By Betsy Thorpe

I recently returned from vacation to hear the sad news that Elizabeth Jacobs at the age of 101, had died in her home on October 31st.

In August I spent a delightful afternoon with Ms. Jacobs and her daughter Betsy Chernau. I met with her to record her memories of Dutchman's Curve rail accident. In 1918 she witnessed the carnage of the deadliest train wreck in U.S. history .She was 12 years old. She accompanied her aunt, one of Nashville's first Red Cross volunteers to the "White Bridge" soon after the accident occurred. The mail car was demolished and the mail scattered. After the mail was gathered Ms. Jacobs and her aunt returned the mail to the Nashville Post office.

I wasn't with her long before I realized I was going to get more than her recollections of one day. What began as an interview immediately turned into a lively topical conversation.

Love
She met her beloved first husband, Homer Jonas, at his eleventh birthday party. She was five. It was love at first sight and she claimed him then as her future husband. Eighteen years later she was in Europe when the stock market crashed. A cable arrived from Mr. Jonas breaking off their engagement. He was financially ruined and suggested she find a husband in Europe. She returned to Nashville and married him anyway

On the Women's Movement
When asked about her involvement in the Women's Movement she recalled marching to the State Capitol with her mother and other women in support of the effort to pass the 19th amendment.

Automobiles
Ms. Jacobs talked about a car trip to Fairview from her home on West End Avenue. Nine Mile Hill was a challenge. Arriving there all the adults got out of the car and pushed the car up the hill. She stayed in the car and steered. She was a very little girl.

Country Music
Elizabeth Jacobs was a Travelers Aid volunteer, working five days a week at the Nashville bus station when the Grand Ole' Opry began its national broadcasts. According to Ms. Jacobs, "Hillbilly" musicians arrived everyday by bus, hoping to play on the radio. It was her job as a Travelers Aid agent to help them get home.

Civil Rights
Ten years before the sit-ins, bus rides and demonstrations of the 1960's Civil Rights movement, Homer Jacobs announced to his family they could expect a brick to come through their window. He had promoted his porter to salesman. His jewelry store was the first white business in Nashville to employ an African American salesman. No brick came and other businesses soon followed his example.

Celebrity
President Woodrow Wilson was the person Elizabeth Jacobs would most liked to have met. "His intelligence made him quite attractive" she said.

Community Involvement
During the Great Depression Ms. Jonas was the first woman to chair the Community Chest. She sat on many boards in the decades following the depression including, Travelers Aid, Metro Services, Council of Community Services and the Council on the Aging. She was a driving force in the creation Nashville's Metro government.

Elizabeth Lowenheim Jonas Jacobs was a benevolent woman. She was a living example of charity beginning at home. She didn't get why people found her so interesting. She lived her life doing what needed to be done, making great social changes in the process. She was indeed a Nashville treasure.