By Russ Tarby
Contributing Writer
They say that deaths come in threes.
Over the past month, Liverpool has lost three good men whose time had come. On April 29, Bob Luongo passed away at age 76, then on May 3, Doc Good died at age 82 and George Leggett let go of life at age 92.
Jitterbug king
Bob Luongo was one of the best jitterbug dancers ever to trip the light fantastic in Central New York. Widely known as “Bob Barker, the hot dog king,” Luongo had often sold franks and coneys over the years at the vintage car shows staged at Washington Park.
In 1957, when he was just 17 years old, Luongo was crowned the New York State Jitterbug Dance Champion. The Lindy Hop wasn’t his only dance floor talent. He was also an agile tap dancer, and, in fact, his obituary depicted him “tap dancing his way into Heaven.”
A longtime friend of Syracuse saxophonist-singer Jimmy Cavallo, Luongo would often dance to Jimmy’s music whenever Cavallo appeared here.
“When you hear Jimmy’s music,” Luongo said last summer, “you’ve just gotta dance!”
In 1980, he started Bob’s Barkers Hot Dog Stand. Bob and his family operated mobile carts in at the Chase Lincoln Plaza on South Salina Street, outside the Carrier Dome and on Irving Avenue. More recently, he sold frankfurters outside the Home Depot and the Gander Mountain store in Cicero, and he also operated a permanent stand at 3718 New Court Ave., in Lyncourt.
Gem of a man
Francis “Doc” Good, who lived in Liverpool, became best known locally as the owner of the Little Gem Diner on Syracuse’s West End.
A native of Wichita, Kansas, Doc worked for General Electric in their Heavy Military Division with radar technology and medical systems, helping develop the MRI. Doc’s career took him all over the world, including Colorado, California and Alaska as well as overseas, where he worked on remote sites in Greenland and Turkey.
Upon his retirement in 1980, Doc settled in CNY, buying a dairy farm in West Monroe. He worked the farm with his family for 10 years before returning to Lockheed Martin, where he worked until 1997. He then bought the Little Gem Diner in Syracuse, which he owned and operated for an additional 14 years. Doc earned the Restaurateur of the Year award in 2001.
Doc was a gifted conversationalist who became a fast friend to everyone he met.
World War II vet
George Leggett lived in Liverpool for decades, but recently retired to Sacramento, Calif., where died during the first week of May.
Raised in the Adirondacks, George began his college education at Columbia University before serving his country in World War II in the Army Medical Corps in the Philippines. He pursued doctoral study in psychology at Syracuse University and taught science at Central Square High School before starting his own electrical contracting business, Leggett Electric Company, in 1960.
George was a member of Liverpool First United Methodist Church, Liverpool-Clay VFW Post 951 and American Legion Post 188. In April 2015 he was selected to participate in Honor Flight Syracuse Mission 5 to Washington D.C.
Dublin’s defunct
On May 18, a “For Lease” sign hung in the front window at Dublin’s restaurant on Route 57 in Clay. Mike and Kim Flood opened it at 7990 Oswego Road (Route 57) in July 2014.
Prior to the Floods’ ownership, the site housed another Irish-themed pub called Meghan MacMurphy’s, and another called Kelly Cole’s.
That location has had more lives than a cat. How many names can you recall?
The Gin Mill, The Other Side, Silhouettes, Baha Beach Club, Salt City Diner, Silver Dollar Saloon, the Gemini Club. Others?
The columnist can be contacted at [email protected].
