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Friends laud 'Mom,' a Bud-loving bar icon

Friends at Ricky T's gave her a classy send off after she lost her battle with cancer.

By CRISTINA SILVA
Published December 10, 2006

To the bar patrons at Ricky T's Bar and Grille, Julie Roberts will always be known as "Mom."

The elderly woman who religiously wore stilettos and drank two Budweisers a day could be found most nights at the Treasure Island bar doling out advice on love and more practical matters between sips.

On Dec. 1 she died after a three-year struggle with bone cancer. She was 93 years old.

Roberts was first diagnosed in 2003. At the time, doctors told her she had just three months to live.

Born in Illinois in 1913, Roberts was a fun-loving woman who grew bored easily. She loved chicken wings and roast beef sandwiches.

She was 4 feet 11, but in her later years she seemed to shrink to just 4 feet.

In 1966, she moved to Treasure Island with her children, Gino and John Centanni and Corlaine Breedlove.

John Centanni started working at Ricky T's 11 years ago, shortly after his mom retired from her nursing career.

She first came to the bar to visit him but ended up returning for the company of the other customers.

"She was like an icon at the bar," John Centanni, 57, said. "Everyone knew her."

For Roberts' 90th birthday, Rick Taylor, the bar owner, hired a male stripper and passed her a stack of dollar bills. Someone else brought her 90 bottles of Budweiser.

For the wake this past Tuesday, a black stiletto heel was hung from her coffin. Taylor constructed a wreath made of Budweiser cans.

"She loved her Budweiser," he said.

John Centanni will take his mother's body to be buried in her family plot in Chicago on Monday.

But for the patrons at Ricky T's, Treasure Island will always be her home.

Cristina Silva can be reached at 893-8846 or csilva@sptimes.com.

[Last modified December 9, 2006, 20:31:10]