Fly on the Wall may not be the most appropriate place for a heartfelt tribute, but we feel the need to say goodbye to one of the Memphis music scene’s unsung heroes. Pat Honeycutt passed away unexpectedly this week, and an all-blues memorial at the Center for Southern Folklore saw performances by Daddy Mack, Little Applewhite from the Fieldstones, Miss Zeno, and Eric Gales. At an age when most people would be thinking about retiring to the suburbs, Honeycutt decided to leave her comfy home in Bartlett for the wilds of downtown Memphis. She complained about the\ lack of diversity and the racism, subtle and otherwise, which she regularly encountered in the burbs. Furthermore, talking “lawns and gardens” with the other “little old ladies” in her peer group bored her to tears. The gregarious Miss Pat quickly became a downtown fixture. She worked as a volunteer at the Center for Southern Folklore and became a surrogate mother and indefatigable helpmate to the myriad of blues musicians who played there. She will be missed.
Miss Pat once contacted Fly on the Wall with a funny story which, for unknown reasons, we
didn’t publish. It seems she was walking down the Main Street Mall on her way to work one morning when she was approached by a naked homeless man begging for money. She told him in no uncertain terms that she was not in the habit of giving money to “butt-nekkid strangers,” and suggested that he move along. The naked man then became indignant, as naked men often will, and told Miss Pat, “Lady, that wig ain’t workin’ for you.” In our telephone conversation Miss Pat, who did not actually wear a wig, asked in all earnestness, “Should I be upset because a naked homeless man thinks I have bad hair?” Did we mention that she would be missed? Terribly.
