September 24, 2019

Mimi Guten

Mimi Guten's parents both came from Russia. Her mother arrived as a one-year-old baby, carried in the hold of a ship from a small town, and her father came at age 13, lying about his age to say he was 16. As a result he was drafted in World War One and drove around French battlefields picking up wounded soldiers. After the war he met and married his friend's beautiful sister, and the couple settled in Milwaukee. Mimi grew up there, part of the time in a suburb called Shorewood known for its excellent schools. She had two musically gifted older sisters, one an opera singer and the other an actress remembered as Mrs. Garrett on the television show The Facts of Life.

Mimi followed her sister to Northwestern University, first entering the school of commerce with the idea of joining her father's business before switching to music, her true passion. She married in Milwaukee shortly after graduating, having been introduced to her husband Don through a cousin. The couple lived in Madison, then followed his army service to Fort Leonard Wood, Lebanon, and Mineral Wells, where she helped organize USO-style shows to entertain the troops. After Don served overseas, they returned to work in her father's business. When her father died suddenly at 56 and a highway threatened to run through the business, they chose to move away, deciding on Dallas, where they settled into their home on April 2, 1963.

In Dallas, Mimi became deeply involved in music and Jewish community life. She served as a musical director for shows at the Jewish Community Center, the Dallas Theater Center, and her synagogue, and co-wrote a successful musical called The Bar Mitzvah. She and Don joined a synagogue after visiting several, drawn by its friendly congregation, and she remained active in Hadassah, the National Council of Jewish Women, and Brandeis. Don, along with a colleague, founded the local Jewish War Veterans post, of which Mimi was a charter member. She and Don raised three children, Carrie, Myra, and Dennis, and she has many grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Widowed in 1993, she later overcame a dangerous surgery and paralysis, and takes pride that her hands still remember how to play the piano.

She

Read Full Transcript