‘Arrous always walked with his head up, and his body followed.’
“What vitamin do you take to make friends?” Arrous Lambert often asked, his wide eyes sparkling. This was one of many riddles and jokes he told his customers over the 20-plus years he sold Street Spirit in Berkeley and Oakland. Arrous was the kind of person who made friends everywhere—whether at the downtown Berkeley farmers market, on the bus, or on the street.
The answer to his riddle was a glimpse into his bubbly and loving personality for anyone who dared to take a guess: “B1!”
Arrous Douglas Lambert passed away on May 5 at Sutter Hospital in Oakland due to complications from diabetes. He was 73 years old.
A beloved member of the Street Spirit vendor team, Arrous brought light and life into the office any time he dropped by to pick up newspapers. Memorably, he celebrated the newspaper’s return to print in March 2024 by organizing a lunch for the Street Spirit team, taking our orders in advance before visiting his friends at E-Z Stop Deli in downtown Berkeley and picking up sandwiches for everyone. He was also a long-time resident of Oakland, a brother, a father, and a loving partner. His absence will be deeply felt.
Arrous Lambert was born in Seattle, Washington in 1951. Thirteen years later, he moved with his family to San Francisco and then Oakland, where he lived for the rest of his life. Arrous was the second-oldest sibling in a family of seven children.
“We had a good childhood,” his sister, Patricia Richardson, says. They were a tight-knit family that had a lot of fun together, going on camping trips, visiting relatives, and attending Raiders and A’s games. The family would often go out to eat at buffets, and she says Arrous always loved to gorge on sweets, Mexican food, and crab—anything but prawns, since he was allergic.
“[Arrous] loved life. He loved people,” she says. “He loved to communicate, talk to everybody. He just was an awesome, nice person.”
The family lived in East Oakland, on East 32nd Street and 13th Avenue. He attended both Roosevelt Jr. High School and Oakland High School. As a teenager, Arrous had a lot of friends. He wasn’t particularly academic and sports weren’t his thing either, but he spent a lot of time with his people—playing cards, going out to dinner, and schooling friends or family members in games of dominoes. His sister Patricia says this skill speaks to his sharp mind, and the fact that he “[was not] a sore loser.”
After graduating high school, he got married around the age of 21. He worked at U-Haul and did odd jobs to support his two daughters, Kiana and Denita. Later in life, after becoming weak from diabetes and getting hit by a truck, he supported himself with SSDI and money he earned as a Street Spirit vendor.
Arrous’ first marriage did not last, but new love would soon become a defining feature of his life. Around 1993, Arrous met Goldie Mae Allen while waiting in line at Shirley’s Place—a food giveaway program that once operated out of a church on San Pablo Avenue.
“I was standing in line, it was a long line,” Goldie remembers. “He walked up and went to the front like he was the man. And I looked at him and said ‘who the hell he think he is?! He just passed the whole line and went straight to the front!’” she laughs. “He always walked with his head up, and his body followed.”
After eating at Shirley’s, guests got to take food home with them, and Arrous offered to help carry Goldie’s bags.
“Arrous said, ‘I got two strong arms. Let me carry your bags,’” she remembers.
“From that day on, we talked for hours and hours on the phone. Hours and hours and hours. And then we got together.”
Like Arrous, Goldie was raised in a big family: five boys and five girls. She says her siblings were protective, and Arrous worked hard to earn their trust by showing the family respect.
“The way I was raised I wasn’t supposed to just give myself to nobody off the street,” she says. “He had to work for it, and he did.”
The two fell deeply in love and stayed together for 32 years. Both previously married, they vowed never to fight. And Goldie says that in over three decades together, they had disagreements, but never full-blown arguments.
“Me and Arrous, it might be kind of strange for some people to hear, but we never fought. People in our building could hear us laughing all the time,” she says. The two had a lot of fun together, watching movies or comedy shows and enjoying each other’s company. He called her Mae, after her middle name.
“We’d just be laughing and hooping and hollering. To the point where people would knock on the door or see me walking in the building and say, ‘I heard you laughing again!’”
Goldie remembers Arrous as the proud and respectful man she met in line at Shirley’s. She still teases him lovingly, talking about how he always wanted to be “the president of the room.” She loved him fiercely until the very end, caring for him when he got sick at the home they shared on 13th Street in downtown Oakland.
“He was a lovely guy,” she said, with tears in her eyes. “I wish I had met him earlier. I wish we had more time with each other. I would never trade that for nothing in the world,” she says.
Arrous moved into his home on 13th Street back in 2017, and quickly became a fixture of the neighborhood.
“He always had some good jokes, until shit wasn’t funny no more,” says Big Hongry, the co-owner of Break Free Skate Shop on Webster Street.
“He was a grandfatherly figure. Or a grand-uncle. He was always down to get in conversation, [but] it was never imposing. He always kept it moving. [Like,] I’m walking, now I got my walker, now it’s taking me a little longer to get places but I’m still walking,” Hongry remembers.
According to his family members, Arrous’ journey into housing represents his integrity and strength. As a young man, he struggled with addiction to drugs and alcohol, which led to a brief period of homelessness. But then, with encouragement from his mother, he decided enough was enough. He quit drinking and using drugs, and got a room at the Travelers Inn on 11th Street. When the owners sold the building, they offered him a room at another property, on 13th street, which he happily accepted. He and Goldie moved in there together, and found a supportive community in the building and surrounding neighborhood.
“I used to call him my golden guy,” Patricia says. “He always kept his head up.”
Outside of spending time with Goldie and his siblings, Arrous was an invaluable member of local congregation, whether seated in the pews or on the streets of the East Bay. A practicing Christian, he attended Acts Full Gospel Church in Oakland, and Patricia says that selling Street Spirit was his favorite thing to do.
“That was his life, that newspaper. It gave him a chance to get out,” she says. “He would go up to somebody, [saying] ‘Hey I got a joke, I got the best joke you never heard.’ We used to just roll our eyes and look at each other like ‘there he go again!’”
Arrous and his jokes will be missed by his family, friends, and the entire Street Spirit community.
Arrous Lambert is survived by his sisters Gloria Lambert Hector, Linda Faye Lambert, Venita Romel Norman, Catherine Adel Griffin, Eula Patrice Rodgers; his brother Charles Lambert; his daughter Denita Lambert; and his grandchildren Nyla Butler, Marcel Butler, Dimitria Finnell, and Dimitri Finnell.
He was preceded in death by his sister Crystal Rene Nelson, and his daughter Kiana Lambert.
Alastair Boone is the Director of Street Spirit and a beat reporting fellow for KALW covering homelessness.