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Obit: Elisabeth Higgins Null (Lisa) (1942-2022)
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Obit: Elisabeth Higgins Null (Lisa) (1942-2022) |
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Subject: Obit: Elisabeth Higgins Null (Lisa) From: Stilly River Sage Date: 19 Jul 22 - 10:10 PM Dan Schatz posted this on Facebook today: Friends, we lost Lisa Null today. I'm so heartbroken I can't find anything to say - but here's something she said just a few days ago: “As I look back on my own life, what seemed to be an endless path of unfulfilled dreams, visions, and aspirations now seems to be a worthwhile juggling of the need to give to my family, those dependent on me, and the world at large. If i am to be judged, let it be for the whole ME rather than the thin slender line of public achievement. I don't know what gold stars I would have bestowed upon myself and perhaps only G-d knows, but it is a different way of evaluating my life than the one generally called upon in Who's Who or the New York Times obits. I probably will not merit an article in the New York Times obits, as those in my family did, but I am no longer discontent. If they did write about me, they would have to include an article for every man or woman in the telephone book, as we all have our stories to tell. So I will rest secure in the love of my friends and my family, as well as those who chanced to hear my songs. I'd like them to keep my songs alive, if possible, as well as some of my stories, but as they say at Passover--dayenu--it would have been enough to be just as I am. And now off to bed with hope for another peaceful night.” Goodnight, Lisa. You will always live in our hearts, your songs, and the love you gave us all. Lisa's Facebook page |
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Subject: RE: 2022 Obit: Elisabeth Higgins Null (Lisa) From: EBarnacle Date: 19 Jul 22 - 11:42 PM I will miss you. We have shared time and songs together over the years with never a sour note between us. |
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Subject: RE: 2022 Obit: Elisabeth Higgins Null (Lisa) From: Joe Offer Date: 20 Jul 22 - 02:36 AM Oh, Lisa, I'll miss you. You were a mentor and a friend to so many of us. |
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Subject: RE: 2022 Obit: Elisabeth Higgins Null (Lisa) From: wendyg Date: 20 Jul 22 - 04:21 AM Lisa was so much a part of everything that I have no clear idea how or when we originally met, but I know it must have been around the mid-1970s. She was an extraordinarily joyous person, right to the end. wg |
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Subject: RE: 2022 Obit: Elisabeth Higgins Null (Lisa) From: GUEST,Nick Dow Date: 20 Jul 22 - 09:25 AM God rest Lisa I sang one of her songs the day before yesterday. I'll continue to sing it but with a heavier heart. RIP Nick Dow |
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Subject: RE: 2022 Obit: Elisabeth Higgins Null (Lisa) From: RTim Date: 20 Jul 22 - 09:28 AM Sad news...Lisa was a great singer and person and she will be missed...also thinking of Charlie who has been a rock in support...RIP Lisa Tim Radford |
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Subject: RE: 2022 Obit: Elisabeth Higgins Null (Lisa) From: Charmion Date: 20 Jul 22 - 10:43 AM Edmund (CET) and I met Lisa and Charlie at Old Songs in -- I think -- 2000, and it was at their invitation that we began trekking to Maryland to attend the FSGW Getaway. As a couple, they quickly became a cornerstone of the folkie part of our lives. I can barely imagine the Getaway without Lisa. I have been following Lisa's adventures on Facebook for several years now. The last few months of her life on this plane of existence must have been dreadful for her, and traumatic for Charlie. For that reason, I'm glad it's over. She had so many friends and listeners, and Charlie and her other survivors will always hear good memories of her. In that way, she will live on and on. My hope for Charlie is that he rides out the grieving as smoothly as possible. In my favourite fantasy, Lisa and my dear Edmund are singing together in that great folk club in the sky. |
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Subject: RE: 2022 Obit: Elisabeth Higgins Null (Lisa) From: rich-joy Date: 21 Jul 22 - 07:13 PM Just loved her singing. "American Primitive" is an all-time favourite. She will be missed by many. Vale, Lisa. R-J (down under) |
