1922-2006
Evelyn Tanenbaum Felson was born on June 7, 1922. In her earliest years she and her parents, Moe and Minnie Tanenbaum, lived in Rochester, New York, where Moe had a tailor/dry cleaning store with his brother Eli Tanenbaum. Evelyn’s brother Wilbur was born in 1926 in Rochester, when Evelyn was four. From Rochester, the family moved to Louisville, Kentucky, where she spent most of her youth.
On July 3, 1943, Evelyn married Leo (nee Leon) Felson. Leo was in the service at the time. In a letter shortly after their marriage, Evelyn writes the Felson family:
“First let me thank all of you for the lovely letters. You all have been so sweet about our marriage. But perhaps it is because you expected it more than my family. They were surprised a little but I think they are getting over the shock of it now. Besides instead of 2 children they now have 3. Isn’t that wonderful.”
Roslyn Felson, in a letter to Walter during the war (May 29, 1945) clarifies why Minnie and Moe were unhappy with Evy’s marrying Leo:
She (Minnie) was telling me how badly they felt when Evelyn got married. One really couldn’t blame them, since they scarcely knew Leo, and then too, Evelyn had only a few more months to go to finish her course at university. They are hoping that Evelyn will finish her work and finish her degree when she gets back to Cincinnati. I hope so too.
Evy and Leo spent some time in Corpus Christi,Texas where Leo was in training with the Marines. They lived at 626 Southern Street. Evy worked for an insurance adjustment company at the time. She comments:
“I am especially thankful the work is complicated but not too difficult and the hours are convenient especially the Sat. afternoon off.” (letter fragment, no date).
The two then moved to San Diego. Here is a letter from Ros to Walter, describing Evy and Leo’s situation in San Diego:
February 1, 1944: Received a letter from Evelyn and Leo today—he is in San Diego and she is in Los Angeles with an aunt. They see each other on weekends. Leo will be there about 3 months he has liberty only on weekends. He’s stationed on a farm and is having rigorous training consisting of field problems—makes 6 miles in 1 hour and 15 minutes.
Leo went overseas in 1945. He spent his first few months in Hawaii and was then transferred to Tzinatao, China, where he spent another four months. He completed his duty in the service in March of 1946.
After Leo returned from the service Evy and he moved to Columbus, Ohio, where Leo attended engineering school and studied mathematics. He obtained his Bachelors’ of Science Degree from The Ohio State University in 1951. From there Evy and Leo moved to Chicago, where Leo continued his studies, earning a Masters of Science in Hospital Administration from Northwestern University in 1954.
Shortly after they moved to Chicago, on September 16, 1952, Evelyn gave birth to their son David.
In May of 1959, Evelyn, Leo and David moved again, this time to Kansas City, where Leo was appointed as administrator of the Kansas City General Hospital. At some point, Evelyn must have completed her teacher training, because she was hired as a classroom teacher in the Kansas City Public Schools. The family lived there for three years and then moved to Milwaukee in 1962 when Leo served as Executive director of Mount Sinai Hospital and Evy continued with her teaching career.
Leo died from cancer in 1979. In her retirement and after Leo died, Evy traveled all over the world, collecting friends, experiences, and memorabilia. Later in her life, after her sister-in-law Louise Felson Abramson died, Evelyn became a very close companion to David Abramson, Louise’s husband. They lived walking distance from one another in Evanston, Illinois.
Evelyn Felson died in Boston July 11, 2006. *** images missing *** Click here for pictures of Evy and her friends and family over the years.
About Evelyn Felson
Written and Delivered By David Felson upon the death of his mother
1. A child raised in hardscrabble poverty first in Rochester, NY where the Tanenbaum brothers’ business failed during the depression, then in Louisville Kentucky. There they lived in a downtown ghetto above her father’s store. She looked forward to summers in Cincinnati with her Bubbie and her mother’s sisters (the Harris sisters) lived. Her childhood in poverty made her skeptical that any good fortune later in life would endure.
2. A music lover who fell in love with her husband when they were ushers at the Cincinnati Opera in the summer when members of the Met visited. A woman with a beautiful trained singing voice who used it sparingly. A subscriber to the Chicago Symphony even when she became too frail to attend.
3. A career woman when most in her generation were not. A devoted elementary school teacher always worried about her students and always searching for creative new teaching methods. This is the Evelyn with the sombrero and the Evelyn with the white lab coat and stethoscope. This was the Evelyn who understood and worried about the broken families of some of her young students and how their unstable homes affected their school work and futures. This was an Evelyn who even in her final days always remembered her children and wanted to go back to teaching.
4. A devoted wife who fiercely defended her man, Leo, even when his idealistic pursuits (computers in medicine; HMO’s; a birth control clinic in a Catholic hospital) created adversity for him, an adversity he never understood. While she was more pragmatic than he, she was his biggest and most unquestioning fan.
5. A perceptive woman who had an uncanny ability to appreciate what choices others needed to make. Had a realpolitik view of human relations and transmitted that to nieces, friends. A devoted and sympathetic ear to relatives and friends.
6. A nearly professional shopper in whom shopping was an avocation. Since some clothes purchased were never even worn, the excitement was more in the hunt than in the eating.
7. A middle aged woman who, after her husband died, became an independent adventurer and world traveler enrolling in elder hostels in Thailand, China, the Galapagos and elsewhere where she saw exotic places and made new friends. She was an irrepressible photographer of limited talents, creating a large scrapbook from photos and other mementos after each trip. She demanded attention when, after each trip, she would use the scrapbook as a basis for an Evelyn travelog. She made a bunch of girlfriends with whom she would travel.
8. An adventurer always searching for new stores, restaurants. For her son, every visit to her house would be accompanied by a trip to a new place she had discovered.
An embarrassingly forward woman who would always engage strangers inconversation and win their friendship. This would include airplane and elder hostel co-travelers, people visited in foreign countries, young people moving into her own apartment building. A woman who would always, in part by her persistence, convince others to yield—whether it be in a store which would not take a returned item, a plane that did not have seats for her family to sit together, a bakery that did not immediately have the item she wanted. Such persistence often mortified her teenage son.
10. A devoted significant other in older years to her brother in law, David, protecting his daughters from his harsh judgments and providing affection, devotion and partnership in old age.
11. A supportive and devoted sister of Wil Tanenbaum whose life was full of emotional turmoil. She served as a frequently visiting older sister and delegate from the real world.
12. A generous patron of the Democratic Party and its leaders. Certainly a member of their ‘core constituency’ convinced that most Republicans were inherently demagogic and evil. She still receives solicitations for every Democrat running for Senate and many other Democratic candidates.
13. A proud mother who, even she did not fully understand her son’s accomplishments, bragged about them to everyone.
14. A Jew with religious affiliation if not great knowledge or conviction.
15. A woman who was never satisfied. Even after this list, she would have identified a positive quality I did not mention and call me to task for omitting it.
The Felson Family 