Norma Schlinger
Norma's paternal grandfather, whose surname was Aronoff, emigrated from Russia around the 1880s, bringing his oldest son and later his wife Sarah Esther and their other children. The family reportedly entered Texas near Jefferson before settling in Dallas, where relatives already lived. Her grandfather was a Talmudic scholar and one of the early members of Shearith Israel. Norma's father, Barney, came to America as a teenager, learned English quickly, and eventually built a successful wholesale women's shoe business with a store on Commerce Street. He was known for helping others, cosigning notes so people could start businesses. Norma's mother came from Boston as an infant and married Barney in 1920 after his first wife died in the 1918 flu epidemic.
Born in 1927, Norma grew up in a two-story home her father built on Park Row, two doors from Myers Street. She walked to John Henry Brown School and Forest Avenue High School, coming home for lunch. Because she was double promoted, she graduated high school and entered the University of Texas at just fifteen. She left college at eighteen and worked at an advertising agency in Chicago, later writing copy in New York, and then at Neiman Marcus and as a secretary to a rabbi at Temple Emanu-El. Decades later she returned to school, earning her degree with honors from the University of Texas at Dallas.
Norma married Henry Schlinger in 1950 after a memorable blind date. Henry's family had been in Texas even longer than hers, with his ancestor Leopold Schlinger arriving through New Orleans in the 1840s and family members living across the state, including a dramatic episode in Matamoros during the Mexican conflict. Henry became a lawyer, served in the Navy in the Pacific, and led many organizations, including Jewish Family Service, Temple Emanu-El, and the Dallas Bar Association. He lived with heart trouble for much of their thirty-eight-year marriage. After his death the temple established an ethics symposium in his memory. Norma and Henry raised three children, and she remained proud of her family and her long life within the Dallas Jewish community.
Norma sang in the Temple Emanu-El choir for more than fifty years.
Full Transcript
we are here today to take the oral history of Norma's schlinger whose family dates back very very far and very long time in Dallas our videographer is Ruth Andres and we are going to start with tell us about your family they've been here they've arrived in Dallas very early where'd they come from and how'd they get here my grandfather whose name was pacer Aronoff it came to Philip when he got to this country he came over here and about 18 the the dates vary depending on what you're reading 1868 at 18 and I take that 1880 around the 1880s sometime during the eighties and he
brought his oldest son his name was Jacob and they came straight to Dallas as far as I know I'm sure they must have landed in Ellis Island I don't have people got here from there but they know but they know he was before oh yeah no a silent oh really well I don't know how that got here one of my aunt said that they landed in Victoria Texas Jefferson Texas and Jefferson at that time if they may have landed by both of us Jefferson at that time had a had a had water had a port in fact I forget who the big mockers were in
those days in the country but they wanted to bring the train into Jefferson but then something happened the log jam that had created the water there came apart and switched out went the water but at that time it was still there so it could be that she was right but she's the one who was born in this country so she didn't have the knowledge of it any rate he came over with his son and they found a way to earn money to bring their family over and that consisted of his wife Sarah Esther and his two sons in the order of their ages Joseph Joe
my father his name was borough or Boris and Russia came Barney in this country their eldest daughter was Rebecca there was back and their second daughter was Bertha and their third daughter who was born in this country was my aunt Mary and they all were in doubt I think they had some relatives already living here because I remember some Weinstein's who were cousins of my father but any rate that's they got here early my husband's family gather even earlier but I'll talk about them later okay where did they come from they came from Russia actually my grandfather was conscripted into the Army in about 1980
1918 75 and I don't know why he was able to then get married and bring family over here but somehow rather he did they cited a lot of people left because they didn't want to be conscripted but I had his conscription papers so any rate they were from my grandfather was from a little town called Mowgli F and my grandmother was from choucas and when they married he moved with her to Turkish and a lot of families in Dallas came from that area the Tobii and skis who became tobin's levi old and rabbi ole and his family was from there so I don't know anything
about it but that's where they were from and they came over that way I did that when they got to Jefferson Texas did they stay there no they move on my learned to Dallas when I had some family here and I've never really found out well how they communicated with him and all that but there was family already here because there was somebody I used to call auntie Weinstein she was an old lady and she had a daughter named Sarah who was seeing hard Char Char Nia I just bought Nia anyway but my father I was born when he was 46 so I never knew
