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Man who brought Cubs to Ariz. dies
MESA – Dwight W. Patterson, who was responsible for bringing the Chicago Cubs spring training camp to the Phoenix area, has died. He was 87.
The rancher and Mesa civic leader died Friday in Mesa. No cause of death was given.
Patterson, born in Tempe, served on the city’s junior chamber of commerce and became the first ”chief” of the HoHoKams, a service organization.
The HoHoKams guaranteed the Chicago Cubs $22,000 if they came to Mesa for spring training in 1951, and then arranged for the Cubs to play at Rendezvous Park.
With the exception of a spring training season in California and a handful in Scottsdale, the Cubs have trained in Mesa ever since. The Cubs made Mesa the top spring training location in the country in 1999, with 176,000 attendees.
In honor of Patterson’s efforts to bring spring training to Mesa, the baseball field at HoHoKam Park was named after him.
He was honored last Tuesday night when he threw out the first pitch for the opening game of the Arizona Diamondbacks’ playoff series at Bank One Ballpark.
A close friend said Patterson died Friday night while watching the third game of the Diamondbacks’ playoff series against the New York Mets on television.
A true sports lover, Patterson even owned his own race horse and coached football at Northern Arizona University after he graduated.
Patterson is survived by his wife and a daughter. Services were scheduled for Thursday at First United Methodist in Mesa.
(Dated Oct 11, 1999)
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Realtor, grocer, inventor Walter Wong dies at 81
Walter Wong, a successful South Side grocer and Realtor, died Sunday in Tucson. He was 81.
Mr. Wong, born in Los Angeles in 1918 and raised in China, came to Tucson in the early ’40s and began working at Consolidated Aircraft.
While at Consolidated, he invented a fireproof bag to catch ultra-hot machine gun shells as they were ejected, said his son, Andy Wong. Before his invention, shells would fall onto the floor of the plane and gunners would slip on the loose shells or would scald their hands trying to scoop shells out of the way. In recognition of his invention, he received a commendation from the U.S. Air Force.
One of his bags is attached to the side machine gun in the restored B-24 bomber at the Pima Air & Space Museum.
After World War II, Mr. Wong left Consolidated and opened Wong’s Market on South Sixth Avenue near the Rodeo Grounds.
”We were all wondering why he went way out there. Everything in Tucson was around Congress and downtown – there was nothing but Rodeo Grounds down there,” said his longtime friend and local pharmacist Raymond Lee.
However, Lee recalls that Walter’s Market did very well because it had something no other grocer back then had: self-service.
”Self-service was unheard of then,” he said. ”He did very, very well.”
Long hours in the grocery business – ”It was nothing for Walter to work 16-hour days,” Lee said – took its toll, creating painful varicose veins in his legs. Mr. Wong sold the market and founded Walter’s Realty, in which he primarily bought tumble-down homes, refurbished and then resold them, Lee said.
He was a member of the Tucson Chinese Chamber of Commerce, the Chinese American Citizen Alliance, the Chinese Association of Tucson and the National Chinese Welfare Council. He was also a member of the Tucson Chinese Baptist Church.
”He was always cheerful,” Lee said. ”He was always there to offer a hand to anybody.”
”To this day, my father is still remembered by many families he served over the years,” said his daughter, Karen Wong of Tucson.
He is survived by his wife, Jane, and five children: Julie Louie of San Francisco; Peter Wong of Seattle; Bonnie Knight of Scottsdale; and Karen and Peter Wong.
Visitation will be from 6 to 8 p.m. Saturday at East Lawn Palms Mortuary, 5801 E. Grant Road. A memorial service will be at 2 p.m. Sunday.
(Dated Oct 13, 1999)
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Pop music pioneer of ’40s, ’50s, Morse dies in Bullhead City at 75
BULLHEAD CITY – Ella Mae Morse, whose classic 1942 recording ”Cow Cow Boogie” became Capitol Records’ first million-selling single, has died. She was 75.
Morse died Saturday at a hospital in this northern Arizona city. She had been suffering respiratory problems after a long illness, her Los Angeles-based publicist said yesterday .
The Texas-born Morse combined boogie woogie, blues, jazz, swing and country influences in the 1940s and ’50s, helping to create a pioneering ”pop” sound that would later grow into rock ‘n’ roll. Elvis Presley even praised her for teaching him how to sing.
Describe as a black-trained, white ”hepchick,” her songs earned her 10 Gold records. One song was the ”The House of Blue Lights,” which is regarded as one of the most-influential songs in the evolution of rock ‘n’ roll, said Alan Eichler, her publicist.
Morse stopped recording in 1957, but continued performing until 1987. A decade later, her entire body of work was released in a CD boxed set.
She is survived by her husband, six children, eight grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.
Services were pending.
(Dated Oct 18, 1999)
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Drachman supported local theater
Alice West Drachman, widow of pioneer Tucson businessman Oliver C. Drachman and a Tucsonan for 77 years, died Saturday at age 95.
The cause of death was not given.
Mrs. Drachman was involved over several decades in many civic organizations, including the Tucson Arts Festival, Junior League, Pima County Welfare Board, Tucson Festival Society, Kappa Alpha Theta sorority, and the University of Arizona Alumnae Advisory Board, said her daughter, Ann Tartaul.
”She was active in Junior League, and did some fund raising in some of their stage productions,” said her daughter.
”She enjoyed the stage and theater and wanted to be an actress. Before she went to UA, she went to New York to be a Ziegfeld Follies girl. She was about 18 years old at that time.
