Under the baobab: Those lost in 2021 leave behind loved ones, impact on community

“ No man (person) is an island, entirely of itself. Every man (person) is a part of the continent, a part of the main ...” John Donne, Meditation 17.

Sisters and brothers, we need to relearn our commitment to community as we come to the end of one of the most deadly years in U.S. history. More people died during this pandemic than during the Civil War on both sides. It is said that when an elder dies it is like a library burned.

They all left behind people who loved them. Family, friends and neighbors have left us diminished: the Rev. Dr. Donna King, who almost single-handedly kept St. Paul AME, the last Black-based church in Bellefonte, afloat; Prof. U.B. Bakker, who was always prepared to lend a mentoring hand when needed; Dr. Bernice Black and Ray Crawley, missed and remembered in our thoughts.

Alan Payne, a former FOBA President, remained very active in community affairs. Harry Zimbler loved the theater. For years he was the community’s theater critic. WPSU somehow managed to get through a fundraiser without Pat Smith, the unofficial chairman of the annual benefit drive. James Korner will be sorely missed but not forgotten. Renaissance Man Pat Daugherty will be remembered. The walkway outside his Tavern Restaurant will be named for him.

Outside of Happy Valley more friends and colleagues joined the ancestors. Shirley Knight helped me when I was a young writer by critiquing my scripts and advising me to “write like people talk.” Olympia Dukakis and I were fellow artistic directors of New Jersey Theatres and shared the screen on a couple of soaps. Henry Aaron gave Jo and I his family’s tickets for the celebrity dinner at a Night of 100 Stars. Robert Downey and I popped the top on many a beer bottle down on New York’s Lower East Side. He was the gruff black voice in “Putney Swope.” I first met Christopher Plummer when he played Iago to James Earl Jones’ “Othello.” Most people probably remember him from playing Captain Von Trapp in “The Sound of Music.” I shared the stage with his ex-wife, Tammy Grimes, in “Pygmalion” down at the Arena Stage in DC.

I was blessed to meet a giant of the American stage, Cicely Tyson, in her last Broadway performance. She played opposite Jones in “The Gin Game.” I went backstage to see Jimmy; she was there and honored me with an autograph and some notes about the craft.

Bob Moses was the leader of the 1964 Mississippi Freedom Project along with Fannie Lou Hamer, Aaron Henry, Stokely Carmichael and Charlie Cobb. We all went to the Atlantic City Democratic National Convention to protest the seating of the racist regular party members over the Freedom Democratic Party. Afterward, Bob spent years in Tanzania working as a math teacher in the Ministry of Education. He returned to the U.S. to establish the Algebra Project.

There were others who left us this year: Charlie Watts, drummer for the Rolling Stones, Michael K. Williams from “The Wire,” Norm McDonald, Lloyd Price, Charlie Robinson. The list is long and heartbreaking. All did not die from COVID-19, many did. What matters is that many of us are in mourning for lost loved ones. No matter which side of the political spectrum you stand on, we share in this grief. As we come to the end of the year, crawling toward the closure of this pandemic let us seek understanding and comfort knowing our mutual sorrow and find hope in the potential and promise of tomorrow. Let’s relearn how to take care of each other:

“ ... Any man’s (person’s) death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.” — Donne

This story was originally published December 27, 2021 at 5:00 AM.