Marian Magilow
Marian Magilow was born in Kansas City, Missouri, on East 29th Street, the middle child of three. Her parents both came from Poland, her mother arriving at age 13 and her father at 17. Her grandmother later came to America and lived with one of her mother's sisters in Kansas City, and Marian recalled her in a sheitel and long dresses. Visiting her cousin Jean, whose family ran several bakeries, Marian picked up a good deal of Yiddish. Her father traveled to small towns buying end-of-season merchandise, and her mother eventually opened her own shop, saving enough to buy a home. Marian and her sister Francis worked in the store as young girls. Marian loved dramatics and appeared in many school plays, and she married before she was 19.
Marian met her husband, Allen, at the Jewish Community Center in Kansas City, and they dated for over two years before marrying. The family moved to Dallas after her brother-in-law Irving asked for help when Francis became seriously ill with nephritis. Marian took charge of all seven children, hers and her sister's, while Francis was confined to bed. Allen went into the jewelry business with Irving, and their store grew to include downtown and Northwest Highway locations. Marian's parents and much extended family, including the Eisenbergs, also settled in Dallas. She and Allen raised their children in a home on Jan Mar in the Melon Hills area, where they lived for some fifty years.
Marian and her family joined Congregation Shearith Israel, where she remained a member for more than sixty years, and she was active in Pioneer Women and at the Jewish Community Center. She spoke with great pride of her children: Mark, a gifted musician who attended Princeton and Harvard Law School and became a successful lawyer; Michelle, a college professor married to Richard; and Beverly, a teacher and department head. Marian cared for Allen for fourteen years after a series of strokes, and later for Mark through a liver transplant, heart surgery, and leukemia before he died. After living alone for ten years, she moved to a senior community where cousins and longtime friends also lived, and she said she had been very happy there.
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Full Transcript
okay my name is Mary and Magdalo today is February the 14th Valentine's Day be good okay Marian tell me a little bit about your family your parents and your grandparents if you knew them well my parents were both from Poland mama came over when she was 13 and daddy was 17 my grandmother came over I never saw my grandfather except I had a pictionary my grandmother came over and lived was one of my mother's sisters in Kansas City and you know she was just more sheitel and long dresses and we thought she was very very old and actually she Muslim family and she lived was
my aunt's I who left their family had several bakeries and my cousin Jean was one of the girls at Jean and I were a year apart so I very often spent a weekend with Jean and I picked up a lot of Yiddish my folks did some you this but not as much as my you couldn't you had speaking Yiddish taboo because she didn't understand it so when I learned the lobby either's just staying with mu be so weird what city did you grow up in I was born in Kansas City Missouri at 2909 he's 29th Street and and so was my sister and so was
my brother and I'm the middle child which is wonderful of course and I lived there I went to grade school and high school there and I got married before I was 19 and I did not go to college my folks never even asked me because they could afford it and I was trying to good students I was always the tallest the youngest in the class I was 5 foot 5 one time but I was usually the youngest one what did your dad do for a living well they had a little store and my dad traveled and he'd go to places in small towns and he
bought up everything at the end of the season dress shops children's shops and he'd bring it to Kansas City and he would sell it to his friends that had shops so mommy said then one day you're selling it to cheap we're going to have a shop and I'm going to take part of the merchandise and we're going to have a shop and we'll make more money back way so mama opened a shop in a Negro neighborhood in Kansas City and by the time I was 12 13 Francis and I Francis was older than me we were already working at the store to help out and
so and mama did pretty good she saved enough to buy a house she stole money for herself you know business was good and so she had a poppet mm-hmm and she ended up buying a very nice house and in those days $3,500 and she bought it from certain people who had a big fast e business and they wanted a nicer home and we had a beautiful house it had a paved back yard with a built-in barbecue and we had a Sun porch upstairs you know and and a beautiful front porch and a nice neighborhood and that's when I went to high school from there and
we ended up and before that we were just renting usually but mama saved enough money to buy a house or down panga I don't know I don't remember so you went to work at a young age what did you do for fun what did you do for amusement besides working in the shop I was at school I was into dramatics and I was in a lot of plays at school and stuff like that and but I couldn't go on I mean they never thought to even send me anywhere and they wanted to send Francis off to some kind of a school to be a secretary
or something and she went for a while and then I got married before Francis was a real Shanda so but it works out right so when did you how did you come to Dallas you were married and it was hard Amiga mm-hmm well Francis married Irving Gonski and they started a little tutoring business and my husband was working for health groups in Kansas City and then we got transferred to Wichita isn't that but he also was in the drilling business well we were in Amarillo and earth we called and he said Francis is real sick she's got enough rest my sister he says and I
