Oral history interview with Leona Novit Siegel and her son Paul Novit Siegel, 1996.

ArchivalResource

Rosengarten, Dale, 1948-. Oral history interview with Leona Novit Siegel and her son Paul Novit Siegel, 1996.

Oral history interview with Leona Novit Siegel and her son Paul Novit Siegel, 1996.

http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/51063748

Leona Novit Siegel discusses her life history. Her maternal grandparents Hyman Zalin and Anna Barta came from Russia with three daughters, including the interviewee's mother. They moved to Walterboro, South Carolina, and had three sons. Her paternal grandfather was Joseph or J.J. Novit, a shammes of a synagogue on St. Philip Street in Charleston. Her father, Albert Novit, was about 10 years old when he arrived with his family. Her father moved to and ran a store in Walterboro; he was the town's first president of the Chamber of Commerce and was a great promoter of the place. He eventually left the clothing business and opened the Lady Lafayette Hotel in Walterboro, where many famous people stayed on their way between New York and Florida. Leona Novit was born with only 10 percent of normal hearing, but she was not given a hearing aid until she was married and had two children. She was seventeen when her parents had another daughter, born totally deaf, and when they also took in the newborn son of cousins killed in an accident. She attended Converse and University of South Carolina, but did not graduate, marrying Sam Siegel of Anderson; they moved to her hometown. He went into the service and lost a leg in combat. Their son Paul briefly enters the conversation and speaks of being very accepted as a Jew in Walterboro; he speaks of its Jewish past, noting the Klein family was in town since 1835. Many other related families are mentioned in passing, such as the Want, Novit and Bogoslov families.

Sound recording : 1 sound cassette : analog.Sound recording : 1 sound cassette : digital.Transcript : 38 p. ; 28 cm.

College of Charleston, Marlene and Nathan Addlestone Library