Life-long Houstonian. Born a twin with brother Raymond, downtown on Sidney Street on Tuesday, October 25, 1921to her mother, Marjorie Gordon Kellerman and father Walter Kellerman.
She remembered as a child, walking hand-in-hand with her mother to the Majestic Theater to watch movies with her family, and roller skating on the sidewalk with her brother and friends, Phyllis, Ana-Grace and Mary Francis. She and her brother attended Austin High School here in Houston.
She loved to dance and would attend the Friday night dances at the YMCA in the years during World War II. In fact, Rosemary loved to dance so much that she left the Baptist Church because of it, and joined the Presbyterian Church because they would let her dance! That’s why you heard the sounds of swing and Benny Goodman when you came in here. She met her husband of 51 years, Gilbert Goldberg at one of those dances. She always said he was a very good dancer. Lucky for Gilbert, because if you couldn’t dance, you probably were scratched off the dance card entirely!
She and Gilbert married on August 4, 1950, and lived in Houston their entire lives. They raised two children, Donna and Dan, and kept a home in the Meyerland area.
Rosemary was so happy, and proud of her home and family. She was an exceptional homemaker, and was widely known for her fastidiousness. She impressed the whole neighborhood by scrubbing and waxing the floor of the garage. Her husband often worried that he would drive into the garage one day and not be able to stop on that slick waxed floor, and slide right out the back wall of the garage. Her daughter-in-law was dumbstruck when she learned that Rosemary vacuumed her attic. And she was still out there washing the home’s windows well into her 80’s and dancing to swing music in the den.
Rosemary was very proud of her work for the Army, as a civilian, at Ellington Air Force Base during war-time. She would ride the bus to work every day, and quit only after she married. Those were some of her favorite stories to share.
She was a long-time member of St. John’s Presbyterian Church on Bellfort Avenue, and even after she reached the point that she could no longer attend services, she still kept in touch with the church and supported it in donations. She was a good Christian, and spent time in prayer every single day.
I’m sure that now she has her strength and health back, and she and Gilbert are dancing to the soft sounds of Glenn Miller’s trombone.
- Dan and Leela Goldberg
