Irene Wisch
Irene was born in Dorchester, Massachusetts, and given the name Gladys Irene, though she disliked the name Gladys and later took the name Irene. Her mother, Gertrude, came to the United States from Europe at about age 16, arriving to relatives in the Boston area. Her father, Israel, immigrated from Lithuania and ran a meat company on North Street in Boston. He died in 1930 when Irene was seven, leaving her mother to raise the children alone. Her mother struggled financially, sewing dresses and walking miles to save money, and never remarried because she did not want to give her children a stepfather. Irene had an older brother and younger siblings, and the family was part of a large Boston Jewish community.
After graduating high school in 1940, Irene attended a clerical school she called Boston Academy and worked a series of clerical jobs, including for a real estate company, a publishing house, and later the War Production Board as a secretary. During the war she volunteered as a junior hostess at a USO, bringing servicemen from area camps to dances. There she met Chester Darin Wisch, known as Jimmy, who was from Brooklyn and serving on a Liberty Ship. They married on March 19 while he was still in the service. Irene moved to Fort Worth, Texas, where Jimmy had family, and the couple settled and raised their children there.
In Fort Worth, Irene and Jimmy built their lives around the Texas Jewish Post, which Jimmy took over from a friend and grew from a monthly into a weekly newspaper and a member of the American Jewish Press Association. Irene worked alongside him for many years, handling billing, addressing, and mailing while raising their children and remaining active in Jewish organizations. The family belonged to both a Reform and a Conservative congregation and celebrated the Jewish holidays with large gatherings. After Jimmy died, their daughter Sharon took over running the paper. Irene later moved to Dallas to be close to her children and grandchildren, and she has continued to support her family and the Jewish community.
This transcript is very rough and many details, including exact names, dates, and relationships, are uncertain.
Full Transcript
I'm Cheryl field spoken today is June 4th I'm interviewing mrs. wish in this June 4th 2010 let me tell you how delighted I am to see you today make your let's go start at the very beginning and tell me a little bit please about your parents and where they came from my parents but it was my mother did come over and when did United States so she was probably been 16 I think uh-huh about 16 when she came and where did she come - do you know - it was the matriarch of my family in Boston in Boston - an aunt's house I'd like your mother's name my mother's name was Gertrude great her maiden name
was Baltimore uh-huh it's it probably but making over put your love it you know everything but after and so your mother was raised been in Boston know about Baltimore no mother was raised in Europe oh and your lady associate merits very yes okay in the mid she was 16 when she came to Boston right okay and your father my father he died in 1930 so he came from Lithuania to Israel Boston up to his neck up to foster this is because the name was my father's name was Israel was Israel I'm sorry I misheard yeah and how did your parents meet she she was engaged
to someone else and they met out on the beach with a group of friends and that engagement was broken my father and I could smell wood antiseptic in my house I remember going to be a swan boats with him and I remember going to the movies how old were you when he passed away seven aha and what did your father do yeah Meat Company Constantin company had 38 North Street Boston but it's no longer bigger mm-hmm he had one of the first cars called the boys night we looked it up on my computer it was made in 1937 I think which was amazing and he
found his date but he's listed when he came in to Ellis Island and he came in with Israel free and tell me if you will about a little bit about your childhood and where you were born I was born in Dorchester a mess so you have one over but you had one older brother right and how many did you have younger siblings oh I have a two of you that's poison two weeks difference and do you mind telling me my what year you were born isn't that wonderful and what's your exact birth I'll go say - he's running - 18 19 20 - wonderful so
you were you were born in Massachusetts and were you raised there yes I'm selling and what was it like growing up it was you know it was great my mother struggled very very you know what a Paris what did she pedal well she sewed a dress to somebody for four dollars and then went to buy it and then would go to walk two three miles she did you have other family in the area pissant huh yeah she was the matriarch of the family what happened come and see yeah something like that did you go to the public school I did I graduated high school that's
as far as that went and your brother too but he had really strange circumstances where did you or your brother work as you were when you were children maybe seven eight 25 cents an hour or something didn't complain and what was the Jewish community like big a big Jewish community were you active with Jewish organizations yeah why was coffee in the nonce which meant no name okay Jason to Franklin thought we could go coasting there and like why and they Jay was on the corner so we could go to day camp there and were you in an apartment or a house or well when my
