Eldridge M. "Eddie" Gabriel

Eldridge M. 'Eddie' Gabriel, 1910-2005

Millie Ball
Staff writer

The crowds inside Pat O'Brien's would chant his name six nights a week: "Eddie! Eddie! Eddie! Eddie!"

And Eddie Gabriel would beam, his eyes gleaming behind his ever-present sunglasses as he went onstage to "play his tray." Customers tossed coins and cash onto the battered aluminum tray, and Gabriel's fingers -- topped by silver thimbles -- tapped the bottom so the coins jingled and danced.

"Eddie Gabriel -- called 'Mr. Eddie' by his colleagues and fans -- was the icon of Pat O'Brien's," says Shelly Oechsner Waguespack, a manager at the club owned by her father.

The story goes that he just walked in one day and started waiting tables; the tray game began in 1942 when someone paid a bill with loose change that jangled on Gabriel's tray. He liked the sound, and eventually became part of the show in the piano bar, then the star. Always spiffily dressed in a suit and tie, the shades became part of the outfit when a coin hit him in the eye.

Gabriel was so devoted to his job that after his 1981 wedding to his second wife, Edna Landry, he looked at his bride and told her, "I've got to go to work," said Mrs. Gabriel's niece Paulette Mackie. "I don't think he ever missed a day."

Eldridge M. Gabriel was born in the 1200 block of Burgundy Street to Angelina and Richard Gabriel, who played bass fiddle in a Dixieland band. Eddie, a graduate of Xavier Preparatory School, preferred the drums. He married Marguerite Clizac, and they had four children: Deloris, Juanita, Eldridge Jr. and Garcia. They were married almost 50 years when Marguerite died in 1979 of Lou Gehrig's disease.

Eldridge Jr. said his father provided well for his family, "but the most important thing for him was that we go to school and get good educations."

Keith Gabriel Darbonne remembers his grandfather, whom he called "Dadee," teaching him magic tricks, especially coin tricks. "He had double-jointed thumbs, and so do I," Darbonne said.

Everyone agrees that even though Gabriel loved performing and the spotlight, he wasn't much of a talker. He worked every night from 8 p.m. to 3 a.m., often taking breaks on the sofas upstairs, talking one-on-one to his fans but turning down most interview requests.

Those dancing coins added up. Darbonne remembers that his Dadee owned several houses, a little store and a laundry. He had a subtle sense of humor, relatives say.

Of his famous customers, Darbonne recalls he really liked comic Whoopi Goldberg but was put off by actor Paul Newman, who said, "I don't normally give autographs," when Gabriel asked for one. Later, when Newman asked for a drink recipe, Gabriel answered, "I don't normally give them out."

Paulette Mackie lived with Edna and Eddie for a while, and like others talked about how he took care of his health. He rode an exercise bike every day, and "he ate garlic and onions like apples and oranges. He took vitamins and put Epsom salt, vinegar, ammonia and rubbing alcohol in his bath."

Edna was devoted to Eddie, the family says, fixing his hair every night, even picking him up at 3 a.m. when he got off work. She called him "chief."

Eddie Gabriel worked as usual the weekend before Katrina. Their families tried their best to convince him and Edna to evacuate their 9th Ward home a few blocks from Fats Domino, a good friend. He wouldn't leave, so neither did she.

Edna eventually was rescued from the roof of their house, said her nephew Joe Frederic. But Eddie didn't make it.

"I think they got separated when the water rose so fast," Frederic said. "My aunt can't swim. She said the last thing she heard, he was praying."

Published in The Times-Picayune