Mollie Blumenthal was born and raised in Portland to immigrant parents: her father from Latvia and mother from Romania. Both parents had children from previous marriages and Mollie lived with a large blended family, eight children in a two bedroom house in South Portland. She attended Failing School and took classes after school in sewing and …
Read MoreKathryn Kahn Blumenfeld was born in Boise, Idaho around 1921 to a family that had been in the United States for a generation already. Her father Charles Kahn’s family started Kahn Bros. Hide and Wool business in Portland. Charles was born in Portland. He married Barbara Lauer, the daughter of a pioneering Jewish family in …
Read MoreStan Blauer, born September 19, 1935, is the only child of Meyer and Rose Stein Blauer. His father came from Austria-Hungary at age 13 (date unstated); his mother was born in Portland in 1914. His father worked mostly as a traveling salesman for a variety of clothing lines until the founding of the umbrella company. …
Read MoreJudy Blauer was born on March 17, 1941, the second daughter of Sol and Mildred Albert Sax. Judy’s maternal grandfather, Louis Albert, had immigrated from Russia as a young man and settled in Portland. He was well-known in Portland as the “Soda Pop King” as he invented and marketed several popular flavors of soda. Judy and …
Read MorePhil Blank was the last of seven children and the only child born in America to parents who came to Portland in 1914 via New York from Blagapol, Russia (near Kiev). They arrived with five sons: Sam, Abe, Joe, Lou, Ted, and one daughter, who died in Portland at age 11. Phil, who born in Portland …
Read MoreSolomon Bernstein was born in Odessa, Russia on June 22, 1886. In 1907, he was drafted into the Russian Army and served 39 months in the North Pacific. He married in Odessa in 1912 and left soon after the birth of his first daughter because they found Russia too antisemitic. Sol traveled through China and …
Read MoreJeremiah Jerome “Jimmy” Berg was born in Edmonton, Alberta on June 25, 1914. His family lived in Great Falls, Montana until 1919 when they moved to Portland. In 1920, Jimmy’s father purchased the Grant Street Theater, the Kearney Theater, and the Sunnyside Theater. He later owned the Lincoln Theater. The whole family worked at the theaters. …
Read MoreTillie Baderman, nee Cohen, was born on August 23, 1922 to Hymen Cohen and Yetta (Danzker) Cohen. Her mother was born Yetta Katz in Kiev, Russia in 1890, and was married to a Herschel Danzker, with whom she had two children: Irving Danzker and Lenore (Danzker) Liebrich. Herschel Danzker died in Russia and afterward, Yetta …
Read MoreGertrude Rosumny Bachman was born in 1900 in Lidvingka, Ukraine. In 1905, her family came to Old South Portland, where her oldest brother was living, and her father opened the Zion (later Star) Bakery. Gertrude attended both Failing and Shattuck elementary schools, as well as Lincoln High School. After graduation in 1917 she went to business …
Read MoreHarry Arnsberg was born in 1911 in Republic, Washington to immigrant parents from Grodno gubernia, Russia (which is sometimes in Poland). Harry’s parents met in England and married in Liverpool in 1900. They had their first child, Harry’s oldest sister Mildred, in England before moving to South Africa, where they had their second child, Harry’s …
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