BANGOR – Gov. John Baldacci rushed home Thursday after hearing that his younger brother Paul Baldacci, who operated Momma Baldacci’s Italian Restaurant, had suddenly died sometime late Wednesday or early Thursday.
Paul Baldacci was discovered dead at 79 Palm St., the Bangor residence owned by the governor and his wife, just before 11 a.m. Thursday. He was 48.
No cause of death has been determined, but the Bangor Police Department is treating Baldacci’s passing as a simple unattended death, a police official said.
“There is absolutely nothing suspicious about it,” Lt. Tim Reid, the detective handling the case, said Thursday. “It appears to be a medical issue.”
The police received a medical assistance call from an unidentified male at 10:58 a.m. Thursday, Reid said. The police went to the home and found Baldacci had died, and a medical examiner was called in.
According to a statement released by the governor’s office, Paul Baldacci had not been feeling well recently. The governor said Thursday afternoon that he appreciated the hundreds of e-mails and phone calls that have been coming to his Augusta office.
A handwritten sign taped to the front door of Momma Baldacci’s on Alden Street fluttered in the wind Thursday afternoon. It simply read “Closed.”
The plain white sign kept away customers and the media, as family members, including the governor, and close friends, filtered into the family-owned restaurant to mourn.
Paul Baldacci’s death was announced at Thursday night’s campaign finale for the United Way of Eastern Maine to a shocked crowd of Bangor community leaders. Master of ceremonies Ric Tyler, his voice filled with emotion, read the announcement.
For years, Paul Baldacci greeted patrons at the restaurant, a well-known meeting place for Bangor Democrats, and was seen regularly at the Hannaford’s supermarket on Broadway.
All who knew Baldacci called him friend, said George McHale, a local broadcast personality known as George Hale, who’s known the Baldacci family for years.
“Every Friday night that I didn’t have a game (to announce), my wife and I would eat at the restaurant,” he said. “(Paul) would always pull up a chair and go through all of the politics of the day and the sports.
“He loved to talk politics and sports, especially the Red Sox, and he loved to put the needle in you when needed,” said McHale, who had just had dinner at the restaurant with his wife, Jean, last Friday, unaware of Baldacci’s ill health.
“He seemed terrific” during dinner, McHale said. “I was totally shocked. My wife is absolutely devastated.”
The broadcaster said that after family matriarch Rosemary Baldacci died in February 2002, Jean McHale “adopted” Paul Baldacci.
State Sen. Joe Perry, a Bangor Democrat and a family friend, recalled how Paul Baldacci, following an example set by his father, would open up early Saturdays for his “coffee club crew,” a group of regulars who came in for coffee and chitchat.
U.S. Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, issued a statement expressing sorrow on behalf of herself and her husband, former Gov. John McKernan, a Bangor native.
U.S. Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, sounded similar sentiments.
Paul Baldacci was divorced and leaves two children, Paul Jr., 21, and Elise, 18, as well as seven brothers and sisters, Robert Baldacci Jr., Peter Baldacci, Gerard Baldacci, Rosemary Baldacci, Lisa Baldacci, Joseph Baldacci and Gov. John Baldacci.
Send questions/comments to the editors.
Success. Please wait for the page to reload. If the page does not reload within 5 seconds, please refresh the page.
Enter your email and password to access comments.
Hi, to comment on stories you must . This profile is in addition to your subscription and website login.
Already have a commenting profile? .
Invalid username/password.
Please check your email to confirm and complete your registration.
Only subscribers are eligible to post comments. Please subscribe or login first for digital access. Here’s why.
Use the form below to reset your password. When you've submitted your account email, we will send an email with a reset code.