him to have accent of any kind never he got his double using these mixed up a little bit some time but he came to this country the first thing they all did was learn English and how old do you think he was when he came that's sixteen I have a picture of the family right after they came here and this is two of the brothers aren't hidden here and that's another story my they can take it out of that piece of paper if you want to sue these were done I'm gonna tell you this was my father Barney next to him this was my grandfather
seated my grandfather is sitting next to my grandmother the two people seated there and this is my Aunt Becky the oldest my aunt Bertha and my Mary who was born in this country and she doesn't look like she's very old so that's I had to figure how old they all were I think my dad was about 16 when they emigrated the others were than 14 and at that 12 so he was the oldest child he was not the oldest child no oh I'm sorry not Uncle Joe is older he's about three years older than my dad and he came over with them to the son
that was already here Jacob that came with the oldest that came with my grandfather he was killed in a hunting accident and I back in he was only 20 that was in 1894 and he's buried out at sheriff there's all cemeteries then was Jacob em fair enough and of course I didn't know anything about him I just heard that he was killed those days people went out in wagons and hunted and that was wasn't the way it is now kind of accident what did they do for a living when they got to Dallas boy I wish I could tell you hit my my grandfather's listed
in the census of 19 which I had here somewhere 1900 as a dry goods merchant but as I looked at the sexist son knows lots of people for listeners dragnets merchants I guess he was had a store I think however I think it was my grandmother who ran the store my grandfather who studied he was a Talmudic scholar and one of the early I thought founders of sheriff Israel if not fat or something when the earliest members and and he's started their minion class and Thomas studies and he was a very smart man I wish I'd known him but I think he did the studying
and his wife didn't for working and then did the children go to school in Dallas do you have any ideas yes but I went to school and they all went to I think they they belong to share this row but I think they were living closer to temple Emmanuel so I think some of them probably walked over to temple rather than want to share this little book I've heard that but I don't know that that's true and what point in the history would that have been 19 well they came my father came over about 1894 that's the fella mister yeah and and so that's when
that would have been yeah I've got all that material here which others will have to look at and so forth that's right and once did your father finish school then in Dallas yes you did in fact he he had a teacher it was a supernumerary which meant she wasn't a lot wasn't teaching yet she was a student teacher who was ready to start teaching and her name was ed in a row and anybody has ever gone to high school in Dallas for our high school new head in the row everyone in my family except me had her for senior English and I didn't get her
because I was just unlucky but she was she was became they have a school named after in Dallas she was very she stayed very close to all her students and when I once went up to her and said in this room you know I thought of her as an old woman but I went I said you don't remember my father but you taught him he was a little boy and here she was not much older than my father actually she was a super she was probably about 20 and he was about seventeen sixteen seven so with always funny to think that she taught him and
here she was old Ole Miss Road I think it's pretty amazing that he was he knew enough English to study in high school when he was and just emigrate right well I don't know that he studied in high school I don't know how far he attended school but I don't know that I think he learned English from this road and I don't really you know I was too young I never knew my grandparents they both died when I was born in one two years later that was on my father's side but and I don't know the whole story that I know he went to work
like so many others he had a wagon and the Saenger family helped a lot of people when they came over here they helped them buy goods that they could then take out and sell and in the various communities and I know for many years that's what my father did because he used to say to me when I get a letter from somebody when I was going to college starting college and be for somebody in Dublin Texas he said I bet I know who that is and I'd say who and he can come up with the name there weren't freaking many jews living in Dublin Texas
in those day he was in the wholesale women's shoe business and as things got better and he made more money he did very very well we had the only two-story single-family home on the 2900 block of Park Row and we were all very comfortable and I was pretty spoiled I was the youngest of three and the only girl and born late in life to my parents so so let's backtrack a minute so you think your father after school went into the shoe business I don't know I can't tell you what order things happen but that's what he ended up being in the wholesale Sheba's he
had I had a store down 1104 Commerce Street for many many years and he also had a few retail stores around different cities but mostly he was wholesale shoe business and tell me about your mother my mother my mother and this is this is a picture of my mother and father later in life she married my dad when she was 29 and she was a business woman a bookkeeper this was my mother she was probably in her 50s in this picture my parents were short and chubby and that's why I'm short and chubby this was my father coming out of the frame my father he
