Sara & Helen Gold

After marrying in New Orleans in 1912, fur trader Benjamin Gold and the former Mattie Herzog moved to Anchorage, Alaska, where they were raising their two daughters, Sara and Helen. In 1918, just five months after Helen’s birth, Mattie died of influenza. In 1920, after returning to New Orleans where Mattie was buried, Benjamin admitted Sara (7) and Helen (2) to the Home.

Ben and Mattie Herzog Gold, with daughter Sara. According to FamilySearch.org, Mattie was pregnant with Helen.

In 1931, Sara graduated from Newman School, where she was a member of the hiking team and performed in a flower dance at that year’s physical education program. She then attended the Touro Nurses Training School, while remaining under the Home’s supervision as a non-resident ward until 1933. In 1946, after working as a nurse when not managing her father’s Chartres Street shoe store, Sara married Ralph J. Holshouser, a steamboat engineer, with whom she lived in Plaquemine, Louisiana, and raised a son. Predeceased by her husband, Sara died in 1974 and was buried in Ahavas Sholem Cemetery in New Orleans.

Throughout her life, Helen expressed gratitude to the Home, recalling fond memories of her childhood and wonderful opportunities she received. During an early childhood illness which prevented Helen from going to school, the Home arranged for alumna Bessie Margolin, then attending Newcomb College, to tutor her. Her father kept in close touch with Helen and Sara, bringing treats when he visited and writing in between visits. Helen would describe her life as beautiful, having had “a lot of people loving me, and guiding me, and inspiring me,” including the private nurse the Home hired to care for her when she was first admitted (whom Helen knew only as “Mammy”) and Anna Berenson, the Home’s first social worker. 

Nurse Anna Levine Kamin (whom the children called “Veenie”) examines Helen Gold. This photograph appeared on the cover of the Golden City Messenger, Sept.-Oct. 1932 issue. Courtesy JCRS.

Helen graduated from Newman School in 1936, having accumulated a lengthy list of extracurricular activities and academic awards, including her selection as commencement speaker. 

 She received her undergraduate education at LSU before beginning studies toward a graduate degree in social work at Sophie Newcomb College (today part of Tulane University). While at LSU, she met and later married fellow student Derryl Haymon, with whom she founded Petroleum Service Corporation. Together they raised two daughters and three sons.

Helen worked for many years as a social worker with East Baton Rouge Welfare Department, and volunteered for more than 40 years at Woman’s Hospital while also supporting Beth Shalom Synagogue. With regard to the Home, Helen regularly attended alumni reunions and board meetings, including occasions on which she served as a panelist discussing the merits of orphanage care. In 2004, the Jewish Children’s Regional Service recognized Helen’s many years of leadership and dedication as a board member and donor with its highest honor, the Sara Stone Board Leadership Award. 

Helen died in 2010 at age 91 and was buried in Baton Rouge’s Greenoaks Memorial Park.