Lillian Hofstetter
When Lillian was two, her mother died. She shuttled between two aunts in New Orleans while her father traveled frequently for his job as a ship steward. In 1927, at age 6, Lillian was admitted to the Home.
After attending Newman School for the lower grades, Lillian graduated from Joseph Kohn Commercial School for Girls. She was discharged from the Home in 1938.
In 1939, Lillian married fellow Home alumnus Emanuel Pulitzer, with whom she had a son, who died at age 20 in a plane crash, and two daughters. Following Emanuel’s death in 1967, Lillian married Jack Smith. Known for her exquisite taste, she ran a clothing store, “The Uptowner.”
Lillian Pulitzer Smith died in 2013 at the age of 92.
Lillian’s poem appeared in the April 1929 issue of the Home’s newsletter, The Golden City Messenger.
In Lillian's Own Words
In 1983, Lillian Pulitzer Smith participated in the Jewish Children’s Home alumni project. She shared her recollections of growing up in the Home with Mildred Heller, whose husband, Isaac, was the son of Rabbi Max Heller of Temple Sinai. Read Lillian’s recollections here.
In 2004, Lillian Hofstetter Pulitzer Smith was interviewed by a staff member of the Institute of Southern Jewish Life about her childhood in the Home. Watch the video here.