TJ Lanning obit

Former U.S. Ski Team Member TJ Lanning Dies at 41

 

He was not on the list.

Ski Racing Media has confirmed with people close to Lanning that TJ Lanning, a former U.S. Ski Team alpine racer remembered for his fearless approach to speed skiing, his resilience through repeated injuries and his later work as a coach, has died. He was 41.

Thomas “TJ” Lanning was born Aug. 27, 1984, in Helena, Montana, and became one of the most promising American speed skiers of his generation. He specialized in downhill, super-G and combined, bringing an aggressive, all-in style that made him one of the more compelling U.S. racers of his era.

Lanning learned to ski at a young age and emerged quickly as a standout junior racer. He competed at the 2001 and 2002 FIS Junior World Ski Championships and later represented the United States at the 2007 FIS Alpine World Ski Championships in Åre, Sweden.

At the World Cup level, Lanning scored points nine times for the United States and recorded three top-10 finishes. His best results were a ninth-place finish in downhill at Lake Louise, Canada, on Nov. 29, 2008, and a 10th-place finish in Val Gardena, Italy, on Dec. 20, 2008. He also finished 10th in the super combined at Beaver Creek in 2007.

Lanning’s career was defined not only by talent but also by toughness. He raced with a willingness to push the limit, and that approach made him exciting to watch. It also came with a heavy physical cost. His career included repeated injuries, including crashes that interrupted several seasons and kept him from realizing the full potential many saw in him.

In 2008, Lanning became the U.S. downhill champion. During the 2008-09 World Cup season, he qualified for the World Cup Finals in downhill, a true achievement in one of the sport’s most demanding disciplines. He finished that season 25th in the downhill standings and 33rd in super-G.

His final World Cup race came Nov. 28, 2009, in the downhill at Lake Louise. Lanning crashed in the high-speed section near the timing flats and suffered a dislocated left knee and a fractured C5 vertebra in his neck. The injury ended his World Cup racing career.

After retiring from competition, Lanning remained deeply connected to ski racing. He moved into coaching and worked with the U.S. Ski Team, bringing his experience, honesty and understanding of speed skiing to the next generation of athletes.

Many of Lanning’s friends from his time with the U.S. Ski Team and others throughout the sport have shared with Ski Racing Media the profound sadness they feel over his death and the deep affection they had for him.

Those who knew him remember not only the racer who attacked the hill with courage, but also the coach, teammate and friend who cared deeply about the people around him.

Lanning’s life in ski racing was marked by promise, pain, persistence and impact. He brought the sport moments of genuine excitement and, later, gave back through coaching. His death at such a young age is a profound loss for the American ski racing community.

Our thoughts are with the family he leaves behind and with the many people across the ski racing community who will miss his smile, his energy and all he brought to the sport.

Louise Lasser obit

Louise Lasser, Star of ‘Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman,’ Dies at 87

She was Woody Allen's second wife and his leading lady in 'Take the Money and Run,' 'Bananas' and 'Everything You Wanted to Know About Sex.' 

She was not on the list.

Louise Lasser, the demure, soft-spoken comedienne best known as Woody Allen‘s first leading lady and as the title character on the television satire Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman, has died. She was 87.

Lasser died Monday of natural causes at her home in Manhattan on the Upper East Side, her best friend, Susan Charlotte, told The Hollywood Reporter.

With her reserved demeanor, calming voice and toothy smile, Lasser, who was married to Allen from 1966-70, proved to be a perfect balance to his neurotic, nebbish film persona.

She was with him at the start of his movie career for the 1966 quirky cult classic What’s Up Tiger Lily?, when Allen took an obscure Japanese spy thriller, tossed the soundtrack and recorded all new dialogue that nonsensically told of the quest for the world’s best egg-salad recipe. Lasser provided the voice for the heroine Suki Yaki.

Lasser next played her husband’s love interest in Take the Money and Run (1969) and Bananas (1971). Their final film together was Everything You Wanted to Know About Sex * But Were Afraid to Ask (1972) — Allen’s comic take on the best-selling 1960s how-to guide.

But what cemented Lasser’s stardom was her lead role on the groundbreaking 1976-77 series Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman. Produced and developed by Norman Lear and created by Jerry Adelman, Daniel Gregory Browne, Ann Marcus and Gail Parent, the show was a low-key yet cutting parody of soap operas that skewered American consumerism. The joke started with its title, to mock the notion that everything in daytime dramas is repeated twice.

Released in syndication, the comedy ran five nights a week — unheard of at that time. In general, the industry didn’t know what to make of the program. When Lasser was nominated for an Emmy in 1976, her category was “Special Classification of Outstanding Program and Individual Achievement.”

What everyone did know was that it was funny. With a droll, understated approach, Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman pushed the envelope, tackling such topics as adultery, homosexuality, venereal disease, exhibitionism, serial killing, religious cults and UFOs. In the midst of it all was Lasser as Mary. With girlish pigtails, a white Peter Pan collared blouse and a blue smock dress, she embodied a mockingly innocent version of an American housewife.

Consumed with such mundane matters as Swanson TV dinners and waxy yellow buildup on the floor of her home in Fernwood, Ohio, Mary conveyed the naivete of the 1970s suburban woman, victimized by the ideals of a commercialized culture. Lasser instilled the character with a noble dignity and a quiet sense of desperation that slowly continued to build during the series’ 325 episodes, highlighted by Mary’s meltdown at the end of season one on The David Susskind Show.

“I always thought it was a really good show because it touched so many aspects of everything,” Lasser said in a 2013 interview for Interview magazine. “It’s sort of up and down and in and out, and before you know it, there you are. And then it itched such rich subjects, do you know what I mean? People always say it’s way ahead of its time. I never thought it was ahead of its time. I always thought it was of its time.”

Decades later, she took on a recurring role as a suicidal artist on HBO’s Girls.

Louise Jane Lasser was born on April 11, 1939, in New York. Her father, S. Jay Lasser, was a renowned tax expert who wrote the book Everybody’s Income Tax Guide. Though Lasser studied political science at Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts, she couldn’t resist the lure of the stage, joining the school’s musical productions alongside the likes of Margo Howard and Stuart Damon.

After three years of college, Lasser took what she described as a “psychological leave” and returned to New York. At 21, she began studying acting with Sanford Meisner and performing in Greenwich Village coffeehouses and bars. Around that time, she was introduced to Allen.

“When we met, I was seeing a friend of his. It was one of those things, ‘Well, if you think you’re complicated, you should meet so-and-so.’ And it was Woody,” Lasser recalled in a 2013 interview on The Toast website. “We immediately, immediately, just were meant to be in the same playpen. We just connected. He was with somebody … oh, he was married [to Harlene Rosen], that’s right. And I was with his friend. And we went out like once or twice. And I don’t know who I am or where I am, I don’t know. So, I met him, and it was so clear the whole night the four of us were there, and neither of us are talking to anyone else.”

Lasser gained attention in 1962 when she was tapped to replace Barbra Streisand on Broadway in the musical comedy I Can Get It for You Wholesale (she was her understudy). The same year, she appeared on the TV show The Laughmakers, written by Allen. She popped up in a 1964 episode of The Doctors and made an uncredited appearance in 1965 in the Allen-scripted film What’s New Pussycat? When Allen’s career ignited in 1966, so did Lasser’s.

