Kyra Effren
Kyra Effren's grandparents on her father's side came from Lithuania, while her mother's family was from Wales. Her father was born in South Africa and her mother in Wales, and they met and married in London, likely in the early 1930s. Kyra was born in London in 1935, one of six children, five of whom were born in England. The family began in Wembley, but after a bomb damaged their home and her maternal grandmother was killed by a bomb in Wales, they moved to a small village in Oxford. In 1945, at the end of the war, the whole family emigrated to South Africa, traveling on one of the early ships out of England. Her father bought a farm in Devon Valley near Stellenbosch, where she grew up and attended school.
Kyra studied social science at the University of Cape Town, added two music degrees, and later studied labor relations for two years at Columbia University in New York. Returning to South Africa, she worked in her father's business, Bertrand's Wines, and was sent to open a store in Springs, where relatives arranged for her to meet Norman, the son of the town doctor. They married in 1959. As tensions in South Africa grew, and after police urged the family to keep guns on the farm and winery, her father encouraged all his children to leave. In 1964 Kyra and Norman came to Santa Barbara, California, where their daughter Elaine was born and their son Richard, born in 1960, grew up. After time in England helping in her father's business, and following two sisters who had already moved to Texas, the couple came to Dallas around 1973.
In Dallas, Norman opened a wine store called Norman's Wine World on Central Expressway, while Kyra, trained at the Cordon Bleu in England, ran a cooking school from her home for fifteen years. She wrote freelance for the Dallas Morning News for ten years and did food styling for another ten. The family lived in Far North Dallas and belonged to Temple Shalom. Deeply involved in Jewish Family Service, she eventually served as its president and helped find a new building, and she remained active with its food programs. She helped create the Food Plus Fit Equals Fun nutrition program, developed the Can Do recipe booklet for the JFS food pantry, and worked on a hunger project aimed at helping at-risk seniors access food resources. Her son manages her business and lives next door, and her daughter is a lawyer in New York.
Full Transcript
Well, we're in McKinney, Texas, and today is April 17, 2016. My name is Hedley Rekusen, and I have the pleasure of interviewing Kyra Efra. So I'm going to try and ask you some questions about your life's journey, and I'll begin with your grandparents. So if you could tell us a little bit about, if you know, about your grandparents, where they came from and where your parents were born. My grandparents on my father's side came from Lithuania. My grandparents on my mother's side came from Wales. My father was born in South Africa. my mother was born in Wales and they met in London Do you remember what year?
Well it must have been before I was born Usually it is So it was in the early 1930s Yes So they got married in London They did And then did they move to South Africa? They only moved to South Africa We all moved at the end of the war, which was 1945. So you were born? I was born in 1935. In London? In London. Okay. And all, there are six of us, and five were born in England. Only one was born in San Diego. What part of London did you live in? We started out in Wembley, and when a bomb took out one of the windows of our house, and my mother, my mother's mother was killed by a bomb in Wales.
they dropped one of the bombs on the way home my father moved us to a small village in Oxford where we lived in a very small village and how old were you when you left? left London 10 and you moved to South Africa the whole family except in 1945 to which city? we went to actually we went first to Muesenberg where my grandmother lived We were on the second prisoner of war ship out of England My father had booked the births all the rest were prisoners of war being released from Germany and we I think we took out six or eight of the births that they allowed for civilians, and we have those.
So you grew up in Muesenberg? No, my father bought a farm in Stellenbosch, in Devon Valley, and we moved to Devon Valley. And did you go to school? Went to school in Stellenbosch. In Stellenbosch. And then? Went to British. You finished school, and then? And then I went to the University of Cape Town. To study? We studied, it was called social science. We were social workers. Okay. And after that, after finishing graduating? Then I took side degrees in music. I took two music degrees while I was waiting to get to Columbia. And I went to Columbia University in New York. Oh. and studied labor relations for two years.
So you went to Colombia, and then did you return to South Africa? Yes, then I returned to South Africa, and I went to work in my dad's business, which was Bertrand's Wines. And then? And then I was sent up by my father to Springs to open one of the stores. The wine store? Mm-hmm. and the relatives conspired to get the early Jewish girl and the early Jewish guy together. In Springs? In Springs. And that's how Norman and I met. And your husband was Norman? Yes. And he had grown up in Springs? He grew up in Springs. His father was the doctor there. And when did you get married?
