William Weisfeld

William was born in New York City, in 1895 to Rose and Abraham Weisfeld. He was the middle child of seven children. In 1905, his father died, so Rose, not speaking english, surrendered her children, temporarily, while she attended night school. As a child, he sold newspapers on a corner in ' Hell's kitchen ' in New York. At the age of eleven, he entered the Juillard School of Music, studied the French horn and stayed there for three years. He spoke five languages, English, German, Russian, Italian, Yiddish and had a working knowledge of Hebrew. He knew Irving Berlin and at the age of nineteen, he travelled the country with an Italian band, as a musician, manager and translator. None of them spoke English! The band was disbanded in New Orleans. There, he went to Tulane night school and studied to be an electrician. He began to work for LP&L light company. Later, he met and married Grace, his first wife and had three children, Ashton, Dorothy, Judy. He later lived for a time in Florida but returned to New Orleans and went into business, with a loan of 635.00 from the bank, bought an old model A Ford, with no top and bad brakes. His colleagues would call him ' Chief rain in the face', because he got rained on! He divorced Grace around 1945 and in April 1947, he married Martha Virginia Jones and had one child in 1950, Rebekah. They were married for twenty one years, until his death, in 1968. He was a ' Reformed ' Jew and was a member of Touro Synagogue. He built one of the largest electrical contracting firms in the south, Weisfeld and Son, with just an eighth grade education! A self made man! He died in May, 1968, of thrombosis, a clot in his neck, at 73, on a Saturday morning, while preparing to go to the office! He had a wonderful baritone voice and he and Martha, who was a Methodist, often sang, as a duet in her Methodist Church. William respected the Methodist religion and was a contributor to the church as well as to the synagogue. On Friday nights and on the High Holidays, the family would attend services at the synagogue and on Sunday, would go to Munholland, Memorial Methodist Church. He used to say, " I love the way Methodist shake hands!" He is buried in Metairie Lawn Cemetery, in Metairie, la.