In 1976, she told Lois Armstrong of People magazine that she and Allen were still phone pals and that she considered him “the major relationship” and “a major, major influence” during her life. She also said the name on her driver’s license read Louise Jane Allen. Lasser never married again.

Before being cast as Hartman, Lasser keep busy through the 1970s with memorable TV stints on The Mary Tyler Moore Show, The Bob Newhart Show, Love Story, McCloud and Medical Center. She also was seen in 1973 in the feature Slither and in the telefilms Coffee, Tea or Me? and Isn’t It Shocking?

In spring 1976, Lasser was arrested after an incident in a Beverly Hills store that led to the discovery of cocaine in her purse. The actress told People it was a minuscule amount given to her by a fan months earlier. “I’m not a coke user, and I hadn’t used that stuff,” she said. “But you can’t plead innocent if you’ve got it on you.”

Shortly after the arrest, she hosted the final episode of the first season of Saturday Night Live. Her behavior was so erratic, reportedly fueled by a substance-abuse problem, she became the first performer banned by producer Lorne Michaels from ever hosting again.

But instead of letting her anxiety take her down, Lasser funneled it into her TV persona. The plotline for Mary Hartman to suffer a mental breakdown was her idea. And the process proved cathartic.

As Armstrong wrote in People. “As for Louise? ‘I felt wonderful,’ Lasser admitted. ‘I’d had a nervous breakdown in playtime, with no consequences.’ She laughs edgily, then adds, ‘For a while there, I wasn’t sure.’ One of Lasser’s friends elaborates, ‘She totally broke down after that scene, because she had to finish it for herself.’ ”

After Mary Hartman ended its run in 1977, Lasser kept busy with recurring roles on Taxi and It’s a Living. She wrote and starred in the 1978 telefilm Just Me and You. She popped up in an uncredited cameo in Allen’s 1980 film Stardust Memories.

Other feature appearances included Simon (1980), In God We Tru$t (1980), Crimewave (1985), Blood Rage (1987), Surrender (1989), Rude Awakening (1989), Sing (1989), Frankenhooker (1990), Modern Love (1990), The Night We Never Met (1993), Happiness (1998) and Mystery Men (1999).

More recently, she was seen in Requiem for a Dream (2000), Queenie in Love (2001), Wolves of Wall Street (2002), National Lampoon’s Gold Diggers (2003) and Driving Me Crazy (2012).

Lasser is survived by partner Michael Citriniti.

 

Actress

Daniel Zolghadri in Funny Pages (2022)

Funny Pages

6.2

Linda (Pharmacy Lady)

2022

 

Bliss (2021)

Bliss

Short

2021

 

A Simple Herstory (2021)

A Simple Herstory

7.1

Podcast Series

Man

2021

1 episode

 

Did You Know My Husband?

TV Movie

2018

 

Zosia Mamet, Lena Dunham, Jemima Kirke, and Allison Williams in Girls (2012)

Girls

7.4

TV Series

Beadie

2014–2015

3 episodes

 

Driving Me Crazy: Proof of Concept (2012)

Driving Me Crazy: Proof of Concept

6.1

Shelly Petterson

2012

 

Horses Eat Each Other

Short

Irma

2010

 

Number Nine

8.1

Short

Nurse Jane

2009

 

Ted Danson, Marg Helgenberger, Jorja Fox, and William Petersen in CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (2000)

CSI: Crime Scene Investigation

7.7

TV Series

Convention Attendee (uncredited)

2009

1 episode

 

Michael Citriniti, Louise Lasser, Ahmet Burak Biricik, Ron Dulin, Bandar Albuliwi, Sam Kalidi, David Cavallo, Nima Fakhrara, John Henry Soto, John Dornellas, and Lori Allen Ortiz in Broadway Bound (2008)

Broadway Bound

7.6

Short

Dorthy Palmer

2008

 

Will Friedle, Chris Owen, and Nikki Ziering in Gold Diggers (2003)

Gold Diggers

3.0

Doris Mundt

2003

 

Jeff Branson in Wolves of Wall Street (2002)

Wolves of Wall Street

3.0

Landlady

2002

 

Queenie in Love (2001)

Queenie in Love

6.6

Martha

2001

 

Club Land (2001)

Club Land

5.7

TV Movie

Frieda Barber

2001

 

Fast Food Fast Women (2000)

Fast Food Fast Women

6.4

Emily

2000

 

Jennifer Connelly in Requiem for a Dream (2000)

Requiem for a Dream

8.3

Ada

2000

 

Hank Azaria, Janeane Garofalo, William H. Macy, Paul Reubens, Ben Stiller, Kel Mitchell, and Wes Studi in Mystery Men (1999)

Mystery Men

6.1

Violet

1999

 

Philip Seymour Hoffman, Camryn Manheim, Jane Adams, and Dylan Baker in Happiness (1998)

Happiness

7.7

Mona Jordan

1998

 

Sudden Manhattan (1996)

Sudden Manhattan

6.2

Dominga

1996

 

Jeremy Piven and Frank John Hughes in Layin' Low (1996)

Layin' Low

5.0

Mrs. Muckler

1996

 

Matthew Broderick and Annabella Sciorra in The Night We Never Met (1993)

The Night We Never Met

6.0

Mrs. Winkler

1993

 

Dinah Manoff, Kristy McNichol, David Leisure, Richard Mulligan, and Park Overall in Empty Nest (1988)

Empty Nest

6.6

TV Series

Louise Polsky

1992

1 episode

 

Patty Mullen in Frankenhooker (1990)

Frankenhooker

6.2

Jeffrey's Mother

1990

 

Modern Love (1990)

Modern Love

5.2

Greg's Mom

1990

 

Rude Awakening (1989)

Rude Awakening

4.8

Ronnie Summers

1989

 

Peter Dobson in Sing (1989)

Sing

6.8

Rosie

1989

 

Surrender (1987)

Surrender

5.4

Joyce

1987

 

Blood Rage (1987)

Blood Rage

5.8

Maddy

1987

 

The Perils of P.K.

3.4

1986

 

Crimewave (1985)

Crimewave

5.5

Helene Trend

1985

 

Denzel Washington, Ed Begley Jr., David Morse, Howie Mandel, Cynthia Sikes Yorkin, Ellen Bry, William Daniels, and Ed Flanders in St. Elsewhere (1982)

St. Elsewhere

8.0

TV Series

Aunt Charise

1984

2 episodes

 

Bedrooms (1984)

Bedrooms

5.6

TV Movie

BettyLoretta

1984

 

Laverne & Shirley (1976)

Laverne & Shirley

7.0

TV Series

Sister Margaret

1983

1 episode

 

Danny DeVito, Marilu Henner, Jeff Conaway, Tony Danza, Andy Kaufman, and Judd Hirsch in Taxi (1978)

Taxi

7.7

TV Series

Phyllis Bornstein ConsuelosPhyllis Reiger

1980–1982

3 episodes

 

Gail Edwards, Ann Jillian, Paul Kreppel, Bert Remsen, Wendy Schaal, Susan Sullivan, and Barrie Youngfellow in It's a Living (1980)

It's a Living

7.0

TV Series

Maggie McBurney

1981–1982

14 episodes

 

For Ladies Only (1981)

For Ladies Only

5.9

TV Movie

Beth Doyle

1981

 

