Baltimore Bids Farewell To Business Owner Remembered For His Generosity
BALTIMORE (WJZ)-- He was known as the mayor of Canton. The owner of two restaurants who was the driving force in the business community and a man who was all Baltimore, Patrick "Scunny" McCusker died Friday night in a bicycle accident in Ocean City.
Ron Matz has more on Wednesday's final farewell for someone whose life was dedicated to helping others.
Pallbearers wearing special Natty Boh shirts carried the casket. A standing room-only crowd packed the Cathedral of Mary Our Queen to say goodbye to McCusker.
"I have fond memories and a lot of laughs," Pat Weaver, president of the O'Donnell Square Business District Association, said. "I can do nothing but smile when I hear his name. You could ask him for anything and he would always come up to the plate."
He was a Baltimore original, larger than life.
"He told everybody about why Johnny Unitas was the greatest and the Orioles were the best thing he'd ever seen. And he said Natty Boh never went out of style," McCusker's friend Nancy Longo said.
The Natty Boh truck was parked near the hearse. His daughter's classmates from Friends School came and so did the mayor.
"His family has suffered a tremendous loss. Our city has suffered a tremendous loss. And I lost a friend," Mayor Stephanie Rawlings- Blake said.
Friends are trying to comprehend the loss.
"I keep walking up Linwood Avenue and looking for him, and he's not there," Longo said.
McCusker loved everything Baltimore but his passion was helping others.
"When we both opened up our businesses together, he gave me ice every single day for eight years because I didn't have an ice machine. That's how generous he was," McCusker's friend Debbie Brooks said.
"He thought about everybody else. That was what his life was really about-- thinking about everybody else," Longo said. "Sure he had a tank of gas and ran it hard and it burned out short but he sure as heck used every last minute to make sure everybody was having fun."
Scunny McCusker was 49. He's survived by his wife Jackie and two children. Restaurants around the square in Canton will donate 30 percent of their proceeds to McCusker's favorite charity, the Believe in Tomorrow Children's Foundation on Wednesday night. At 7 p.m., there will be a celebration of his life.
