George Bernheimer, 80, Co-Founded Norton Flea Market

George Bernheimer of Mansfield died on Jan. 10, 2014 after a relatively brief battle with cancer. He was 80. 

Mr. Bernheimer was born in Munich, Germany in 1933 to Paul and Louise (Nassauer) Bernheimer. He was a great-grandson of Lehman Bernheimer, the founder of L. Bernheimer, one of the most prominent antique art businesses in Europe.

Shortly after the Kristallnacht pogrom of November 1938 throughout Germany and a brief incarceration of the adult members of the family in Dachau Concentration Camp, the Bernheimers fled their homeland. After a year in London awaiting their U.S. visas, the family eventually settled in Norton. Bernheimer attended Bristol County Agricultural High School, and later served with honors in the U.S. Army at the end of the Korean War.

While stationed at Fort Polk, Louisiana, he met Jackie Trull, whom he married in 1954. The couple settled in Mansfield, where they lived together for nearly 60 years. Bernheimer was a long-time employee of the Foxboro Company.

In 1971 he co-founded the Norton Flea Market, which grew to be the largest weekly show in New England. Following in the family tradition, George and Jackie eventually went into the antique business under the guise of Moonstone Antiques, specializing in antique and estate jewelry, American Indian baskets, and antique bottles. The couple was a familiar fixture at antique shows from Maine to Louisiana and all points in between. Bernheimer was an avid tennis player, continuing to hit even past his 80th birthday last May 29.

He is survived by his mother Louise, 102, of Laguna Woods, Calif.; his wife Jackie, their sons Paul and Max Bernheimer, and three grandchildren, Alexandra and Paul Jr. of Buffalo Grove, Ill., and Ella, of Dobbs Ferry, N.Y. 

Services and burial will be private. Visiting hours have been omitted and in lieu of flowers please send a donation in memory of George Bernheimer to the American Lung Association National Headquarters, 1301 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, Suite 800, Washington D.C. 20004 www.lung.org/donate/

Arrangements are under the care and direction of the Sherman & Jackson Funeral Home, 55 North Main St., Mansfield.

To send the Bernheimer family a message of condolence, please visit www.shermanjackson.com