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February 27, 2014

Gloria Reiman

Gloria Reiman grew up in Montreal, where she was part of a Jewish community of roughly a quarter million people. Her mother, Rose, was born in Poland and came to Montreal around 1928 at about age eight, while her father emigrated from Russia at age fifteen; they met in Montreal. Gloria attended a Jewish day school and a high school that was overwhelmingly Jewish, and later studied at McGill. Her father died when she was five, and her mother remarried. Gloria has a sister, Brenda, who remained in Montreal. Her mother, aged 93 at the time of the interview, still lived in a Montreal retirement community, and Gloria visited often.

Gloria and her husband Lionel moved to Dallas in 1970 for his residency at Parkland, first living in an apartment on Spring Valley Road. They later spent time in the Los Angeles area, where Lionel worked at hospitals including Centinela, before returning to Dallas, where he opened his own practice and they bought a home. At first Gloria found the transition jarring, describing Dallas as a wilderness compared to cosmopolitan Montreal. The presence of relatives, especially the Goldfarb family, helped her adjust and made a lasting difference as they welcomed the young couple.

An artist since her Montreal years, Gloria continued painting in Dallas, encouraged by her aunt Eva Goldfarb, and created works for her children's many homes over the years. She and Lionel have belonged to Congregation Shaare Israel, and Gloria was active in ORT and other Jewish organizations. Her four children include Susie, a school counselor with Jewish Family Service; a son who is a financial planner; another son who is a radiologist; and Alyssa, who was pursuing a PhD in European Jewish history. The family maintained close ties to Israel, visiting relatives on a kibbutz. Gloria said she was proudest of her husband and children.

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