was a very very well-known and in Dallas and helped a lot of people in the days when he couldn't get a loan from a bank my dad was a friend of Fred Florence's and he would cosign notes so that people could start businesses and I'm not gonna mention names but a lot of the business people in Texas have oh they're thanks to my dad for helping him in that way because he would cosign notes and they were good for them and unfortunately they did okay and their business so he never got stuck with anything but any rate my mother came from Boston and she came
over to this country when she was six months old and that was in 1891 and she had two older brothers when they first came over here and those pictures I left at home so I'll have to show them to this we think another time and she was she was the oldest sister she had two older brothers one was named Jacob and I don't know the only other one's name but he died and as a young child because I never heard the family talk about it but I have a picture of him so I know he existed then there were all these sisters were other members
of the family were sisters and they were born in this country the oldest one was Fae and then there was Nettie and then there was Doris and they were really lovely people and I didn't know my grandparents on my mother's side and I had pictures of them and somehow or other I don't know what happened to the rest of my pictures but they were really very sweet lovable people and lived up until 1940s I guess was 41 because what happened died and the funeral was on st. pearl harbor day I have to know them very well my uncle was a doctor and we called him uncle doc and what brought back from your mother's family to Dallas my mother is the only one who gives her gas and her family was very worried about her they said they have Indians and they shoot people they thought it was the Wild West and my dad married her his first wife died in the flu epidemic of 1918 and he married yes they had a four year old son my oldest brother Abner and when his mother died and he married my mother in 1920 he she was working for a man in the shoe business and if you know anything about the shoe business Boston Massachusetts but Boston New York and Chicago were the places where you went for them for shoe shows and st.
Louis and he met her in Boston to a good friend got them together and they got married and then five years later my brother Melvin was born and then two years later I was born and I never knew that Abner was my step-brother until I was a teenager my mother raised him just like one of us and there was never any reason for me to know and I guess I saw a picture somewhere of his mother and asked - it was so that's how I found out but he was 14 years older than I was and when I got old enough to be sort of
on the same level he was a lot of fun and wonderful brother and I miss him he died in 1973 mm-hmm no he didn't I take that back he was 73 when he died that he died in 1986 and you live you were living on Park Row when you were a child I grew up on Park Road 29:26 two doors from Myers Street on the one side and down the street from Jefferies I had one block to walk to John Henry Brown school so I came home for lunch every day I had two blocks to walk to get the Forest Avenue high school so I
came home for lunch every day and if the weather was bad I guess my mother gave me lunch I hardly I can't really remember eating in the cafeteria at either one of those schools I'm sure I must have some time but I don't what was the neighborhood like when you were a child wonderful wonderful we had you know had a lot of friends in the neighborhood and not all Jewish we they were non-jewish all the kids I knew and came friendly with Christian and everybody got along fine I mean there were a lot of Jewish people in South Dallas but even on my block there
were a lot of Christian people and not a lot but something I wanted to do for amusement as a child well I had very I had prayed that as a child and so it was my amusement wasn't as much fun as I would have liked for to be when we went out for recess nobody wanted to to invite me to be on their side when we played sports you know if they got me it was because somebody had to take me and but but knowing my family travelled every summer we took long driving trips sometimes we caravan with another part of my father's family his
aunt that my aunt Nikki and her husband and I have to tell you at this point maybe not just about me but thirteen of us cousins grew up in Dallas on my father's side of the family everyone married and had children and we all were we all graduated from Forest Avenue in high school with exception of one who went there every year and then went to a military academy is last year we all were confirmed at temple Emmanuel by Rabbi David Lefkowitz and starting a long time ago because the oldest one she'd be a hundred years old by now I was next to the youngest
of the cousins and there are only three of us left my cousin Billy Aronoff who's 96 my brother Melvin Aronoff he'll be 85 on Saturday and I'm 83 and the youngest cousin Phillip died several years ago so I'm the youngest cousin man and the only surviving girl and what year were you born I was born in 1927 at Baylor Hospital and whatever pretty cute little baby and when you were born your parents were already living on Park Road yes my dad built that house when they married my mother built it in 1920 and I'd like to say it's still there but it was one of
the rainiest ones that got demolished for some apartment houses and they were put up so I can't go back and see the house well let's talk about your experiences in school you went to grade school in the neighborhood yes block away it was good I started school very young now I actually started going to Temple emanuel kindergarten when I was three because my brother was five in those days temple had kindergarten it was not required there was no public school that had kindergarten but temple did so he was five and I guess I raised a ruckus because I didn't want to go or maybe my
