Take a look into Stu’s legacy

“He was a man of power, man of strength, because what he gave in a period of time when no one else would was hope. Hope for love for everybody, no matter what walk of life you came down, no matter what you did for a living, no matter what you worshipped, no matter what you believed in, no matter your sexual orientation was. He was there to help everybody. He was truly amazing”

Oh, hi! We have been together for fifty-six years, and in 2014 when it was passed that we could marry we saw Stu at his regular coffee place, and he was married at the time and we said, “Stu, couldn’t you marry us?” And he said, “well not because I’m mayor, but I can marry you cause I do have a certificate.” And, um- we said, that’s great! And we got together and he said, “Well I can do it in August, I can do it August 17th. I can do it up at your home or anywhere you want.” And we decided to have it at our home. So on August 17th with our family all around us, Stu came up, and he married us and it was wonderful! He did a great job. And we celebrated afterwards with different foods and cakes, and it was a…great day.

I live in South Pasadena now but I grew up in Silverton and my first job was working at the Palace Theater with Stu. I worked there for most of my high school career and y’know I would like to say we became friends over the years, and one day Stu had a pair of handcuffs just lying around the office, and I thought they were pretty cool, and he said, “Oh take em’ home! They’re yours!” So, I did take them home and I had intended to hang them from the rear view mirror of my car, but before they made it into my car, my little brother who was five or six at the time, found them and locked himself in them. Since they were fairly heavy duty, pretty legit hand cuffs, he could not get out of them. So, it was a Sunday morning and I had to call Stu and say, “Hi. I’m so sorry to bother you. My little brother locked himself in the handcuffs you gave me.” And he said, “Oh! No problem, I’m just down in town having brunch with some friends. Come on by!” He had a key for the handcuffs on his person. And we just waltzed into the brunch restaurant and interrupted his meal, and he very casually unlocked my little brother from the hand cuffs and said, “No problem! See ya later!” And sent us on our way…um- one of many very fond memories that I have from my time hangin’ with Stu.

We, my sister and I used to do flea markets in Silverton, and of course Stu would show up there on occasion and he would actually show up to a bunch of the different flea markets we would do- he really liked attending those. So, we were speaking to another vendor, and the vendor was offering me honey roasted nuts, and it just so happened that Stu was walking up and only caught the very last part of the offer, and his response was, “Wow! That just sounds really painful.” (She laughs) So that was always something I remembered him saying to us!