Jacqueline Behr
In 1933, a few years after the death of his wife, the former Jeanne Schwob, Edmond Behr admitted his 10-year-old daughter, Jaqueline, into the Home. Jeanne and Edmond were natives of France.
in the Home, celebrated her confirmation at Congregation Gates of Prayer. She participated in the Home’s 1939 anniversary performance of “Rebecca of Sunny Brook Farm,” playing the role of Jane Sawyer.
Following her discharge in 1940, Jacquie remained in New Orleans. She graduated from the shorthand program at Soule Business College and worked as a secretary for a wholesale shoe shop. In 1953, Jacquie married Wiliam Berman of Mobile, Alabama, where they raised two daughters.
Jacquie died in 2007 and was buried in Mobile’s Ahavas Chesed cemetery.
Jacquie in an undated photo at summer camp with Bill Trice, who attended Tulane medical school in the late 1930’s and may have worked as a student counselor in the Home. This and all other images on this page are courtesy of Jacquie’s daughter, Sharon B. Seltman.
This “Family Album,” a 13-page booklet created as a publicity piece in about 1939, depicts daily life in the Home. On the centerfold image, Jackie Behr has identified herself. Supervisor Rappley “Rapp” Lawes (tall gentleman in white suit), is shown with Home children on the pages labeled “Family Breakfast” and “Observing Sabbath.”
In her autograph album, Jacquie Behr captured poems and signatures from dozens of fellow Home children and several supervisors (including Superintendent Harry L. Ginsburg and his sister, “Aunt” Sonya Berger) between 1936 and 1938.