Lloyd Kronick
Lloyd Kronick was born in 1917 in Sioux City, Iowa, the youngest of five children. He remembered a happy childhood shaped by a lively family and a close-knit, Orthodox community. His father was a memorable figure, a self-described Jewish cowboy who broke wild horses professionally, was friendly with Buffalo Bill, and was known for his athletic feats. His mother worked hard running the family grocery store, and the children pitched in from a young age, especially during the hard years of the Depression. His maternal grandfather served as a shammes at the synagogue, and Lloyd recalled acting as the shabbos goy, lighting fires for his devout grandparents who lived nearby.
A talented athlete, Lloyd graduated high school in 1933 and attended Morningside College and the University of Nebraska. He played freshman baseball and football, breaking his leg in a game in Vermillion, South Dakota, and later trained briefly with the Cincinnati Reds before returning to school. He entered the Army and shipped out to Hawaii, arriving at Pearl Harbor a year to the day after the attack. He trained at Schofield Barracks, went to Officer Candidate School in Australia, and served with the infantry in New Guinea. After the war he came to Dallas, where he met Sarah through relatives, and the couple married on March 26, 1946.
In Dallas, Lloyd worked for Southern Blott Company in the farm equipment business for fourteen years, later working in Florida, for a steel company, and for many years at Dun and Bradstreet, where he was recognized as a top salesman. He was active in Masonry, the Junior Chamber of Commerce, scouting, and softball, and served as vice president of the Brotherhood at Temple Emanu-El. He and Sarah raised four children. After Sarah's death he married Miriam. He spoke movingly of losing his firstborn son, Joel, whom he called Linky, and of the joy of his children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. He emphasized respect as the value he most wished to pass on.
Full Transcript
19 17 Sioux City Iowa correct let's go back what do you remember when you're just a little guy I remember but almost five years old I was a youngest of five children and they always said I was spoiled and I probably was because I got my way but one of the things I remember very vividly was my sister Lucille who was 18 months my senior and she was taking responsibility for all the things that are did wrong I remember one year I threw a roll of toilet paper down the toilet and naturally the toilet got plugged up so the first thing i said was sealed
with it and she took the blame for me I remember my folks had a little grocery store we used to call pebble bills which is an advertisement for a little Orchestra we had a gross for right across street from the urban high school are over in the elementary school we used to work called petal bills that put us in a truck and drive around with these little pamphlets in the door so the people come and shop and I remember one year we got an inaudible accident and my sister will seal was in the back seat on the Trump of man back to our little trip
little pickle and she grabbed ahold of me made sure I didn't spin out look out of the truck but had a good good childhood my very fond of my dad he was an outstanding folk sportsman he's a cowboy leaving out a Jewish cowboy but he was very friendly with Buffalo Bill dan had a is only the Wild West Show they had with the call the wild horse races which we had a little park called river riverside park and dad used to put on his shoulder had booked one year he was riding wild horse the breaking ball horses what he did used to break wild horses
for his profession and then ship them up to the New York for pulling the case on strim world war one but dad was famous for one thing and he got there was three sterling silver Bibles and saddles that were given to the people of notary there one went to President Theodore Roosevelt Teddy Roosevelt one went to Buffalo Bill one went to Louie chronic and somehow I love it I think my dad will musta lost my pork they may love to play poker and the store was that he lost it the loss of gambling which he did no doubt but that was famous for his Indian
wrestling he was a great great athlete used to follow us kids around my brother Marty was a much better athlete in me he was about five year in my senior my brother saw was a brain he went to engineering just two brothers graduate college all college education and my mother was a hard worker she were used to run the grocery store we had a upstairs red kind of the basement of garage and pay the garage into a grocery store called hurting groceries right across street moving elementary school we had a little cigar store and was selling cigarettes to pack for quarter my little store downstairs
in the building that the vids Harrington who was then senator from Iowa and we used to sell cigarettes two packs for quarter and the only way we could sell them we had to put stamps on tape state tax state taxes owed a exhorbitant that you couldn't afford to waste the stamps so we lay them on the top of the cigarette and told the cigarette on the pound on the table or the desk world and he picked up cigarettes Lee the stamp sir we use them over again and then my dad was very very promotional in those days he had was called punch for punch board
for illegal but I used to get punch boards in that wild turkeys used to put in the window of his cigar store and have punch board I don't think my dad ever cheated anybody i probably lost one when they playing poker honestly than they did they play poker this play for days and days of the time winning me of called the bathroom I played poker my youth was really fascinating to me interesting and memorable do you remember your grandparents at all very well so my grandparents were my mother's father and mother and they lived about a block and a half more where we live and
