RIP Madelaine (Dee) Ferro

Via the EVG inbox...

Residents of Saint Mark's Place greatly miss their friend Madelaine (Dee) Ferro, who passed away this past week at NYU Langone from complications due to COVID-19. Dee leaves two children and many friends, who she always had time for. She was known for her great devotion to animal care. 

Her viewing is today from 4-9 p.m. (with a religious service at 6 p.m.) at Peter Jarema Funeral Home, 129 E. Seventh St. between Avenue A and First Avenue. There will be a mass tomorrow morning at 9:30 at St. Stanislaus Bishop and Martyr Church, 101 E. Seventh St. between Avenue A and First Avenue, followed by burial in the Bronx.

 Thank you to Allen Semanco

Remembering the city's biggest opera fan, and what will become of her memorabilia?

Lois Kirschenbaum, a fan fixture at the Metropolitan Opera for more than 50 years, has died at 88. https://t.co/WYkMvITA4e

— NYT Obituaries (@NYTObits) April 10, 2021

Longtime East Village resident Lois Kirschenbaum died earlier month. She was 88. 

The Times covered her passing (see tweet above), and followed up with another story on who they called "the queen of the Metropolitan Opera’s stage door since the 1950s."

Corey Kilgannon has a feature on her extensive collection of autographed photos of opera stars as well as singed programs — a number that exceeds 200,000. And they are all sitting in boxes in her spare bedroom now.

Kirschenbaum was a switchboard operator from Flatbush, Brooklyn, who became perhaps New York's biggest and longest-standing opera buff — and an obsessive autograph collector. For over half a century, she spent about 300 nights a year at the Met and other musical and dance performances. Legally blind since birth, she would usually sit in the uppermost balcony and follow the action with a pair of large binoculars, always hustling back after the curtain call — programs and headshots in hand — to gather signatures.

Her will, drafted in 1992, directed her collection to be left to the "Lincoln Center Research Library," which, as the Times notes, is likely a reference to the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center.

Its executive director, Jennifer Schantz, said the library was "delighted and honored," adding, "We look forward to reviewing the collection and learning more."

But...

Since the library does not accept all such donations, however, Kirschenbaum’s friends still fear the material might wind up discarded.

RIP Arthur Farrier

Longtime East Village resident Arthur Farrier, founder of Bookleaves used and rare books in the West Village (now Left Bank Books), passed away on March 25. He was 80. A cause of death was not revealed. 

Here's more information from his published obituary:

Arthur cherished all his many friends and fans from Bookleaves and the tight-knit NYC booksellers community. 

Born in the Bronx, he was a proud graduate of Stuyvesant High School, a U.S. Army veteran who was antiwar, a New York cabbie, a longtime East Village resident, and an accomplished abstract photographer.

Bookleaves was part of a New York Times feature from 2003:

Stocked with out-of-print books, it is a browser's nirvana. People bring in dusty boxes, and the owner, Arthur Farrier, sorts them.

''I have the smallest inventory in the Western world,'' said Mr. Farrier, who spent 20 years driving a cab before he got tired of complaining about disappearing bookshops and opened one of his own. ''The odds against finding a book here are tremendous.''

Mr. Farrier is in danger of becoming a Village character. He affects a beret over a mane of white hair — he calls it a poor man's toupee — and he is a mine of Greenwich Village lore. 

Felton Davis of Maryhouse on Third Street shared the above photo of Farrier with his friend Marianne Goldscheider sitting in Washington Square Park.

"Most of us are, sadly, always running around from one thing to another, but if you had the time, those two had the memories," Davis told me in an email.

Goldscheider, an activist and writer, "is carrying on bravely in her late 80s," though she is now in a senior-care facility near her family in Massachusetts. 

Remembering Carol Joyce on 7th Street

This plaque arrived last week outside 39 E. Seventh St., the longtime home (1963-2020) of Carol Joyce and her husband Bob here between Second Avenue and Cooper Square ...

"In Loving Memory of the Mayor of Seventh Street."

