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Addison Farmer


bertrand

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it's possible that he had a stroke that LED to a car accident. That's how Bobby Buster died, I was told.

as for car accidents, it's bad news back to Bessie Smith and Chu Berry (I think) (though Bessie died because John Hammond had forgotten to pay her health insurance premium, so they wouldn't admit her into the hospital)

Also Milton Brown. And Curley Russell told me no one was surprised at the Clifford Brown thing, as the wife who was driving (I think it must have been Richie Powell's) was a terrible driver.

There's also Eddie Costa and Willie Dennis, though one or both may have been hit by cars. Same with Percy France, apparently killed by a car while crossing somewhere in NYC.

Edited by AllenLowe
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it's possible that he had a stroke that LED to a car accident. That's how Bobby Buster died, I was told.

as for car accidents, it's bad news back to Bessie Smith and Chu Berry (I think) (though Bessie died because John Hammond had forgotten to pay her health insurance premium, so they wouldn't admit her into the hospital)

Also Milton Brown. And Curley Russell told me no one was surprised at the Clifford Brown thing, as the wife who was driving (I think it must have been Richie Powell's) was a terrible driver.

There's also Eddie Costa and Willie Dennis, though one or both may have been hit by cars. Same with Percy France, apparently killed by a car while crossing somewhere in NYC.

This is one of the ways that misinformation not only proliferates but also adds to itself. Trying to reconcile the two conflicting stories -- 1) Addison Farmer died of an attempt to treat a fairly longstanding medical problem (he died of the "synergy between two medications," says Feather-Gitler), or 2) he died in a car accident -- Allen "resolves" the conflict by coming up with yet a third "possible" scenario: "he had a stroke that LED to a car accident." Sure, it's possible, but why not just consult a widely available and usually reliable source, as Feather-Gitler (especially Gitler) is almost certain to be in this case? And yes, it was Richie Powell's wife.

Also, Willie Dennis wasn't hit by a car. He was being driven through Central Park by a brief acquaintance who ran the car off the road, and Dennis was killed in the crash.

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I believe that when Addison Farmer's death was reported in Down Beat that the cause of death was given as a reaction to aspirin and another medication. That was 48 years ago and I may be wrong about that.

I couldn't find the Down Beat obituary online. Perhaps Larry or one of the Chicagoans has access to Down Beat's files and can confirm this or not.

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as for car accidents, it's bad news back to Bessie Smith and Chu Berry (I think) (though Bessie died because John Hammond had forgotten to pay her health insurance premium, so they wouldn't admit her into the hospital)

Did you read this and listen to the tape available on that webpage?

Mike, Allen's aside about Bessie and her lapsed medical insurance was a joke, I'm sure.

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