Pat Moore and P.J. Clarke's

It is not often a tribute obit in the New York Times  leads another paper in town to do a feature story, but it's now happened for Pat Moore, a legendary server (waitress) at P.J. Clarke's who has passed away at 89, while still on the job, waiting to be 90 before shedding the work apron. And it's not often I write about the same person twice in a row.

In Thursday's New York Post they devote a full page to her story, basically gleaned from the NYT obit. There's is nothing in the story that it not in the Times obit. 

There are however some added photos, and the story when viewed online has more photos, especially recent ones of her on the job.

The Times obit appeared in the print edition on September 2nd telling us Ms. Moore passed away on August 15. A tribute obit sometimes is a little after the subject's demise. The person didn't have an advance obit in the paper's morgue, and the obit desk didn't hear of her passing until probably a reporter popped into P.J. Clarke's and asked where was Pat. The rest followed.

As such, there were no useful funeral and mass details available for paying respects. I like to think she was waked at Frank Campbell's, and had a funeral mas at St. Ignatius Loyola. Ms. Moore, being an Eastside resident and an Irish Catholic, would have easily fit into those arrangements.

I love the photo the Post printed of her role as a cigarette girl getting bussed by Gene Hackman, playing Popeye Doyle in The French Connection, one of my all-time favorite movies.

Most of the A-list people Pat was associated with have passed away. Being a favorite of Tony Bennett's is no surprise. Tony was a man about town whose last wife, Susan—who he was married to for decades,—was dated by Tony when she was 19.

It's easy to see Ms Moore had charms. A co-worker, Linda McInerney, thinks she knows why so many men were drawn to her. "She was the one thing not on the menu. They loved her beauty. But they could never get her —and they tried. Maybe her reluctance to commit to any of them made them chase her harder."

It sounds like she committed to some, at least for a while. Frank Sinatra is mentioned; George Steinbrenner, Tim Mara, Warren Beatty, Johnny Depp, and William Shatner.

When I ate there with my family and she waited on us many years ago—not writing the order down for 5 people, and not getting anything wrong—I didn't know then that she would be someone who would get the equivalent of a New York City 21-gun salute on her passing. Rest in peace.

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