Only Tucson restaurateur Magdalene Gerrish could grab headlines over a stolen toothpick dispenser.
Granted, it did have sentimental value.
A brash but diminutive immigrant from China, Gerrish couldn't cook or balance a checkbook, but she ran a successful midtown eatery - Szechuan Omei Restaurant - for more than 20 years. A decade after her retirement some Tucsonans still quote catchphrases from the memorable late-night commercials - "You try, you like" - that made Gerrish and her restaurant on "Essa Spee'way" popular.
Gerrish was known as "Madeline" by many who mistook the correct pronunciation when she introduced herself.
Family, friends and former customers will remember the colorful businesswoman and her way with words at a memorial service beginning at 10 a.m. Saturday at SS. Peter and Paul Catholic Church, 1946 E. Lee St. Gerrish died Monday as a result of a brief illness. She was 87.
Gerrish didn't grow up in the restaurant business.
She was born in China, the favorite offspring of her father's five wives. They were a moneyed family from the ruling class and Gerrish was doted on. She was 4 when her father died from a heart attack, a shock she never got over, said longtime customer Michael Brown, who had many long conversations with Gerrish.
In 1948, on the cusp of Mao Zedong's Communist Red Army wresting control from the Nationalists, Gerrish's mother arranged for Catholic missionaries to smuggle her daughter out of China and take her to the United States. The family planned to follow, but Gerrish never saw them again. It's likely they were executed, as were many of China's pre-Communist elite.
Like many areas of Gerrish's life, the facts are fuzzy. Over the years it has been reported she was 16 when she left China, but her birth date in 1922 would mean she was in her mid-20s when her ship docked in San Francisco. Not even her children know for sure.
Gerrish was sent by the missionaries to Illinois, where she learned English and trained to become a nurse. She met her future husband, Jerry Gerrish, when he was a patient in a Springfield tuberculosis ward. After a short courtship they decided to wed, but Jerry's parents opposed the union and shipped him off to the University of Arizona. Not to be thwarted, Magdalene flew to Tucson to surprise her intended. It was 1958 and illegal in Arizona for couples of different races to marry, so they drove to Lordsburg, N.M., and wed, said one of their three children, Andy.
While her husband ran a jewelry store, Gerrish took a nursing job at St. Mary's Hospital, where she worked for 21 years. By the late 1970s, the couple had split up and Gerrish's colorful life story took another factually fuzzy turn when she opened Szechuan Omei. While the generalities of Gerrish's story remain constant, she may have glossed over some of the details when recounting her start in business.
In 1977, while still working at St. Mary's, Gerrish entered into a business deal with a couple of dubious characters. Gerrish and the men opened Szechuan Omei using $29,000 she got for refinancing her house. Because the men were Chinese - not U.S. - citizens, all of the legal documents were drawn up in Gerrish's name. When her business partners tried to "pull a fast one" and muscle her out - literally - without returning her money, Gerrish sought advice from a friend and pub owner, said her son. The friend suggested she have the men deported and run the business herself. She did.
For several years, until the restaurant began turning a profit, Gerrish worked the lunch rush, went home for a nap, returned for the dinner crowd, then pulled a night shift at the hospital. That her feet were so deformed from binding in China that she had to have her pinkie toes amputated didn't prevent a determined Gerrish from spending most of each day on her feet.
"She had to be strong and independent to do what she did - learn a new language, learn a new way of life," former customer Lisa Adams said.
In a 1978 Tucson Citizen article, the feisty, 4-foot-11 Gerrish said: "I have never accepted anyone telling me what I can or can't do. I take the chances and do the work, and that's what makes me happy."
Gerrish may not have accepted anyone telling her what to do, but she sure served up the opinions in her restaurant. Her brash comments were part of the dining experience.
"The first week or so she was open I went over there β¦ and this little lady kept coming over and doing one-liners like a stand-up comedian. She just loved people," Brown said.
But Gerrish was not to be trifled with. Requests for doggie bags were rebuffed by Gerrish, who told customers to finish their plates. Even the slightest criticism about meals - the food being a little too salty, perhaps - was met with Gerrish suggesting the customer eat at the restaurant across the street next time. And any customer who wrote a bad check would find Gerrish at their door.
"If I'm at their front door they feel so guilty they pay," she said in a 1998 Arizona Daily Star article.
In 2000 Gerrish sold the restaurant, intent on retirement. But she couldn't sit idle and took a job at the assisted-living home Adams runs.
Until last November, Gerrish still was working.
"She was full of energy. She never quit moving," Brown said. "Using her force of will she made things happen. She was an original."
The series
This feature chronicles the lives of recently deceased Tucsonans. Some were well-known across the community. Others had an impact on a smaller sphere of friends, family and acquaintances. Many of these people led interesting - and sometimes extraordinary - lives with little or no fanfare. Now you'll hear their stories.
On StarNet
Did you know Magdalene Gerrish? Add your remembrance to this article online at azstarnet.com/ lifestories
Contact reporter Kimberly Matas at kmatas@azstarnet.com or at 573-4191.
