Fozzie Bear – For Denise
One of our dear friends whom we met at the Kaiserhoff in New Ulm, MN passed away on February 10 from cancer at home in Elkhart, IN. Denise Dawson was a great friend of the band for a long time before we broke up. She and I only reconnected on Facebook last year through a strange set of circumstances which deserve to be passed along.
Growing up on Ohio Street in Davenport, Iowa, my next door neighbor, Signe H., was in my graduating class. She and I had not talked since we left school. But I do keep the West High Class of 1968 website up to date and had posted a story about Jon and I (both ’68 graduates) being in a band which was to be inducted into the IRRMA Hall of Fame.
Apparently Signe saw that note. During this time she also belonged to a Facebook group which consisted of people who all have the same breed of dogs and had met Denise online. They began chatting about music, and I think Signe told Denise that one of her past neighbors’ band was being inducted into the Iowa Rock and Roll Hall of Fame for 2014, and the band’s name was Silver Laughter.
Once it was learned that Denise not only knew of us, but had hung out with the band when we toured the Midwest, Signe put us back in touch through Facebook. I am forever grateful to her that I was able to reconnect with Denise before she passed away. We had some great laughs about silly stuff like the time she went to the Muppet’s movie with Ken and I. She was really tickled by Ken’s imitation of Fozzie Bear’s “Wocka, wocka, wocka”!
Denise was a generous and kind and loving person who will be missed.