Los Gatos Weekly-Times

Main Street

Mary Ann Cook

Irish come for business connections, Hannegan wedding

SISTER CITY SHENANIGANS: An Irish contingent of six came to town recently to celebrate Los Gatos' Sister City connection to Listowel in County Kerry, Ireland. Jimmy Deenihan was leader of the pack for the twinning, which is what Sister Citying is called in Ireland. One of the main foci of the trip is to foster business connections, so the group visited a lot of local businesses, particularly Silicon Valley electronics companies. Some 30 percent of the work of electronics firms here that is done overseas is done in Ireland, reports Pat O'Laughlin, who initiated the Listowel connection and is chairman of that Sister City operation.

O'Laughlin is a former LG councilmember, and Deenihan is a member of Dahl, the Irish parliament. Listowel is a small town but near the famed golf course Ballybunnion, reputed to be the best in the world. It's also near Tralee, as in the rose of the same name.

The group wanted to come before St. Patrick's Day hit because they knew that John Hannegan of C.B. Hannegan's, for one, would be too busy to do any hobnobbing around that time. Instead of St. Patrick's Day, their visit overlapped with John's wedding date to Patty Lazaneo.

Fortuitous timing, that. Patty is well known in her own right, since she worked until recently for the town's building department, and her father, Frank Lazaneo, was the owner of the late and lamented Frank's Los Gatos Market on Santa Cruz Avenue, where she also worked.

The wedding ceremony, besides being awash in Irishmen, was complete with bagpipes piping the bridal party from the ceremony at St. Mary's to the reception at the Opera House, with the wedding party riding in a 1912 Stanley Steamer and the guests following on foot.

Geneo Cebollero, a good friend of the bridegroom's, was responsible for the Steamer. The couple honeymooned in Carmel before facing the onslaught that is St. Patrick's Day at Hannegan's.

MORE MOLLY BY GOLLY: Ralph Bryant called to give his memories of Molly Brown, the unsinkable Denver silver scion, philanthropist and society wannabe who could have been the prototype for coining the phrase nouveau riche. She was also a Titanic survivor, and her great-granddaughter lives in Los Gatos and gave us some family lore on Molly in an earlier column. Ralph's contact with Molly was abrupt and fleeting but left an impression. One Christmas at his grandmother's when he was 6, he had escaped the old folks in order to try out his brand-new two-wheeled scooter. He went zinging down his grandmother's driveway straight into a chauffeur-driven car cruising by. It was Molly's. The chauffeur got out to minister to young Ralph, but Molly got out and read the riot act to the youngster. Meanwhile, Ralph's Grandmother Bryant had joined the fracas, and she started her own harangue, dressing down Molly so thoroughly that the scion slunk back to her car.

After a trip to the hospital, young Ralph was wrapped up like a mummy because of his injuries. Later that night at the dinner table he asked, "What does 'some kind of bitch' mean?" and was summarily dispatched from the table for his language. What Molly had actually been calling him was "you miserable son of a bitch." He doesn't actually remember this incident, but that's how the family story goes.

What he most remembers is his father and Larry Brown, Molly's son, exchanging war stories--WW I, that is--at the corner soda fountain. An unrelated aside: Bryant's grandfather John L. Routt was the first governor of Colorado and the last territorial governor of that state.

LET'S SHAKE: Another one of the top trio of administrators at Los Gatos High School has announced he, too, will retire at the end of the school year, along with Ted Simonson. He's assistant principal Al Simon, who has been on board for 37 years, in charge of student activities, discipline and physical facilities for the past 25 years. A math teacher and basketball coach, Simon is famous for his bone-crushing handshake, which his students take as a challenge. Is this the longest-lived high school administrative triumvirate in history? The third member of the team, Patti Hughes, thinks it well may be.

KIDS ART: The March program at the LG Museum of Art and Natural Science features art work by children from Loma Prieta, St. Mary's and Hillbrook schools, as well as photography by students of Susie Freeman, who teaches in the Kids Program at West Valley College.

ANNIVERSARY: The Happy Dragon Thrift Store celebrated its 40th anniversary recently by helping dedicate a new Client Services Center in Campbell for Eastfield Ming Quong. Since the thrift store benefits EMQ, the new facility owes its existence in part to the Happy Dragon. EMQ counsels troubled families.

GOING ONCE, GOING TWICE: Town Councilmember and media maven Jan Hutchins was auctioneer at the recent Dinner & Auction Gala that benefited Services for Brain Injury, a San Jose nonprofit agency. Dinner for 10 at Emile's, a week at the Vistana Resort in Orlando and San Jose Sharks' tickets were some of the auction items.

[ Back to Contents Page | Los Gatos Weekly-Times Home Page | Archives ]