Soldiering on in the best John Wayne tradition

Shoulders squared and head high, former actor Patrick Wayne displayed the grit for which his father was famous when he stood in for his older brother, Michael Wayne, at a benefit for the John Wayne Cancer Institute. Only days before, the 68-year-old institute board chairman had died of an infection that developed after emergency surgery.

For more than a decade, it had been a tradition for Michael Wayne to hand out a crystal award etched with an image of his father at the annual event sponsored by the institute auxiliary. But after he was hospitalized, the eldest son of the Duke -- who died of lung cancer in 1979 -- knew he wouldn’t be strong enough to attend. “Just a week ago, in his hospital room, Michael asked me to present the award,” Patrick Wayne said. “We couldn’t have known it would be his final request.”

The Special Service Award was given to the family of auxiliary co-founder Sandy Cohen, a breast cancer survivor who died last year of ovarian cancer. “I don’t want to be here. I don’t want to be anywhere,” a sorrowful Patrick Wayne said during the gala reception. “But I’m here for my brother and for the memory of Sandy Cohen, who meant a lot to me.” The auxiliary has raised more than $12 million to support institute research since it was founded in 1982.

Decked out in glittering masks that doubled as party favors, hundreds of institute supporters streamed through a trio of archways swagged with garnet, violet and gold fabric as they entered the ballroom of the Beverly Hilton Hotel for the April 5 Carnevale in Venice. With a painted scene of the romantic city’s Grand Canal providing the backdrop, guests dined on filet of beef and tartufo at tables topped with crushed velvet, roses and flickering tapers. Gala chairwomen Sherry Dargan, Norma Bilchik and Lorraine Morton deferred to Michael Wayne’s widow, Gretchen Wayne (who did not attend), about the decision of whether to cancel the gala. “She told us she wanted it to go on because that was what Michael would have wanted,” Morton said. “And so, we are all here.”