In God We Trust (or Gimme That Prime Time Religion) (1980)

In God We Trust (or Gimme That Prime Time Religion)

5.5

Mary

1980

 

Woody Allen and Charlotte Rampling in Stardust Memories (1980)

Stardust Memories

7.2

Sandy's Secretary (uncredited)

1980

 

Alan Arkin in Simon (1980)

Simon

6.3

Doris (voice, uncredited)

1980

 

Just Me and You (1978)

Just Me and You

6.7

TV Movie

Jane Alofsin

1978

 

Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman (1976)

Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman

7.9

TV Series

Mary Hartman

1976–1977

325 episodes

 

Medical Center (1969)

Medical Center

7.1

TV Series

Esther Kornblum

1975

1 episode

 

Moe and Joe

TV Movie

Mo Lambert

1974

 

Dennis Weaver in McCloud (1970)

McCloud

7.0

TV Series

Sgt. Maggie Philbin

1974

1 episode

 

Love Story (1973)

Love Story

6.1

TV Series

Elaine Kaplan

1973

1 episode

 

Isn't It Shocking? (1973)

Isn't It Shocking?

6.5

TV Movie

Blanche

1973

 

Michael Anderson Jr. and Karen Valentine in Coffee, Tea or Me? (1973)

Coffee, Tea or Me?

5.6

TV Movie

Susan Edmonds

1973

 

George Segal and Shirley Knight in The Lie (1973)

The Lie

6.2

TV Movie

Karen

1973

 

James Caan and Sally Kellerman in Slither (1973)

Slither

6.2

Mary Fenaka

1973

 

Edward Asner, Valerie Harper, and Mary Tyler Moore in The Mary Tyler Moore Show (1970)

The Mary Tyler Moore Show

8.3

TV Series

Anne Adams

1973

1 episode

 

Class of '55

6.3

TV Movie

Christine

1972

 

The Bob Newhart Show (1972)

The Bob Newhart Show

8.1

TV Series

Mrs. Radford

1972

1 episode

 

Woody Allen, Burt Reynolds, and Gene Wilder in Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex * But Were Afraid to Ask (1972)

Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex * But Were Afraid to Ask

6.7

Gina

1972

 

Woody Allen in Men of Crisis: The Harvey Wallinger Story (1972)

Men of Crisis: The Harvey Wallinger Story

6.4

TV Movie

Ex-Girlfriend

1972

 

Such Good Friends (1971)

Such Good Friends

6.0

Marcy

1971

 

Stuart Margolin and Julie Newmar in Love, American Style (1969)

Love, American Style

6.8

TV Series

(segment "Love and the Plumber")

1971

1 episode

 

Bananas (1971)

Bananas

6.9

Nancy

1971

 

Woody Allen in Take the Money and Run (1969)

Take the Money and Run

7.2

Kay Lewis

1969

 

Woody Allen and China Lee in What's Up, Tiger Lily? (1966)

What's Up, Tiger Lily?

5.8

Suki Yaki (voice)

1966

 

What's New Pussycat (1965)

What's New Pussycat

6.0

Masseuse (uncredited)

1965

 

James Pritchett in The Doctors (1963)

The Doctors

7.0

TV Series

Jackie Ricardo

1965

1 episode

 

The Laughmakers

4.0

TV Movie

Susan

1962

 

Writer

Just Me and You (1978)

Just Me and You

6.7

TV Movie

Writer

1978

 

Woody Allen and China Lee in What's Up, Tiger Lily? (1966)

What's Up, Tiger Lily?

5.8

with writings by

1966

 

Soundtrack

Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman (1976)

Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman

7.9

TV Series

performer: "One for My Baby (and One More for the Road)"

1976

1 episode

 

Self

The Carson Podcast (2014)

The Carson Podcast

5.0

Podcast Series

Self - Guest

2017

1 episode

 

Archive of American Television (1997)

Archive of American Television

6.6

TV Series

Self

2017

1 episode

 

American Masters (1985)

American Masters

8.2

TV Series

Self

2011–2016

2 episodes

 

Jeez, Louise! An Interview with Actress Louise Lasser

6.6

Video

Self

2015

 

The Annual National Board of Review Awards

TV Special

Self

1999

 

David Letterman in Late Night with David Letterman (1982)

Late Night with David Letterman

7.5

TV Series

Self

1983

1 episode

 

The Toni Tennille Show (1980)

The Toni Tennille Show

6.4

TV Series

Self

1981

1 episode

 

Hoda Kotb and Savannah Guthrie in Today (1952)

Today

4.6

TV Series

Self - Guest

1980

1 episode

 

Robin Roberts, George Stephanopoulos, and Michael Strahan in Good Morning America (1975)

Good Morning America

4.4

TV Series

Self - Guest

1979

1 episode

 

Saturday Night Live (1975)

Saturday Night Live

8.0

TV Series

Self - HostSelf - Inger

1976

1 episode

 

Mike Douglas in The Mike Douglas Show (1961)

The Mike Douglas Show

7.0

TV Series

Self - Actress

1971–1976

3 episodes

 

Dinah Shore in Dinah! (1974)

Dinah!

7.0

TV Series

Self - Guest

1976

1 episode

 

Showoffs (1975)

Showoffs

5.7

TV Series

Self

1975

1 episode

 

Johnny Carson in The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson (1962)

The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson

8.5

TV Series

Self - Guest

1963–1971

8 episodes

 

Talent Scouts (1962)

Talent Scouts

7.8

TV Series

Self

1963

1 episode

 

Archive Footage

Norman Lear: A Life on Television

6.1

TV Special

Self (archive footage)

2023

 

Adrienne (2021)

Adrienne

7.4

Self (archive footage, uncredited)

2021

 

Norman Lear and Keaton Nigel Cooke in Norman Lear: Just Another Version of You (2016)

Norman Lear: Just Another Version of You

7.3

Self (archive footage)

2016

 

Kevin Frazier and Nischelle Turner in Entertainment Tonight (1981)

Entertainment Tonight

3.6

TV Series

Self (archive footage)

2011

1 episode

 

Legends (2006)

Legends

6.4

TV Series

Mary (archive footage, uncredited)

2008

1 episode

 

Hollywood Couples (2000)

Hollywood Couples

6.7

TV Series

Self (archive footage)

2006

1 episode

 

The Best of Taxi (1994)

The Best of Taxi

TV Special

Self (archive footage)

1994

 

Celebrity Commercials (1987)

Celebrity Commercials

Video

Self (archive footage)

1987

 

Dick Clark and Ed McMahon in TV's Bloopers & Practical Jokes (1984)

TV's Bloopers & Practical Jokes

6.5

TV Series

Self (archive footage)

1984

1 episode

 

Television's Greatest Commercials

TV Special

Self (archive footage)

1982

George E. Johnson obit

George E. Johnson, founder of Johnson Products Company, has died at 99

He was a pioneer in Black hair care products, and from his South Side headquarters became a beacon of Black accomplishment.

 

He was not on the list.

George E. Johnson, who founded Johnson Products Company, and along with it a new universe of hair care products tailored to Black consumers, died Monday morning.

He died from natural causes at his Downtown Chicago condo, said his son John Edward Johnson. He was 99.

“I think his legacy as a businessman and philanthropist speaks for itself,” his son said.

