Myrna Ries
Myrna Ries's grandparents came from Russia, and her father immigrated to the United States in 1920 with his mother and siblings, joining her grandfather who had worked for five years to bring the family over. The extended family shared an apartment house in the Park Place area of Brooklyn. Her father was a gifted pattern maker and designer who worked in New York's garment industry on Seventh Avenue. Though he had no formal schooling, since Jews in Russia were barred from education, he was highly intelligent and musically talented, able to play the piano and other instruments by ear.
In August 1941, the family moved to Dallas so her father could work at Nardis Sportswear, a major company during the war years. They first settled in Oak Cliff, where Myrna and her mother made lifelong friends at the Lake Cliff pool, then moved to South Dallas. She attended Brown School and later Forest Avenue High School for a year before the family moved to University Park, where she attended school and became part of a close Jewish social circle. She was confirmed at Temple Emanu-El, where she formed lasting friendships, and her family observed the holidays and Shabbat together.
Myrna attended Oklahoma University for a year and a half, spent a memorable summer at Brandeis Camp in California, and graduated from SMU with a major in English literature. She married Myron Ries about six months after meeting him and they raised four sons, including an Orthodox rabbi in Columbus, Ohio, an attorney, and others. She volunteered teaching ESL to Russian and Vietnamese newcomers, served on the Panel of American Women during the civil rights era, was PTA president, and led an early BBG chapter. On November 22, 1963, she saw President Kennedy at Love Field and later learned her father, whose factory was near the Book Depository, had filmed the assassination.
Full Transcript
[Music] this is an oral history of burner grease taken on Wednesday June my turn 2013 learn up thank you for allowing us to come to your home and take your oral history let's get started about your ancestry tell me about your grandparents great-grandparents what you know about them where they came from and where they ended up well don't know about the great grandparents and from the grandparents I knew my yeah I knew my mother's parents and I knew my father's father I never knew his mother she never she did not come home anyway they were from Russia and they were from Kabul Russia and they
came to my dad came in 1920 and with his mother and two siblings he had a brother that died in Russia and actually I think the trip broke his mother's health it was just could imagine and but my grandfather works for five years in this country to bring them over so he brought them over and what did he do he did everything I really it's a shame we we've just spent we've been doing some research on him lately and I think he got me into the building business and I know they he ended up owning the apartment house with four apartments that we our whole
family lived in his two daughters and myself and my grandmother and he owned it I've no idea who is that your dad was not working in Brooklyn in Brooklyn Park Place Berlin and my mother and dad and I and Henry lived in the front apartment and his mother lived in the back downstairs and he had two sisters upstairs with their families and what brought you along to ours really my mother no what happened my mother was even pretty miserable she was not she wanted something more for her family you know those years Brooklyn is the place to stay man to be now I have a
grandson living there and Alex is really full circle but he had the opportunity he was that he worked on seventh Avenue in New York in the a parallel business and home is very talented was a pattern maker and the designer from that where he the business he worked and called him to analysis evade there's an opening at Narda sportswear an artist sportswear was a big company here during the second world war and although we were not in the war yet and he says why she says why don't you come to Texas we need a good you know Inside Man so in the production man so
my day at that time going to Texas was you know family thought we were out of our minds the cowboys and Indians but my dad hesitated and mother said just go see what's it's like and so he came to Dallas and he you know he saw the business and every I did some shopping before he came home and one of the family stories is that he went to his Sanger's then and he went to buy something I guess for my mother he bought something and he walked away and then saleslady said y'all come by it and he came back so he I mean you know
he was a New York or Russian so actually he's focused a tiny accent so anyway came back to Brooklyn until my mother hi it's too quiet there and my mother was devastated and when my dad saw how disappointed she was he felt he made the wrong decision but he felt it was too late but they called him back in about a month and asked him to please come and begin to balance in August of 1990 was 19 when was Pearl Harbor 4141 we came in 41 and where did you know you know cliff I don't go on but they put a satin Oh cliff which
was definitely there were no there were no Jews there except does but it was and we came I have to tell you we came in August and we came on the train there's no no flying in those years and my mother and dad were very very sophisticated even though they came from a very poor background no they were just I think they were born sophisticated so they when they we came off the train my mother was all dressed in a beautiful yellow shantung suits a hat and gloves and my dad had on his coat and tie and pat i don't know what we Brandi and
