Check out this throne Bill Evans secured for Rose Marie Starns to perch in while she was roasted and toasted as Mission Bay’s queen.

Seven years after battling lung cancer to a draw (at the cost of a lung) and two years retired from leading San Diego’s most influential hotel industry group, Rose Marie Starns was the star at a civic VIP-heavy celebration of her life. While sick again, she already has proven her doctors six-months wrong and is promising Christmas cookies to her son in Germany.

Starns started as a volunteer with the Mission Bay Associates in 1967 and became its executive director in 1970. She was named executive director of the Mission Bay Lessees in 1972 and in 1985 added the title of executive director of the San Diego County Hotel-Motel Association, a position she held until 2005 before turning reigns over to her daughter, Namara Mercer.

Before agreeing to the party, Starns secured rights to (mostly) pick the invitees. Among those present were Mayor Sanders, Kevin Faulconer, Anne Evans, John Lockwood, George Loveland, Bruce Herring, Marcia McLatchey, Mike Behan, Mike Gotch, Jim Barwick, Stacey LoMedico, Mikel Haas, Chuck Abdelnour, Bill Baber, Elena Salsitz, Dennis Gibson, Carol Wallace, Alison DaRosa, Tom Blair, TK Arnold, Carolyn Wormser, John Dadian, Bob Rauch, Ted Medina, Karima Zaki, Mike O’Neill, Ted Bromfield, Mohsen Khaleghi, Namara Mercer, Mark Mercer, Dick Murphy, Chuck Abdelnour, Ted Jardine, Patty Roscoe, Duke Sobek, Cathy Anderson, Ernie Anderson, Jim Durbin, Mike Aguirre, Suzanne McClain, Sal Giametta, David Peckinpaugh, Sheila Hardison, John Kern, Rick Mansur, Grace Evans Cherashore, Jeff Van Derlin, Reint Reinders and others. Many others. Maybe 200 in all. Lots stayed late, probably in part due to host Bill Evans’ decision to leave the Bahia bar open after he departed.

The evening’s highlight came when Starns was forced to sit in a well-padded throne and listen to some factual and fanciful reflections on her career.

Evans, the emcee, noted it was his father, the late William D. Evans, who originally hired Starns. “She worked herself into the highly paid — well, moderately paid, my father set the budget — position to lead the Mission Bay Lessees.” Evans credits Starns with single-handily stopping every TOT increase that did not directly support the industry. But when he said “I owe the success of Mission Bay to Rose Marie,” it earned an eye roll.

Joining the celebration by telephone was presidential candidate Rep. Duncan Hunter. “When we win this I want you to be the very first person to stay in the Lincoln Bedroom,” he said.

Councilman Kevin Faulconer started his political career as a member of the Mission Bay Park Committee where Starns remains a force. Fresh from dealing with the Mt. Soledad landslide and a drunken melee in Pacific Beach, Faulconer joked, “Sometimes I wish I was back on the committee.” “So do I,” quipped Starns, a remark that earned an eye role from her children at the front table.

Police Capt. Boyd Long recalled how fresh off a promotion he decided to relocate some officers from the Mission Bay Harbor Patrol beat. “Chief Burgreen says to me, ‘Have you talked to Rose Marie about that?’” He had not. A 15 minute courtesy call lasted three hours. “When I left those bars were not quite so shinny, I was missing a little piece of my derriere and the Harbor Patrol stayed exactly as it was,” he said.

When the decision was made to recruit Starns to serve as the Hotel-Motel Association’s executive director, the assignment fell to Jim Durbin and Ted Jardine. The two had a strategy. “Candy is sweeter but liquor is quicker,” said Jardine. “We took her to a bar to broach the subject,“ clarified Durbin. “Five, 10, 20 drinks later we asked.” Starns said yes. “Every day from that day on, after she recovered from her hangover, she says, ‘I hate you’ each time she sees us,” Durbin said.

Patty Roscoe, who met Starns in 1966, recalled being recruited by Starns to serve just one year as chair of the hotel industry’s Gold Key Awards. “I think I’ve been doing it for 18 years,” Roscoe said.

Duke Sobek, general manager of the Town and Country Hotel, was wary when Starns asked him so serve as HMA president, protesting he wasn’t “a political guy.” “She said, ‘Don’t worry, I’ll tell you everything to say. And if you don’t do it, I’ll get rid of you.’”

Former HMA President Rick Mansur opened his remarks by declaring to Starns, “You are a big fat liar.” Mansur said he was promised easy hours. “The next thing you know you are spending 90 hours a week and Rosie is tell your family, ‘No, he won’t be making that commitment.’”

But they all made that commitment to Rose Marie’s party.

— Tim McClain