Los Gatos Weekly-Times

Obituaries

Marutha Menuhin

Marutha Menuhin, the matriarch of an unusually talented musical family and mother of world-renowned violinist Yehudi Menuhin, died Nov. 8 at Los Gatos Community Hospital. She had celebrated her 100th birthday Jan. 7.

Menuhin had a heart condition, and Jeanne Woods, a friend and neighbor who cared for her at her Los Gatos home, said: "We were very fortunate that she stayed as well as she did for so long." Menuhin had been a resident of Los Gatos since 1936.

Graveside services were held Nov. 9 at Los Gatos Memorial Park. Lord Yehudi Menuhin and his wife, Lady Diana, flew from Johannesburg, South Africa. His daughter, Zamira Benthall, came from London and his son, Gerard Menuhin, from Frankfurt.

Marutha Sher was born Jan. 7, 1896, near the Russian port of Yalta on the Black Sea. She lived her early years in Palestine. There, she met Moshe Menuhin, a young rabbinical student, and later was reunited with him in New York City where he attended New York University on a scholarship. The two were married in New York in 1914.

Their first child was born April 22, 1916. The parents named him Yehudi, which means "The Jew" in Hebrew, after a New York apartment-house owner who, not realizing the couple was Jewish, told them proudly, "We don't allow any Jews here." They turned down the apartment.

Seeking to escape the cold of the east, the Menuhins saved enough to move to California. They had 32 cents when they arrived in San Francisco. Their daughters, Hephzibah and Yaltah, were born in California. Moshe Menuhin made a living teaching in Hebrew schools.

While her son showed his musical genius at 7, astounding critics, his mother, though very much in command, was not a pushy "stage mother." She feared too narrow a concentration on music would distort his life. Yehudi Menuhin never went to school; his mother taught him art and literature and several languages. He called her by the Italian endearment "mammina."

Hephzibah and Yaltah exhibited talent as pianists. Hephzibah, four years younger than her brother, was often his concert accompanist. She died in 1981. Yaltah also performed with her brother but did not continue a concert career. She lives in London.

In San Francisco, the Menuhins lacked the money for the precocious Yehudi to study in Europe. They were taken under the wing of a wealthy banker, Sidney Ehrman, who made it possible for the family to live in Paris, where young Yehudi studied with Romanian composer Georges Enesco and others.

It was their stay in Paris that led to the family having a home in Los Gatos. In Paris they met two young artist-craftsmen, George Dennison and Frank Ingersoll, who had established a home, "Cathedral Oaks," in the Los Gatos hills near the tiny railroad stop of Alma. The Menuhins were delighted with the surroundings, and Moshe bought land adjoining Cathedral Oaks. The land, however, was not at first suitable for building, so Marutha, during a stay at the Lyndon Hotel, found them a house near the Catholic Novitiate. The Menuhins became close friends of the Novitiate priests.

Later they constructed a house with music rooms and guest houses at Alma. Their home drew many artists and musicians. The Alma Trio, including Yehudi and Polish pianist Adolph Baller, who had escaped Nazi torture, originated there. The trio played concerts all over the world in World War II.

In his autobiography Unfinished Journey, Yehudi Menuhin described his delight in the Los Gatos hills, where he lived about half of each year. "It was a blithe, young, joyful, golden time, careless of tomorrow," he wrote.

Lord Menuhin, now 80, continues a heavy schedule of concerts and teaching. He kept in close touch with his mother and frequently came to Los Gatos to visit. Under a dual citizenship with England, he was knighted Baron Menuhin of Stoke D'Aernon.

In August last year, Mrs. Menuhin heard a performance by her son when he conducted the London Royal Philharmonic on the 50th anniversary of the United Nations in San Francisco.

She is also survived by nine grandchildren and numerous great-grandchildren. Donations to St. Anthony's Dining Room, 121 Golden Gate Ave., San Francisco, 94102, were suggested. Darling-Fischer Chapel of the Hills had charge of arrangements.