Name: Ida Schlanger Levy Hockfield 12/13/1897-8/02/1945 Row 1:3
Family-Husband: Herman Hockfield (though she was first married to a Levy) Children: Joe and Leonard
When Ida visited her sister, who was living in Georgia, she met and married Meyer Levy. Meyer died in the flu epidemic. Ida was left with a 6 month old child and then moved in with her sister and brother-in-law and lived with them for about 8 years when she married Sam Hockfield.
Ida was active in the Jewish community and was instrumental in facilitating some key changes in the institutional life of Beth El. Jewish institutions slowly changed their customs as the Jewish community adapted to life in the United States, some customs changing more slowly than others. One area of change was in the language used at meetings as Yiddish, the primary language for many of the early Jews in Durham, was customarily spoken. When Ida became head of the Ladies Aid Society in the early 40's she was successful in having English rather than Yiddish spoken at the meetings. At the same time she maintained a strict observance of the kashrut laws. She also apparently liked to have her dish sets in order. When a dish became unusable, she would go buy another set.
She was a very charitable person, her blue box for Hadassah always had the most money in it.
She was very protective toward her son Leonard, whom she adored. Although he was on his college wrestling team, he kept it a secret from his mother so that she would not worry.
She was part of a regular poker group with her sister Rose Sawilosky Roemer and their mother, Julia Schlanger. Her father was Henry Schlanger. On Sundays they would gather to play poker while all the children would also play together.