Friends remember bar owner as kind

Thursday, 26 June 2003

Louie Muratori, owner and operator of Louie's Tavern in Sandusky, died Monday after a short battle with lung cancer. Louie's, located near Cedar Point employee housing, has been popular with Cedar Point employee for years.

"He'd do anything for you," family friend Diane Ruff told the Sandusky Register. "He's going to be missed, that's for sure."

Muratori's son Dennis told the Regsiter that despite being from a different generation than many of his patrons, his father made a lot of friendships with the college-aged Cedar Point employees.

"My dad cared about the kids," said Dennis Muratori, who said his father would often drive the Cedar Point employees home or turn on the floodlights at the nearby baseball field to light their walk back to the Cedar Point dormitories.

More than 50 people, many of them Cedar Point employees, held a candlelight vigil Tuesday evening at the bar in his honor.

Dennis Muratori told the Register that Louie's will remain open.

"The bar's going to continue to run as is. The family will all pitch in and run it," he said. "Nothing is going to change. That's the way my dad wanted it."

Muratori was born on February 9, 1947, in Sandusky. He is survived by his wife, Cathy, whom he married Oct. 23, 1965, a son, daughter-in-law, and a granddaughter.

Memorial contributions can be made to Erie County Humane Society, 1911 Superior St., Sandusky OH 44870 or American Lung Association of Ohio's South Shore, 226 (Rear) Ohio 61 E., Norwalk OH 44857.