All of her friends knew the story that defined the life of Nici Teweles.
It was the saga of her family's desperate flight from Nazi Germany to Holland, where one of her playmates was Anne Frank. It included a missed passage on a steamship that ended up hitting a mine.
And finally, it culminated with the family's arrival in America in 1940.
But it was just one chapter in a remarkable life for Teweles, who died Jan. 25 at age 95, seven months after she was diagnosed with lung cancer.
With her late husband L.William(Bill) Teweles, who oversaw the L. Teweles Seed Company, she nurtured the arts and was involved in historic preservation. She established a breast cancer awareness group that used a mobile truck to reach out to lower-income communities in Milwaukee.
She served on the board of Ten Chimneys, the home of Broadway legends Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne.
She and her husband were also avid collectors of abstract expressionist paintings, pre-Colombian sculpture and works from ancient Greece. At their home, they hosted the likes of David Hockney, Helen Frankenthaler and Santiago Calatrava.
"She was sort of a grand dame of Milwaukee but was down to earth. People were drawn to her and she loved to make connections with people," said her daughter Tracy Teweles.
"Preservation was important to her because of the life she left behind," her daughter Julia Teweles said.
Teweles was involved in historic preservation in Walker's Point, setting up a nonprofit to help renovate buildings in the 1970's, her family said.
"She had a huge influence on hundreds of women through the various organizations she was involved with in terms of helping them through their careers," Julia said.
She was also among a group of local women who participated in a local book club that started in the early 1950's and still continues.
In a 2016 profile on the group in Milwaukee Magazine, journalist Sandy Tolan, whose mother was one of the founders, wrote: "In some ways, though, it was less about the books than about intelligent, curious women spending time together. They discussed husbands, babies, work, teenagers, grandchildren, religion, marijuana, civil rights, moonshots, Watergate, riots, terrorism, imperialism, fascism and tragedy. These days, they often talk about mortality and the relentless passage of time."
The article also detailed how Nici and her family came to America.
Born Nicole Emmerich, on January 31, 1927, in Frankfurt, Germany, she was 6 when Hitler came to power. Her family was Jewish and her father, Hugo, was arrested several times.
The family left Germany for Amsterdam, where Nici played marbles with other neighborhood children, including Anne Frank.
Nici told Milwaukee Magazine: “We shot marbles into holes and cracks in the sidewalk. Once I was playing with Anne and she cheated. With her foot I saw her push her marble to a more advantageous position. I was shocked that anybody would do that.”
She added: “Obviously, she had many talents that came out later. Poor Anne, she never had a chance to defend herself against me.”
In December 1939, the family made plans to flee Holland. It was late on a Friday afternoon when her parents were in line at the office of the Royal Netherland Steamship Company. But when the sun went down, her father refused to sign the necessary paperwork because it was the Sabbath. Nici recalled that her mother, Lily, was furious.
Later, the family learned that the steamship they missed hit a mine in the North Sea and sank.
Weeks later, Nici, her parents and her older brother André took another ship and made their way to America via what was then Dutch Guiana (now Suriname), where they stayed for a time.
It was Lincoln's Birthday and there were fireworks in the New York Harbor when the family arrived.
"Look children, they knew we were coming," her mother Lily said.
"She was so young through these various moves," her daughter Julia said. "She saw it all as a great adventure. They got out in the nick of time. Retroactively it all had a big impact on her."
Many of her relatives perished during the Holocaust.
"Mom did not want to define her life either by her escape from Nazi Germany nor at the end of her life by her lung cancer diagnosis," her daughter Tracy said.
"She was a great shoulder for people outside the family," Tracy said. "She kept growing in her life."
Her family said that Nici "graduated from Oberlin College with a degree in English and seven proposals of marriage, each of which she turned down."
She completed the Bloomingdale's Fashion Training Program and then worked for The Tobe Report, a fashion industry trade publication.
She met her future husband, Bill, in New York in 1949. For a time they had a long distance relationship. She was in New York and Bill was in Milwaukee. Eventually, they got engaged and married in 1950 and settled in Milwaukee.
"She had natural smarts, often advised my dad brilliantly and contributed to his later success," Tracy Teweles said. "Mom was behind the scenes and dad's rock."
Besides her daughters Tracy and Julia, other survivors include her children Leah Teweles and Gillian Denavit, six grandchildren and other relatives. A funeral was held Sunday. Nici requested donations in her name be made to Hope House/The Family Flex Fund of Milwaukee.
