Madelyn Schepps
Madelyn was born in Dallas in 1935, with early memories of Winnetka-area streets and the family dog. Her maternal grandfather, Sam, a tailor from Poland, was a warm presence in her life and a fan of watching televised wrestling with her. Her father, Henry Cohen, came from Minneapolis, Minnesota, to Texas around 1926 at the urging of his boyhood friend to work in the cap-making business as a cutter. Her parents met through her mother's brother, who worked in the same factory. Madelyn grew up with brothers Bernard, Martin, and Melvin.
She attended Colonial Hill School and Forest Avenue High School, graduating around 1952, in a neighborhood then full of Jewish families along streets such as Colonial Avenue and near Fair Park. After high school she worked briefly for the Royal typewriter company, delivering typewriter ribbons, and then for a downtown Dallas dress shop. In 1953 she married Stanley Schepps, whom she had known since childhood through her brother and family connections. The couple settled in Dallas, where Stanley worked in his father's business, Schepps grocery supply, a well-known company in the area.
The family suffered tragedy when Stanley, an eager pilot in a hurry to get home, died in a plane crash near Austin at age 44, after nearly 21 years of marriage. Their oldest son, Gary, left Texas A&M to take over the business for about ten years before becoming a lawyer; the younger children, including Ben, attended Akiba Academy, and daughters Fonda and Debbie went on to college and nursing. Madelyn was active at Shearith Israel, serving in the Sisterhood and helping prepare after-service refreshments. She vividly recalled the day of President Kennedy's assassination, when she nearly went downtown to see the parade but changed her mind.
She has two grandchildren.
Full Transcript
Madeline 1935 Dallas Texas yes let's go back what do you remember when you're just a little girl I have a slight memory of living on wind open street and having a dog that's about four years old yeah yeah do you remember your grandparents at all yes my grandfather Sam Chris tell me about him he was a wonderful guy he was a tailor he came from Poland and he was just a good grandfather did he ever tell you about the journey he made from Poland when it was no no he may have but I know I have no memory of it yeah you remember your grandmother
at all no she passed away when I was like two years old okay what about your grandparents on the other side no I met my father's father once my father was from Minneapolis Minnesota and his name was Henry Cohen I'm trying to think if he had a Hebrew name my youngest son was named after his other son my daddy's brother Ben do you know what brought them down from Minneapolis yes my father's friend al sweet they were boyhood friends and my father left Minnesota cause it was too cold he went to Florida al sweet called him and said come to Texas he needed him in
the business they were made caps my father was a cutter and where was this about 1926 okay okay now was he married to your mom yet no okay what did your folks meet my uncle my mother's brother Harry Chris worked for Al sweet in the factory and he told my mother say there's a good-looking guy came to town and I think they saw each other on the bus you know Dallas was small-town yeah and then I don't know the exact meaning but it happened yeah what'd you do for fun as a little girl not much just play outside played with the neighbor kids hop scotch
chalk on the sidewalk and the street hide-and-go-seek and that was about it little simpler time yes now you had two brothers yes Martin Melvin yes were you the oldest no they Bernard was the oldest and Melvin the youngest okay so did you take advantage of that at all no not too much where did you go to elementary school colonial Hill school yeah yeah you remember anything about school back then school it was a great school I passed by recently and they've torn it down and completely rebuilt some little school it was a big impressive two-story very very nice building I don't know why they tore
it down and it was on I think it was on Pennsylvania and Peabody it was right in the heart of the Jewish community at that time when Del Caen was a street with a lot of Jewish families and the Main Street was colonial Avenue and it was from Forest Avenue was a big cross street which led to Fair Park and when you've got on Colonial you went Pennsylvania Peabody no Peabody Pennsylvania then I lived on a street called Panama and it was only a small 1 block street between colonial and home street and rabbi Brahm woods live further down on Colonial and a lot of
families further down further south right right now when you were a little girl about six years old maybe world war ii broke out do you remember any of that should it affect your family at all well I remember my they didn't have a car during the war and I remember my mother wore like tie up shoes as she could walk to the grocery store and that was about it that of it that I can remember I remember when they announced Franklin Roosevelt passed away that was a sad sad day everybody was crying and your folks talked about that at all no not that I can
recall yeah yeah talk to me about high school where'd you go to high school Forest Avenue high school it was a it was on Forest Avenue East 2nd Avenue and it was near Fair Park and in those years Fair Park when they had the fair two weeks the high school was only allowed to go what they gave free tickets they were allowed to go on the last Friday of the two weeks Elementary went on the first Friday and we'd sit in class and we could hear all the doings and goings-on at the fair and we were all excited and they used to give us bus
tickets to ride the bus there's three car and we just had you know good time about your mom my mom she was wonderful she was born in Dallas and she did everything among she was president of the PTA at Forest High School and she just took good care of her children yeah she was great mother what was it that you did that you would just die if your pants ever found out I was once at a party and I don't know exactly what and there was a Country Club at the corner of Hillcrest and forest lane and after the party a bunch of us went
jumped in over the fence and went swimming in the swimming pool that was my big secret did they ever find out no and when it wasn't anything bad okay I was you know I was just gonna have you expound on them no Pam no one maybe yeah okay all right what were the things in high school that you guys talked about or did you know what was high school life like you know back in the 40s well the music you listen to who were the band's you liked you know I I just can't tell all the things when I was in high school from 49
to 52 and then they had the hit parade on TV you know TV came in around 49 48 you remember getting that first TV yes Hoffman easy vision TV that I can remember oh yeah I was a big deal we didn't have one right away my my Uncle Harry Chris had one and we'd go over there when it was time to look at TV first it was always a clock on the TV till it didn't run all day like it does now day and I just came on like a seven o'clock and we sit there and wait for this program to come on but at
