 Pattycake was the " child star " of New York City in the early 1970s , and her fame was compared to Shirley Temple . At a time when New York City was facing many problems , she distracted the public from their growing <unk> and became a welcome relief for New Yorkers and their children who loved to visit her . After spending the first decade of her life at the Central Park Zoo , Pattycake moved permanently to the Bronx Zoo in 1982 . She was the mother of ten baby gorillas , including twins born in 1995 . Pattycake spent her later life as an independent but caring troop <unk> in the Bronx Zoo 's Congo Gorilla Forest exhibit . After suffering from <unk> and cardiac problems for some time , Pattycake succumbed to heart disease in 2013 . 
