Anne Cembalest, 90

Anne Cembalest, longtime Hewlett resident and ceramic artist who had her work displayed in Tiffany’s storefront windows in New York City, died on May 10. She was 90.
Cembalest was born on July 15, 1923 in Vienna, Austria. Anne came to America in 1939 with her siblings and mother.
Her daughter, Robin Cembalest, remembers how her mother’s artistic talent developed and flourished over the years. “She had a hunger, a constant curiosity about life,” she said. “When she met my father and moved to Hewlett, she was happy but felt that something was missing, so she started sculpting. Her first project was of strawberries, which she’d made out of clay and painted. They were so authentic looking that people would mistake them for real ones. From there, her sculptures became more beautiful, majestic.”
Her creativity extended to involvement in the Five Towns Music and Arts Foundation. Cembalest served as president of the organization that supports young artists.
Robin said that she admired her mother’s passion for art. “She had very strong organizational skills,” she said. “She went from showing at the craft shows to running the craft shows.”

Cembalest’s work was displayed in storefront windows outside of Tiffany’s in New York City, the world-famous jewelry boutique. “Gene Moore, the window designer, saw her work and loved it,” Robin said. “He placed jeweled bugs on ceramic sculpted fruit she made.”
Lynn Himelfarb, Cembalest’s best friend, said she and her husband became fast friends with Anne and her husband Stanley about 15 years ago at a New Year’s Eve party. “It was a very nice relationship,” she said. “It’s a great loss. She had a marvelous sense of humor. She was brilliant. She could talk about anything and everything.”
Himelfarb said she will remember all the Saturday afternoons they spent together sitting at Cembalest’s apartment, talking and laughing. Plagued by macular degeneration in her later years, Cembalest loved listening to audio taped books. “I remember recently, she was reading ‘Fifty Shades of Gray,’” she said. “Someone asked her how she was enjoying reading it and she responded with, ‘Are you kidding? I could write it better!’”
Cembalest is survived by her two children, Robin (Jerry Otero) and Michael (Rachel), and her three grandchildren, Max, William and Peter. She is predeceased by her husband, Stanley, who died in 2006.
Funeral arrangements were made under the direction of Boulevard-Riverside Chapels in Hewlett.
“My mother was an example of how anyone could be an artist,” Robin said. “She was constantly surrounded by artists. She just doted on creative people.”