Everett W. Ness is the main speaker in the interview, although his wife Shirley Gergel Ness, often gives information on both their lives and families. Everett W. Ness was born in Manning, S.C, in 1927, the son of Benjamin Ness and Esther Berger Ness. His father Benjamin, from Austria-Hungary, was descended from Yehuda Ness who was born Yehuda Seiden. Yehuda was very pious and to escape enforced conscription in the army, he left Europe and changed his name to his mother's maiden name; coming to America, he left his children and wife with his parents Wolfe and Tobie Ness. His wife died, and he later remarried a widow with children; all children from all the marriages grew up together. Benjamin Ness, Yehuda's grandson, was a merchant, mostly in Sumter, SC, in ladies' ready to wear. He was a moral man, much mourned by the community when he died. Everett Ness's mother, Esther Berger Ness, was the daughter of Fishel and Molly Berger. When Everett Ness was four, his mother took him and his sister Shirley to Poland to meet his mother's parents and siblings. She eventually succeeded in helping to bring her siblings to the USA and to Argentina. She had been a milliner in Fuqua-Varina, North Carolina, but eventually met her husband in Charleston, SC. Benjamin had been living in New York, but was drafted during World War I and came to Camp Jackson in Columbia, SC. The war ended before he served and he then went into business with his brother Morris Ness in Manning. Going to Charleston for a synagogue service, he met his future wife. They had two children and saw to their Jewish education in Sumter, SC, which was in the Reform Congregation. In Sumter, Everett Ness's parents were well respected. He gives many details and stories of his mother, her fund-raising effort for the March of Dimes, and her willingness to travel at a moment's notice. He also mentions how his father was blackballed in trying to join the Elks Club, an act of overt anti-Semitism. Everett Ness married Shirley Gergel, daughter of Joseph and Jean Fingerhut Gergel of Columbia, S.C. In 1949, they moved to Charleston. Both describe the great respect merchant Sam Solomon was held in by blacks and whites and all religions in Charleston for his benevolence. They describe his funeral and mention a few details of their life in Charleston. Everett Ness was an early promoter of the Charleston Hebrew Institute; though Jewish identified, he reflects on how he did not truly know Jewish law. He eventually learned Hebrew when he was fifty years old, so that he could properly mourn his parents. He mentions how Jews often slowly gave up devout observance of ritual living in small southern towns. For over 40 years, he has been helping dress and prepare bodies for burial.
