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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 ; ^♦ *•>•>■:><• •> •>* ■>*•>•:<•>•> •>•><• •>-f • :: (JJeit WJiilxei ^Jor -j jj. a m SJofi cla ij Sc Reason Dries Tears 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 FLOWERLAND GREENHOUSES Chamblee-Dunwoody Rd. Chamblee, Ga. GL. 7-3445 GL. 7-2766 _ * GREETINGS ★ Barrett and Leach FAMOUS FOODS Call CEdar 7-0355 ... We Deliver 3771 Roswell Rd., N. W. -x TL Ljear Cj reelings H & S Woodcraft Co. U.S. Highway 41 Smyrna, Ga. • SY. 4-3962 Cabinet Making Where Service and Quality are A Specialty AWVW.W.V.V.W.V.V.V. 1