For each of the first five years I anonymously took out In Memoriam sentiments to mark the deaths of my two colleagues at Empire BlueCross and BlueShield who were murdered by our suicidal vice president on September 16, 2002, itself only a little over a year after we as a group survived the collapse of Tower One at the WTC. Now at each subsequent five year anniversary I take out another In Memoriam. The only In Memoriam I've ever seen that pairs two people in one sentiment.
So there;s always a glance at the In Memoriams. Up until last year there was always an annual one taken out by Gail Levin, mother of Neil Levin, the Port Authority Director who was killed in Tower One. I knew of some people who worked for the Port Authority who did make it out in time. Their offices were about 30 floors above ours.
This year, on 9/11, there was no In Memoriam for Neil. I have to wonder if Gail passed on. I tried, but came up with nothing.
Then there's the one that celebrates the violinist Issac Stern, a men responsible for keeping Carnegie Hall from the wrecking ball. That was before Penn Station was demolished. But think of the guilt that would set in have set in if on looking back both had been replaced!
In tribute to Mr. Stern the auditorium at Carnegie is named after Issac Stern. There is a large oil portrait of Issac hugging the entrance to the cafe at the main level. Sandy Weil hugs the other side. Another tribute that appears annually is an anonymous In Memoriam to Issac stern on the anniversary of his death. "Fiddler" playfully follows his name.
Then there's the annual appearance of an In Memoriam taken out by Arthur Zankel's wife, Judy. Mr. Zankel was a protege of the financier Sandy Weill, another major Carnegie donor, and was instrumental in converting the movie theater under Carnegie Hall into a performance space, now named in tribute to him, Zankel Hall. Most tragically, Mr. Zankel committed suicide just before his wife could track down his whereabouts.
There might easily be other annual In Memoriams I'm missing, but I didn't miss the one on January 31, 2018 taken out by Lou Linder for Frank Pellegrino, with the sentiment pulled from Don McLean's elegy to Buddy Holly: The day the music died. RIP Frankie.
You might remember Frank Pellegrino was a co-owner of Rao's, that East Harlem eatery that was and is so hard to get a reservation that Frankie became known as 'Frankie No' for the number of times he turned down someone's request to dine. Raos' and Frankie were so well known to New York's movers and shakers that there was a bylined obit in the NYT for Frank by Sam Roberts.
After reading the obit I emailed Mr. Roberts and asked him if he ever ate at Rao's. He shared that yes, he had eaten there once.
So who is Lou Linder? Certainly a good friend of Frank's. Google search turns up a likely person who has a Hemingway-looking white beard who is involved in advertising? There is a photo of Mr. Linder with some attractive females and a now former New York Knick, Amar'e Stoudemire. The backdrop is definitely Rao's.
What do all In Memoriams have in common? We all still miss someone.
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