Full Transcript
today is Thursday November for sex and I am John Fremont and I'm very happy to interview you today as part of our oral history project of roots to boost and the Dallas to historical society and this is Renee Lili in her beautiful home and ran out many a long time so it's really a pleasure to be doing the same let's talk first about your life in South Africa and let's start with why and when your family originally came to South Africa and what can you tell us about their own lives and la years there my father was Percy Richmond and he was born in dec
urania in a small town called protocol and they were going through in 90 was born in 1910 and they had Cossacks and a lot of strife and fighting and his mother always said to him Percy and his family came from a family of 10 children he said you need to you the family needs to leave before there's going to be a lot of turmoil in this country and my dad always had the foresight even as a young child that eventually he would leave the country unfortunately none of his brothers and sisters that he was was probably the second youngest in the family and decided in
1922 to leave cuoco say it was 12 years old he went on a vote and actually thought took his sister raw he had one sister degree and they lived cool call on this boat and on that boat were other landslide and then cook them once lovers were like the very very closest friends and and they were like family accordingly but they lived in the same shtetl which is a San little village and there and those two men was max tiny and that is Louie air max is a Norman Chinese father and Louie Johnny who is Michael Chinese phone so they all went on the same
boat and they arrived in Johannesburg with a suitcase he didn't I think it took them about to get from cuoco jun 22 husband and he said the conditions were just appalled how they even survived a 12 year old sister was older than him so she was looking lovely and did they have family in tennis fit that they came to yes he had an uncle who was living in a town in the suburb of Johannesburg that is called hill extension and he had a confectionary store my father and came to him as a very as a young boy lived his sister was his sister had to
find her own way and knocked on the door and this man call was not a very nice man it's extremely me and he said look you can I'll take her in you'll sleep in the back of the store on a newspaper and you will be delivering newspapers in the mall so you have to wait four o'clock in the morning and deliver newspapers for this uncle of his he then he then was treated very badly I mean hardly any food had to work you have newspapers then coming to the confectionary store sell things in the confectionary store going to sleep later marketing approaches yeah so now
my father was about 16 years old and he then to silent he's got working in this grocery store what's interesting he's had no education costs no well yes in this way and have a difficult in his language happy bday this buggy edition so he keep obviously had english no english where he lived he now as I said went to work in this grocery store and the manager and really that took to him he was such a hard-working must have worked 14 to 16 hours a day and he actually I think he at this stage lived with Michael's father and with Lou so wet Louie is
Michael's father and with Max and that is normal times for them and so they the three of them now put their money together and range a little one-bedroom who knows how they lived and you've been went then became a manager of this grocery store they liked him so much that about 18 years old he bought happened to becoming a manager and saved every penny penny he said will make you he said save the pennies and the pounds will look after themselves that was always my dad's expression and he saved and saved and by the time he was 20 when he bought the grocery store and
then from there on he bought the building he then became the king of residual the only every property in the symbol he then married my mother ok I will talk about my mother who's shalani Glickman whoops she was still on board roarsome she was born in nineteen twenties was 10 years older than my father Tim years younger than my father excuse me and where was she born she was born in a small there's called copies in our interest rate in South Africa and she was one of six children she was the second youngest in the third youngest she was in the middle and she as
I said she came from copies very very poor family father was a tailor mother was the housekeeper very lawyer she said often there which went to school without shoes on and then they were all her sisters and brothers very close wonderful family moved to Johannesburg and when she was 20 years old she been met my father and their got me so that my mother got married at 20 years old my father was 30 my father was extremely successful they lived in a magnificent house in headaches tension that's where I was born and we three years later into a lovely beautiful home and a current heart
grounds and my father retired 40 years old so you never knew your father's parents because they stayed in Lithuania and your mother's parents yes okay so you had grandparents yes I have grandparents my grandfather was a very his name was Morris Orbison that's my mother's father he was an extremely brilliant man psychic he predicted the man one day a man will walk on them really let's talk about your schooling and what you did in South Africa professionally okay i lived in lower Hampton said my primary school sexing world and my high school was popped on girls high when i was a public school but it
was all girls we wall school uniforms pan on my hands we're trying to bust every day my mother pick me up from the bus you know in a little pre vector company more what you go and and and then went to university rather a bachelor of arts degree and then went to Teachers Training College taught at numerous schools and then immigrated to Canada did not teach in Toronto a lead as I had a baby and when we came back from from South Africa a from Canada we went back to South Africa and I'm talk today what did you teach I taught primary school at a
school called when you would finally school and then him then came back to to to dallas and while Ellen was building up real estate business selling homes I went in with a friend and we sold Judith we saw watches and was called to of a we did with Brenda camp so we did that and then started playing bridge and picked up but then very quickly and just had a passion for it may be because of my father always plays cards and I was always watching cards and then started teaching friends and from there I then became bridge T term and talk for 17 years and
now our returns happens and rapidly ara thank you