I was what you called shabbos GUI I used to don their light the fire for a network or folks are very Orthodox my dad was my grandfather what's called a shamans new shul he professionally I was where he made his living he had a big family my mother my mother had like five or six brothers and two sons sister there was eight or nine up in the family but we're very close very close family my mother was a Cosford and some of the cost words have done very well what did your other grandfather do for a living my grandfather was like I say I don't
think he ever worked a day in his life his kids seemed to support him and my grandmother was a darling my grandfather reminded me so much of Warner Oland used to wear a hat like him one of the stories like to tell you about my Zeta is I used to those days they had liquor ration they had Lee liquor stores used to finance I got to go get my medicine everything with medicine but I remember he never smoked but used two stiffs enough and it was a bad habit now when you're a young boy the Depression hit did that affect your family the pressure was
was awful I remember I worked as a cough catting Sioux City Country Club and they could make a buck a day more that whatever dollar went them push get my mother used that to buy groceries she used to give me a dollar on Saturday I Gautama the grocery store by ten dozen eggs for one dollar 10 since it doesn't it we 8x8 age three times a day all those kids work my sisters both of them worked as young sure a woman became quite out same outstanding she was a she managed the Miss Universe pageant in Florida many many years ago and my other sister was
a humanish dress shop aims to please my brother saw went to work for swift and company and at that time he graduated college Engineering University of Iowa and he got ten thousand dollars of a year which was unheard of but solid got married murdered girl from Des Moines Iowa and big family where'd you go to high school I've graduated high school 1933 from simple hot plate footballer but I was never good only way to ball 125 pounds if that I tried I have enough basketball I was little in my brother Marty was he was a big strong healthy guy he died before any of those
brothers sisters died my heart attack on the golf course still coaching by the way saawan in the engineering and became quite successful in business nowhere to go to college I went to Morningside in 36 and 37 stayed out in 38 to save up enough money I went back to Nebraska 39 40 and came back and 41 before the war's working from the south yeah sporting goods store used to pedal in the little towns in the brats and I went to braska now did you play sports in college had us a scholarship for what sport football but baseball was my sport so I played I played
one year of freshman baseball and then I played football and I got hurt broke a serious operation out searched office was for me them the team with the Rose Bowl 1940 I never played in it but I went to the game i sat on the bench but I I don't remember too much about other than we lost 21 to 14 the stance now but baseball you continue to play baseball I played baseball and I was scouted in omaha nebraska by Cincinnati Reds in the paper there the roof was responsible for that she had some always inside tracks with the sports announcers and so forth so
she was instrumental I guess helpful it's a getting me scouted there they offered forgot what it was but not much money but I did go up for spring training I never played in a immediately game but I did come back i'ma back to school now when you were having your child for Cincinnati he played against the about fella in Spring Training I gesture was exhibition and how'd you do against them I didn't do anything all just hear the ball hit the poison I look I know the ball went by me he was he was outstanding i mean people that they don't realize all that a
rapper drop a poet but you know how i learned to play baseball he's dead you should get him knocks you out in the pasture there and have it like a tire too hung up there any of the throat for that tire with his with his rocks yeah he was strong so when you did not make the final roster for professional baseball with that disappointing i would say so yeah so to football in when you broke your leg football my broken a leg it ended I broke that in a game of Vermillion south dakota did you ever want to be a sportscaster I worked for Bill
Stern actually didn't know meet McCann of beans but he broadcast in nebraska minnesota game at the university of nebraska-lincoln and I was a freshman at the time and there's big woman famous athlete that came down everyone from Minnesota and I've working on the press booth with Bill Stern at the Nebraska minnesota game because as spotter from Nebraska I could identify the players Saturn try to feed him the things to say of the people are names that would be interesting now after college did you go to work or was it my brother and during the summers he had this little Sporting Goods used to sell bowling
bowling equipment and athletic golf and so forth I worked for him until nineteen forty I came to hueco with my older brother Marty and I met a girl down there that I still talk to now she's only 90 years old married twice so there's and Houston but I I guess we fell in love back in those days and I was only in my 20 early 20s and we sort of us had a an agreement that the crewman fell through when i got the Hawaii I got a Dear John letter she got married oh wow and I did talk I did see her I came to
