Beatrice Coren

ORAL HISTORY OF BEATRICE COREN, recorded by Andy Coren in 2008:

Bea's mother was Freda Schulimack, born in Odessa, Russia. Freda had 2 sisters:

Betty went to Israel and had 2 children (Betty got angry with Bea when Bea didn’t send Betty all of Aunt Fanny's inheritance when Fanny died. Betty thought that Fanny had a lot of money). Betty's daughter, Lucinka (Lucy) tried to come to USA during WWII and the boat was refused by Roosevelt and was sunk by Nazi’s. [Note: this is not an accurate rendition of this story -- but Lucy did die on the Mekfure Death Ship in 1944]

Anna (Fanny) went to France and met Kolya Ginsberg (who was from elsewhere in Russia, nick-named ‘UnckyBall' by Elaine when he brought her the first ball she got as an baby). Fanny and Kolya married but had no kids. They were very radical left but never in the CP. Kolya was a tailor. They moved to Newark (following his brothers with whom they played Pinocle every Sunday). They took Bea when she was 13 as a foster child. They had originally promised to take both Bea and Samuel (the youngest) when their mother Freda died (when Bea was 5), finally reticently took only Bea.

Bea's father, Marcos Starosta, was from Odessa (salesman, very religious). He and Freda married in Odessa and had 2 sons who died there of cholera. Marcos moved to France alone since Freda didn’t want to leave, but she followed later. They had Luisa and Carlos in France. They were starving again and a Jewish “benefactor” paid their way to Argentina and gave them land. [Note: this is not an accurate rendition -- please see Research Notes under Marcos Starosta for historical information on the Jewish Colonization Society, Rothschild land grants, etc.] Clara, Beatrice (Mom) and Samuel were born on the farm. Marcos raised honey bees and beef.

Marcos didn’t like rural living and so he moved them back to the city of Buenos Aires where he continued to sell whatever he could, but they were as "poor as church mice”. The house the 7 of them lived in had a dirt floor and a leaky ceiling. A treat was on Sundays Marcos bought a quarter pound of butter to be able to spread on bread for the family. Meat was available. Marcos also worked as a kosher butcher. Bea remembers him killing chickens.

Marcos had a gorgeous voice. Bea remembers some Russian songs he’d sing. At some point he started learning how to sing Hebrew songs and then began working as a Cantor.

In Buenos Aires Freda developed breast cancer and was in the hospital for 3 yrs - she basically never home and their father was often not home and the kids were scared. Once Marcos brought Freda home but she screamed in pain all night so he never brought her again. When she died Samuel who never knew her sang on the porch “today my mother died” -- he never knew her and didn’t even know what it meant.

	Louisa, the eldest child, took care of the kids.  After Freda died the kids were separated.  Samuel was so little that Louisa always went with him. But Mom was sent alone to live with her mother’s second cousins (Amelia Babinsky). Betty took Louisa and Samuel. --  in a town in Paraquay.  She would live there for a year at a time and go to school, she was a good student in math.  Never had a pet. These families were a little better off. Doesn’t remember any friends.  Loved her family but never was with them.  Clara tried to take care of father’s home. Carlos was most unhappy with losing his mother, verbalized the most, suffered the most. 

Mom returned to Buenos Aires and stayed with Amelia and her son (Tito, mom’s age) until her immigration papers came (almost a year).

At 13 she came to U. S., to Newark to live with Auntie (Fanny Schulimack). The ship was called the Western World; she was at sea for 18 days. Some people on board spoke Spanish. The Captain kept his eye on her. She was in a room with a Jewish woman, but Mom didn’t understand her Yiddish. Mom heard Yiddish in her life, but never spoke it even at home. The woman was not friendly and it was uncomfortable. Bea made a couple of friends from England and when they stopped over in Brazil for 2-3 days her friends took her on a railway trip. They were very nice to her (can’t remember names). She arrived in the U.S. on 12/5/1930, the beginning of the Great Depression.

On the way home from the ship, Cousin Esther Heyman from Plainfield, NJ tried to talk to Auntie and Mom about now Bea would have a mother. But Auntie responded ‘No, I’m not her mother, she had a mother” But Mom had looked forward all those years to having a mother and so this was like “throwing cold water” on her dreams and expectations. “It broke my heart.” The relationship was always strained because Auntie didn’t know how to show it or say anything. And Mom just withdrew from her.

She hid her maturing (periods) from Auntie. She was very serious. She says tht Auntie didn't raise her, she raised herself. She went to school ("that was the only time I lived"). They put her in a Spanish class and she went at night to school to a citizen class. After a year she learned enough English to join the rest of her classmates. She was smart and graduated HS with kids her own age or almost a year later. No pets. Interests: none. Auntie and Kolya had a dress shop on Bergen Street in Newark that mom worked in and when they lost the store (due to the Depression) Kolya worked for another tailor. Although Kolya's brother had a factory, but wouldn’t take Kolya in. Kolya tried to open another store but didn’t do well.

In high school (Westside, Newark, then Southside HS) Mom met Carol Cudroff who was younger but very smart. Carol became a social worker and was very liberal, but not in the Communist Party. Summers she’d go to Mexico on vacations. She was one of Bea’s oldest friends. She died of an infection she got in Mexico. Never married or had kids.

Bea went to college but didn’t do well -- she was not interested in clerical work. Bea worked 2 jobs: chaperoned kids from a dance school to theaters, snd got a job in the department store (Bamburgers) where she made more money.

