Thomas Anthony Hennessy

Tom Hennessy, a former columnist and longtime fixture at the Press-Telegram whose deeply personal anecdotes and colorful tales about Long Beach sparked morning conversations for nearly three decades, died from heart complications Saturday. He was 80.

Hennessy’s death was met with sadness both by colleagues and those he covered during his 27-year-career at the Press-Telegram, which began in 1980. He produced four columns a week during that time, but continued to write columns on and off until 2013.

Rich Archbold, public editor of the Press-Telegram, hired Hennessy when the proud Irishman, who was 44 at the time, looked west after newspaper stints that led to the sports editor gig at the Detroit Free Press.

“Tom had a love affair with Press-Telegram readers that lasted for more than 30 years,” Archbold said Saturday. “His Irish wit and charm came through in everything he wrote.

“Readers always came first to him. He really was Mr. Long Beach, a city treasure. He will be sorely missed.”

Thomas Anthony Hennessy was born Feb. 5, 1936, in Red Bank, New Jersey, to William and Etta Hennessy. He took his first editor job at age 7. Actually, he created the job for himself when he published the “Hennessy Family News” one day, with a story headlined “Mom and Dad in Big Fight.”

The “paper” was delivered to everyone in the neighborhood. Hennessy’s “subscribers” got to read a he-said, she-said about the family budget.

Hennessy studied at the United States Army Language School in Monterey . America was ratcheting up its efforts in the Cold War, and the language school had recently expanded to include instructors from around the world.

Russian became the largest language program, and Hennessy served in the the U.S. Army Security Agency as a Russian translator from 1954 to 1958, before briefly working as a banana inspector in Florida.

As a newly married man, Hennessy went to Wall Street to learn how to become a public trader. But he couldn’t shake the journalism bug. Hennessy visited a library and found the addresses of newspapers throughout the New York area.

The Bergen Record in New Jersey offered him a job in circulation, but Hennessy countered with an offer to work two weeks as a reporter, on a trial basis. He wrote for more than two years at the newspaper before moving on to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette in 1962.

In 1975, Hennessy took a reporting job at the Detroit Free Press, covering environmental and social welfare issues, in addition to writing a weekly environmental column. He climbed to the rank of sports editor after stints as an assistant city editor, acting business editor and a government editor.

In Hennessy lore, his time at the Detroit Free Press came to an end when an executive editor called him in and said “One of us is leaving. Guess which one?”

He fielded offers from newspapers across the country, but Hennessy headed to Long Beach because the Press-Telegram offered him a job as a columnist, which he always wanted to be.

Outgoing columnist Frank Anderson on Sept. 12, 1980, introduced Press-Telegram readers to Hennessy as the “handsome Irish lad fresh in from the sports editorship of the Detroit Free Press” whose charm and wit were “equaled only by his considerable journalistic talents.”

His wife, Debbie Hennessy, was known throughout his columns — and to readers — as “The Duchess.” She was by his side when he died.

Readers would come to know Hennessy as “Mr. Long Beach,” as the Press-Telegram’s lead columnist and tireless writer chronicled city life with pieces that were heartwarming or hard-hitting, depending on the subject matter.

“He was one of the greatest men I was blessed to know,” said Jeff Burroughs, a former Major League Baseball player with the Texas Rangers who co-wrote a book with Hennessy on the Long Beach Little League World Champions called “The Little Team That Could.”

“He was so unique and smart and so funny,” Burroughs said Saturday. “He would always bring a smile to your face and was a genius to work with.”

Hennessy ran an ugly dog contest for charity, and spearheaded campaigns to help veterans. He also started the Press-Telegram’s Send-a-Kid-to-Camp fund, which has raised more than $1 million and sent hundreds of youngsters to summer camps in local mountains.

“Tom was a Long Beach institution, not just well-known in the newspaper world, but in the entire community through all the work he did,” Mayor Robert Garcia said Saturday. “We’re going to miss him.”

Hennessy could weave a tale about his dogs, grandparenthood, his first baseball glove or trying to lose weight, then turnaround and expose local corruption, wax about presidential politics and criticize Veterans Day Parade organizers for banning veterans who disagreed with war efforts.

His career took him to Nicaragua, where he wrote about social unrest. And to the South Pacific, where he interviewed veterans for his World War II series. Hennessy also documented the aftermath of the 1986 Cerritos airplane crash .

A big fan of the Notre Dame Fighting Irish, Hennessy could pick a fight with readers and politicians alike, but it was often his compassion for people that cut deep into the hearts of those who savored his columns. He wrote about recovering drug addicts, a dishwasher who scrubbed pots and pans for 37 years, and a kitten whose death attracted 40 people to its funeral.

Hennessy revealed the dark times and determination in his family, when his son, Dan, committed suicide in 2004. His series, Suicide: Out of the Darkness, netted sales from reprints, and the money was donated to the Suicide Prevention Action Network.

Former mayors Beverly O’Neill and Bob Foster also expressed sadness at the loss Saturday.

“Tom was a great asset and friend to our city and to the multitude of fans eagerly awaiting his column,” O’Neill said. “He brought astute analysis and observations about our daily lives in a humanitarian way.”

Foster said it is difficult to come up with words to describe the loss of Hennessy, an “institution.”

“Tom, through his writing and love of Long Beach, illustrated and illuminated the small-town feel of our large city,” he said. “His gift was to make us feel knitted together into a larger fabric. ... I will miss Tom forever, but I will be forever grateful for what he gave to all of us.”

