Person:Eva Kovarsky (1)

Eva, one of seven children born to Karl Kovarsky and his first wife, name unknown (possibly Pauline), who died at age 30 (when Eva was six) delivered of her eighth child who also died due to lack of a wet nurse. Siblings were first born boy who stayed in Russia (descendants disappeared in Holocaust), Henry who came to America as Henry Nathan, Sophie, Rose, Eva, Sam and Hyman who all followed Henry to America, Sam and Hyman first stopping off in South Africa. Karl married again and 2nd wife also died in childbirth after about a year of marriage, but this time they got a wet nurse and daughter Belle survived. Karl married a third time, but the bride's family tried a switch, putting the "ugly older sister" under the veil at the wedding to this undoubtedly much older man, father of eight, so Karl immediately had that marriage annulled. His fourth wife came from Moscow and apparently took things in stride, enjoying the chocolates and oranges she had shipped to herself. She got along with her stepchildren and had none of her own. Eva immigrated to New York City in 1899 supposedly to avoid an arranged marriage. She was following some of her older siblings and initially lived with her sister Rose and Rose's husband and young son. Eva ended up with a marriage arranged by her older brother as part of a business agreement. Sam Elkind was taken into Henry Nathan's apartment painting business with the understanding that he would marry Henry's sister, Eva, also called Riva/Reve. (Source the stories of Morton Elkind, son of Eva and Sam, as told to me, Morton's daughter Elisabeth)

While widowed, Eva resided at the Leveritch Towers Hotel in Brooklyn Heights, near her son Digby's family at 26 Willow Street. According to Digby's wife Charlotte, Eva came to dinner every night of their marriage until the day Eva died. Later Eva moved into 26 Willow Street, and lived in the 2nd floor hall bedroom. Charlotte recalls giving elegant dinners and seeing "Granny" Eva at the far end of the parlor, shaking her fist at her. Charlotte and Digby had received antique side chairs from Charlotte's home in Chicago. Eva sometimes tipped them over on their side, calling them the "Chicago Gold".

More family legends, from Elisabeth's "Working" journal: o Never learned to read English o Only social contact were her relatives o Stayed at home and cleaned, though never cooked o Stood on a corner and waited to see FDR pass in a car o Swam across a river in Russia to escape her home and an imminent arranged marriage o Before she died, she believed she was 10 again and her granddaughter Elisabeth was her older sister Rose

Granddaughter Susanne's recollections:

Grandma Eva lived at the Concourse Plaza Hotel on the Grand Concourse in the Bronx before she moved to the Towers Hotel in Bklyn. I remember it well. She would come over to visit us in the afternoons. Sometimes her sister, Rose, would show up too. They fought all the time. I hated it when they fought. Since my father wanted no part of the Elkind family, eventually Eva moved to the Towers Hotel in Bklyn and lived there until she moved in with Digby and Charlotte. While still living in the Bronx, Grandma Eva would babysit me occasionally in the afternoons when my mom had to do errands. We would dance together in our living room to a made up song…I THINK she made it up. She sang the words to me…”Engel Bengel Coupit Sengal” is what it sounded like and then we would sing it together. I really don’t remember much else except one other thing: My sister, Dru, had a beautiful voice and attended the High School of Music and Art for voice and piano. She was very talented. One day she decided to play a joke on Grandma Eva. She put a record on the phonograph of Margaritte Piazza (sp) and mouthed the words to a song. Grandma thought it was Dru singing and couldn’t stop praising her. She was practically swooning! It was kind of mean, but also funny to 7 or 8 year old me and is a memory that clings to me. Dru’s friends used to imitate Grandma’s accent perfectly… especially the way she pronounced our names: “DWOSEELA and SHOOZ”! I was no older than 5,6,7 or 8ish and I remember laughing hysterically. I remember the day Eva died. Morty told us that Charlotte held a mirror up to her face to see if she was breathing, looking for moisture to appear on the mirror. That was in 1968. S... and I were already married and I was at work when my mom (Pauline) called me to tell me that Grandma had died.

1. ↑ Ancestry.com. U.S., Social Security Death Index, 1935-2014 [database on-line].
2. ↑ Ancestry.com. 1900 U.S. Federal Census [database on-line].
3. ↑ https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/173690906/eva-elkind, in Findagrave.
4. ↑ Morton Elkind papers.

   Leases for a 1-room apartment, #238, at Towers Hotel from 1 Oct 1956 to 30 Sep 1962. Initial rent was $1,100/year, rising to $1,320/year later.

5. ↑ Granddaughter Susanne H. recollection.
6. ↑ Eva was self-conscious about being a number of years older than her husband; social security death index gives her birth date as May 15, 1881. Her son was sure she was born in 1877 and was 90 when she died. May 15th is a family guess; she was born in the spring when the flowers were in bloom.