Looking for Terry Wadsworth

Subject: Looking for Terry Wadsworth
From: Deckman
Date: 29 Dec 00 - 10:18 PM

Terry Wadsworth was one of the folkies in the "U" district in Seattle in the late 50's and early 60's. He was a talented songwriter and performer. I remember one of his songs, "The Little Match Girl." ("once I saw a little girl selling flowers"). He was born in Tacoma. He had a brief fling with the NEW CHRISTY MINSTRELS, under Randy Sparks, as I recall. I last saw him in San Francisco in 1962. I'd sure like to hear from anyone who knows anything about his whereabouts. Thanks, Bob Nelson, Everett, Wa.

Subject: RE: Looking for Terry Wadsworth
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 12 Jan 10 - 09:39 PM

Copied from another thread:

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: versions of 'This Land'
From: GUEST
Date: 11 Jan 10 - 12:28 PM

My name is Summer Wadsworth. I am Terry Wadsworth daughter; born in 1963. I never knew my father as he and my mother Nancy split shortly after I was born. Every now and then I do random searches on my father to try and learn more about him and if I have relatives. I stumbled onto this website today and have read a few mentions of him. One comment from you mentions that Terry had a brother. That is the first time I've heard anything regarding siblings. Although my mother mentions a sister, but can't remember anything about her. About twenty years ago I spoke with Hoyt Axton who told me that he believed my dad has committed suicide; perhaps in Santa Rosa, CA. Sadly I had been living in Marin County during that time and never knew that he was nearby. Please if you have any information, memories, photos...anything that you can share with me, I would be so appreciative. My email address is [e-mail].

Subject: TERRY WADSWORTH'S BROTHER ?
From: Deckman
Date: 05 Oct 10 - 03:49 PM

I'm looking for the brother of the late Terry Wadsworth, of Seattle. If you see this, will you please contact me via PM. I have a tape recording for you. CHEERS, Bob(deckman)Nelson

Subject: RE: Terry Wadsworth's Brother ?
From: Deckman
Date: 06 Oct 10 - 03:11 PM

Subject: RE: Terry Wadsworth's Brother ?
From: GUEST
Date: 24 Feb 11 - 05:05 PM

Hi I am Terry Wadsworth's brother. I live in Bremerton wa and am on [e-mail] . I know where his other brothers and sister and mother are. Yours Joel Wadsworth

Subject: RE: Looking for Terry Wadsworth
From: GUEST
Date: 24 Feb 11 - 05:22 PM

Hi I know you had found some info on Terry Wadsworth but I am one of his brothers, and I live in Bremerton wa. My email address is billienjoel@wavecable .com. I would love hearing from you.
               TKS Joel Wadsworth

Subject: RE: Looking for Terry Wadsworth
From: Deckman
Date: 24 Feb 11 - 05:48 PM

Hello Joel ... YES, I found much information and some family contacts regarding Terry. I'll shoot you an e-mail right now. CHEERS, bob nelsom

Subject: RE: Looking for Terry Wadsworth
From: Deckman
Date: 25 Feb 11 - 08:26 AM

This thread is a fine example of what Mudcat can do. Notice the time line, I first started looking for Terry Wadsworth in 2000. Five years later, I finally made contact with one of his brothers. Then a daughter appeared, and now, another brother surfaced.

I have been in conctact with the family members. We've exchanged recordings, stories, letters and photos. Several close freinds have also been part of the mix. My local newspaper did an article about this search and the successful ending.

Thank you you Max and Joe. CHEERS, bob nelson

Subject: RE: Looking for Terry Wadsworth
From: GUEST,a niece
Date: 18 Mar 11 - 09:05 AM

It's been 29 years and 1 days since TErry Wadsworth left us. It's great to read these stories, and know that many of you knew him, his music and his heart. I wish I did. I was too young to know him.

Terry has many living relatives, all of whom are interested in contacting others and reconnecting with photos, recordings, etc.

Email:
[e-mail]

(my mother is Terry's sister:-)

Subject: RE: Looking for Terry Wadsworth
From: Deckman
Date: 18 Mar 11 - 09:50 AM

Hello Niece ... Bob Nelson here in Everett, Washington. It's been fascinating to uncover and discover the many facets of Terry's life. Later today, I'll send you all the e-mail contacts I have for the various relatives I've found. bob

Subject: RE: Looking for Terry Wadsworth
From: GUEST,Bob McCafferty
Date: 16 Nov 12 - 08:52 PM

This is a quick reply to all interested in Terry Wadsworth...
Especially daughter, Summer!

What a heart-stopping moment to know you exist, Summer!
Am delighted to share what I know...although from long ago. I cannot tell you how he influenced my life...

Terry was my best friend in our early teenage years at Gault Jr. Hi &, for me, briefly at Lincoln Hi, Tacoma.

I last saw him in Hollywood as I was about to begin broadcast school...a trade school because colleges did not yet offer such programs. That was 50 years ago---June '62.

He was a huge influence on me & I looked up to him beyond words---for his wit, for his teaching me a love of music (no, I can't sing nor play anything---just love music!)...

And because it was from him I 1st got the idea in our very Blue Collar town that working in a plant, or factory or the Smelter or ???, was not what I wanted to do---But to do creative work--- to go into broadcasting!
He was attending some little broadcasting school in downtown Tacoma, I think a Vocational school as he was probably a HS dropout, as was I.
That was the germ of an idea I pursued after 6 years in the Air Force with the G.I. Bill.

