She is buried amid her family in Machpelah cemetery in Queens, NY.All one has to do is look around Appleton to recognize Houdini's importance. In her coffin he placed the last thing she had asked for a pair of woolen slippers size six. Her funeral was delayed so Houdini could travel back from Europe to see her one last time. Cecelia later became close with Bess's mother, Balbina, who was also a German speaking widow with five children.Ĭecelia Weiss died on Jafter suffering a stroke while on vacation with Hardeen in Asbury Park, New Jersey. Also despite what has been dramatized in some biopics, there was no conflict between Cecelia and Bess. She understood German, French, Italian, Spanish and Hungarian only. Despite being the wife of a Rabbi, Cecelia did not speak Yiddish (according to Bess Houdini). He once even requested his salary in gold coins, which be poured into his mother's lap.Ĭecelia never learned English. In 1904 he moved her into a large new family home at 278 West 113th Street in Harlem. He considered her a 'Saint' and honored a deathbed promise made to his father to always look after her. Houdini was enormously close with his mother from childhood through adulthood. After Rabbi Weiss lost his job, the family move to Milwaukee and fell into poverty.

It was here Cecelia gave birth to two more children Leopold David (1879) and Carrie Gladys (1882). Mayer Samuel had travelled ahead and secured work as a Rabbi in Appleton, Wisconsin. In America the spelling of the family name became Weiss. In 1878 Cecelia and her children immigrated to America aboard the German steamship Frisia, reaching New York on July 3 of that year. (Harry's sister claimed there was an earlier 'Erik' who died in childbirth.) Ferencz Deszo, a.k.a. Then on March 24, 1874, Cecelia gave birth to Erik, who would go on to become Houdini.

Gottfried Vilmos (William) followed in 1872. Their first child died.Ĭecelia gave birth to Natan Josef (Nathan) in 1870. 1 in the Buda section of Budapest, Hungary. When she was 22, she married Mayer Samuel Weisz, who was 13 years her senior and had one son from a previous marriage. Houdini's mother, Cecelia Weiss (often misspelled Cecilia), was born Cecelia Steiner on June 16, 1841.

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