Doris Parker, RIP
Jack Woker
Widow
Doris Parker, widow of the jazz saxophonist Charlie (Bird) Parker, who
used his memory to fight drug addiction, died on Monday in Manhattan.
She was 77 and lived in Manhattan.
She died of respiratory failure, said a friend, Sarah Morgan.
Mrs. Parker was the third wife of Charlie Parker, the bebop innovator,
who died in 1955 at 34, his life cut short by alcohol and drug use.
They were married in 1948 and separated in 1950. (Parker considered Chan
Parker, who died last year, his fourth wife, but a spokesman for his
estate said they were not legally married.)
Doris June Sydnor Parker was born on Aug. 16, 1922, in Rock Island,
Ill. She came to New York at 22.
At six feet tall, she became a striking figure as a hat-check girl at
the Three Deuces, a West 52nd Street nightclub, where she met Charlie
Parker in 1945. They began living together in 1946.
When Parker, a heroin addict since his teenage years, spent six months
in a California mental hospital in 1947, she moved to Los Angeles to
visit and care for him. They were married in 1948 in Tijuana, Mexico,
while Parker was on a West Coast tour with the Jazz at the Philharmonic
concert series.
After his death, Mrs. Parker worked for 25 years as a secretary for
Columbia University. She also had a long career as a community activist,
working with groups like the Northwest Central Park Multiblock
Association and the Federation of West Side Block
Associations.
She also founded the Charlie Parker record label.
In 1989, she organized the first Evening with Friends of Charlie
Parker. These benefits, at which associates of her husband like Max
Roach and Dizzy Gillespie performed without pay, became annual events to
raise money for Veritas, a drug rehabilitation program on the Upper West
Side.
"Maybe,' Mrs. Parker said of her husband in 1993, "he'll be remembered
as not just the most famous junkie of his time."
No immediate family members survive.
no...@webtv.net
A useful life.
nown.
Ulf Åbjörnsson
to chose where Charlie was to be buried.
He wanted to be buried in Kansas City. She ordered him to be buried in New
York, which he hated. That is how much she loved Charlie Parker and
cherished his memory.
Last year the remains of Charlie Parker were moved to Kansas City.
Ulf in Svedala
Jack Woker <ste...@ix.netcom.com> skrev i
diskussionsgruppsmeddelandet:3885F3...@ix.netcom.com...
> January 19, 2000 Doris Parker, 77, a Crusader and Charlie Parker's
> Widow
>
> Doris Parker, widow of the jazz saxophonist Charlie (Bird) Parker, who
> used his memory to fight drug addiction, died on Monday in Manhattan.
> Mrs. Parker was the third wife of Charlie Parker.
Michael Fitzgerald
<aabj...@algonet.se> wrote:
>As Charlie and Chan were obviously not legally married Doris got the right
>to chose where Charlie was to be buried.
>
>He wanted to be buried in Kansas City. She ordered him to be buried in New
>York, which he hated. That is how much she loved Charlie Parker and
>cherished his memory.
>
>Last year the remains of Charlie Parker were moved to Kansas City.
Whoa, wait a minute -
I think you've got the details completely backwards.
From "The Charlie Parker Companion" edited by Carl Woideck, p. 57
the article is by Ira Gitler - "Charlie Parker and the Saxophonists"
(1996)
"The funeral was held on a gray day of downpour in New York at Adam
Clayton Powell's Abyssinian Baptist Church. Once the coffin was almost
dropped. Then the body was sent to Kansas City, where Bird had
requested that it not go, for burial. Some musicians, such as Gail
Brockman, came from as far away as Chicago for the funeral services.
Other New York-based musicians were conspicuous by their absence."
The remains were recently moved from one spot in KC to another more
prominent one in KC, if I recall correctly.
You are correct that Doris Parker went against Bird's wishes, though.
Mike
Rohan Parkes
depiction of Doris in Bird Lives, which tends to portray her as simply
not having a clue.
--
Rohan Parkes
Melbourne
Australia
Bill Duke
<rpa...@email.com> notes:
: The details of her life are a good counter to the rather derogatory
: depiction of Doris in Bird Lives, which tends to portray her as simply
: not having a clue.
Definitely.
