‘Piano Pat,’ Montana Tiki bar entertainer for decades, dies

GREAT FALLS, Mont. (AP) — Patricia Sponheim, known as “Piano Pat,” who entertained crowds at a Tiki bar in downtown Great Falls, Montana, for more than 50 years, has died. Schnider Funeral Home says Sponheim died Tuesday. She was 86. Sponheim was an icon at the Sip ‘n Dip Lounge on the second floor of the O’Haire Motor Inn. She played piano and sang with guests as they drank tropical drinks and watched women dressed as mermaids swimming in a pool through a glass wall behind the bar. In 2003, GQ magazine called the Sip ‘n Dip the No. 1 bar on earth worth flying for.