Oak Cliff I had
to become a rainbow girl which is the daughter of a Mason I was only Jewish person in there I don't ever want to be the only Jewish person anywhere but I don't also want not to be allowed to do something because of that and when I went to college the very first week I was in school we had an interchange of dormitories the boys and the girls and I'm dancing with this fellow and in conversation I can still feel the blood rush to my head now he said I just hate Jews don't you now there I was about 17 years old first experience I said
well for your information you're dancing with one and I turned around and went my Roomba didn't go back I don't know that I've ever had any other and my husband was very prominent in the Jewish community as well as the civil community some of his best friends as they used to say we're not Jewish and he was dedicated to them and them to him one of his best friend's was Tom Ennis he didn't show that Moses on his 50th birthday and they were Catholic so we knew every Catholic minister in town because we went to everything they ever had and also other people as my
husband participated with so many things he was good friends of the Cullum's the Holts of Oak Cliff I just can't tell you how many people we were in their homes they were in our home and of course as he went on to the legislature every year we had a Texas so you gain our house at one time we had four governor's there and when I'd asked him how many people we were gonna have all we'd say 40 and so one time we had in a bus pulls up in front and the waiter bond Dale comes in he says this Gulman 75 people just pulled up
are we gonna have enough food I said I hope so and we did but he loved doing that we never had any kind of experience like that now where did you live after you were married well you couldn't find an apartment after the war there was none to be had there were no homes to be had we didn't have any money he hadn't worked a day yet in this life and his grandfather had passed away a few years before we married about four or five I think and he lived at 2420 Park Road and my mother-in-law had the house leased out so we had the
people move we bought the house on paper didn't pay for it and live there for about six years till our second child Julie was born there they've been blessed memory he was born there and then all the Jewish people started moving to be because the land for the temple and the sheriff is were brought around the same time and people wanted to move near their places of worship so we bought a lot of a Bell Oak Drive my parents had moved on the Sunnybrook and everybody was beginning to leave and so then we my sister's mother-in-law right here know we've every Saturday at my mother's
house not invited everybody came to my mother's house on Saturday for lunch I don't know how she knew how many people were gonna be there my mother-in-law was there some of my aunts ray Aronoff who was my sisters mother-in-law over different various people she said I want you to go look at this house Francis it's just what you need we already had our plans and everything we went over there on Northwood Northport and we decided to buy the house it was just do you remember the year that you bought the house when do you move to North Park I think Julie was 14 his 59
now David was just about to now what was it like life like with jollof shalom when you got married and haven't that develop and how did he get into politics and what did he do we were that developed because we lived behind each other this is the truth okay he called me for a date on Saturday night I was 15 years old and I told him thank you but no thank you my mother said who was that and I said that was Joe go and she said what did he want I said he wanted me to go to movie on Saturday night she said what'd
you tell him I told him no she said well you'll go you'll hurt Esther's feelings that was a fact so after that I guess you'd say we were a couple and he was busy in school he went to am and he graduated in the midterm also and I did too he went to SMU for part of that time till and then after we got married had a big wedding I think about 600 people not all of them were cousins but a lot more and at the Baker hotel went on our honeymoon the war was on then to New Orleans under the Train when we came
back he rented a house I guess you'd call it a house in College Station right on the railroad track and it had been an artist's studio and her husband was a general in Converse rising Louis the third and he was overseas she never knew where he was so we rented this little house that's about the size of half of this room was a bedroom had a table and chairs in there a little tiny kitchen a little bathroom and we lived there during that spring and then he was called him to service so I came home I stayed with my parents I worked for a brief
time this is my working career and Beaman marcus i think they felt like they had to give me a job because i bought so many clothes and and then when Joe went to base took his basic training when all these same fellows took their basic training in Paris Texas and Camp maxi and then they gave him the physical to go overseas and they found out he had asthma and he didn't go overseas the rest of the boys did George Goldman became a prisoner of war the rest of him thought the whole war and came home and then he they were going to close camp Fannin
a time where he was stationed we lived in apartment moved a couple of times because we had to give up where we were living and the general he was Joe lost his commission because he couldn't go into the army because of the asthma and he was the Mac he was a master chart sergeant and he was whatever I don't even remember now the head of the camp of that part of the service and his general asked him to come with him to Atlanta he said what other choice would I hire he said well you could go to Dallas to Southwestern Medical Foundation oh that's why
I thought Joe thought he was a doctor because he was there was the shacks wooden buildings and it was a good experience we stayed at home with my folks at that time we met some really fine Jewish people who he always had over a mother had them all over the camps some of the different fellows that they had headed to them either Russia Center Yom Kippur or any holiday Passover especially some of them came to her 15 my mother dad's 50th wedding anniversary from various parts of the country so all in all he had a good experience there we got out of service he was
only 21 years old and his cousin Judy a chef's wanted him to run for City Council he just started to work in just a boy you don't have any money we can't you can't do that but that didn't make a difference he did it anyway and then eventually other people he became very interested in politics as a matter of fact he hadn't honored not at that time but he had an honorary doctorate in political science from the University of Texas that was given to him when he was in the state legislature so he filled out an unexpired term of a councilman who moved out of
the state and then he ran for that election unopposed I think twice one time he had an opposition and then after that he just was on every city board he was just he won he was awarded the young man of the year that's the first young Jewish boy on the Junior Chamber of Commerce and I can't tell you if you look on those you'll see various honorary positions that he held he just loved politics and that was a hard thing because he was in the produce business he got up at four o'clock in the morning didn't come home till late when when he was elected