"Bird Lives" (if you mean the Ross Russell book) has to be one of the
least dependable jazz biographies ever written, and that's saying a lot.
Bill
Ulf Åbjörnsson
Ulf in Svedala
Bill Duke <bd...@columbus.rr.com> skrev i
diskussionsgruppsmeddelandet:f77h8sk9et8jmstn0...@4ax.com...
no...@webtv.net
Not one of you guys was there, then, that I know of. But ... I was.
and I knew Doris, Bird and Chan.
Everyone gets born, goes through life, has experiences, dies, gets
talked about.
So ... what?!!
Doris P. was good. May she rest in peace now. You guys just don't
know.
Be decent. Let her be.
nown.
Ulf Åbjörnsson
grave site.
Ulf in Svedala
<no...@webtv.net> skrev i
diskussionsgruppsmeddelandet:20088-38...@storefull-141.iap.bryant.webt
v.net...
Carnak
<fitz...@eclipse.net> wrote about Bird:
[snip]
>
>The remains were recently moved from one spot in KC to another more
>prominent one in KC, if I recall correctly.
>
_________________________________
There was a plan to move Bird's remains from Lincoln Cemetary
to the Parker Memorial Plaza near 18th & Vine, but this never
happened.
Ulf Åbjörnsson
Carnak <Car...@ix.netcom.com> skrev i
diskussionsgruppsmeddelandet:3889e4d7...@nntp.ix.netcom.com...
I do not have the exact "addresses" that you have, so they mey well be
correct.
According to Bird's stepdaughter Kim the remains WERE MOVED. She was there
and I spoke to her about it a few weeks after as she gave concerts in
Sweden.
Ulf in Svedala
no...@webtv.net
the living.
Dead is dead. Many people even leave wills which successfully get
contended. Doctors and hospital staffs are notorious for going against
patient's wishes. This is not to excuse it, but ... pointing out facts
of life.
Bird's death, like many deaths, left great emotional turmoil behind.
While predictable ... it was also unbelievable at the time. Our hero
.. gone.
As for Bird's wishes ... while I certainly do not know the inside story
(nor do I pretend to) ... you've got to know that Bird had a VERY
childish side to him. And of course I'm not talking about the music.
In his music ... Bird was the Great Master. No doubt about it. Bird was
in charge of things. Bird was in control. Bird was beautiful.
Somebody said "I live in my art; not in my life". Bird lives for us in
his art.
But in his life, Bird ... poor Bird ... was a mix-up. When it comes to
"Bird's wishes" ... you've got to understand ... Bird could be very
wishy-washy. And often was.
Events like his funeral and burial and so forth, could not and did not
please everybody. It's what happened.
nown.
Ulf Åbjörnsson
<no...@webtv.net> skrev i
diskussionsgruppsmeddelandet:11163-38...@storefull-143.iap.bryant.webt
v.net...
Ulf in Svedala
Rohan Parkes
that Benedetti had a wire recorder, when we now know it was an acetate
machine. It might seem trivial, but Russell claims Benedetti used to
bring the machine into his shop. And Benedetti himself seems to be a
composite figure. Russell also claims that Bird appeared at two
consecutive JATPs, when there was only one. He also claims to have
intimate knowledge of what Parker thought on some matters, which I tended
to feel was probably mere speculation. He also vilified Tiny Grimes (and
possibly Miles Davis).
Which is not to underplay the strengths of the book, which are its
extremely literate style, and its genuine dedication to its subject
matter.
Carnak
<aabj...@algonet.se> wrote:
>
>According to Bird's stepdaughter Kim the remains WERE MOVED. She was there
>and I spoke to her about it a few weeks after as she gave concerts in
>Sweden.
>
>Ulf in Svedala
>
I was there too, and I can assure you that Bird remains in his
original grave.
no...@webtv.net
as ever ...
in response to my commentary on life's wishing well ...
"I suppose you were there, since you sound so sure".
But it's not me that's of any importance to Bird's death and burial
story. It never was and it never will be me. It wasn't even Bird.
It was the story that seemed important here. And all that I could do
and did do was to present another angle from which to view it. But
nothing matters but the music,
And ... anyhow ... this thread was alledgedly in memorium to Doris.
You and I don't matter in it. Let her be.
nown.
Rmidn...@webtv.net
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