She's remembered here as "anti-establishment, outspoken, compassionate & witty."

In the early days of the pandemic last March, she and her husband stayed at a cousin's country home. While away from the city she died of cardiac arrest on March 22, 2020. She was 93.

Jonathan Ned Katz, a longtime friend, wrote an essay about Carol at OutHistory.org.

She was born in the Bronx on April 1, 1926 ... and later graduated from Washington Irving High School. 

Carol taught textile design for many years at the School of Visual Arts, and she wrote several books on the topic. 

Here are few a excerpts from the essay:

Carol spent her adult life in Lower East Side rentals. In the 1980s, she and Robert Joyce founded the E. 7th Street Block Association which had trees planted, increased street safety and garbage pick-ups, and brought neighbors together at street fairs. Carol fought against gentrification, sometimes winning long battles to keep the heights of new buildings scaled to the neighborhood and protecting old brownstones from being demolished for high rises. 

And...

I always viewed Carol with a bit of awe, as a wondrous, fantastical creature, a quintessential New York character. Bob Joyce said it this way, recalling his wife as "a New Yorker born and bred, with no tolerance for hypocrisy..." 

Her only shortcomings, he noted, were that "she did not drink wine or eat pasta." He called her "the love of my life."

You can read the full essay here. Bob Joyce is now living upstate with relatives. 

Thank you to Dinky Romilly for the photos! 

Remembering Wendy Schonfeld

Wendy Schonfeld died in a fire in her fourth-floor apartment at 335 E. Fifth St. between First Avenue and Second Avenue late Thursday night. She was 80. 

The Daily News has more about Schonfeld and her life:

Even at 80, Schonfeld was a vibrant fixture in her East 5th St. building and a priceless mentor to former colleagues at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. 

"She lived and breathed the arts," said Robert La Force, a neighbor for 29 years. "Even though she didn’t really go out the last couple of years, she was still a part of everything," said La Force. "She would stick her head out the window and talk to people."

And...

Her home was crammed with artifacts from Mexico and elsewhere collected during a lifetime of devotion to the arts. 

At the Met, Schonfeld was recalled for guiding younger colleagues to get their noses out of books and helping them communicate the grandeur of art to the general public. 

"She had that wonderful New York way of setting things straight, with kindness," said Joanne Pillsbury, a curator at the Met. "She was a fountain of information about objects and ideas."

According to the News (and as several readers pointed out), there was another fire in Schonfeld's apartment more than 10 years ago. She reportedly suffered permanent health problems from smoke inhalation.

As for this fire, FDNY officials told the News that "the blaze may have been caused by faulty wiring in an air conditioner." 

Photo by Steven

About Keith Forever

A few people have asked about the Keith Forever mural that arrived on First Avenue at Second Street late last week.

Created by Eric Haze, the mural is part of an ongoing celebration of the life and legacy of Keith Hufnagel, the skateboarding icon and founder of the streetwear company Huf Worldwide. 

Hufnagel died last September of brain cancer. He was 46. 

He was a native New Yorker, and grew up in Stuy Town-Peter Cooper Village ... he moved to San Francisio in the early 1990s, where he would later launch his business.

This clip from Huf's Instagram account provides some aerial views of the tribute...

 

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A post shared by HUF (@hufworldwide)

RIP Ricky Powell

Ricky Powell, the celebrated downtown photographer best known for his work with the Beastie Boys and other iconic figures in the early days of rap, has died. He was 59. Media outlets have reported that he died of heart failure. 

From Pitchfork:

In his heyday in the in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s, Powell was a mainstay in the downtown Manhattan art and music scene. His portraits and candids of musicians like Eric B and Rakim, LL Cool J, Run-DMC, and Madonna, as well as downtown NYC denizens like Keith Haring, Andy Warhol, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Sofia Coppola, and Laurence Fishburne, have been shown in art galleries and published in several photo books.

In 1986, he quit his day job (selling lemon ices) to go on tour with the Beasties Boys as they opened for Run-DMC.

