Rosenfeld, Jacqueline Levy

Part 1 was recorded on January 16th, 2019 in Tucson, Arizona and it covers the following themes: 

b. 1930 

  • Parents lives in Douglas, AZ. Father Aaron Levy’s childhood in the city and work at the family’s Red Star Store, later rebranded the Levy Brothers Store. Family friendship with the Douglas family. Father's education in New England and return to Arizona to attend the University of Arizona.

  • Mother’s childhood in Texas borderlands and parents meeting on summer vacation in California. Mother’s demand to move to Tucson in 1931. Launching the Levy’s store in Tucson. 

  • Pancho Villa’s connection to Douglas merchants. Father’s memories of Mexican Revolution and a meeting with Villa. The closeness of Mexico.  

  • Family experience starting a business during the Great Depression. Finding niche in Tucson’s retail landscape. Buying merchandise in New England. 

Part 2 was recorded on January 24th, 2019 in Tucson, Arizona and it covers the following themes: 

  • Growing up next to the UA polo grounds. Walking to University Heights school as a 5 year-old. Move to El Encanto next to El Conquistador Hotel. Minimal anti-Semitism in Tucson. Anti-Mexican sentiment and de facto segregation of city. 

  • Growing up during World War II. The War’s impact on social life and outlooks of children. Rationing. Attitudes towards government. Roosevelt’s death. Knowledge of Nazi atrocities against Jews. Fear of invasion via Mexico. The war’s end. 

  • Family austerity during Great Depression, helping hobos. Attitudes towards consumption. Kids activities during the Depression and war years. The Old Pueblo Club. Guilt at social privilege. 

  • Scale of Tucson in 1930s and 1940s. Concentration of services. Social networks. Safety. 

Part 3 was recorded on February 14th, 2019 in Tucson, Arizona and it covers the following themes: 

  • Importance of Statehood Day as a child. Sense of identification with states. 

  • Tucson’s Jewish community in the 1930s and 1940s. 

  • Childhood activities, holidays. Religiosity in family. 

  • Fashion and dress codes. Rodeo Parade. Cele Peterson. Squash blossom dresses. Romance of the West for non-Western Americans. 

Part 4 was recorded on February 28th, 2019 in Tucson, Arizona and it covers the following themes: 

  • Post World War II growth in Tucson with a few comments on the Cuban Missile Crisis. 

  • A description of the first Levy’s store. Hat culture and dress formality. Levy’s fashion buyers in New York. 

  • Meeting husband on trip to New York. 

  • College expectations for women during the 1940s. 

  • Father’s death, El Con Mall development, and the end of family-owned department stores. 

Part 5 was recorded on March 28th, 2019 in Tucson, Arizona and it covers the following themes: 

  • Fire in the Levy’s store in 1943 and challenge of rebuilding during WWII. 

  • Moving east to the edge of Tucson at Craycroft in 1954. Community forming in newly constructed east-side developments.  

  • Business following residential construction. Early supermarkets. Traffic and transport as city expanded in 1950s and 1960s. 

  • Sale of Levy’s to Federated Department Stores in early 1960s.  

  • Tucsonans’ views of Phoenix. 

  • Volunteering at Tucson Medical Center in the 1960s. 

  • Motherhood from the 1950s-1970s. 

  • The Pioneer Hotel, heyday and fire. Old Pueblo Club. 

  • Reflections upon a changing city. 

Aengus Anderson