to the legislature about 65 people went down to see him sworn in and then I realized I was going to be home by myself with the children Julie was in school at the University of Texas at the time and he would be come home on Thursday or Friday and leave on Sunday but he was very busy and very good in what he did very honest was approached many times I can see the presence he used to send back people with centum thank you for doing but it was just something he felt like his duty in his job he wouldn't take anything for any kind of
guidance or anything so it's a good experience we've met a lot of wonderful people he also was selected the Rookie of the Year the first year he was in the state legislature basically this is more about him in his life than me because I was just a housewife and I was active because I did things my mother told me I had to do participate in the synagogue at the show and I worked with her and along with my sister-in-law my brother's wife Ruth my sister my Annette my mother-in-law and my mother did everything together what people thought they were sisters they did everything yeah they
were very devoted to each other and I help my mother in organizing the Miss Mizrahi chapter in Dallas which rabbi Brahmas asked her to do we raised thousands and thousands of dollars it's not like it is now people didn't have that kind of money but they gave graciously from their heart and I was the president I don't know about four times tell enough is enough you know and in the meantime I wasn't at home mother I was home when my kids came home from school I went my home for everything my chauffeur at every rabbis wife that came for the position of chair or thizzle
around Dallas we had dinner parties for them to interest them in coming to share as well somewhere most of them just came because it was free and you have these parties at home most of them sometimes we had them at home sometimes we have at the chaparral club I can't recall what you Joe was present he was 43 at the time he was present at that time he was a youngest person who had ever been president now this was a witch sheriff Israel and so sometimes I think we had them once or twice at the Columbia in the club but basically I used to take
them and show them the kosher butcher shop show them the things of Jewish interest and then take the wives around me I did that a lot for other people too like doctors who moved to Dallas and that sort of thing I don't know how I got that job but inhale what's fun and a good deed Mitzvah yeah we have to have more of those today I think we have a lot of wonderful young people interested in the community what were some of the activities that the ladies auxilary did a good Asylum and then the things that you did as Sheriff and a good asylum it
was an older generation don't forget I was young and they had book reviews they had bingo parties they had shoulders they had the heifer condition that was entertainment in those days and sheriff Israel they had the hair they don't have that anymore they have a condition I don't think they get the recognition they deserve that's a really tough and we had all kinds of programs we had by that time we had capable people who participated at one time rabbi should pick rabbi Silverman wife Devorah did a big program that we had and then after her rabbi what was his name with Muriel his like Merle
has why she chose rabbi Shapiro his wife was also talented did their several good programs we had other programs we had also entertainment like that what kind of programs did they do ex-sheriff Israel some of them were Chanukah programs some of them around the holidays you know I participated in some of the programs because speech had been my major in the school and participated in those in grade school toolings programs like that and then as we became more knowledgeable we got smarter more educated women at sheriff Israel and the programs became more uplifting and rewarding and they they started the women of Valor program they
started the what is that where they do though the woman they just did the shower it's for the seminary yeah yeah various programs like that be frank I haven't gone in several years mm-hmm I think basically it's made up of younger people it's time for them to do the work I didn't do that kind of work at sheriff Israel really I used to cook with my mother my mother-in-law my aunt Sara Goodman at sheriff Israel and set the tables well you couldn't ask girls to do that today they wouldn't have time or they wouldn't do it what kind of events did you cook for a
chair whatever luncheons we never went to the clubbing club we had members who work on being club members or other Lakewood Country Club or Dallas not Dallas Athletic Club we didn't do things like that things were done in the synagogue where in my opinion they belong and in people's home plenty of people have large enough homes I don't think I've been to any in recent years I think they've had a few but the ones that I've been to that have been in big homes have been either from the council but it has not been from Shara there so I think they've had them but they've
had him previously to the demise of the Colombian club they had him there but we set the tables and wash the dishes if we didn't have help we cooked that's why I can cook on a big scale even today what were there luncheons for word meeting I read with the money the sisterhood meeting then a special event a special event they had a little nicer luncheon we had decorating committees we always had something pretty on the table not outlandish not like it we not like you go to a Bar Mitzvah today and it's a Hollywood production I don't think I think that ought to be
against the law my boys were bar Mitzvahed my daughter was among the first five or six that were bought miss her at the bar mitzvahs they only allowed him to serve tuna fish or gefilte fish and you could put flowers on the table but it was nothing like you see just think all that money could go to some wonderful cause and a regular sisterhood luncheon they'd send up surf a hot lunch a nice lunch fish or chicken or whatever a regular full course lunch and if the dinners we used to cook for the heifer conditioned dinners have a wonderful wonderful dinner they had packed houses
all the time but this generation doesn't go in that direction and frankly I don't think that our rabbis have encouraged that for many many years last really huge thing I remember I think best Cohen was a chairman of that was that was it the hundredth year anniversary of sheriff is it was that the one of the hotels and it was huge and they raised a lot of money for that now once your how what is your affiliation how it what has that been over the years you talked about a good Asaka me cherith Israel were there any other shows that you were affiliated with no
we didn't belong to other shows my mother-in-law still went to the turf Aerith Israel as long as she lived in South Dallas but she went to share this one day and it's Rosh Hashanah and one day to 2/4 Israel and Noah we didn't belong to other synagogues would belong to many organizations both Jewish Civic non-jewish participant participated in a lot of things what was the Colombian Club like at those at that point well at the time that we joined with many other families give me an idea ok wait a minute yes I think and it must be about 42 years that we belong to the
Colombian car and so they didn't want any sheriff Israel god forbid any of the other two fair official members but they wanted to build the new country club and so they needed the money I wasn't much in favor of us joining not because of the money because I didn't take care of that but because I felt like our children were to grow up in a different atmosphere but the walnuts the donkeys Harry Kaplan various others many ha'pence team various others from the other synagogues joined I don't know how many at that time but they were very warm first of all we grew up with most
of those people they wanted your money so that we came whatever so we participated in everything wait a minute you