He would become a regular with the band, from cameos in videos and lyrics, such as in "Car Thief" on Paul's Boutique. 

Powell later hosted the cable access show "Rappin’ With The Rickster," which chronicled the oddities of daily NYC life as well as up-and-coming actors, musicians and scenesters.

You can read more about his life and the outpouring of tributes to him at these sites: 

• Complex

•  Brooklyn Vegan

• Rolling Stone

And here's a January 2020 interview with him on OG Talk at the Organic Grill on First Avenue...

Image via Wikipedia

From the archives: On the phone with Sylvain Sylvain of the New York Dolls

[Sylvain, left, and David Johansen in 2006]

Ed note: Sylvain Sylvain died this week of cancer at age 69. This EVG post first appeared on March 8, 2013.

Last week, I spoke with Sylvain Sylvain, the guitarist of the legendary New York Dolls, and one of the two remaining original band members. I called him to talk about the program he's hosting at noon today on East Village Radio titled "Rock and Roll Hours." 

He talked to me for about 45 minutes from his home in Atlanta, sharing some favorite East Village memories starting when he moved to the neighborhood from Queens in 1967. 

Sylvain, 62, has a lot of stories, from waiting for coffee at Veselka to being the protopunk band who helped pave the way for others on the NYC scene in the 1970s. Here are some excerpts from the conversation. It was more of a conversation than an interview, so it doesn't really follow a Q-and-A format...

First apartment
"It was ... 1967. It was on East Fifth Street between Avenue C and D. It was $57 a month in rent. For the whole damn place! The apartment had a refrigerator. It worked and everything — the light was on. But it didn’t have a door. [Laughs] It was groovy for about a month or two — during the summer. Then I got the hell out of there real quick. Anywhere past Avenue A you were taking your life in your hands. There was a lot of heroin. It was actually cheaper than pot. It was pretty fucking wild."



Gem Spa, which served as the setting for the back cover of the New York Dolls' first album
"It was a corner place in the late 1960s. It wasn’t much of a joint at all. But we felt like the place epitomized the whole East Village scene — this is where we were living. You could stop there and pick up your smokes and get an egg cream and the newspaper or a magazine. I know Johnny [Thunders] used to really love those egg creams. They got hipper as years went on, where they would sell Melody Maker. It became more of a place once the Dolls took pictures in front of it."

Veselka
"There was the Slow Russians. What do they call that place? Veselka? We called it ‘The Slow Russians.’ You’d ask for a cup of coffee at like 2 o’clock in the morning. By the time they served you the coffee it would be like 6 o’clock in the morning! [Laughs] They were real slow! But they had all those soups and it was pretty cheap. They were open all night too."

Peace Eye Bookstore
"Ed Sanders from the Fugs — one of my favorites — had a bookstore right across the street from Tompkins Square Park [at 147 Avenue A]. I worked there for a couple of months until he discovered that I couldn’t really read because I’ve always had dyslexia, and then he fired me right there."

Rent
"It was cheap. You could live on the Avenues. It was a lot safer. The drugs were softer there. There was marijuana — no heroin. If you wanted to live there, it was like $150 to $300 for a month's rent.

"Every summer, me and [David] Johansen, we used to say, 'OK, I haven't seen that person ... that person just came in. She just came in.' We could count them off. They heard their calling from wherever they came from — the Midwest, the West Coast, upstate New York — even from Queens, like me. These people had a calling to come to the city, and the East Village was the only place that they could afford to live. They would go to art school or become musicians. The only band who I remember before us were the Magic Tramps, which was Eric Emerson. He passed away, the poor guy, on heroin too.

Manhattan
"Queens was a few stops away from Manhattan, but it was a lifetime of travel to get to Manhattan.

"Manhattan was the only free place. As bad as it was in Alphabet City, you were free at least. You could wear what you wanted. Some times you took your life in your hands just walking. It was really dangerous. But at least you were free — that was the bottom line."



