I910-1987
Roslyn Marcus Felson was the first of Esther and Abe Marcus’s eight children. She was born on March 12, 1910 in Cincinnati, Ohio. Roslyn married Walter Felson after a five-year courtship on November 25, 1930. Here is what she looked like around the time they were married. (A little jaundiced from Judy’s photoshopping.)
They eventually had three children, Judith (b 1939), Elaine (b 1941) and Jerry (b 1947). Walter had a family medical practice in Greenfield, Ohio, located in the same house where the family lived.
Here are some things their daughters (Judy and Elaine) remembered about their mother as they reminisced one day, in the summer of 2002.
She was a good listener, which must be why everyone, children and adults alike, wanted to tell her their problems and solicit her advice. She was the town’s counselor.
Mother was not just ours but was also an adopted mother of our neighbors, Shirley and Beverlee Tennenbaum. In our early years, Shirley and Beverlee would come over to play with us or so it would seem. But really they would come over to be with our mother.
We remember well her hearty laugh, that often ended in an uncontrollable wheeze and we remember her distinctive sneeze that sounded like she was saying yeeshaw! She laughed so hard sometimes she wet her pants.
She talked with a drawl. Many assumed that she was from the South. And she would take her sentences to the middle, just at the point where we could guess what she was going to say, and then stop. No problem, we either filled in or guessed the endings.
Mother was not only slow in delivering sentences, she took her time in making decisions. This made life with our dad difficult, since he did everything quickly. She was always chiding him about his speediness…(and vice versa).
And then there was her humor. She loved teasing people, even when they didn’t know it. Her teases were sometimes quite pointed, with a criticism hidden in them, such as when she teased Judy about her shoes, that weren’t fancy enough in mother’s judgment, and offered to substitute her own pair. And when she teased Alan (Judy’s husband) about their credit cards looking exactly the same, so Alan might as well use his…And when she asked her doctor whether she would be able to play the piano after surgery; he answered yes!, and she replied that that would be good, since she never learned how to play before surgery!
Besides taking care of her children and Walter, the love of our mother’s life was traveling. She and Walter took many trips. The children went along when they were still young—we drove through every state in the United States, or so dad bragged. Later, after the children were grown and out of the house, Ros and Walter took trips on without the children, arranged by the American Medical Association. They travelled to countries in Europe, Africa, Asia. Whenever mother met someone for the first time, she identified herself as a traveler and was soon relating one of her funny travel adventures.
Our mother was a “worrier.” But she did it silently, sparing us and others around her (except, maybe for our father.) She described herself as someone who keeps her worries “inside” and her life as private.
And she saved everything. Her house overflowed with newspapers that she saved, she still had our children’s books and toys when were well into adulthood. We found in her desk a 20 year old hall pass that Mr. Turner wrote giving permission to her daughter Elaine to leave the classroom in 6th grade, for God’s sake! Judy still has the desk and chuckles whenever it reminds her of that hall pass.
In relation to expenditures, Roslyn described herself as a depression baby. She was reluctant to spend money on herself and she felt that her children needed to earn their own money, so they could appreciate what things were worth. She was never interested in expensive clothes or objects, because they cost too much.
She was a good cook and loved collecting recipes. We remember especially her soups, made in the pressure cooker, her brisket, her kugel.
Although the women’s liberation movement came late in her life, she embraced it enthusiastically. She always encouraged “her girls” to be adventuresome and competitive, without placing us under high pressure to do so.
Roslyn and Walter lived most of their married lives together in a little town of 5,000 people, Greenfield, Ohio. They were one of two Jewish families in the town, and Roslyn saw to it that the children knew about their Jewish heritage. She read bible stories to them when they were young and arranged for them to go every week to Chillicothe, a town near Greenfield to study with a Rabbi for a year or two, until they were “confirmed.”
Here are a few other things Judy and Elaine remember:
Roslyn, like her brothers, had psoriasis, a skin condition that she was quite embarrassed about. She and Walter often chose vacations destinations where she could get some sun—as a treatment for her psoriasis.
She took art lessons every now and then. Her medium was water colors. She favored aqua, both in her art and her dress and her house decorations.
She created a Victory garden during the war years, growing vegetables. She put Judy, age 5, in charge of it.
She wrote wonderful letters about us to Walter when he was in the second world war. Sometimes there were two or three a day. (See the Felson website for a few examples). Walter saved them all. They give a terrific depiction of what she thought and did during his 2 ½ years overseas.
She was a girl scout leader, working with our girl scout troops.
Roslyn died in her family home in Greenfield, Ohio, on July 29, 1987 of congestive heart failure after a three-year illness.
The Felson Family 