Elmore Cohen

Elmore Cohen entered into eternal rest on February 8, 2015 at the age of 102 years old. A chapel service will be held on Thursday, February 12, 2015 at 10:00 am at I.J. Morris Funeral Home, 21 East Deer Park Road, Dix Hills, New York. Interment to follow at Wellwood Cemetery, Wellwood Avenue, Farmingdale, New York.

Eulogy given at the service by Howard Cohen.

We are here today to celebrate the remarkable life of our Dad, Elmore Al Cohen.

His journey began in Drohichyn Poland, on April 28, 1912, where he lived with his mother, Toby and his older brother and sister. His father Joseph was living in New York and learned of his son's birth when he received two post cards announcing the birth.

Grandpa Joseph came to America in 1895 after escaping from the Czar's army where he was a cook. After his escape, he returned to Drohichyn in order to get his wife before emigrating to America. When his wife refused to leave, he had to go by himself. He returned to Drohichyn several times, resulting in the births of my Uncle Irving in 1905, my Aunt Ruth in 1910 and my dad in 1912.

Because of WWI, Grandpa Joseph was not able to return to Drohichyn. In 1919, my Grandmother died in the Typhoid epidemic. Irving, Ruth and Dad then lived with their mother's brother's family until 1920, when Grandpa Joseph arranged for them to come to America.

It is hard to imagine how Irving at age 15 traveled to America with his 10 year old sister and 8 year old brother and arrived safely in New York. Uncle Irving told me that they traveled by stage coach, train, boat and often they walked long distances in order to make connections before arriving in Southhampton, England.

When the S.S. Imperator arrived at Ellis Island on August 8, 1920, Ischack, Rachel and Elia Kaplan, as they were know in Europe began their live American. I first learned that we were originally Kaplan when we were attending the unveiling of one of my grandfather's cousins. When the veil came off the stone, I asked my grandfather, "Why are we Cohen and your misbucher Kaplan?"

He responded, "Wen we came to America, we changed our names Rom Kaplan to Cohen, so no one would know we were Jewish." When I laughed, he then told me that in America, "we are Cohanim, so we are now Cohen."

Grandpa Joseph was not able to provide a home for his children, so Dad went to live in Brooklyn with his uncle Shira Seidman and his family. Ruth went to live with Grandpa's brother Sam's family. Irving, being an adult at the age of 15 went to work in a butcher shop where he lived until he could afford a place of his own.

For the rest of the summer of 1920, Dad played with his cousins and made friends in the neighborhood and was able to learn enough English to start school in September. He was put in the first grade initially and as his English improved, he was promoted rapidly until he was on level with his age group.

While in school, kids gave Dad a hard time with he name Elia. Dad's cousin Ray who he live with decided that it should be Americanized. So Elia became Elmore. Where the middle of Al came from, no one seems to know. I guess he was the original "just call me Al."

Because of the unusual living arrangements of Dad and his siblings, I once commented to him that he had a dysfunctional family. He got very angry with me and said hat he enjoyed living with his cousins, was treated very well and there was a lot of love of family.

At some point, I'm not sure when, Grandpa Joseph marred Clara and moved to the Bronx. Ruth and A came to live with them. In 1925, Dad's sister Sylvia was born. When Ruth married Harry, Clara decided that they could save money by giving up their two bedroom apartment and move into a one bedroom. So after Dad graduated from James Monroe High School, he moved in with Ruth and Harry.

Dad went to work in the fur district delivering and picking up furs for shearing and cleaning. He worked hard and learned the trade and became one of the top shearers in the shop. When a promised raise was not received, Dad said he was quitting and went out to the beach in Rockaway. His boss realized that he made a big mistake and sent a cab out to Rockaway with the promised raise and a large bonus. Dad came back to work but soon after, he decided to open up his own shop and convinced on of his co-workers, Charlie to come with him. Over the years, Dad, Charlie and his former co-worker remained close friends and ultimately reunited before Dad retired and moved to Florida in 1976.

