Katharine Dickey Hyde (Williams) b.15Mar1910 d.7Sep2005
Katharine Hyde Williams -- ran famous Papagayo Room
Marsha Ginsburg, Chronicle Staff Writer
Saturday, September 10, 2005
Katharine Hyde Williams, who with her late husband entertained everyone from movie stars to ordinary diners at their legendary Papagayo restaurant in San Francisco's Fairmont Hotel, died this week of natural causes at her home in Tiburon. She was 95.
As the other half of a duo who ran the wildly popular Papagayo Room, Mrs. Williams was charming, blonde and slender, an attraction for her customers, including Frank Sinatra, who apparently tried to woo her into giving him room service. Mrs. Williams had fun sharing stories of having to fend him off.
Once, she said, when she told Sinatra she was too busy at the cash till to deliver his meal, he offered a solution: "Bring the till with you!"
Her husband, Al, who learned to cook from watching his Mexican mother, died in 1981 at the age of 71.
Named for the many parrots that were the restaurant's trademark, the Papagayo Room entertained luminaries from 1945 to 1961. Guests included Mae West, Jack Benny, Marilyn Monroe and Nat King Cole, as well as politicians, dignitaries and ordinary people. Beat cops were given slightly preferential treatment -- they often dined for free.
Mrs. Williams was apparently always the more understated of the two. Kind, gentle and spiritual, she boasted that non-celebrity customers got the same service and treatment as movie stars. And while her husband was lavishly generous, she had to stop him from buying her fancy clothing -- especially negligees.
The two lived in Belvedere with their dogs, cats and birds.
Holding up a red negligee from Neiman Marcus, she once asked a newspaper reporter, "Now what would I do with this feeding the dogs and cleaning the parrot's cage?"
Born in Berkeley in 1910 to Charles and Margherita Hyde, Mrs. Williams traveled to Europe because her father, a UC Berkeley professor, had a worldwide reputation in sanitary engineering.
Mrs. Williams studied at the Sorbonne in Paris and later received a master's degree in French at UC Berkeley before teaching high school for several years.
She met her future husband through her mother, who was told by a friend that the two would make a nice couple, even though he was much flashier and came from a different world.
Al Williams was the son of a pioneer aviator who fought with Pancho Villa.
"They fell in love instantly" and married, said Mrs. Williams' adopted daughter, Peigin Barrett of San Rafael.
The two opened the Papagayo Room in 1945 at the prodding of Nelson Rockefeller, who had a taste of Al Williams' cooking while on a trip to Mexico.
It was not long before the likes of Judy Garland, Clark Gable and Bob Hope turned the Papagayo Room into a San Francisco destination. Mrs. Williams always credited her husband's outgoing personality and knowledge of Mexican cooking for the restaurant's success.
When the restaurant closed, the couple taught Mexican cooking classes in their home.
In addition to her daughter, Mrs. Williams is survived by a niece, Jane Dunn Turner of Rogers, Ark., and a cousin, Steven Ward of Richmond.
A memorial service is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. Monday at Keaton Mortuaries, 1022 E St., San Rafael.