Marie, David, & Jack Testa
In 1920, Macedonian natives Peter (Perez/Paris) Testa and his wife the former Pearl (Palomba) Alexander, were living in Houston, Texas with their four children: Ralph (15), Marie (5), David (3), and Jack (1). In April, Pearl died. By June, unable to care for them alone, Peter admitted his three youngest children to the Home. Three years later, diagnosed as manic depressive, Peter was admitted to San Antonio State Hospital, where he remained until his death in 1946. In 1932, shortly before the first of the Testa siblings was discharged from the Home, Ralph died of accidental drowning while swimming.
Undated photo of Pearl Alexander Testa who died at age 32 in 1920. Courtesy of Peggy Testa, Pearl’s granddaughter.
Front to back, Jack, David, and Marie Testa at the Home, undated. Courtesy of Peggy Testa, David’s daughter.
While in the Home, Marie (known as Nicky) served as patrol leader in her girl scout troop and was featured in a duet musical performance with her brother David at the Home’s 1929 anniversary celebration. For high school, she transferred from Isidore Newman School to Joseph Kohn High School of Commerce for Girls, where she was elected vice president of the student body before graduating in 1932 from the three-year secretarial program.
Later that year, Marie was discharged into the care of her aunt, Mrs. Aaron L. Finger, of Daisetta, Texas. She first worked as a caseworker for Houston’s YWCA and then moved to Dallas where she later worked for the Dallas Tailor and Laundry Supply Company. In 1941, she married Martin Samuelsohn, with whom she raised two children.
Marie died in 1988 at age 72 and was buried in Shearith Israel Memorial Park.
Undated photo of (from left) Jack, Marie, and David. Courtesy of Peggy Testa, David’s daughter.
David demonstrated a flair for performance while in the Home. He not only played the cornet at several of the Home’s anniversary celebrations, but also played a fully-costumed Cheshire Cat to fellow Home resident Sarah Rosenberg’s Alice in Wonderland at the city’s Jewish Youth Day program in 1933. David’s daughter Peggy recalls the treasured silver trumpet her father received from a benefactor while in the Home and which, years after her sister played the instrument in the school band, was stolen when a thief broke into their house. The family managed, however, to keep the cardboard suitcase that David carried when he left the Home in 1934, shortly after graduating from the sign painting program of the Isaac Delgado Central Trades School.
Undated photo of David Testa. Courtesy of Peggy Testa.
Undated photo of David Testa playing tennis in the Home’s playground. Courtesy of Peggy Testa.
In 1947, David married Belle Bloom. They lived in El Campo, Texas where he worked as a salesman before opening a clothing store called “David’s.” They raised three daughters. David died at age 69 and was buried in Beth Yeshurun Cemetery in Houston.
David Testa, as the Cheshire Cat, with fellow Home ward Sarah Rosenberg, in a 1933 performance of Alice in Wonderland. Unattributed photo accompanying “Jewish Youth Day Program Arranged,” Times-Picayune, April 30, 1933.
The suitcase David Testa carried when he left the Home in 1934. Courtesy of Peggy Testa, David’s daughter.
Jack also enjoyed a wide range of documented activities while in the Home. While remaining at Isidore Newman from kindergarten through high school, he not only excelled in basketball (which he also played for Touro Synagogue in the city’s “Synagogue League”), but also won a varsity letter in football. His proficiency in Spanish language qualified him as one of 20 New Orleans high schoolers to compete for 10 European and Latin American tours, although no record is available of whether he made the final cut.
Isidore Newman School Pioneer, 1935.
After his 1935 discharge, one of Jack’s first employers in Houston was Morris Trifon, a relative of Harry Trifon who worked as a student counselor in the Home while attending medical school. In 1940, Jack married Sara Lee Wallach with whom he raised one son and later worked as a salesman in men’s clothing.
In 1956, Jack attended a Home reunion hosted by alumna Goldie Berger Knobler, who was fourteen years older. “Oh, I know you,” the Houston Chronicle reported Goldie told Jack. “I changed your diapers when you first came there.”
Jack died in 1998 at age 81 and was buried in Houston’s Beth Yeshurun Cemetery.
Undated photo of Jack Testa, in his Newman School varsity sweater, with two unidentified young men. Courtesy of Peggy Testa.
Brothers Jack and David Testa, celebrating New Year’s Eve in 1972. Courtesy of Peggy Testa.