Arthur Cerf

Arthur Cerf, also known as Archie, was the youngest child of Aaron and Phoebe Levy Cerf, born in 1886 when his father was sixty-one and his mother was forty-five. He is fondly remembered.

Adele Rosenberg, the wife of Al Rosenberg, Arthur's nephew, had this to say about Arthur. "As far as I was concerned, Archie was a doll. He was a loving, loving man. He was sweet, and he was good natured. He was social, and he loved people. He loved his work. He loved the Selix [the men's store where he worked in his later years], and he loved his life. He really did. He was a very up man. I loved him. He was a delightful man. He and Al were very close because Arch was only about ten years older than Al. He was the baby. So there wasn't a lot of difference in their ages. And, of course, when I became engaged to Al, I was only seventeen. Arch was old for me but by the same token he was the younger element in the family. And I so enjoyed him."

"Arch used to come occasionally to my mother-in-law's, to Clotilde's," Adele continued. "And she was very, very fond of him, the younger brother and all this kind of jazz. And, of course, sometimes it caused a little bit of problems. Well, I particularly remember once, it was Rosh Hashanah, Jewish New Year's, and Marie and Lucien were I guess nineteen and twenty-one. Lucien had just become twenty-one, and they had just become engaged that day. And so there was a lot of excitement. He had gone to his grandfather's house and told them that they were getting married. He was there for dinner or something and got a cold treatment. They were not too happy about it because they didn't think he was old enough, you know that kind of thing. And then they came to us, and, of course, we made a big deal about it. I had known the family for many years and they were very close to us. So it was like something had been preordained."

"Anyhow, when the day was over and we were just relaxing and talking at dinner, I said, 'Wasn't this a lovely Rosh Hashanah?'"

"And Clotilde said, 'It wasn't for me.'"

"And I said, 'What do you mean it wasn't for you?'"

"'Well, I didn't hear from Archie.'"

"It spoiled her whole day. She was very involved with that type of thing. She required the attention. But Arch on the whole was a very, very sweet man. He really was. He had a lot of charisma. Everybody liked him. You've probably heard that many times. He was very likeable. And he was a sort of Dorian Gray, too, because he never aged until toward the end of his life. And Leo [Leo Rosenberg Alexander, another nephew of Arthur's] was that way, too, you know. He always looked twenty years younger than he was, very youthful type of face and small men. They just kept their looks very, very well."

Evidentally, Clotilde wasn't the only sister who doted on her youngest brother.

Arthur with his sister, Clarisse, who was eighteen years older.

Another nephew of Arthur's was Edgar Cerf, who told us, "Arthur, as we fondly called him Archie, was the youngest of the Cerfs. He had this big smile and this big twinkle in his eye. He had this sense of humor and also the ability to gain your confidence, which is why he was such a great clothing salesman."

Edgar's wife, Clara Ruelas Cerf, said of Arthur, "He also came to the house often. My memories are that I loved him dearly. He was charming. And believe me the ladies felt very much attracted to him. I don't care what his age was, the ladies did enjoy being with him. He used to tell us about some of the stories of his travels. He would go with groups on tours over the years after he was widowed, and he said he was never short of one or two ladies to escort wherever he was going. And I can easily understand because his manners were beautiful."

Arthur in his later years.

Adele Rosenberg remembered Arthur as being generous. "When Al's mother [Adele's mother-in-law] was in the hospital in her final illness, they didn't have any money, and we didn't have a hell of a lot. We were getting along quite well, and we were making a good living, but we didn't have any backlog of money. Regina [Arthur's brother's wife] and Edgar [Arthur's nephew] came along and gave us $500 toward the first week in the hospital. This sounds ridiculous, but it was 1953; it wasn't today. It was $1,600 for the first week in the hospital. And so Edgar and Regina gave us $500. Somebody else gave us some. And Arch would come to the hospital. His wife managed their finances, and she kept a very close hold on that. One day when he came, he had a secret compartment in his wallet and took out a $100 bill. That must have been squirreled away so that his wife wouldn't know about it. But he used to like to visit. He used to come and see us, to call on his sister."

We asked Adele if Arthur was more serious when he was visiting or lighthearted. She replied, "He was always up. I rarely remember Archie being down. He was always up. Of course, his brother, Lucien, was the one who was the real hypochondriac. He was difficult. He was always low. It's funny how in a family there can be such a difference in personalities. But Arch was wonderful. He was close to Al. The age deal entered into that. He had a closer relationship with his nephews than the others did because he was more of their generation. Like the hunting and fishing, they did it together."

References:

Interview with Adele Rosenberg, March 28-29, 1992, San Mateo, California.

Interview with Edgar and Clara Cerf, July 13, 1993, San Luis Obispo, California.