Posts Tagged ‘Sherry Wibbenmeyer’

“Ed Martin will give Carnahan a run for his money. . .I like Ed,” said St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay of Martin, who will duke it out with incumbent Cong. Russ Carnahan.  Slay also confided, that his brother Raymond Slay is in New Orleans to check out the bar scene.  “He wants to open a gay sports bar on Manchester in The Grove,”  continued hizzoner at the annual St. Nicholas Greek Festival.  Slay was there sans his wife, Kim, whom he said went on a cruise with her parents and were stalled in Nova Scotia due to Hurricane Earl.  Surrounded by County Exec Charley Dooley, The Evening Whirl’s Gentry Trotter, Sherry Wibbenmeyer and Lounge Concepts co-founder Pete Ferretti. Slay chowed down on lamb and as he sipped from a bottle of Mythos Beer, he quipped, “Like George W. Bush might say, ‘when in Greece, do as the Grecians do.”

In the St. Louis county circuit court a judgment of  $768,100 was awarded in the case of Big Red LLC vs. J.W.Terrill Insurance for being negligent in failing to obtain insurance covering the tornado that destroyed Big Red’s building in a Fairview Heights shopping center in 2006.  Victorious barristers: Teresa Dale Pupillo and Kelly Farrell of the Carmody MacDonald law office. . .. Joe Scott‘s Crown Country Brewery has begun to reach out its distribution to the southern Illinois, Chicago and Kansas City markets. Barnwood Blonde, Big Bison and Worktruck Wheat are the most popular brands. Soon the company will release a new Double IPA and Summer Style ale, under brewmaster Carl Wiersma and Jim Krone.  The company’s new root beer is branded Fizzy Izzy (cutesy?). . .St. Louis City Hall staffers back-slapped and well-wished three of the most dependable

Mayor Slay, Barb Fehr and Ron Smith

and popular civil servants with a combined total of 118 years racked up. Upon his return from a trip to China, Hizzoner skipped jetlag to give a send off into retirement for: exec sec’ty Barb Fehr (44years); architectural manager, building commissioner and most recently, exec director of operations Ron Smith (32 years) and exec sec’ty Judy Boggs 42 years). Smith, by the way,is the first African-American to hold his predecessor Marie Jeffries‘ powerful job. He’ll go into a consultancy business, which between you and the columnist, has been doing all along with his business partner-redeveloper, Barry Edelstein.  (Conflict of interest?  The jury’s still out.).  Faces in the crowd included Patti Hageman, Ruby Bonner, Charles Bryson, Parrie May, Todd Waelterman, Paul Payne, Freddie Dunlap and Sherry Wibbenmeyer.. . Authorized by the descendants of wartime statesman Sir Winston Churchill and his granddaughter, Edwina Sandys, Chesterfield-based uber sculptor Don Wiegand is creating a bas-relief likeness of the wartime hero to mark his Iron Curtain speech.  More than twice the size of the
average man, the work will rest at the entrance of the National Churchill Museum in Fulton, Mo.  With an outstretched arm, it is to remind visitors of the prime minister’s line in which he said, “An iron curtain has descended. . .Young Ben Kerner, with his partners, has launched Upper End Properties real estatery. . .Pat Schwarz, daughter of the late hell-razing television personality, Charlotte Peters, has transferred her mom’s videos to DVD.  They are on sale now at the family dinery, Charlottte’s Rib on Manchester.