father died and how did you and your mother and brothers celebrate the hot Jewish holidays and she still stopped her chickens about them now the meat business that your father had was that a kosher meat business did your family attended synagogue you said it the holidays with the sound I'm so they're married so you graduated from high school right and what happened next could you speak a little louder I know I went to I graduated from high school in 1940 and then I went to clerical school we called it Boston Academy - I'm sure that was something that young ladies did at the time was
always very sick she's struggled she's struggling because she was never remarried because she didn't want to give us a stepfather when she was a good-looking woman and had opportunities that's a hard man a difficult memory it sounds like for you to think about the struggling that your mother went for it I appreciate appreciate so you went to clerical school and how many years did you go to clerical school no my first job I worked for a real-estate company and I made five dollars a week I think was a friend about family that did us a favor of each other and we paid the sphere street
you know I'd be able so you work for him what kind of business was that that your did you work in do you remember do you remember how long you were there that's a soda can I work for a pretreat machine why don't we stop for just one minute okay when we pause for a moment you were just starting to tell me and I asked you to please stop about you were talking about your childhood friends and about dating I did not okay but you had a big group of girlfriends yes okay the college is a circle it's wonderful to have a childhood friend you
before we paused you were telling me that you served in several different clerical positions in your second one yeah the second one a one of the ones one of the ones I think interviewed for a job at a male house and I wasn't fast enough but what I did learn there was that one serving ropes you open the flaps you know so that was a good skill to learn me that was something you know there was advancement at that point my next job I worked for a publishing company Greentree owned by a Jewish man and he was dictating to me and corrected him his grandma
and he said correct me when you sit in this chair that's okay oh so he fired you how did you feel about that you know he would be obsessed of course I mean you were probably a very young woman but it was like I spend time with my relatives in Connecticut my mother's brothers worked very good to her and helped her but I wanted she didn't buy me a Christmas present and I made her go out to Western ah this was when you were a child and so you celebrated Christmas I don't think we did but my neighbor said uh-huh it would have been understandable
if you did everything we never belong to a congregation so you moved to Connecticut it after you graduated high school No I wasn't lived in Dorchester and I went to school in Dorchester and then at some point we moved back and then went to a school in Brooklyn Street what was the name of the high school where you graduated high school 1940 and then how did you meet your husband JW big wheel is so us oh okay and what year was that and how old were you when you met the minute did you say the minute you saw I'm sitting there I was you know
happy us all they had junior hostesses and I that would come and dance with the servicemen and this one was 17 Commonwealth Avenue and I would bring the soldiers them from the camps you know from the fourth different thoughts and what he had different parties they have fallen through lots of good times some of the boys from there they he walked in to be J don't be USO and I was sitting in my corner I said we started chatting as a matter of fact he was the one that gave me the name Larry me because my name was Gladys Irene and I hate the name
Gladys and did you tell him that I never liked it because every time okay that's the truth he made me rainy and it stuck uh-huh and what tell me your husband what your husband saying Jimmy wish but it's really this real name is Chester Darin wish and where was he from Brooklyn from Brooklyn and he was in the service and what was it what was he doing well he was went into the service for Mineral Wells and he was stationed on a Liberty Ship he traveled back and forth to friends of course then you know the boys we're dealing at black the servicemen were and
what were they doing with the black market selling stuff to them you know what kind of stuff uh jeans clothing anything they would take with them and sell it over see yeah yeah yeah so you all met you all mad and at a USO and then he was had what happened next and where were you married married one look at just one leg it judge and judge Gus Brown but what else is still there and how did you end up in Fort Worth but Jimmy yes but yes Jimmy was transferred his mother was there oh okay and this brother was let's do pressure okay because
