SONOMA, Calif. (Reuters)
The fact that he was dead did not stop ``Ski'' Krencijewski from throwing the biggest party ofhis life.
Krencijewski, who died on Feb. 5 at age 74, left $10,000 in his
will for a blowout funeral party for 250 of his closest friends
in California's Sonoma County wine country.
``If Ski was an earthquake, he would be a 10 on the Richter
scale,'' friend Napoli Lehnert told the Santa Rosa Press
Democrat, calling Krencijewski ``a Damon Runyon character with a
W.C. Fields' attitude.''
Guests at Monday's funeral dined on veal piccata and marinated
calamari, washed down with premium Chardonnay and
Merlot as they reminisced about the former bartender whom the
newspaper called Sonoma's ``most colorful and conspicuous
citizen.''
``Ski always said when he died, there had better be a big party,
so he left money in his will to throw it,'' Debbie Webster said
of Krencijewski, who arrived in California from New Jersey in
1943 and quickly became a local fixture.
Krencijewski's ashes were to be scattered at the vineyard that
produces his favorite Merlot.