”Her mother said she told her to ‘take the next boat home.’ That’s what the telegram said – though I don’t think she sailed through the Panama Canal. Her New York stage dreams were dashed.”
Instead, Tartaul said, her mother did what others of her generation of women did: She attended tea parties, fund-raising activities and bridge club gatherings.
”In those days, women stayed home, took care of the kids, volunteered for civic duties, and sort of rode piggyback on the success of their husbands,” said the daughter.
Mrs. Drachman was born Sept. 1, 1904, in Phoenix. She attended elementary, junior high and high school there.
In 1922, she moved to Tucson to attend UA, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in home economics.
She married Oliver C. Drachman, a cousin of longtime Tucson real estate developer Roy Drachman, in 1925 in Los Angeles.
Oliver Drachman founded and operated laundry and dry-cleaning businesses here, as well as Drachman Linen Supply and Drachman Formal Wear.
Mr. Drachman died in 1996.
In addition to Tartaul of California, Mrs. Drachman is survived by a son, Jim Drachman of Tucson; a former daughter-in-law, Betty Jo Drachman; and three grandchildren.
Arrangements for a memorial service are pending.
(Dated Oct 19, 1999)
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‘Class act’ Richard ‘Dick’ McKee, 43
• Leukemia claims a deputy county attorney in the civil division.
Richard ”Dick” McKee, a deputy county attorney with the civil division of the Pima County Attorney’s Office, died Wednesday after a yearlong battle with leukemia. He was 43.
Mr. McKee joined the environmental unit of the civil division in 1992. Three years ago he began working in the tort and litigation unit.
The County Attorney’s Office credited Mr. McKee with helping obtain a substantial recovery for the county in a 1997 asbestos lawsuit. He also handled all of the contractual litigation for Tucson Electric Park and participated in negotiations to bring the Arizona Diamondbacks and the Chicago White Sox to Tucson for spring training.
”Dick was a class act,” said Pima County Attorney Barbara LaWall. ”He was an extraordinarily competent trial attorney, and one of the nicest, kindest persons I have ever met.”
David Dingeldine, chief civil deputy for Pima County, joked that after Mr. McKee told him he hated baseball, Dingeldine assigned him to the stadium district.
”It remained a joke in our office, but to this day I never regretted it,” Dingeldine said. ”Dick always did a magnificent job with whatever assignment he was given. He was a strong, intelligent and caring individual. Our office suffers a great loss, and he will be missed deeply . . . Dick’s type of personality was rare. People immediately took a liking to him, including many opposing sides of the legal arena. He was just that good a person.”
Mr. McKee was born in Hammond, Ind. He earned a bachelor’s degree in secondary education from the University of Iowa, and was a former English teacher and debate coach.
Mr. McKee received his law degree from the University of Arizona in 1989. He briefly worked as a staff attorney with the House Interior Committee in Washington, D.C., before returning to Tucson and working for the firm of Miller, Pitt & McAnally.
Mr. McKee is survived by his wife, Suzanne; his mother, Marilynne ; his sister, Kathy; and three nephews: Brian, Jason and Kyle. Funeral arrangements are pending.
(Dated Oct 23, 1999)
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Talent coordinator Lee dies of cancer
• Beverly Lee booked celebrities for her husband Bert Lee’s shows.
Beverly Z. Lee, the talent coordinator who booked hundreds of national celebrities for husband Bert Lee’s radio talk show in Tucson and New York for a quarter-century, has died.
Mrs. Lee died of cancer Oct. 17 at Tucson Medical Center hospice. She was 67.
”I never went anywhere without her. She was an angel,” Bert Lee said this morning. ”She loved people. I never met or heard of a person who didn’t love her.”
Molly McKasson, a long-time family friend active in the arts community, also remembers Mrs. Lee fondly.
”Beverly was a lovely and warm person. She was wonderful to work with – a true professional, and a good friend. She and Bert have been one of Tucson’s most dynamic duos.”
McKasson, a former member of the City Council who is running for mayor, said the teamwork of Mrs. Lee and her husband was to be admired.
”I’m really grateful for the community work they did together, trying to make Tucson better. They did a lovely job working together – it was pretty amazing,” she said.
Sheriff Clarence Dupnik, a family friend, said, ”Beverly was one of the sweetest, nicest human beings I ever met.”
Mrs. Lee was born in Brooklyn, a daughter of Polish-Jewish immigrants. She was graduated from high school there, and attended Brooklyn College.
She was married to Bert Lee in 1952. Before joining her husband’s talk show, she worked for Varrig Airlines in New York and operated a travel agency in Florida.
The Lees moved to Tucson in 1981, after Lee wound down his East Coast radio career that involved shows with five radio stations and CBS.
In Tucson, Lee had radio shows on KTUC and KNST, and most recently has hosted his radio show on KTKT-AM.
Mrs. Lee arranged appearances on her husband’s shows for guests including Frank Sinatra, Frankie Laine, former New York Gov. Mario Cuomo, U.S. Sen. Ted Kennedy, Gen. Norman Schwartzkopf, astronaut Gene Cernan and presidential candidates Bill Bradley and Steve Forbes.
Survivors include her husband, Bert; a daughter, Melanie, of Coral Gables, Fla.; and three sons, Mitchell of Hollywood, Fla., Neil of Ruby Lake, Fla., and Bert of New York City.
Private services were held Sunday at Evergreen Mortuary, with Rabbi Joseph S. Weizenbaum officiating.
Donations may be made in Mrs. Lee’s name to the American Cancer Society.
(Dated Oct 27, 1999)
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