Elmon Kazandjian
English Teacher
June 6, 2006
      Her full married name is Elmon Dadaon Kazandjian. Her maiden name was Dadaon. When she married George Kazandjian her name became what it is today. Growing up she was called Ellie. While in Brentwood she was known by her own name Elmon. She attended Hunter College and later completed her graduate work at Columbia University. She hated her name as a child but in time got used to being different. Hers was a very sad family history. Her parents were both Armenian. They went through the Turkish massacres (1915-1918) and last family members. Her mother had to live in an orphanage with her sisters and lost one of her sisters in that orphanage for many reasons. She remembers hearing that it was from starvation. An elder sister gave the younger one some of the bits of food they had, but she was weak and succumbed to whatever was going around. Elmon grew up hearing these stories. There were other massacres in 1895 but they started slowly. WW1 was used as a cover for the killings Henry Morgenthau Jr. was the US Ambassador to Turkey who established the history of this tragedy. He told the US government about it. There was the Near East Relief fund in America and there were many families who told their children “better eat your food. Remember the starving Armenians”. It was well known. Elmon hopes  before she dies (her parents both died in 1992), that she will hear the Turkish government apologize for the crimes committed. She compares what happened to Germany acknowledging the war crimes of the Nazi’s during WWII. Her husband’s family went through it as well. She met George in America at a charity picnic. He had just come over to America a few years before on his own. She called him “the pioneer.” Somehow they met at this beautiful picnic in Flushing Queens at the Armenian Home for the Aged. Unfortunately, she said, many of the people there were dying off. It was the 90th Anniversary of the massacre and there is not one Armenian family in America that hasn’t been touched by it. Armenians are all over the world. They are in China and Africa. Georges family went to Ethiopia to escape. Her paternal grandfather was taken away at gun point and her father heard the gun fire as he was shot and killed. At 14 her father was hidden in a cesspool when they came for all the men and boys. He went on bravely to become a Freedom Fighter to save the rest of his family. They always appreciated America because of her mother and father’s story. George was the last of 7 children, At the time of the interview Elmon had a younger sister Margaret, who lived in Maryland. Elmon herself had 2 daughters, the eldest, Marta Kazandjian Rinaldo, a Certified Speech Pathologist, worked in NY Hospital in Queens. She is an author and has an A personality. Marta and Joe have 2 beautiful boys; Mathew 9 and Jack 4 ½ . They live in Rockville Centre. Elmon and George have plenty of family contact. Their other daughter is Christine. Christine Woodward and her husband John have a daughter Julia, who writes poetry at 8 years of age. Elmon loves being a grandparent. Christine and her husband John own an art gallery in SOHO. In her first life she was a CCRN (critical care Nurse at Beth Israel Hospital in NY.
    Elmon was born in Hasbrook Heights, NJ. In 1935. At 4 ½ years she remembers her sister coming home with their mother from the hospital in her father’s car. She has many wonderful memories of her mother and father who she says were “the salt of the earth. She remembers thinking had dad was rich. He owned rental property. He always wrote checks and she thought that made him wealthy. They didn’t feel any effects of the depression. Her parents were savers; and very frugal. She followed in their footsteps and became a saver too. She spoke only Armenian at home. She had an uncle who taught her to speak English beginning in June of the year she started attending school. She was skipped ahead to second grade by passing Kindergarten and 1stgrade in PS 47. She went to James Monroe HS in the Bronx where she returned to teach at age 21 only to be mistaken for a student by the very teacher who had hired her. She still owns a Tiffany Medal she was awarded for her exceptional teaching ability. She loved school and learning and to this days remembers the names of all her elementary school teachers. Her first job at 15 ½ was in an office. She remembers a special black doll her mother bought her because it was different. She played with dolls until she was 10 yrs old.