Mr. Johnson founded the company in 1954 and turned it into a multimillion dollar business and a beacon of Black accomplishment. In 1971 it became the first Black-owned company to trade on the American Stock Exchange.

His company, headquartered at 8522 S. Lafayette Ave., manufactured product lines including Ultra Sheen, Classy Curl, Curly Perm and Black Tie men’s cologne.

He pioneered marketing techniques to reach Black audiences, which included sponsoring the television show “Soul Train.”

Mr. Johnson built a dream home not far from his office in the Chatham neighborhood. He later moved with his family to north suburban Glencoe.

He owned homes in Paris and Jamaica, as well as yachts and cattle ranches in Mississippi.

Mr. Johnson had humble beginnings.

In 1929, his mother, Priscilla Johnson Howard, moved from Mississippi to Chicago with three young sons when she was 18.

Mr. Johnson was 2 at the time and soon proved himself a worker, with gigs ranging from shining shoes and delivering papers to waiting tables and collecting milk bottles.

A high school dropout, Mr. Johnson was 17 when he went to work at Fuller Products, a Black-owned cosmetics firm where he was in sales before joining the company’s laboratory staff.

When Fuller Products turned down a pitch from Chicago barber Orville Nelson, who wanted to make a better hair straightener, Mr. Johnson saw opportunity and stepped in.

During his off hours, he worked with a colleague, chemist Herbert Martini, to develop a new product that wouldn’t burn scalps as it straightened hair.

Johnson attempted to take out a $250 business loan to get his operation off the ground but was rejected.

So he went to a different branch of the same bank and told the white loan officer a phony story: He needed the money to take his wife on a vacation to California.

“I knew this request wouldn’t rattle his belief that he was superior to me. Nor would it challenge his stereotypes of Black men as subservient or unintelligent,” Mr. Johnson said in his 2025 memoir “Afro Sheen: How I Revolutionized an Industry with the Golden Rule, from ‘Soul Train’ to Wall Street.”

“Thirty minutes later, I walked out with a check in my hand,” he said in the memoir.

The money helped in developing his new product, Ultra Wave, which set the trajectory for his company’s future.

The products had a major impact on Black Americans, who had to assimilate into white society to obtain better employment opportunities.

By the 1970s, Black Americans were embracing natural hairdos. Mr. Johnson sold products like Afro Sheen to help them style the natural texture. He hired Black advertising firms in Chicago to develop print and TV campaigns.

Ads created by Vincent Cullers and Tom Burrell were revolutionary at the time. They showed positive images of Black people interacting with loved ones or working in myriad professional careers.

By 1974 Johnson Products was racking up annual sales of more than $31 million.

“Anyone given the same opportunities can get ahead,” Mr. Johnson told the Chicago Sun-Times in 1979. “You just need the same mental attitude and motivation. My motivation was that I was absolutely poor, working two jobs at 15 hours a day. I wanted a better future than that.”

His philanthropic efforts included donating millions to help minority students go to college.

Mr. Johnson resigned as chairman and CEO in 1988 as part of a divorce settlement with his former wife, Joan, who took a controlling stake in the company as part of the deal. The two later remarried. Joan died in 2019, John Edward Johnson said.

He found love again late in life and married Madeline Murphy Rabb.

Mr. Johnson, a longtime resident of Water Tower Place, a high-rise condo building in the Gold Coast, recalled in his memoir how his company, with its headquarters just off the Dan Ryan Expressway, was a source of Black empowerment.

The front plaza featured an 11-foot sculpture by Black artist Richard Hunt. Several miniature red brick pyramids that evoked the accomplishments of ancient Egypt stood nearby.

The company gave tours to the public and regularly received visitors ranging from the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. to Muhammad Ali.

“On any given day you could walk the halls and come across a Black woman in a white chemist’s smock, a Southeast Asian manager, or a young salesman sporting a suit and an afro,” he said in his memoir.

In 1993, Miami-based Ivax Corp., a pharmaceutical firm, bought Johnson Products.

The company and its products changed hands several times before a multiracial group of investors bought Johnson Afrosheen Products Company in 2009 from Procter & Gamble, reestablishing it as a Black-owned company.

“But like many Black businesses, they eventually ran out of money,” Johnson said in his memoir.

The South Side site that housed Johnson Products is now home to a charter school — Perspectives Leadership Academy.

In addition to his wife Madeline and son John, Mr. Johnson is survived by his sons Eric George Johnson and George “Petey” Ellis Johnson Jr.; his daughter, Joan Marie Johnson; and several grandchildren.

Don Sisk obit

Well Done: Remembering Dr. Don Sisk

 

He was not on the list.

It is with both deep sadness and profound gratitude that I share our dear friend, Dr. Don Sisk, went Home to be with the Lord today.

It is impossible to put into words what Dr. Sisk has meant to me. For thirty-five years, he has been one of my dearest friends, most trusted mentors, and greatest examples of Christian faithfulness I have ever known. For the past twenty-three years, it has been my privilege to be his pastor. Today, he is rejoicing in the presence of the Savior he loved, served, and proclaimed for a lifetime. And after nine years apart, he has been reunited with his beloved Virginia, following their sixty-five years of marriage.

I first met Dr. Sisk in 1991 at a pastors’ meeting in Atlanta, Georgia. It was not an especially enjoyable conference. The atmosphere had become centered on issues and controversies rather than on Christ, and before long I found myself sitting alone on the back row, wondering why I had even come. A few minutes later, a white-haired man with a warm smile sat down beside me, introduced himself as Don Sisk, and handed me a copy of his little book, Joyful Giving.

Over the years, Dr. Sisk and I often laughed about that meeting. Neither of us particularly enjoyed the conference, but we both eventually realized God had brought us there for one simple reason—to introduce us to one another. What began with a conversation on the back row grew into one of the greatest friendships of my life.

As I reflect on Dr. Sisk’s life, four qualities immediately come to mind.

Passion for the Lost

Everything about Dr. Sisk was bent toward reaching the lost with the gospel. From sharing the gospel through personal soulwinning to preaching in missions conferences, his great passion was for those who were without Christ, and especially those who had never heard the gospel.

As a pastor in Kentucky and Illinois, missionary in Japan, director of Baptist International Missions, Inc., and head of the missions department at West Coast Baptist College, his life was poured out as an offering to the Lord for the sake of the gospel. God used him to plant churches in Japan, challenge churches across America, encourage missionaries around the world, and inspire countless Christians to give and go. For many years, our students at West Coast Baptist College had the privilege of learning missions from someone who had not merely studied it but had lived it. His burden for souls was contagious. Today there are graduates from West Coast Baptist College serving in over fifty countries around the world, all of whom were taught and influenced under Don Sisk.

Even after moving to a care home in Ohio, he would often tell me about the people he was witnessing to there. Several months ago, Terrie and I visited him, and as we walked in, I saw him handing a gospel tract to another resident.

Only eternity will reveal how many people have come to Christ through his witness or his passionate preaching, urging others to both send and carry the gospel to the lost.

Genuine Love for People

Dr. Sisk never viewed people as projects or statistics. He loved them. And they knew it.

One of my favorite photos of Dr. Sisk is from Spiritual Leadership Conference 2023 in Manila (center in the collage above). He had just preached to 10,000 people, challenging us to carry the gospel of Christ willingly. After the service, he was surrounded by pastors and Christian workers eager to greet him. The smile on his face says everything. He wasn’t simply greeting people; he was loving them.

