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

[eilish]

I read the article because of you, Roger. It has given me a curiosity and desire to read Mr. Terkel's works therefore I am headed off to the bookstore as soon as I am done with this post. As with the posts of others I have read here, you not only took my enjoyment of movies to a passion, but also rarely recommended a movie I didn't love. As with much of America, Siskel & Ebert were my guidelines as to what to see that week. I thank you for all the money you saved me by giving tips on which lousy movies to give a bye, and thanks for being such a decent, kind and intelligent man. It very much sounds as if, in your tribute and those of the others, your friend Studs was just such a man.

[bostaf]

Terkel was a great writer - you will probably really like his books! We have surely lost a candle in the darkness.

[MountainMuscle]

Roger, you forgot to mention The Voice. Anyone who ever lived in Chicago will never forget it. Studs Terkel was pure & simple, the sound of empathy.

[rock2casbah]

Thanks Mr. Ebert for this tribute. I also miss you as part of my saturday evening movie check. No one can give a review like you and you are sorely missed. I know I can catch you at the Sun Times, but there is still nothing like watching you and the likes of someone on the par of Siskel, and I even put up with Roeper in order to hear your spot on evaluation of the movies. Your reviews are a fading art form that has yet to be filled.

Thanks for your unbiased , eloquent , many times courageous movie reviews. My best as a fan to Cassie as well.

[rock2casbah]

Did I type Cassie when I meant Chaz? Sorry Roger, I'm probably thinking of Cassie Lemons who you hipped me to many moons ago. A great person to be confused with.

[SemperVeritas]

Roger, thank you for this loving tribute. I, too, have noticed that
your "voice" is stronger, subtler, and more vibrant these days
even though your audible voice is now silent.

Your words mean so much to so many people, Roger. You have
been, and still are, an inspiration to us all.

Keep on keeping on! Your insights, your wit, your humanity are
irreplaceable.

[werrit]

Thank you for this beautiful tribute to a wonderful person. You and Mr. Terkel share a useful viewpoint, and that is to address the questions "Why does it matter? What does it *mean* to people?"--rather than focusing on surfaces only.

After the tech bubble burst, my husband was laid off from two high-tech jobs in a row, and we had to sell our home and leave the Bay Area for someplace we could live on one income. I felt angry, sad, disappointed--I'm a native Californian, and it really saddened me that my single mom could raise two kids with no child support in the Bay Area, but there was no way my husband and I could raise one child there in that terrible economic climate.

I was very depressed, so I tried to find ways to motivate myself and not feel self-pity. I read Grapes of Wrath, and Hard Times by Studs Terkel. Those two beautifully written works profoundly affected me. I read about people determined to go on, and to do the best they possibly could for their children, in unbelievable circumstances. Recently I told a friend who is reading Grapes of Wrath to read Terkel's Hard Times as well. It's a very touching, humane, and uplifting look at a time in our history that I didn't know much about. It takes a real gift to let people's own words speak for themselves so eloquently, from all different places and walks of life.

[rini]

It does sound like he was a great American. I'm glad he got to see the light at the end of the tunnel after the Bush administration.

[BanditTheCat]

Thanks. That was beautiful. He was quite a guy and you were lucky to have him as your friend. You take care, too.

[cylindar]

Studs was a cool dude. I had a friend who did not know Studs and decided to stop by his apartment with a bottle of whiskey. When he arrived, Studs was home, invited him in and they both drank the whole bottle at his kitchen table and conversed about whatever. He was very accepting and friendly with everybody. I have the deepest respect for this man and I am sorry to see him go. He was a gem of a guy.

[bluecatz]

He was a giant, a wonderful writer, a unique utterly human being. We'll all miss him and be better for having known him. Thanks, Studs ....

[slovenia]

Dear Mr. Ebert,

When I saw this morning on the BBC website that Studs had passed, I cried out. That brought my Slovenian wife to find out what was going on. For a half hour I talked to her about the Studs Terkel I knew and cared for and was thankful for. I knew Studs only through his books and interviews but I've know him for 40 years.

I am tremendously grateful to you for sharing your wonderful memories of Studs. There'll never be another like him.

[Mango]

Thank you Mr. Ebert, and THANK YOU Mr. Terkel.

[ARDebaser]

Thank you for that, Mr. Ebert. I, as most native Chicagoans, grew up with Studs. He was everybody's smart, fascinating, magnanimous uncle and many of us raised a glass to him last night.

On September 11, 2001 I was lucky enough to spend the evening listening to Studs speak at Loyola University. Our professor canceled evening class and took us all over to the auditorium saying, "I think we could all use a good talking to." He was a smart man too. The shock, sorrow and fear we carried into that room was greatly diminished by Stud's calm, his resolve and, as always, ability to say "just the right thing." We miss him already.

[bostaf]

I first heard about Studs Terkel in high school, when our drama club performed "Working", the musical based on his book by the same title. After the show was over, I read "Working" - and it gave me a real appreciation for the work world and its trials. As I've re-read the book over the years (I've read some of his other books, but "Working" made the biggest impression on me), it always strikes me that the stories of those men and women were dated in their contexts (strikes, the Vietnam War) but so timeless in their sentiment. Mr. Terkel was a very gifted interviewer and the world has lost a great light. Thank you, Mr. Ebert, for this wonderful memorial.

[robiform]

Lovely tribute to a great American, Mr. Ebert! It's good to know that although you can no longer speak, your talents with the written word are as fine as ever! One of the greatest books I ever read was "Working" by Studs Terkel; a wonderful portrait of everyday Americans and their lives. It's a shame that Mr. Terkel will miss what I hope will be an historic moment on Tuesday!

[kevinem2]

It must have been wonderful, being in Chicago and knowing giants like Studs and Mike Royko.