Estelle Blond had just returned to New York City from Israel when she and John Corrigan met at an Israeli folk dancing class in 1953.
“She was fond of pointing out that he had come there with another woman, and she must have come there with another man, because that’s how we did things back then. Women didn’t come to dances on their own at the time,” Estelle’s daughter Eve recalled.
“She would always interject when he told the story, ‘The woman was not all that attractive!’ And my father would say, ‘She happened to be a very good dancer!'”
John proposed within a couple of weeks, and Estelle accepted six months later. They were married for 60 years, before John died at 86 in 2015. On April 5, Estelle’s family lay her to rest beside John at Highland Lawn Cemetery in Terre Haute. Estelle died April 2 at age 90.
UHC President Betsy Frank officiated and delivered the eulogy.
Estelle celebrated the birth of Israel
Estelle’s elder daughter Devora said, “One thing she did love was music of all kinds — pop music, Broadway and Israeli folk dancing, which I’m sure hearkened back to her days at the Jewish Agency. She started working there when she was only 17, in 1944, before the creation of [the State of] Israel.
“And then in 1948, people danced in the streets of New York in celebration of [Israel’s birth], and she joined them.
“It was the Israeli folk dances she would play for all of us,” Devora said. “She would smile and I think that would bring back fond memories of her youth, when she was very beautiful.”
Mourners listened as Devora and Eve played a recorded Israeli folk song, representative of the music to which a young Estelle Corrigan danced. As the song continued, the sisters lowered their gaze and, lost in reverie, began to sing along.
Mourners listen to an Israeli folk song
Images from Highland Lawn
Estelle at the Temple and Westminster Village
Even after moving into a nursing home, Estelle Corrigan remained devoted to the Jewish community, attending a B’nai Mitzvah ceremony in May 2016, Rosh Hashanah services in September 2017 and Veterans Day Shabbat with former UHC Student Rabbi Aaron Rozovsky in November 2017 at Westminster Village.
Betsy Frank: ‘Despite her hard life, Estelle did succeed.’
UHC President Betsy Frank delivered this eulogy for Estelle Corrigan.
Her parents were refugees from Poland around 1910, from the pogroms. But they did not meet in Poland; they met in New York. And they raised the children the best they could.
But it was a hard life. The Depression was hard on them and their children. Estelle and other [siblings] ended up in a Jewish orphanage, which was quite common then. We kind of take a deep breath about that now but I think that was pretty common in the tenements of the East Side of New York City.
But despite this hard life, Estelle did succeed. She was an amazing woman. Right out of high school, at the age of 17, she worked for the Jewish Agency, which helped refugees. I think [Devora] relayed the story [that] somebody came in and wanted to send guns to Israel and she said, “No, you have to go to the Irgun upstairs!”
“Right out of high school, at the age of 17, she worked for the Jewish Agency, which helped refugees. Somebody came in and wanted to send guns to Israel and she said, ‘No, you have to go to the Irgun upstairs!'”
As with many Jews at the time in New York City, she attended City University of New York. (That was one of the few universities that actually took Jewish people.) But she didn’t graduate at the time, and she went to Israel in 1953.
When she came back, she met John, and he was stationed in the military — and I think he must have been [drafted into] the Army — and he was smart, so they put him in a lab.
They met in an Israeli dancing class. And I have a picture in my mind of your mom when she was younger, just returned from Israel, excited to keep the Israeli spirit alive, like the Israeli pioneers, and meeting the love of her life.
She and John moved to Champaign-Urbana so John could get his masters and doctorate, and there Estelle completed her bachelors in English.
Then they went to Boston at Tufts [University], where Estelle was actually accepted in computer science at MIT. I was amazed to hear that!
“Once her children were older she got her masters in agency counseling from ISU. She really was an educated woman.”
There were cutbacks at Tufts, so off they came to Terre Haute in 1971. This was a shock to Estelle. She was raised Orthodox and here they are in Terre Haute. We know what that means. She was not used to it. But she persevered and once her children were older she got her masters in agency counseling from ISU. She really was an educated woman.
And she always was interested in the news. (Even when she went to a nursing home and assisted living, she always had the news on; she wanted to know what was going on; she wanted to read the newspaper. That stuck with her.)
She then worked at a federally funded employment agency, CETA — which we had to look up last night; it’s no longer in operation — that placed young people in jobs and teens in summer jobs. (One of you related the story where one of her teens drove by the house and she said, “You’re staying away from smoking and alcohol!”)
She always was interested in the news. Even when she went to nursing home and assisted living, she always had the news on; she wanted to know what was going on.
She then worked with AARP Senior Services and in both these jobs, she rose to positions of great responsibility.
She loved animals, particularly cats. And I know that; when she came to our house for Thanksgiving one year, she met Nella, and she always asked about Nella after that: “How is your cat?”
She also was active in our synagogue community, and it is this community that supported her when she went to assisted living. And I really want to thank at this time Karen Harris and her three children, and Debra Israel and her daughters, for visiting as often as they could and also seeing that Estelle got to events and services at the Temple. And that truly was a blessing to her.