The Harness Maker's Dream: Nathan Kallison and the Rise of South Texas

Acknowledgments

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS tv1 Y GRATITUDE to those who contributed to this book begins with loving appreciation for my wife Mary Lynn Kotz, who has wisely, skillfully, and tirelessly edited every book and magazine article I have written over many decades-as well as scores of newspaper stories. She has taught me that the events of history cannot be told accurately without understanding the lives of individual human beings. In her own career, Mary Lynn has written extraordinary books and articles about remarkable people, ranging from American presidents and their families to path-breaking artists Robert Rauschenberg and Georgia O'Keeffe. Historians Char Miller of Pomona College in California and Hollace Weiner of Fort Worth first urged me to write about the Kallisons of Texas and generously shared their extraordinary knowledge . Dr. Mary Volcansek, professor of political science at Texas Christian University, kindly brought this book to the TCU Press and to the Center for Texas Studies at TCU, of which she is the executive director. At the TCU Press, the book was edited and produced by director Dan Williams, editor Kathy Walton, associate editor Rileigh Sanders, production manager Melinda Esco, marketing coordinator Rebecca Allen, book designer Barbara Whitehead, and intern Leah Fiorini. For the last three years, Ellen Braaf, a gifted writer and editor of children's books and stories, and the Mid-Atlantic Regional Advisor for the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators, has been my indispensable researcher. Without Ellen's ingenuity, resourcefulness , and skills, The Harness Maker's Dream would lack much of its richest material. Josh Israel, an outstanding reporter in Washington, DC, helped with initial research, as did Kiley Wonn. Our son Jack THE HARNESS MAKER'S DREAM Kotz, a fine arts and architectural photographer and author of Ms. Booth's Garden, guided picture selection for the book. Matt DeWaelsche, archivist and assistant director of the Texana Genealogical Department at the San Antonio Public Library, and Tom Shelton, photo archivist at the Institute of Texas Cultures in San Antonio, shared their files and their personal knowledge of the history of San Antonio. Alex Dunai provided genealogical research on the Kallisons in Russia. Lynn Tavia Kallison and her father Marvin Kallison of Los Angeles made available an important family genealogical history. Other researchers who helped include: Hildie Cohen, Diane Claitor, Allen Fisher, and other archivists at the Lyndon Baines Johnson Presidential Library; Martha Utterback of the Daughters of the Texas Republic Library; Barbara Rust in the National Archives-Southwest Region; Beth Standifird at the San Antonio Conservation Society; the staffs of the Government Canyon Natural Area in San Antonio and of the Department of Texas Parks and Wildlife. Professor and author Samuel G. Freedman and Dr. Eleanor Sorrentino were invaluable advisers. Frances Rosenthal Kallison, who was mentally vibrant until her death in 2004 at age ninety-six, provided a rich source of information, including her master's thesis from Trinity University, 100 Years ofJewry in San Antonio. All of Nathan's grandchildren of my generation were generous with records, stories, photographs, and memories as were their adult children from the next Texas generation. Those include: Jack, Jimmy, Pete, Kal, and Nancy Kallison; Susan Neustadt Miller, Maryann Kallison Friedman, Jane Kallison Dreyfus, Frances Rae "Bobbi" Ravicz, and her four children: Li Ravicz, Mara Ravic:z Hudack, Marisol Ravicz, and Elenita Ravicz; John and Mark Dreyfus, and their father Seymour Dreyfus. Other Kallison and Letwin family members who helped include Joni Barg, Gilda Letwin Cohen, Philip Cohen, Laurie Gerber, Teresa Greenblatt Gerber, Bob and Sam Glast, Teresa Herpts, Diana Kallison, Steven Joel Kallison, Muriel Lash, April Weiner Solomon, Eleanor Kallison Sprowl, and Lenore Kallison Weiner. AC K NOWLE DG MEN TS Others who provided interviews and resource material include: Richard Alterman, Yoram Avidor, Michael Beldon, Lloyd Benke, Marie Holland Brown, Richard Calvert, Aaron Charles, Iris Fanger, Tom C. Frost, Michael Gillette, Ira A. Glazier, Alice Gold, Richard Goldsmith, Hugh Hemphill, Wayne Hanselka, Florence "Boots" Hoffmann, Marilyn Jorrie, Lenore Karp, Carmen Luna, Joan Lufrano, Edith McAllister, Taddy McAllister, Clarice Arbetter Meer, Janice Meer, Myrtle Nickel, Jesse Oppenheimer, John Oppenheimer, Humberto "Bert" Reyes, Stuart Rockoff, Gary Schott, Neal Scott, Helen Marie Schuhart, Millard Schuhart, William Sinkin, Harry Swearingen, Mary Lee Gussen Sloan, Morris and Rose Spector, Rabbi Samuel Stahl, Bryan Stone, Harold and Esther Vexler, Diana Wei!, Rae Weil, and Dorothy Jo Weiss. In this brief summary, I can only mention a few of the dozens of authors...