Vivian Clara Levy

VIVIAN HOCHHAUSER LEVY---Her Hebrew name is Chaia--meaning Life! She was born on July 18, 1919 on the historic Lower East Side of NY. She was the next to youngest of ten children--7 girls and 3 boys. Her parents were Anna and Harry Hochhauser, whose parents brought them to the USA when they were young children. Vivian's parents where Orthodox Jews, they owned and ran a butcher shop in their neighborhood. While Vivian was still a baby they moved to 109 Chester Avenue in Kensington Brooklyn, they also moved the butcher shop to their new neighborhood. Vivian was mainly raised by her older sister, our Aunt Francis. Her mother helped out in the butcher shop, but mainly ran the large household.

Vivian went to Erasmus Hall High School and Brooklyn College, one of the main colleges of what became the City University of NY. She graduated and received her BS in Chemistry. She then met Harold Levy at a peace demonstration around Union Square circa 1938, he had graduated as an architecture student from NYU. They were married in 1939 and moved to Washington DC and then Tampa for jobs in 1942.

The couple had three children: Builder, born 1942 in Tampa, Jay 1944 back to Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, and Anita in their new house in 1947, (Built by Trump's father), in Bath Beach, Brooklyn. After the youngest, Anita, was attending elementary school, Vivian became a teacher. When they moved to Bath Beach, she taught elementary school in Coney Island. After about 8 years she became a guidance counselor at a school in Bedford Stuyvesant and Bushwick, Brooklyn. In 1981 Vivan and Harold bought their Cadman Plaza Mitchell Lama Co-op. Once Vivian moved into 101 Clark Street at the Cadman Plaza Co-op, she began swimming at her local health club pool 5- 7 mornings a week. She only stopped less than two months ago because of the cuts to her leg while getting out of her wheelchair, which she only started using a year ago.

She loved to read novels on her kindle, and also played scrabble with friends about 4 times a week, she was considered an excellent player. She also enjoyed playing wordle, spelling bee and other word puzzle games by herself. Vivian also liked meeting with friends and acquaintances on the Promenade, on Henry Street, or just sitting in front of her building.

She was a firm believer in social justice and world peace. She and her husband sent their boys to progressive, multiracial, multicultural summer sleep away camps when they were children.

About a week before Vivian died, she was told that she had lung cancer that spread to her lymph nodes, she smiled and said, "I have had a good life."

Vivian's Funeral Service will be live streamed at 12 Noon on Thursday Dec. 7, 2023

https://client.tribucast.com/tcid/1664799468

A funeral service for Vivian will be held Thursday, December 7, 2023 from 12:00 PM to 12:30 PM at I. J. Morris Funeral Directors, 1700 Coney Island Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11230. Following the funeral service will be a committal service from 1:15 PM to 1:45 PM at Washington Cemetery, 5400 Bay Parkway, Brooklyn, NY 11230.