In SB, Family and Friends Say Farewell to Lou Cannon

An on-the-scene pool report about Saturday's memorial services for the legendary journalist and leading local citizen, from a veteran state Capitol hand.

(Editor’s note: H.D Palmer, a political professional who has worked during five decades in and around California and national government and campaigns, on Saturday attended services in Santa Barbara for Lou Cannon, a great journalist and a great man, who died on Dec. 19. Here is the “pool report” he prepared for Lou’s friends and fans in Washington, around the state, and across the country, who were there in spirit, if not in person. /jr).

By H.D. Palmer

Morning sunlight streamed through the windows of Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church in Montecito on Saturday morning as more than 50 friends and family of Lou Cannon gathered to attend his Funeral Mass.

At 10:30 a.m., the crimson coffin, covered in a white Pall and a bearing a crucifix, entered the church, where Fr. Lawrence Seyer presided.

Following prayers, readings of scripture from family members and Communion, Lou’s son Carl Cannon began his eulogy at 11:14, noting when he first learned of his father’s stroke, he had been roughly 60 miles away at the Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, meeting with the library’s chief administrative officer, Joanne Drake, to discuss a possible library event this spring for the upcoming publication of Lou’s memoirs for which he would bring Lou over from his home in Summerland.

He acknowledged accolades received and written by multiple colleagues including Sam Feist, James Fallows, Jay Nordlinger, Doyle McManus, and George Skelton. While noting the major newspaper obituaries that chronicled Lou’s professional career, Carl said he particularly appreciated those that were published locally, as they well captured the personal side of his father that the others, while well done, could not. [Pooler note: the best of these, from the Santa Barbara Independent, is posted below].

Carl recounted Lou’s willingness to enter the fray in the mid-2000’s crisis at the Santa Barbara News-Press, when firings and resignations roiled the paper under the ownership of Wendy McCaw. Following an L.A. Times op-ed by Lou defending the reporters and editors under siege, McCaw responded with a lengthy and vitriolic letter attacking Lou.

McCaw, Carl said, probably thought that would cause Lou to retreat. In that effort, Carl said -- with great understatement -- she failed, quoting from Lou’s precise and withering point-by-point response that the Indy published in full [linked below, which your pooler strongly recommends be read in full].

Carl further chronicled Lou’s refusal to back down in the face of injustice with two other stories.

First, he recounted how at the San Jose Mercury News, he confronted an editor known for drinking on the job and abusing staff. After one such outburst, Lou confronted the editor, asking “what’s wrong with you? Perhaps not knowing of Lou’s prowess as a boxer in his youth, the editor asked Lou is he “wanted to take this outside?” Lou, Carl said, took off his glasses, cocked his fists, and said “what’s wrong with right here?”

Following this encounter, Carl said, the editor’s harassment ceased.

The second story was in the bleachers at Candlestick Park, where a young Carl sat with his dad cheering his idol, Willie Mays.

A nearby drunk fan was trashing Mays for not being the caliber of a DiMaggio. The language got worse, and Lou asked the fan to stop the vulgar heckling as women and children were nearby. The drunk fan’s response to Lou included the N-word. With that, Lou dropped the fan with a solid punch to the chin that sent him down to the concrete. When SFPD arrived shortly thereafter and went for Lou at first, Carl said the section stood up and yelled “no, not him – HIM!” pointing to the drunk fan who was then hauled out.

“Never use that word,” Lou told Carl in the car afterwards – something Carl said underscored Lou’s view that all words had power, and that they had to be used honestly, properly, and fairly.

[Despite the above Giants reference, it should be noted that Lou was a longtime follower and a passionate fan of the Los Angeles Dodgers. So much so that Carl said he was laid to rest wearing a Dodgers tie.]

Responding to claims during his Washington years that Lou was actually a Republican and/or a closet conservative, Carl recounted how Lou sought out and had the respect of sources across the political spectrum. Though Carl did note that Lou’s critics would be shocked to know that his first date with his first wife was at a “left-wing pollical meeting”, and that her wedding present to him was a book: The History of the Communist Party in the USA.

As for bias, Carl did offer that his dad actually did work on two political campaigns. The first being when Carl said (not from memory but from others) that he was pushed in a stroller around San Francisco’s Potrero Hill when his parents were handing out literature for Phil Burton’s campaign for Congress. And the second was long after he was settled in Summerland, on behalf of family friend Laura Capps.

Carl underscored Lou’s never-ending commitment to the craft of journalism and writing – “he made it count until the end” – by noting that in going through his voluminous files, he came across one labeled “Robert Redford”. In it were several articles after Redford’s recent passing in late 2025.

As Redford portrayed Lou’s colleague and good friend Bob Woodward in All The President’s Men, Lou – at 92 - was already doing research on a column that in his mind he already had in the works. In a timely reference, Carl then cited Redford’s observation that the film was a “violent movie” – not for gore but because of its depiction of the assault on democratic institutions.

Carl closed his remarks with what he said were two of Lou’s touchstone phrases. The first is from Polonius in Hamlet in which he says “If we are true to ourselves, we can not be false to anyone.” The second, in Lou’s forthcoming memoir, refers to a plaque in Latin that he kept close to where did his writing: “Verbum manet” – the word endures. With Lou adding, “at least to this reporter.”

Lou was escorted from the church at 11:35. Burial followed at Calvary Cemetery.

At an afternoon reception at Carr Winery, other guests made brief remarks. Among them:

• Fellow journalist and author Jeff Greenfield referred to Lou as an “exemplar” and a “consummate workhorse”. Continuing on the day’s recurrent references to baseball, Jeff observed that as someone who he said was “never preening”, Lou was “like a non-noticed baseball player who all of a sudden people notice is an all-star hitting .350.”

• Laura Capps recounted Lou’s efforts in her above-noted-but-unsuccessful campaign, walking precincts for her in Carpinteria. “I’m officially biased in this race,” she said he happily told her.

• Barbara Spencer recounted the history of the relationship between Lou and her husband Stu, evolving over the decades from mutually respected colleagues as counselor and chronicler (with the more than occasional article on Reagan that upset Stu) into the “Stu and Lou” show – a friendship she said where they became “like two peas in a pod” and one that was dear and beautiful to observe.

Lou’s memoir is scheduled to be published later this spring by LSU Press. Carl put all guests on notice that there will definitely be a book party.

“In Memoriam: Lou Cannon 1933-2025”

“Lou Cannon Tears Up Wendy McCaw”

Image: Charlestown Gazette.