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Subject: RE: 2022 Obit: Elisabeth Higgins Null (Lisa) From: Waddon Pete Date: 22 Jul 22 - 10:17 AM I was sorry to read this news. She was an accomplished singer and supporter of folk music in all its forms. Listening to her singing again, I agree with rich-joy and Charmion that her legacy will last and last. Plenty to enjoy on the web. RIP |
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Subject: RE: 2022 Obit: Elisabeth Higgins Null (Lisa) From: MoorleyMan Date: 22 Jul 22 - 01:33 PM This news was incredibly sad - altho' inevitable. Lisa had faced her diagnosis with fortitude and bravery and kept singing through to the end. It's a comfort to learn that she died peacefully and without pain. Lisa was an extraordinary lady, and a singer of great integrity and strength. She has left us a rich legacy of song, and her inspiration to generations of singers is inestimable. It was a privilege to have gotten to know her over the “zoom years” and to count her as a true friend in song. My deepest sympathies and condolences to Charlie. |
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Subject: RE: 2022 Obit: Elisabeth Higgins Null (Lisa) From: Joe Offer Date: 25 Jul 22 - 09:29 PM Does this video work? https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1TOTjG4x-b6bMh-zcwe0pG4ztHUUvUgM9 |
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Subject: RE: 2022 Obit: Elisabeth Higgins Null (Lisa) From: GUEST,Sheila Miller, London, UK Date: 26 Jul 22 - 08:24 AM This is very sad news, although it's not a surprise, as we'd been in fairly regular contact since before she went into the hospice; I knew it wasn't going to be long, and she had been in a lot of pain for a long time. I first met Lisa at Peter and Anthea Bellamy's house in Norwich (in the east of England) in 1977; Peter had got her and her then playing partner, Bill Shute, their first bookings in Britain, including one at the Norwich Folk Festival. She and Bill and my then partner and I all stayed at their house during the festival, and Lisa and I became friends and corresponded over the years. I subsequently booked her and Bill for my club. On one of my visits to the US, I visited her in Washington and we drove down to South Carolina to visit her son John – well, she drove; I didn't. I always loved her singing and enjoyed her company, and was sorry when she stopped travelling. I was delighted when she joined some of the singing sessions on Zoom, and it was a great pleasure to be able to see and her hear again, albeit only on screen. I'm very glad to know (from Charlie) that her end was peaceful and painless; it's good to know that she's no longer enduring all the pain she suffered in recent years. |
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Subject: RE: 2022 Obit: Elisabeth Higgins Null (Lisa) From: GUEST,Holly Date: 26 Jul 22 - 11:04 AM I remember Lisa and Bill touring around England with Peter Bellamy, singing Santa Fe Trail ("Every Englishman(sic) has an inner cowboy," she said), the Border Widow's Lament, and this song from Almeda Riddle: Only remembered, only remembered, Only remembered for what we have done. Thus would we pass from this earth and its toiling, Only remembered for what we have done. Only the truth that in life we have spoken, Only the seed that in life we have sown. These shall pass onwards when we are forgotten, Only remembered for what we have done. |
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Subject: RE: 2022 Obit: Elisabeth Higgins Null (Lisa) From: michaelr Date: 26 Jul 22 - 06:30 PM Not an obit but it lists her achievements: The New Century |
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Subject: RE: 2022 Obit: Elisabeth Higgins Null (Lisa) From: Brian Peters Date: 27 Jul 22 - 06:44 PM Lisa was a terrific singer (I love 'American Primitive'!) and great company. We spent some emotional hours when I stayed with her and Charlie, talking about Peter Bellamy, who had been a very close friend. As Sheila said above, it was great to see and hear Lisa on various Zoom sings over the last couple of years, but distressing to hear of the pain she suffered, during which Charlie offered unstinting, loving and heroic support. |
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Subject: RE: 2022 Obit: Elisabeth Higgins Null (Lisa) From: Joe Offer Date: 27 Jul 22 - 11:59 PM Lisa tells quite a story about herself on her Linked In page:
