Lenora "Leni" LaMarche
A gifted student, teacher, and comedienne, Leni LaMarche has shared her love of Sephardic culture with Seattle's Sephardic community for over sixty years. Born in Seattle in 1921 to immigrants from the island of Rhodes, Greece, Leni has lived most of her life in Seattle. She has one daughter from a first marriage, and after several challenging years as a single mother during the early 1940s, Leni remarried and had three sons. While raising her family, Leni engaged in a variety of paid and volunteer work. Leni also writes a column entitled Bavajadas de Benadam [people's foolish little words] for her synagogue's newsletter. Leni is a fountain of knowledge regarding Sephardic history, language, and customs and laces her wisdom and stories with delightful humor.
Lenora talks about her family history and culture in Rhodes, Greece, and immigrating to the United States. Lenora made trips back to Rhodes in 1970 and 1990. She describes growing up in the Seattle Sephardic community and being connected to her extended family and relatives there. Lenora's maternal grandmother valued learning and encouraged Lenora to pursue higher education. Lenora provides details of her maternal grandmother's work in Seattle as a midwife and nanny. Lenora recalls the traditional stories and Sephardic customs she grew up with, such as naming children after living relatives. In 1936, Lenora moved to Los Angeles in middle school and graduated from Manual Arts High School. In Los Angeles, Lenora became a better student. Still, she also encountered more antisemitism, so she became involved with the Sephardic community there, taking Hebrew Classes and learning the Solitreo script, the language of Sephardic Jews. Lenora discovered and practiced her comedic skills as a teenager, doing imitations and putting on skits to entertain family members. During World War II, Lenora was "Rosie-the-Riveter" and worked in a shipyard, where she met and married her first husband. When her daughter Carolyn was a year old, Lenora divorced her husband and moved back to Seattle to raise her daughter as a single mother until she remarried Duke, and they had three sons. Lenora recounts their courtship, married life, and memories of raising a family together. Lenora stayed home to take care of her four children. She raised her children in the Jewish religion even though her second husband was not Jewish. Lenora passed on to her children the values that her mother and grandmother instilled in her. Lenora found work at Frederick and Nelson department store and Glamorella salon as a fitness consultant. She was a volunteer for Kline Galland Home, where her husband was a salesman, for twenty-seven years, and she served as president of the Hawthorn Elementary Parent Teacher Association. Finally, Lenora reflects on her role as a comedienne, her knowledge of Sephardic culture, and her thoughts on religious intermarriage and the importance of education.