Oh dear, when did we get married? 1959. Still living in Springs at the time? No, actually what we did was Dad offered Norman a job in the business because my brothers were still very young. So Norman was actually looking to buy a retread business. And since he was in negotiations, Dad said, would you consider coming to work for me? And it took two seconds, and my husband said yes, and he came to work in the winery for dad. And that was in Cape Town? We lived on the farm. Okay. We lived on the farm until Richard was born in 1960 and in 1964 we emigrated What made you make the decision to emigrate Things were getting really sensitive, and two of the things that prompted us was, first of all, the police recommended that since we were on a farm and we had a winery, we my brother and my husband should have guns.
And I did not like the idea of sleeping with a gun under the pillow. They said there would be an uprising because we had one of these places where they put them, you know, where the blacks lived in Stellenbosch. And they were afraid they were getting very restive. And the police told us the first place they'd make for is the winery. So after all that, my dad told all of us that he thought we should leave. Now, my brother was already in France, so my brother was in France. The other brother was in Fresno, California, studying viticulture and oenology, and so those were already out.
Norman and I came to Santa Barbara. My sister joined us, my next sister joined us, because she went to the Brooks Institute of Photography, got a degree there, and my next sister got her master's degree in San Francisco at the University of California, and my baby sister went to Santa Barbara, and then she went to New York University and got a degree in writing, in writing, in journalism. So were there any other siblings that remained behind? Nobody. Everybody. So it seems like your parents felt threatened and they felt there was no future there. They did. They did. So what was their reaction to you leaving?
They were the ones who told us to go. I mean, they were the ones who pushed us to do it. And just to relate to you, my mother said they came with us. We bought trunks and trunks of stuff with us. You know, we came by boat so we could bring so much stuff. and they went home and my mother said to walk into an empty house with nobody there. She said it was the worst day of her life. Were they able to come across and see you? Oh they came quite often They came quite often But they actually Dad got a green card They got a green card but my mother wanted to go back to South Africa so they stayed in South Africa until they died And we did the Cape Town shuttle And what year did you arrive in Santa Barbara?
1964. 1964. And how, did you stay there for some time? Yes, we stayed there for about eight years. We stayed there until the earthquake. And then I decided that I didn't like the earth moving. There was snow. And the other thing, too, was that we went to England for two years to help in my dad's business there. During that period? Towards the end of that period, and we didn't go back. And was Norman working in the wine business? Yes, he always worked for my dad. So then you went to London. Oh, sorry, he didn't. When he was in Santa Barbara, he went to work in a wine store, and he worked there.
How did you enjoy Santa Barbara? It's a beautiful, beautiful, beautiful town. The weather is very boring. It never varies more than 10 degrees. It's a very interesting town because it has a lot of culture, and it has the universities. And of course I got involved in everything. I loved telling people what to do. So I had plenty to do. And we built a new synagogue while I was there. And so it was a very active time. And Elaine was born during that time too. So my two children were there. And you have Elaine. And who's your other child? And Richard is the older one. Richard is the oldest.
Elaine was born in America. So then you left, you went to London. Yes. And after that? Dad called us all back to South Africa. And he had a family meeting, and he said, you're going to have to make a decision, and it's going to be a vote, a democratic vote. I will have to sell the company. I will have to sell the whole business. I can't do this anymore. You can come back, and I'll hand it to you. But you have to vote. And the only person who voted to come back was my husband. So he sold the business. had a choice. So then we were actually looking at Colorado.
We really didn't want to go back to, I was very afraid of earthquakes because the university projected that we would have a major, I mean they talked about the whole state falling off into the sea. I didn't like that at all. So we were looking to move to Colorado and then all two sisters had already moved here. One sister worked for, she was a photographer when we went to Brooks Institute and she worked for Giddings here and she was the first person who came to Dallas and then my brother-in-law, Ellie Milmid and Sandra moved because Eddie was offered a position at the Medical Cities and they moved here just shortly before we did and so Norman and I decided well we might as well go where the family is Right and you came to Dallas in what year?
I think it was 1973 I think. Right. Yes. And then what kind of work did Norman do when he got here? Once again, Norman, he actually got a wine store, got himself a wine store on Central, next to the two gold towers. Yeah. And it was called Norman's Wine World. And he had that for many years until they decided to redevelop and he had to get rid of the store. And I got busy and I started a cooking school. because while I was in England, I went to the Cordon Bleu. And I had always cooked and I had always... In Santa Barbara, the gentleman of the synagogue told us that we were responsible for raising the money for the kitchen.