Wherever he went, people gathered around him. They knew he cared about them. He listened, encouraged, prayed with them, and rejoiced in what God was doing in their lives. His love crossed every cultural barrier because it was rooted in the love of Christ.

People never felt as though they were interrupting Dr. Sisk. Whether he was speaking to a veteran missionary or a first-time conference attendee, he had a way of making each person feel seen, valued, and loved.

Investment in Younger Servants of God

Few men have been as generous with their time, wisdom, and encouragement as Dr. Sisk. I was one of many who benefited from his counsel. Throughout the years, I sought his advice on ministry decisions, missions, leadership, and life. He always listened carefully, pointed me to Scripture, and encouraged me to trust the Lord.

Thousands of pastors and missionaries around the world could tell similar stories. Whether it was a discouraged missionary serving on a distant field, a West Coast Baptist College student seeking direction for the future, or a pastor carrying the burdens of ministry, Dr. Sisk always made time to encourage, counsel, and strengthen others. His influence was never confined to the pulpit. It was multiplied through personal investment in people.

Though he faithfully served the Lord into his nineties, Dr. Sisk never lost the ability to connect with younger generations. Bible college students sought him out. Young pastors welcomed his counsel. Missionaries valued his friendship. His love for people kept him approachable, and the love of Christ in him made his influence timeless.

Fullness of the Holy Spirit

It is impossible to remember Dr. Sisk without remembering his joy. He was a genuinely happy man, and his joy was contagious. It wasn’t a put-on or a personality trait. It was the fruit of a life surrendered to the Holy Spirit.

Just a few days ago, I enjoyed sharing with Dr. Sisk on the phone from a book I am reading about the deeper experiences with God from the lives of great Christians in the past. Immediately he said, “I remember that experience in my life as if it were yesterday. I heard Dr. John R. Rice preach on the fullness of the Holy Spirit.” Though his memory was fading, he remembered that touch from God like it was yesterday. In this restless age, with all its new terminology and methodology, there is no greater need for a Christian than to be wholly yielded to the Spirit of God. I saw that yieldedness in Dr. Sisk to the very end.

Over the years, I watched him respond to criticism with kindness, to personal trials with joy, and to opportunities for recognition with humility. Those qualities do not develop overnight. They are the fruit of a lifetime spent walking with the Lord and yielding to His Spirit. Even in these later years of his life, there was no trace of cynicism or self-promotion—only a spirit that was joyful, gracious, and full of faith.

Well Done

Each year at our Spiritual Leadership Conference, we have the privilege of recognizing faithful servants of God, and through the years Dr. Sisk received several of those recognitions. I remember one year when our team was discussing who to honor, and my son Larry spoke up: “Dad, you want to give Dr. Sisk one every year.” Larry wasn’t wrong—and I’m glad we did.

But no certificate, plaque, or expression of gratitude we could offer compares to the rewards at the judgment seat of Christ. I can only imagine the crowns he will receive there to cast at Christ’s feet in grateful worship.

Today, Dr. Sisk is in the presence of the Savior he loved and served so faithfully. And I have no doubt that he heard the words of Matthew 25:21 as he entered Heaven: “Well done, thou good and faithful servant…enter thou into the joy of thy lord.”

Please join me in praying for the Sisk family in the days ahead—for his daughter and son-in-law, Renee and Tom Border, and for his son and daughter-in-law, Tim and Donna Sisk, and for his grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Please also pray for the thousands of West Coast Baptist College graduates and the missionaries of the BIMI family around the world who were shaped by his life and ministry.

I will update with details of Dr. Sisk’s memorial service as they are available.

 

FAMILY

• Wife — Virginia Sisk (Home with the Lord, July 8, 2017)

• Daughter — Renee and Tom Border (serving as BIMI missionaries with BIMI)

• Son — Tim Sisk

 

EDUCATION

• Bethel Baptist College and Murray State University

Honorary Degrees

• Trinity Baptist College, D.D.

• International Baptist College, Philippines, D.D.

• FaithWay Baptist College, D.D.

 

EARLY MINISTRY

• Called to preach at the age of 21

• Pastored churches while attending college and four years after graduation in Kentucky

• Served as associate pastor at Calvary Baptist Church in Harvey, Illinois, before going to Japan

 

MISSIONS

• Went to Japan with Baptist International Missions, Inc., in 1965

• Established two churches, one in Osaka and one in Kobe

• Helped establish the Kansai Independent Baptist Bible School and served as first president of the school

• Served as Far East Director for ten years

• Served as President and General Director of Baptist International Missions, Inc., for 19 years

CURRENT

• Serves as President/General Director Emeritus of Baptist International Missions, Inc.

• Preaches in mission conferences, Bible colleges, and seminaries

Don Sisk has traveled and preached in approximately 60 different countries. He has a desire to help local churches with their mission program and to be of service to missionaries.

Kevin Chown Obit

Kevin John Chown

December 24, 1969 ~ July 6, 2026 (age 56) 

He was not on the list.

Kevin John Chown, 56, of Escanaba passed away Monday, July 6, 2026 at his home. Visitation and Funeral services will be held on Saturday, July 18, 2026 in Escanaba. A complete obituary will be forthcoming. The Anderson Funeral Homes of Escanaba and Gladstone are assisting the Chown  family with the arrangements.

Kevin John Chown (December 24, 1969 – July 6, 2026) was an American bass player best known for his work with Finnish vocalist Tarja Turunen, funk/rock/fusion quartet Chad Smith's Bombastic Meatbats, and progressive metal bands Edwin Dare and Artension.

In addition to the Bombastic Meatbats, he was a member of Steelheart, instrumental groups Cosmosquad and Der Elefant as well as L.A. blues rockers Bleeding Harp, and has performed and recorded with artists such as Paul Gilbert, Sebastian Bach, Uncle Kracker, Chuck Berry, Ted Nugent, Tony MacAlpine, Jeff Kollman, and Tiles. Chown resided in the Los Angeles area where he worked as an in-demand session player, writer, producer and sometime television actor in addition to his band commitments.

Chown was one of the cast members of season 8 of Swedish reality show Allt för Sverige and became a regular on WDBC radio with host Craig Woerpel during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Chown was born and raised in rural Escanaba, Michigan, and grew up in a very musical environment. His father was a high school band teacher and his mother gave private piano lessons. He originally started out on drums but soon switched to bass guitar after hearing John Paul Jones and Led Zeppelin and began performing professionally at age 15 with a popular local band called Tyrant.

After a year at Bay College, Chown moved to Detroit to attend Wayne State University where he earned a bachelor's degree in jazz studies and was honored as "College Jazz Soloist of the Year" in 1993 at the Montreux Detroit Jazz Festival. At the same time, Chown also pursued his love of rock'n'roll and played with several bands around Detroit. While attending the NAMM Show in Anaheim, CA in 1991, Chown crossed paths with guitarist Jeff Kollman and soon joined his Toledo, OH-based progressive metal band, Edwin Dare. The group quickly garnered a strong following throughout parts of the Midwest and released 3 studio albums in the 1990s which were particularly well received in Japan. Chown would also release an all-instrumental solo album, Freudian Slip, in 1996.

