Longtime Balboa Bay Club bartender mourned

Mathis Winkler

NEWPORT BEACH -- A few weeks ago, Rey Santos worried more about his

brother’s life than his own.

Ruben Santos, 59, had been hospitalized with a bacterial infection and

Rey, 60, visited him to cheer him up.

“You’re not going to die on me,” Ruben remembered his brother saying.

“You better get well so that we can go and have dinner at Todai next

week.”

Ruben has recovered from his illness, in time to join about 150 family

members and friends Friday to mourn Rey’s death a few days earlier.

A bartender at the Balboa Bay Club for more than four decades, Rey

slumped over a beverage cart late Saturday night and never regained

consciousness. An autopsy revealed that he died of blocked arteries,

Ruben said.

“It’s almost as if God said, ‘You love [your brother] so much. Would

you like to take his place?”’ Ruben said, sitting in a circle with other

relatives in his brother’s garage.

Santos’ youngest son, Marjoe, remembered his father as a “classy guy.”

“Dad, since you passed away -- all you have given me is strength,” the

20-year-old son eulogized his father at Friday’s funeral. “I have no fear

of anything anymore, not even death ... One day when I have a son, I hope

that I can be just as great a father as you are. Dad, you used to tell me

that Muhammad Ali was the greatest. But to me, you’re the greatest.”

Santos’ career at the Balboa Bay club began almost immediately after

he and his five siblings left their hometown in the Philippines in 1958

to join their father in California. Their father prepared vegetables for

the club and got jobs for his sons as well.

“We could hardly speak English,” Ruben Santos remembered, adding that

he washed dishes while his brother washed pots.

Rey Santos eventually tried his luck as a bartender -- a job that paid

better than the washer’s $1.45 hourly wage.

Over time, Santos worked his way up the ladder, befriending famous

club members such as John Wayne. When he died, he held the title of

beverage supervisor.

“From the perspective of an employer, he was perfect,” said Dieter

Hissin, the club’s director of food and beverages. Together with Santos’

colleagues, he had prepared food for Friday’s memorial at Santos’ Garden

Grove home.

Others who worked with him said Santos had trained them for the job.

“He was a beautiful man,” said Hector Espinoza. “He showed me

everything in the world. We called him the ‘King Mai Tai.’ He got the

best recipe in the world from a Hawaiian. People loved the Mai Tai’s.”

Santos’ mentor at the club added that Santos was a cordial, reliable

and cheerful colleague, who was loved by club members.

“We’re going to miss him,” said C. Joe Devine, 80. “However, the show

must go on.”

Santos leaves behind his wife, Laura; his children Lorna, Rey Jr.,

Lisa, Tina, Rochelle and Marjoe; granddaughters Cassandra and Jessica;

and great-granddaughter Kaitlyn.