Esther Dudick Brenes

In the summer of 1910, Esther Dudick Brenes was born in Minneapolis, the first of three children to Philip and Pearl Dudick. Esther was a first-generation American, both parents having come from middle Europe shortly before her birth. She grew up in a close-knit Jewish community in Minneapolis, Minn. She was an active young woman with a love for athletics, live theater, music, cinema, and dancing—all of which continued full throttle throughout her life.

After graduating from North High School, she found a job in direct advertising. Esther continued to date her childhood sweetheart, Sam Brenes, until he felt he had a solid enough job to support the two of them. In 1935, Esther and Sam were married in the Dudick home among family, friends, and fully bloomed lilac trees (a scent that Esther always associated with her family home in Minneapolis). Because Sam’s most promising job opportunity was in the West, the newlyweds moved to a small town in California’s San Joaquin Valley. This was the first time Esther had lived away from her home and from the tightly-knit Jewish community of Minneapolis. The small town of Corcoran, California in the 1930s had never had a Jewish family before and Esther and Sam struggled during their time there. 

In 1941 they moved with their two small sons, Roger and Phil, to San Diego. From that point forward, because of family close by, business opportunities, increased social life and a thriving Jewish community, Esther’s life and that of the family’s, flourished. Esther devoted her life to her family and their Jewish community.

A woman of incredible strength and faith, she loved people and thrived on being together with family, both near and far, and socializing with friends. Esther was active in the PTA, her synagogue, the Hadassah, B’nai Brith, as well as being a volunteer at the San Diego Hebrew Home For the Aged. Continuing their life in San Diego over the years, she and Sam became the center of a growing and extended family that covered areas of Southern California, the Pacific Northwest, the Midwest, and East Coast. With Sam’s death after fifty-seven years of marriage, Esther’s role became that of a matriarch, mentor, and teacher to the generations behind her—being the consummate “Bubbie.” Her children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren benefited from her boundless energy, wisdom, unending thoughtfulness, sense of humor, and grace. When her life ended after over ninety-five years, she left a legacy of a loving, strong family, blooming lilac trees in various parts of the U.S., and of being a truly caring and interested friend to everyone she met.

Written by Dr. Phillip M. Brenes, her son