| 06/26/09 02:51 AM |
#42
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John Zwick
Hi Gennie. Hi Mary Kathryn Vernon. Hi to everyone who would like to know how Jerry Masheter was lost to us.
I say lost to us because that's how shocked those who were very close to him were to learn of his death. Zeke Hills was closest to Jerry and was with him for several hours the evening before Jerry died which happened several hours later in the early a.m.
One fall day in 1962, Jerry died in his own bed in his parents' home of a cerebral hemorrhage. His parents and Zeke were told it could have been a congenital defect just waiting for blood vessels to burst.
Jerry and Zeke were room mates their freshman year in music school at North Texas State University. Jerry attended the Berklee School of Music in Boston his sophomore year. In mid-1961 Jerry went to LA and stayed with Hugh McCurley, a friend of ours from OKC. Jerry did his best to play guitar and sing in some small clubs and also tried to get into acting.
Jerry returned from LA in 1962 without having any luck in LA. A week or so before his death, my first wife Margaret and I asked Jerry to dinner at our little house on Cruce St. in Norman. He was really glad to see us but seemed pretty "down." Years later I learned he was upset over a girl he left in LA.
I met Margaret at OU in the spring of 1961. We dated about four months before splitting up. Margaret then dated Jerry for about a month and a half in the summer of 1961. They split and Jerry later went to LA. Margaret and I got together later that summer and after a few weeks got engaged. We were married in December 1961. Margaret, Jerry, Zeke, Hugh McCurley and I all remained close friends, even after first Hugh and then Jerry went to LA.
I believe Bobby Taylor made the kindest observation about Jerry I have ever heard. During the "great political email bash" after the 45th reunion, Bob observed that he always remembered seeing Jerry in study hall, lost in his thoughts and staring into what seemed some mysterious, far away place. Maybe eternity?
Maybe Jerry got lost someplace, in that great somewhere else, hopefully playing with that great big jazz band in the sky.
In Jerry's memory I rewrote some lyrics to the traditional blues song "Birmingham Jail" which I heard on the album "Peggy Lee Sings The Blues," which is now out of print. Music Masters CIJD 60155F. Recorded in 1984 at Clinton Sound, New York and released in 1988. It can probably be found used on Amazon.com.
"OKC Jail"
Lyrics by John W. Zwick
May, 2001
Down by the station,
The station so low.
Late in the evening,
Hear the train blow.
Hear the train blow, love,
Hear the train blow.
Late in the evening,
Hear the train blow.
Roses love sunshine,
Violets love dew.
Angels in Heaven,
Know I love you.
Roses love sunshine,
Violets love dew.
Jerry's in Heaven,
I sure miss you.
Write me a letter,
Don't send an email.
Send it in care of,
The OKC Jail.
OKC Jail, love,
OKC Jail.
Send it in care of,
The OKC Jail.
I grew up in our family's little house in the 600 block of N.W. 47th St, just a few blocks from the Santa Fe rail road tracks. Every night just after midnight while I lay awake in my bedroom listening to music on the radio, I heard a distant train's steam whistle as it crossed 36th St. I heard the same train whistle again much louder and brighter as it picked up speed through the 50th St. crossing.
I asked my father what train would come west from the 23d St. Union Station every night so late. He replied to me, "It's the midnight train to the West Coast, Johnny. It's a very important train, it's a passenger train just like the one we used to ride so often between Oklahoma City and Chicago when we lived there.
Trains are magic. Too bad we have to travel like sardines now in airplanes.
Best wishes to everyone who knew and liked Jerry. I never met anyone who didn't like him, even when he was quiet.
Johnny Zwick
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