brownie Posted June 17, 2004 Report Share Posted June 17, 2004 From AP: Lorraine Willis Gillespie HACKENSACK, N.J. (AP) _ Lorraine Willis Gillespie, widow of jazz legend Dizzy Gillespie, died Saturday. She was 84. Dizzy Gillespie, a trumpeter who helped create the bebop and Afro-Cuban schools of jazz in the 1940s, died in 1993. The couple met in 1937 when Gillespie was playing with the Teddy Hill Orchestra in Washington, and they married three years later in Boston, Marion "Boo" Frazier, Dizzy's cousin, told The Record of Bergen County. Lorraine Gillespie was born in Long Branch and grew up in New York City. She worked in a chorus line at the Apollo Theater in Harlem as a teen, and had a tap-dance school in Queens, where the couple first lived. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikeweil Posted June 17, 2004 Report Share Posted June 17, 2004 Jazz musicians' wives rarely get credit for their support. Thanks, Lorraine! and R.I.P.! As I understand from Dizzy's autobiography, she did quite a few things to help get it together in difficult times. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hardbopjazz Posted June 17, 2004 Report Share Posted June 17, 2004 RIP. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JSngry Posted June 17, 2004 Report Share Posted June 17, 2004 As I understand from Dizzy's autobiography, she did quite a few things to help get it together in difficult times. Yeah, Dizzy always gave her credit for keeping him in line and making sure that the B got TC of. No way it could have been easy for her, but she did it. R.I.P., and much thanks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brownie Posted June 17, 2004 Author Report Share Posted June 17, 2004 If I were the Pope, Lorraine Gillespie and Nellie Monk would be saints! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
couw Posted June 17, 2004 Report Share Posted June 17, 2004 If you were pope, I'd probably go to church and hear you preach. now Lorraine can look after her man again, he's probably been naughty up there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
catesta Posted June 17, 2004 Report Share Posted June 17, 2004 She must have been a good woman, Dizzy always seemed to be happy. R.I.P, Mrs. Gillespie. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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