and Chet couldn't get a job in New York because he was Jewish they weren't hiring Jews he got a job with a photo reflex to do here this is Jimmy's brother yeah so they moved so they moved from Brooklyn to New York I mean from Brooklyn to Fort Worth right uh-huh and I've had a job with the boat'll reflex then it was a wartime and got both my mother and check the jobs and at the aircraft factory Jimmy was in service and said you moved to Fort Worth to to marry Jimmy and you married on March 19th while he was in the service and yeah
what he was telling the service yes Ben where did you all live did you live with his mother we did a very short time she said there were no kitchen is big enough for two cooks okay after his department had a telephone drum for and at that time Jimmy had a bit of group too and we stayed there we brought home from the hospital telling my mother said the first thing she came to Texas she said the best you came 2,000 miles was it hard for your mother to see you leave oh my god it was terrible my mother was the type of a woman
it was no man but was she able to have a nice relationship with Jimmy after she got to know yeah so how long were you married before Linda was born do you have a couple of years Thanks mm-hmm and how what what year was Linda born the wind is about sixty three or four okay how many children did you have will you tell me their names Linda you want all their spouses yes please okay she was married to you and Steve sees a notary in Houston he was divorced yes one child well I'm happy that he's doing well now I wonder if I knew him
when I lived in Houston in judy judy single and she adopted a little boy from Russia oh how wonderful Jacob and Sharon has three wonderful children and a lot of husbands do you know the raise did you tell this yeah yeah did you know Gail ray I don't Gerald and Gail were first cousins and I'd tell me about Susan Susan was married and she's divorced and she graduated from Texas so did UT London went to see this college and then she got very sick she didn't continue no does Susan have children no no so you you were living in Fort Worth and how long were
you in for did you live in Fort Worth all your life so you moved to Dallas after doing well Todd came to live with me right after Jimmy died what's nine years it's been with me ever since this is one of your grandchildren oh okay but it's really good job like a child everything since we checked how did you how did you meet him he was working for my friend Helen Shapiro do you know Helen she was related to the Huskie family lessees my skis in Fort Worth my and Dallas - oh yes and now the bro hands mind you knows the Rohan family you
know teri so you lived in Fort Worth until your husband died about nine or ten years ago you decided then because most of your children were here in Dallas right to move here right what made sense I know I don't have a lot of friends there really don't well most of your friends were your friends were from fort worthy what was it like living in Fort Worth and raising your family was it what happy was the Jewish community in Fort Worth would you say excuse me I should talk louder ten or twelve thousand huh you want me to go back I think I think you're
doing great degree and tell me a little bit about your Jewish lives in Fort Worth we were members of both that fell the Reform congregation right and alone was that conservative or Orthodox no conservative conservative and we were living across the street from the temple the Broadway anyway we brought her home from the hospital back then we used to roll the paper by hand so you've been started in the paper business Bernice's and you know the Reagan's smoke Templin annual Larry Steinberg each oh yes Brady says they weren't my best friend roommates that's where we met so and if you want to know anything about
me as Freddy's we'll ask you Bernice was my mentor thank you Matt we did you meet when you were having your children in the hospital she went out you know those days you're staying ten days sure and she was going home the next day back after I write but we became good good friends and that's never changed so but she was my mentor she used to say to me I used to do things I couldn't look forward I remember I bought Linda a little dotted Swiss dress and my painted of nineteen dollars right and she's angry me save your money wait till your children get
over it's nice to have as a friend like that who can be so honest with you oh she you know I'm sure you didn't know her family her mother Rose Steinberg was the first president and former NASA so Jimmy left the suit left the service and what kind of job did he take he worked for the railway mail before he went in the service so he was assured of a job when he came back he had a secure job and then it be when you remember worked for the railway mail he had a very prosperous profit plan so he was working for the railway mail
and you were just saying something a few minutes ago about rolling the paper did you take a job as well oh yeah I work from the I work for the war production board the war production board what did you do I was a secretary aha and so this was before Linda was born or after Linda was born or both both but what kind of childcare did you have for Linda huh so you did you work as you raised all of the children always always work now tell me about the post when did you start how did you start the Texas Jewish post Jimmy was in
