Isidore and Sarah Kniez
Russian-born siblings, Isidore (8) and Sarah Kniez (or Kneiz) (5), were admitted to the Home in March 1916 from Mobile, Alabama by their father David following the death of their mother Eva. The application had been recommended by Leon Schwartz of Mobile’s B’nai B’rith, the city’s future mayor.
During his 9 years in the Home, Isidore demonstrated prowess in both music and sports. He played cornet in the brass quartet at the Home’s 1921 anniversary celebration, took part in a 1923 musical program in honor of B’nai B’rith, and was a member of Isidore Newman Manual Training School’s orchestra. As reflected by his senior page in Newman’s 1925 yearbook, Isidore played all sports, capturing not only press attention but also awards. “Isidore Kniez,” reported the Times-Picayune in June 1925, “end and back field player on the football team, consistent basketball performer and dandy diamond star, received the Manual Alumni Award for being the best all-around athlete during the past year” and also took home a silver baseball for his keen work on third base.
Isidore was discharged from the Home in August 1925. Later known as Irwin S. Knight, he married the former Irene Michael and raised a daughter in New Orleans. He died in 1984.
Isidore Kniez’s senior photo and extracurricular activities appeared in the June 1925 issue of Isidore Newman School’s Pioneer.
Isidore Kniez, kneeling at far left, with Isidore Newman Manual Training School basketball team, 1925. Fellow Home resident and teammate Archie Kronenberg is standing, third from left.
Isidore Kniez, standing far left, with the Manual baseball team in 1925. Also pictured are fellow Home residents and teammates Zalmon Tannenbaum (standing second from left), Archie Kronenberg (standing fourth from left), and Kermit Heilbron (kneeling fourth from left).
Sarah, too, left her mark at the Home and at school. Her poetry and short stories frequently appeared in the Home’s Golden City Messenger, including her poem, “The Cloud Circus,” which invited readers to lie in the grass and watch the clouds shaped like giraffes, elephants, and monkeys float by. At age 15, she also penned a poem about Chanukah when “all about the table the children gather round to sing the songs that make the room resound.”
Sarah Kniez’s poem, “My Study,” appeared in a 1927 issue of the Home’s Golden City Messenger.
In 1924, Sarah made news when she and about twenty other Newman fifth and sixth graders formed a “Little Women Club” that gave literary and musical performances. As the New Orleans Item reported, under the instruction of Newman fifth grade teacher, Pauline Mizzi, the girls held weekly meetings with “rigid parliamentary procedure” under which “no one thinks of giggling or addressing ‘Madame President’ without first rising.” Their motto was, “To be the big women of tomorrow, we must be the little women of today.”
Sarah graduated from Isidore Newman School in 1929, with a long list of extracurricular activities to her credit. Before leaving the Home later that year, she attended Soule Business School and began taking voice lessons.
Golden City Messenger, October 1929.
In 1938, Sarah, later known as Sally Knight, married Ray L. Sanford, a union that was solemnized by the Idaho Falls Latter Day Saints Temple. They moved to Idaho in 1943 where they raised three children and she gave voice lessons. She died in 1976 and was buried in Paul, Idaho.
