I conclude the story of Henry Goldsmith and his family in this post with final chapters on the lives of three of his ten children, those who outlived all the others: Walter, Florence, and Helen.

Walter Goldsmith and his wife Ella Rosenberg had suffered two terrible losses early in their marriage. Their first child had lived just a few weeks, and their second, Sarah, had died in 1921 from gastroenteritis when she was four. But Walter and Ella had had three more children after Sarah, as we have seen: Edison (born shortly before Sarah’s death in 1921), Stanley (1922) and Edna (1924). Thus, in 1930 Walter and Ella had three young children, and Walter was practicing dentistry in Pittsburgh.

The 1930s appear to have been fairly uneventful for Walter and his family, and by 1940, the three children were teenagers, and Walter continued to practice dentistry in Pittsburgh.

On October 16, 1942, Edison enlisted in the US Army; he’d been a salesman at Gimbel Brothers when he registered for the draft:

Edison served in the Army as a warrant officer and was honorably discharged on January 23, 1946. From March 10, 1945, until August 8, 1945, he served overseas in World War II.¹

Edison’s younger brother Stanley registered for the draft, but was not called for military service. He was nineteen at the time and not employed. He does appear in the 1942 University of Pittsburgh yearbook as a member of the photography staff of that publication, so he must have been a student when he registered for the draft. According to my cousin Robin, Stanley had very poor eyesight, yet somehow managed to become a photographer.

As listed in the 1954 and 1955 directories, Stanley and Edison and their sister Edna were all still living with their parents Walter and Ella at 1263 Bellerock Street in Pittsburgh. Edison was the vice-president of Manor Products, a company that manufactured awnings, and Edna was a telephone operator for the M.H. Delrick Company.  Stanley had no occupation listed. Their father Walter continued to be listed as a dentist in all these directories.²

On November 25, 1955, Edna Goldsmith married Arnold Feuerlicht.

Arnold was born in Sharon, Pennsylvania, on December 13, 1919,³ to Herman Feuerlicht and Guzella Baum. His father, a Romanian-born immigrant, was a baker. His mother was born in Austria-Hungary. In 1940, the family was living in Erie, Pennsylvania, and Arnold was working as a clerk in a shoe store.⁴

Arnold is listed in the 1955 Pittsburgh directory as an accountant.⁵ He and Edna thereafter purchased a new house in Wilkins Township, Pennsylvania, and had two children. After driving cross country on vacation and seeing Los Angeles, they moved In 1968, first living with Florence, and later purchasing a home in 1971, in Beverly Hills, California. Arnold continued to work as an accountant. ⁶

Four years after her daughter’s wedding, Ella Rosenberg Goldsmith died in Pittsburgh on November 21, 1959 at age 72.⁷ Her husband Walter survived her for twelve years; he died when he was 89 in August 1971.⁸

Walter and Ella were survived by their three children. Stanley died on February 24, 1994, in Pittsburgh; he was 71.⁹ The following year his brother Edison died on November 9, 1995; he was 74.¹⁰ Neither had married or had children. Their sister Edna survived them. She died in West Los Angeles, California, on October 19, 2007, at the age of 83. Her husband Arnold died less than two months later on December 5, 2007; he was 87. Edna and Arnold were survived by their children.

With Walter Goldsmith’s death in 1971, only two of Henry Goldsmith’s ten children were still living, his two daughters, Florence and Helen.  Florence died at 91 in Beverly Hills, California, on April 22, 1975.¹¹

That left only Helen, the youngest of Henry Goldsmith’s children. In 1930 she’d been living with her husband Edwin T. Meyer and two sons Edgar and Malcolm in Pittsburgh. Edwin was an optometrist.¹²

On March 19, 1938 Edgar married Esther Orringer in Weirton, West Virginia.¹³ Esther was the daughter of Oscar Orringer and Rose Spann and was born on March 5, 1916, in Pittsburgh.¹⁴ Her parents were Austrian-born immigrants, and in 1920 her father was in the wholesale grocery business in Pittsburgh.¹⁵ A heartfelt thank you to Cathy Meder-Dempsey of Opening Doors in Brick Walls for locating Edgar and Esther’s marriage record.

Edgar’s brother Malcolm married Carolyn Schnurrer on September 1, 1942, in Pittsburgh. Carolyn was the daughter of Michael Max Schnurrer, an architectural draftsman, and Eva Katz, both of whom were Romanian immigrants. She was born on December 15, 1919, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.¹⁶ Carolyn and Malcolm were both graduates of the University of Pittsburgh.

Malcolm was a lieutenant in the US Army when he and Carolyn married; he was stationed at Camp Lee, Virginia. He served in the Army from May 4, 1942, until March 2, 1946, including two and a half years overseas during World War II. When he returned, he and Carolyn settled in Pittsburgh and had two children together. Like his father Edwin, Malcolm was an optometrist.¹⁷

Edgar and Esther also stayed in Pittsburgh for some time. They had one child. When Edgar registered for the World War II draft, he was working for Gulf Research and Development Company and living in Wilkinsburg, Pennsylvania, just outside of Pittsburgh.

But Edgar was not destined to stay in western Pennsylvania. In 1950 he is listed in the Buffalo, New York directory as a physicist.¹⁸ According to his obituary, he lived in Vienna, Austria from 1968 to 1970, working as a representative of the American Optical Company board of directors. Then he returned to the US and settled in Massachusetts where he was the manager of the medical products division of the American Optical Company from 1970 until 1972.¹⁹

During that time his father Edwin died. Edwin was 81 when he passed away on March 19, 1971.²⁰ The family suffered another loss two years later when Malcolm’s wife Carolyn died in May 1973; she was only 53.²¹  Then just two years later Edgar Meyer died on April 17, 1975, in Pittsburgh, to which he had only recently returned upon retiring.  Edgar was sixty years old. He was survived by his mother Helen, his wife Esther, his brother Malcolm, his daughter, and grandchildren.²²

Helen Goldsmith Meyer had lost her husband Edwin, her daughter-in-law Carolyn, and her son Edgar in the space of four years.

Helen herself died in August 1983 in Washington, Pennsylvania.  She was 93 years old.²³ Her son Malcolm also lived a long life. He was also 93 when he died on May 1, 2011. He was survived by his children and grandchildren.²⁴

I have just connected with two of Helen’s granddaughters and one of Walter’s granddaughters and hope to have more photographs and personal recollections to add to an update to this post. But for now, I have reached the end of the story of my double cousin Henry Goldsmith, his wife Sarah Jaffa, their ten children and many grandchildren.

And it brings me to the last of Simon Goldsmith’s children, my other double cousin Hannah Goldsmith, Henry’s full sister. Both Henry and Hannah were born in the US shortly after their parents immigrated; both lost their mother when they were just toddlers. Both overcame the odds and lived full and successful lives. Both lived those lives in western Pennsylvania.

Hannah’s story comes next.