Dad's strong work ethic and his desire to satisfy his customers enabled him to succeed in a competitive business. He worked long hours and during the peak fur season he often worked seven days a week. Once he made a commitment to finish an order for a customer, he did everything he could to fulfill that promise. Dad always said that honest work done well is something to be proud of.

While Dad was working in the fur industry, he enrolled at St. John's University to study accounting. While he never got his degree, he was an excellent bookkeeper and record keeper. In all the years that he was in business, he never owned an adding machine or a calculator. He could do the math in his head and add up large columns of numbers quickly and accurately with old fashion arithmetic. His checkbook was always neat and perfectly balanced without the use of a calculator.

In the summer of 1936, Dad and a few of his friends rented a bungalow in Conger New York near Rockland Lake. There they played softball, swam and went boating in a lake and enjoyed hiking up Hook Mountain. At one of the Saturday night dances, he met an attractive young woman who happened to live in the Bronx near him. Her name was Celia Cohen and they say, the rest is history. hey were married in 1938.

In May of 1940, Celia and Al had plans to attend the Sunday Mother's Day doubleheader at Yankee Stadium. Celia was pregnant and told Al that she didn't think that she would make it to Sunday, so they went to the game on Saturday and I was born on Sunday, Mother's Day. Dad would tell me thats I was a day away from being born in Yankee Stadium.

We were big Yankee fans. In my early childhood, before we had a TV, we would listen to the Yankee games on the wooden cased 1938 Philco radio that they got when they were first married. This is the same model that was shown in Woody Allan's movie "Radio Days".I still have that Philco radio. I replaced the tubes many times until I could no longer acquire them.

In April of 1949, Dad took me to my first Yankee game. The Yankees were playing the Red Sox and I got to see my favorite Yankees; Joe DiMaggio, Phil Rizzuto and Yogi Berra. The Red Sox had the great Ted Williams and Dom DiMaggio.

We had seats right behind the Yankee dugout. I couldn't believe how lucky I was to see these great legends. The next game that Dad took me t, he taught me how to keep score. Scoring a game made me feel like I was part of the game. Just this past summer, I had the pleasure of teaching my granddaughter, Abby how to keep score. It brought back memories of the first time I learned how to score a game.

As a child, we would spend our summers at a bungalow colony in New Jersey. I would look forward to the weekends when I had the opportunity to play softball on the same team as my Dad. He would play left field and I would play center. I was able to relive those moments when my sons, Jeremy and Michael played ball with me.

Toby was born in 1944 and Arthur was born in 1948. Toby is a Yankee fan. Arthur roots for the Mets. But I love him anyway.

After Mom passed away, Toby, Arthur and I were cleaning out their apartment in Cypress Chase. While Toby and Arthur were working, cleaning and packing, Dad and I were out walking and talking. At the time, my knees were failing and I could not keep up with him. It was difficult to keep up with him even with good knees. I said to Dad, "You know, Toby always wanted to have a place in Florida. Why don't you leave her your condo; and Arthur has two kids in the house and could use your car." He gently elbowed me in the ribs and said "And what do you want?" I said "I want your knees." He laughed and replied "I'm not done with them." So I had to get mine replaced.

Dad had two other wonderful relationships after my mother died. Mary and Dorothy gave my dad quality years of happiness. Their families became ours and ours became theirs. Sheri, Louise, Dale and her husband Fred called Al "Dad", and looked after him just as we did. They feel his loss just as we do.

Dad lived a long and full life with family, friends, music and dancing. His quiet strength enabled him to get past life's adversities and was able to live it on his own terms. When he was 96 years old, he was suffering from a clogged aortic heart valve. He would have died then if he had not had the opportunity to participate in an experimental program at the University of Miami Medical Center. Before going in for open heart surgery, he told the surgeon, "I've had a good life and if I cannot come out of the operation and maintain my quality of life, I don't want to live." He came out of the surgery and had six and a half good years which he considered a gift. That gift was shared by all of us who have loved him.

Rest in peace Dad. We will always love you.