Celebrating Elayne

Teacher, writer, and editor Elayne Grant Archer died suddenly in Brooklyn, NY, on April 14, 2024, with her beloved husband of 43 years, Clifford N. Rosenthal, by her side. Born into a war zone in London, England, on April 20, 1943, she shared a birthday with her father Charles Frederick Archer, a Royal Air Force pilot who was killed in training in Malta three weeks after her birth, and with her husband, Cliff Rosenthal.

After the death of her father, Elayne moved with her mother, Phyllis Ashton Archer, and brother, Rodney Grant Archer, to Toronto. Her childhood was marked by the trauma of her father’s untimely death and her mother’s struggles as a single mother, working woman and immigrant in a time and place that was inhospitable to all three. Elayne excelled at school and was admitted to Radcliffe College, a place she valued for its physical beauty and its tradition of educating women. She graduated magna cum laude in 1966 with a major in English and pursued doctoral studies in English literature at Columbia University.  

After having moved almost 20 times before the age of 18 she settled in Park Slope, Brooklyn in 1972, where she lived in the same house until the time of her death. From 1972 to 1984 she lived communally, which enabled her and her fellow commune members to share in child-rearing and household duties while pursuing their professional paths. She raised her children Carlo Cerruti and Dana Archer-Rosenthal and many communal children and grandchildren with the ethos of caring for others.

She found rich professional communities and made lifelong friends in her work as a teacher at the City University of New York and St. Peter’s College in Jersey City, New Jersey, and as an editor at a number of nonprofit organizations, including the Academy of Educational Development and HealthRight, a women’s health advocacy and education collective. In her retirement, she published two books: Crossing Troubled Waters: The Memoirs of an English War Widow and Who’s On Today? Life in a Brooklyn Commune. She was at work on another book, about changes in the English language, at the time of her death. 

She was an immensely modest person, but took pride in her family, her home, her work and writing, and her part in collective efforts to help legalize abortion in New York State. She maintained her dedication to the cause of protecting the right to abortion until her last day. With her husband, she shared her love of art and travel; together, they visited places as diverse as Scandinavia, Oaxaca, Moscow and Dakar, among many others. With her brother, she shared a love of and memory for poetry, which she recited up until her final hours. She will be remembered for her generosity and empathy, her love of flowers, art and the written word, her ability to strike up conversation with anyone, her stunning intellect and dedication to lifelong learning, and her absolute mastery of grammar. 

Her death is mourned by family in the United States and the United Kingdom, and the many communities she built around her and which she held together. In addition to her husband and children, she is survived by son-in-law Sean Gribbon; daughter-in-law Emma Yu; granddaughter Anna Archer-Gribbon; fellow commune member Alice Radosh; communal children Chenda and Lev Fruchter and Laura and Daniel Radosh; and communal grandchildren Zoe and Ella Fruchter, Jack and Benjy Fives, and Milo, Margalit and Seraphina Duclayan. She is preceded in death by her father, mother and brother, and her dear friends and fellow commune members Rachel and Norm Fruchter and Bart Meyers.

In lieu of flowers, please send donations to: National Network of Abortion Funds; your local abortion fund or Planned Parenthood; Abortion, Every Day; or any organization supporting women’s right to choose their own future.