We lost a good one when Cab Covay died on Sunday morning, February 16, 2025, of natural causes at his Innes Avenue home of 40 years. During his life he wore many hats, all with his special style: husband, father, artist, actor, director, musician, teacher, bridgetender, engineer, and pal. 

Born Paul Lee Brown at Oak Knoll Hospital in Oakland, CA to Gloria (Howard) and Isom Lee Brown on July 8, 1946. San Francisco was always home except for those first days in Oakland and brief stints in Kansas, Panama, and Maryland as a Navy brat. In keeping with a  true Excelsior neighborhood upbringing, he attended Cleveland Elementary, Luther Burbank Junior High, and Balboa High where he excelled in the arts. He went on to attend City College and graduated from SF State with a Bachelor of Arts in Theater. A first-generation college student, he was immensely proud that both of his children have earned Master’s Degrees and are absolutely fabulous human beings, too. 

After college he put his boundless creativity to work as a drama teacher at Mercy High School, computer animator, graphic designer, and exhibit builder at the Bay Area Discovery Museum. He got nearly famous for designing album covers and show flyers, including for the Flamin' Groovies at the Fillmore. But his true passion was for the stage. 

Asked to change his name because there was already a “Paul Brown” in the acting union, he combined the names of two of his favorite singers, Cab Calloway and Don Covay, and few people have called him Paul since. As Cab Covay, he acted in more than 60 stage productions up and down the West Coast. Best remembered for his roles in Bullshot Crummond, with Theater of Marvels, in the cabaret act Woodrow and Calhoun, and more recently with the Thrillpeddlers. In all these cast communities he built the foundations of friendships that endured throughout his life. His 20 plus big screen appearances include Magnum Force, The Right Stuff, and Tucker. 

This century Cab became a bridgetender at the Lefty O’Doul Bridge then returned to school in his fifties to become a Stationary Engineer. Working for DPW he permanently fixed the Market Street clocks, which won him an Employee of the Year award. Retired as an Operating Engineer for the California Academy of Sciences, where he marveled at getting to know the octopi. 

Throughout his life he painted, sketched, and photographed the world around him. He played piano, sang, and wrote poetry and lyrics. For years, six days a week, he mailed a handmade postcard to his closest friends and family. 

A proud pro-union advocate, Cab was a member of SAG-AFTRA since 1959, Actor’s Equity, and Stationary Engineers Local 9. He was a 35-year dedicated member of the Bay View Boat Club, where he and son Fletcher helped create the tile mural along the boat launch. As founding chair of the India Basin Neighborhood Association, he helped landmark the Shipwrights Cottage. He actively supported KCSM, SF SPCA, and the ACLU, and was a passionate daily reader of the San Francisco Chronicle. 

Collected books, vinyl, PEZ dispensers, and anything else that caught his fancy. Meditated daily. Enjoyed SF sports teams, Film Noir and pre-code movies, cooking dinner, reading, music of all kinds, water aerobics, museum shows, and live theater. He could always be counted on to spin a great tale about SF “back in the day.” Cab liked car trips, especially via backroads, and traveled nearly every Amtrak route across America (always ordering their chocolate cake). Often, he was happiest at home, near his art, books, and piano. 

Cab was loved and will be remembered forever by his wife Jill Fox and their son Fletcher Fox Brown; his daughter Jesse Alice Brown and her mother Karen Heisler (wife Krystin Rubin); siblings Victoria Harrison (husband Jim) and Patrick Brown; the extended Brown, Fox, Jevarian, Whooley, and Heisler families; neighbors; and myriad friends. 

There will be a Celebration of Cab in the spring. For information email CovayCelebration@gmail.com. Meanwhile, as Cab liked to say, drive cheerfully and stay hopeful.