I'm a passionate online and archival researcher. My skills were developed as a librarian with advanced degrees in history (Yale), folklore (University of Pennsylvania), and information science (Catholic University of America). I'd love to do more research. I did much of the research for journalist John Dickerson's On Her Trail (Simon & Schuster) and assisted him with news research as he transitioned from his position as Time magazine's Senior White House Correspondent to his new role as Slate.com's Chief Political Correspondent. I also helped research Diane MacEachern's Big Green Purse (Penguin), a green consumer's guide for women. In recent years, I've worked on numerous political, historical, environmental, ethnographic, business, educational, and musical projects for all media. Many of my assignments involve writing, rewriting, fact-checking, copy-editing, substantive editing, digital content administration, survey preparation, and negotiating for the use of photos, footage, or documents. Specialties: For years I've performed traditional American folk song, touring through Canada, the United States, and England singing ballads, historical songs, and all-but-forgotten popular materials of an earlier age. The courses I taught at Georgetown combined the insights of anthropology, ethnography, and music to explore America's cultural past. This experience, combined with classical training, enables me to take on music research and writing projects. |
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Subject: RE: 2022 Obit: Elisabeth Higgins Null (Lisa) From: Joe Offer Date: 28 Jul 22 - 12:01 AM Also the New Century Apprenticeship Award: Lisa Null and Peter Brice are a master/apprentice team of traditional singers from Maryland who research, promote, and perform narrative ballads and topical songs. Elisabeth Higgins Null (”Lisa”) was born in Worcester Massachusetts and reared in New York City. She has spent her life singing, teaching, recording, and disseminating traditional songs, having been mentored by iconic source singers Joe Heaney, Seamus Ennis, Jean Ritchie, and Almeda Riddle. In 1973, she co-founded Green Linnet Records to record and produce Irish traditional music, and combined this with a successful touring career in England, Canada, and the United States. After selling Green Linnet in the 1980s, she took up graduate work in folklore and history, and moved to Maryland, where she taught courses in American Musical Life at Georgetown while working at the Library of Congress. For the past twenty years, she has been singing locally while teaching students interested in various traditional song styles. Peter Andrew Brice is an internationally-educated traditional singer and button accordion player whose family has lived in Annapolis since 1698. Having grown up in a family steeped in its own oral tradition, he refined his singing under the mentorship of masters Louis Killen and Dónal Maguire, and learned to play the button accordion from National Heritage Fellow Billy McComiskey. He performs and produces traditional music programs in Annapolis, Baltimore, and DC. |
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Subject: RE: 2022 Obit: Elisabeth Higgins Null (Lisa) From: CupOfTea Date: 29 Jul 22 - 12:50 PM Lisa was one of those “important people” names in the background when I was starting to delve seriously int the world of folk music in the 80s, when Green Linnet albums were starting to populate my recording collection. When I lived in northern Illinois, and got exposed to those who were the carriers of tradition, and started to meet and get to know some of the significant people in the world of trad, I became more aware of her significance (wonderful interview in COME FOR TO SING magazine), but it wasn’t till many years later that I got to meet Lisa (and Charlie!) in person at a Getaway. In a crowd of fabulous singers, extravagant personalities, dramatic performances, Lisa was royalty riding on her scooter, delighting in people and songs, and being in the midst of it all. One of the biggest perks of covid was encountering Lisa on Zoom sings at the Mermaid’s Tavern, which extended to Facebook exchanges, Getaway zoom, and later to the incredible visits in the last few months at the weekly Fox Valley zoom. It has been such a privilege, and a blessing enabled by Charlie’s loving support, to know Lisa at the end of a life that has been so significant to so many. Her delight in song, singers, and the will to participate despite pain and weakness was a marvel not to be forgotten. What a blessing that Charlie and all the friends who knew her so well and so long were able to grant her a graceful departure. Joanne in Cleveland |
