Dead Celebrity Alert

Lawrence Singleton, who chopped off a teen-age hitchhiker’s forearms in California and was later sent to death row in Florida for killing a prostitute, has died of cancer behind bars. He was 74. … Read full obituary

Anthony Charles Chavis, Zydeco musician and son of the late Zydeco pioneer Boozoo Chavis, died after suffering a heart attack Sunday. He was 45. … Read full obituary

Lance Loud, the beguiling eldest son in a family whose conflicts were laid bare in a landmark 1973 public television documentary series, has died. He was 50. … Read full obituary

The Year 2001’s deaths of people associated with cryptozoology may go down as one of the worst, as far as widespread impact and sadness. Bernard Heuvelmans and Rene Dahinden, of course, quickly come to mind. Several good people died this year.

Let’s pause one more time to note their passing…and wish them well on their next quests…

April 18 - René Dahinden, 70, the Swiss immigrant to British Columbia, became one of the most colorful Sasquatch hunters of all time, (at Richmond, British Columbia). ????? - Bud Ryerson, ??, was instrumental in finding the now frequently discussed and often shown Blue Mountain Bigfoot footprint series of August 1967, (at ?????).

August 8 - Seldon “Pat” Mason, 93, Roger Patterson’s agent, recorded the rockabilly record entitled “Big Foot Wiggle,” and was a famous rock and roll musicians’ booking agent in his own right, (at Seaside, Oregon).

August 24 - Bernard Heuvelmans, 84, a Belgian zoologist who loved jazz, was the acknowledged “Father of Cryptozoology,” (at Le Vesinet, France).

August 25 - John Chambers, 78, an Academy Award-winning makeup artist, will always be remembered in hominological studies as the man who did *not* construct the Patterson-Gimlin Bigfoot, (at Woodland Hills, California).

October 6 - Joe Henry Turner, 82, a well-known local figure in Bigfoot organizations, was a frequent attendee at Ohio’s annual Bigfoot conferences, (at North Canton, Ohio).

December 1 - Ronald “Ronnie” Bremner, 60, was the cofounder and owner of the Loch Ness Center and Exhibition of Drumnadrochit, (at Edinburgh, Scotland).

Cryptozoology, as a community, also had families suffering great personal losses as well (for example, the young daughter of the DeWerths of Ohio, Georgeanne, 4 months old, on April 17, and Lyle Vann’s wife, Jackie, on September 11).

It was a difficult year of passage into the new millennium.

[Did I miss someone? Please pass along word of other individuals who died in 2001 and in the coming years, who have had an impact on the world of cryptozoology. The Cryptozoologist website (http://www.lorencoleman.com) now carries a new navigation bar up top which will take you directly to “Obituaries” for details on some of the above and others. Peace to all the families and loved ones who have experienced losses in 2001.]

©Loren Coleman 2001

Permission granted to use with copyright notice.

Stuart Adamson, 43, lead singer and guitarist for the Scottish rock band Big Country, which had hits in the 1980s with “In a Big Country” and “Fields of Fire,” was found dead Dec. 16 in a hotel room in Honolulu. Authorities said his death is an apparent suicide. … Read full obituary

John Mitchum, 82, who followed his movie-star brother Robert to Hollywood and became a character actor who appeared in scores of movies and hundreds of television shows, died Nov. 29 in a hospital in Los Angeles after a series of strokes. … Read full obituary

John Knowles, whose coming-of-age novel ”A Separate Peace” became required reading for generations of high school students, died on Thursday at a convalescent home in a suburb of Fort Lauderdale, Fla. He was 75. … Read full obituary