Gershwin, Rose, 1875-1948

BIRTH Nov 1875
Russia
DEATH 15 Dec 1948 (aged 73)
New York, New York County (Manhattan), New York, USA

Mother of Ira, George, Arthur, and Frances Gershwin. Born in St. Petersburg, Russia. She arrived on the liner "Sorrento" from Hamburg at the New York, New York port of arrival 26 Feb 1892. Changed her name to Rose Bruskin.

She married Moische (Morris) Gershowitz, who she had known in St. Petersburg, on 21 July 1895 in New York, New York. They became naturalized US citizens on 15 Jan 1898.

Rose Bruskin Gershwin was, in George's words, "nervous, ambitious, and purposeful" and "never the doting type." She wanted her children to be educated, feeling that with an education they could at least become teachers. She opposed George's desire to become a musician, thinking of such a career in terms of a $25-a-week piano player. But she did nothing to stand in George's way when he left school to take his first job as a pianist.

"Mrs. Gershwin is level-headed and practical," wrote playwright S. N. Behrman; "I imagine it was she who steered the family through the early years and who helped Gershwin pere to the eminence of a restaurant proprietor."

"When she wanted," wrote lyricist Yip Harburg, "she had the strength of a bulldozer along with her playfulness."

"There was creativity in her family," recalled her daughter, Frances. In her later years, after her husband's death, she dined out nearly every night at Lindy's, a Manhattan haunt popular with theater crowds, and dated some men as well.

cause of death: heart attack

Ira Gershwin; the oldest of four children of Morris (Moishe) and Rose Gershovitz (née Rosa Bruskin), who were Russian Jews from Saint Petersburg and who had emigrated to the United States in 1891.