L.A. Clinic Honors 3 for Years of Service

Suzanne de Passe’s voice was hoarse, but she could be heard as she thanked the Friends of the Los Angeles Free Clinic for honoring her at a dinner Thursday at the Regent Beverly Wilshire.

The television producer said that the previous day, her voice had been a croaking whisper, but she had received instant help from her doctor.

“We Hollywood types are so accustomed to getting a good table at a restaurant, or in to see our doctor at once, or news of a sale in advance, that we tend to forget that things are different for the scared and the needy and the otherwise disenfranchised,” she told the audience in a talk about the Free Clinic’s work to provide comprehensive health care to the needy. Among its clients are homeless people, AIDS patients and teen-age runaways.

“I didn’t feel I had done enough to deserve this honor,” de Passe said, “but I promise I will be doing more in the future.”

The other award of the evening went to two people who couldn’t have done more. Robert Foxworth presented the Lenny Somburg Award to Mimi and Bernie West, who have been generous donors and active in the clinic for 22 of its 26 years--ever since it was seen as “the hippie clinic where all the flower children gathered,” Mimi West said.

She spoke of the commitment of the late Somburg, director of the clinic when he was shot to death in a robbery there 18 years ago. “We shared a passion that health care was a right, not a privilege. That doesn’t sound so outrageous now that we have a President and First Lady who agree with us, but it was outrageous back then,” she said.

Bernie West--whose writing and producing credits include “All in the Family,” “Three’s Company” and “The Jeffersons”--proved that he hadn’t lost touch with his roots as a stand-up comic, setting the crowd laughing with a depiction of himself as the low-key “part of the package deal” in which his wife was “the real dynamo.”

The official stand-up comedy of the evening was provided by Dennis Miller, who applied his brand of bitter sarcasm to everything from the decor of the room to the political climate. “It looks like a strand of Liberace’s DNA,” he said of the chain of white and pink balloons that circled the ballroom.

Freda Payne, in a slinky red dress, performed some parodies of her favorite singers--Eartha Kitt, Lena Horne and Ella Fitzgerald--and sang a tribute to de Passe, who worked for Motown for 20 years.

Among the guests were Motown founder Berry Gordy, the Improv’s Budd Friedman, Rep. Henry Waxman, Jackee Harry and Tim Reid, who is starring in “Sister, Sister,” an upcoming sitcom produced by de Passe Entertainment.

There were no flowers; the centerpieces were baskets filled with food and toiletries to be given to people in need over the holidays. Chaired by Friends Vice President Ellen Hoberman and emceed by President Barbara Corday, the event raised $450,000 for the clinic.