the service on the ship Jimmy was in the service on his ship he was stealing the movies or something when he came back from the service it was a young port warmth but she had lived two blocks we'll be in Boston oh and he and Jimmy decided to stop the paper he went ahead and did it without Jimmy and then he he came from a very wealthy family the Brockman family yeah his family royal problems after we stopped the tape I'll tell you a little bit about the Brockman family now he asked Jimmy to take the paper over to run the paper gave it to
him gave it to him because he wanted to go back at me a little business and so Jimmy left the railway so bullets before it went the service he worked for Levinson's father you know Jimmy was a child of the depression his family starved and they looked in what they call what we have learnt more than a corporate get started oh well night they knocked my mother-in-law was a fighter and she brought up boys she said don't you fight don't you dare move from this yard a fighter but one night they loved Nocturna joy she said you bloody bastard get away from there rough cut
your throat well she was gonna protect her children but she she was a human dynamo she was she was the tops and so I can't begin to tell you how important she was to the paper so used to so Jimmy came back from the service he joined the paper and then took it over and the money worked for the railway mail service he had a job when he came back he had the job aha and did he give up the railway mail service when he he went with the paper yes yes and you went with the paper as well you stayed with the government window-hole
my hospital to that apartment and then went where did you move after the apartment everyone found us on South Adams and you move before Steve was born we had our office in the house we built a room on the Banneker backups there did you had for your office that was nice for you it worked unfortunately we didn't put it we put a screened-in porch door oh so people had to walk through the house to get to the office and other urine and therefore children were born while you were living in this in your house in Fort Worth yes children yes we moved into helping when
I was pregnant with Susan with Susan oh so you moved again and what was it like raising your children in Fort Worth okay piece of cake what what were you acted with in Fort Worth living things I was a member of everything but I worked overtime and that works Saturdays and Sundays we would drop my children off at Sunday school and they would wait on the steps for us to pick them up because we were at the office and after you moved into your second house did you have the office of the house or by then the opposite moved the big house on the hill
drink yes did you do your like did that I entered onto my house after Jimmy died because we didn't have a master bedroom yes it was you know when you built houses it was different it was different so how long did you stay in Fort Worth after Jimmy died not too long not too long but you added on thinking you would stay and then you decided to move to Dallas and with the children were in religious school did they go to the reformed to Bethel or were they and it's Steve was about Mitzvah at the show and sharing was bomb that's for the official but
she was also confirmed at the temple okay so you you all were active with both and you said you remember you were a member of many of the Jewish organizations and did your family celebrate Jewish holiday oh absolutely that's with 40 people and break fast I have 50 or 70 people come that's nice that's nice and so you you had the newspaper and it was serving both Dallas and Fort Worth is that correct yeah mostly Fort Worth because at the beginning Dallas did not want a diaper they did not want a Jewish newspaper Kravitz do you remember that credits he was definitely opposed it was
Jack he was a federation director and he was those two and why was he opposed to a Jewish paper I don't know what this racing was but he was opposed to him were the two cities close of course of course I remember one year I sat down plant something refused now did you maybe fused it what kinds of activities did your children participate in growing up Judy was president of temp we give everything did your family experience any anti-semitism in Fort Worth no why don't we pause for just a minute break and you just have something that I'd like to have on tape about the
Hildebrand house and your children I'm sorry house and you were saying there were so many Jewish families on the street that it was called that it was called something about bagel and bagel bed because of all the Jewish families that to me that's very cute I'd like to hear more about having the newspaper grew well it started as a monthly oh okay and you had to be you had to be a semi weekly to join the American Jewish press and of course we evolved into a weekly okay what was the American Jewish press American American Jewish press AJ you know okay you wanted to be
