ANTONIA BRICO
(internationally known symphonic conductor, led 1978 NWMF all-female orchestra)
Died August 1989 in Denver, Colorado (natural causes at age 87)
AUDRE LORDE
(writer, lecturer, poet, educator, lesbian-feminist/racial activist)
Died November 1992 in St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands (breast cancer).
BETTY MacDONALD
(jazz musician, jazz-women advocate, radio host, Living With Lesbians album)
Died August 2010 in Woodstock, New York (liver disease).
BONNIE KOVALEFF BLACKFOOT
(trumpet player, Baba Yaga & early Olivia Records)
Died December 1997 in Portland, Oregon (AIDS/Hepatitus C).
BRENDA HENSON
(Gulf Coast festival producer, lesbian-feminist-economic activist)
Died February 2008 in Dumas, Arkansas (colon cancer).
CAROL MacDONALD
(musician, arranger, bandleader, Isis & Goldie and the Gingerbreads)
Died March 2007 in Wilmington, Delaware (liver disease).
GINNI CLEMMENS
(banjo/guitar player, singer-songwriter, record company owner)
Died February 2004 in Maui, Hawaii (car accident).
ELIZABETH KARLIN
(concert producer, doctor, pro-choice activist)
Died July 1998 in Madison, Wisconsin (brain cancer).
FRANCES WASSERLEIN
(MichFest worker, exec director Vancouver Folk Music Festival)
Died August 2015 in Halfmoon Bay, BC, Canada (complications from Alzheimers)
GWEN AVERY
("Sugar Mama" singer-songwriter, "Varied Voices of Black Women" tour)
Died January 2015 in Santa Rosa, California (complications from gall bladder surgery).
JERENE O'BRIEN JACKSON
(guitar player, BeBe K'Roche & early Olivia Records, big band leader)
Died July 2003 in Los Angeles (cause of death?).
JOAN GIBSON
(early women's music financial supporter and promoter)
Died October 1996 in Lincoln, Nebraska (heart attack).
JOY ROSENBLATT
(Mountain Moving Coffeehouse concert producer, HOT WIRE staffer)
Died April 2004 in Chicago, Illinois (heart attack).
JUNE JORDAN
(poet, performer, educator, journalist, feminist/civil rights activist)
Died June 2002 in Berkeley, California (breast cancer).
KAY GARDNER
(musician, composer, writer, choral director, conductor, priestess, HOT WIRE writer)
Died August 2003 in Bangor, Maine (heart attack).
KRIS KOVICK
(HOT WIRE cartoonist, writer, performer, first woman in printing trade union in Pacific NW)
Died October 2001 in San Francisco (breast cancer).
LAURA NYRO
(musician, singer-songwriter, 2012 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee)
Died April 1997 in Danbury, Connecticut (ovarian cancer).
LAURIE BENZ
(singer-songwriter, photographer, pioneering activist for LGBT little people)
Died January 2015 in Chicago, Illinois (long-term complications from strokes).
LORI TWERSKY
(music journalist, editor of Bitch Rock Mag With Bite)
Died November 1991 in Santa Clara, California (lupus).
MALVINA REYNOLDS
(singer- songwriter, progressive activist)
Died (pancreatic cancer) March 1978 in Berkeley, California.
MARCIA DIEHL
(musician, New Harmony Sisterhood Band, LGBT theater supporter)
Died March 2015 in Cambridge, Massachusetts (hit by truck while riding bike).
MARGARET SLOAN-HUNTER
(writer, lecturer, activist, early Ms. Magazine editor)
Died September 2004 in Oakland, California (prolonged illnesses).
MARY PAT HUGHES
(sax player, 2 Funkin' Heavy)
Died June 1999 in Baltimore, Maryland (leukemia).
MAXINE FELDMAN
(singer-songwriter: "Amazon," festival emcee)
Died August 2007 in Albuquerque, New Mexico (lung and heart ailments).
MICHAELINE CHVATAL
(Artemis Singers, HOT WIRE staffer)
Died February 2008 in Chicago, Illinois (breast cancer).
MICHFEST NIGHTSTAGE STAGE-RIGHT MAPLE TREE
Felled by a storm in 2006 on the Michigan Womyn's Music Festival land.
PAM BRANDT
(writer, musican Deadly Nightshade, Cactus Rose)
Died July 2015 in Miami, Florida (heart attack)
PAT PARKER
(poet, performer, HOT WIRE writer)
Died June 1989 in Oakland, California (breast cancer).
PEGGY MITCHELL
(BeBe K'Roche co-founder, bass player)
Died April 2009 in California (cause of death?).
RONNIE GILBERT
(singer, actor, writer, progressive activist)
Died June 2015 in Mill Valley, California (natural causes at age 88).
ROSETTA REITZ
(founder/producer Rosetta Records, jazz/blues herstorian, HOT WIRE writer)
Died November 2008 in Manhattan, New York (cardiopulmonary issues).
RUSTY GORDON
(concert producer, music publisher, archivist, LGBT-feminist activist)
Died October 2009 in West Palm Beach, Florida (progressive supranuclear palsy).
RUTH ELLIS
(oldest lesbian attending festivals at age 99)
Died October 2000 in Detroit, Michigan (natural causes at age 101).
RUTH ROWAN
(sign language interpreter, NWMF board member)
Died July 2015 while in Brazil (pancreatic cancer)
SYLVIA MESERVEY
("Face the Music" feminist-radio host)
Died November 2007 in Worcester, Massachusetts (unexpectedly after back surgery).
TERRI JEWELL
(poet, conference organizer, HOT WIRE writer, activist)
Died November 1995 in Berlin, Michigan (murder? suicide? no consensus).
THERESE EDELL
(singer-songwriter, sound engineer, "Voice of Michigan" emcee, composer)
Died March 2011 in Cincinnati, Ohio (multiple sclerosis).
TONI ARMSTRONG SR.
(HOT WIRE worker, early-years "festival mom," Amazon Clubhouse co-host)
Died December 2012 Riviera Beach, Florida (natural causes at age 87).
VIRGINIA GIORDAN
(NYC record distributor, concert producer, artist)
Died January 2015 in San Francisco, California (pancreatic cancer).
* * *
There are gaps in what we know about the passing of some of these women.
If you know more, please send details t tonijr@hotwirejournal.com
|
