This Week
Insight
Remember
When •
Never Too Late
Marion Yagoda, at age 78, is finally a high school grad.
ESTHER ALLWEISS TSCHIRHART
Special to the Jewish News
Yagoda told her husband she wanted to convert to Judaism,
but he discouraged her, so she never formalized her desire.
Still, Yagoda says she led a very Jewish life, attending services
at Temple Emanu-El and celebrating holidays. To this day, she
can still recite the HaMotzi blessing over bread by heart.
Sol Yagoda also asked her to put aside her desire to finish
school.
"He said that he just wanted to take care of me," she said.
hen Marian Yagoda husband, Sol, died in
2001, she decided to pursue a goal that had
eluded her for 60 years — getting her high
school diploma.
Yagoda, who lives in the Trowbridge senior retirement com-
munity in Southfield, always regretted not finishing her course-
Only One Class Shy
work, but the men in her life had discouraged that.
When
her husband died, Marian Yagoda focused again on
That's why it was a thrill for her, at age 78, to take part in
graduating.
the Farmington Public Schools' adult graduation exercises.
She was surprised to find her academic records from
Many relatives and friends were at Farmington High School on
June 12 to applaud her. In fact, she
addressed the gathering and received sev-
eral standing ovations.
"It's overwhelming," Yagoda said of the
attention surrounding her late-in-life
achievement.
In the early 1940s, the former Marian
Morad took classes in dressmaking and
home economics at Goldberg High
School, a trade school in Detroit.
During her senior year, she planned to
work as a dressmaker for six months,
then return to school for her diploma.
Her father had other ideas.
"He told me, 'What does a girl need
with a high school diploma? Just go out
and work,"' Yagoda said.
Being an obedient young lady, she took
a job with Briggs Manufacturing
Company in Detroit and was a riveter on
the wingtips of B-17 and B-29 planes.
She also sold dresses at J.L. Hudson's and
Marian Yagoda of Southfield with the American government book she needed for her final
later studied dressmaking and tailoring at
class before earning her high school diploma at age 78.
night at Grosse Pointe High School.
First husband George Hakim, whom
she met while pursuing her beautician's
Goldberg High School on file at Murray-Wright High School
license, told her: "It's either school or me," so she dropped out
in Detroit. The transcript indicated she lacked only English,
to marry him. They raised two sons.
American history and government classes.
As a young widow in 1972, she returned to school and got
Ultimately, she needed only to take government.
her license.
"The counselor told me I didn't have to take history —
Sol Yagoda was her second husband. They met when she
because I've lived history," Yagoda said. Between marriages, she
worked in the barbershop of the Charterhouse Apartments in
had managed to take English.
Southfield.
She said the 18- and 19-year-olds she went to school with
Raised Catholic, Yagoda attended services with her Jewish
have
made her feel like a teenager herself, and she had a reas-
husband at Temple Emanu-El and became a life member of
suring teacher to tell her she was doing just fine.
two Jewish organizations. In 1981, while living at Sutton Place
Her life has never seemed brighter, Yagoda says. She is
Apartments in Southfield, she was president of Sutton Ravines
delighted to join her three siblings who already have diplomas.
Chapter of ORT (Organization for Rehabilitation through
Yagoda wants to continue her education, too, perhaps taking
Training). Yagoda's longtime friend, Roslyn Alexander of
home
arts classes at Oakland Community College.
Southfield, invited her to join Detroit Chapter of B'nai B'rith
"You're
never too old to learn," she said. El
Women.
7/18
2003
26
From the pages of the Jewish News
from this week 10, 20, 30, 40, 50
and 60 years ago.
1993
Three teens, two of them Jewish,
admit to drawing swastikas and
other graffiti on a park bench in
West Bloomfield.
1983
Abba Eban, Israel's former ambassa-
dor to the United Nations and a
labor party member of Knesset, is
one of the five 20th-century speak-
ers elected to the International
Platform Association's Orators Hall
of Fame. He joins the ranks of John
F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King
Jr., Abraham Lincoln and Franklin
D. Roosevelt.
Tam O'Shanter Country Club in
West Bloomfield will host Warren
Orlick, past president of the
Professional Golfers Association, at
a testimonial dinner-dance on
behalf of Israel Bonds.
1961
The Center for Investigation of
Nazi Crimes, near Stuttgart,
Germany, identifies 800 major war
criminals that now await trial, 18
years after the end of the war.
1953
The United Nations Economic and
Social Council votes to recommend
continuation of the office of U.N.
High Commissioner for Refugees
for another five years.
Franklin Hills Country Club, cele-
brating its 25th anniversary, gets a
surprise when its golf pro, Walter
Burkemo, wins golf's second-most
coveted title — the PGA champi-
onship.
2943
"Palestinian Melodies" for piano,
composed by Julius Chajes, director
of music at the Jewish Community
Centerin Detroit, is on sale, pub-
lished by the Independent Music
Publishers. LI
— Compiled by Holly Teasdle>
archivist, the Rabbi Leo M Franklin
Archives of Temple Beth El