May Sebel
May Sebel was born in Dallas in May 1936 into a family with remarkably deep Texas roots. On her father's side, her grandfather came from Germany around 1870, lived for a time in Frankfort, Kentucky, then settled in Dallas, where this quiet and unassuming man helped establish Temple Emanu-El and was part of the Hebrew Benevolent Society. On her mother's side, the family traced back to a great-great-grandfather who came to Buffalo, Texas, from Utica, New York. Her mother's great-grandfather, Henry Ash, born in Prussia, was conscripted as a young man into the Confederate Army during the Civil War, went AWOL, and later became a prominent banker in Palestine, Texas.
May's maternal grandfather was a brilliant businessman who moved his family from Palestine to Dallas in 1929 when May's mother was sixteen. In Dallas he joined the Bourne Stuart company and later became a partner in Higginbotham Pearlstone Hardware, whose building still stands in the West End. He served on the board of the First National Bank, chaired its executive committee, and helped save businesses during the Depression. After the war he was named by President Roosevelt to head the Works Progress Administration in the area. He was also famous as one of America's biggest baseball fans, a close friend of Connie Mack who traveled and suited up with the Philadelphia Athletics, and knew many of the game's greats.
May grew up in University Park, walking to school and music lessons, and attended Highland Park High School, where she often chose to sit with non-Jewish friends to bridge divides. She attended college in Baltimore, married at the end of her sophomore year, and finished her degree at Northwestern while living in Chicago for five years. She returned to Dallas in 1962, later moving to San Diego for seventeen years, where she became deeply involved with Congregation Beth Israel and served on the building committee for its new campus near La Jolla. Back in Dallas since 2009, she served on the executive committee of the Dallas Jewish Historical Society, remained active at Temple Emanu-El, and volunteered with the homeless. Her watchword for her children was l'dor v'dor, from generation to generation.
Full Transcript
may 1936 dallas texas let's go back what do you remember when you're just a little girl in Dallas I remember Pearl Harbor I remember Pearl Harbor Day yeah yeah I my brother a blessed memory and I had gone to the movies at the village theater in Highland Park and our parents picked us up and had my paternal grandparents in the car and we were listening on the radio and I do remember that no team it was there some fear in the family can you sense your parents concern I don't recall that I think I thought there was a fight between cowboys and Indians family I
don't know the difference is but you remember that happening you do it was something big I was my birthday what your dad did for living my father worked for 48 years for Pollock paper corporation here in Dallas my mother was a homemaker and community volunteer now did the depression affect your folks at all you know not really yeah because your dad was working my dad was walking tell me about your grandparents well a very interesting history where my father's father came here and maybe eighteen seventy from Germany and he lived in Frankfort Kentucky for a while I think he had a cousin or brother there
and then he he came to Dallas he was a very quiet gentle unassuming man yet he was part of the group that helped get temple emanuel going he was part of the hebrew benevolent society here very simple man didn't believe in anything extravagant very quiet so that's my dad's side my mother's side they were a little bit more noticeable and so with the two sides coming like that it kind of shows i kind of unlike my mother's side my brother may he rest in peace was more like my bad side kind of quiet and unassuming and yet walking in the background now you're going back
a long way on your both sides your family is there any civil war connections in your family yes my mother's grandfather who was born in prussia was conscripted into the Confederate Army as a very young man he probably he didn't speak English at that time he probably didn't know what was happening you know they grabbed anybody they could and put a gun in their hands he actually went his name was Henry ash he actually went AWOL he had my brother did a lot of work in the history of the family genealogy and found all of this through the library of congress he actually went AWOL
and some people got together he was in jail there's mention of him with a ball and chain but there's some people that went to bat for him and wrote to the authorities and said what a good man he was and he probably didn't understand what was happening there and so he went on to become a very prominent citizen in Palestine Texas he was a banker there and he and actually my other grandfather helped build the little temple in Pella so he overcame all that but that was a civil war connection I'm actually a fifth-generation Texas jus my great-great grandfather came to Buffalo Texas from Utica
New York we're not sure whether he was born in Utica we're not sure about that but he came to Buffalo Texas right so my great-grandfather was born in buffalo my grandfather this is on my mother's side my grandfather was born in buffalo and they were tradesmen there of some kind there's been a story that perhaps my grandfather I'm to saloon there not sure I do know that my grandfather traveled and was selling Hardware and things of that nature he actually ended up in Palestine Texas that's where my paternal grandmother was born her mother was born in Mississippi my grandfather's mother was born in Mississippi they