home when we got our TV my grandfather was a fan of wrestling and he and I would watch the wrestling matches gorgeous gorge and that was no bro oh yes yes yeah you know now all those shows great now after high school was it unto college or to work to work what did you do I worked for royal typewriter company I was the Roy type girl when everybody anyone needed a tape they call me and I'd send them over tapes for their typewriters now did you ever think that typewriters would become obsolete no never did yeah yeah how many years did you work for them
oh maybe one okay then I went to work for a a dress company of yeah a fashion company of dress shop in downtown Dallas across from teaches I can't even tell you the name of it anymore what did you meet Stanley Stanley it used to come to my house to visit my brother they went to Hebrew school together and for me my mother and knew the family my mother's aunt mrs. Orville with's lived next door to the Friedman's and the Friedman's or Stanley's grandparents so you know the small town we just knew each other and what did you start dating he took me to a movie when I was about 12 and what did you guys get married 1953 1953 and then what did you settle that where did you settle down we're here in Dallas in an apartment on Central Expressway he worked for his father chefs grocery supply and them life you know was simple yeah he worked every day late loading trucks and seeing everything got sent out tell me a little bit about that family
business because it was a pretty well known business in the area yes the first that I can remember they were on the corner of hmm Pocahontas which was also the street that the center was on so sometimes I'd walk over there and take a peek to see if he was there he was in school mostly for years at Texas A&M so that was it was a very nice big building and they tore it down for the big freeway that goes through there 30 Stanley no had died in a plane crash yes tell us about that well he was always in a hurry hurry hurry to
get home and he didn't like waiting in the airport for other flights so he bought a plane and had a pilot teacher work with any hired a pilot who was also our computer man who had been a jet pilot in the service and they taught him or how to use a two engine little single plane I mean he knew what to do as far as I know and somehow or other he messes up as for I don't know if they ran out of gas which I don't think so her he didn't know how to change from one tank to another anyway they they crashed and
Austin and where was he coming from from Dallas one morning yeah he oh he was it was on his way to work to Austin to pick up a friend that was in similar business he was kind of teaching him how to about the business yeah and they were going to San Antone yeah yeah how old was he at the time 44 44 how long had you guys been married so close to 21 years did it take a while for your kids to recover yes it did my baby Ben was about eight Gary was in college at Texas A&M he was just had gotten his senior
boots we had been to the school in the spring when they it's a big ceremony when a junior gets their senior boots he wore the boots the one day that he received him at the parade and the and the crash was in I think that was in June and the crash was in August so he came home and he never a didn't go back to school he took came took over the business and what about your daughter's fonda she was at Texas she had just moved from Oklahoma University of Oklahoma to Texas she she continued in Texas and my younger Debbie and Ben went to
Akiba Academy and the rabbi's and teachers there you know to help them through yeah help them to yeah I mean if your involvement with the Jewish community in Dallas sheriff Israel I was in member The Sisterhood my mother-in-law made me a life member and a friend of mine Sondra Pincus Sondra Marx Pincus and I we used to on Friday they always had to have after services coffee and a snack you know so we would pick up the bakery goods and distributed him out and set the tables and that was mostly what I did compared when you are a little kids who when you're being raised
when your kids were little being raised well where their differences was a similar to the same well I always walk to Kenan to the school they had to be driven no not really made me to high school but they wrote a bus to elementary school until we moved around the corner from the school George Biddy Leon Royal Lane and we lived on East View circle and then they walked themselves and by that time the oldest one drove he could tinker Drive my father-in-law had passed away so my husband got him a car so he could stay with Grandma Shep's continued at high school now you
mentioned when you were young your family did not have a car do you remember when you've got two your car Mamie and if 40 it may be 45 46 yeah something I got a big occasion yeah was really anything it was nice yeah yeah yeah was there an invention in your lifetime that came along that just went Wow how did I get along without that well so far it's the fall and TV and it's just there's just so many things my mother-in-law she would reminisce they had a horse and wagon her father had a produce company just things evolved and yeah now I just want
to go back to chefs that your kids continue on with it for a while to the business oh yes about ten years my son was there then he decided to go back to school and he's the lawyer now and Ben went to A&M and graduated fonda graduated Texas and Debbie went to Texas and I Karim her if she graduates X she graduated she went to nursing school and graduated at North Texas yeah how many how many granges you have to any great grandkids yeah no chance okay so the two grandkids now in your lifetime you go through so many remarkable occasions some good some not
so good of course the world war two as a child the Vietnam era President and the assassination something good the moon landing in 69 for the first time tragedy of course of 9/11 was there something that on the national scene that really stood out that you're going know exactly where I was the day that happened well I did now I do know where I was with John Kennedy's death I was in my car I started to go down and see the parade and then I changed my mind I had to go play cards and it was rainy that morning so I changed my mind but
my father was there on the corner my father worked very near there and I don't think he saw the actual thing before he before they turned the corner right and he was back in the factory I think but when he heard but that that's a very real memory that I that particular day huge family had the four children and you have two grandchildren mm-hmm what advice does grandma have for the next generation not much they do their own thing they they do everything they want they are both living in Washington DC and loving it they just move there this past year and their mother sees
to them and Fonda she's back and forth thanks for doing this today did a great shot you