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Pare Fourteen
THE SOUTHERN ISRAELITE
Friday, September 13, 1957
Celestine Sibley
Candy Angel
Atlanta Constitution Column
They have enough trouble at
Grady Hospital without having
perfectly well babies screaming
their lungs out and that’s why
nurses, doctors and other patients
at Grady bless a man named Sun
shine every time a child gets a
shot in the pediatrics clinic these
days.
Because of “Sunshine suckers,”
the needle no longer holds any
fear for the thousands of young
sters who get their immunization
shots at the Grady well-baby
clinic.
The prospect of a big, beautiful
lollipop is so diverting that the
little ones forget to be frightened
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and take their medicine without
a whimper, they tell me at Grady.
But it was not always thus.
Lollipops, when distributed at
the rate of 5,000 a month or
60,000 a year, can take a sweet
chunk out of even a big budget.
And although the doctors classify
them as therapeutic in nature,
Grady officials still didn’t feel
justified in spending as much as
$50 a month on candy.
“What you need is a candy
angel,” I suggested to Margaret
Stovall, the public relations di
rector.
That’s what we found!” Miss
Stovall said. “An angel named
Sunshine.”
And so it came out. Harry Sun
shine, 61-year-old Russian Jew,
who came to this country as a big-
eyed penniless immigrant at the
age of 16, is the inconspicious
angel behind many good enter
prises in Atlanta. I first heard his
name seven or eight years ago
from a little girl who was
threatened with blindness and was
on her way to the Mayo Clinic
for an examination. She had a
new outfit and a great big doll.
“Papa Sunshine gave it to me,"
she said.
“Papa” Sunshine, as he is known
to thousands of children, has giv
en much since he adopted Atlanta
as his home in 1913. He makes
a practice of giving every new
baby he hears about its first pair
of shoes and to date he has giv
en away half a million pairs of
shoes. But he doesn’t like to talk
about it.
“What have I done to get my
name in the paper?” he demand
ed irritably when I telephoned
him. “A little candy to some
children . . . that’s nothing! Wait
till 1 do something”
Harry Sunshine had another
name when he got off the boat at
Ellis Island in 1913, but nobody
could spell it, much less pro
nounce it. So they called him
Sunshine because that was close
enough and his whole family
adopted it, including his father,
Ben Zion Sunshine, who is 90
years old and now lives in At
lanta. He got his first job here as
a clerk and general flunky at
Goldberg’s grocery at the corner
of Fourth and Harris streets,
where he worked for $3 a week
and his board, sweeping the store
and feeding the horses and milk
ing the cows.
His father, who preceded him
to this country, operated a rag
and junk business and young
Harry tried his hand at that and
many other enterprises before he
settled down to operate his Mar
ietta street department store and
its suburban branches.
A devoted family man, who
lives at 897 Springdale Rd., Papa
Sunshine takes pleasure in his
three children (one son died sev
eral years ago) and eight grand
children. But he takes equal plea
sure in the children outside the
family who are his devoted
friends. He worships in a Hebrew
church but he considers himself
a member of all churches—even
the Baptist, to which he recently
gave a new lighting system.
When pressed for his philoso
phy, he said gruffly, “I don’t do
much. But when I do things I’ve
got that much more in people
than the other fellow.”
Compliments
from
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GREENHOUSES
Chamblee-Dunwoody Rd.
Chamblee, Ga.
GL. 7-3445
GL. 7-2766
_
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FAMOUS FOODS
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U.S. Highway 41
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Where Service and Quality are
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