need help in the business it's going very well but I can't do it alone my husband was in the jewelry business he says I would like for you and Marian to come to move here and Mary couldn't help Francis Francis had four little kids so we packed up and we moved here and I helped Francis I took all seven my three and her four I took him to the doctor's I bought clothes I bought shoes I helped Francis she had a girl in the house that you know did some of the work but Francis was confined to bed I don't know how many months she
could not get out of it so Alan started working in with Ervin in one room and then they decided it wasn't down on the st. Paul and commerce but I block down from Neiman's they build a real nice place and and I would work for on the holidays you know any holiday I would get someone to stay with the kids and I would help at the store and then Francis got better thank God she had nephritis and they didn't know how she was going to do she was confined to bed so I mean that urban rented us an apartment you know I didn't even see it till we got here so you came sight unseen and helped your family out well yeah it all works out very well huh when you
got here did you join anything right away a synagogue or any organization there's a little tip I think we joined sure those were ok when the duplicates are ready you know I started Hebrew school and all that see when I moved here Beverly had her first birthday here that's my baby Michelle was 5 and Marc was 7 so I thought you know Marc had to go to Hebrew school on Sunday school and all that stuff so we joined so I've been a member to Sheriff's Israel 60 some years were they in the where they are now the building are oh they were downtown still now
I had the last farm is foot and south bath so now he and Michael that's Marilyn's Burroughs brother that's a doctor for six months difference in age and they were very close and Michael had one of the first apartments was in the new building a Mark had the last one in South Paris yeah very good did your parents where were your parents at this time what was happening with them well they moved here after I moved here because Francis was there my brother was there everybody was there so my folks moved here okay and how did they settle in how do you think they reacted
to it all very well because you see we had family here the pastor she confessed langoustine entranc a company that was family and all dervin's family and the Eisenberg's all moved here and that was my mother's sister she had six kids and so we had family here and mama daddy had a bad heart and they were staying with Francis quite a bit so they decided buy a house and they bought a house Francis was in University Park on Colgate and they bought a house two blocks from Francis and I then I was looking for a house also and there was a house divided across from
Francis in University Park but it was three bedrooms and one bathroom no den so I found the house just had gone up in Mallen Hills that was three bedrooms a bath and a half and again for the same money as the one in University Park and I thought well I don't have to live across the street from Francis I prefer to have a dam I prefer to have an extra half bath with and two blocks from the school so we bought that house what's good weird we vowed to foster seasons even if foster I mean I wasn't we Midway and Marsh mm-hmm and then this
lovely family moved in one girl for me with three boys I don't like you know the smalls Helen yeah the Yellin Joe well they moved in one door for me and Helen I started carpooling together and worked I mean Helen was there for my birthday party and I was I go she's a year older than I am and you should hear what she does on Monday she took wheels on widows Meals on Wheels and Tuesday she goes to the college you know and works and you can't believe her so we're still friends that's great what did you find yourself getting busy with besides the kids
anything finding any interesting activities you know I was called the story anytime they were busy I had to get someone to stay with I had to work the month of crit after Thanksgiving I work Mother's Day Father's States they would call me to the store and my husband was doing a lot of most of the buying your store so where did they move to after the downtown location well they stayed in the downtown location and they built on Northwest Highway the big the real big one that Half Price Books is Frank Sterling's yeah so but they had both stores for a while and had a
store on Arlington for a while but it didn't go over real good and that one night we had three stores and my husband was buying for some of the his brothers stores like the Houston and all and he did a lot of buying for the stores now back up for just a minute and tell me where did you meet your husband at the Jewish Community Center and he thought I was older than I was because look at me at 16 big picture 19 yes I did not look 16 at all so we started dating and he goes home and he tells his brother who went
to high school with me and I didn't even know his brother was Jewish the name was Michael oh and he was a little short blonde fella you know and he goes so many times Melvin that he was dating Miriam Cohen and Melvin looks at him and he says you can do better than that so mother never lived it down and I was crazy about knowing he never lived it down you can do better than that and something so Allen thought I was over than I was he was seven years old than me but I was surely I was mature and I've been working and so
we went together for over two years before we got married mom and daddy not like it at all I was too young and prices were engaged and all that stuff you know 19's pretty young but I guess back then it was 90 yes all right no I mean when you finally got married yeah so where are your children and grandchildren now well Beverly is here that's my baby she teaches him JJ Pierce it's all four years in Latin and it's also head of the foreign language Department and she's got three children and they're all three here David is in the construction business she's remodeled kitchens