At his 90th birthday party at Tony’s, attorney Thomas J. Guilfoil paid tributes to the guests and his law partners and reminded everyone, “It takes a good English lawyer to know the law; it takes a good Irish lawyer to know the judge.”  Surrounded by friends, Guilfoil was embraced by Mayor Francis Slay, who proclaimed that a board room in Room 201 will be hereafter named the Thomas J. Guilfoil room.  Asked what if Paul McKee‘s NorthSide, $5.4 billion development of 500 acres fails to come to fruition, Slay replied, “It would be marketed to developers each seeking say 30 or 40 acres, along with all the properties there the city owns. If it (NorthSide) doesn’t go, we can market it in a better way.”  Slay brought down the house, when he recalled a member of the St. Louis School board, who put a curse on him.  He said, “I got letters, a mass card from the Pink Sisters and a letter from a priest, that read, “If you believe in blessings, you’d better believe in curses.” F.Y.I. Fresh out of law school, Hizzoner was hired by the Guilfoil, Petzall, Shoemake law office and remained there for 20 years.  Partners Gerhardt Petzall with his wife, Barbara (a prof at Maryville) and Jim Shoemake, with his wife, Rita, were on hand.  Jim said, that many years ago, Rita had been in Europe and shopped with one of the firm’s clients, Mark Tucker, owner of the Me, Too shoe distributors, when they ran into Sylvester Stallone, who grew up with Tucker.  “Tucker asked Sly if he was also in the shoe business to which Stallone shot back, “No, I’m in fucking show-business,” quoted Shoemake. Former BJC urologist  Dr. William Catalona of Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago, a client of Shoemake’s for many years, is now developing a “a more accurate alternative to the PSA exam”, offered Shoemake. Catalona is medical director of the Urological Research Foundation.  A font of information, Shoemake is chairman of the board of Lindenwood University, which he hopes soon will become a class two college in the NIA. Another story unfolded about the time Guilfoil took newbie Slay to Chicago on Teamster’s Central States Pension Fund business (a client) and to meet with Allen Dorfman, who fronted the mob’s interests as head of the fund. “Walls were being torn away in the search for Jimmy Hoffa‘s body,” said Guilfoil. (Dorfman was mentored by Hoffa). “And a week after we met with Dorfman, he was murdered.”  Petzall and Slay told of how they went to Ecuador to try a case for the late Joe Simpkins. Most of the lawyers only spoke Spanish, that was translated by interpreters.  When the case moved to St. Louis, one of the lawyers said in his best Spanish dialect, “I’d like to go to Roxy’s (an east side haunt).” Also, on hand for the kudos were: Sherry Wibbenmeyer; Dianne Meyer; Victor Isart; Marisa and Pranee Nijaturus; Jeannie and Gen. Ken Lewi; Joyce Holson and Barbie Martin.

Slay Park

The re-christening of the once Arsenal/Ellendale Park – now, the Francis R. Slay Park – took place over the weekend with a crowd of hundreds looking on. For about 40 years, area residents used the park, at the corner of Arsenal street and McCausland avenue to play soccer and softball.  The bill, for the conversion, was signed Saturday by Mayor Francis Slay, who said to his dad, “You know, Pa, while the park is in your name, you can’t try to run it or even sell it.”  Elder Slay shot back, “Well, what’s the use of having it?”  State Rep. Michelle Kratky presented Slay, Sr., with a state resolution for his outstanding contributions to the region. Also on display were the architectural drawings showing eventual improvements, that will include footpaths, a baseball field with a dugout, a water garden and a gazebo. The older Slay, who will turn 82 later this year, retired after 40 years ih public service as committeeman, Mo. state rep, recorder of deeds and later became a businessman.  On hand for the doin’s were: aldermanic prez Lewis Reed; Ald, Steve Gregali -14th Ward, ald. Craig Schmid -20th ward, akd, Marlene Davis -19th ward and Jennifer Florida.  Others there were: Tom Shephard; Collector of Revenue Greg Daly; Director of Parks & Rec.Gary Bess; retired judge Paul Simon; Jim Sonderman; Cathy Ruggeri-Rea; Brian Wahby and Slay siblings Gerard Slay, Monietta Slay, Sharon Bourne, Tom Slay and City Hall’s Mary Ellen Ponder, Sherry Wibbenmeyer, Patrick Brown; Robyn Wahbe and Angela Thompson.