To Studs: With Love and Memories

"Take it easy, but take it." -- Studs Terkel's sign-off on every WFMT radio show.

So there wasn't a World Series in Chicago, and Studs missed the 2008 Presidential election. Other than that, Louis (Studs) Terkel did everything possible in 96 years.

Was he the greatest Chicagoan? I cannot think of another. For me, he represented the joyous, scrappy, liberal, generous, wise-cracking heart of this city. If you met him, he was your friend. That happened to the hundreds and hundreds of people he interviewed for his radio show and 20 best-selling books. He wrote down the oral histories of those of his time who did not have a voice. In conversation he could draw up every single one of their names.

Studs said many times in these last years, "I'm ready to check out." He hadn't been in any hurry until a fall in late August slowed him down. At the time of his 93th birthday, we had dinner with him a few days before he was having a heart bypass. He was looking forward to it.

"The docs say the odds are 4-to-1 in my favor," he said, with the voice of a guy who studied the angles. "At age 93, those are pretty good odds. I'm gonna have a whack at it. Otherwise, I'm Dead Man Walking. If I don't have the operation, how long do I have? Six months, maybe. That's no way to live, waiting to die. I've had 93 years -- tumultuous years. That's a pretty good run."

It was a run during which his great mind never let him down. "This is ironic," he told me. "I'm not the one was has Alzheimer's. It's the country that has Alzheimer's. There was a survey the other day showing that most people think our best president was Reagan. Not Abraham Lincoln. FDR came in 10th. People don't pay attention any more. They don't read the news."

Studs read the news. He sang with Pete Seeger: "I sell the morning papers sir, my name is Jimmy Brown. Everybody knows that I'm the newsboy of the town. You can hear me yellin' Morning Star, runnin' along the street. Got no hat upon my head no shoes upon my feet."

Studs knew jazz inside out, gospel by heart, the blues as he learned them after being raised in the transient hotel run by his mother on Wells St. He wasn't the only man who had a going-away party when he left to fight in World War Two. He might have been the only one to have Billie Holiday sing at his party.

He was never a communist. He was a proud man of the Left. He was blacklisted by McCarthy, and as a result he lost one of the first national sitcoms in TV history. "I was happy to do it," he said. Every single day of his life he wore a red or red-checked shirt and bright red socks. Of course he smoked a cigar. He liked a drink, too, and loved to hang out in newspaper bars and in ethnic neighborhoods with his pals. I never saw him drunk, and believe me, I had plenty of opportunities to.

He visited me in the hospital more times than I visited him. We received bulletins from those who loved him and cared for him. This was the stunner, from his dear friend Sydney Lewis, on Sept. 11: "After hearing his very clear wishes, [his son] Dan called hospice. The admissions nurse, a lovely woman, said in her many years of doing this work she'd never seen a person more at peace over the decision. Really, all he wants is forJR [his caregiver JR Millares] and Dan to be around and never again to have to leave his house."

He had been in touch through the summer, by e-mail. He wasn't receiving a lot of visitors. He never mentioned his health. He was online encouraging me. That was so typical of him. After I broke my hip, he e-mailed me, but never mentioned the hip. He said: "You have added a NEW VOICE, a new sound, to your natural one. This -- what you write now -- is a richer one -- a new dimension. It's more than about movies. Yes, it's about movies but there is something added: A REFLECTION on life itself."

I thought twice about quoting that, because he says nice things about me. I hope you will understand why I did. It is the voice of Studs Terkel's love. Of Studs reaching outside his failing body and giving encouragement, as he has always done for me and countless others. He couldn't have written a shelf of books after listening to hundreds of people and writing down their words if his heart had not been unconditionally open to the world.

An e-mail on Sept. 15, from Sydney:

"When I got here today he was gloomy and hadn't eaten. He said he's half interested in leaving, half in staying. After I printed out the great Booklist review of his new book P.S. got, he perked up, we talked about the election, and before I knew it he'd polished off some meat loaf and grapes and was demanding more grapes! So it goes. I suggested he hang around for at least a few things: book publication, World Series, election, and Garry Wills's Terkel retrospective for NY Review of Books. He's agreed to try."

On Oct. 23, his friend Andrew Patner e-mailed:

"The man with the greatest spirit known to man is sitting up and taking nourishment. Swallow coaching, even some (cut-up) meat. Gained back a few pounds. Opining on the election (surprise!), the World Series (surprise!), how lousy his new book is being marketed (surprise!). He's looking now to New Year's Eve ("Why not?"), but pulling at least for Election Day ("I can't miss it!")."

He was the most widely and deeply loved man I ever hope to know. He was married for decades to Ida, whose heart filled a room. After the Freedom of Information Act was passed, he was devastated to find that Ida's FBI file was thicker than his own. J. Edgar Hoover thought he was a subversive. Hoover, he said, had a lifelong suspicion of those who thought the Constitution actually meant something.