in the bathrooms and he's busy Ricky does in the engineer he graduated Washington st. Louis number one in his class and Frankie is there and she's a little she hadn't found herself yet and you know I had ruined my son's two boys are here no just Andrew these and something in computers I don't know what Daniel is a Knoxville Tennesse teaching he's a college professor Michelle is married to Richard they live in Kentucky and they have a condo in Washington DC richard has a PhD in English and they've done Richard goes to Bulgaria to teach he goes up in Ukraine to teach he does a lot of that he gets scholarships of some certainty that I don't know what I
don't and they do a lot of traveling Michelle taught at the junior college in Kentucky also and so they're both pre college professors mark mark was mark mark was very smart he went to Thomas Jefferson and we've got the house um in on Jan Mar so the girls went to school here mark was a big man on campus it was into everything a real smart and I went to the principal he said mark could stay at Thomas Jefferson so mark when he was nine years old comes to me and he said we're gonna have a bad day of school I'm gonna be in it that's
what he gonna play I'll tell you tomorrow tomorrow I think I'll play the saxophone so I called Brooke Mays to rent him a saxophone so we rent the saxophone for six months and they call me that I want to read it rent it and well d'marco wanted that he speed up so at that time I don't know I paid $50 or something and I bought him a saxophone and I never saw him again all he did was play the saxophone and play the saxophone as soon as he thought it was better than the teacher he'd go find himself another teacher that he thought was better
he did it all on his own when Mark was 15 or sick this is starting mark the mark was 15 or 16 he's decided he's gonna have a dance band so the contact that he was in a CA but not very active he contacted aza and vbg attack any time they had it that axe they hired mark for him and he got a hundred dollars for the forum he got fifty and the other three got the other fifty so by the time Mark was 16 I didn't give him any money he was making his own so that it's time for college and he applied at
Harvard and Yale and Princeton you know real fancy schools and everybody told him it was a lost cause you'll never make it well he got except at Rice and I wanna go to rice because at that time it was no tuition if she got accepted he decided he'd rather go to Princeton so mark went to Princeton and he was in the music real big and he wanted to be a musician but he decided he could make more money if he was a lawyer so he left the Harvard Law School and he came back here and he was a lawyer and he did very very well
and then Mark delivered had a liver problem I had to have a liver transplant and after the liver transplant this is when he's grown already divorced with two little boys had a liver transplant then he had open heart surgery Michael domsky convinced him all four of those blocks and then he went into leukemia and this is my bringin boy well he died seven years ago I'm so sorry they said that a bone marrow transplant would help and they wanted his boys did not meet the criteria there's 12 points you have to have six Beverly did not meet it Michelle had all 12 that's the older
girl that was two years younger than him at all 12 points so they thought we got it made Michelle was Europe someplace you know with her husband and so she flew back and they did the bone marrow transplant less than three months leukemia came back let me ask you what was Dallas like when you first moved here a little bit compared to how it is now well he'll press haven't even finished you know when I lived on Jan Mar for 50 years Hillcrest wasn't even finished the expressway wasn't even finished but I mostly know I was taking the kids to school the show's taking dancing
lessons mark took care of himself of his music I didn't have to worry about him and Beverly was the baby does they say I spoiled and I was busy with the kids and carpooling all the time I'm like I said working in between them down at the store when they needed me and I did join him Sheriff says Sorrell I joined was a pioneer women in those days I don't know we went to Israel with them I mean I joined a few things Allen was to be working to join anything and he wanted to go fishing anyway so he went fishing but we had nice
friends there Helen out some of our best friends you know they'd been to one door from us and the Gladers earth was in the manufacturing business Irvin and Josephine later I won't you ever do that again well they were real good friends of ours and we hadn't yet this group that we kind of ran together with and and it was nice wasn't much easier to get around the city back then I have no sense of direction my two girls are wonderful my genius boy Mark was like me he didn't have very good sense into him what are you the most proud of your grandchildren you
can tell about but also you yourself personally that you've done here that you accomplished just my kids I never had a problem if they weren't perfect but I live everybody thinks they were my kids never were in the dope they were never smoking they would didn't run with the wrong crowd my kids were my pride and joy that was really do you think that they had a sense that they belonged here that that this was the right home for them the right place to grow up well they did very well any mark right away he bought a place down in Cedar Creek Lake you know
and he gave Beverly the keys because she had three kids and he said he said he couldn't have done it without Beverly she took care of everything and and and he was starting at being bad health you know no they all loved it there they all loved it here and and Michele married the boy that lived down the street on high growth it was our Paperboy I knew his father I knew his mother I knew his brothers you know and so she married him rush dated even she was 15 or 16 she didn't like him so when they went off to school Austin you know