While playing with Edwin Dare, Chown also developed a reputation as a producer and session musician working out of his own Detroit-based studio. Among others, he became heavily involved with local progressive rock band Tiles, producing and playing on three of their albums, Tiles (1994), Fence the Clear (1997) and Presents of Mind (1998). He also wrote and produced songs and jingles for the Detroit Red Wings, the Detroit Tigers, Little Caesars Pizza and The Weather Channel, among others. In 1997, Chown briefly worked with Detroit rock icon Ted Nugent after being introduced by local rock singer Steve Black, Nugent's radio co-host. He would perform live in-studio with Nugent on his radio program on a couple of occasions.

In the mid 1990s, Chown was featured in Guitar Player magazine's 'Spotlight' column which led to a working relationship with GP columnist Mike Varney, also the head of Shrapnel Records. Chown became the bass player for newly formed multi-national progressive metal group Artension, recording 2 studio albums, Into the Eye of the Storm (1996) and Phoenix Rising (1997) for Shrapnel. He left the group in 1998 but would participate in the recording of two more albums, Sacred Pathways (2002) and New Discovery (2003). He also recorded albums with guitar virtuosos Tony MacAlpine (Violent Machine, 1996), Jeff Kollman (Into The Unknown, 1996), and George Bellas (Turn of the Millenium, 1997), and contributed bass to two releases by progressive metal band Magnitude 9.

Chown moved to Los Angeles in 1997 and quickly became a much in-demand session player, re-teaming with his old Edwin Dare cohort Jeff Kollman on various projects, producing acclaimed drummer Mike Terrana's 1999 solo album, Shadow of the Past, guesting on vocalist John West's Earth Maker (2002), and playing on a long list of soundtracks for TV and film. In addition, he picked up work as an actor, always playing a musician, and had various recurring on-screen acting performances, including on the television series "How I Met Your Mother". Chown also landed the coveted bass gig with platinum selling artist Uncle Kracker and toured the country in support of No Stranger to Shame, culminating in a double header home town gig in Escanaba in late 2003.

In 2005, Chown became the bassist and co-musical director for Ivan Kane's Royal Jelly, a burlesque show with a residency at Hollywood's Forty Deuce club; the troupe made a national TV appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live! in October 2006 performing the Aerosmith classic "Walk This Way". Chown and fellow Royal Jelly musicians, Jeff Kollman and Charlie Waymire, also recorded an album of original music under the name JKB. Bleeding the Soul was issued in 2004 and accompanied by a promotional video for the song "By Myself", shot at club Forty Deuce.

In the summer of 2008, Chown joined rock and roll icon Chuck Berry for his appearance at the Long Beach Blues Festival. Chown was also brought into the Chad Smith's Bombastic Meatbats fold, a 1970s fusion/funk oriented quartet led by Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith, and featuring keyboardist Ed Roth and Chown's long-time musical companion, Jeff Kollman, on guitar.[citation needed] The band made their live debut at the 2008 NAMM Show, followed by a short tour of Japan, and released their debut album, Meet the Meatbats, the following year. The group toured Japan twice more, with Matt Sorum and Kenny Aronoff filling in for Smith, and have since issued two more albums, More Meat (2010) and Live Meat And Potatoes (2012). The group appeared at the Guitar Center Drum-Off at L.A.'s Club Nokia in early January 2014 where they were joined by guitar legend Steve Lukather.

In 2011, Chown got the call to join former Nightwish vocalist Tarja Turunen on her world tour in support of her album What Lies Beneath, which included shows all across Europe and South America. The latter was documented via the Act I: Live in Rosario DVD (2012); Chown also appears on Tarja's three most recent studio recordings, Colours in the Dark (2013), which debuted Top 10 in half a dozen European countries, The Brightest Void (2016), and The Shadow Self (2016). The latter two also feature Chown's Bombastic Meatbats bandmate, Chad Smith, on select songs. Chown appears in the "No Bitter End" promotional video and took part in the band's extensive Far East and European tours, highlighted by an appearance at Germany's prestigious Wacken Open Air festival on August 5 in front of some 80,000 fans.

In March 2015, former Skid Row vocalist Sebastian Bach announced the addition of Chown to his touring band. He made his live debut with Bach during a 10-date tour around the Southwest; a full-fledged US tour followed in the summer of 2015. He was also approached by guitarist Paul Gilbert and invited to help record his latest Kevin Shirley produced album, I Can Destroy, released in late 2015 in Japan and worldwide in 2016.

In late 2016, Chown, along with fellow Tarja band members Alex Scholpp and Timm Schreiner, released a three-song EP under the name Der Elefant, accompanied by a video for the song "Elefante".

In December 2016, Chown was announced as the new bassist and official band member of progressive metal/fusion trio, Cosmosquad, featuring guitarist Jeff Kollman and drummer Shane Gaalaas. Chown is featured on the group's latest studio album, The Morbid Tango, released in early 2017. Chown and Kollman were also part of the Bleeding Harp line-up that recorded the 2018 release, Truth, which features a guest vocal appearance by Doug Pinnick of King's X fame on a cover of The Allman Brothers Band classic "Whipping Post".

In November 2018, Chown announced the digital-only re-release of his 2 solo efforts, Freudian Slip (1996) and Light the Way (2013), titled Kevin Chown. In addition, the re-mastered 2-for-1 package also includes 3 previously unreleased bonus tracks, "Detroit Shuffle", featuring guitarist Jeff Kollman, "Paris", and "Move the People". Chown is also featured on Tarja's 2018 multi-format release Act II, available on DVD, Blu-ray, CD and vinyl.

On September 1, 2019, Chown announced that he would be leaving Tarja after a 9-year stint with the band and join former Skid Row frontman Sebastian Bach for a fall U.S. tour and that he had begun working with singer/songwriter Trevor Ohlsen in his hometown of Escanaba, MI.

 

Select discography

Kevin Chown

 

Kevin Chown (2018)

Light the Way EP (2013)

Freudian Slip (Legato, 1996)

w/ Bleeding Harp

 

Truth (Red Rover, 2018)

w/ Cosmosquad

 

The Morbid Tango (Marmaduke, 2017)

w/ Der Elefant

 

Der Elefant EP (self-released, 2016)

w/ Paul Gilbert

 

PG-30 Live at Zepp Tokyo 2016 CD/DVD (Wowow Ent., 2017)

I Can Destroy (WHD Ent./earMusic, 2015)

w/ Tarja

 

In the Raw (earMusic/Edel, 2019)

Act II CD/DVD (earMusic/Edel, 2018)

The Shadow Self (earMusic/Edel, 2016)

The Brightest Void EP (earMusic/Edel, 2016)

Colours in the Dark (earMusic/Edel, 2013)

Act I: Live in Rosario DVD (earMusic/Edel, 2012)

w/ Chad Smith's Bombastic Meatbats

 

Live Meat and Potatoes (Marmaduke/Bickee, 2012)

More Meat (Warrior, 2010)

Meet the Meatbats (Warrior, 2009)

w/ JKB

 

Bleeding the Soul (Marmaduke, 2004)

w/ John West

 

Earth Maker (Frontiers, 2002)

w/ Mike Terrana

 

Man of the World (Lion Music, 2005)

Shadows of the Past (Hotwire, 1999)

w/ Magnitude 9

 

