8 The Noe Valley Voice • March 2016 • Our 40th Year
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When this photo was taken in 2014, Elias “Alex” Louh was getting ready to close the doors Photo by Najib Joe Hakim of St. Paul’s Market, a business his family ran for more than 40 years.
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Shopkeeper Elias ‘Alex’ Louh Dies 1,000 Attend Funeral Service By Corrie M. Anders
G
rocer Alex Louh was always loath to take off his apron and slip away from St. Paul’s Market—even for special family gatherings. “The store meant everything to him. He would miss out on weddings and birthday parties because he didn’t want to close the store,” said Louh’s sister, Souzan Katami. And he never took a vacation in all the many years that he operated the convenience store and delicatessen on the corner of Sanchez and 29th streets. “It’s so sad,” said Katami. “He ended up with cancer and then he died.” Elias Yacoub “Alex” Louh was 53 years old when he succumbed on Jan. 30, 2016, after a four-year bout with the disease. By then, the popular neighborhood market had been closed for two years as cancer sapped his strength. Still, Louh was such a beloved figure that nearly 1,000 people—many of them Noe Valley friends and customers—attended a Feb. 2 memorial at St. Nicholas Antiochian Orthodox Church in Diamond Heights. There were so many English-only visitors that Father George Baalbaki presided mostly in English rather than the customary Arabic. Shivani Ganguly, owner of Bom Dia, the grocery that replaced St. Paul’s Market in late 2014, lauded Louh as “just a lovely person” who was helpful during the store transition. “Many remember his kind smile, generosity, and friendly waves to passersby,” Bom Dia staff wrote in a note on the door. “We honor his legacy of love and neighborliness and aim to carry it forward.” Louh was an old-school shopkeeper. His routine started at 6 a.m. and went on till 9 p.m. or later—selling household staples, beer and wine, apples and ice cream bars, while stocking the shelves and filling takeout orders. He would let neighbors and regular customers run tabs. A mom in need of a carton of milk could knock on the door at sunrise because Louh would be on hand well before the store officially opened, at 7 a.m. He also made handshake loans to people who were a tad short on the rent money. “He was just a generous guy,” Katami said. And he was known for making the tastiest and biggest, hand-carved sandwiches this side of a New York City deli.
“He was very famous for his sandwiches. They were huge. His sandwiches could feed two men,” laughed Katami. Louh was born on June 11, 1962, in Jerusalem, one of five children of Yacoub and Laila Louh. In the aftermath of the Arab-Israeli Six-Day War, the family immigrated to San Francisco in 1972. A year later, his father opened a mom-and-pop grocery at 1598 Sanchez St. Elias Louh attended McAteer High School, but did not go on to college. Instead, he began running the store with his father. He took over full-time in 1991, when his dad began having serious heart problems (Yacoub Louh died in 2003). Almost everyone called him Alex, not Elias. His family wasn’t sure how the name came about, but Katami believes customers tagged him with the moniker. Even she called him Alex. Louh never married and had no children. Katami said his only passions were his store and his young nieces and nephews. He lived in South San Francisco until his health deteriorated. He then moved in with family members in Daly City. He is survived by his mother, Laila Louh; brother, Yousef Louh; and sisters Souzan Katami, Saida Jaghab, and Suha Khoury.
A memorial of flowers and candles appeared at the corner of Sanchez and 29th streets soon after friends and neighbors received word Alex Louh had lost his fight with cancer. Many will remember his smiles and kind gestures. Photo by Jack Tipple