Florence & Kermit Heilbron

For several years after the death of his wife, Josephine, Morris Heilbron and their children, Florence and Kermit, lived with his widowed mother in New Orleans. In 1920, however, Morris admitted Florence (8) and Kermit (10) to the Home.

Flossie, as she was known, lived in the Home until February 1929. In 1925, she was among the 12- and 13-year-olds who won prizes in the New Orleans States city-wide essay contest.

She later married Frank Vincius, a postal clerk, and lived in New Orleans. She died in March 1979. 

In June 1928, following his graduation from Isidore Newman School, Kermit left the Home to work at Gus Mayer Co. department store. He remained under the Home’s supervision as a non-resident ward until January 1929.

Following his Air Force service in World War II, Kermit stayed in Germany as a civilian worker at Erding Air Force Base, which had been used by the German to test jet planes. It was there, reported a 1951 article that appeared in the Times-Picayune, that he met Crystal Ann Huth, a native of Germany, who very much appreciated the sandwich he shared with her and her sister. Following their courtship and and two inches of paperwork to comply with the red tape, Kermit returned to the United States with his German bride, at first staying temporarily with his sister Flossie and her husband Frank. “Sandwich Starts Romance; Orleanian Has German Bride,” Times-Picayune, October 14, 1951.

Kermit died in 1996 at age 86.