BY GABE HERMAN | Patricia Winters-Liotta, the owner of Anonymous Hair Salon in Greenwich Village for more than 30 years, died Feb. 21. She was 60.
Winters-Liotta, known as Pat to those who knew her, founded Anonymous Hair Salon at 105 Sullivan St., between Prince and Spring Sts., in 1986.
Beyond a place for haircuts, the salon was also a community hangout, according to her son Vincent Alfano. Vincent has taken over ownership of the shop. He said a variety of different music was always playing there, whether it was jazz on Tuesday or funk on Wednesday.
Locals would come by just to hang out and sit on chairs set up outside.
“Because she knew everyone in the neighborhood, she’d always have people sitting outside the store,” recalled Peter DeLuca, who knew Pat for 25 years and got his hair cut at the salon. DeLuca is also the owner of the Greenwich Village Funeral Home, where visitation services were held for Winters-Liotta on March 2.
Pat would go to the homes of older people in the neighborhood to cut their hair when they could no longer make it to the salon, DeLuca said. And she would never charge extra for it.
“This wasn’t a rare occasion,” DeLuca said. “She did it all the time. And she didn’t do it because it was part of her business model. She did it because she built relationships with people in the neighborhood.”
He said a woman living across the street had a stroke and Pat would go to her home to cut her hair. “She cared about people,” he said.
“She would go out of her way just as a genuinely kind person to help the seniors out,” Deluca said. “You just don’t find that nowadays.”
Her son Vincent said she also cut old folks’ hair at nearby St. Anthony’s Church, at 151 Thompson St. She would spend Saturday mornings there and bring people food.
“She was never selfish, not with anything,” he said.
In 2001, Winters-Liotta also took over the Hair Box barbershop at 203 Spring St., which at the time was called Frank’s. The location was a barbershop for more than 100 years. But it closed in 2014 due to city construction that blocked the entrance for an extended period of time, according to Vincent.
Patricia Winters-Liotta was born May 4, 1958. She grew up in Queens, in Ozone Park and Howard Beach. Later on, she lived in Rockaway with her son until moving to Atlantic Beach in Hempstead around 2007, where she lived the rest of her life with her husband, Andrew Liotta.
Pat was diagnosed this past July with bladder cancer, Vincent said. She had not felt well for some time before that and doctors said she was likely sick for more than a year before the diagnosis.
During an operation around Thanksgiving, it was discovered that the cancer had spread. Vincent said he and his stepfather Andrew brought Pat home the day before Valentine’s Day this year, after they received word that she had little time left.
Vincent said she had been weak and ate little in previous months, but when Pat arrived home, she got a burst of energy. She was up and about, eating more, and yelling cooking instructions to her mother in the kitchen.
She made it to Vincent’s birthday on Feb. 18. She wanted to make it to her 15th anniversary with Andrew on Feb. 22, but she died the day before.
Vincent said his mother was always bringing people together, wanting to introduce people in the community to each other. He recalled coming home sometimes from work and seeing his friends doing yoga with her in the living room.
“If she liked you, every word would melt your heart and put a smile on your face,” Vincent said. “If she had a quarrel with you or didn’t like you, she could speak razor blades.”
“I cried when she passed away,” DeLuca said. “She was just a wonderful human being. Really a person you don’t forget after you meet them. Very at ease with herself, very kind and funny. I’m going to miss her.”
Patricia Winters-Liotta is survived by her son Vincent; husband Andrew; sister Linda Conatser; mother Frances Jean Winters; and niece Noelle Winters-Herzog.
Reflecting on his mother, Vincent said, “If you took an independent businesswoman from Queens, then you mixed that with a crazy Sicilian from Italy, and mixed it with a flower child from the ’60s, that was her.”
