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    marye
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    Here's the place to talk about our departed loved ones -- friends, family members, tour buddies, and others we've lost along the way.

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  • Jodester
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    CJ - Joe Emert
    Another wonderful and sweet brother. He was usually to be found on Telegraph hanging out or in People's Park when it was still relatively hassle-free to do our thing there. He was a really fun cat! I don't know the exact details of his passing so I don't think I should write what I think I remember being told. His ex told me that his parents lived in El Cerrito at that time but I didn't find any listing in the phone directory for that area with that name last time I checked. Any more info on this would be wonderful! He was such a classic head! Shining on forever!!! Are you kind?
  • Jodester
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    Junkie Jim from PA
    Jim was a kid who was one of the Haight St crew from the late eighties - early nineties scene. Also a regular tour cat! One of the who's who faces in the crowd. A really sweet guy! Yup, another with a drug habit unfortunately! From what I heard he got thrown into jail in SF and either hung himself or was hung by the guards or inmates. Some smack dealer apparently wanted him offed but I don't know the truth about that. It was all very shady and it would be nice to know if anyone has anymore info on this. Peace! Are you kind?
  • Jodester
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    George from Telegraph Ave - late eighties early nineties!
    My good bro' from hanging out on Telegraph Ave from 87-92. He had a bit of a drug problem as certain loved ones did but he was a peaceful wonderful soul! I think it was 1991 when he passed on. There was an incident with a van of family coming down a mountain outside of Santa Cruz. The brakes failed. George had to help the petite and very pregnant girl, Carrie, who was trying to keep the vehicle on the road. He leaned across and guided the vehicle around the curves but it eventually rolled. He saved them from going off the side of the road! He also shielded Carrie from harm but got crushed under the van after going through the window in the process. I still have one of his tye-dyes the others gave me after the accident. I think about him often. He'll always be with us. Are you kind?
  • mindbender
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    Man pleads no contest in
    Man pleads no contest in 2000 rest-stop slayingBy Jon Gambrell, The Associated Press Kristin Ann Laurite, 25, of Scotch Plains, N.J., found dead at the Morrilton rest stop in 2000. The Montanta prisoner accused of killing her pleaded no contest Tuesday in her death. 2007-06-12 16:02:00 LITTLE ROCK — A Montana prisoner pleaded no contest Tuesday to killing a New Jersey woman nearly seven years ago as she was stopped at an Interstate 40 rest stop in central Arkansas on a cross-country trip. Ronald James Ward, who is serving life in prison for another killing, was linked to the slaying of 25-year-old Kristin Laurite through DNA five years after the woman was stabbed repeatedly, sexually assaulted and left to die at the rest stop near Morrilton. Ward, 40, was arrested last year while in prison and returned to Arkansas over the weekend for his Conway County court appearance Tuesday. He initially told the court he would plead guilty. But after talking to a public defender, Ward changed his plea. He acknowledged he was responsible for Laurite’s death, although he claimed he couldn’t remember it because he had been high on “******, moonshine and *******,” Prosecutor Tom Tatum said. AP/Montana Department of Corrections Ronald James Ward pleaded no contest to the 2000 rest-stop slaying of a New Jersey woman. Tatum described Ward as a drifter who moved between West Virginia and Montana. Sentencing is tentatively scheduled for Thursday. The prosecutor said Ward had agreed to a life sentence. Laurite’s mother Lynn DiBenedetto expressed love for her daughter, and relief. “Finally, justice will be served for the brutal murder of my daughter,” DiBenedetto said in an e-mail to reporters. “Although the pain never goes away, I will finally get some peace of mind knowing that this alleged predator will never again be a part of society.” Laurite left her New Jersey home on a trip to Eureka, Calif., planning to take a job at a day-care center along California’s north coast. By Aug. 25, 2000, she made it to Arkansas, stopping her yellow 1972 Volkswagen van at the Morrilton rest stop to splash water on her face and let her dogs play at a nearby pond. The next day, truckers noticed one of Laurite’s dogs running loose. The trucker called the number on the dog’s tag, finding Laurite’s mother. Laurite’s dogs led officers to her body, dragged down toward the pond. The rest stop, where another murder occurred three years earlier, was closed by the state, and Laurite’s family put up a billboard along the well-traveled highway with a picture of the slain young woman. The image remained up for years, with the plea: “Do you know who murdered me?” Tatum said he was “surprised” by the no contest plea. “I figured we would be in for a long trial because the investigation took place over so many years,” Tatum said. “I think it helped the family quite a bit and it certainly helped the state, too.” Morrilton lawyer John Irwin said Ward didn’t understand the judge’s explanation about the consequences of representing himself so the judge appointed Irwin to represent the Montana convict. “His education level is about fourth grade. He is not dumb. He is unlearned,” Irwin said. “The easiest thing to do would be to have a lawyer.” Citing lawyer-client confidentiality, Irwin declined to talk about other aspects of the case. _______________ insert obligatory signature here
  • Lazy-Supp-Deal
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    Mikel
    He was a freind of mine. Many of you will remember Mikel for his stickers, set list hand-outs and newsletters, and some of you will remember Mikel as one of the most kind and gentle souls you ever met. I didn't know him well, but Mikel was the kind of person who was sincerely kind and somehow made you feel special to him the instant that you met him. Mikel became the first person I would look for at a show, and I know I'm sepaking for many of you, because I stood in his own little "hug lines" many times. I will never forget Mikel. He taught me to try to pour as much kindness and compassion as you humanly can on others. He was a friend of mine.
