Mom

Adelle Rhoda Roberts, Sobel Roberts, Norman Roberts, Martin Roberts

When I went back to visit my mother last year I grabbed a box of family pictures. For some reason I got the job of family archivist and erstwhile historian. No one else wanted it. My mom is still alive but it is apparently getting near the end of the road for her. She lived a remarkable life that would be hard to believe if you were not a witness.

I wanted to put some pictures of her and her family up. Started scanning this afternoon. Will fill in the blanks later.

Marvin and Sobel with my mother's uncle Sam and his wife Bess as well as their child Isabelle who eventually committed suicide as did my grandfather.

Mom was born in Whittier but moved to Western Avenue in Los Angeles at the age of about seven. You can barely see El Cholo's sign in the background. I never met my grandmother or grandfather. She died of a cerebral hemorrhage before I was born.

Her parents came from Moldova in the 1920's. They had a very hard life and had to sign a note promising to never come back in order to leave the country. Her father was a furrier and supposedly a union strong arm man. It is hard to separate fact and fiction with my mother but that is a story for another day as well.

Mom, the UCLA theater arts major.

Mom, Norman and their father. There was a mysterious older brother, who died early, apparently falling out of a window in New York.

Adelle and big brother Norman

It was hard in those days to be the first generation child of immigrants, especially jewish immigrants. There is a huge push to assimilate in this country and she did, constructing a past out of whole cloth, a fictional history that took her own children years to unravel.

I assume that this is Los Angeles High School Fairfax High.

Mom with her uncle.

Mom and fourth or fifth husband Murray, a prince, and friend Terry. NYC

Family members always had a good head of hair.