So whats everyones icon??? — Page 16

Updated On: 2/25/04 at 10:34 AM

Mine is my great-aunt Lena on the beach at Coney Island sometime in the late 1920s. I never met her and only found about her a few years ago. My paternal grandmother's sister, she owned a bar in Brooklyn in the 1920s (I have a pic of her standing outside it) and was described by my father as the "wild girl" in the family, but he didn't give any specifics.
In all the dozens of photos of my family, she's the only one who seems to be having fun - amidst a sea of glum Russian-Jewish faces, she's ALWAYS smiling and sassy. Here she is dressed for a party. I find her very intriguing and have absolutely no clue what happened to her except that she married a man whose last name was Holub and moved to New Jersey somewhere in the 1930s. I suspect she was a total hoot and she & I would have really gotten on well!