Shopping and dressing
"[Dolls bassist] Arthur Kane was on First Avenue. He lived right above a bar [now d.b.a.]. It took us like five hours to get dressed. Arthur was wearing this chick’s zebra waistcoat. It was a print, of course. It wasn’t a real zebra. But it took us hours and hours to get dressed — all this just to go shopping at the supermarket.

"When we get to the supermarket — it was below Houston. It was called the Big Apple. We were in the queue there to pay for whatever food we didn’t stuff into our pockets. This mafiosa guy says 'the things you see when you ain’t got a rifle.'

"I would go shopping from Madison Avenue to thrift shops. And you just made it up on your own.

"We'd get everything from the little kids' motorcycle jackets to beat-up blue jeans. It depended where the fuck you got it. We were the most creative — we were like what they call club kids, but when there were no clubs."

Telecommunications
"Everyone had a telephone. Of course, we never paid for it. You’d pick a name. My name was Ricky Corvette. I'm pretty sure I still owe Ma Bell a lot of money. Back then, you’d call up and say I just moved into this new place. 'OK, what's your name? Ricky Corvette. OK, Ricky we'll be there next week to put in your phone.' I'm talking about 1970."

Johnny's closet
Johnny Thunders had an apartment on Avenue A. His closet was like — everything would be pressed and dry cleaned. He had a real unique way of dressing and picking this and this and that and putting it all together.

When we were picking names for the band, he called me, well, he called Ricky Corvette, and run names by me. 'What do you think of Johnny Thunder?' I'd was like Yeah, that's pretty cool Johnny. The phone would ring five minutes later. What about Johnny Thunders?

Home
"I did have an apartment in New York until 2010. It was on 69th Street off Broadway. Up until a couple years ago we were doing OK so I could still have an apartment in New York. But then I couldn’t afford it. I first moved to LA, and lived there until 1995 and moved here to Atlanta. It was all because of money. Now Atlanta is getting almost as expensive as New York. Almost. I think Nicaragua, friend, is next."

Starting a band
"A lot of kids come up to me like 'Wow, you came up at a really great time!' Oh, fuck no! When the New York Dolls started in 1970, there was nobody. You couldn't get a contract. It took us years. It took until 1973 until we got signed.

"After we started it was five years until CBGB opened in 1975. The Dolls broke up in 1975. There were no places to play. You had to invent places to play. We were the ones who kind of gave birth to groups like Blondie and the Talking Heads." 

 

 [Photos via Sylvain Sylvain]

RIP Sylvain Sylvain

 

As you may have heard, Sylvain Sylvain, co-founder and guitarist of the New York Dolls, died Wednesday of cancer. He was 69. 

An appreciation via Jem Aswad at Variety:

While singer David Johansen was a classic Jaggeresque frontman and Johnny Thunders oozed degenerate charisma and played snarling lead guitar, Sylvain was the group's foundation, bringing textured riffs and rhythmic power that underpinned the songs' melodies and meshed with the bass and drums. The twang of his Gretsch guitar countered Thunders' blistering, distorted leads and gave the group a melodic bedrock.

Sylvain previously lived in the East Village, starting in 1967. 

Johansen is now the only surviving member of the original lineup, seen in the above video with "Stranded in the Jungle" from 1973.

RIP Hanshi Wilfredo Roldan

 An EVG reader shared the following in memoriam ...

 
Longtime Lower East Side resident and martial arts legend Wilfredo Roldan, or Hanshi, passed away on Christmas Day. He was 69.

Some readers may have seen a small shrine pop up outside the former University of the Streets building at 130 E. Seventh St. near Avenue A, where he taught and ran the Nisei Goju-Ryu system for many years.

Roldan was born in Puerto Rico and moved to New York at a young age. His martial arts career began in the mid-1960s, when he trained under local greats including Sensei Owen Watson and Grand Master Frank Ruiz. Martial arts were a valuable asset in the streets of the Lower East Side.
 
As Roldan progressed Nisei Goju-Ryu, mentoring countless students along the way, he was a regular at Odessa and other neighborhood hotspots. Watch him tell the story of the dojo and more local lore here and you can notice a characteristic twinkle in his eyes.
 
