Narrators
A Seattle native of Ashkenazic-German descent whose family roots extend back to the 1880s, Carolyn Danz grew up in the Capitol Hill neighborhood of Seattle and is a lifelong member of Seattle’s first Reform congregation, Temple De Hirsch Sinai. After earning a BA in Fine Arts, she opened and ran a dressmaking shop and raised two children. Divorced in 1958, she married again a year later. She served on the boards of many Seattle Jewish and civic organizations, and has been passionate in her work on behalf of those in need.
“I was born in Seattle, Washington on July 30, 1918 at Providence Hospital during the influenza epidemic. Only my father was allowed to come see me. My parents bought the home at 1020 15th Avenue East across the street from Volunteer Park, just about a month before I was born. And I lived there for 21 and a half years until I got married, and my parents lived there for about 31 years. It was a wonderful place to live. We always thought Volunteer Park was our front yard.
“As far as our neighborhood is concerned, we were brought up so lovingly and naturally that nothing affected us. We never felt any antisemitism. The only time I felt different-it didn’t bother me but I knew I was different-was when I went to the university in 1935 and was going to pledge a sorority. But I knew that there was only one sorority I could pledge and that was Alpha Epsilon Phi. I had some friends that that really did bother so they did not want to join this sorority. I think I felt secure in my way which, of course, comes from the fact that I was brought up properly.
“When I was a little girl my mother used to volunteer at the Caroline Kline Galland Home for the Jewish aged. And my mother’s friends, they formed a group, and when we were young my sister and I used to go out there with her. That’s how I got started there. I enjoyed it very much, because I could use some of my skills, and these ladies were just darling ladies. It’s had a wonderful history, and I could go into that history, but that’s another story.”
“I went looking for a job in the fall of 1948. Nobody wanted to hire me. I didn’t know anything. My brother-in-law said, ‘Well, why don’t you open your own dressmaking shop?’ And I said, ‘I can’t do that.’ He says,‘Sure, you can.’ So he backed me and I opened a shop in the Shafer Building, which is at Sixth and Pine. There were quite a few dressmakers and milliners and also in that building there were two or three abortionists. I was only to do original work, design and make clothes, but the first week,I started alterations because you have to take in some money. And I did both. I did not make a lot of money in the dressmaking business but I made enough to take care of everything for myself and for part of the household.”
© 2004 Jewish Women’s Archive. Photographs by Joan Roth.