When Hennessy retired in 2007 , he described Long Beach as “a fun community, a very kind community and sometimes an absolutely crazy place, and the craziest people are, of course, the politicians.”

He suffered a small stroke just before he retired, but for months prior had struggled with the decision to leave full-time journalism. Hennessy went on to write occasional columns for the Press-Telegram, but stopped in 2013 when he suffered another small stroke, endured heart problems and underwent surgery to replace an aortic valve.

Hennessy was in and out of hospitals and tried physical therapy so he could walk again. He entered hospice in late March.

He was preceded in death by his son Dan and his sister, Alyce Guido. In addition to his wife, Debbie, Hennessy is survived by his former wife, Jeanne Hennessy; brother Bud Hennessy (Eileen); son John Tien (Tracy); daughters, Jackie Tien (David Levin), Patty Tomashefsky (Scott), Diana Rousseau (Randy); six grandsons and four granddaughters.

Funeral services will be private, but a public memorial is being planned.
By Josh Dulaney , Long Beach Press Telegram

Rich Archbold: Longtime P-T columnist ‘always put readers first’

It was 36 years ago, but I remember clearly Tom Hennessy’s first day on the job as columnist for the Press-Telegram.

Tom was worried and asked me a startling question: “What happens if no one reads me and there’s no response?”

Many times after that, Tom would complain that he was getting too many responses and didn’t see how he could answer all of them.

Over the years we shared many laughs over his initial worries about not getting readers.

That was Tom, my colleague and pal, always fretting about how he was doing, even as his column grew in popularity. Eventually, he earned the unofficial title of “Mr. Long Beach.”

Tom’s Irish heart finally gave out Saturday morning when he died at Alamitos Belmont Rehabilitation Hospital.

His wife Debbie the Duchess was at his side – just like she has been for almost 50 years. I have always thought that Debbie was Tom’s secret to success as she worked quietly behind the scenes to help him with his many campaigns and to calm his sometimes feisty Irish temper. He called her his Florence Nightingale.

In his more than 30 years as a columnist for the Press-Telegram, Tom was everywhere, whether writing about his dogs, Phydeaux, Molly and Malone, or leading a campaign to send more than 100,000 books to American troops in Desert Storm.

Tom gave appearances all over town and never turned down a request to speak. One time he got so worn down his doctor told him to slow down, but Tom didn’t listen.

He had a unique way of connecting with readers that made him like a friend putting his arm around you to brighten your day.

He did that for an entire community, and he became a Long Beach institution.

With Tom, readers always came first, no matter how long it took on the many community campaigns he launched.

One of his proudest achievements was starting the newspaper’s Send-A-Kid-to Camp Fund which has raised more than $1 million, sending hundreds of needy youngsters to camps in local mountains.

He also raised money to restore a crumbling monument on Tarawa Island, site of one of the bloodiest battles in World War II. He championed “Community Heroes,” a program to recognize people doing heroic things without worrying about who got credit. He led Public Safety Summits and campaigns against drug addiction and animal abuse.

Bob Hope said he wanted to be “Tom’s paperboy” delivering a special Press-Telegram section with reader comments to the crew of the Long Beach based battleship New Jersey in the Middle East.

Hennessy wrote about a baby boy’s struggle to survive in spite of weighing just l pound, 7 ounces at birth. He led parades for the Long Beach Little League team that won back-to-back world championships.

In what became a St. Patrick’s Day ritual, he wrote about the World’s Worst Irish Jokes, most of which made me wince. Example: “Flynn the Firefighter says firefighters don’t go to hell because they would put it out.”

Perhaps his most significant accomplishment was shining a light on mental illness. He wrote movingly about his son, Daniel, who committed suicide in 2005. In a special series, “Suicide: Out of the Darkness,” Tom wrote about his son and others.

“This is a story filled with private thoughts and anecdotes,” he wrote. “We share them, however uncomfortably, in the hope that something good can come from our experience; that it may help others, as it helped us, to treasure our lives and each other.”

Later, he wrote about the mental health struggles of Nancy Foster, wife of former Mayor Bob Foster.

In an email to Debbie, Nancy called Tom “the kindest man in the world. I will always be so appreciative to tell my mental health story with him.”

Tom had many health issues he struggled with. He suffered a mini-stroke, or what he called “a warning stroke,” in 2007 and decided it was time to retire.

In his final column, he wrote to readers: “It has been a joy knowing all of you, being a part of your lives and having you be part of mine. Each of you has, in your own way, contributed to my life.”

For the past two years, Tom has been in and out of hospitals trying to fix his weakening heart. Apart from the physical pain, there was another hurt: A feeling that he was being forgotten by readers.

“There’s nothing worse than not being remembered,” he told me a few months ago.

That feeling changed memorably last year when Rhiannon Acree, owner of Cambrian Homecare, said she wanted to recognize someone whose words had been delivered to driveways for more than 30 years.

Cabrian Homecare had been helping Tom with his rehabilitation therapy. Acree was at the lunch to receive her Entrepreneur of the Year Award.

When Acree announced Tom’s name and asked him to stand, the packed audience started applauding and gave him a rousing standing ovation. It brought tears to Tom’s eyes as he struggled to stand from his wheelchair.

Later, he told me how good it felt to be remembered.

Mary Thoits, a longtime friend from the Senior Studies Center at Long Beach City College, said Tom was developing new readers.

“I am sure Tom is now telling stories to the angels,” she said.

And I’m sure that Tom, a diehard Notre Dame fan, also is waking up the echoes and shaking down the thunder from the sky.