mother just talked him into it but I went there and so by the time I got to first grade I could really pretty well do everything that they did in those days they double promoted kids so I got double promoted and so I ended up getting out of grade school I was 11 and graduating high school into college when I was 15 but in those days we only had 11 years of elementary education in Dallas it's changed how about in high school did you have any kind of special activities that you were interested in well I was interested in school did well as I said
I missed a lot of school with very bad ass was in the hospital a few times within those days I didn't know what to do with that his medic showing it it was you know anyway it was not a happy situation for me my kids sometimes my friends rather had to help me get home from school carrying my books they just anyway but I was remembering joint clubs girls public speaking club and know what other clubs but connected well I made the National Honor Society my last semester in high school and for a kid in miss school I think that was good I was you
know when you're younger than everybody too socially I had a lot of trouble fitting in so I mean I just didn't know some of those things when knows these days kids that age would know everything but I didn't and then you said you started college and and we're at the University of Texas when I was 15 and I wasn't 15 for very long because my birthday is in September but in those days they had a try semester system because the war was on I was 43 and so we started like in August and went to a short semester so we finished like two and a
half I mean one and a half years of the year so that's all I needed being young anyway but but I don't know I did well there I stayed till I was 18 and I had by then I had taken all my required courses so I know that was smart because I went back to college 35 years later and I am I showed in my transcript and I got in to University of Texas at Dallas and that's the time when they weren't taking anybody under the junior year they just had junior and senior school out there that was in 1970 eight and took me 10
years but I finally got my degree with honors which I won't might not have done if I'd stayed in college originally now what what made you leave when you were 18 oh I don't know I think that I was didn't know what my major was going to be I was I guess not and I'm happy or something I don't I don't really remember but I I left school my parents were always very supportive of me and anything I wanted to do it so I left school and I came home and I I went up to well I enrolled in this in you and then I
couldn't finish the semester because I was in the hospital sick so then my father invited me to come with him and my older brother to Chicago for a shooting meeting she-she business meeting and so when I had two cousins living up there on my father's side and so after they left I spent a little while visiting with one of my cousins and I had a friend there in Chicago that I met in Dallas and I called her and she says why don't you stay here for a while and I said well I'm not gonna do that she said we'll get a job I said I
can't get a job I'm not gonna be here very long she said well you don't have to tell them that I said no I can't do anything like that and she said well she says we have an opening in our department and I'm gonna talk to my boss Lori get her name and see and if she doesn't ask you how long you're gonna say stay then you won't be lying if I said Elaine but anyway I did I went over there and I got the job and I stayed there a year so I didn't feel so badly right it was with him advertising agency and
I had a wonderful time they did a lot of guys and you know that all many of them it'd come home from the service and so it was really nice and my cousins were wonderful I did move into an apartment with a friend a lady who was looking for a roommate and and it was great time then I came home and then I had dated one person in New York in Chicago that I liked a lot and he he was a doctor and he got a residency in New York so I went to New York and I had an ant's there that you'll have to
stayed with and grant my family so in cousins so then I went to look for a job and I went to the they have agencies that just hired people in advertising I mean I couldn't believe that but that's where all the advertising agencies originated I think in New York anyway I went to one and I got a job but it was a very low job I mean low on the totem pole I was writing copy for a syndicated advertisement thing that you'd see in these little publications you'd pick up a grocery stores family something or other I'm sure you've picked them up anyway these were
patterns and you know describing I had to write the copy to describe the pattern of the dress and they'd send off to the church Street Station and get the pattern and and that's how they you know the business work but I had wonderful time I was down near Greenwich Village I lived up on Broadway and 87th and I had some friends from college you were up there working and looking for jobs one who had a gorgeous voice who was trying to get into theater musical ended up I think doing something like singing with the choir but anyway they were all living up there we were
