Leon And Jennie Freedman

1926 - 2019

Leon and Jennie Freedman

Sparks/Reno - Leon and Jennie Freedman: An American Romance

Two children of broken homes found a lifelong home in one they made together.

Jennie Freedman passed away in Reno on January 17, 2017, and her husband of 71 years, Leon P. Freedman, followed her on March 27, 2019. He resided in Sparks at the time of his passing.

Among family and friends they were known as "the dancers." Jennie was born in Chicago in 1926 to Meyer and Jennie Stein. Her name was changed from Betty to Jennie when her mother died a few months after her birth. She was raised by her stepmother, Esther. Leon was born in Salt Lake City in 1923 to Joseph and Rose Friedman. His parents divorced after moving to Chicago. Jennie and Leon grew up in Chicago and met in the 1940's at the Spanish Club, a popular nightspot, after Leon returned from Army service during World War II. They were skilled ballroom dancers whose specialty was the Tango, and soon after discovering each other were the featured entertainment at Jennie's sister Margie's wedding. There, they danced to the Blue Tango, a performance captured on celluloid, and one that would be reprised again and again over the next 70 years.

They married in 1945 at Chicago's Stevens Hotel, today an architectural landmark. It was a wedding out of a Hollywood movie: she in flowing satin and pearls, he in top hat and tails - a cameo the family would cherish during many celebrations of their long marriage.

Like many of their generation, they soon headed for California with a pioneer-like spirit. In Los Angeles they sought to buff the romantic shine on their handsome union, Jennie dreaming of modeling or working in film, and Leon, who trained as an illustrator on the GI Bill, as a cartoonist or commercial artist. It wasn't to be, but their generation had pluck and Leon found work at growing companies like Lockheed and Midas, while Jennie got started on what would become their true creation, a family of five children.

Eventually, Los Angeles seemed big and unfriendly and not a good place to raise a family. Leon had been to Reno before and liked what he had seen; a relaxed place with open spaces and, of course, gaming. It was in 1962, the youngest of the five not yet two years old when the modern pioneers packed up and headed to Reno in what can only be described as a covered truck, an industrial orange behemoth with a canopy over the top and a chainmail curtain swinging at the back to keep the kids from falling out.

Settling in Reno meant a few years of living in rented houses as Leon searched for work. At first, he made some money in the firewood business, selling cutoffs collected from local lumber yards, but it wasn't much. The family soon joined the Temple Emanu-el synagogue on West Street. Leon taught Israeli folk dances to the synagogue children. Jennie and Leon would be lifelong members of the temple, and each son became a bar mitzvah and one granddaughter a bat mitzvah. They made new friends and a connection that led to Leon's becoming a successful insurance agent. He was a natural salesman, and built business relationships and friendships that lasted years. In his "retired" years he traveled widely selling products to stock gift shops. Jennie went to work, too, first as a shill in the casinos. Reno had a classy club scene back then, and Jennie worked for the Primadonna, the Mapes, the Riverside, and retired from the Holiday Hotel as a Keno writer. Reno was right for them. In 1968 they moved into the family home on Humboldt Street, and settled in for a life of family and friends, temple activities, parties, and enjoying Reno entertainment. Jennie never lost her glamorous style, and the two continued to be that dancing couple at club nights and parties near and far. They loved casino games, camping with the kids, visiting ghost towns and traveling to national parks. There was one vacation in which the two of them were caught in a frightening New Orleans hotel fire that was reported in newspapers nationwide and accompanied by an image of frantic Jenny searching for her missing Leon, and another showing their tearful reunion, both soaked to the skin from fire hose spray.

On modest earnings they entertained and educated their kids with outdoor adventures, creative parties, and dances in the living room to records spinning on the portable hi-fi. Without referring to it as "the arts," creativity was a central theme of growing up in the home of Leon and Jennie, especially dancing and drawing. Leon also found time to appear in local stage productions, notably as Nachum the beggar in Fiddler on the Roof at the Pioneer. An avid card player, Leon belonged to Reno bridge clubs and was known to be a very good player, taking home a tournament prize in the 1970s. Certainly, you can't remember Jennie without also recalling her love of dogs. The family raised many over the years in periods defined by Dalmatians, poodles, yorkies, and mutts.

Life is delimited by beginning and end dates, but is defined by the quality of activity within those years. Jennie and Leon were busy filling their shared life with entertainment, making a home, raising children, delighting in grandchildren, creating gatherings, encouraging expression, and, of course, chasing after dogs.

Surviving Jennie and Leon are their five children, Francine Gray (Ted), Charlene Marshall, Steve Freedman (Diane), Myron Freedman (Susan), and Robert Freedman (Sandy), 10 grandchildren, and 11 great-grandchildren. A memorial service for Leon is scheduled for 2 p.m., Sunday, April 7, at Temple Emanu-el, 1031 Manzanita Lane in Reno. Donations in their memory may be given to the Nevada Humane Society.