Having starred in a number of martial arts movies in the 1970s ("Black Force," "Velvet Smooth" and "Dragon Express"), he also taught physical education in NYC Public Schools for over two decades. With the "University of the Streets, the Prequel" (shot at Seventh Street and Avenue A), he continued to add to his list of endeavors and accomplishments.
 
He will be missed, but his spirit carries on. Osu.

Gone but not forgotten

Remembering a few of our friends and neighbors who died in 2020...

• Frances Goldin, lifelong preservationist and community activist

• Terry Lewis, aka Kid Lucky, beatbox and beatrhyming pioneer

• Jimmy Webb, manager at Trash & Vaudeville, and later owner of I Need More

 

• Annette Averette, neighborhood activist and member of the Sixth Street Community Center 

• Matthew "Matty" Maher, longtime bartender then owner of McSorley's

• Margaret Morton, professor at Cooper Union and photographer who documented the city's homeless

• Holly Lane, East Village-based music executive

• David Gonzales, longtime employee at Frank Restaurant on Second Avenue

• Shirley Campbell, housing activist

• Giuseppi Logan, free-jazz legend



• Phyllis Somerville, veteran actress of film, TV and Broadway 

• Miguel Algarin, poet and founder of the Nuyorican Poets Cafe

• Carol Porteous-Fall, eco-activist and yoga enthusiast

• Ali Yasin, pharmacist and proprietor at New York City Pharmacy on First Avenue

• Miguel Grande, the Pasta King at Supper on Second Street

• Nashom Wooden, legend in the drag community 

• The Rev. Diane Dunne, pastor of Hope for the Future Ministries who fed the homeless in Tompkins Square Park since the late 1980s

• Edgar Artur Cajamarca, kitchen team member at Miss Lily's 7A

  

• Francois "Frans" Nieuwendam, menswear consultant and nightlife veteran

• Walter Lure, musician and founding member of the Heartbreakers

• Hanshi Wilfredo Roldan, martial-arts legend

• Jack Finelli, theater lover, community gardener

• George Eshareturi, doorman at St. Dymphna's

• Stasia Micula, community activist who worked in the 1970s-1980s as adult film star Samantha Fox

RIP Miguel Algarín

Miguel Algarín, who founded the Nuyorican Poets Cafe in his Sixth Street apartment in 1973, died on Sunday. He was 79. A cause of  death was not revealed.

The Nuyorican website has more on the the poet, activist and educator:

In his Lower East Side apartment, the Nuyorican Poets Cafe was born as an outspoken and passionate collective of poets, musicians, theater artists and activists.

Miguel was a brilliant poet, an influential professor and leader, and a supportive mentor who inspired and guided generations of artists.

He edited popular anthologies of poetry and theater, including "Aloud: Voices from the Nuyorican Poets Cafe" and "Action"; he helped launch the Nuyorican Literary movement; and he played an instrumental role in popularizing spoken word and performance poetry across the United States and around the world.

Miguel and the Cafe's co-founders amplified the voices and championed the work of Latinx, Black, LGBTQ+ and immigrant artists who were not accepted by the academic, entertainment or publishing industries.

Thanks to their pioneering work, and thanks to our community of friends and supporters, the Cafe has remained a vibrant home for creative expression since 1973.

The literary world owes Miguel a debt of gratitude. He will be greatly missed.

In a December 2018 feature, the Times provided some history of the Cafe, which is now temporarily closed during the pandemic on Third Street between Avenue B and Avenue C:

In the early 1970s, Algarín ... began inviting other Nuyorican poets to his apartment on East Sixth Street for readings and performances. Algarín and his contemporaries, including Miguel Piñero, Pedro Pietri and Lucky CienFuegos, were part of a growing artistic scene in what was then a primarily Puerto Rican neighborhood, drawing on their identities and daily struggles for their work. 

The salon quickly outgrew Algarín’s living room, so he and a few other artists began renting an Irish bar down the street to fit more people. In 1981, they bought their current building on East Third Street and, after a lengthy renovation process, formally opened it to the public in 1990 as a space for Nuyorican poets to experiment and hone their craft.