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Here's the place to talk about our departed loved ones -- friends, family members, tour buddies, and others we've lost along the way.
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16 years 3 months
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thinking of you and Nao peace
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17 years 4 months
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Wait a second, Nao your wife???Am speechless, and hoping I read that wrong. ********************************** Education: that which reveals to the wise, and conceals from the stupid, the vast limits of their knowledge. Mark Twain
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16 years 11 months
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All best thoughts and +++vibes to you and Nao. Conversation is always more interesting than recitation, so speak your mind and not someone else's.
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17 years 5 months
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grieving with you Joe. If it helps a little you have a big loving family here.
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17 years 5 months
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and condolences to you and yours. I can't imagine the heartache and shock. Ride the rough waves, brother, hope that gentler seas are ahead. Take care "....She sang a little while and then flew off" The Truth is realized in an instant, the act is practiced step by step.
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17 years 4 months
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We love you brother! Am utterly sad and and floored about your loss. Keeping you in my thoughts Joe. ********************************** Education: that which reveals to the wise, and conceals from the stupid, the vast limits of their knowledge. Mark Twain
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17 years 1 month
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I've always thought your Wife must be a very interesting person, with quite a tale to tell. So sorry Joe. Positive Vibes headed your way. "River gonna take me Sing me sweet and sleepy Sing me sweet and sleepy all the way back back home It's a far gone lullaby sung many years ago Mama, Mama many worlds I've come since I first left home Goin home, goin home by the waterside I will rest my bones Listen to the river sing sweet songs to rock my soul...' PEACE
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17 years 4 months
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(((((((Hugz))))))) You are in my thoughts!!! Peace & Love,Gigi xoxoxoxoxoxxo
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17 years 5 months
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am truly sadden at your loss, how devastating .peace and love beams for nao's journey. so sorry joe,big hug for you.
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16 years 8 months
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I'm sorry for your loss. It looks like Nao gave it all she had. I had a friend, after a battle with cancer and a slide into mental illness, end his own life three weeks ago. Our hearts go out to you. To every thing there is a season, and a time for every purpose under the heaven. Peace
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thank yoou, everyone; means more than I can say. *** "for CC Joe and Nao grief like a snowbank melting to tears running through eyes down the windswept plains of the cheek streams rivulets rivers riptides away away all beyond the grave sea the great gray ocean listless and still away away all to the waterfall at the end of the world" -- Robert Hunter http://www.deadnetcentral.com/WebX?7@619.XGaqbSO6AKp.1@.4a858023/53296 as usual, Hunter's words speak volumes. thank you rh. **** all I can say now is thank you, everyone. it really, really means alot. ** thnkks, as always, Hunter, for the words; means more than I can possiblely hope to express. it'll be read at her service. love&peace.
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17 years 3 months
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sorry to hear of your loss many warm hugs to you.....
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17 years 5 months
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So saddened by your loss. My heart and thoughts are with you.
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16 years 4 months
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I'm so sorry and finding myself without many words. You will be in my thoughts and prayers. We'll all be sending you as much love as we possibly can.
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17 years 4 months
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This one comforts me alot, so will share with you. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pudOFG5X6uA Hold on! Take comfort in your friends. ********************************** Education: that which reveals to the wise, and conceals from the stupid, the vast limits of their knowledge. Mark Twain
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I know the place , CC Joe, from tears to salty oceans . But remember, some day , that even oceans have shores and are confined to a planet where even a lost coconut can find an island . May we all go safely on cosmic trails .
