A memorial service will take place on Sunday 10 a.m. for Barry “Spanky” Piesner at Abe Green and Sons Funeral Home, 88 Beach Road, Fairfield. Piesner died August 4. He was 73. Politics, government, social services, real estate, journalism; Barry was an eclectic personality in the city with an incomparable talent for sales, be it politics or a business idea.
If you were trying to sell Barry something it wouldn’t be long before he was selling something to you. But Barry, you’re selling me something I already own! Yes, but what does that have to do with anything? That takes talent. And balls. Some would call it chutzpah. Spanky certainly had it.
We called him Spanky because of his angelic resemblance, even at an advanced age, to George “Spanky” McFarland from the Our Gang/Little Rascals series. Spanky’s gang consisted of Charlie Coviello, multi-mayoral candidate and anyone who wanted to banter about Bridgeport life. Even close to the end Spanky had a remarkable flourish for the city.
He was determined to open a new city newspaper when more and more print publications were ending up on the obit page. There goes another. Well, Barry wouldn’t hear it. He managed to get the newspaper, the Bridgeport Independent, off the ground.
Barry had hopes and dreams and guts. And sometimes that’s all it takes.
Charlie was Buckwheat … any objections? This isn’t a racial comment, just an observation.
RIP Barry. He was quite the knowledgeable character and deserved a lot better.