Maurice, Harris, Helen, and Moses Garb
In June 1927, Russian native Abe Garb, a grocer, died of wounds he suffered in a gruesome attack in the backyard of his San Antonio house. His wife, the former Dena Friedman, was unable to care for their seven children alone. The following year, upon the recommendation of the local B’nai B’rith lodges, she admitted her four youngest children to the Home: Maurice (11), Harris (8), Helen (5), and Moses (14 months).
This photo collage showed Abe Garb, and his survivors: wife Dena, and their seven children, including Helen, in center on steps, Harris, older brother Sam holding baby Moses, and Maurice (then called Morris, below). The accompanying article was titled, “Man’s Skull Smashed in Attack at Home,” San Antonio Light, June 30, 1927.
Seriously injured at age seven when he was run over by an ice-cream truck, Maurice entered the Home with only one arm and no self-pity. “He can more with one arm than most men can do with two,” commented one friend. “He can dress faster than I can, and doesn’t need any help from anyone.” At Isidore Newman School, although he was two years behind, Maurice captured a principal role in three high school operettas, and delivered one of the commencement speeches at his 1936 graduation about American constitutional milestone. His most celebrated talent, however, was on the football field, where he served as varsity captain and earned the nickname, “One-Armed Wonder.”
In 1934, seventeen-year-old Maurice was discharged from the Home. He continued his Newman education while living with James and Lydia Angell, who had opened their home over the years to boys and girls who needed a haven. Lydia had first met Maurice while she was student teaching at Newman.
At Tulane University, Maurice pledged with Sigma Alpha Mu fraternity, served as treasurer of the International Relations Club, and ranked twelfth highest on the senior class honor roll. With his 1940 bachelors degree in Physical Education, Maurice taught and coached football at Jefferson High School.
In 1943, he married Juliette Harries, with whom he raised a family. In 1977, the Angells sold their home to Maurice and his wife.
Maurice died in 1996 at age 78.
Maurice Garb, Isidore Newman School Pioneer, 1936.
Harris Garb lived in the Home until 1937, when he retuned to his mother in San Antonio. While attending Newman School before his discharge, he appeared in several performances with Maurice and his sister, Helen.
Harris served in World War II as Chief Yeoman in the Navy and married Josephine Lobue.
In 1957, he died at age 37.
Harris Garb. From Find A Grave.
At Isidore Newman School, while she lived in the Home, Helen also performed in plays, including the 1932 Mother Goose-themed operetta, “The House That Jack Built.” She later transferred to Joseph Kohn Commercial High School for Girls where she was elected class secretary and represented the school in 1939 as part of the National Good Citizenship Pilgrimage, hosted in Baton Rouge by the local chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution. After graduating from Kohn High School later that year, she returned to her mother in San Antonio.
In 1951, she married Leon Kirschner, with whom she lived in Dallas.
Moses, the youngest sibling, lived in the Home until 1943, when he was discharged to his brother, Maurice. He shared his older brother’s interest and talent in football; “Moe” completed his high school education at Jefferson High School, where he became captain of the team Maurice previously coached.
By 1950, he had married the former Rose Patterson. They lived in Baton Rouge, where they raised two children and he worked as a derrick man for an oil well drilling company. Moses died in 1993 at age 66.