I were wearing and it was honest and they walked off the train they probably know he fainted it was so hot there was no air conditioning so anyway we we moved into this house and we had attic fans and fans everywhere and my mother she said she drank so much lemonade that she gets she gained out of 20 pounds because we were so hot and the house was full of you know we call them thousand letters then I don't know what scientific term we anyway we had all these scorpions bugs coming I mean they came in because they were hot too so anyway but we
were you know my mother was happy there and we went swimming all the time Oh is your neighborhood water a little houses small announces that we live near lake lifts which that could have had a beautiful pool and then people didn't have their own rules so we were two swimming pool every day and it's a matter of fact I met my first and the best friend and my mother met her first investment at that pool we were at the pool and mother saw Terry and she once Essman and she said Myrna to already talk to them she just Jewish to me and my mother was
very assertive and I wasn't so she says come on so we went over and she would became one of my dearest friends and Terry became one of my mother's dearest friends and I bet we warned in Dallas more than let's see August came I was probably a couple of months because we were swimming so that sound we made our first friends and then we moved to South Dallas from there and what's the most that you go to I went to Brown school can picture it to this day made some great friends in South but we want South Boulevard but we lost glory and think it's
lots of the old families of Dallas lived on South door are great to Katherine chops keys the glaciers that they build families lived on South Boulevard great big homes and at the end a sample of our was Temple emanu-el where I went to Sunday school but we lived at the poor end and my mother really really wanted to move to the University of Oregon Park you want me to go to Holland Park High School and we did we moved there and well before we moved there I did it was 1941 because I have to tell you that we I remember Pearl Harbor because we were
coming up we were still at Oak Cliff and we were coming home from some sort of mix excursion and my dad had the radio on in the car and he heard about Pearl Harbor and I remember sitting in the backseat I remember my mother breaking down and crying and saying yeah my my brother's going to have to go to war and that and I'll never forget it and then later on okay so we're out in a park and Chandler man will start building their temple out there and I went to Forest High School on set on Forest Avenue wait a minute I didn't tell you
about when we did we move I did tell you about being on the South Boulevard and I went to forest for one year for us to have high school for one year and that was a lot of Jewish neighborhood and then after that one year we do too you know Marquette which went off in high school I went up to second kind of sophomore year activities were you involved in high school there's a different time I remember some of those friends I have played tennis I was never an athlete I was you know when the lens award and I was the student and we just
hung out that's what we did and you know polio was not a big threat at that time so in the summer I still remember all the kids we would not only be in one kid my house at somebody else's house we play Monopoly for hours we could go swimming we couldn't go to the movies because of polio and that was my best our member of my South Dallas days except going to the white theatre when things settle down with polio every single cell I walk with my friends up to Forest Avenue to the white theater we stopped at blends bakery which was a fun I
guess they were kosher I don't know if they think we thought that kosher and we get a pickle out of it having a pickle now we would go to the white theatre and we would sit there and they had unless you remember those years they had they continued we have a short hop along Cassidy and all those and Tom Mix so we would see those first and then you see the movie and of course we were all in love with the movies the movies was I had scrapbooks of the movies and I read photoplay magazine they were just very my dad worked at an artist
force where my mother learned how to play mahjong but she didn't in New York and she loved Alice from the very beginning and actually after my dad moved here he never wanted to go back to New York so he loved it here so you all belong to temple made well yes dad doesn't think that get mad at one another so they don't want the next block and they get an argument like with the good the next block and when he went to temple Emmanuel aces this is wonderful so I was confirmed from Temple anymore and my brother was for me how did your family celebrate
the Jewish holidays oh we celebrated we have the Seder and we had we went to we've got on her new clothes on Russia showing that if I'm going to dress and my mother would wear a hat and we went to Temple and after America I went to share this Lord because of Myron really but anyway we were and I grew up a temple Emmanuel and I had wonderful day how a part was great great that's where I made most of my lifelong friends still I'm still friends they're the ones that are still alive we are still so close and how a part was great it
was just great and the school we had the the Jewish table we'd all sit at this table and we had parties in people's houses sweet 16 parties everyone has a sweet 16 party and we had dance cards and we would a lot and my teenage years were great just great that wonderful friends still dude were your parents active in the Jewish community other in Temple I would you know they were there was no thing Federation I mean it was but remember anything was federation but mother was active the temple she did a lot of cooking she was a good cook and my dad no he
