LONGTIME BARTENDER & FRIEND OF COMMUNITY POOCH

John Hayden

He was a fixture behind the bars for 40 years at some of Greater Fort Lauderdale’s legacy establishments including Sea Monster and End Up, which eventually became Elements and is now Scandals.

Pooch’s death comes just six months after the loss of his husband, Don Clark, a fellow bartender. While the cause of Pooch’s death hasn’t been released, one friend of the couple speculates he died of a broken heart.

WEDDINGS VACATIONS & FRIENDSHIPS

His friend Toni Barone told SFGN they were so close, they shared a destination wedding. Toni and her husband went with Pooch and Don on a trip to Washington, D.C. and got married in a double ceremony.

“He was like a brother to me for 44 years,” she said. “He was all around fun.”

Another longtime friend, Howard Marr, was asked by the family to share the news on social media.

“Pooch was one of the founding members of our bartending community in this town, and a true force to be reckoned with,” he wrote. “I worked with him for many years, and he, and his husband Don were an amazing couple. A true legacy couple. Pooch passing, puts another nail in the history of the gay rights movement, as he was there from the beginning.”

Howard shared a couple of fun stories that capture Pooch’s spirit. He told SFGN that Pooch’s favorite summer vacation was going to have cosmetic surgery, for which Howard teased him annually. One year Howard had to have a medically necessary procedure and says Pooch never let him hear the end of it.

Pooch is carrying two secrets with him to the grave. When asked for his legal name and age, Howard said no one knows the name, and his age is somewhere between 35 and 135 years old.

That encapsulates Pooch’s spirit: a little mystery and lots of love.