Rolling Obituary Thread: 2019

wow, rip

Baby Jane Dexter
https://www.broadwayworld.com/article/Cabaret-Legend-Baby-Jane-Dexter-Passes-Away-20190521

really sad to hear Binyavanga Wainaina has died at 47, a passionate writer, activist & style icon: https://johannesburgreviewofbooks.com/2019/05/22/binyavanga-wainaina-1971-2019-rip/

Jake Black of Alabama 3.

― suzy, Wednesday, May 22, 2019 4:14 AM (two days ago)

had to google to check if this was a latter-career bassist or w/e - he was the co-frontman, The Very Reverend D. Wayne Love.

rest in power in the blood

Murray Gell-Mann, who transformed physics with his preternatural ability to find hidden patterns among the tiny particles that make up the universe, earning a Nobel Prize, died on Friday. He was 89. https://t.co/hMuXbx1kou

— The New York Times (@nytimes) May 24, 2019

Loved him in the black lagoon

Bart Starr

http://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/26825531/legendary-packers-hof-qb-starr-dies-85

I grew up in the Packer loving part of Michigan and always heard legends that some disgruntled fan killed his dog and that there was a Packers bar in some warm place where midwesterners go in the winter named Bart Starr’s Dog. Apparently the former is untrue but not sure about the latter

the somewhat tragic Cubs/Red Sox figure Bill Buckner

https://www.mlb.com/news/bill-buckner-dies

tony horwitz, reporter and author of "confederates in the attic":

https://www.npr.org/2019/05/28/727546155/tony-horwitz-pulitzer-winning-journalist-and-historian-dies-at-60

that's one of my favorite books, rip

Holy shit I was planning to buy his new one, it sounded really interesting. My wife and I were both big fans, even attended a reading of his several years back, I think it was for his John Brown book, which was also really good.

oh damn RIP. Confederates was great

Genevieve Waite, Actress, Singer, and mother of Bijou Phillips. Interesting bio.

https://www.latimes.com/local/obituaries/la-me-genevieve-waite-singer-mode-actress-dead-20190524-story.html

I remember she had an album that simultaneously a) landed in Paul Gambaccini's Top 200 Albums book (because one person voted for it), and b) got a horrendously low rating in either the Rolling Stone guide or Christgau's '70s book. Romance on the Rise--don't believe I've ever seen a copy.

You can try it out here:

https://open.spotify.com/album/66sV58eUBYA4FMFdchc0D9?si=znteNeQWSZOO13n9zVnWiw

Back in the heyday of mp3 blogs someone posted Genevieve Waite’s Girls and I was rather taken with it. RiP

Jeff Walls of Guadalcanal Diary (via Murray Attaway on FB)

https://flagpole.com/blogs/homedrone/posts/rip-athens-musician-jeff-walls

Damn apparently Tricky’s daughter died. 24. Daughter of Tricky and Topley Bird. :-(

Leon Redbone

https://variety.com/2019/music/news/singer-leon-redbone-dies-at-69-1203229012/

A post on Redbone’s website confirming his death contained enough deadpan humor and whimsical fiction that it was almost certainly prepared in advance by the singer himself. “It is with heavy hearts we announce that early this morning, May 30th, 2019, Leon Redbone crossed the delta for that beautiful shore at the age of 127,” it read. “He departed our world with his guitar, his trusty companion Rover, and a simple tip of his hat. He’s interested to see what Blind Blake, Emmett, and Jelly Roll have been up to in his absence, and has plans for a rousing sing along number with Sári Barabás. An eternity of pouring through texts in the Library of Ashurbanipal will be a welcome repose, perhaps followed by a shot or two of whiskey with Lee Morse, and some long overdue discussions with his favorite Uncle, Suppiluliuma I of the Hittites. To his fans, friends, and loving family who have already been missing him so in this realm he says, ‘Oh behave yourselves. Thank you…. and good evening everybody.'”

Aww, RIP. I love On The Track.

RIP. I'll confess that, despite it being a terrible show, I really liked Redbone's theme to Mr. Belvedere (written by Gary Portnoy, who also did the Cheers song).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SIFQ98YUd1A

"Dropped kicked your jacket" is an oddly striking image.

Claus von Bülow, aged 92

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/may/31/claus-von-bulow-socialite-cleared-wife-murder-dies-aged-92

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FrxenZhf78I

Never saw Reversal of Fortune, but it's interesting trivia that von Bülow's mistress during the scandal was Alexandra Moltke, aka Alexandra Isles, the original narrator of and lead actress in the 1960s Dark Shadows TV series. She was born with a "von" in her name and dropped it; he was born without one and added it. She was portrayed in the film by Julie Hagerty.

Xpost loved that movie so much

Roky Erickson has left us.

https://www.austin360.com/entertainmentlife/20190531/reports-roky-erickson-texas-psychedelic-music-legend-has-died

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B97ZhagHSmw&list=RDB97ZhagHSmw&start_radio=1

RIP

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B97ZhagHSmw

ahhhh fuck

Jose Antonio Reyes, 35:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/48483157

Car accident. Awful news.

jesus christ

Terrible.

RIP to Roky

https://www.nola.com/news/2019/06/leah-chase-new-orleans-matriarch-of-creole-cuisine-dead-at-96-family.html?utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=nolanews_sf&utm_source=twitter

Leah Chase, the 96-year old matriarch of Dooky Chase restaurant in New Orleans . She fed Presidents this century, and civil rights leaders and more last century (especially during Jim Crow years when they couldn’t eat elsewhere)

RIP Ms. Chase -- great legacy there.

Portraitist Everett Raymond Kinstler, who started out in comic books, dead at 92. File under 'people I didn't know were still alive.'

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/everett-raymond-kinstler-portrait-artist-of-presidents-and-celebrities-dies-at-92/2019/06/01/b1544f7c-83d8-11e9-933d-7501070ee669_story.html?utm_term=.fef646b8cf1b

Yeah I had assumed he died decades ago.

NYC jazz drummer Lawrence Leathers, suicide at 37.

I'm not familiar with his work, but this quote ...

“I don’t play a whole lot of flashy stuff,” he reflects. “Listening, that’s one of my biggest assets.”

...surely sums up what a great player/person he was. RIP.

Ugh. RIP

That Christopher Plummer portrait is in the players’ club

Someone who knew Leathers is saying on FB that it wasn't suicide, and pointed to this story.

The NPR story has been updated - it was murder, and someone's been arrested.

Paul Darrow, best known as Avon in Blake's Seven but in lots of other things too...

https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-48501099

aw fuck, RIP Leathers

https://www.israelhayom.com/2019/06/03/last-survivor-of-sobibor-death-camp-dies-at-96/

Semyon Rosenfeld who is reportedly the last known survivor of Sobibor Uprising, although I've not seen Yehuda Lerner's obituary yet (impressive guy from Lanzmann Sobibor doc who was an escape specialist and killed a top SS commander with an axe).