Obituaries : Henry ‘Pinky’ Donohoo; Card Club Owner

Lifelong county resident Henry “Pinky” Donohoo, the flamboyant owner of Ventura’s last privately owned card club for 54 years, has died after a long battle with throat cancer. He was 88.

Donohoo, a Spanish-speaking Irishman and former professional gambler, was an institution in the Avenue area of west Ventura, where he owned and operated Player’s Card Club. He was a flashy dresser who, before being diagnosed with cancer in 1992, claimed that his penchant for two or three martinis with dinner, a daily four-mile walk, big-game hunting and a young wife kept him healthy. But he was bedridden for the last years of his life.

“I just feel he’s going to a bigger poker game upstairs,” said Owen Cornett, Donohoo’s longtime friend and manager of the club. “He hadn’t enjoyed life in the last couple of years with this illness. He was very active and he couldn’t stand being inactive.”

Donohoo was born May 31, 1907.

In an interview with The Times in 1993, Cornett said Donohoo came from a farming family in the Imperial Valley. In the late 1930s, during a period of drought and economic depression, Donohoo’s father moved the family to Ventura and opened a downtown card room.

Donohoo lost a hand at age 13 when his rifle shot it off while he was hunting on the Ventura River bottom. The teenager coolly hitched a ride to the hospital for treatment, Cornett said.

As a young man, Donohoo developed a reputation as a skilled gambler with a distinctive one-handed dealing and shuffling technique.

“He was tough,” Cornett said. “He never wasted a penny in a card game. I played with him many years.”

Donohoo, who received his nickname because of his ruddy complexion, looked the part of a gambler as much as he lived it.

“He was just a very sharp dresser,” Cornett said. “He reminded me so much of Frank Sinatra. He loved suits and hats. He was bald almost his entire life.”

In 1943, Donohoo opened Player’s with a partner, whom he eventually bought out.

“Back in the old days, when there were several card clubs on the Avenue, he’d operate it from the [9 a.m.] open to [1 a.m.] close,” Cornett said, who met his friend and boss at age 5.

The other clubs faded away, but not Player’s.

So much a part of the city were Donohoo and his club that the City Council changed municipal law in 1993 to allow his wife to continue to operate the club for 10 years after he passed away.

Donohoo was an excellent shot who enjoyed big-game hunting in Montana and Canada.

In March 1986, when he was nearing 80, he married his wife Monica, who was more than 50 years his junior.

In addition to his wife, he is survived by a daughter, Linda Donohoo.

Memorial services will be held at 3 p.m. Saturday at Ivy Lawn Mausoleum Chapel, with the Rev. Jim Wells officiating. Burial will follow at Ivy Lawn Memorial Park.

Sadly, few old-time gamblers are likely to attend to pay tribute to Donohoo, Cornett said.

“Most of the people who were playing when Pinky was around aren’t there any more,” he said.

Arrangements are under the direction of Ted Mayr Funeral Home, Ventura.