"Officer Obie" dies (Alice's Restaurant)

[Gregory K Doerschler]

Just a little tid-bit from today's newspaper...

The real-life "Officer Obie" from Arlo Guthrie's song "Alice's Restaurant"
died Sunday. He was former Stockbridge, Massachusetts Police Chief William
J. Obanhein. The article describes how Guthrie was deemed unsuitable for
military service because of his arrest for littering by Obanhein in 1965;
the tale told it Guthrie's song "Alice's Restaurant." It also mentioned
that Obanhein played himself in Guthrie's "Alice's Restaurant" movie based
on the song. Alice Brock, who owned Alice's Restaurant in Stockbridge, is
also quoted in the AP story.