Section: | 35 |
Space: | 4 |
Lot: | 18 |
Occupation: | Journalism |
Owner: | J. H. Hudson |
Powerful Journalist who Loved and Shaped Pensacola Patricia Ann Lloyd loved her city. She was a power behind her typewriter and she used it with savvy. Those who lived in Pensacola before she died on November 23, 1987 remember her well-- vividly, fondly, regretfully that her full life was far too short.. With her own sense of style, which included distinctive rings, scarves and chunky jewelry, and a prodigious memory of everything she had read, seen or heard, it was appropriate that she was book and fashion editor for The Pensacola News- Journal, then a morning and an evening paper. She was best known for two bylined columns. "Around the Town" chronicled the social activities of several generations. The other, entitled with a pen name, "Tony Knight", had an idiomatic style that no one could quite imitate when she was away. Its short items scooped the competition, predicted, confided, announced, congratulated, even chastised-- when a vacant lot needed cleaning or a traffic light was too long in changing. Pat knew her city. She rode to work by a different route every day, a flower attached to her radio antenna for easy spotting in a crowded lot. Her small car was her magic carpet. A polio victim from childhood, Pat moved with difficulty, but move she did-- to civic and Navy functions, art shows, new restaurants' openings, myriad parties that she covered before their later inclusion in her readers' scrapbooks. At all gatherings, public or private, she sought out the visitor, believing, she once said, that every guest should accept that responsibility. Through the years her husky, conspiratorial voice and her bright, engaging conversation charmed such diverse luminaries as Charles Kuralt, Vincent Price, Dr. Christian Barnard, General Chappie James and countless others. Soon she became a personality in her own right. Her presence was hoped for at every event, her subsequent write-up adding to the event's success. Perhaps Pat's sense of self began when she rode as a child in an open car down Palafox Street with her friend, President Franklin Roosevelt. The back seat of her car was usually filled with books and clippings from The New York Times, The Washington Post, or Woman's Wear Daily, each intended as gifts for an appropriate receiver. At holiday time the books were replaced by countless Christmas presents, each one wrapped in PNJ newspaper and including a note with an illegible scrawl that was her well-known signature. Pat was a catalyst and a matchmaker, not only for couples but also for people who needed a business partner, an organization that needed names for leadership roles or original ideas for a fund-raiser. The telephone was her enabler, but frequently time-pressured, she read or wrote while talking. She couldn't sing, but she sang anyway, one song. Near the end of a party when she torch-sang "The Last Time I Saw Paris", it seemed to be her way of saying, "I'm okay. You're okay. Isn't that wonderful?" Those who came to Pensacola after Pat Lloyd left it are indirect recipients of her talent and drive. Many organizations are the stronger today for her promotion, her suggestions, and her support. One of them is Panhandle Tiger Bay Club, which she co-founded with former Senator John Broxson and which now bears her name. At The University of West Florida, a journalism scholarship established in her memory, still receives contributions. She is buried at St. John's Historic Cemetery 3 North Section 35. By Carolyn Fleming |