We miss Barbara Lea, who died at the end of 2011.
Her dear friend Jeanie Wilson has planned a memorial service for Barbara — full of deeply felt music and tart stories in honor of “The High Priestess of Popular Song.”
It will take place on Monday, April 16, 2012, at 7:00 PM, at St. Peter’s Church (54th St. & Lexington Ave., New York City), with Barbara’s good friend, singer Daryl Sherman, as host. The performers and speakers will include Bob Dorough, Steve Ross, Marlene VerPlanck, Ronny Whyte, Melissa Hamilton, Jack Kleinsinger, George Wein, Joyce Breach, Roger Schore, Jan Wallman, Karen Oberlin, Lewis Chambers, Sue Matsuki, Tedd Firth, Harry Allen, Annie Dinerman, Dick Miller, The Speakeasy Jazz Babies, James Chirillo, Boots Maleson, David Hajdu, and others.
W.B. Yeats writes “Say that my glory was I had such friends.” I hope to see you at the memorial service — to let Barbara know just how much she is loved, missed, remembered. And although memorial services remind us that the object of our affections is no longer with us, we go out thinking of that person with something deeper than funereal gloom.
Dear Jeanie, heartfelt thoughts for you and those so close to Barbara. She was a darling girl, after all, and so good to me. I had not known of her death but felt the loss of her for so long. Listening to he CD’s even as I write this—what a legacy she leaves us. She sent me The Devil Is Afraid of Music and urged me to “Sing, Gwamma, Sing”, taught me to relax with the light and we shared some wonderful times during which she always made me feel welcome in her life. Olav HaShalom, High Princess. Your song still is all.
Lois