WATERLOO - A longtime Waterloo pawnbroker and operator of one of the city's oldest businesses has died after an 18-month battle with cancer.

Alan Levi, the third-generation operator of Levi Bros. Jewelry & Loan in downtown Waterloo, died Monday at home. He was 67.

Levi Bros. celebrated its 100th anniversary of business in 2008. Alan Levi had run the business his Polish immigrant grandfather established for 26 years. He has been working in the shop since age 9, initially hauling boxes and sanding scratched gun stocks.

The business has been in downtown Waterloo for its entire existence, first at 520 Lafayette St., and in its current location at 306 E. Fourth St. for 60 years, since 1949.

The colorful Levi was widely known to eastern Iowans for his "Santa Levi" television commercials during the holidays, in which he donned a Santa Claus cap. The idea came from longtime local broadcaster and friend Don Timmerman.

On first reaction, Timmerman said Levi deadpanned, "Well, a Jewish boy doesn't have a lot of practice in that." The television ad became well known.

"It's the most notorious commercial I've ever done," Levi admitted with a grin in a 2007 Courier interview.

When Levi was diagnosed with terminal cancer in September 2007, many friends and local civic organizations showered "Santa Levi" with numerous honors for his community service.

Funeral services for Levi are pending with services pending with Hagarty-Waychoff-Grarup Funeral Service on West Ridgeway, 233-3393.

Contact Pat Kinney at (319) 291-1426 or Pat.Kinney@wcfcourier.com