was my dad you know the garment industry they had I think they had an organization and they knew everybody and but he was my dad was a very talented man played the piano he never had any schooling no schooling zero in Russia Jews couldn't go school and he was I he was very very smart and could play the piano playing probably any instrument it could pick up attack the first thing I think he bought with what he earned in New York mother Tony was a violin for $10 and but we always had a peon in her house and he would come in didn't still see
him coming in the back door and go straight to the piano in the den and he wouldn't even take off his hat over time or anything they'd sit down and play the camera and that's what memory what about memories is my dad and so they he was more or less people is a really a community person mother was more of a he was busy working and and he loved to we had a sprinkler system he'd love to be out there fixed he could fix anything anything game mother's friends used to call him over anything for it to fix up their toilets and their disciplines where
did you go to college Oklahoma University for a year and a half were you interested in studying are you kidding I was 16 years old I graduated high school when I was 16 and I when I went there and they asked me what my major was I why I said I didn't even know what they were talking about my parents okay you know my dad had no education although he was highly intelligent and my mother only went to elementary school and they were both smart they were just smart but they weren't you know they weren't versed in college what'd you prepare your children for and
both Henry and I were pretty good in school so they didn't really have much to worry about we just there were no SATs and all that kind of thing so I went to oh you for a year and a half because I always want to do something different everybody went to Texas I went to and some girls Russians and sorority and I joined a sorority there anyway I had a boyfriend there and then my turn I got rid of him after the second year and I quit after I quit before my second year and I came back to Dallas and I enrolled in SMU and
I didn't like it I was so young I was seventeen and so I went to work and I worked for a dentist was a children's dentist and I was then you didn't have to be certified I was a conscious I you know I stand there with the water in the mouth and I did have to tell the parents how much the cost was gonna be and that I really was employed anyway and then I grew up sort of not totally and said I've gotta go back to school this is you know and but before I look back to school I decided to go to Brandeis
camp in California my friends have gone there and so before the summer before I went I went back to si decides to go to India I didn't go out of town I went to Brandeis camp in California which was fabulous fabulous fabulous it was say at that time they had Mac Mac's healthman was alive who was a brilliant musician Jewish musician and we had professors from Hebrew Union College were there and I just added up I loved and loved it and a lot of fun and fell in love and that didn't work out but it was fun and I came home and I went to
SMU and I finished this and I majored in English literature and I also made you the elementary education because mother said you know you have to get something you never know what's gonna happen to your life and you might have to work and so I did a kind of a minor in elementary education was just a waste of time I think but I loved English so English literature major and then I met Myron while I was in school at Finley I charm anyone on my way to Brandeis he was at luck in Las Vegas with his parents and I met him there he moved to
Dallas and so we married in six months and he we married right after I graduated from SNU and family four children four boys and we lived on you know when we moved I tell you I'll talk to you about elementary school I did I think but we put him into a Park Road first before I was on South Boulevard that's I'm remembering that that's where the scam Brown school was there yeah so I was there first it was another Jewish street they were to pick Jewish streets I have fond memories itself South Dallas it was so you an admirer than you mentioned that you belong
to share with Israel I have been very yep Mary was have exact if they're only for my children for organizations I mean I've always done my part that's never been a big part of my life what kind of volunteer work have you done while teaching under the ESL when the Russians came over and when the Viet and also that when the Vietnamese came over that was very interesting the difference in the Russian teaching brushes English and Vietnamese so I taught ESL I volunteered the most interesting volunteer work I did was I was on the panel of American women and that was started by Toby it
was her first the Carolyn Carolyn Tobin and what she did was she gave me this was during the civil rights when we're talking about the 60s now and I had I think I only have three children terrible I can't remember but I had fourth up and Carol and Toby got together when she called the panel of American women and they were there were four panels for Jews for Catholics for blacks or Hispanics and four white anglo-saxon Protestants and we went in teams and we travelled all over the city and gave programs and each of us like I told the story I guess what I'm telling
you now except I stressed the the persecution of my dad and had suffered in Russia and the problem is of being Jewish and anti-semitism and the goal of the panel of the merit of American women was the black person spoke last before the Protestants so it was the Jewish one the Catholic Hispanic the black and the white anglo-saxon Protestant at each of us told about our experiences with prejudice and then of course the main point was the blacks had to go through because that means the civil rights we were part of the civil rights movement and so the black person would talk and then let