Algarín was born in Puerto Rico in 1941. His family moved to the Lower East Side in 1950.

According to his official bio, he was Professor Emeritus for his more than 30 years of service to Rutgers University. He also received three American Book Awards.

There were many tributes yesterday on Twitter, including...

Miguel Algarin has died and I’m heartbroken. Long live The Nuyorican Poets. QEPD. 😢😢😢😢

— Maria Hinojosa (@Maria_Hinojosa) December 1, 2020

We offer our deepest love, thoughts and prayers to the friends and family of Miguel Algarin. Founder of Nuyorican Poets Cafe, his work continues to influence and inspire poets, and artists alike, across the diaspora. pic.twitter.com/xsifZXj9eX

— CantoMundo (@CantoMundo) December 1, 2020

Since the start, our monthly poetry slam has been inspired by the Nuyorican Poets Cafe. Miguel Algarín imbued the Nuyorican Poets Cafe with joy, soul and a deep sense of community that reverberated for generations. May our work be a small honoring of his legacy.

— The Philly Pigeon (@ThePhillyPigeon) December 1, 2020

RIP Pastor Diane

The Rev. Diane Dunne, who helped feed the homeless in the East Village since the late 1980s, died in her sleep last Friday night at her Long Island home. She was 66.

Pastor Diane, as she was known, could be seen in Tompkins Square Park giving out free food on Wednesdays and Saturdays to those in need. “Tough love” is how one Park regular described her.   

In her 20s, she worked as a regional sales manager for a cosmetics company, a job that she found unfulfilling. In 1982, she enrolled at World Challenge Ministries and later embarked on a life of street ministry. A Long Island resident, she first came to Tompkins Square Park in 1987.

She was the founder of Hope For the Future Ministries, based in Farmingdale, Long Island. In November 2009, a fire, suspected to be arson, heavily damaged the facility's food pantry, though she was able to regroup. The organization was said to serve 300,000 hot meals and pantry bags per year to people in need on Long Island and in New York City.

Funeral arrangements are pending. There is a memorial scheduled to honor her tomorrow afternoon at 4 along Avenue A at Tompkins Square Park.

Top photo on this post is of a tribute to her as seen along Avenue A. Thank you to Steven for the reporting.

RIP Kid Lucky

Terry Lewis, a longtime East Village resident who was known as Kid Lucky, a beatbox and beatrhyming pioneer, died on Oct. 23. Friends say that he had been battling cancer for the past three years.

Kid Lucky created events like the Hip Hop Subway Series and The American Human Beatbox Festival, and performed at various downtown venues as well as Astor Place and the subway. 

Penny Arcade, a longtime downtown performance artist and archivist, shared her thoughts on his generous spirit.

Lucky was an artist and human of great dignity and authenticity. I have never met a braver person. He was unfailingly generous to me regarding my work and my influence on him as well as a selfless promoter of other artists. He was a great mentor to many as well as a prolific organizer of events for the art form he loved. 

Lucky was gentleman of the highest order and he had an innate elegance and deep sophistication that was the result of the strength of his intelligence and personal inquiry...not something that was handed to him thru the luck of birth or connections. He was cosmopolitan in the true sense. Lucky was also a  proud and devoted father to his son Psyence. 

Fly Orr shared Kid Lucky's story of moving to NYC in one of her PEOPs portraits...

He received the 2018 American Beatbox Lifetime Achievement Award. "The American Beatbox Community would not be where we are today without his years of hard work," the group said at the time. 

Will update this post when there's additional information about a memorial.

Photo from 2011 by John Marshall Mantel

A farewell parade through the East Village for Jack Finelli

On Saturday, friends and family came together to celebrate the life of longtime East Village resident Jack Finelli ... embarking on a tour of his favorite neighborhood places...

Joshua Weeks provided a snapshot of his father's life:

The East Village lost a longtime community member, John Robert ("Jack") Finelli, this past July. Jack was born Jan. 30, 1936, in Jackson Heights, Queens. He moved to the Lower East Side in 1968, where he stayed until September 2018.