Studs was a contented, not an outspoken, athiest. "When I go," he told us, "my ashes will be mixed with Ida's and scattered in Bughouse Square." In his next-to-last memoir, he remembered Ida's last words as they wheeled her away towards surgery: "Louis, what have you gotten me into now?" There will be no tombstone, although being Studs, he has written his epitaph: "Curiosity didn't kill this cat."

Comments

[stldr]

When I was 21 years old, Studs came to the small university in Wisconsin where I went to school to conduct an interview with the local NPR affiliate. I was a reporter for the student paper at the time. On a whim I walked up to him after the radio interview and said I'd like to conduct my own interview. "Well," he said, "that fellow over there is managing my schedule and he's going to want me to get out of here pretty quick." Then he hesitated and said, "Where do you want to talk." I took him to the music library (I also did some work at the station) and we chatted about politics, culture and music (he was inspired by all the jazz LPs that surrounded us) for a half-hour. Finally his frantic handler tracked him down and took him away. I'll never forget how gracious and open-hearted he was.

[lucycountessofbedford]

Last night, we toasted Studs at our weekly family dinner.

Years ago, my parents were visiting NYC (an annual pilgrimage from Western Canada). Upon returning to their hotel after an evening out (the opera, I think, because they were dressed rather formally), my father noted an elderly man struggling with the new technology of the key card. He offered to help, only then recognizing that the man was one of his heroes -- Studs Terkel. They got the door open, and as my father turned to go, Studs thanked him and noted, "Sir, you're a regular Raffles." It still stands as one of my father's favourite moments in his own long and remarkable life.

Thank the stars for men like Studs.

[gun]

roger, roger

this is so great that i'm gonna forgive you for praising vanilla sky

but what a guy! how could anything about him not be like him?

met him once, read him often, and heard him always

as full of what he did as bonnie raitt is of music

another angel,

barks at me after a couple hours of raging conversation and laughter

on the curb outside of the Olympic Hotel

take it easy, but take it."

I'm confused.

What? I'm thinking.

He sees it.

So in tune.

"That's Woody Guthrie, kid..."

He was always helping those of us too young or stupid or less enlightened ...

or more bitter.

God obviously loved him.

For all I know the man could have been Jesus Christ in disguise.

[foufou]

what a beautiful tribute.....thank you

[RRonin]

Wonderful post. Here was a MAN!

[texastrixie]

The Right would have characterized Studs Terkel as a pointy-headed elitist (when they were having a slow day). Usually deemed a communist or a socialist, in reality he was a soloist. Not that he worked alone, but truly he was one of a kind. To all who actually met him - you have a gift to remember.

[Azdak]

Thanks to you Mr Ebert, for all you have given to us over the years. I know you are in a tough fight right now, and those of us who have gotten so much from you wish you all the best.

[Diana]

Here, here.

[alicetilden]

Thank you, Roger. You are truly something special yourself. Studs was right about you.

[MarkSB]

Great post Roger. I only got to meet Studs once, but was thrilled. I listened to him and read him lots. A great man.

[SeaRover]

Growing up in Chicago, it was virtually impossible not to be a Studs Terkel fan. I became familiar with his radio show and his books at an early age. My Father was a Studs fan and shared his philosophies. Thanks, Roger, for sharing your memories and unique insights.

[noveltake]

Studs had his finger on the pulse of American life--the average guy in the street, the worker, the homeless--in a way that no one else could. His prose and interviews were insightful, eloquent, gritty. We miss ya, Studs!

[NoPCZone]

Read "Hard Times: An Oral History of the Great Depression" to get an idea of how good Studs could be.
One of the very few authors I would recommend anything they had written without reservation.
A true American Original.

[Wiredwilly]

I met Studs a few years ago & found him to be everything great about Chicago. Eloquent wit seemed to roll off tongue like strikers rolling off a sweatshop assembly line. Mr. Ebert serves Stud's memory well. One thing stands out in my mind about meeting Studs, his advocacy toward reawakening " the Vox Humana " , the human voice. This was at the height of the Bush coup attempt when Bush was using the threat of extraordinary rendition & implying that everyone opposed to BUSH was some sort of terrorist & people were afraid to speak. Mr. Terkel was not. May Studs Rest in peace.

[local21]

Studs I have to believe you are organizing the angels now.

RIP

[jferguson]

I worked in a machine shop in Glenview, IL in the late '50s. It had been built in 1914 and was not much changed from then, old machine tools and an overhead shaft belt power system.

We listened to Studs every day and I came to love West End Blues. I can't hear it today without thinking of Studs.

I remember best his interview of the guy who founded Summerhill, a very thoughtful school in England.

How lucky we were to share our mornings with this wonderful wonderful guy

[abigail1]

Thank you for this.