Irene, Shirley, Jack, & Bettye (Sawilowsky) Sawl

In 1940, following the death of her husband Harry, Celia Golden Sawilowsky placed her four children in the Home, about which she had heard good things. Seven-year-old Bettye was admitted to the Home with her three older siblings: Irene (13), Jack (11), and Shirley (10).

Irene remained in the Home until June 1944, when she returned to her mother, who had shortened the family name to Sawl. In 1945, the City Council of New Orleans, on motion of Mayor Maestri, awarded Irene a scholarship to LSU, where she studied education and graduated in 1949. In 1953, she married Richard Cooper of New York, where the couple made their home. In addition to raising their daughter Caryn, Irene taught elementary school for many years. After Richard’s death in 1967, Irene moved to California. She died in 2017 in San Diego.

While Jack was in the Home, he attended Isidore Newman School, where he participated in wrestling. After returning to his mother in 1946, he completed his high school education at Alcee Fortier High School, where he achieved the grade of Cadet Major in the ROTC and served as battalion commander. He traveled the world with the Marchant Marines before serving as an Army instructor for the Nike missile program in El Paso, Texas.

In 1953, Jack married Estelle Miller at Congregation Beth Yeshurun in Houston, Texas. The couple made their home in El Paso, Texas, where they raised four children. Considered by his family the “original Jack of all trades,” he enjoyed a successful career with Abbey Transportation Systems, pursued passions of jazz, photography, and family, all while supporting children’s causes through his membership in the Scottish Rite Masons, Shriners, and American Legion. Jack died in 2009 and was buried in Beth Israel Cemetery in Fresno, California.

Shirley and Bettye remained at the Home until it closed in 1946 and, after returning to their mother, continued their education at Isidore Newman School. After graduating from Newman in 1949, Shirley earned her bachelor’s degree from Tulane’s School of Business Administration in 1954. Later that year, she married Sheldon Milgrom, a fellow Tulane student, in Brooklyn, New York, where she worked as a buyer for a clothing retailer until she delivered her first child. Following Sheldon’s death, Shirley married Dushon Zenovich. She later moved to Fresno, California, to be near her siblings, where she continues to live today. 

After the Home’s closure, Bettye graduated from Newman School in 1951, having distinguished herself in a wide range of activities. She remained in New Orleans where she studied early childhood education at Tulane University before marrying Willard Eisner, with whom she raised two children. Bettye also enjoyed a career in commercial interior design. The couple settled in Fresno, California, where she continues to live today, near her sister, Shirley.