Reality in Focus (InsideOut, 1998)

Chaos to Control (InsideOut, 1998)

w/ The Original Moon

 

Graffiti (GRP, 1998)

w/ Tony MacAlpine

 

Live in L.A. VHS (Metropolis, 1997)

Violent Machine (Metropolis, 1996)

w/ Artension

 

New Discovery (Marquee, 2003)

Sacred Pathways (Marquee, 2002)

Phoenix Rising (Shrapnel, 1997)

Eye of the Storm (Shrapnel, 1996)

w/ Jeff Kollman

 

Into the Unknown (Legato/Bandai, 1996)

w/ Tiles

 

Tiles (Dream Circle, 1994)

w/ Edwin Dare

 

My Time to Die (Marmaduke/Teichiku, 1997)

Cantbreakme (Marmaduke/Teichiku, 1995)

The Unthinkable Deed (Marmaduke/Teichiku, 1993)

Other appearances

 

Thomas Lang - ProgPop (Muso Entertainment, 2019)

Tiles - Pretending 2 Run (Laser's Edge, 2016)

Jeff Kollman - Silence in the Corridor (Marmaduke, 2013)

Jeff Kollman Band - Empower . . . Devour !!! (Marmaduke, 2010)

Cosmosquad - Acid Test (Marmaduke/Big M.F., 2007)

Jeff Kollman - Live at the Baked Potato (Marmaduke, 2007)

$ign of 4 - Dancing with St. Peter (Track Record, 2002)

Jeff Kollman - Shedding Skin (Marmaduke/Big M.F., 1999)

Tiles - Presents of Mind (InsideOut, 1998)

Tiles - Fence the Clear (InsideOut, 1997)

George Bellas - Turn of the Millennium (Shrapnel, 1997)

Johnny Ginger obit

Galen Grindle, better known as Johnny Ginger from WXYZ children's show, dies at the age of 92

 He was not on the list.

(

WXYZ) — Galen Grindle, better known as Johnny Ginger, the star of the Johnny Ginger Show on WXYZ in the 1960s, has died at the age of 92. He died in Genoa, Ohio.

That's according to an obituary posted on a funeral website in Ohio. Born June 16, 1934, the obituary says he passed away on Sunday, July 5.

According to the obituary, Grindle began performing on Toledo at the wage of 17 as part of a comedy duo with Jimmy Nickles.

"The Johnny Ginger Show" launched on WXYZ-TV, and a 1991 report on Channel 7 called Ginger one of the kings of children's TV in Detroit, alongside Soupy Sales and Marv Welch.

"He would get guest roles on The Real McCoys and The Rifleman, also playing Billy the Kid in the Three Stooges motion picture titled The Outlaws is Coming. He also appeared in Meet Monica Velour (2010) and Alleged (2010)," the obituary reads.

His parents, Ray and Edna, were a Vaudeville family act performing at the Paramount Theater in Toledo. His brother, Kenny, was a tap dancer in the family act. One day they brought little Johnny up onstage to sing "Sonny Boy" and he was an instant hit. As a teen he performed stand-up comedy in clubs all over Toledo, Detroit, and Canada.

He worked as a comedian under the name Jerry Gale when he auditioned to present a program for WXYZ-TV based around re-runs of The Three Stooges. Given the role, WXYZ vice president John Pival insisted that he work under the name Johnny Ginger, the name taken from a bottle of Johnny Bull Ginger Beer. Ginger's afternoon show, Curtain Time Theater (which was always pronounced "Thee-A-ter"), entertained kids from 1957 to 1960 on WXYZ-TV Channel 7. The live portions of the show were broadcast all around the television station, with Ginger in his janitor costume of bib-overalls and driving cap. By the early 1960s Johnny adapted a new character inspired by the Jerry Lewis film The Bellboy, that of the head bellboy at the Rocky Plaza Hotel, run by Rocky Granet (the voice of Rube Weiss), and the show became The Johnny Ginger Show. He introduced a new generation of kids to The Three Stooges and even played the part of Billy The Kid in the Stooges last film, The Outlaws Is Coming. As a gesture of gratitude, the Stooges used many of the children's hosts who had run their shorts in the cast. He, Ricky the Clown, Jingles, Poop-Deck Paul, Milky the Clown, Rube Weiss, Captain Jolly, Sagebush Shorty and Soupy Sales helped pioneer Detroit television for children in the fifties and sixties. The Johnny Ginger Show was cancelled in 1968. Ginger went on to host Captain Detroit for WKBD-TV. He left Detroit for Hollywood and appeared on an episode of The Rifleman.

 

Actor

Alleged (2010)

Alleged

4.3

'Doc' Robinson

2010

 

Kim Cattrall in Meet Monica Velour (2010)

Meet Monica Velour

5.8

Bennie Fazio (uncredited)

2010

 

Tom Ryan in Captain Detroit (1966)

Captain Detroit

TV Series

Captain Detroit (1966-1967)

1966–1971

 

Moe Howard, Larry Fine, Joe Bolton, Bill Camfield, Joe DeRita, Hal Fryar, Johnny Ginger, Nancy Kovack, Wayne Mack, Ed T. McDonnell, Bruce Sedley, Paul Shannon, and Sally Starr in The Outlaws Is Coming (1964)

The Outlaws Is Coming

6.0

Billy the Kid

1964

 

The only authorized DVD edition of all episodes in  Season One.

The Rifleman

8.3

TV Series

Ted

1962

1 episode

 

Johnny Ginger in The Johnny Ginger Show (1960)

The Johnny Ginger Show

TV Series

Head Bellboy

1960–1966

 

Johnny Ginger in Curtain Time Theater (1957)

Curtain Time Theater

TV Series

(Host)

1957–1960

 

Writer

Tom Ryan in Captain Detroit (1966)

Captain Detroit

TV Series

writer (1966-1967)

1966–1971

 

Johnny Ginger in The Johnny Ginger Show (1960)

The Johnny Ginger Show

TV Series

writer

1960–1966

 

Self

Be Funny

8.5

Self

2008

 

Archive Footage

Paul Howard in Hey Moe, Hey Dad! (2015)

Hey Moe, Hey Dad!

8.5

TV Mini Series

Self - Various Characters (archive footage, uncredited)

2015

1 episode

 

Biography (1987)

Biography

7.7

TV Series

Various (archive footage, uncredited)

1994

1 episode

John Dymond obit

Beaky of 60s Pop Group Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky Mick and Tich Has Died

 

He was not on the list.

One of only two remaining members of the 60s UK chart-topping group, ‘Beaky’ of Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky Mick and Tich has died…

OBITUARY By Ian Woolley

Formed in Salisbury, the quintet found fame with a zany sense of dress and catchy songs which had them in the charts more weeks than the Beatles during their 60s decade of hits. ‘Legend Of Xanadu’ even made the top of the charts in 1968.

They would practice in Tich’s front room in Salisbury, and in 1961, they started out as Dave Dee and the Bostons.

As the original members gradually retired, Rhythm guitarist Beaky and his band were still performing along with Tich until he passed away shortly after leaving the band.

John Dymond was born in 1944 and his career was well documented in our 2020 issue of THE BEAT.

Apart from a short spell living in Spain, Beaky returned to his hometown in Salisbury, Wiltshire where he lived up until his death.