part of an or of a larger organization and my husband's a past president okay in fact he went to oh and Nixon so it started as in monthly and became by sending semi-monthly so twice a month and he joined the American Jewish press right and then when did it become a weekly paper and how did the paper grow did it start as just a couple pages because now I know there are at least almost twenty pages a page is going on did you write it yourselves or did you have reporters we had some people I did a lot of different things okay but youyou personally
didn't had a lot of different roles I did the billing uh-huh I did the address let me address the graph it's just you know sample papers uh-huh so you mailed the papers out you never hand-delivered in Fort Worth never never unless it was a personal request mm-hmm and how did the circulation grow not as much as we like well I'm sure that's always the case but Jim used to say he was screwed so he was a good business man and he graduated from TCU what you gotta do and went to graduate school and what did he get his degree in history okay because he had
the paper so he had come back and was working and went to school at the same time working at tonight's school mm-hmm that's great what were how did you define your role versus his role I have a feeling that you're very modest how many years were you married we'll be in a good marriage that's that's wonderful to hear when you when you have your children been involved in the newspaper when we hit a print shop she would put up lights and slugs they are part of it and then now Sharon runs the paper is that correct absolutely completely how did that happen have a daddy
father Jimmy died and I was devastated what's going on his death was littered I can't begin to tell you yeah no no what you if he had money or if he didn't have for anything my nephew came from Boston and he and my nephew hadn't been there the years but my niece had his sister and she said Bob you've got to go and they gained and they went through the desk they went through the desk I couldn't see them yeah grandma the remains of the print shop a stone and what was the what was the stone will you make the big rock oh where you
make the paper put the frame on it uh-huh you the type so this was when when did you stop this kind of type and move to something more modern well after he was threatened I guess we started soon after you know some experience inside the paper what kind of experiences using someone threatened to kill him and that's this man worked for us and I had found him a place to live a Jewish Agency and he threatened you because because he only wanted to work nights oh so he could get out at night and Jimmy wasn't happy he said step outside and I can carry him
he then he was put in jail he served two sentences for threatening but this would you don't feel that that was anti-semitism or it was more just a person personality I see and I can honestly say I don't every running good so when Jimmy died and your new niece and nephew came to help the desk what needed to be but it cleared up I need to clear up but yes they did and today Bob handles all my financial affairs everything he from the Boston area he teaches that so he's taken over your financial affairs and then she and I say it's comforting to know that
you are I'm here and affection you know I do love things for my children that's wonderful to do to be able to do as much as I'd like to do I know that you have been so generous with the community as well so Sharon Jimmy died and was Sharon working for with you all and the paper business should get one to think she had graduated from well she got a batch was she went to st. Louis Washington University was there and she got the almost finished her doctorate I'm so happy she like such a little bit and I said to her yesterday Sharon what was her field that she was the Social Work and social work at the brown school there soon as she taught at the UTA and so she taught but now she's running the paper and when did she when did you move the operations from Fort Worth to Dallas we always had an office there an office here you go uh-huh and so it's only been in the last ten years or so that Sharon's really take it over do
you still have the office in Fort Worth yes and what's it like for you living in Dallas now your well it's perfect for me because there's my children my grandchildren what could be better it sounds like you you're able to see your family off but oh my gosh well there's never there's a whole east up buddy have you gotten involved in the Jewish community here since you've been here or you're busy with the family I tried I tried the community center uh-huh uh-huh I step along and do you belong to a synagogue here hey Sheriff uh-huh well hi it's a wonderful wonderful story and I'm
very honored that you share it with us today as you're thinking back over is there anything else that you think that you would like to share with us to dos what a wonderful person Jimmy which was well I think that you're very modest because I know he was a wonderful person but you are I did that he strived for well we're business acumen we're very honored to hear about your life in your life with Jimmy and with your family and we thank you very much for this opportunity Muslim to share with you that you've shared with us today