Adele, Bessie, Louise, and Sarah Karp

In 1923, Rosie Dubinski Karp admitted her three eldest daughters to the Home: Louise (2), Bessie (3), and Adele (5). Three years later, their youngest sister, Sarah, joined them. As for their father, Jacob, who had earlier worked in New Orleans as a hatter, the Home’s registry recorded only that his whereabouts were unknown.

During her twelve years in the Home, Adele enjoyed a well-documented childhood. She entered Newman School in kindergarten and among other activities enjoyed sports (playing varsity basketball, volleyball, and baseball) and performing arts (taking dance lessons from the age of seven, playing the role of Ming Toy in “The Nutcracker Suite” in 1930, and performing with the school glee club in “The Maid and the Middy” in 1931). All four sisters performed together in the Home’s 1933 anniversary production of “Alice in Wonderland.”

These two photos, both labeled “Adele Karp 1930,” are from the scrapbook of Bessie Mashinka Rothstein, courtesy of Bessie’s daughter, Debbie Wizig.

Adele graduated from Isidore Newman High School in 1934, before earning a diploma in shorthand and typing at Soule Business College. As she transitioned out of the Home, she worked as a secretary in the Home’s office, for a lawyer named Arthur Steiner, and later at Isidore Newman School, before marrying Emile “Sleepy” Cahn in 1936. The wedding, officiated by Rabbi Emil Leipziger, was hosted by Adele’s “Big Sister,” Nora Kern Feibleman, at the Dufossat Street home she shared with husband Leopold Feibleman, a department store executive. Of Nora Feibleman, Adele said, “We remained friends always.”

Adele and Sleepy had one son. She died in New Orleans in 2018 at the age of 100. She was remembered for her remarkable recall and for remaining grateful to the Home for the excellent care and education she and her sisters received.

Bessie graduated Temple Sinai’s religious high school in 1936, and the next year graduated from L.E. Rabouin High School with a certificate in cosmetic therapy. Following her discharge from the Home, Bessie worked as a beautician while living with her sister Louise in a boarding house on Willow Street.

In June 1945, Bessie married Victor Charles Mulberg, a dentist who had received his training at Loyola in New Orleans. Bessie died in 1964 at age 45 in Tampa, Florida.

Like her older sister Adele, Louise spent much of her childhood engaged in theater and dance. Newspaper accounts show Louise performing in operettas at Newman School and in a pageant at the Joseph B. Kohn High School for Girls from which she graduated  in 1938. Within the Home, Louise was featured at several of the Home’s anniversary celebrations, dressed as a kitten in 1935 and performing ballet and tap dances in 1937.

Louise Karp, left, with another Home girl (unidentified). Golden City Messenger, January 1928.

In addition, as a student of the Jack Velsor School of Dance, Louise performed with his troupe in venues around New Orleans, including in “Jambalaya,” a 1938 musical revue which was the city’s first production offered by the Federal Theatre Playhouse under the Works Progress Administration.

In 1940, after living with Bessie and working as a stenographer for a coffee company, Louise married Irving Essrig, M.D., a surgeon. As with Adele, Nora Kern Feibleman, the girls’ Big Sister from their time in the Home, hosted Louise’s wedding at her home.

They had three children. After divorcing in 1977, Louise moved to Florida. She died in 2023 at age 102.

As part of Jack Velsor’s dance troupe, Louise Karp performed a leading role in a 1938 benefit show organized by the magician, “Herman The Great.” Unattributed photo, “To Dance At Magician’s Benefit,” New Orleans Item, July 7, 1938.

Sarah, the youngest sister, lived in the Home until 1942. Her early days in the Home were captured in photos published in the Golden City Messenger.

Sarah was highlighted in a 1942 article about women holding jobs formerly held by men who were serving in World War II. The New Orleans Item noted that Sarah Karp was “the first copy girl hired by the Associated Press office connected with The Item. She runs errands and does the work a boy has always done before this.”

Sarah Karp, right, with unidentified Home boy. Golden City Messenger, March  1930.

In 1948, Sarah married Solomon C. Joseph, a clothing salesman, in a ceremony held at Adele’s house. 

Sarah died in 2003 and was buried in New Orleans, alongside her late husband, who died in 1975..