Molly Cohen - Port Orchard Legendary Retailer
Jordan Cohen, the author, describes the overture as this:
"Good afternoon, young lady. I hope you like my window display." (Jacob Cohen was of slight stature with deep-set brown eyes. He smiled as he talked.)
"I'm impressed with your workmanship and styling, but honestly, your choice of colors..."
The relationship started on that note and ended in marriage, but not as quickly as Jacob would have liked. After the marriage Molly settled into the business with Jacob, competing with his cousin who also had a shop a few blocks away.
Molly wanted to make the store a department store. The Cohens got their break when Molly underbid the cousin for a shipyard contract for uniforms. That wedged a rock between the family, but the business boomed. They moved it to Second and Pacific and renamed it The House of Bargains. The business grew and they bought a house on the Corner of Callow and Rogers.
Note: I worked on Callow Avenue when my husband was in college. We lived close to the business site after my husband graduated from college. I'm really gaining a passion for this young woman and her life as I relate it to mine, though she lived much earlier.
As business boomed Molly ordered a classy set of lingerie for Navy Shipyard Commander Calvin Harrison's wife at his request. Jacob, on noticing the frilly lingerie took it to his "girl" at the Rae Rooms brothel over the store. Molly delivered linens to the business and recognized it. She and Jacob were at odds. She said they'd have a marriage in name only.
Jacob repented. Their marriage flourished along with the business. She broke her leg falling off a stool and he became her nursemaid. They grew closer. They had four children. Before the fourth was born (the author) they tried to take a long-needed honeymoon trip to Vancouver, Canada. Jacob got sick, then suffered a stroke and died in 1924 at age 38. Molly, a widow at 28, was left alone to go home and tell her children their father was dead, then keep her business and family together.
Without writing my own book and revealing the rest of what happened, she moved her business to Port Orchard eventually. Fire and a burglary didn't undo her. She kept at the business, found a way, even when she was down to a dime. Her sons worked with her on and off.
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