Farewell Present : In Owners’ Dying Wish, Store’s Contents Are Given to Needy

For 40 years they gave the Eastside their love. On Saturday, Lucy and Jerry Barron gave the community their store.

As their dying wish, the elderly couple decided to donate the entire inventory of their City Terrace Drive dry goods store to homeless and poor people.

The Barrons also forgave all unpaid debts--more than $20,000 worth--left from credit they extended to generations of low-income families who shopped at their business, the Popular Department Store.

Jerry Barron was 87 when he died Wednesday of a circulatory ailment. Lucy Barron, 74, has been hospitalized since heart problems caused her to slip into a coma eight months ago.

“My dad said again last week this is what he wanted done,” daughter Sylvia Martinoff said as workmen from the St. Vincent de Paul Society loaded boxes with girls’ dresses, men’s shirts and trousers, toiletries and toys. “My mom had always said that if anything happened to them, we should donate it to the community.”

The Popular Department Store had been closed since Jan. 17, when the Northridge earthquake caused part of the floor to buckle.

The sight of the front doors open once more sent longtime customers hurrying in Saturday morning.

But they were shocked to learn of Jerry Barron’s death and of Lucy’s critical illness. And they were sad to say goodby to the 2,500-square-foot shop that had been the neighborhood’s general store for so many years.

“I came here as a little boy for clothes,” said Alberto Angelo, a 35-year-old Eastside cook. “When I was 17, Lucy gave me credit so I could buy a pair of pants. She’d let me make payments when I had money.”

Carmen Oliveres, 69, broke down and cried as she watched display racks of yarn and other sewing supplies being taken away. She remembered spending hours in the store chatting as Lucy Barron crocheted tablecloths.

“I knew them for 30 years. They were friends to everyone,” Oliveres said after being helped to a chair. It was one that Jerry Barron used each day when he sat by the front door chomping on a fat cigar--kept unlit out of consideration for his beloved Lucy.

Remedios Aguirre, 65, came in hopes of buying a $79 gold pendant that she had admired for years in the store’s jewelry display case. She’d set aside grocery money for it, Aguirre said. Martinoff took $10 for it and donated the money to the St. Vincent de Paul Catholic charity.

The merchandise, valued at $25,000, will be distributed to low-income families or sold to help support a Skid Row shelter, according to Bobby Jimenez, assistant director of St. Vincent’s thrift store and warehouse in Lincoln Heights.

Lucy and Jerry Barron’s six children picked that charity because it seemed most likely to distribute the merchandise to those needing it, according to son Frank Barron, a 30-year-old mail clerk at Warner Bros.

“We kids were raised in this store,” Barron said. “We used to live upstairs in an apartment. Sometimes we’d sneak down at night to play with the store’s toys. I played soldier down in the basement, back behind where the Christmas decorations were kept.

“Over there, beneath the coatrack, is where I’d hide from my dad. See that little purple jacket? I can remember seeing that as a boy and wondering if we’d ever sell that goofy-looking thing.”

The Barron children all worked at the store. Frank Barron’s job was to keep track of utility bills that customers could pay there. Often, he said, his parents would pay the bills themselves to prevent customers’ water and electricity from being turned off.

Martinoff, a 35-year-old graduate student, said many of the store’s shelves and display racks were built by jobless neighbors hired by her father.

Local schoolchildren needing supplies or gym uniforms for Roosevelt High or El Sereno and Belvedere junior highs could “owe” the Barrons money if they came up short, she said.

Hundreds of families were given credit to do all their shopping there. “A lot of people around here didn’t have credit cards or bank accounts,” she said, pointing to more than 200 purchase records filed in a battered wooden box.

Behind the store’s worn counter, an antique cash register still had a few dollars inside Saturday. Nearby, a roll-top desk was crammed with old receipts, money order forms and memories.

There were photographs of Lucy and Jerry Barron taken at various Eastside events. Old snapshots showed them after their 1942 marriage and him in his World War II Navy uniform. There was a view of the Popular Department Store shortly after its opening in 1955.

It took more than five hours for the St. Vincent workers to remove the merchandise and box up the bottles of perfume, aspirin and hundreds of other sundries that lined store shelves. Then they took most of the shelving too: it will be used at their thrift shop.

The stream of visitors remained steady. Old customers who had become old friends listened grimly as Martinoff said that Jerry Barron’s funeral is planned for 8:30 a.m. Tuesday at the Sacred Heart of Jesus Church in Lincoln Heights.

And that Lucy Barron isn’t coming back.

“I’ve been coming here since 1957. I bought clothing, shoes, gloves on credit for many years,” said Jose Villapando, 70. “I will miss them.”

Christine Miramontez, who has operated a barber shop two doors down from the store, said nobody on City Terrace Drive should be surprised that the Barrons gave their store to the community in the end.

“Lucy and Jerry have given so much to this community,” she said. “They were pillars of strength for all of us.”