Sunday, May 20, 2018
Living overseas and far outside the Star-Ledger alumni loop I am sad that it took until now to find out about Mary Jo's passing. And sad to lose a good friend. Mary Jo and I started at the Star-Ledger on the same day, Dec. 14, 1976, and sat opposite each other at facing desks in the newsroom for more than half my 25-year career at the Ledger.
We watched each other work the phones on stories, complained about the same editors (and the same professors at Columbia J-school), traded newsroom gossip and compared notes on each other's lives during the inevitable lulls while waiting for phone calls to be returned. Everything Ted Sherman and Bob Braun (http://www.bobbraunsledger.com/good-bye-mary-jo-patterson-new-jersey-loses-a-great-journalist-and-i-lose-a-friend/ ) wrote about Mary Jo is true.
I last saw Mary Jo and David in April 2016 when I was passing through Newark and the three of us were able to get together at Sebra's on Madison St. in the Ironbound section of Newark, a place Mary Jo said was one of her favorites. Mary Jo was matter-of-fact about her illness. Clearly it was serious - although I don't think any of us thought she had only two months to live - but she steered the conversation to more interesting topics. No denial of the obvious. No self-pity. No false bravado. The same unobtrusive discipline and grace under pressure she always had in the newsroom.