all single we got some apartments together and we we had a wonderful time and and I worked there for about a year and then I came home because I decided I didn't like this guy after all and so getting back to dance and that was then I went to work in Dallas and I worked it Nima's which is where everybody gets out of college and goes to work for all anyway worked at Neiman's and I had worked there before during the holidays my father used to ask me what have I done wrong that you have to go out and get jobs don't I give you
everything you know that's right then I said dad but the person has to feel some some benefits from her own ability to do something yeah I can't always be just taking act to feel like I'm earning and so I went to Neiman's and I worked there for quite a while until I realized I'm not selling was not my thing I mean I won't go into the stories why not but it wasn't but I had a lot of friends who worked there so we had a really good time I'm not gonna give you all the names but you know a lot of and then I went
to I went back I had learned typing in shorthand in high school which was the greatest thing I ever did and I went brushed up on my ability to be a secretary and I became a secretary to one of the rabbi's at temple Emmanuel Herbie Arish who preceded rabbi Klein Gerald Klein and rabbi Olin hip was new in Dallas to the end been here very long and for some new temple I grew up in a temple and I stayed there until I got married and that was a couple of years and let's go back to your Jewish affiliations and your childhood did your family always
go to Temple emanu-el always my father I think when he married my mother he came for a fact that the grandeur was yeah and my father made my mother and her family was reformed and that's where they did the family participate in a lot of activities at Temple yes my mother especially I mean they were in you know but there weren't activities then like we have them now I mean right - how did your family celebrate Jewish holidays in a big way we never we had you know did all the stuff you do we had Passover we often had Passover with one of my aunts
and uncles they had a big house on South Boulevard which was very close to my house we all lived together that's one thing my aunt and uncle lived across the street with cousins and then another and not the lived on South Boulevard and Jeffries which was right for me and then another aunt and uncle lived and between those two streets which are Park Row and South Boulevard there was a home there apartment so we were all very very close to one another and we with all the cousins my age or their sort of two sets of cousins in there were quite a few were my
age Jack sax and Judy balls are these names wouldn't mean anything to you but but you know they were off the Aronoff stogie Philip I feel up so much but did you attend Sunday school there absolutely I started early as I told you to temple and I stayed on to study school until I was confirmed and that was about 15 when that happened I was the right age for confirmation from Temple but I was older than I was in a higher grade than most of the kids I was confirmed with because of skipping yeah but I did I was confirmed with the same he's like
mark Creager Mort and I were the same age we went all through Sunday school together and we were confirmed together but he was a year behind me starting school so but most of the others were too well the name is that you would know if you know anything about Jewish history what interactions did your family have with the rest of the Jewish community well you know I don't know what you mean by that I mean we we had an interaction through the temple my mother belonged to Hadassah actually my oldest brother's mother the one who died she was one of the founding members of Hadassah
in Dallas she and my Aunt Becky Sachs and other heavy slando dicen and then later on she joined you know she always belong to sisterhood she belong to later on to all the other organizations and and she they were they were more active as a family you know I mean they had each other so it's not like you move into a community today and you're new you have to get out and meet the morning they had people and they and friends that all lived Club them but had a lot of women friends she played mahjong she played bridge buy more mahjong I think the bridge
later on it was Canasta and gin rummy and but you know that they poker they get together with but they get together often with their relatives I mean you didn't have to go very far to find in a game he and did they have any kind of interactions with the Gentile community in those days you know I don't know that they did other than that my dad did business you know with them but I don't know what other give me an example when they might have had reason to be involved I can't even think of people in the neighborhood maybe you yeah I mean we
were we had friends who and the kids had more friends who were not Jewish than my parents because my parents I said you know between the temple and the family you know there was it wasn't now let's go back you I was just going to say them in our neighborhood we had not just temple members we had a lot of Sheriff Israel people that my brother and I were very close to all of them and I remember there used to be a little old man somebody would know his name and he used to walk down the street and stop at every house where he was
tutoring the boys who were being Bar Mitzvah he was a little maybe Rafa I don't know what forget his name but he was very cute little man and and then the people next door to me they kept kosher and so they had to have someone come to their yard and kill the chickens in the backyard you know and you'd hear all the flop I mean but you know we're all just friends and family regardless of what we're what we attended a lot of we shared this raw people so let's go back to you you're working now at temple Emmanuel yeah and then I decided you
