Award Winning Texas History with a Heap of Chutzpah

At 20, Olga Bernstein Kohlberg sails into New York Harbor in 1884, accompanied by her husband, Ernst. Both native Westphalians, the newlyweds journey by rail to El Paso. Ernst first arrived in El Paso nine years earlier and wrote to his family “if I had known what I know now I would not have come here.” 

Yet here he is, bringing his bride to her new home. Olga gives birth to four children in eight years, a metaphor for El Paso’s booming population. As the town grows so does its needs. Olga recognizes these needs and through her leadership El Paso gains its first hospital and the first public kindergarten in Texas is created. She is a champion of the first public library and serves on its board until her death. She becomes an advocate for the Cloudcroft Baby Sanitorium in New Mexico, where sick El Paso children are nursed back to health.

Tragedy strikes in 1910 when Ernst Kohlberg is shot to death by a disgruntled tenant. Olga endures a lengthy trial, laced with antisemitic tropes and lurid accusations aimed at her beloved dead husband. Ever generous, she allows the convicted murderer’s wife and children to live rent free. 

Known as “the showwoman of Waco,” Gussie Oscar defies convention and gleefully ushers central Texas into the 20th century. The daughter of Polish immigrants, Gussie grows up in Calvert and is educated at a convent in Austin. In 1905, she arrives in Waco. A talented pianist, Gussie finds work at the Majestic Theatre and leads an all-female orchestra. After touring the West and Canada, Gussie returns to Texas and becomes the booking agent and manager of the Waco Auditorium.

Gussie brings Harry Houdini, Fred and Adele Astaire, the Marx Brothers, Anna Pavlova, John Philip Sousa, Jascha Heifetz, Sarah Bernhardt, Eleanor Roosevelt, and Will Rogers to appear at the Waco Auditorium. She even brings frank discussions of family planning to the town on the Chisholm Trail. A performance of Irving Berlin’s “Music Box Review” lands Gussie and 20 actresses in jail for indecency. She never marries and lives in the honeymoon suite of a downtown hotel, the only room big enough for her grand piano.

In 1907, 16-year-old Ray Karchmer and her family flee the Cossacks and pogroms of Lithuania. They arrive in Galveston and head north, settling in Denison. Four years later, Ray returns to Galveston and becomes the first Jewish woman to graduate from a Texas medical school. She marries Louis Daily, whom she met in medical school. They open an ear, nose and throat practice in Houston. Ray travels several times to Austria, accompanied by her young son Louis Jr., to learn the latest practices in eye surgery.

In Houston, Ray vies for a seat on the Houston School Board in 1928 and wins on an anti-Klan platform. She advocates for the hiring of special education teachers and equal pay for female and African American staff. In the 1940s, Ray champions a federal free lunch program, an issue that her political opponents seize on. She is labeled a "Russian born Red Jewess.” In spite of this, she keeps her seat until 1952, when McCarthyism hit its fever pitch. Ray continues to practice medicine until shortly before her death in 1973. Thirty years later, Ray K. Daily Elementary school opens in Houston.

Born in 1893, Fania grows up in Russia, a witness to the atrocities of Cossack troops. As a young teen, she becomes involved in anti-Czarist activism and her parents fear for her safety. They leave for America and the Feldman family settles in Fort Worth, where Fania learns English, works in a liquor warehouse, and meets Sam Kruger.

The couple wed in 1912 and follow the railroad and an oil boom to Wichita Falls, where Sam expands his jewelry business. His financial success allows Fania to focus on poetry. Her work, inspired by her faith and compassion for humanity, draws critical acclaim.

After Sam’s death in 1952, Fania moves to Austin. She takes an apartment near campus and attends courses and lectures. Fania’s fame spreads as her poems are translated into many languages. Fania forges a friendship with both Allen Ginsberg and Langston Hughes and she and Hughes have a long running correspondence. Ocassionally, Fania mails Hughes some of her famous strudel and he shares unpublished poems with her.

A second generation Texan, Frances Rosenthal is born in 1908. She leaves Fort Worth to attend Vassar and receives her degree from the University of Chicago. On a family trip to San Antonio, Frances meets Perry Kallison. They marry in 1931 and San Antonio becomes the couple’s home. They live primarily in town, where Perry runs his sprawling "Big Country Store" from which he broadcasts his radio show, "The Ol' Trader" and Frances is involved in rasing her children and civic activity.

Out at the 2,700 acre Kallison ranch, Frances rides palominos and is involved in cattle breeding, but her contributions to Texas are so much more. Her leadership with the National Council of Jewish Women leads to the first dedicated maternity ward in the city hospital. She also creates a preschool for blind toddlers. Frances is a co-founder of the Ladies’ Auxiliary to the Bexar County Sheriff’s Mounted Posse, a precision horseback riding and mounted drill team. Proceeds from their performances and appearances in films and on television are donated to local hospitals and veterans' organizations.

Frances advocates against the poll tax that is used to keep African Americans and Latinos from voting. She writes and publishes essays about Texas Jewish history and helps launch the Texas Jewish Historical Society in 1980. In 2016, she is posthumously inducted into the National Cowgirl Museum and Hall of Fame. She is currently the only Jewish inductee.