With an accounting degree from New York University, Jack helped countless local residents and businesses with their taxes through tough times, including the famous Electric Circus, Whole Earth Bakery and the Theater for the New City. 

A lifelong student of health and spirituality, he traveled to Mexico and studied macrobiotics with pioneer Michio Kushi in 1983, and was known for making tofu in his East Fifth Street walk-up, where he lived for 43 years. Jack was also a lover of acting and music, and contributed to performances and workshops at many theaters and gardens around lower Manhattan. Jack helped produce the 2007 film "To My Great Chagrin" about his longtime friend, comedian Brother Theodore.

He was a beloved member of the De Colores and Campos community gardens, where he remained active until suffering a debilitating stroke in late 2018. Jack passed peacefully in his sleep on July 24, 2020. He is survived by his sister, Judith Finelli-Thomsen and his son, Joshua Weeks.

EVG contributor Stacie Joy shared these photos...

Here are a few more photos courtesy of the De Colores Community Yard & Cultural Center on Eighth Street... including from outside Finelli's longtime apartment building on Fifth Street... 

'May she remind you to keep going'

As seen this morning on Avenue A at 13th Street. 

Art by Capt. Eyeliner, who left several of these in the neighborhood. Per the Capt.'s Instagram: "May she remind you to keep going."

RIP Walter Lure

[Image via @wlure]

Walter Lure, who was a cofounder of punk-rock pioneers the Heartbreakers, died yesterday of cancer. He was 71.

The guitarist appeared on the Heartbreakers only studio album, 1977's L.A.M.F., which featured frontman Johnny Thunders, bassist Billy Rath and drummer Jerry Nolan. All four members of the band are now deceased.

This past spring, he released the auto-biography "To Hell and Back: My Life in Johnny Thunders' Heartbreakers, in the Words of the Last Man Standing."

You can read more about his musical career via Rolling Stone ... Brooklyn Vegan ... and Stereogum.

Several local artists paid tribute to Lure on Instagram...

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Walter Lure to me was sort of the last of the Mohicans of the 70s New York punk rock scene. The last Heartbreaker, I really thought he was immortal. He was a classic legend and always crackin jokes. And goddamn it could he play guitar. The New York rock n roll scene took a major hit today and will never be the same. I’m really going to miss walking out my door and running over to Bowery Electric to go see him. I’m really gonna miss you man. Thank you for the music, sharing your epic stories, and always being cool. Love you Uncle Walter. Rest In Peace 🙏🏻💔💫 #WalterLure #Legend #Heartbreakers #TheWaldos

A post shared by @ _chuckbones_ on Aug 22, 2020 at 8:43pm PDT

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Rest In Peace Walter Lure . So sad to hear this today. I knew he was sick but he was. such a survivor I thought he would beat it . Now he is with the rest of the Heartbreakers in heaven . He was the last man standing. He played that same sunburst les Paul that he used on the LAMF album and the anarchy tour right till the end. He called it his “Dorian Gray “. He played on Ramones albums and Johhny thunders so alone. His Waldo’s albums are amazing and he had just put out his book “ to hell and back. “. I recommend it highly . He wrote great songs and had a wonderful interpretive voice with covering songs and making them his own He knew how to pick them. I learned a lot from Walter. He was kind enough to let me play bass in his band when I was 17 and When I wasn’t very good. It was an honor to play those songs with him. Years later we did the LAMF super group together and I had the best time going out west with him and the gang. I must have seen him play 200 times in nyc. no joke and he was always good. Even when it was loose ... please check out Heartbreakers live at Max’s ,LAMF. Waldo’s “ rent party “ And his book. I will miss you so fucking much. Rest easy my friend .

A post shared by Jesse Malin (@jesse_malin) on Aug 22, 2020 at 4:56pm PDT

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rip walter ...

A post shared by Johan Vipper (@jvipper) on Aug 23, 2020 at 6:02am PDT