Individual Details

Allison Levine wrote:

"I remember knowing that Aunt Anna was an opera singer,
but the family was always very modest about that. I
remember Aunt Anna's penthouse apartment in Palm
Beach. The dining room and painted oriental
mural on the wall. And as a young woman I did not
really appreciate her dressing room very much, but now
I understand just how fantastic is was. A large
mirrored room with a bench in the middle, and the
mirrors were doors leading to closets!"

"I heard stories of what a wonderful cook she was, but
at that time, her daughters would no longer let her
cook."

".... (I believe Anna lived in the penthouse . . . on Sutton Place)."

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http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,930370,00.html
Time Magazin

Turkel Over Pashas

Monday, Feb. 23, 1931 Article ToolsPrintEmail The audience which gathered at the Royal Opera House in Cairo one night last week had the feeling that nothing which happened on the stage would be any more exciting than the sight of Prime Minister Ismail Sidky Pasha sitting in his box glowering at Former Prime Minister Mustafa Nahas Pasha, his bitterest political enemy, in a box just opposite. The opera was A?da, a particularly old story for Cairo. Years ago, Khedive Ismail Pasha, swollen over the success of the new Suez Canal, had commissioned Verdi to write it for the opening of that same opera house. The tunes, familiar as the Nile settings, promised no great excitement.

Then the curtain went up and soon A?da, the slave girl, started to sing. Immediately the audience forgot its hostile pashas, thought only of her. After the act she was cheered, and called back a dozen times. So excited was U. S. Minister William M. Jardine that he violated a sacred tradition of the opera house, went back stage to congratulate her. Minister Jardine knew something of her story. Though her immigrant parents had shaken their heads, Anna Turkel had left her home and the seven younger Turkels in Woonsocket. R. I., had gone to Manhattan with a nebulous notion of studying singing. To pay for her living she got a job as candy clerk in the Metropolitan Opera House. During the acts she would sneak downstairs to listen to Ponselle, Bori, Jeritza. Now, a group of Manhattanites* are financing her for three years abroad.


* Among them: Mrs. Frederick Brown, wife of the Manhattan realtor, Mrs. Ralph Jonas, wife of Director Jonas of Manufacturers' Trust Co. of New York, Banker Jules Bache, Board Chairman Ludwig Vogelstein of American Metal Co., Banker Lewis Strauss of Manhattan.

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Turkel Tribe website: http://turkel.org.il/FAMOUS/Anna.htm

Alt name		Anna Turkel
Birth	19 Nov 1902	Woonsocket, Providence, Rhode Island, United States
Alt name		Anna R Terkel
Residence	15 Apr 1910	1910 Census - 59 Hamlet Avenue, Woonsocket, Providence, Rhode Island, United States
Alt name	1915	Anna R Tirkel
Residence	1915	Woonsocket, Providence, Rhode Island, United States
Residence	3 Jan 1920	59 Hamlet Avenue, Woonsocket, Providence, Rhode Island, United States
Residence	1925 - 1950	Opera Singer - Manhattan, New York, New York, United States
Occupation		Opera Singer - New York, New York, United States
Residence	1930	Manhattan, New York, New York, United States
Marriage	9 Feb 1937	1st marriage of Anna - Manhattan, New York, New York, United States - Alexander W Jacobs
Divorce	Bef 1940	Alexander W Jacobs
Marriage	23 Apr 1948	1st marriage of Raphael; 2nd marriage of Anna (widower) - Greenwich, Connecticut, United States - Raphael "Rafie" Portugaloff - Porte
Alt name		Anna Porte
Residence	1950	1950 Census - Ansonia Hotel: 2109 Broadway Avenue Apt 14-109, Manhattan, New York, New York, United States
Soc Sec No	Bef 1951	072-18-0232 NY
Residence	1957	3-5944 - 45 Chrstphr Chelsa, Manhattan, New York, New York, United States
Death	14 Aug 1979	33480 - 3475 S. Ocean Blvd, Palm Beach, Florida, United States

Spouse

Raphael "Rafie" Portugaloff - Porte (1903 - 1992)

Spouse

Alexander W Jacobs (1892 - 1945)

Father	Albert Terkel (1873 - 1926)
Mother	Lena S Novogrodsky (1883 - 1979)
Sibling	Esther M Terkel (1904 - 1998)
Sibling	Herbert Issac Turkel (1906 - 1994)
Sibling	Irving (Erwin) Stanley Turkel (1907 - 1993)
Sibling	Florence Paula Turkel (1910 - 1983)
Sibling	Reeven Joseph Turkel (1912 - 1992)
Sibling	Sonia R Turkel (1916 - 2000)
Sibling	Hope Eunice Turkel (1922 - 2000)

Notes