Anthony L. Cushing, founder and owner of the Cat's Eye Pub in Fells Point, died Tuesday of a heart attack at his Mount Washington home. He was 62.
Born in San Antonio and raised in France, Mr. Cushing traveled in Europe and the United States with his family. His father, Arthur L. Cushing, was a pilot, engineer and base commander in the Air Force. Mr. Cushing studied at the University of Maryland's Munich, Germany, campus and graduated from the University of Maryland, College Park with a degree in political science in 1968.
After college, Mr. Cushing lived in New York City before moving to Baltimore. He opened the Cat's Eye Pub in March 1975 with his business partner, Kenny Orye. Mr. Cushing found a second home in the pub, which quickly became a neighborhood spot renowned for live music and libations.
"He was a natural communicator," said his wife of 26 years, Ana Marie Cushing. "He liked people. I thought it would be good for him."
In 1980, Mr. Cushing and his wife moved to Longboat Key, Fla., where their son, Anthony, was born. Mr. Cushing earned a license in real estate and managed a marina and condominiums. They vacationed regularly on property they owned in Florida, his wife said.
"That's where I'd take him to get him out of the madness," she said. "I'd drag him away and we'd take a little break."
When Mr. Orye died in December 1987, Mr. Cushing moved back to Baltimore to resume running the Cat's Eye day to day. When the building went up for sale soon afterward, the couple mortgaged their property to purchase it.
The Cat's Eye Pub features live music seven days a week, which is rare for a venue of its size. Local and nationally touring blues, rock, rockabilly and jazz acts play there regularly.
Mr. Cushing's loyalty to the bands was unwavering, said guitarist and singer Rudy Strukoff, who has performed at the pub regularly since 2000.
"From a musician's standpoint, Tony was the rascally uncle we all had," Mr. Strukoff said. "You could count on there being a band there. There are not many places like that."
A fixture at the Cat's Eye, Mr. Cushing welcomed members of the working class and tourists with the same unpretentious attitude, Mrs. Cushing said.
"He was a benefactor of so many characters - of so many people in Fells Point," she said. "He was always providing people with shelter and money and a free drink. He helped people along the way with their journeys."
Under Mr. Cushing, the Cat's Eye embodied the down-home feel long associated with Fells Point, said Steve Bunker, a former president of the Fells Point Community Organization. Though the neighborhood changed noticeably, the pub remained largely the same over the years.
"It's one of the very few places left where working stiffs can get together in the afternoon after work and tip a beer, see their friends and talk like real people," he said.
Mr. Cushing's son, Anthony, will take over the business in his father's place, Mrs. Cushing said.
"He was an incredible person," said Terri Rychlak, who has managed the pub for more than 20 years.
"He always did this Houdini thing - he would never say goodbye," she said Tuesday. "He would just leave. You would turn around and he would be gone. This morning I turned around and he was gone."
A memorial service will be private.
In addition to his wife and son, survivors include his father, of Wilmington, N.C.; and nieces and nephews.
sam.sessa@baltsun.com