Honoring ‘a blessed life’ in Lawrence

It was back during a time just before Pearl Harbor and the Second World War when Carol Berman was leaving Brooklyn to attend the University of Michigan. Across the city in Manhattan, Jerry Berman was also getting ready to attend the same school.

Both arrived there from New York City but they didn’t know each other, said Carol and Jerry’s son, Charlie Berman.

“Besides being from NYC, the other thing they had in common was the same last name,” he said. “Someone who knew them both decided to introduce them and they have been together ever since.”

Carol Berman said it was interesting how she and Jerry met. “My maiden name was Berman,” she said. “My husband’s name is Berman, too. He told our mutual friend that he was going to the University of Michigan and wanted to look up ‘the girl of the same name.’”

After World War II began, Jerry was drafted and sent to the Army Air Corp. Charlie said his parents wanted to get married but Carol’s parents said she couldn’t until she finished college. “Since my mother was an excellent student, she graduated college in three years, Phi Beta Kappa, at age 19,” Charlie said. “They were married on May 19, 1944, during the war. You might say that regardless of the circumstances, they were in love and couldn’t live without each other.”

After the war, the Bermans returned to New York. “My aunt in Woodmere helped us look for housing,” Carol said. “After our daughter Elizabeth was born, we needed a bigger house, so we moved from Lynbrook to Lawrence.”

Carol served three terms as a New York state senator, as well as a district aide for Assemblyman Eli Wager and for Representative Herbert Tenzer. Jerry was a general agent for the Security Mutual Life Insurance Company. “Throughout the years they have both been incredibly successful,” Charlie said. “Whatever one accomplished, they never could have done it without the other, because they really love and need each other.”