Born in Charleston, South Carolina, to Shirley and Sam Berlin, Bernice and her siblings, Shirley, Henry, and Alwyn, grew up in a downtown non-Jewish neighborhood. Both her parents and their parents were born in the United States, their forebears coming from Poland and Lithuania. She grew up in an Orthodox environment, but her father kept his clothing store open on the Sabbath due to the press of business. When her father's father saw this, he threw a brick through the store window, and said no business with his name on it could be open on the Sabbath; the sons then changed their name to Berlin from Berlinsky. The store is still run by her brother Henry. As a young girl, she was raised by her Dah (or African American nurse) Christine Major, and she sang in the Catholic Cathedral Choir; she attended Charleston schools, was Aleph Zadek Aleph (AZA) sweetheart for Charleston, and helped found the AZA chapter in Augusta, GA. She married Sam Silver of Augusta, GA, the ceremony performed by Rabbi Axelman in the Brith Sholom Synagogue on St. Philip St. She helped found the Council of Jewish Women in Augusta and started Girl Scout Troops there, too, living there about 25 years, before moving to Columbia, SC, where she and her husband opened a corduroy factory. It failed after two years, after which she moved to California. After about 5 years, she returned to Charleston. Reminiscing, she recalls that her parents traveled with the dance team doing the "Charleston" to promote the city, under the encouragement of Mayor Tom Stoney. She never felt anti-Semitism directed against her, but states she was the first girl to win the Alumni Cup at Memminger School, and a Jewish girl won in the next year, as well, but no Jews ever won it again. She speaks of Thelma, a maid and cook in her family for over 30 years, and in the latter part of the interview explains the connections between the Livingstain (Livingstone), Goodman, and Rittenberg families.
