By Mary Ann Bourbeau
ASBURY PARK – Nineteen prominent Garden State residents are being inducted into the New Jersey Hall of Fame at a red carpet ceremony at the Paramount Theatre in Asbury Park Oct. 27.
Among the nominees in the areas of Arts & Letters, Enterprise, Performing Arts, Public Service and Sports are Jason Alexander, the Smithereens, Martha Stewart, pioneering heart surgeon Victor Parsonnet, athletes Bart Oates, Laurie Hernandez and Harry Carson and authors George R.R. Martin and Peter Benchley. Tim McLoone and Southside Johnny Lyon, two noted residents of Monmouth County, are also among this year’s honorees.
McLoone has proven himself accomplished in music, athletics, business and philanthropy. He owns 12 restaurants – several locally in Red Bank, Long Branch, Sea Bright and Tinton Falls. He often performs with his band, the Shirleys, at Tim McLoone’s Supper Club in Asbury Park.
In 1993, his love of music led him to create Holiday Express, a nonprofit organization that brings live music, food and gifts to those in need during the holidays. This year, he and a group of 2,500 volunteers, including 150 professional musicians, will visit 100 facilities between Thanksgiving and Christmas Eve to spread holiday cheer and human kindness.
McLoone was self-effacing when he heard he would receive the highest civilian honor in New Jersey.
“My first reaction was ‘Really? Me? Why?’” he said. “But then I understood that it was because of all the people who have helped me along the way and that I was standing on their shoulders.”
McLoone said he began to gain confidence, athletic ability, musical talent and a sense of charity while attending Our Lady of Sorrows School in South Orange.
“They taught us that there was nothing you can’t do,” he said. “Sister Mary John taught me how to sing. Sister James Marie was such a believer in me. Those women were great.”
He credits Bill Persichetty, his track coach at Seton Hall Prep, with changing his life.
“I was an overweight, insecure, 13-year-old freshman,” said McLoone. “Somehow he got under my skin. He took a kid who couldn’t do any sport and made me into a runner.”
While running track at Harvard University under Coach Bill McCurdy, McLoone was named to the USA All-American Track Team. He later became a broadcaster for the U.S. Olympic Trials and the New York and Los Angeles marathons and was known for jogging alongside runners as he reported on the events. He also served as musical director for NBC at the Rockefeller Center tree lighting ceremony for several years. He currently serves as director of game operations and arena announcer for Seton Hall men’s basketball and is the cross-country coach at Rumson-Fair Haven Regional High School.
“My parents brought me up extraordinarily positively,” he said. “My approach to business and life is optimistic.”
He developed a sense of empathy as a child when his father worked for the V.A. and the family lived on the grounds of the veteran’s hospital in East Orange.
“I spent a lot of time with men who were wounded in World War II and Korea,” he said. “They had horrific amputations and what they called shell shock. It helped me to not be fearful. Although we were of extremely modest means, my parents always reached out to help others. It didn’t seem extraordinary to me at the time.”
Holiday Express now serves nearly 30,000 people a year in hospitals, prisons, soup kitchens, homeless shelters, AIDS hospices and long-term psychiatric facilities.
“In many ways, I feel like we’re playing for the caregivers as well,” said McLoone. “If you believe in angels, those people are truly angels. They’re people of color, immigrants and those with limited financial means. When you see how they treat the patients, like it’s their own child, parent or grandparent, you can’t help but be moved by it.”
Ocean Grove resident John Lyon, aka Southside Johnny, was raised in a home with a large collection of jazz and blues records. He graduated from Neptune High School with future E Street Band members Garry Tallent and Vini “Mad Dog” Lopez. A voracious reader, he studied English at Monmouth College but dropped out to pursue music. In the mid-1970s, he and Steve Van Zandt co-founded the Asbury Jukes. Their breakout album, “I Don’t Want to Go Home,” featured songs written by Springsteen and Van Zandt. With rhythm and horns, along with catchy choruses on songs like “The Fever” and “This Time It’s For Real,” the Jukes, along with pal Bruce Springsteen, dominated the Jersey Shore rock scene.
Today, with more than 30 albums and thousands of concerts under their belt, the Jukes have a legacy of songs that are loved by a dedicated fan base around the world. Still, the thought of being inducted into the New Jersey Hall of Fame never crossed this rocker’s mind.
“It seems odd and humorous to me,” said Southside. “There’s an incredible amount of people from New Jersey, like Thomas Edison, who have done so much more than anything I accomplished. It’s a little intimidating to be part of that.”
Still, Southside Johnny is proud to be from New Jersey, a place he said deserves more respect than it gets.
“New Jersey isn’t taken seriously, even though people like Frank Sinatra, Count Basie, Jon Bon Jovi and Bruce Springsteen came from here,” he said.
As much as he loves New Jersey, Southside is a wandering soul. He has taken up residence in Southern California, Delaware, Nashville, New York and Virginia – too many places, he said, to name. He’s come full circle, moving back to Ocean Grove a decade ago, but in a home he rents.
“I’m a musician who has been on the road for 40-plus years,” he said. “Wherever I live is OK with me. I don’t like to be tied down. All the things I do in life feel temporary except for music.”
His existence is different than his famous contemporaries and he likes it that way.
“I saw what happened after “Born to Run” and that’s the last thing I want,” he said. “You’re fed the idea that everything is glamorous and wonderful with limos and parties, but sooner or later you can’t go out on the street and walk around. I want to go to the store and pick out what I want for dinner, or just wander around and think thoughts.”
As for the red carpet ceremony, Southside says he will attend at the urging of his friend Jon Bon Jovi, but plans on saying as little as possible in his acceptance speech. He is, however, happy for his fellow nominees.
“The Smithereens are great guys,” he said. “Pat (DiNizio) was a good friend. I think it’s cool they’re getting in. Tim McLoone has done a lot of things for New Jersey. I’m sure there’s thousands of people more deser ving than me who should go in first.”
Tickets to the New Jersey Hall of Fame induction ceremony are sold out but the event will be live streamed on nj.com beginning at 5:45 p.m. For more information, visit njhalloffame.org.