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17 years 6 months
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I am so sorry to hear this. Safe journey to your beloved old lady, and I join in the mass outpouring of love to you.
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17 years 5 months
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I am trying hard to think of words; just know, please know everyone here; your words mean a lot to me. thank you all. * you all knew her, you all danced with her and hugged her at the shows... she was never more impressed with spontaneous human warmth than at shows or meeting strangers on the road who shared a love of what we love. this community, online though it may be, is part of a larger tribe; we may not see each other's faces as we dance, eyes on the stage, we may not see each other's faces, eyes on the screen as our fingers dance on the keys; we may not 'hear' the words, the music drowns the voices out... but the warmth is here as it always was there; as it always will be there. Hunter's (thank's again rh, can't thank you enough) words were read, translated and read in Japanese, Thai, Lao, Khemer, Korean, Chinese, Tagalong, German, French, and also read in English. there could have been more languages, she had a wide circle of international friends, but I thought 10 readings had a certain symetry. Black Muddy River (maybe her favourite song) was played for her, and So Many Roads for us; and some other music she loved... people spoke, and heard some stories I never heard before... there could not be anythhing happy in this, but there was some dignity and people stronger than myself let me lean on them. parents should not have to attend the funeral of their child, an older brother and an older sister, and a younger sister should not have to go through this. her nieces and nephews... she and I never had kids of our own. she and I used to 'joke' and she always said she wanted to die first; I knew her love in that comment, but i still had to insist I wanted to die first for the same reasons I reckon. like everything else, she had her way. ( -; we also used to 'joke' based on some Woody Allen line, "I was the boss, and she was the decision maker" it was, I heard from the doctor, much too late to really do anything by the time she learned of the cancer. so yes, she was protecting us all with that decision to keep things to herself these past couple of months. her family is the only real family I ever had; completely loving people, completely caring people; unlike any I have ever known. her father was left an orphan by WWII American bombs; her mother, when she was a child, was literally shot at by a machine gun, dive bombing American plane as she was walking home with a friend through some rice fields after working at the war machine factory that so many children were conscripted into in that history -- yet, they accepted me, an ugly American, into their heart. our little house is about 3 hours away from their home; so we saw each other often enough, (or not often enough in retrospeck) they invited me to come live with them if I want to in the future; part of her ashes will remain in the family home, in the Buddhist tradition, some put into the family grave nearby. sad irony that her mother is a cancer survivor, and facing other health issues recently, all Nao wanted to do was help her family. there are things i must do -- will hit the road to scatter some of her ashes in some of the places she loved most. have to see and tell people she loved and who loved her, and have to walk up the trails of villages alone... some news can not be shared by phone or email. all she ever wanted and did was to help other people, less fortunate than herself; and that is her legacy. I'll do my best to continue her work; try to live her life, best I can. ** thank you all for all of your kindness. it means more than I can ever hope to express. prayers and positive vibes for her family is all I ask; parents should never have to attend the funeral of their child. (((DNC))) thank you. ** there are some roads we rode on together to re-visit, and other new roads I must face-- the ride can never be balanced without her on the back of the bike. love and peace.
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17 years 3 months
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you've said it all.....my condolences........XOXOXO
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17 years 5 months
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I am so sorry for your loss of your dear wife. Peace and love to you and her family. Take care of yourself. If the doors of perception were cleansed, everything would appear to man as it is, infinite. William Blake
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17 years 5 months
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I can't even imagine the sadness you feel. Our thoughts and prayers are with you. And the road goes on forever.... BobbaLee
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17 years 5 months
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I just can't imagine something like this. Our thoughts are with you.
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17 years 5 months
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thanks everybody. heading on the raod soon to take care of things; be back when I am able. meanwhile, please know how much this space and your support means to me. "so it’s broken hearts and dusty roads and somewhere there my soul explodes with every piece of every day and everything I meant to say and where I’ll be, no one can tell I’m fishing in a wishing well and i’m doing the very best I can I just hope you’ll understand now I seen all the lights that shine countless colors in my mind they climb and swim and spark and glow and ask me what it is I know I know a thing called love a thing called thunder in the sky above now I know a thing called pain now I know a thing called rain" --- Jackie Greene **** we was there together for this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ObCXBkB_o1A "Will you have some tea At the theatre with me? We did it all - didn't we? Jumped every wall - instinctively Unravelled codes - ingeniously Wired all the roads - so seamlessly We made it work But one of us failed That makes it so sad A great dream derailed One of us gone One of us mad One of us, me All of us sad All of us sad - lean on my shoulder now The story is done - it's getting colder now A thousand songs - still smoulder now We played them as one - we're older now All of us sad All of us free Before we walk from the stage Two of us Will you have some tea? Will you have some tea At the theatre with me?" ---Pete Townshend *** thank you all. (((DNC))) LOVE&PEACE.
