Her Miami diner was featured in Oscar film. Opera patroness Penny Angleton dies at 89
Penelope Angleton Behrend “never met a person, sang a song or attended a gathering that she didn’t love — and that’s so my mother,” her daughter Marina Angleton-Petkas said shortly after her mother died at 89 on Sunday in Miami.
How much did her mom love?
Well, infectiously enough that Penny, as friends and family called her, got the late Italian opera great Luciano Pavarotti to sing for a piece of her birthday cake at her Miami-area home.
You see, Angleton Behrend, one of the founders and a president of the Young Patronesses of the Opera, would host — with her late husband, Miami businessman James Angleton Sr. — opening night cast parties at their Bay Point home. Spanish opera star Plácido Domingo was also one of her guests and a framed photo of the pair hangs on the wall of her home.
The Angletons — Jim Sr. and Penny — were well-known philanthropists and supporters of the arts. The couple also owned a string of restaurants, including the famed Jimmy’s Eastside Diner on Biscayne Boulevard. The climactic sequence of the movie “Moonlight” was filmed at the diner at 7201 Biscayne in 2016, when the diner was under new ownership. “Moonlight” won the Best Picture Oscar at the 2017 Academy Awards.
Their son, Jim Angleton Jr., picks up the story.
Making Pavarotti sing for cake
“On one occasion, Placido Domingo and Pavarotti — who were acquaintances of my mother — attended the party and it was actually on my mother’s birthday. It was not uncommon to host 200 to 300 people at our home for these parties. Pavarotti, being a big, large man caught a glimpse of my mother’s birthday cake. So he walks up to my mother and, while she spoke several languages, he asked her, ‘Penelope, I would like a big slice of cake.’
“My mother, being a true extrovert, fun person, looked at him and said, ‘Come with me,’ and grabbed him by the hand to a stage where the Peter Duchin Orchestra was playing,” Angleton Jr. continued. “She stopped them and called everyone there to hear her. ‘My dear friend Luciano Pavarotti wants a big slice of my birthday cake and before I give him a big slice, I want him to sing ‘Happy Birthday’ to me. How about it everyone?’
“They all clapped and so Pavarotti sang it in English, Italian and then Greek — knowing we are Greek. It was hilarious and befitting for her birthday. Yup, he had a huge slice of cake and all laughed that she pulled that off,” Angleton Jr. said.
But that was “everyone’s” Penny.
A ‘part of the family’
“When you were with Penny you were part of the family regardless of who you were and her voice inspired many of us to enjoy both opera and show music,” said longtime friend and YPO member Connie Danluck. “As much as anything, she was just a very dynamic figure both within her church and the many organizations she belonged to.”
Among them, in addition to the YPO: the Cancer Society and Jackson Neonatal Center.
Danluck chuckles when asked if she, like Penny, sang, too. Not professionally, Danluck said. But Danluck has been known to sing operettas and show tunes inspired by her 30-plus-year friendship and shared interest with Angleton Behrend.
“I think the most touching thing, or most important thing, is as a good Greek woman she and her husband were loving and kind and welcoming people. You were a part of the family if you were ever with the Angleton Behrends at all,” said Danluck.
Her Miami history
Born in Miami on March 23, 1932, the daughter of Angelo and Mary Kays — who were among the founders of Miami’s Saint Sophia Greek Orthodox Cathedral in 1927 — Angleton Behrend loved music from an early age. An opera singer, the young Penny studied music at the University of Miami and sang in several operas in South Florida, her daughter Marina Angleton-Petkas said.
She remembers her mother saying, “’If you love music you are never alone.’ She lived by that and loved to spread the love of music.”
Angleton Behrend was preparing to make her operatic debut at Milan’s Teatro alla Scala, one of the world’s most famous opera houses, when she met James Angleton Sr. and they married, their daughter said. The couple’s two children became their focus but music continued to play a significant role.
Together, the Angletons, married for 49 years until Jim Sr.’s death at 72 in 2004, oversaw the restoration of the Miami Opera Guild building. Penny, in addition to her work with the YPO that offers scholarships and education programs, sang in the Saint Sophia Greek Orthodox Cathedral choir.
The Angletons also revitalized struggling businesses and owned a string of hotels and motels along Biscayne Boulevard and a chain of 16 Neighbors restaurants that were once known as Ranch House. Jimmy’s Eastside Diner still features the senior Angleton’s name. The diner was a favorite breakfast spot of Bee Gees singer/bassist Maurice Gibb who ate there practically every Sunday until his death in 2003.
After Angleton Behrend lost her first husband, she met Richard Behrend of Ohio and the two were married for 12 years, traveling between their homes in Miami, Port Charlotte and Canada.
“My mother had a huge heart and did for others under the name ‘Anonymous,’” her son said. “She always saw the positive in others, generous, thoughtful and was most proud of her community. A good businesswoman, outstanding mother and terrific best friend to many. She will be missed.”
Survivors, services
In addition to her two children, Angleton Behrend’s survivors include her husband Richard Behrend, her brother Ted Kays and grandchildren Theodore James, Amelia Mary and Kathryn Penelope.
Private family services will be held Saturday. In lieu of flowers, donations in her memory can be sent to St. Sophia Greek Orthodox Cathedral at 244 SW 24th Road, Miami, Florida, 33129.
This story was originally published March 30, 2021 at 4:54 PM.
