April 21, 2015

Gerry Cristol

Gerry Cristol was born in 1935 in Haverhill, Massachusetts, around the end of the Depression. She lived in a two-family house with her grandparents downstairs. Her father, a University of Pennsylvania graduate whose own father was a doctor, was part of the German Jewish migration, while her mother's parents were immigrants from Russia. Her parents met while her mother attended Ohio State, and they lived in Philadelphia until her father lost his bank job during the Depression, prompting a move back to Haverhill, where her mother's family had a good leather business. During World War Two, Gerry had three uncles serving in the Air Force, and she recalls her mother closing a small knitting shop so that her father would not be drafted.

Gerry attended Crall Street grammar school and Haverhill High School, where she was often the only Jewish student but made good grades and friends easily. She went on to Goucher College, which paired students from small northern and southern towns. After graduating, she lived in New York working for about seventy-five dollars a week. There she was introduced to Charlie, a shoe buyer for Levine's department stores who was originally from San Antonio. Despite an age difference, the two married, and Gerry moved to Dallas, where the Levine family, including Rose Marienberg, welcomed her warmly and helped her settle in.

In Dallas, Gerry raised two daughters and was active in the National Council of Jewish Women. Charlie eventually started his own successful shoe store business in small-town malls. When her children were young, Gerry returned to SMU and earned a master's degree in history, which led to her becoming the archivist at Temple Emanu-El, a role she still held at the time of the interview. She wrote a book titled A Light in the Prairie, served as president of the Dallas Historical Society, and created a Kennedy exhibit at the temple, having been on the street the day of the assassination. She encourages the next generation to marry the right person and find work they love.

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