were distant relatives by the name of heart har t so Palestine Texas is where my mother grew up and my grandfather became a very prominent businessman there he had the first car in Palestine it was a pierce-arrow understand my mother grew up there she was confirmed there but when she was 16 my grandfather decided that they needed to come to Dallas for their three children that they shouldn't remain in Palestine he later said that was the biggest mistake of his life I was coming to the big city but he came to Dallas and he went to work for the bourne Stuart company and then within
a few years went to work I became a partner with the Higginbotham family and Higginbotham pearlstone hardware and if you go down to the west end their building is still there with the name down the side Higginbotham pearlstone know do you know what year it was that they moved to Dallas 1929 was 16 now did you know did world war one affect your family at all I really don't believe so I think we've been very very lucky my grandfather was a brilliant brilliant businessman he was on the board of the First National Bank here he was chair of their Executive Committee even though he was
not a banker during the Depression he saved a lot of businesses that were going under that owed money to the bank right he helped in that process during the war he was named Argus right after the war he was named by President Roosevelt to be head of the Works Progress Administration in this area mm-hmm wow that was quite an honor yes but his biggest claim to fame is having been named and around 1921 America's biggest baseball fan he actually suited up and traveled with the philadelphia athletics his best friend was Connie Mack and he traveled with them every summer sat in the dugout worked out
with the team knew all of the baseball greats and we have pictures to prove it neighborhoods Lou Gehrig all of them do they ever have any stories about these guys oh yeah oh yeah lots of stories that we remember him in the paper yes he had some some interesting stories Ty Cobb was a tremendous businessman or owned stock and coca-cola and he also got into the steel business before automobile business came around so he he was a brilliant businessman but one day the team was in st. Louis and they were having dinner after the game and my grandfather said ty let's go out on the porch and have a cigar and talk and Ty Cobb said to him that's fine mr.
pearlstone as long as we only talk business I don't want to talk baseball he's got all kinds of stories he after many of those baseball greats died their widows contacted my grandfather for business advice and so forth so many of his effects are in the Baseball Hall of Fame we have some of them here but most of them up in the baseball head of Fame now how did your grandfather here in Texas meet Connie Mack one spring they were coming to Marlon Texas for their spring raining and a friend of my grandfather's and Palestine told him about it and said let's go down for you know and watch them in spring training and he introduced my grandfather to Connie Mack and a few weeks after the team went back my grandfather receives the big box and in it is the full uniform including shoes you know had everything with an invitation to join the team in the summer during my grandfather's the time he took for vacation and he traveled with them for a very long time and then once of course mr.
Mack sold the team they continued to meet for the World Series every year my grandfather grandmother said in a maxbox series who is the greatest baseball player according to your grandfather frankly babe ruth and who do you like the best um maybe Lou Gehrig I don't know for sure I'm guessing at that guessing it bad now did you ever get to meet any of the players no i didn't but my father did my father traveled with him one summer and my uncle my mother's brother and so that we had pictures of them with these folks what sure did think of that the day everybody loved
he loved it I mean he was the son in law but he absolutely loved it so we grew up on baseball and while I was growing up we would eat dinner in the summer out on our screen porch and during dinner somebody say let's go to the ball game oh great so we'd all get ready and go down to I think it was South Dallas where the Dallas team at that time played so we were all very much in debate at all and I still I am do you know any any business help that your grandfather offered some of the players just general advice on
investing their money he was very good at investment right talk to me now where you went to grammar school growing up university park okay what was it like what was life like then oh I loved it it was just wonderful great family life I walked to school walk to friends houses walk to my music lessons it was just it was a wonderful time wonderful time and we did a lot of things as a family and it was a great time in the summer we spent a lot of time at the Colombian club swimming and I remember on Thursdays we would stay and change our clothes
for dinner and my dad would come out from walk and he would call bingo a lot out there so that was a we always had fun with that yeah now where was high school highland park okay talk to me about high school life high school life was fun but there were challenges of being Jewish at highland park I don't think I I tried not pay attention to it i just went on with my life but there were situations no question like a lot of my friends apologize to me always had a lot of non-jewish friends and they apologized to me for not being able to
