Beerman Siblings: Ralph, Ida, Sarah, Roy, Morris, & Mollie

In 1924, following the death of his wife, the former Esther Harris, Abraham Beerman reluctantly admitted six of their eight children into the Home from West, Texas, outside of Waco. At ages 16 and 14, Sadie and David were too old for admission. Accompanied by a B’nai B’rith volunteer, Ralph (12), Ida (11), Sarah (8), Roy (6), Morris (4), and Mollie (2), traveled 500 miles by train to reach the Home.

“As Ralph boarded the Pullman car, his first time on a train, his initial objections to being sent to the Home gave way to a thirst for adventure. On the first evening of the two-night trip, after watching wide-eyed as a porter converted seats into beds, Ralph climbed into his berth, ‘almost too excited to sleep.’ The next day, after enjoying ‘a good breakfast’ in the dining car, the train — ‘constantly shifting back and forth, stopping at every stop’ — eventually pulled into Houston’s ‘big grey railyard.’ The second morning the train halted again, this time to cross the Mississippi River. In heavy fog, Ralph gazed with fascination as men loaded the train onto a huge barge. Soon, while sirens blared, Ralph felt the train floating on water. After what seemed a long time, the barge and its mammoth cargo reached the other side of the river, where workers reassembled the train cars for the last leg of the trip. Despite the hardship that prompted the journey, for Ralph and his siblings, whose worldview had been limited to West’s few small buildings, the sight of the big city of New Orleans was thrilling. ‘We were enjoying every minute of it!’ recalled the remarkably upbeat Beerman.” –From Most Fortunate Unfortunates: The Jewish Orphans’ Home of New Orleans, 72.

Ralph Beerman, center, with two Home peers identified only as Sam and Louis, 1926. Courtesy Allan “Bunky” Garonzik.

Ralph Beerman, on bottom, from Golden City Messenger, May 1926.

Ralph Beerman, on tall stilts, from Golden City Messenger, June 1926.

During Ralph’s time in the Home, he greatly enjoyed the opportunity to play sports, especially with all the appropriate equipment, something he said his poor family could not afford. He left Isidore Newman School before completing high school, and instead “jumped at the chance” to attend Delgado Trades School where he learned metal work and drafting that qualified him for machine shop jobs after he left the Home in 1930. Looking back years later from his position as president and CEO of his own national industrial equipment business, Ralph appreciated what both schools offered. “I don’t believe I could have gotten that exposure to life anywhere else.”

In 1983, Ralph Beerman participated in the Jewish Children’s Home Alumni Project by sharing his handwritten recollections of Home life, including a lengthy fist fight between Louis Peters and Norman “Buddy” Mayer, and the time Reuben Cantor (intentionally) dropped a stack of dishes in a mischievous response to a supervisor’s exclamation, “You are going to drop them!” Courtesy of JCRS. Read pdf here.

While in the Home, Ida Rose Beerman was a frequent contributor of poems and short articles to the “Children’s Page” of the Golden City Messenger and to the Isidore Newman School Pioneer. She graduated from Isidore Newman School in 1931, before she was discharged to an aunt in Dallas, Texas. In 1938, Ida married Sylvan Garonzik, who co-owned a professional photography studio. Together they raised four children. 

Ida died in 1992 at age 78 and was buried in Dallas. 

Ida Beerman, from scrapbook of Bessie Mashinka Rothstein.

“Song of Spring,” a poem by Ida Beerman, Isidore Newman School Pioneer, 1930.

Ida Beerman Garonzik and her husband Sylvan Garonzik. Courtesy of Ida’s son, Allan “Bunky” Garonzik.

While in the Home, Sarah Beerman completed her post-confirmation religious education at Touro Synagogue and graduated from Joseph Kohn High School for Girls in 1932. She was discharged  from the Home in 1934 into the care of her older, married sister, Sadie Beerman Siegel in Dallas.

After working as a secretary in Houston, Sarah married petroleum engineer Gordon Woolsey of Alvin, Texas. They spent 13 years in Venezuela where their two children grew up.

Sarah died in 1991.

Sarah Beerman sits on swing while Helen Eldrich waits next in line. Golden City Messenger, October 1927.

Before he was discharged from the Home in 1936, Roy Beerman shared the stage with younger sister Mollie in Isidore Newman School’s 1933 nursery rhyme operetta, “The House That Jack Built,” and with siblings Sarah, Morris, and Mollie in the Home’s 1932 anniversary performance of “Alice in Wonderland.” He celebrated his confirmation at Touro Synagogue, where he also later graduated from the religious high school.

After discharge, he lived with his sister Sadie and her husband Hyman before serving in the Air Force during World War II and then again from 1955 through 1970 as an Airman First Class in the 4238th Combat Support Group. 

Roy, who remained unmarried, died in 1988.

Morris Beerman lived in the Home until 1940. Like his siblings, he celebrated his confirmation and later his religious high school graduation at Touro Synagogue. He transferred from Isidore Newman School to complete his secular high school education at Isaac Delgado Central Trades School where he earned his diploma in “show card art,” or hand-lettered advertising signs. This career path led him to become an illustrator for the Army Corps of Engineers, and gain recognition for his talents as cartoonist, sign painter, and prize winning float maker. In 1956, he married Bonnie Ogden with whom he raised five children. 

Morris Beerman, drawing, with Andy Kahn, holding model airplane. Jewish Children’s Home “Tell-A-Vision” brochure, 1940.

Morris, also known as Moe, endeared himself to his  community for volunteering “his invaluable assistance” in the creation of West Seattle’s 11 historic murals from 1989 to 1993. Artists from around the world were invited to paint the murals, and Morris assisted them. As one resident told the Seattle Times, “Moe was the glue for it all. He was the combination assistant, emcee and schmoozer with the public.” Watch a 2016 tour of the murals here, in which Southwest Seattle Historical Society Executive Director Clay Eals explains Morris and Bonnie Beerman’s crucial involvement in the idea behind the mural project and Moe’s imprint on the murals themselves.

Morris died in 2008 at age 87. As reported by the Seattle Times, he “was such a fan of John Wayne that his family asked that his death certificate say he died at High Noon, after the famous cowboy movie (never mind that it didn’t star John Wayne).”

Mollie, the youngest Beerman sibling, lived in the Home until 1939, following her graduation from Joseph Kohn Commercial High School for Girls. At the request of B’nai Britt’s Eureka Lodge of Waco, Texas, she was discharged into the care of her married sister, Sadie Beerman Siegel in Dallas.

In 1945, as reported by the Dallas Morning News, Mollie married Louis Katz and moved to Fort Worth where they raised two children. At 51, she started her own business, Cash Personnel Services, which she ran until she moved to Dallas in 1989. In 1993, following Louis’s death, Mollie married Bertram Kessel. She tutored at the local elementary school and served as Brownie leader.

Mollie died in 2003 at the age of 81 and was buried in Dallas’s Emanuel El Cemetery.

In 1979, Houston’s Jewish Herald Voice, owned by Home alumnus Joseph Samuels and his wife Jeanne Samuels, published an article about the Beerman family and their recent reunion. Click here to read the three-page article via the Portal to Texas History.