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Daughter
of Ida (Stobernack)
Schmidt and Adolphus
Schmidt.
Sister
of Rowena Smith Carpenter (1893-1975), Ama S. Jackson, and
Ralph Schmidt.
Wife
of George Day Smith
Mother
of Marium Rowena Longstreth (March 8 1921-1967, who is the
mother of Terry Longstreth and Janice Longstreth McClintock),
Anna Jean, b Nov. 4, 1924, d Nov. 5, 1924, and Gianna
Hochstein (b. 1926, who is mother of Miles and Evon
Hochstein)
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Terry
Longstreth, who, together with his sister Janice Longstreth McClintock
and my brother Evon Hochstein is one of the four grand-children
of Bertha Smith, provided the following interpretation of Bertha's
life. Unlike me, Terry had the benefit of visiting her on a number
of occasions while in college. Terry wrote:
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"Bertha
Smith was a career woman in an age and venue where career women
were rare. She was one of the first females to graduate from the
University of Missouri's School of Journalism, a school of serious
repute still today. She was a widely read columnist throughout
the Midwest, working for the Capper Farm publications.
"I
wonder if she came late to marriage (age 39) simply because in
that time and place, educated, worldly professional women were
viewed with suspicion by the rest of society? I never saw her
interact with the family (except on rare visits to our home in
Arlington, Va.), but from my visits to her home I would say that
Grandmother lived simply, perhaps frugally. She was economical
in all she did. She never learned to drive because she didn't
need to, since Kansas City had streetcars. She wasn't a very good
cook, but she knew it. She felt that there were more useful things
to do with her time than pander to hedonism by making things taste
better. She didn't disapprove (too much) of hedonism in others,
but she wasn't inclined to indulge. She was independent, albeit
not a freethinker.
"She
was never strident or even very assertive, and while she could
be stubborn and was at times quite opinionated, she never spoke
much above a whisper. She was a well-read and interesting conversationalist,
and a wonderful listener. I believe she had no other ambition
than to be a journalist, and continued to work as a journalist
well into her 80's. I speculate that she probably viewed motherhood
with some ambivalence. In the end, I see her as an early example
of [a woman who experienced] the tension between work and home..."
~
Terry's
account provides some balance to my mother's less than happy memories
of her childhood. My mother's own recollections of her mother
reflect their strained relationship.
My
mother Gianna reports that Bertha's church life was fairly important
to her. She came into her marriage as a Methodist, but compromised
with George's less fervent
belief by belonging to a Congregationalist church. However, to
her daughter Gianna, Bertha seemed to be moralistic to a fault.
For example, Gianna recalls her quiet tut tutting disapproval
of a neighbor who paid half fare on the trolley for her daughter
when the girl was old enough to pay full fare. In my mother's
memory, Bertha was an early "health food nut" while
in contrast, and as a consequence, Gianna to this day prefers
her food fat and rich. In Gianna's recollections, Bertha made
them eat "horrible" vegetable juice concoctions that
were supposedly good for one, but which were much resented.
My
mother recalls that Bertha's politics were unsophisticated. She
supported Hoover because he was a "good man." My mother
doesn't think Bertha's thinking went very deep on political matters.
In the letter below, echoes of their strained relationship can
be heard.
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Above:
Ralph Schmidt, Rowena (Schmidt) Carpenter , Ama S. Jackson
and Bertha (Schmidt) Smith as children in Hannibal, Missouri.
| Right,
Ama, Rowena and Bertha Schmidt, without their brother Ralph, perhaps
a few years later than the picture above. |
 |
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Left
and Above: Bertha Schmidt as a teenager and young woman. |
Above:
Bertha Schmidt, probably at the time of her graduation from journalism
school, although
it could be a high school graduation photograph. It was surely a
proud moment for her
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Above:
An outing in the big city?
The
above picture bears the following fascinating explanation on the
back: "No. 1 - A man in ladies clothes. No. 2 This
is not a singing picture. I had just started to say "Everybody
get ready" when Rowena took the picture. No. 3 - Ethel. No.
4 - Mamma."
Could
this be he earliest example of cross-dressing in 20th century
America? The picture probably dates from 1900 to 1910, when Bertha
second from left would be 17 to 27. The clothing styles, about
which I'm no expert, may also suggest a pre-Great War date. (There
could be dozens of pictures of cross dressers in this time period,
although how many of them can be placed in the mid-West like this
one?)
Anyway
, the picture of Bertha's mother Ida Stobernack ("Momma")
is most interesting because compared to all the others I have
of her, she looks alive, vivacious, positively Katherine Hepburn
like. This picture of Ida
Stobernack is enlarged on her page.
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Above:
Bertha in the age of feathered hats.
Above
and Right: Bertha with Marrium or
Gianna, in 1921 or 1926, age 38 or 43
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Above and below left: Bertha with her church, far rear, right. Inscription
on back of this June 1955 picture reads
"Grand Avenue Methodist Church - 9th and Grand, Kansas City 6,
Missouri" and in handwriting "spring 1955".
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Above: On back is written "Bertha peering out of grass
hut in "grounds" of "gift shop" taken on
May 30th trip around Oahu."
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Above:
I would guess that this picture might be from late in Bertha
Smith's working life, in the late 1940s or early 1950s perhaps.