wake up when she married a fellow from the Army and I was visiting a my uncle when I got up a hospital like a night I was in hospital and longer texas farm in general hospital and i want to wake all the visit my uncle was on a 30 days sick leave and i went over to see her still some fire burning in her and when i got to dallas talking to a fellow her brother named Arnold will going through waco to visit my daughter I ain't a me in austin texas and we stopped in a call me up came over and had lunch together
and he met my second wife of married to Miriam at the time here's his sister let me call Mary Martha while you're here sighs well you know I'm married and so forth my very loyal my wife always had been but those are fun memories where did you meet you first buy better here and Dallas uncle was living in Sioux City his name of Mormon Harris his father his brother was an implement business here southern plot company was then an old established company and i came to dallas in 1945 and I met her through my her uncle in Sioux City just look up my niece when
you get to Dallas so I was still in uniform so she said let me come pick you up i'm at the railroad station here she's how will i know how much is an old gim uniform I was an officer then but I was kind of bashful about it i guess one incident about that that's not even worth mentioning because I've is my mother I want my uniform and I had like four stripes on their for overseas and we walked by an enlisted man he didn't salute me my mother courant say hey is such and such and making fun about it but those are those are
memorable years as most of my life has been and when did you and Sarah get married sarah fellas I got married March 26 1946 okay sometimes after the war oh yeah war was over 45 ok let's go back now a little bit of tell us about your service I went in the Army November 11th is inducted in fort crook Nebraska sent to Fort Leavenworth Kansas get my uniform and shops sent from Fort Leavenworth Kansas to Pittsfield California we got on a ship there and five days going to Hawaii Latin Pearl Harbor December 7th a year to the day I was bombed I spent the four
months basic training in schofield barracks which was in Hawaii right if you remember the pictures of Koli Koli pass that's where the Japs bombed Pearl Harbor back in 1941 I wasn't there at the time i was there a year after that but I met an old friend of mine from hastings nebraska what the high school went to college with him he was a fraternity brother his name was max pulse fell from Hawaii went to Australia in Australia we went to OCS in 1942-43 I landed them in 42 and in Australia see any combat saw combat and what most combat days thermistors what they were basically
it was going out and trying to rile out the Japs they were in you know there's little caves and so forth and there wasn't any real big skirmish other than the landings at finch haven which I didn't get involved with but we were in Finch Avenue landia New Guinea which will MacArthur's head clothes were in the landy and then from there I wanted to be act when I got my commission I got a seven day leave in Sydney Australia and went down there for Saturday's got my first plane ride north sea 47 and food back to Brisbane rockhampton actually just north of Brisbane and got
on a little tugboat took nap too as an officer in infantry up to be act now the war ends you come home you and Sarah get married we got married march in 1946 did you ever want to be a rabbi actually when I was 15 years old I want to reform temple rabbi theatre and Lewis who hybrid wild about him and I was about 15 16 years old my Louis was ahead of the temple that later here on New York hundred years old last time I saw him in sioux city in 1985 i went there for my 50th high school reunion which was two years
before that and Rabbi Lewis came to Sioux City he was old old established by by theater endless and actually its story was it that he wanted to adopt me and I remember I was so faithful to religion at the time that they gave me a little prayer book and honor perfect attendance attempt at Temple tell me about your involvement with the Jewish community here in Dallas well in Dallas I while I was working for southern blot company i went to masonry become a mason and i got active and junior chamber commerce i was instrumental in organum softball team i managed to softball team did you
get involved with the temple emanuel i was vice president of the Brotherhood in 1959 in that year would put on a production called middle of the night which I just saw on the television you know they were threatened marching Kim Novak and we put that on for several nights as a money raised at temple emanuel I was involved with scouting at the time my activity in the manual was very very amiable I guess good word to see but I I truly loved rabbi Klein Robert Lefkowitz was before him rabbi Oland was subsequent where did you settle down I went to work for southern blot company
her father as cleanup man and I learned the fire map on business I truly loved I was with them for fourteen years nineteen forty six to sixty and I should have stated that company it ended up like any old company went under but it was an old established company I remember some of the stories about they had horse-drawn equipment back in those days which called planters old silver Hill brought planner but the first experience I had in of any consequences i went to Statesville North Carolina and there we got one of the first automatic hay balers automatic tying he builders what's historical about that was