to get married how'd you meet your husband well he was a blind date and first time I met him I really what we didn't like each other very much and he called me for a date a few weeks later and I said why and he said well I wanted to see if you were really as bad as I thought you were the first time so we went out and the rest is history he we have the first evening we went out I can understand why we had trouble we triple dated with couples that were and we were all going to the Naval Air Station they
had everybody had been in the Navy I guess was in the reserves and so this was right after the war so we even went out there for parties and such and and we got split up I had to sit in the front you know at the car he had to sit in the back cuz there were six of us in one car and those days they had sedans where you could do that easily but he we didn't sit together going or coming and so we didn't really get a chance to no one and it was what transpired but it was not it so we went
out after that I was just dating a lot because I didn't get married as young as some of my friends I think I must have dated every single man in Dallas and some who were coming back and forth wonderful courts of Canada a couple from Fort Worth and one that just traveled and this was his area and so I will mention their names but they're all many of them are still here and many of them are not still here because like I'm not still here but I was having a wonderful time I was not really ready to settle down I had had you know this
fella in New York that I thought I was in love with and when that ended I decided I wasn't ready to think about anything but my my dear husband Henry love with my life and the best friend I ever had he's convinced me to get married and I said oh heck all right already out best thing I ever did he was he was a lawyer and spent four years in the Navy and three three and a half of those years in combat in the Pacific and he wanted to settle there and have a family just like so many of the men who came back after
the war and my brother was in the service and my other brother was in the service for pictures of them little pictures but like I was saying earlier my oldest brother was too old to be in combat and my youngest brother was too young but they were both in the service and when did you get married I got married in 1950 and my husband came back from service 46 he finished law school in 47 and he was practicing by himself and we got married 1950 August 27th and we'll come back to that in a couple minutes but you had mentioned that his family had been
in Dallas for a beer right right his great great great grandfather came to down to Texas through Galveston not chemist start over his great grandfather whose name was Leopold's flinger came to Texas by way of New Orleans he landed there in about 1847 and 46 I don't know I've got his passport and he met and married a woman named Regine wolf whose family according to some members of his family who still live here now other members of our family she was there family were traveling actors anyway they married in New Orleans in 1848 they came to Texas to San Antonio they had their first son
mayor in 18-49 they had a daughter Rachel in 1851 and then they moved to madam Morris I mean to Cameron County to Brownsville Texas now they were there during this now my grandfather my grandfather Henry's grandfather Lewis was not born in Texas and we don't know why they were in Petersburg Virginia I think when he was born and there is some evidence from a letter I that the family had from Regina and Leopold's daughter one of their daughters that family lived in Austin and traveled I guess they didn't I don't know where they lived at the time maybe Brownsville but they traveled up to Cincinnati
and they spent some time there and I don't know why but coming back I guess they stopped him had a baby and that was Henry's my grandfather any right they had several chore mayor Rachel I can't think of their names right now no let me come back to that because on a sudden I can't remember their names but they were in there in the listed in the census of I have copies of that and like 1880 or 70 you know in Texas oh no no they weren't announced of 1900 but they lived in Brownsville and during the Civil War they were northern sympathizers so they
moved to metamoris and they opened a door their dry goods store and then they got there just in time to get involved in the the Mexican Civil War wear their hat their store was raided they were cast out of the store with muskets and this they took everything in the store and every great grandfather this is a whole story that I wrote up and put into the Dallas probably in the Historical Society files and it was published in the Texas Jewish Historical Society publication a few years ago but they he filed a lawsuit against the Mexican government and for all his losses and it's funny
to read it it's a he lists panelled ins and you know fine linens all this stuff anyway so he never got anything back and then he finally hired a lawyer and Washington to pursue the claim years later cuz he he not only wanted the original five thousand dollars that he sought from Mexican government he wanted interest on that the lawyer there was different than the lawyers today finally wrote him a letter and I've got a copy of it in the files that says dear mr. schlinger you lost I mean you know very so he never got anything but it was a interesting start but they lived in Brownsville after the Civil War they came back to Brownsville and he was a county commissioner and health's the various positions of some importance and to all the records down there and they they moved to Austin in their later years and Henry's great-grandmother regime is buried in Austin in the Oakwood Cemetery we had a hard time finding out someone told us they thought they saw her name there so we it was a my sister Maya Pauline and I went there and found the grave