join them at some Patil Ian thing at the Dallas country club but you know it was it was always there was always there i did find i was a little bit of a renegade in that in the lunchroom in the cafeteria i would choose to sit with my non-jewish friends because i found all the Jewish kids who were my friends but they were all sitting together and I felt like they were analyzing themselves I felt like they were adding to the problem not helping solve the problem but so I always had a lot of non-jewish friends so that I could expose my not so much
my beliefs but the way I live my life to them you know that I wasn't some person with greenhorns or something now did you see it change over the years at all Oh certainly certainly a big change now I moved away from Dallas in 1988 and I lived for 17 years in San Diego so when I came back in two thousand nine I certainly have seen a big difference act like there's just you know I think there's an appreciation for what we've contributed to the Dallas community and I think there's just much more understanding now after after high school did you off to college or
the other words I like to be out your college in Baltimore Maryland ok and then I'm married at the end of my sophomore year and transferred to Northwestern we're gonna be living in chicago and i finished my degree at Northwest oh yeah now did you live in chicago for any time five years so is that a culture shock for you the winters and whatnot other winners were but i love the city i really love it really both in the city and in the suburbs for a while before my husband took a job in dallas so we moved back here in 1962 not being a big
baseball fan of course you know in chicago is that the Cubs of the sucks well actually my it was the Dodgers because my husband was a big Dodger fighting right and so we mostly watched it on TV I don't ever remember going to a game there until much much later tell me about San Diego now I loved it I absolutely loved it I became very involved in the Jewish community there particularly my congregation beth israel and probably the most important thing I've ever done as a volunteer in the Jewish community is to be Koecher the architect and building committee for their new campus that was
built near La Jolla and opened in 2001 and that was really wonderful yeah I had a great life there I really love that I was working as a law firm administrator at that time and then I started my own business as a human resource consultant to small businesses and that thrived and my life in the community was great i have wonderful friends there i go back a lot to visit though he involved with the church community in chicago at all not really i was a student and a young mother and so I really did not get involved there at all what brought you back to
Dallas Iseman took a job here as a stockbroker are you involved with the Jewish community here in downs yes I am I'm on executive committee the Dallas Jewish Historical Society I'm active at temple emanuel and while they are specifically Jewish organizations but I volunteer for the Dallas furniture bank I've been on the board a family gateway I've gotten pretty involved with the homeless and their issues was the happiest time in your life probably is a young married woman here in Dallas and making friends and doing things in the community and being involved in being back here with my parents as an adult yeah now where
were your children born my son was born in Chicago he was two when I got my degree action and my daughter was born here in Dallas I was her an invention or something that came along in your lifetime that you went wow how do we ever get along without this computer yeah the computer I got into it pretty early lot earlier than most of my friends because I was in law firm administration I had a need for it and I had my first computer in 1983 when you're growing up the music that you guys listen to who are the groups well I loved I love
Motown that was probably later but I remember the four freshmen and all of the the four men groups that sang at that time in your lifetime there's been so many momentous occasions you know he told us a little bit about being very young during world war two of course the Vietnam era the you know the hippie movement in this country the unrest of course the President Kennedy assassination something good the moon landing in 69 the first time of course the tragedy of 911 what was it that really stood out that affected you that you go gosh I know exactly where I was what had happened
President Kennedy's assassination I mean I can picture exactly where I was and what I was doing at the time which was giving my daughter a bottle sitting on the so fun my men was the TV on yeah I'm watching it happen and then the whole weekend was pretty much that it was yes it was it lies you know tell me a little bit about your your children now well my son lives in Salt Lake City he is a musician he is a keyboard player he has been doing that forever he's with a couple of bands he recently got his master's in education and he hopes
to teach online more in he wants to do more curriculum development he didn't want to be a classroom teacher and he would like to do something in the music but it feels so he's got some irons in the fire with that too in the meantime he's happily playing his keyboards my daughter lives in Austin she is ahead of disability services at Austin Community College at their round rock campus she is currently working on her doctorate in education you think of your family's history in all of what they went through what advice you want to leave for the next generation you have to pay attention to
where you came from to know where you're going and where you came from is very very important it informs who you are what you're going to do with your life how you conduct your life my watchword for my children is the door the door from generation to generation keep it going and pay attention okay China thanks for doing this thanks