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~
Below: Text of letter from Bertha Smith to her daughter
Gianna Hochstein
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K.C
Mo. [Kansas City Missouri] Feb 21, 1959
Dear
Gianna:
[...]
I
thought you might like to keep the note and card as a memento
of Aunt Louise. If not, you can return them. But Aunt Louise
was very fond of you, loved your youth and girlish beauty. Before
she became very ill she used to ask about you when I stopped
to see her on my way east. She was a wonderful person, generous,
self-sacrificing and withal extravagant. She loved the beautiful
and she loved people, the lowly as well as others.
She
attended Missouri University for one or two years and then stopped
and began teaching so that she could help to put her brother,
Richard, through medical college.
Her
marriage to Uncle Fred was ideal, and even though they were
of different faiths. I think the religion of both of them came
to be recognition of the brotherhood of man.
When
Uncle Fred died Aunt Louise was brokenhearted and ill but in
time she buckled down and determined to leave an estate to her
relatives equal to uncle Fred's which was to go to a hospital
at her death.
This
gave her a new interest in living. The larger amount was bequeathed
to her sister but as you know each of their ten nieces and nephews
was remembered. And my daughters can consider that the checks
that I send them on occasions are from Aunt Louise, too.
[...]
As
to the heart-to-heart talks which we are going to have, I frankly
admit that I was always afraid of facing issues. I don't know
why. Maybe it's just my nature -- maybe its what went into me
when I was conceived. My father
was a gentle man and I loved him dearly. I never heard him speak
a cross word even though there were differences of opinion about
the bringing up of the children.
However,
I am quite ready to reform if you will tell me what course I
am to follow. I am really quite ignorant of it.
Some
years ago I heard a part of "The Prophet" read on
the radio and I was so impressed by the part about children
that of course I bought a copy.
Maybe
I was too much impressed by it and became a weakling as a mother.
Can you see what it may have done to me?
"Your
children are not your children.
"They are the sons and daughters of Life's longing for
itself.
"They come through you but not from you.
"And though they are with you yet they belong not to
you.
'You may give them your love but not your thoughts.
"For they have their own thoughts.
"You may house their bodies but not their souls,
"For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow, which
you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.
"You may strive to be like them, but seek not to make
them like you.
"For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.
"You are the bows from which your children as living
arrows are sent forth.
"The archer sees the mark upon the path of the infinite,
and he bends you with His might that his arrows may go swift
and far.
"Let your bending in the Archers hand be for gladness;
"For even as He loves the arrow that flies, so He loves
also the bow that is stable."
I
hope that you will write freely where you think I have made
my mistakes and how I can help you now for I have no greater
interest than to be of service to my children. They are my gifts
to the world. And there is so much that I would like to give
them -- joy of living, satisfaction of achievement and the broadest
outlook on life.
All
my love,
Mother
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Above: Bertha Smith, date unknown. Photo is labeled on front,
"Momma". |
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I
met my grandmother, Bertha, only a few times, once at
her home in Kansas city, once when she visited us in
Los Angeles (sometime between 1969 and her death in
1975).
Pictures
(eg. below) show that I met her earlier than this but
I have no specific recollection.
In
the 1970s in Los Angeles she seemed very old. I have
the vaguest memory of her smiling at me, moving slowly,
a very very old lady. I don't really remember
her.
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Above: Bertha, Gianna and Miles as a baby. What story does this
picture tell?
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| In
her last years Bertha moved into a nursing home in Payola, and was
cutoff to some degree from familiar friends and acquaintances. Her
correspondence with my mother in that period moves in and out of
coherence and reflects varying levels of well-being. I chose to
print the letter below because it reflects Bertha thinking about
the end of her life, and the how she once planned for the future
and hadn't stopped doing so yet. |
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12-11-72
Dear
Gianna:
I
know that I should have written you often recently. The reason
I didn't was because I was often writing you notes intending to
send them together.
I
wasn't especially opposed to white clothes, except that I thought
they represented last days. Although I wasn't afraid of these.
I really wanted to do things and hoped to. I was always saving
small items which I thought could be worked into an article. Maybe
they are still around somewhere.
The
owners here are kind and try to make the place lively by celebrating
birthdays etc. I'll try to perk up and write you a real letter
later.
Much
love to you and Paul and the boys. I must try to get this note
to the front room to be picked up by the postman.
Mother
and Grandmother, Mon. Dec 11- '72
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| The
following poem is written out in Bertha's handwriting and bundled
with correspondence with Gianna from 1972 and 1973. I presume
that she copied the poem and that she did so because it expressed
her feelings. I don't know who is the poem's author. Could these
be her own words? It seems unlikely, but I'd like to find out,
one way or the other. |
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Great
God of man of every kind.
We
would rack the heart and mind of nations
Spreading
Brotherhood and Peace and universal good.
We
earth's people everywhere are seeking peace for all to share.
May
the nations learn thy will and in men's hearts its truths instill.
In
all sincerity we ask inspiration for our task.
Toward
all we would exemplify true racial rights and dignity
Our
every phase of work and toil of office factory and soil
Then
we'd purge our selves of greed
And
battling fear of fear be freed.
Betimes
we will be still and hear thy commanding voice so very near that
we may spread thy word of peace.
In
Russia freedom's thought release... in all sincerely we ask thy
(inspiration?)
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