By KIMBERLY ACEVEDO
"She was always fun to be around. In her last eight years, she took care of everything from her plane reservations, booking her car to be transported up here, maintaining her home, shopping on her own, it was just something that she felt she wanted to do," said her son Joel Crystal.
Helen Crystal Greenfield died of a stroke on Tuesday, Nov. 13 at the Long Beach Medical Center. She was 86.
Family members remembered Greenfield as the "extraordinary life force of the family" who had a strong bond with her five grandchildren. Keeping in touch with her family was a very important aspect of her life. She spent hours on the phone with her family.
Relatives said Greenfield would always call on their birthday at the exact time they were born. Her youngest son, actor/comedian Billy Crystal, used that habit of hers in his movie "City Slickers." Though she attended the film's premier, her son said she didn't quite get the joke.
Greenfield was a lifelong athlete, family members said. She was a bowler, swimmer and a golfer. She loved playing golf with her son Joel and her grandson at what is now known as Eisenhower Park.
"It was part of her life," Joel said, adding that she played golf until she was 82. "She was a great athlete. She was a terrific golfer. She actually taught me to play golf."
Speaking to a gathering of friends and family at a service at Gutterman's funeral home in Rockville Centre last week, Billy Crystal said the boys' mother "Was our biggest cheerleader. She was my hero in so many ways." He recalled that when he was on the basketball team in high school, he didn't get to play much since he was "vertically challenged." During one game, Billy remembered, his mother heckled the coach "What would be so bad if Crystal played? We're down 20 points. Why don't we give someone else a chance." When the coach finally called Billy over, Billy asked if he was going to play. The coach said no, but wanted Crystal's mother to stop tormenting him.
Born to Susie and Julius Gabler on Dec. 15, 1914, Greenfield was raised in the Bronx and graduated from Walton High School. In 1939, Helen Gabler married Jack Crystal. Jack and Helen met while both were working for Macy's as buyers. They had three highly successful sons: Joel, the current Long Beach City Council president and retired Long Beach High School teacher; TV and movie producer Richard; and comedian/actor Billy. The couple lived in the Bronx and when her parents moved to Long Beach in 1948, the Crystal family spent their summers there. In 1950, the Crystals settled in Long Beach.
"She really came to Long Beach because of her boys and because her mother was here," Joel Crystal said. "She and my dad gave us the opportunity to grow up in this community that she was very fond of."
During the late 50's and early 60's, Helen served as the executive secretary at the Nassau County Department of Mental Health. Jack Crystal died in 1963 at the age of 53.
In 1971, Helen Crystal married her second husband, Al Greenfield, at her mother's home in Long Beach. The couple split their time between their Miami Beach and Long Beach home. Even when she spent most of her time in Miami, Helen believed that it was very important to maintain her roots in Long Beach.
"Between the two of them, in Miami, they were very active in the Hebrew schools," Joel Crystal said. "They also founded a Hebrew school in Atlanta. They were very active and philanthropists for Hebrew schools in both the Miami area and the Atlanta area."
Helen Crystal Greenfield was the president of her local Hadassah chapter in Miami. She was also a longtime member of Temple Emanu-El in Long Beach, where her sons had their bar mitzvahs.
Besides her three sons and five grandchildren, Greenfield is survived by a sister, Regina [Irving] Greenberg of Atlantic Beach; and a brother, Danny Gabler of Lido Beach. Her husband Al Greenfield died in 1995 at 92.
A funeral service was held for Crystal-Greenfield at Gutterman's in Rockville Centre on Friday, Nov. 16, followed by interment at the Riverside Cemetery in Lodi N.J.