us think about the poor white anglo-saxon Protestant they didn't take all the blame but it was then that they had to sort of get their clothing about how we need to change in this country and we need to have integration and the schools etc stairs with autism to me it was the most valuable and I was president of my PTA and I collect on did cards for Federation and BBG started when I went away to a year before I went off to college and I was president of the first DPG chapter in Dallas and then I left to go off to college and tell me
what a lot of the schools did love school tell me about Dallas what was Dallas like you know just thinking of it is a city what was it like is you it wasn't rape and how do you think it's changed it was so great it was a small town and people in each other I mean you walked into the Seneca in the temple and you doing everybody and it was like family I don't know it was just like I just pictured my hair how some Marquette we were had that at a street on Marquette George's at University Park before in before you get to northwest
Iowa there was no half there were no houses between market and we were the last Street and then of course it started growing but how the park and University Park were most of the Jewish kids lived in we pretty much stuck together we went but we went to the football games and Helen Park which was so much fun and it was just it was a peaceful time on a little we were and war in the forties how do you think the city has changed what's another city it's Dallas is great I mean it's for culturally I have asked what my son's moved to Austin the
thing he misses the most in Austin is Nicole tell me about your kids my children okay Jeff I have four sons of Jeffrey's the oldest and he he's a rabbi he's Jeffrey is an Orthodox rabbi in Columbus Ohio and he's a teaching rabbi and he has three children and he just had two he's got two grandchildren so I have two great-grandchildren we just had my second when they were growing a boy my granddaughter has a girl and a boy so that's my Orthodox family and they live they live in Ohio and they live a very different life and we did it very very observant and
my granddaughter what she does she teaches she's wonderful I mean she teaches she takes care of her well now it'll be two babies and then her son her husband is what would you say he he does everything at this I have a 600 student is she and Miami they're living in my hand and he's their techies who dishonored from you computer work but he also meant as a lot of the kids the boys saw boys of course Soleil is always having boys over on Friday night for Shabbos and for Vincent for that and they live if it's like almost like a she-devil they live a
unistall they're all Orthodox and they're it's really nice it's very supportive and and she teaches school she teaches English half day and then somebody takes care of her baby you know so that's Jeffrey a year later I had Adam and kind of Adam his six foot six he's very tall Jeffrey it's the shortest one and Adam is an attorney and he's he's been a listen Austin and he married a girl from he went to Oklahoma University general RIT all my boys three out of four went to Auburn University no I mean Washington University in st. Louis so they was a good school and so and then they hadn't went on to be a lawyer he met his wife there and Jeffrey met his wife there and Erin who is not married he's 40s my guess is not Mary he did not meet his wife there but he went to us you and David went to University of Texas David was my non-student the other three are pretty in fact Erin who is 44 I mentioned he's still going to school and working so and I had five grandchildren one they went to all into good schools and thank break the great kids they really are
mother we have decided that with our interviews this year in commemorating the 50th anniversary of john f kennedy's the shooting here in dallas that we were going to ask all of our interviewees they remember where they were and what they were doing and how that time affected them hit the jackpot with me well i was Ruth and I repainted and I went we I was always interested in politics Valerie and active and the morning of November 22nd we went to left field to see the president and we were waiting for the plane to land and the plane landed and we were standing by the famous
fences there were they I mean I can see it they came off the plane and everyone just went crazy I mean they I remember being I was near the big fence and there are so many people behind me and I felt like the first time that's ever happened I felt like I was gonna be crushed to death I mean everyone would start pushing forward to get closer because he was shaking they were both shaking hands along their heads and then we they you know they left and I drove off they were going to the parade downtown and Ruth and I went over to this restaurant
by Tom phone on Royal Lane up here Sally bees for lunch and we walked in there people were screaming and saying the president's been shot the president's been shot and we were of course we couldn't believe it and I went to the back to call my husband Myron and he said yeah it's true he's been shot and he says I saw him I watched him from the top of my building and mine was a stockbroker and over the ticker tape it was saying you know the President and Allison yada yada yada and later I saw but he I don't know exactly when I think he's
well I know it was he said they called him from New York you know there when you're a stockbroker here and they the guys said to him what's the matter with you people in Texas you know somebody's just shot the president and he said what I just saw him I just saw him in the parade and then I think we talked to my brother and then we found out that my dad had been gone to my dad's factory was right across from the sixth floor from the Book Depository and he knew he knew he saw the parade route to the paper and he wanted to