And they told us it was going to be $25,000. So we had a long discussion and we decided the only thing we were really good at was cooking. so I taught them to cook and then we catered we had catering and we raised the money that way and then when we came to Dallas Norman said to me, you've been to the you've taught all these people why don't you do it as a career so I opened a school a retail store? he had a wine store and I had a cooking school in my house and I had it for 15 years Did Norman specialize in South African wines?
He did but you know at that point there was one time when South African wines were banned And it was very difficult for him but he was one of the people who discovered Argentinian wines He thought they were very good And people really liked it because he knew what he was doing. He traveled with my brother buying wines in France, and he worked in the winery. So he was pretty knowledgeable. And he was very gregarious, so that also helps. So how was your initial adjustment into Dallas? It seems like it was fairly smooth. Well, it was easier for me because I had two sisters here already.
And I got busy already. I was already busy teaching. My children were going to school. I think the person who had the hardest time was my husband. He used to say, there's nothing as permanent as a temporary arrangement. You know, he was very used to the South African way of life. And he was very used to Santa Barbara being so beautiful. and this was not his really scene. He grew up in a club. He had a golf club and was the son of the doctor of the town. So it was a little different for him. What part of the city did you live in when you first arrived?
We lived in Far North Dallas. Far North Dallas. Corner of Maple Quest and Meandering Way. and did you feel welcomed by the Dallas community? Are you talking which community? The Christian community or the Jewish community? The Jewish community. It's very hard to say. It's very hard to say. I think in those days it was I belonged to Shalom and nothing special was made of it. I don't think there was really anything special made. However, it was very interesting, our introduction to the neighborhood. One of our neighbors came to me and she said, Do you go to church? And I said, No, I go to synagogue.
She said, Oh, we'll fix that. She says, I belong to the church, the big church down there, and we even have Hebrew, and we'll be very happy to convert you. And I said, Well, thank you, but I think we got here first. And since then, have you maintained your membership at Temple Shalom? Until such time as we you know I moved I don belong there You don belong there Right And in terms of the Jewish community your involvement during that time Well, to start off with, I was very active at Jewish Family Service, very active. And eventually for my sins I became President. And during that time we were looking for a new building, which was very interesting.
and also during that time we did find the building, so that was part of the energy, but I still am very involved with them, and I'm involved with the food program there. So I've maintained that connection, and a lot of my friends are. Okay. Tell us a little bit about the cooking school. I remember that you used to write a column for the Dallas Morning News. So besides that, Dottie Griffiths asked me if I would write for the Morning News, which I did freelance, and I wrote for 10 years for the Morning News. And then Dottie Griffiths asked me to do the food styling for the Morning News, and I did that for 10 years.
And so that was my connection. Things changed at the Morning News after a while, and it wasn't so much fun anymore, as I said. So I moved out of there. But it was really, really so worthwhile and so energetic. And the people there were really, really dedicated to what they were doing. So it was a lot of fun. Do you continue to teach or have you let Edgar? Do you still teach? I do, but in a different way. I'm having new cards made. And my daughter told me on the back it's going to be food philanthropist. And one of the things that I'm very involved with now is, I must tell you also that Sharon Goldstein and I started something called Food Plus Fit Equals Fun.
And it was kind of an outcrop of something I'd done which was with the Chef's Association called Operation Frontline. And what we did for Operation Frontline was we'd go into a school and we would talk about how to eat healthy because many of the immigrants had no clue what to buy and because they came from Mexico and they headed straight for McDonald's or one of those places. So we started the program because I complained so much about Operation Flunkline because it was a very short program and I didn feel that the participants got enough out of it So Sharon and I started it, and she interjected the idea of having exercise as well, which we did.
And we did it, it's a year-long program, and it was very successful. We managed to get a grant from General Mills, and National Council of Jewish Women supported us very well. And we did it for a number of years and then have handed it on to the Dallas Independent School District, which has now taken it and is using the BASIC program. And out of that came the second thing, which is what I'm doing now. the JFS food bank asked me if I would develop recipes using the stuff that is in the food bank well if you've ever been to a food bank you know what's in the food bank it's nothing but cans and dried goods and very little fresh and it's not really palatable so having never learned to say no I said yes and I developed recipes using what was in the pantry.
And when I had a recipe ready to go, I'd come down and on a day when the pantry was open and all the clients were sitting around in the waiting room, I'd bring in samples and ask them what they thought. And over the time, we got feedback and we developed more recipes and eventually we decided to start a book. We did a little booklet. and we eventually called it Can Do, the Can Do booklet. And it's still going strong. We've got now edition number two that we're just finishing. And then I stole the idea from the high school kids who came to help in the pantry because they did photographs and all that kind of thing.