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Subject: RE: 2022 Obit: Elisabeth Higgins Null (Lisa) From: YorkshireYankee Date: 02 Sep 22 - 07:19 PM I only met Lisa recently – as a result of various zoom sings – and had no idea how influential she was in the folk firmament, but could see she was a lovely person and a wonderful singer. Following her final months on facebook (thanks to Charlie's transcribing of "The Daily Lisa") has been incredibly moving and inspiring. I wanted to sing something in her honour, so I adapted a simple American song (by Elizabeth Cotten) that felt appropriate. I call it Lisa's Freight Train. Lisa's Freight Train Freight train, freight train, run so fast Freight train, freight train, run so fast While that old train speeds along Let us sing my joyful song Sing and dream from dusk to dawn Charlie helps me carry on Now I'm dead my songs live on And my pain is finally gone Freight train, freight train, run so fast Freight train, freight train, run so fast While that old train speeds along Let us sing my joyful song While I lived I sang my songs Sang them loud and sang them strong Asked the world to sing along Share my song when I am gone Freight train, freight train, run so fast Freight train, freight train, run so fast While that old train speeds along We will sing my final song While that old train speeds along Let us sing my joyful song |
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Subject: RE: 2022 Obit: Elisabeth Higgins Null (Lisa) From: GUEST,Severn Savage Date: 03 Sep 22 - 06:09 PM She was a teacher, friend, mentor, sponsor and God only knows what else. I had good times being her occasional chauffeur. She helped finish making me an actual singer and the voice placement tips she taught me carried over to my speaking voice, helping me be able to lead workshops and become a more effective radio DJ. We'd usually talk on the phone at least once a week, and finding out that I was living in the apartment building next to where she was rehabbing and later in hospice enabled me to share a lot of good times in her last days, swapping stories, reading to her and getting her to some of her favorite zoom sings, and occasionally bring her some batteries for her devices when they ran out when Charlie wasn't around. She was one of my most important friends and she and Charlie never ceased to constantly amaze me in new ways until the end. She even managed to do more things to help the local folk community while being forced to spend her time confined to her bed than most of us could manage on our hind legs. She leaves a great big hole in a lot of our lives and will never be replaced but will live on in each of us through many different things that she taught to and shared with all of us that we can all share the bits that affected us to others as we go on through life. Those of us who knew her are much the better for it. |
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Subject: RE: 2022 Obit: Elisabeth Higgins Null (Lisa) From: Stilly River Sage Date: 04 Sep 22 - 06:03 PM That's nice, Severn. Thanks for posting. |
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Subject: RE: 2022 Obit: Elisabeth Higgins Null (Lisa) From: Charlie Baum Date: 23 Jul 23 - 02:11 AM I'm thinking of Lisa this week on the first anniversary of her passing. I sing her songs regularly at Zoom sing-gatherings. And I'm working on a history project inspired by her song about Lake Chemo, which describes a camping trip a dozen or so miles east of Bangor, Maine, in 1871, very close to the beginning of camping as a leisure activity. Lisa was an academic as well as singer and music organizer. She had a master's in folkore from the University of Pennsylvania and was going for a Ph.D. in history at Yale, but never finished her dissertation. She wanted to use folkloric evidence as historical document, and that's "Lake Chemo" is. --Charlie Baum |
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Subject: RE: 2022 Obit: Elisabeth Higgins Null (Lisa) From: Bill D Date: 25 Jul 23 - 05:39 PM Looking forward to that project, Charlie.......... |
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Subject: RE: 2022 Obit: Elisabeth Higgins Null (Lisa) From: Joe Offer Date: 25 Jul 23 - 07:10 PM I used to love singing camp songs with Lisa. Her memory is treasured by so many people for so many reasons. |
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Subject: RE: 2022 Obit: Elisabeth Higgins Null (Lisa) From: GUEST Date: 30 Jul 23 - 01:22 AM Hello Charlie - Just reading this story now .... Very grateful to have met you and Lisa over many FSGW events through the years. Sending belated thoughts and prayers for you both. Thank you for your live(s) in music voyager (aka Tim Weil) |
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Subject: RE: 2022 Obit: Elisabeth Higgins Null (Lisa) From: GUEST,bbc Date: 01 Aug 23 - 01:24 AM Wow! A year, Charlie? Sending love! |
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