we were finishing our home early American furniture and I bubble in an old two cartons from cigarettes brought back my first heirloom which was a cobbler now and I brought that back on the plane with me to Dallas air and we kept that thing for a year year you and Sarah had four children so Sarah passed away she was a beautiful girl I had married above myself so to speak and then what did you get into when you left your I went to Florida 1960 and work my brother had a men's haberdashery star then I hated that I hated the commercial business and worked out
for a year or two used to come to Dallas frequently and then in nineteen late in 1960s I met a felony from tuthill steel company and Kankakee Illinois called me on the phone so I understand you like a job mice like it delightful to get out of this haberdashery store and I drove up a lil ol Volkswagen 1957 Volkswagen to Chicago in touch it was just outside of kankakee emmalin I work for tet Hill Street for one year I traveled all volkswagen from miami florida to amarillo texas selling what the steel company used to sell top manufacturers manufactured stop cutters which was then of in
its infancy and work for him for 11 months and never got a nickel but paid it paid me my salary but my commission was kept in the bands which I prefer to do and they went broke my never got his communication 11 months but telling my first and difficult experience I'd say as far as business concern and then what did you get into from there I went to work for dun & bradstreet I work for them from sometime in late 70s for about 20 years and by that time I was supposedly retired I was enemas late 60s but they kept me on for us with
top salesman United States for one year with dun & bradstreet my left him because he said the 70-year got to replace you so they gave a job to two people to take my job and he also met Miriam then I came to Sioux City to see my brother Saul and his wife Sylvia and her sister-in-law was married to a fella but I admit and she have a widow hereby name of Miriam Rosenthal and she fixed me up with Miriam and I fell into whether she absolutely we did get married for a year later we got married and 81 may of 81 and this was in
must have been in June of 1980 and Marin was a charming little gal in small town and she had had three children her husband died and I met her a year after he died I knew her husband before she did he was an aza which was an organization we both belong to that time in my high school days remarried 81 drove her car back from Sioux City to Florida and i work for Donna breasts at the time i worked on tilt must have been the mid 80s your lifetime there's been so many advancements in technology you've seen a lot is there something that came along
that you went Wow the first time I heard a jet plane I was overseas I think we thought the damn world come to an end number an incident back in 1927 I was ten years old and at that time we had no television we had no a lot of things we didn't have and someone said you know the lindbergh flew a single plane st. forever st. Louis from New York to Paris and we were amazed people says you know they'll close the patent office because any observer of invented as of 1927 is it's here to stay subsequently you know things change we got television the first television experience I had was my son was about two years old and we got a TV set in mind were just amazed at what the entire to that little interesting things we ask me about my grandparents but I had a little erector set that he made the crystal set that used to play video and I'd go there visit her and she wears this music coming
from and here's something out of a box so they were fascinated with radio as most people were with television young boy would lindbergh flew overseas which was amazing how was 69 landing on the moon I was in Florida at the time of course it my goes mind-boggling to think my god what's like on the moon and I remember seeing one incident were fellows at one step for man and one giant leap for mankind got one yep what was the happiest time in your life I guess my son was born I mean there's nothing is jubilant as seeing or something out of something you manufactured so
to speak of course when he died it was just the opposite 35 years ago there's nothing worse than burying your own child nothing I can't take anything that was more difficult to face here was a brilliant young man he really way bub yourself he went to school had one lung on one kidney when he died it cancer three different times how did that affect your daughter they still talk about and they still consider him as the oldest of the family's name was linky l and KY and I named him link after our football coach in Nebraska named Lincoln layman that's how far back the first
40 ever said as far as we remember he saw a picture their mother and me he said he used to say mommy Lincoln but Joel that was why it was and I went through a hold infantry with the name but Joel my children all call me but Jill my grandchildren call me ba-- Jill my great-grandson don't talk that's right now did that your son was your firstborn sons of my firstborn now you have four children trilla had two grandchildren and two great-grandchildren two great-grandsons my youngest daughter Wendy at the boy and a girl the boys the oldest he got married in 2006 I think I
move it up in 4 26 or 27 and his sister Kelly went to austin college up and Sherman Texas she's a teacher now she had a baby and she had her baby before my brother had one her brother's wife had their born in june of this year they're now in months a few months old I got to hold him on there just a few days old what advice this great grand Dadd want to leave to the kids believe that what someone elderly is telling you is from my own experience at least give them a consideration for for knowing something about life respect is a word
that I think is most important in addiction what thanks for doing this today you did a great job hope that it comes over