[Kzyxtalk] Correction about John Chamberlain and Lenny Laks.

[Marco McClean]

Marco here. I've updated the 2021-03-13 post (titled /Hard Reset/) at 
https://MemoOfTheAir.wordpress.com to reflect this:

Nick Wilson wrote:

It was Steve Davidson, not Lenny Laks, who found John Chamberlin's body 
back on June 4, 2013. Someone got that mixed up. Steve told me some 
details back at the time, and I just phoned him to make sure I got the 
details right.

Steve and JC happened to be in Santa Rosa at the same time, and saw each 
other at Trader Joe's. Later, as Steve drove toward home he came upon 
John's car pulled off of 128 right at the Mendocino County line sign. A 
CHP was there, and Steve stopped to see what was happening.  JC was 
already unconscious and slumped over his steering wheel. The CHP officer 
said he had spoken with Jayce, who told him he was feeling very tired 
and pulled over to rest. He said he intended to continue onward after a 
rest. But he quickly got worse and lost conciousness while the officer 
was there, shortly before Steve arrived.

The CHP called for an ambulance. Steve and CHP got JC out of the car and 
tried to give him CPR, but he was gone. The ambulance crew confirmed he 
had died, but they couldn't transport his body until a coroner arrived 
on the scene. It took 3 hours for that, with Steve, CHP and a tow truck 
all waiting at the scene.

Steve and JC were the closest of pals. They had played music together 
from 1970 onward, starting with Cat Mother. Their last gig was at the 
Mendocino Film Festival with Peter Barg and Franny Leopold's latin music 
group, The Cumbaleros, just a week before John passed. Steve remembered 
that JC was in poor health at that time, and could barely climb the 
steps to the stage.

I was a buddy of John's too, and when I first arrived in 1970 used to 
share his bathroom and kitchen at the Elk compound while I slept in my 
VW camper in the driveway. I was 7 days older than JC. What a talented, 
smart, and caring guy. A genius at his graphic art and a very good 
musician, first on mandolin, and later on guitar and vocals.

When JC passed I started a John Chamberlin Memorial Group on Facebook, 
where people could share memories, photos and tributes. After a few 
months, seeing that other popular locals had also passed, I repurposed 
the group, changed the name to the Mendocino Coast Memorial Group, and 
opened it up to honoring and remembering all of the locals who have 
passed. It currently has over 700 members, but it's public, so anyone 
can go to it and see what's there.  Right now there are many posts about 
Lenny Laks. If you scroll down far enough you'll find the original 2013 
posts about John. Or you could use the search function to find posts 
mentioning him. Here's the link.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/645722462123648/

And here's a link to a photo of John and Steve performing with The 
Cumbaleros on May 28 at the 2013 film festival. It was about a week 
before he passed.
https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=10151691580178944&set=a.10151691576293944

To add a little more about Lenny, he passed March 9, 2021 at the 
hospital in Fort Bragg.  His friends Judy Ashton Frank,  Sharon 
Trott-Sverko and Janet Atherton were with him.  Lenny had been ill since 
December 2019 when he fell and broke his hip. He had also injured his 
back. In surgery they found other serious issues. After a long stay in 
hospital he spent over a year in a series of skilled nursing facilities 
and had additional surgeries. He died of complications including sepsis.

--Nicholas Wilson


--
Marco McClean, memo at mcn.org
https://MemoOfTheAir.wordpress.com