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may the roads you travle bring you peace. we`l all be here for you when you return.
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15 years 8 months
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The Who Tea and Theater - very, very beautiful. I am sorry. Stay strong.! big love beams, too!
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17 years 5 months
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i know you are on the road right now, but i just heard the news and am very sorry for your loss. there are really no words to say, but know i am thinking of you and your wonderful wife. my deepest condolences friend nothing left to do but smile, smile, smile
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17 years 3 months
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R.I.P.........1 of my best "sandbox buddies" when as teenagers we'd pile into my small car & run up to the Family Dog @ the Great Hwy, park & all places to hear the Grateful Dead, Quicksilver, Big Brother, Airplane....who else????......I can still hear your laugh XOXOmay the 4 winds blow you safely home.....
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17 years 5 months
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I am so sorry for your loss. You guys sound like me and my sisters and a couple of friends, piled in the car heading to the city for another evening of music.... Usually the same people in the car and I bet the same for you, so I know how tight a friendship you are grieving. Take care & peace
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17 years 3 months
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hugs and warm thoughts go out to gypsy cowgirl...as long as you keep pattie in your heart she is never really gone..HUUUUUUGS
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17 years 3 months
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Thanks for your comments.......I tell her kids (now in their 30's) how we'd pile about 7 or 8 of us in my 5 seater 544 Volvo......nutty teenagers that we were-driving was safer 40 yrs ago-not as many freeways & cars, too.....RIP Pattie
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16 years 11 months
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i just got my 'puter back from repair, sorry to hear of your loss. my thoughts and prayers are with you and your friend.
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15 years 10 months
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God Bless- "I Want You To Roll Away The Dew"
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17 years 5 months
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how hard it is to lose friends along the way. many good wishes for Pattie wherever you are and for GC still here in this crazy old world oh and good to hear from you too johnman we were starting to worry about you greetings dear friends from the frozen steppes of Kazakhstan love to all CB
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17 years 3 months
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send me a postcard, though from where ever you are....I love foreign stamps.....thanks for all your comments........Pattie had a good life, that's all we can hope for everyone....xoxo
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17 years 5 months
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sorry for your loss, peace If the doors of perception were cleansed, everything would appear to man as it is, infinite. William Blake
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17 years 3 months
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would be blown away by all these comments & condolences.....! she loved the Grateful Dead & we had so much fun together......should I mention now it was her coercing that I was to be the one to smuggle in the gallon of wine into the Fillmore West summer 1969?? I rarely drank, too.....teenaged wastelands.......
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thank you still and always If the doors of perception were cleansed, everything would appear to man as it is, infinite. William Blake
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16 years 11 months
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Founding member and guitarist extraordinaire of Big Brother and the Holding Company passes away from a heart attack on December 20, 2009. A post more eloquent and informed than I could craft can be found here. Another tragic loss of an icon of the generation. Conversation is always more interesting than recitation, so speak your mind and not someone else's.
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...one record I will never forget, it's "Cheap Thrills". Long before I got into the Dead, who were an acquired taste, were Big Brother & the Holding Co. They could be full-on, into your face or get way down - and soooo bluesy - "Didn't I make you feel ..." And. of course, Mr. Gurley's guitar always led the way. Thank you. " Where does the time go? "
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17 years 4 months
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Thinking of you sis and missing you this Holiday season :(It's been 3 years and I miss you every minute of everyday!! Dance with Jerry <3
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17 years 5 months
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Thank you for the good times.
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17 years 4 months
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I began my career in the grain business 6 weeks after the Continental Grain elevator blew up in Westwego, LA, across the Mississippi River from New Orleans.Grain dust is highly volatile, especially within confined space.
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Long Time Family member Danny Goldsher ,from Long Island NY. has passed on 12/23/2009He will be missed by many.
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A favorite winter-time activity at home in Kansas is feeding and watching the birds who visit any of the 4 feeders I have in the backyard. Before Christmas, I noticed a female cardinal without a tail. Needless to say, I think she's perished, as she has not been around for awhile. Perhaps the ever-increasing influx of mourning doves describes her fate? Stay tuned for more...