one of the girls says I'm going out with Richard free tonight she's telling below so if she tells him love so he calls me show up and that was over then they were back together again some Richard when they got engaged was in law school he hated it submerged had dropped out of law school and went back got a PhD in English so they lived in Austin for years you know to get a PhD and and he was doing what he liked that's good so my kids liked it here or so Michelle could have gone to a better school but I couldn't send her with
Mark in Princeton and Harvard I could not afford to have two in a cup someone shall stay in Austin but she was with John sorority she was real active and very popular and she did fine then it's time to go for Beverly to go off to college and she was five years younger than yourself so she said to me what are you gonna do with all your money I just are you kidding me so Beverly went to Austin for one year and got in sorority and hated it she says this is not for me so she transferred to Washington in st. Louis and she graduate and loved it and she graduated there so I had chips going to school all over when did you make your decision to move up here to the leg as well my husband died and I had this great big house songs on our four bedrooms four baths it's almost three-quarters of an acre and a big dollar well Alan passed away he had a bunch of strokes he was in a wheelchair 14 years and I had to take care of I mean I had help you know I had someone come in to bathe him and dress him every other day and had a
girl come in to help me in the house you know once or twice but I was responsible for him and he was he weighed 220 he was a big man and I took care of him 14 years I had to take care of him and then Mark got sick Lamarque was divorced had and his wife said you're more capable of racing them than I am two and three years old so she what Mark Grace the kids so any of course then the boys are older when Mark got real City any time he got sick he came stay with me and I took care of mark
and Alan and Mark brought his dog so I was busy I was and I had to sweat mark down there from Jan Mar down to Baylor house well he lived in Highland Park so and he worked downtown so I used to have to select mark down for when he started with the chemo with the blood transfusions I was busy taking mark down to the house sir four days a week I was busy they're lucky they had you well I did what I thought I had to do I did what I could I mean it Beverly himself helped as much as they could when they were
here Marc's voice were wonderful I mean when Mark couldn't do anything David you know was driving already that's Beverly solos I mean everybody tried to help everybody so how long how many years ago did you sell your home just before I moved here I gave it to Maryland and Sandy in there sold it real I could have held out for more money because it was a prime prime location I just wanted to get ahead for offers and we sold it in six weeks I had four offers nine it was a prime primary location and the big lock and this what second serious doctor's name dad
bought it I don't want them as a young Jewish doctor they wanted a place to think I'd have a pool and I had something I was there by myself for ten years after Alan died you stayed there for that any regrets at all about coming here I'm moving down here no mark was still well enough we went he took me to the eggs where I didn't walk it he he didn't like it either thought it's too formal illiteracy places and then my cousin's I'd let you know the lit was mm-hmm okay you know what buddy's my husband's cousin Martin they looked every place in town
so Martin says to me you go to the legacy you don't look around they'd already signed up for the villa you know so we came over looked at the plans it was important but I didn't have sense enough to put down $100 you know so we came over and looked at the plans and Mark liked it the two girls liked it and I decided I was going to move here so I told the kids and they said mother we're not talk you into it because I've always been real good house and I was at the Jewish Community Center every day and I was relaxed if
I was into everything better and I wasn't down there and so I thought well the house is 50 years old and a wonderful house we never had a problem I might as well sell it bollocks in a good condition and well I can move easily I'm in good health and I won't have a problem so the kept sir are you sure you want to do this we're not talking you into it I said no I want to do it so when it was finished I moved in about a month after they finished it there and I you know I've sold my house and I told
the kids that take whatever furniture they wanted and I took what I needed for hair I didn't buy anything I just brought furniture this is my entry hall feast you know I just brought my stuff from my apartment my house and I moved here and then I had the reason bug moved there after I did and his sister Sarah is a good friend of mine Sarah shipper mm-hmm and then I talked to Maura Ryan right off to move here Devorah and out tops some summer Rae field and a move in here I mean I plant in my cousin Marion who has Parkinson's Maria Eisenberg lives
around the corner from me I mean I've got more family here than anybody because don't think it was a good move so a good thing to do and I've been happy my Markson you have to be near the elevator and I said why he says mom you're in good shape now I said that when you get older you're not gonna walk clear down the hall so I didn't want a 17-foot kitchen not gonna sit I got the big kitchen but I like the kitchen in the back kind of like so I've been drip happy look good I've been real happy as my head much like
I say everybody's close but I've got a lot of family around well thank you so much for doing this with me it's been a pleasure did you