A long life revolved around Ybor City clothing store

By EILEEN SCHULTE, Times Staff Writer
Published October 13, 2007

Sammie Argintar was born in an apartment above the storefronts of Seventh Avenue in Ybor City, said Rabbi Marc Sack, the leader of his congregation. He liked to say that he never left.

Mr. Argintar, a well-known Tampa businessman, finally did leave his hometown Thursday, when he died at 87.

His father Max and his mother Annie founded Max Argintar Menswear in 1902, one of several Jewish businesses in Ybor City. They bought a house around the corner, where Mr. Argintar grew up.

"During World War II, he served on two ships, both of which he said were built in the shipyards of Tampa across the channel from Harbour Island," said Sack, who spoke at Mr. Argintar's service.

He said Mr. Argintar, a petty officer, crossed the Atlantic to serve in Europe on one of those ships.

During the trip, he deliberately failed the aircraft profiling test that would have resulted in a job standing on deck trying to distinguish Allied planes from the enemy's planes because it was too cold outside, according to Sack.

He said that when Mr. Argintar came home from the war in 1945, he realized that all the Jewish girls his age had married servicemen stationed in Tampa.

While in New York, his mother fixed him up with a young woman named Dorothy, and they ended up chatting for hours on their first date.

They married on July 4, 1947, in New York and returned to Tampa to run the clothing store.

The couple had two sons: Andrew, now 58 and retired, and Barry, now 56 and an oral surgeon. They lived in a house in Parkland Estates.

Mr. Argintar worked at the store from opening to closing time six days a week. Mrs. Argintar helped sell suits, do the bookkeeping and create the store's displays.

"Later in life, he apologized to his sons for spending so much time at the store and not spending more time with them when they were younger," Sack said.

But the family ate dinner together every night.

Mrs. Argintar died in 2003. Not long after, the store closed.

In December, Mr. Argintar suffered a massive stroke. But he recovered and was able to walk and talk.

He continued hanging out with the his friends, who had formed a club they called "Retired Old Men Eating Out," or ROMEO. He ate lunch with more than a dozen of them at Pach's Place in South Tampa twice a week, and watched the city he loved transform.

"He was proud to be a part of the history of Tampa," said his granddaughter Susan Argintar. "He couldn't believe how it changed."

Eileen Schulte can be reached at schulte@sptimes.com or 727 445-4153.

Biography

Sammie Argintar

Born: March 10, 1920.

Died: Oct. 11, 2007.

Survivors: sons, Andrew and Barry; four grandchildren; predeceased by wife, Dorothy.

Segal Funeral Home, Tampa.

[Last modified October 13, 2007, 00:08:25]