and had some help finding it and someone took rubbings of it for us and both she as she's buried there but a lot of sad her grave there's a little monument that's not in the ground that's fallen over and they leaned it up against her monument which was quite large and and it was said SB slinger boy well we looked in the records and sure enough it was her grandchild who was named Leo after her husband label and he had died and they were buried together but Leopold longer than she did and he's buried in Galveston for his daughter Rachel Weinberger's and Weinberger's with it's
a long wonderful story about the family but they lived all over Texas they lived in Waxahachie and Dublin before they came to Dallas Henry's grandparents there his name was Lewis and name was Hannah and she was from an old Texas family the Cutler's in Waco they're both written up in the book deep in the heart you know that you can look at but anyway if they were here for a really long time and they came to a surrounding 1900s so Henry and his three siblings and million all of my siblings and cousins we made up about seventeen people who were confirmed from Temple and graduated
from Forest High School so I married a Dallas site and that's but you know each other's children no because he's seven years old nine I knew his brother Fred who was a year older than I was and I never did Henry and he had two older sisters and Chris they're all gone now and but they were close family and they lived in South Dallas on Pennsylvania and when Delta and then everybody moved north now let's go back to when you first got married where did you live we lived in an apartment on the street that's no longer there but it's in what is now in
wood village we lived there for a year until I was getting ready to have a baby let's face it we were going to wait but six weeks just as long as we went so I had a baby ten and a half months after I got married and we looked on board though there were some lovely studio apartments there we lived there and we had family living there that we were close to who are having babies at the same time so it was all you know got a lot and he had a lot of friends from over there who I have known for all my life
man and then from there we've got a half some wrecks drive which is not too far from where I live now originally it was a wreck some days yes and my gosh it's going to sound like we're living in a dog house Rex and Daisy but Daisy became rush hour it wouldn't even pay when we bought our house but it became rush hour which is a big straight people true trends first to get where they're going yeah traverse that transverse Traverse okay now which time was it that was the first one the first two bites showing was Hank and then Paula and then Barney and
they're all in this picture which was taken at my 80th birthday three years ago let's see starting on the left is my son-in-law Jim Gerhart nice sitting below him is my granddaughter Regina Gerhart there's another picture of her growing up now I show you that in a minute and next to her is my daughter Paula and next to her is her her son David and then that's me this is my oldest son Hank this is my his wife Julie my youngest son Barney and his wife Laurie and how many grandchildren do you have I have three grandchildren and he this is the two there in
that picture but this was taken a couple of years ago and he's 23 and she's 20 and they are wonderful and then I have Brandon grand shot my 59 year old son Hank became a first-time father on September 16 and this is - David he's very he and Hank did not want to have another Henry David because my husband name was named with Henry David and ink was a junior but my husband's father was named Henry he wasn't a David so but we have so many Henry's and I have a nephew named Henry though hello Hank decided no more Henry's this is hidin David Annie
ready he's precious and let's see what else when your children were growing up did they have the same sort of activities that you did what was different about Oh different different times mine my son my oldest son was very much into music he had a combo and he was making money with his combo in high school before you can imagine I mean they made enough money for them to buy equipment and hand blow fires and all that stuff so school was not that important to him and he got out but it was a wonder and then my daughter power school was easy for her and
she was she was and all the stuff that you do in high school the drill team although you know if you can get the drill team you practically commit suicide it was awful and I shouldn't say that because today that's not a subject we discussed but no it was very important for them to the girls getting the drill team and she hated it I mean after a year it was it was getting in that was important I mean you're one of the girls but she went off she didn't got a National Merit Scholar commendation she did very well she went off to Smith College and
Hank got into some college but didn't stay there long and came back went to North Texas and my youngest son Barney went to st. Mark's some time he was sixth grade and he was a gymnast and they and he was also a diver I made I thought would give him more opportunity to develop that stuff and it was minimal but he was he was younger than he was supposed to be to he started school when he was underage which we should have never done knowing my experience but he did very well and they would not hold him back a year it's why we put it in st.