Uncle Velodia Cooper married Bessie (Russia, Brooklyn). Velodia was Mom's mother Freda’s first cousin. Velodia’s sister was the mother of Cousin Lillian and Beatrice Coleman. Velodia immigrated to the U.S. before Aunty. Velodia played the mandolin and had a printing shop in Brooklyn.

Bea met Milton when a girlfriend of hers took her to a hiking club where there were a lot of nice boys. Once dad met her “he was hooked.” He was 23; Bea ws 19. Once he brought Grandma Betty (Rebecca Futeran) to watch Bea play volley ball and Betty knew right away who Milton's girlfriend was. “He was crazy for me, crazy.” After 6 months Milton proposed and Bea accepted. (She says she was so poor.) Aunty didn’t like Milton because she didn’t like his mother. Even on the wedding day Auntie said something bad about Dad and Grandma Betty. (Bea says that this is because Rebecca Futeran had a "bad reputation.")

Grandma Betty made Mom's life miserable. Never babysat, never helped. They never got along. For the first 6 months of their marriage, Milton and Bea lived with Betty. Betty got upset when Bea invited some of her own friends over one day -- so Bea started packing and told Milton: "I’m leaving; come with me or stay here." He came - she knew he would.

Dad mother's mother was alive when he met Mom. Her name was Anna (married name Cohen); she died at 84. She came from Russia. Dad’s other grandparents were unknown to Mom.

Milton's father Louis Cohen was not known to Bea. Louis had a rag factory, was not poor. Made a good living. Louis continued his business in the Depression but must have become sick or depressed. His employees loved him since he lent them money and when he needed it “at the end” they made a collection for him to help him out. But he committed suicide when Milton was 17 by hanging himself -- and Milton found him. Louis had made Milton promise to graduate college and left Milton the money needed to attend school. Dad wanted to be a doctor. Pharmacist would have been OK. He graduated suma cum laud (high honors). Grandma Betty was upset that Milton got the money for school and didn’t encourage him to finish. He took the Boards but their was no money to be made as a professional during the Depression so Grandma Betty encouraged him to join her business selling dry goods house to house on credit ($1/week). Bea says that Milton always said it was “ the worst mistake he ever made” He hated it till the day he died.

Lenny was born to Betty one year before Louis died. Betty had gone to Philadelphia, planning to leave Louis. When she left she took Milton with her. Louis loved his son, so it was terrible for him to be separated. He did threaten to divorce Rebecca, and her brother, Morris, ran after her telling her that Loius would divorce her. When she came back to New Jersey she was already or became pregnant. (wonder if her leaving caused Louis's depression?). A year after the baby (Len) was born, Louis killed himself .

Lenny was born in 1931 when Dad was 17 and Dad loved him, was proud of him, strolled him down the street (uncoool, but he was so proud). Lenny was given another name (Lionel) that he changed to Leonard when Dad and Mom changed the family's last name from Cohen to Coren. Betty was always mean to Lenny and Dad always stuck up for him.

Betty’s siblings were Sam, Morris, Ceil. All born in Russia and suffered under the Pogroms. Morris "looked Catholic" so during the Pogroms he went out to gather food when the rest of the family was hiding out.

Dad (Milton) has relatives in Philadelphia, related to Louis Cohen

OBITUARY FOR BEA:

Beatrice Starosta Coren Born January 30, 1917; died at home in Ukiah, comforted by family, on May 16, 2010 at the age of 93. Bea lived a rich life filled with family and friends. She was born in Cordoba, Argentina to a poor Russian Jewish immigrant family, the second youngest of five children. When her mother died, Beatrice was fostered out to relatives in Uruguay and Paraguay from age five, until, at the age of 12, she was sent to live with her mother's sister in New Jersey. Communication with her aunt was in Yiddish; to learn English she attended high school Spanish classes. Bea married Milton Coren in 1939; they were together for 53 years before his death. Milton always said that from the moment he met her, "Beaty" was the love of his life. Bea and Milton welcomed Milton's younger brother, Len, into their home, and raised their three children, Elayne, Ephraim and Andy, in New Jersey. When the children were grown, they moved to Florida where they found new friends as well as keeping their old friends and staying close to family in the U.S. and in Argentina. Bea was a high school graduate and worked as a bookkeeper for her husband's business while raising her family. She was proud to learn new skills in the health care field in her 50s. She was a loving and supportive mother (and "Nana" to her grandchildren), charming friends and family with her graciousness. She was also an avid and highly competitive bridge player, loved classical music, opera, Broadway shows and traveling. Beatrice spent the last year of her life in Ukiah, California, living with her son Andy, daughter-in-law Yvonne and grandson Phillip, where she was surrounded by a loving family and her caregivers, Jeanette Heath and Consuelo Rocha. Husband Milton, her son Ephraim, and her siblings (Carlos, Clara, Luisa and Samuel) preceded her in death. She leaves behind daughter Elayne Arenberg (Hershel)-Florida; grandson Scott Arenberg (Ellen) and daughter Paige-Florida; grandson David Arenberg (Alyson) and children Jack, Abe and Livia-Ohio; brother-in-law Len Coren (Dana Stearn)-Florida; daughter-in-law Esther Coren-New York; numerous nieces and nephews in Argentina; and her extended Ukiah family including Bernice Kam, Sharon Govern and Cassie Denson. Funeral services will be Sunday, May 23rd at Forest Lawn Funeral Home North, Pompano Beach, Florida. In lieu of flowers, memorial donations can be made to Hospice of Ukiah or Redwood Children's Services, a foster care agency, in Ukiah, California. Arrangements are under the direction of the Eversole Mortuary.