Barbara Myerhoff (Feb. 16, 1935–Jan. 7, 1985) was born as Barbara Gay Siegel in Cleveland, Ohio, where a major influence on her life was her maternal grandmother Sofie Mann, who taught her that every person had an interesting story. They would look out the window of their home and tell stories about people who lived in adjoining homes. With her mother Florence and stepfather, Norman Siegel, she moved to Los Angeles where she married Lee Myerhoff in 1954. She earned a bachelor’s degree in sociology in 1958 and a master’s degree in human development in 1963 from the University of Chicago. She completed a doctorate in anthropology at UCLA in 1968. Her son Nicholas was born that same year and Matthew followed in 1971.
Her doctoral dissertation was published in 1974 as Peyote Hunt: The Sacred Journey of the Huichol Indians and was nominated for a National Book Award. In 1976 through 1980, she chaired the Department of Anthropology at the University of Southern California.
Following advice to “study your own,” Myerhoff began fieldwork on the elderly Jews at the Israel Levin Center in Venice, California, resulting in a 1977 Oscar-winning short documentary film, Number Our Days, and in 1979 a book of the same title. Thereafter, Myerhoff taught workshops at New York University and at the Hunter/ Brookdale Center for the Aging covering performance, life histories and storytelling. Number Our Days also was adapted in 1981 for the stage. She and her husband divorced in 1982.
Myerhoff began a project studying the predominantly Jewish Fairfax District of Los Angeles, but died of cancer before it could be completed. During her illness, she collaborated with Lynn Littman on a documentary In Her Own Time about her struggle with cancer and how members of the Fairfax community helped her deal with it. She was only 49 when she died.
Tomorrow, Feb. 17, 1935: Chaim Potok
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SDJW condensation of articles from Wikipedia and the Shalvi/ Hyman Encyclopedia of Jewish Women
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