They had a project at Richeson High, I think it was. So we took the book and we got Bernie to do the photographs. I made the dish and the recipe and we put the cans so that when you open the page, the client could see exactly what they needed to make that, what it would look like and what the recipe was. And then out of that has come the next project which is the Hunger Project, which we're doing in collaboration with the Baylor Hunger Project. city and that is we're trying to reach the elderly who are at risk for food. We started with East Dallas and we're using the Can Do booklet plus information on the SNAP program which as you know is the food stamp program and also what the elderly can get for other things like they can go to the food bank, they can have meals on wheels.
there's so many things that they can access but they either don't know about it or they're too ashamed to so we're busy working on that we make presentations with various centres where they gather the elderly together and we explain everything to them and then get them to sign up for SNAP and give them the book and try to help them eat better it's more of a healthy living so that's what I'm doing now that's great so Passover is coming next week Do you celebrate Passover or any of the other traditions that you've got? Not really. Kind of, it's very, you know, here my Christian friends have asked me to do Passover.
It's going to be very interesting. It's going to be a ten-minute Seder, I can tell you. Okay. It's, you know, it's, you don't want to weigh them down with all the plagues. No, I mean, we don't really, I don't really, we don't have some Hanukkah at all because we do. I don't know if you did, but we never had Hanukkah in South Africa. And, you know, we observed it right until I moved up here. I'm in the middle of, I'm the early Jewish Democrat in this town. Tell us about your children. Where are they? My son lives right next to me. He lives in the house next to me.
He's the one who found this house. and so he married to a very nice girl and he has two children from a previous marriage who are living in Austin One is going to the University of Texas in Lubbock And my son manages my business, my business. And my daughter is a lawyer and she lives in New York. Where did they go to high school in Dallas? Richardson High. Richardson High. Do you still have any family left in South Africa? No. I just have my oldest friend who I've been friends with for 70 years. That's all. Take that back. My husband's family is still in Johannesburg.
And I saw them recently, but we don't really keep in touch. Is there anything you miss about South African life? I didn't think I did until I went back this last time. And I realized that I grew up in a city that was extremely cultured and diverse, as opposed to some of the other cities in South Africa. And I think that the thing that was brought home to New West was the beauty of the Cape. And the fact that some of my husband's ashes are scattered on the farm. Was that the first time that you'd been back in a long time? No. When my parents were living, we went to South Africa, all of us, on a regular schedule.
I went at least once a year. When my dad was ill for 18 months, I went eight times. So we all did what we call the Cape Town Shuttle. Are you an American citizen? Oh, yes. And how long ago did you take out your citizenship exactly 10 years after we arrived And do you participate in the political process I heard you say you a Democrat On a... when I'm not mad with them, I do. So overall, are you pleased that you came to Dallas? And do you feel... Yes, I think it was a good move. I think it was a good move. Is there anything else that maybe are permitted that you could tell us about?
Oh, well, there's so many things, but, you know, it's very nice that I have family here. I think that makes a big difference. I have another sister in New York, so, and a brother in Portland, and another brother in France. But we're a very close family, and I think that makes a big difference. How do you keep in touch? We keep in touch usually on email or in phone calls. My two sisters who live here, we see each other fairly frequently. And then my other sister in New York, I see her quite often too because I go up to New York before she comes here.
Does she live in the city? She lives in Port Washington. Well, thank you very much. That was really great. Good. And we appreciate you doing this for us. I won't say it was my pleasure, but I agreed to do it for you, Hedley. I know, and I appreciate it. Kari, we're going to do a little tour of some of the articles that you brought with you from South Africa. And you can give us a little story about each of them if you wouldn't mind. Okay, well, this one has followed me from England to South Africa, to Santa Barbara, to here. And it quite a feat to transport a 6 piano It was built in 1903 and was delivered to a professor in Berlin in 1903 My father found it in London when there was a direct hit on one of the storehouses.
And the subsequent owner had gone to America. so Dad bought the piano. And after that, it was mine. And I have played it off and on for all these years. So it is a Beckstein, and it is, as I said, according to my piano tuner, it has a song. Let me just... Beckstein. Yeah. And behind me... And this was in my parents' house when I was born, in Wembley. What's the history of it? I take it's an English antique. It is an English antique. And it is, as I said, I was the one who got it. As I said, I'm just surrounded by the things that I grew up with.
And then the writing table. Oh, and that over there was my mother's desk also. It was my mother's desk over there. Do you want the light on? I think we're okay. Also from England, I take. Thank you.