JN
02-27-2006, 10:51 PM
Tom Wright, called the guru of barbecue (http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/nationworld/sfl-owright26feb26,0,6387216.story)
His soul food restaurant first opened in '77
By Jerome Burdi
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
February 26, 2006
Tom Wright -- known as the barbecue guru of South Florida for his popular soul food restaurant in Palm Beach County, where customers have gotten their ribs fix for more than a quarter-century -- died Friday in Boca Raton Community Hospital. He was 70.
Mr. Wright was in the hospital for a week and died from complications of several conditions, including diabetes, emphysema and congestive heart failure, his daughter said.
But it was his broken heart that was his deepest pain, she said.
"He had given up," said Kimberly Wright, 40, of Lake Worth.
Wright said her father's condition worsened after Helen Wright, his wife of 48 years, died in July 2004.
The couple opened Tom's Place on Federal Highway in Boca Raton in 1977, then moved the restaurant to 1225 Palm Beach Lakes Blvd. in West Palm Beach two years ago. The Wrights' children now run the restaurant.
"My dad was a very hardworking man and he was a good man," Wright said. "He helped many people. He was a loveable person. Words can't describe what he was."
Mr. Wright was born in Georgia and worked in cotton fields as a child. He was an eighth-grade dropout who moved to Florida and got a job as a pot washer.
It wasn't until he got a job at a French restaurant in Boca Raton that Mr. Wright found the key to his future, his daughter said. There he learned French cuisine, but when he decided to venture out on his own, it was his country roots that stuck. And the barbecue guru was born.
"He loved doing what he did he did," Wright said.
Wright attributed her father's emphysema to his early days cooking in a barbecue pit.
"People don't think the wood smoke will hurt you, but after a while that will hurt you," she said.
The Wrights frequently donated food to people in need. Tom's Place would close on Sundays so the couple and their staff could cook hundreds of meals for the community.
They also were remembered for creating a family environment for their workers, many of whom have stayed for decades.
"We called her Mom and we called him Dad. They were just those types of people," said head cook Erskin Jackson, who worked with Mr. Wright for 30 years. "There's nothing we would ask for that he wouldn't give us, and his wife was the same way."
In addition to his daughter Kimberly, Mr. Wright is survived by five children -- Tom Wright Jr., 47, and Kenny Wright, 40, of Boynton Beach; Belinda Johnson, 45, of Delray Beach; Cassandra Wright, 48, of Lake Worth; and George Wright, 46, of Miami -- and five grandchildren.
Services will be at 10:30 a.m. Saturday at Redemptive Life Fellowship Church, 2101 N. Australian Ave., West Palm Beach.
Flowers may be sent before 3 p.m. Friday to Royal Palm Funeral Home & Cemetery, 5601 Greenwood Ave., West Palm Beach FL, 33407.
Jerome Burdi can be reached at jjburdi@sun-sentinel.com or 561-243-6531.
Copyright © 2006, South Florida Sun-Sentinel
His soul food restaurant first opened in '77
By Jerome Burdi
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
February 26, 2006
Tom Wright -- known as the barbecue guru of South Florida for his popular soul food restaurant in Palm Beach County, where customers have gotten their ribs fix for more than a quarter-century -- died Friday in Boca Raton Community Hospital. He was 70.
Mr. Wright was in the hospital for a week and died from complications of several conditions, including diabetes, emphysema and congestive heart failure, his daughter said.
But it was his broken heart that was his deepest pain, she said.
"He had given up," said Kimberly Wright, 40, of Lake Worth.
Wright said her father's condition worsened after Helen Wright, his wife of 48 years, died in July 2004.
The couple opened Tom's Place on Federal Highway in Boca Raton in 1977, then moved the restaurant to 1225 Palm Beach Lakes Blvd. in West Palm Beach two years ago. The Wrights' children now run the restaurant.
"My dad was a very hardworking man and he was a good man," Wright said. "He helped many people. He was a loveable person. Words can't describe what he was."
Mr. Wright was born in Georgia and worked in cotton fields as a child. He was an eighth-grade dropout who moved to Florida and got a job as a pot washer.
It wasn't until he got a job at a French restaurant in Boca Raton that Mr. Wright found the key to his future, his daughter said. There he learned French cuisine, but when he decided to venture out on his own, it was his country roots that stuck. And the barbecue guru was born.
"He loved doing what he did he did," Wright said.
Wright attributed her father's emphysema to his early days cooking in a barbecue pit.
"People don't think the wood smoke will hurt you, but after a while that will hurt you," she said.
The Wrights frequently donated food to people in need. Tom's Place would close on Sundays so the couple and their staff could cook hundreds of meals for the community.
They also were remembered for creating a family environment for their workers, many of whom have stayed for decades.
"We called her Mom and we called him Dad. They were just those types of people," said head cook Erskin Jackson, who worked with Mr. Wright for 30 years. "There's nothing we would ask for that he wouldn't give us, and his wife was the same way."
In addition to his daughter Kimberly, Mr. Wright is survived by five children -- Tom Wright Jr., 47, and Kenny Wright, 40, of Boynton Beach; Belinda Johnson, 45, of Delray Beach; Cassandra Wright, 48, of Lake Worth; and George Wright, 46, of Miami -- and five grandchildren.
Services will be at 10:30 a.m. Saturday at Redemptive Life Fellowship Church, 2101 N. Australian Ave., West Palm Beach.
Flowers may be sent before 3 p.m. Friday to Royal Palm Funeral Home & Cemetery, 5601 Greenwood Ave., West Palm Beach FL, 33407.
Jerome Burdi can be reached at jjburdi@sun-sentinel.com or 561-243-6531.
Copyright © 2006, South Florida Sun-Sentinel