February 20, 2017

Sylvia Greenberg

Sylvia's grandparents came from Poland and, rather than remaining in New York, traveled directly to Denver, Colorado. During the Depression, the family followed the Texas oil fields, moving from town to town, including Borger, ARP near Tyler, and eventually settling in West Texas. Her mother Betty, only seventeen at the time, married Sylvia's father after a whirlwind courtship in New York during a family wedding, and he embraced Texas life with cowboy boots, a hat, and a big cigar. Sylvia was a bright child who learned to read early, skipped grades, and grew up around horses and the oil town communities of West Texas, ultimately graduating high school at sixteen in Odessa.

Sylvia studied music, playing violin and flute, and attended college in Colorado for a year before transferring to the University of Oklahoma, where she graduated. A Dallas Independent School District music teacher recruited her, bringing her to Dallas to teach in the public schools. There she took up bridge and, through a game across the street from a neighbor, met Marvin Greenberg and his warm parents, Charlie and Sarah Greenberg. The couple married about three months later in October and remained married for more than fifty years. After Marvin served briefly in the army, they returned to Dallas to raise their family.

Sylvia and Marvin raised three children, Marla, Steven, and Barry, all of whom graduated from Hillcrest High School and the University of Texas. Marvin, a pharmacist, owned drugstores including one near Northwest Highway and Preston Road, and Sylvia became his bookkeeper. The family belonged to Congregation Shearith Israel, where Sylvia was active in sisterhood, and she watched both Dallas and its Jewish community grow tremendously over the decades. Later in life she took art lessons at the JCC, enjoyed painting, swam in the warm water pool, and remained devoted to the symphony, museums, bridge, her children, six grandchildren, and great-grandchildren.

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