Benny Aronwald, a longtime Memphis cab driver who became well known as an informal political pollster, died Sunday at B'nai B'rith Home after a long illness. Aronwald, 84, spent 43 years behind the wheel of a cab, fooling would-be robbers with play money and asking people who they thought would win upcoming elections. Aronwald, born in Warsaw, Poland, left his homeland at the age of 6 months when his father escaped anti-Semitic persecution and possible military service to Russia. After living in several cities in the United States, Aronwald came to Memphis in 1923. After working at a grocery store, he began driving for Jolly Cab Co. in 1940. He made $16 in tips his first three days and made a career out of hauling people around town, eventually working for Yellow Cab. Aronwald had some famous fares: film stars Susan Hayward and Buster Crabbe and bandleaders Lawrence Welk and Buddy Rogers, to name a few. Elvis Presley once took Aronwald's cab on a one-block spin because he was impressed with Aronwald's Mercedes taxi. But Aronwald is best known for his political polls. He once claimed to have been 94 percent correct in his predictions, dating back to 1950, including Harold Ford's 1974 upset of Dan Kuykendall and Edmund Orgill's defeat of former mayor Watkins Overton in 1955. Services will be at 3 p.m. today at Katzman Memorial Chapel with burial in Anshei Sphard Cemetery. Canale Funeral Directors has charge. He was a member of Anshei Sphard Beth El Emeth Congregation. He leaves a daughter, Ms. Susan White of Chattanooga; a sister, Mrs. Dora Miner of Memphis; a brother, Isadore Aronwald of Seattle, and two grandchildren. The family requests any memorials be sent to B'nai B'rith Home. (Published in The Commercial Appeal, Memphis, TN, on February 18, 1991)