Mark's they said he was he did too well on his test put him back so he ended up going to school in Boston Tufts got his undergraduate degree there and then got two graduate degree and then Hank eventually graduated got his undergraduate degree from SMU his graduate degree from his master's arethe messed in you and that his PhD from Western Michigan and Paula graduated from Smith College then went to Oxford and did her graduate work so they all turned out ok it's up what we worry the worries and there were really terrific kids they don't live here that come on ok let's talk about Dallas
the city how's the city changed you have an allergen the city has changed a lot it has changed in ways that affect me personally because I was you know used to being able to get around walking everyplace we even walked downtown from South Dallas we walked to the fair park it was right there the circus set up right near our house I mean you didn't have to go far to get places and then it's Dallas started growing it just got it was more difficult to get around without having a car without you know even the transportation you know I used to take the bus and
then transfer to the streetcar and it took a long time and as much as I hated it I missed it when it was gone because it lost a lot of that small-town feel and the people became different as a result of it you didn't see the people you wanted to see us often and I'm sure that other people will tell you the same thing it was was it was nicer in many ways when it was a smaller city how about the Jewish community well the Jewish community spread out too I mean my kids were involved we lived in North Dallas but they were involved in
Jewish things and they were my dog was very involved in Daphne and Tofte you know the organization's for DAP teens at Temple and the state top D and then she went to the camp Jewish camps up in Warwick New York a couple of summers and she was not involved with BBG and either with my sons well my youngest son was nominated to be a bow or something and one of the things but he was I don't think he was involved he it st. Mark's it was not as easy because even though there were a lot of Jewish kids everybody lived all over the place there was nobody necessarily living in their neighborhood which is one of the bad things about a private school but what was the question today as I said my kids we always celebrated all the holidays we never had Christmas there was never and nobody ever missed it in my family a lot of Jewish families did that trees I had a nephew in Fort Worth if he didn't have a tree to have a tantrum and believe me that was not fun to watch so but we
never had it and remember ever needing it or wanting it it was just not something we did I mean I've been in school I sang Christmas carols I loved him I still like and I'm sure they had a nativity play I don't remember but we didn't raise a ruckus about it it's just the way it was and they did their thing and we did ours and you sang in the choir I've sat in the temple Emmanuel Choir for over 50 years but right now I've retired somewhat I was just sing for the holidays my voice is changing in midlife sounds pretty good to me you
sound excellent okay and what are you most proud of in what way I guess I'm I don't most proud of my husband so you don't want to bring tears to my eyes no way does the greatest thing that ever happened to me that's wonderful he had heart trouble for 29 of the 38 years we were married but he never stopped living and practicing law and being involved in the community he was president of Jewish Family Service he was president temple Emmanuel president the Brotherhood president dowse Bar Association he was a very involved in the State Bar Association he was president of their foundation or chairman
I don't forget what they call these guys got plaques galore at home and as a result of his early demise he was the temple has established the Henry D slinger ethics symposium in his memory I didn't do it my family didn't do it it was done by the board of the temple I'm very proud that and you can contribute to it but it wasn't that originally by the temple in his honor and his memory he's been gone 22 years and they're still missing you