DANVILLE - Bobby Short's East Coast friends and neighbors knew about his Midwest roots and shared the feelings of Danville residents who remember and revere him.

Although they met the legendary entertainer long after he graduated from Danville High School, New Yorkers immediately recognized the name of his hometown and remembered Short's affection for the people who lived here.

"(Bobby) always spoke highly of Danville. He treasured his high school education, and talked about the nice, hard-working people who lived there," said Dwight Owsley, concierge at The Carlyle and a friend of Short's for almost 30 years.

Fans of Short know his talent took him away from Danville for a time during his childhood. He helped his parents make ends meet by traveling the vaudeville circuit starting when he was 10 years old.

But he returned home and finished high school before he transformed himself into what his friends in both places call the epitome of style and class. During his career, Short achieved international fame for his sophistication, as well as his singing.

"I called him 'Reverend,'" Owsley said. "He preached about love. His pronouncement of the songs he sung, songs about love, sorrow, loss, was so personal. You felt he was singing to you.

"Young people as well as older people responded to his music. On prom night, you'd see the cafe filled with girls in their long dresses and boys in their tuxes. He made everyone feel the songs were brand new and just for them."

Chris Gillespie sings and plays piano at Bemelmans Bar at The Carlyle.

He said Short "remained in touch with where he came from. He was truly rooted in his history, and you could hear it in his music.

"He was so sweet to everyone, even children. I introduced my then 4-year-old son to him. Bobby shook his hand and interacted with him. He told him how nice it was to meet him. That was just the way he treated people," he said.

Short performed two shows a night, six days a week, eight months a year for 37 years at Cafe Carlyle, an intimate club that will always bear his mark.

Rumors that the cafe will be renamed in his honor swirled around the Upper East Side of New York on Wednesday, but representatives of The Carlyle would not comment on them.

A portion of New York City already bears his name. A street sign at the corner of East 76th Street and Madison Avenue, where The Carlyle hotel sits, reads "Bobby Short Way."

The singers placed his handprints and initials in the concrete below the sign.

It's an honor seldom bestowed by the city, but Short, according to his friend Robert Nahas, represented "super chic Madison Avenue. At the same time, he was very Danville, Illinois."

Nahas remembered seeing the photo of Danville's entertainment legends - Short, the Van Dyke brothers, Donald O'Connor and Gene Hackman. He also remembered his friend's anticipation of his upcoming visit to Danville shortly before he died in March.

"He was so excited about the tribute (at Danville High School)," Nahas said.

Area residents will recall how that show went on to honor Short despite his death.

In Short's neighborhood and among his friends, similar stories were told.

Kevin Kirby, the doorman at his Sutton Place apartment, said, "Mr. Short was a very classy man, but he was an everyday person, too. He'd talk to everyone who greeted him."

Kirby shared memories similar to those of some Danville residents about Short's generosity at Christmas.

"Every year, he'd get a huge poinsettia," Kirby said. "He'd tell me he was working and couldn't really enjoy it. He'd give it to me, and I'd have it in my apartment for the holidays."

Kirby also remarked on the attachment between Short and his dog, Chili.

"That dog was even on a couple of magazine covers with him," he said.

William Allen also knew Short and Chili. He met the two through a mutual friend.

"I first saw him at Cafe Carlyle when I was about 15," he said. "I later knew the man as well as his music.

"His dog loved asparagus. I remember going to a dinner party at Bobby's house. The dog would put his nose on your lap and then on the table and then on your plate. He'd pull the asparagus right off the plate and eat it."

Former neighbor Liz Temkin, who walked her dog with Short and Chili for years, said, "When you have a dog, you know everyone around Sutton Place. Bobby was always very approachable. He was a very funny man, too, with a great sense of humor.

"But he exemplified New York. His obituary made the front page of the New York Times. That seldom happens except with heads of state."

Friend and neighbor Dallas Boesendahl called Short "a living icon. When you have a street in Manhattan named after you while you're alive, that's remarkable."

Danville bestowed a similar honor on Bobby Short several years ago, when a street sign honoring him was placed at Gilbert and Fairchild streets.

Short's friends on the East Coast remain as attached to Danville's local boy who made good as his friends here. They also think highly of the city of Danville.

Owsley remembered Short telling him, "'I never knew segregation there.' It wasn't until he went on tour in vaudeville that he first encountered it. He'd perform places, but he wouldn't be allowed to stay in the same hotel where he'd just done a show.

"He was still a child then, but that memory stayed with him.

"He was a member of an old-fashioned, dignified generation. He had a mission to succeed. He always remembered where he was from - he saw everything in context. That's what made his music so good."