Bea Franklin is an example of living life to the fullest: world traveler, theatre-goer, (big) dog owner, diner at upscale NYC and nationwide restaurants. and even attendee at a Yacht Rock concert in Sands Point last summer.
Bea Strauss Franklin’s dad, Jack, with his brother Moe, founded the iconic Pep Boys brand and logo which has been in existence since 1921. They later came to New York City and formed another automotive chain of stores—Strauss Stores.
Bubbie Bea has been living in the same Lawrence house since 1958 and still has the same phone number.
Sunday, December 7, 1941 is etched firmly in Bea Franklin’s mind. While a student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison on that cold day, a newspaper boy shouted out that Pearl Harbor was attacked.
On Bea’s 18th birthday in 1942, she attended a rooftop concert at the Astor Hotel in NYC starring Frank Sinatra with the Tommy Dorsey Band….just one of many amazing concerts she has seen over the last century.
On Tuesday, August 14, 1945 Bea Franklin was a student at New York University. When she heard the news that Japan surrendered, eight days after the atomic bomb exploded, Bea and her classmates took a subway uptown to Times Square where she actually witnessed the iconic ‘kiss’ seen around the world.
Bea met Corporal Jerry Franklin on November 4, 1945 and they married (eloped) on November 30, 1945. The matriarch of the Franklin family of three sons, three grand and four great grandchildren, the supermom has a pocketbook of a century worth of experiences.
For three years, Corporal Jerry Franklin was a U.S. Army photographer with the Signal Corps / 163rd Photo Company / 5th Army. His cameras captured the invasions throughout Europe and North Africa…and took graphic photos at the liberation of the Dachau concentration camp.
The World War II photo albums from the lenses of Corporal Franklin contain many historic photos. Some have never been seen before and some are publicly available in school history books and even in institutions such as the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library in Hyde Park, NY and elsewhere.
One such ‘iconic’ photo is Franklin Roosevelt with Dwight Eisenhower in a jeep with General Patton in the background at Castelvetrano Airport in Sicily, Italy, after the conferences at Tehran and Cairo, December 8, 1943. This photo was featured in Ken (Kenjamin) Franklin’s Lawrence High School social studies textbook.
Photographer Franklin’s glimpses of the war include captivating photos of film stars Humphrey Bogart and his wife, Mickey Rooney and Joe E. Lewis. His archives also includes photographs of women in the army …and ‘posed’ photos such as a nurse hanging out on a war zone beach with Jerry to give an impression of the so-called ‘softer’ side of a war in progress.
Bea also hosted great names at her many gatherings in her Lawrence, LI household, friends included boxing great /TV celebrity great Rocky Graziano and famous NHL NY Rangers hockey players. Rocky and wife Norma attended Bea’s youngest son Ken’s (Kenjamin) bar mitzvah at Temple Israel in Lawrence.
Over the years, Ms. Pep Gal has been good friends with actresses/actors who have had substantial Broadway musical credentials. Quite often she travels to cities throughout the U.S. to see her acting friends when they are performing in the touring companies (Fiddler on the Roof, etc.). ‘Bumble Bea’s recent travels include Aspen, CO, Phoenix, Memphis, Louisville, and Buffalo. World travels included over 30 countries and 30 states including Japan, UK, Bali, France, Ukraine (loved their theatre house), Italy, USSR, and Hungary.
The former Lawrence (and other schools) librarian with a master’s degree from LIU/Post also served as Five Towns Women’s Chapter B’nai Brith President. Bea celebrated her long-overdue bat mitzvah at Temple Israel in Lawrence.
Centenarian Bea is a two-time cancer survivor and also a heterochromatic. She has one blue eye and one brown eye—a trait found in less than 200,000 U.S. humans.
‘Queen Bea’ shares secrets to (still) living a fulfilling life and recollections of her late husband’s rare WWII photos on many interviews, including News 12/LI and The Holocaust Memorial and Tolerance Center of Nassau County. On WABC Radio, she shared the fun story in 1956 of preparing lunch for her son and a future U.S. President.
May her life continue to be filled with berachah.