get movies of the president for his grandchildren and he went to work that morning and he forgot his camera and so his not his secretary but his right-hand person said hey go go home get your camera and he says you know it was raining too bad it stopped it was raining at first for a while there and he says oh it's raining it won't be a good day to take pictures and Lillian said well would you want pictures for your grandchildren and all of a sudden he just disappeared she didn't know where he was and sure enough he just decided to go home and get
his camera so he went home to get his camera and my mother was still home I mean she was at home it was 11 she was in the kitchen cooking it was Friday and we always went over to my mother's on Friday night Shabbos so she says wait wait babe let me change into something I wanna go ask you to see the president he said I don't have time but you know and he left and he ran and he he went over to the he found a spot this stuff you know there in front of these books of depository where he knew he knew that
the car would be coming around we have a perfect I guess he knew I never up to tell you the truth I'm gonna talk to my dad that much about it it was such a trauma to all of us and it was so painful and it was so unbelievable I mean I can't even explain to you I think we were in it just been shocked but anyway Sully came round and dad took pictures and unfortunately fortunately he he was standing right there and he saw the President's head explode and he knew that he was dead and he he kept filming I don't know how he
did that and then he jumped off and he had his secretary with him because he had a little vertigo and says she helped him and he was hysterical he was screaming he's dead they've killed him they've killed him and then I'm gonna go into the rest that he found my Secret Service man that guy he knew right away that he needed to find people from the government and they came up to his office and he put his camera is safe and then the whole day was spent trying to get the film developed because he had a millimeter film and it was very difficult to to
some reason and so we went over the mother's Ruth and I went home and I was terrible I called the Dallas Morning News was screaming at them because they had this terrible and the paper that day and I just was saying you you killed the president you're responsible and stop my subscription and I was I was just off the wall because one of the things was I worked I can't pay for Kennedy that was one of the things I did got some contacts so anyway the rest is history and dad got they got the we went over to mother's and waited the whole evening and
we kept calling and saying I'll be home I'll be home for trying to get this thing developed and and then very very confusing I would had them down and I really can't be detailed about what happened but I found like a comment about 10:30 or 11:00 and he showed the film den and I didn't watch ice at the living Earth and wood when mine was there and it was in Washington and he was in touch with my dad the whole time was a lawyer you know but so let's see it was mother and my kid I know I do and that's what I did that's
what happened the day of the assassination to ask family and it's had a huge impact to this day especially this year because the anniversary thank you for sharing that with us who were your role models who have been the role models as you've gone through life well I would say my parents my brother my role models I think we had a very very close family very close I was very close to my brother and my both my parents adored my father and he adored me he's cute he's the same murder you should be Proteas little prejudice and mother and I were very close and sorely
newman Ungerman role model of my three wishes friend and we're close friends to this very very day Roosevelt was my room or a lot of politicians that were my role models I loved Franklin Roosevelt I loved Adlai Stevenson all the Liberals and I was always very very interested in politics and active in politics is there anything else you'd like to and well I just you know I just would say that Dallas when we were here there were two congregations really and it was tackle Emanuel and shared digital and it was all misled you know the reform didn't like the orthodoxy or anything I wouldn't know
there were more there was an orthodox artifact of big ones were sheriff and temple Emmanuel and the Jewish community was just we knew everybody and there was we were family and it was just a nice nice feeling I must say that we we did not mix too much I wanted not Jewish friends in lig school I did and but Dallas now is so different because we now have a very eclectic Jewish community I mean there's everything here now from you know Fassett him to perform now Temple Shalom was the first breakaway they temple Emmanuel was growing to focus and it was not even large compared
to what is now but so they broke all these they helped another congregation start Temple Shalom which was really something new in the community so that was Temple Shalom Taylor manager and then and ferret visual but now I can't even name the synagogues and day schools no one knew about day schools Jewish day schools I get day schools and everyone went to public school except a few you know a lot of kids went to st. marks and Green Hill but everyone now no one goes to public school and which is I think very very sad to say the least so there's been huge changes to the Jewish community huge it's less bigger so many more Jews here but when you see someone walking down the street with a yarmulke I keep up or at Alice or you see them walking to synagogue in Dallas you would not have seen that when I was growing up it's nice it's nice Martha thank you so much for sharing notice with us you have been fantastic interviewing Oh excellent thank you very very much you