In the interview, Beaky told of how the band members got their individual names. Beaky added, “I joined the band as a guitarist and became Beaky.  This was given to me by Stan, who called me the ‘Beak’ (due to the size of my nose)”!

Beaky told us, “One day on the way to a gig, Trevor Davies, bought a bar of chocolate and opened the window, he inadvertently threw out the bar instead of the wrapper. It was a dozy thing to do, and the name stuck.”

Fellow musician Michael Smitham said on social media, “It seems like a lot of my old friends have been ‘dropping off the earth’ in recent times, and just this morning John ‘BEAKEY’ Dymond decided it was his turn. Dymond by name and ‘Diamond’ by nature, ‘Beake’ was a lovely man. Always a joke saved for the dressing room. A million anecdotes about his life as a pop star, and his time as a Bar Owner in Spain. An excellent onstage performer with a very relaxed style who could command the audience right to the back row of the theatre!”

“He will be very sadly missed by his band mates, his contemporaries in bands who worked with him over many years, and of course his family and friends.

Sail on Beake. We’ll see you ‘on the green’!,”  he went on to say.

Of the original five members, only drummer Michael Wilson (Mick) remains.

He was 81 years of age and was just shy of his 82nd birthday which would have been on 10th July. No cause of death has been given at this time.

Ed King obit

Civil rights veteran the Rev. Ed King who helped found the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party has died

 

He was not on the list.

The Rev. Ed King, a white minister who challenged Mississippi’s dangerously segregated society in the 1960s and was one of the last living founders of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party, died in Jackson on the same day the nation celebrated its 250th birthday of freedom. He was 89.

“He truly heard Jesus’ commands for us: loving your neighbor, meting out justice, taking care of the least of these and loving your enemy,” recalled former Assistant Secretary of State Constance Slaughter-Harvey.

At the time she met King in 1964, she was a sophomore at Tougaloo College, a private historically Black college in Jackson, where he served as chaplain and a sponsor for civil rights meetings. He supported her and the movement over and over, she said.

“He was an inspiration, always encouraging, always welcoming,” said Joan Trumpauer Mulholland, the first white student to attend Tougaloo. “Everybody was always going by his house.”

King seemed like the least likely person to get involved in the movement. His great-grandfather fought with Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee and generations of his remained committed to segregation

But as he neared adolescence, he began to realize things needed to change.

“By the time I was 10 or 12 in Vicksburg, I had realized that America had not figured out yet how to deal with our history of slavery and continuing racism,” he said in a 2018 interview with a University of Mississippi Medical Center publication.

He had previously attended Millsaps College. There, he began to take part in meetings at Tougaloo College and met Mississippi NAACP leader Medgar Evers, who encouraged him.

After studying in Boston, King, encouraged by Evers, returned to Mississippi and began working at Tougaloo, which served as a safe haven for activists. He helped organize sit-in protests and was repeatedly jailed for his activism.

Freedom Vote poster in 1963 promotes Aaron Henry for Mississippi governor and the Rev. Ed King for lieutenant governor.

In 1963, he was a candidate in the Freedom Vote, a mock election that showed Black Mississippians wanted to take part in the democratic process even as they still faced poll taxes and violence that prevented most of them from becoming registered voters. More than 83,000 Black Mississippians cast ballots in that mock election.

Aaron Henry, a Black pharmacist from Clarksdale, was the candidate for governor; King was the candidate for lieutenant governor.

The interracial ticket drew national attention.

“Ed King really provided a lot of the political know-how taught by the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party,” said Leslie Burl McLemore, who served on the party’s first executive committee with King.

In 1964, Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party activists including King, Henry and Fannie Lou Hamer challenged Mississippi’s all-white delegation to the Democratic National Convention. Although they lost, their fight helped remake the Democratic Party.

Mississippi’s segregationist leaders liked to claim that the Civil Rights Movement was led by “outside agitators,” but the involvement of Mississippi natives such as King, Hamer and Hollis Watkins demonstrated that claim was a lie, said McLemore, a retired Jackson State University political scientist who served on the Jackson City Council from 1999 to 2009.

Getting involved in the movement in those days meant “you were putting your life on the line every day,” he said. “You and your family could be harassed. You could lose your job. Lots of people lost jobs because of their involvement in the movement.”

In hopes of waking up Christians in the early 1960s, King challenged racial segregation in churches. He and Evers drove Tougaloo students to all-white churches. In most cases, the churches turned them away.

“Confronting segregation on Sunday morning was one of the more radical things that Ed King was involved in that people don’t know about,” said Millsaps history professor Stephanie Rolph, author of “Resisting Equality: The Citizens' Council, 1954-1989.”

On the same night that President John F. Kennedy spoke about the grandsons of slaves still not being free, King’s friend, Evers, was killed by an assassin’s bullet.

Six days later, King and Tougaloo professor John Salter were injured in a car crash that shattered King’s jaw and tore up the right side of his face. He required numerous surgeries over the next dozen years.

King suffered severe injuries again in a second collision in Canton. Activists believed both crashes were attempts to kill movement leaders.

The Rev. Ed King, a former chaplain at Tougaloo College, sits in Woodworth Chapel on the campus in Jackson, Miss., on Saturday, June 25, 2016. King, who participated in the March Against Fear in 1966, was a chaplain at the historically Black private college that was a safe haven for civil rights activists. He was also active in the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party, which challenged the state’s 1960s white establishment. King says people still need to continue challenging injustice. "You have to be able to say, 'As an American, I have a right to ask these questions, to say that things aren't perfect,'" King says. "We're moving into a mood of despair now, and with despair you look for scapegoats to blame."

Later on, King took a step back from that leadership, Rolph said. “He understood when it was right to let someone else lead.”

Instead, he served as an advocate and ally to the rising leaders in the movement, she said.

Throughout his life, King “sacrificed himself for the good of the cause,” Slaughter-Harvey said, “and that cause was justice and service and love.”

King was one of many plaintiffs in a lawsuit filed in 1977 charging the Mississippi Sovereignty Commission with illegal surveillance of citizens. The state-funded agency operated from 1956 to 1977, spying on civil rights activists and feeding information to law enforcement officers. In 1994, a federal judge established a procedure to release the commission files. An appeals court upheld that decision two years later, and King appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, arguing that every person named in the files should have access to the documents before any public release. The high court declined to hear King’s appeal, and the files were later opened to the public.

King later worked for the University of Medical Center and co-wrote the 2014 book “Ed King’s Mississippi: Behind the Scenes of Freedom Summer” for University Press of Mississippi, which featured dozens of his never-before-published photos from the movement in Mississippi.

The book included an excerpt from a speech King gave at the University of Virginia in 2002, where he said an important part of the Civil Rights Movement was “to get the oppressed people to change their identity of themselves. They had to stand up and claim their freedom and claim their dignity.”

King said this was done by reminding people that they are children of God.

“We also had to … let America, let the rest of the nation, know that Black people weren’t just waiting to be saved by Washington, that they were standing up and demanding,” he said in the speech. “Now, that shocked America.”

Reena Evers-Everette, executive director of the Medgar & Myrlie Evers Institute, said King remained faithful to his friends and the movement. “He was such a loyal confidant and strategist with my father as well as a family friend. He continued fighting for civil rights for all of his life.”

This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.