Downtown loses a longtime icon

Rome lost a downtown icon this week when Karemy Domain Jacobs passed away at the age of 100.

Jacobs greeted diners with a “welcome darling” at The Partridge Café for decades.

She moved to Rome in 1959 when she married John Jacobs, owner of the Partridge.

Not long after moving to Rome, she began teaching Sunday School at First Presbyterian Church. She taught multiple generations of Romans at the church for more than 40 years.

She was primarily responsible for finances at the restaurant from the 1970s until her husband passed in in 1996. At that point she took over day-to day operations, with the assistance of longtime employee Gaynelle Pilgrim, until she sold the business to Andre Rodriguez in the spring of 2010.

Former Rome Downtown Development executive Ann Arnold said she used to love to just go in to the Partridge and sit down and talk with Jacobs.

“She was just so welcoming and such a kind woman,” Arnold said. “I just appreciated learning about the history and she had such a love for the restaurant and her family. “

It was not unusual for her to wave customers on past the check out counter, refusing to take payment because of her generosity and belief that many of her regulars were a part of her family.

“She was just huggable,” said Greene’s Jewelers Elaine Abercrombie. “We still miss her downtown.”

Abercrombie remembers the days long ago when her grandfather and other downtown businessmen all used to gather at a large round table back in the corner of the restaurant for breakfast every morning and solve the problems of the world.

The family continued to own the building until last year when it was sold to Rome businessman Harry Pierce. His plans for the building have still not been finalized.