Austin Chronicle
November 8, 2002
BY Virginia Wood
When I returned home a couple of weeks ago to the news that Patrick Knight had died of gunshot wounds in (as yet) unexplained circumstances in the far-west Texas town of Marathon, it was impossible to grasp. He takes a job as catering director at the legendary Gage Hotel there and now he's never coming back?
Pat had been a fixture on the Austin restaurant/bar/music scene since the early Seventies, and many of my visual memories feature his smiling face among the grainy mental images: At the 606, he was one of the pioneers of the Sixth Street "entertainment district" and the first restaurant manager in that area to purchase desserts from my fledgling dessert company in the early Eighties; he always put on a stellar performance at the annual SPAMARAMAs, trailing lovely SPAMettes in his wake; and every doorman from all the Soap Creek Saloon incarnations to the Armadillo World HQ to the One Night to the Continental Club, Stubb's, and the Austin Music Hall knew him by name and welcomed him to enjoy the music he so dearly loved.
Pat's wake, hosted by Rob and Cathy Lippincott on a rainy October afternoon in the bar at Güero's was a remarkable gathering: Bartenders, doormen, bouncers, cooks, waiters, cocktail waitresses, musicians -- just about every restaurant/ bar/music venue hippie from the age of 45-60 still alive in Austin -- everybody from Johnny Guffey, Max Nofzinger, and Kerry Awn to Alan Lazarus and Hoover Alexander, plus Pat's ex-wife Toni House and many alumni of the SPAMette sorority, crowded around a photo collage of Pat, swapping stories and raising glasses in his honor. Pat is survived by House, his father and brother, and his beloved 10-year-old son, Sam. Goodbye, old friend.
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Diane Randle (Woodward)
I did not know that we had lost Pat Knight. What a tragedy. I thought I knew him fairly well, but didn't know that he moved in a music direction like me, just in a totally different way. I have a picture somewhere of Pat and Fred clowning on the beach. Rest in peace, old friend.
Fred Rhodes
“Although I haven't seen him in more than ten years I know I'll miss him forever. I never had any friends later on like the ones I had when I was twelve. Jesus, does anybody?”
Stand by Me - Stephen King