A nice lady named Terri was visiting Buzzy’s Country Store a few weeks ago when she informed me that she had a good friend who used to live in one of Buzzy’s apartments. When I asked her who that was, she told me Patti Fleming whom I knew not only from Patti residing at Buzzy’s, but also from both of us attending St. Mary’s College and then later when she worked at the Harry Lundeberg School of Seamanship with my first wife.
When I asked Terri what Patti was up to now, she informed me that Patti had died a few years ago from cancer. Terri filled me in on Patti having married and moved away but they had stayed in touch through the years. I told Terri that I was a member of the “SMC 70’s” FB page and I would see if I could could find any info about Patti being mentioned there and forward her anything I found.
After my conversation with Terri, I hit the Search feature on SMC 70’s and landed on this 2020 post from Nancy Yannayon:
As for Patti living at Buzzy’s, I was a little surprised back in the day when he first told me that he had rented to her. As a rule, Buzzy did not rent to women because so he said “Every time I do so, there are problems.” He defined problems as boyfriends moving in and out, women being more particular about “things” and women not staying there very long and thus necessitating him having to re-rent the apartment once they had moved on.
Answering my question about not renting to women, he said that the only reason he had rented to Patti was because she said she knew me from St. Mary’s College. I laughed and said “Well I don’t know her that well.”
The fact of the matter is that I don’t think my connection with Patti was the real reason Buzzy rented to her, because Patti was so very personable and likable a young lady that I am sure that she won him over. Throw in the fact that Patti was very striking and beautiful, I know she won Buzzy over despite his unofficial No Femmes policy.
Although I did not know Patti too very well and had not had any contact with her in many, say 50 years, still, my learning of her passing from Terri and Nancy’s post, made me feel very sad. Here is hoping that when Patti and Buzzy met up again on the other side they had a good laugh about her time living at the Store.
At Bruce’s D.C. concert I thoroughly enjoyed him doing a great version of this Commodores’ tribute classic to some folks who have moved on. Here is an excellent video of his Dallas performance of it: