Constance I Coushnir^[1]

1924 - 2017  (92 years)

• Name	Constance I Coushnir  [2, 3]
  Birth	21 Oct 1924	Shanghai, China   [2, 4]
  Gender	Female
  Residence	1937	, China   [4]
  Departure	25 Jul 1937	Shanghai, China   [4]
  Arrival	17 Aug 1937	San Pedro, Los Angeles, California, USA   [2, 4]
  Residence	1948	Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California, USA   [5]
  NaturalizationPetition	30 Aug 1948	, Los Angeles, California, USA   [2]
  Death	Oct 2017	Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California, USA
  Person ID	I4047	Master
  Last Modified	26 Aug 2019

  
  

  Father	Isidor Solomonovitch Coushnir,   b. 11 Nov 1889, Odessa, Russia d. Feb 1965, , Los Angeles, California, USA (Age 75 years)
  Mother	Matilda Mihallovna,   b. 1 May 1889, Odessa, Russia d. Jul 1978, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California, USA (Age 89 years)
  Family ID	F8264	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

  Family 1	Keith Bruce Finch,   b. 9 Oct 1919, Holyoke, Phillips, Colorado, USA d. 19 Mar 1993, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California, USA (Age 73 years)
  Marriage	21 Nov 1941	Yuma, Yuma, Arizona, USA
  Children	+ 1. K.T. Finch   2. Rita Isadora Finch,   b. 26 Feb 1951, , Los Angeles, California, USA d. 31 Dec 1979, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California, USA (Age 28 years) + 3. L.M. Finch
  Family ID	F1359	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
  Last Modified	8 Mar 2019

  
  

  Family 2	R.C. Spreistersbach
  Family ID	F1360	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
  Last Modified	17 Nov 2018

  
  

• Event Map

  Birth - 21 Oct 1924 - Shanghai, China Residence - 1937 - , China Departure - 25 Jul 1937 - Shanghai, China Arrival - 17 Aug 1937 - San Pedro, Los Angeles, California, USA Marriage - 21 Nov 1941 - Yuma, Yuma, Arizona, USA Residence - 1948 - Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California, USA NaturalizationPetition - 30 Aug 1948 - , Los Angeles, California, USA Death - Oct 2017 - Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California, USA  = Link to Google Earth

  
  

• Notes

  A granddaughter's remembrance. On Sunday my cousin, my aunt and I walked into the ocean to hand my grandmother’s ashes to the waves. Grandma was the matriarch of the family. Now the three of us share that role together. For many decades Grandma (who was a pioneer in American Modern Dance), was teaching geriatric water aerobics at the Hollywood YMCA. Of that class, Grandma would tell me that Americans are “too uptight” and need to use their pelvises more. About two years ago a new manager at the Y suggested she refrain from saying “Fuck.” My grandmother responded “Fuck that” and quit. Her departure caused a near riot at the Y. They begged her to come back. Grandma declined. Her reasons were: 1) She was neither Young, Male, Christian, nor an Association. 2) She liked sleeping in. That’s how bad ass she was. She did her time as the good daughter, the dutiful and abused wife (her first husband was a great artist and a terrible husband), and came out the other side as a pretty radical stand for honesty, love, and self-determination. We had watched Hillary Clinton’s 3rd debate against Trump. I asked grandma if she identified herself as a nasty woman, like Hillary. She said, “Very nasty.” In the last couple of months, as she entered hospice (she was super clear that she was ready to die), my childhood friend Kevin flew down to Los Angeles and recited to her a beautiful passage from the Tibetan Book of the Dead, all about reuniting with Divine Consciousness after death. (He recited it at her memorial. I wish I had the text.) Grandma listened patiently to him before responding: “ BULLSHIT! Life is about experience. We have lots and lots of experiences. We want to have lots of experiences. And then we’re dead.” She then took him through a laughing exercise to cheer him up. That’s grandma. An artist, an activist, and an adopter of children and adults who didn’t know they needed another mother or grandmother until she claimed them as her own… Grandma was an intersectional Nasty Woman in the most glorious, proud, take-no-shit tradition of women who pave the way for future generations of empowered women and men. Her name was Constance Spriestersbach.

  
  

• Sources

  [S761] Yates Publishing, Ancestry Family Trees, (Online publication - Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com. Original data: Family Tree files submitted by Ancestry members.), Ancestry Family Tree. http://trees.ancestry.com/pt/AMTCitationRedir.aspx?tid=155573642&pid=3 [S1115] Ancestry.com, California, U.S., Federal Naturalization Records, 1843-1999, (Ancestry.com Operations, Inc.), National Archives at Riverside; Riverside, California; NAI Number: 594890; Record Group Title: 21; Record Group Number: Records of District Courts of the United States, 1685-2009. [S1120] Ancestry.com, U.S., Naturalization Records, 1840-1957, (Ancestry.com Operations, Inc.), National Archives and Records Administration (NARA); Washington, D.C.; Naturalization Records of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California, Central Division (Los Angeles), 1887-1940; Microfilm Roll: 55; Microfilm Serial: M1524. [S17] Ancestry.com, California, Passenger and Crew Lists, 1882-1959, (Online publication - Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2008-2011.), The National Archives at Washington, D.C.; Washington, D.C.; Passenger Lists of Vessels Arriving at San Pedro/Wilmington/Los Angeles, California; NAI Number: 4486355; Record Group Title: Records of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, 1787-2004; Rec. [S142] Ancestry.com, U.S., Naturalization Record Indexes, 1791-1992 (Indexed in World Archives Project) , (Online publication - Provo, UT, USA: The Generations Network, Inc., 2007.), National Archives and Records Administration (NARA); Washington, D.C.; Naturalization Index Cards of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California, Central Division (Los Angeles), 1915-1976 (M1525); Microfilm Serial: M1525; Microfilm Roll.