This is much more than I intended to write...but memories flow!

They may be a bit scattered, but will try to fill in later...
I remember brother Joel & another brother whose name I've lost, one older, one younger. Terry's step-Dad was Orviille Gibson (maybe Gipson?). Can't recall his Mom's name. They lived just two blocks from Gualt.

We hung out with a group of guys on McKinley Hill, a small business district with a cafe, tavern, etc., even a movie theater just few blocks from Gault! We thought of ourselves as the 'McKinley Hill Gang'---although not today's definition of a gang...just a small group of guys who were friends with few if any social skills (God knows with Girls!) who 'hung out!!!

I think most of them are dead now. Although through friend Dave Stageberg in Tacoma, have re-met several---Lenny Olin, Butch Weller, Jim Bailey, etc., at Dave & RoseMarie's 50 th Wedding Anniversary in '09! Dale 'Moose' Sysum has passed since then.

Five or six guys joined the AF a few months after I did---Bob Strayer died in a FL car wreck within a year, Harry Verlo (whose sister Judy Hobbs has done so much to re-connect us all) died several years ago, etc...

Dave gave me a large photo of our 9th Grade graduating class at Gault, which I'll be glad to share....Funny aside: neither Dave nor I recall the photo being shot!!!
Terry was about as skinny a kid as I was!

As for Terry's death---I've not yet been able to confirm it--& this is a strong priority for me---but am told by a guy in OR who knew him in Santa Rosa that Terry had a bad acid trip on top of some depression & did take his own life...

I am in touch with Randy Sparks, creator, lead guy of New Christy Minstrels. The group still plays (you can Google their name for where they play), and they've done shows in my little community near Sacramento for several years. He lives in an old gold mining town in the foothills nearby...

Randy connected us in '62. No memory of how I knew Terry was with the Minstrels in '62, but called Capitol Records & asked if they could let Randy know I was looking for Terry. Think it as a day or so later that he called the little hotel I was staying in just off Hollywood Blvd. & told me he had passed word that I was looking for him (Terry had left the group by then). Terry called & came by & we talked for an hour or so.

Mainly I recall that he had just finished an acting job in a 'pilot' for a satirical Western.
The quite accomplished Englsh actor Robert Morley was the lead & Terry---not known for a lack ego or belief in himself---felt Morley treated him with disdain, or maybe just 'the kid.' LOL!

Finally---for now---you will understand why I celebrate Terry's influence in my young, uncertain, in fact aimless life with where his spark of an idea has led me.

I became a TV engineer, reporter, then main anchorman & News Director in a small town north of Sacramento...Chico. Two years later I came to Sacramento to the CBS TV station as a reporter, producer, anchor & whatever else needed doing in the newsroom...

That led to other careers, especially an appointment by Gov. Reagan to his communications staff, PR work, magazine writing & appointment as spokesman for a CA state gov't department by Gov. Arnold (who later, of course, derailed himself!)...

So, you might as well have told me that I could flap my arms & fly to the Moon back when Terry was my friend & gave me inspiration!!!

I can write a bit more later...am slowed with a cold now & have done all this from memory!
Which, because I find myself in good health having 'got to be' 75 two days ago...I am more than delighted to contribute to our collective memories...
Especially for Summer!

Creative, talented, witty, sometimes wacky Wadsworth dreamed he could be 'somebody!'
And because of him so did I!

Glad to hear from any/all of you!!!
Warmest regards
Bob McCafferty
Fair Oaks, CA
P.S. am supposed to be retired---but too busy to go back to work! Thankfully!

Subject: RE: Looking for Terry Wadsworth
From: Deckman
Date: 16 Nov 12 - 10:02 PM

Bob ... If you'll google "Terry Wadsworth Memorial Website", you'll see what the family done to remember Terry. CHEERS, bob(deckman)nelson

Subject: RE: Looking for Terry Wadsworth
From: GUEST,Judy Verlo
Date: 17 Nov 12 - 03:15 PM

Bob, I'm glad you use the link I found for Terry. Maybe you can fill in some time lines for his family. Judy from Tacoma

Subject: RE: Looking for Terry Wadsworth
From: GUEST,Jim Heinzman
Date: 20 Dec 13 - 12:36 AM

My earliest recollection of Terry was in Miss Showalters' English class at Lincoln High School(~1955/56). The assignment was to write a essay in the style of a known writer. Terry chose Mickey Spillane and wrote an essay so graphic Miss Showalter wouldn't let him read it aloud in class,but gave him an "A" anyway.His manuscript was accurate to Spillane's style down to the cigarette burns on the paper.His prowess as a writer was evident early on.
I remember Terry as an adventurer who did everything with fervor,ready to experience the next escapade.
I lost touch with Terry after I joined the Air force upon graduation.
I last talked with him briefly at a coffee house in Venice Ca. where he was reading poetry on open mike night,this was in 1958-59.
He indeed did leave an impression on all who met him.Rest in peace my most memorable acquaintance.

Subject: RE: Looking for Terry Wadsworth
From: Deckman
Date: 20 Dec 13 - 07:28 AM

Hello Jim Heinzman ... Bob Nelson here. I started this thread some years ago and I'm still enjoying the number of people that contact me expressing memories of Terry. As you said ... he was unique and left a very lasting impression on those who knew, and understood, him. CHEERS, bob(deckman)nelson

Subject: RE: Looking for Terry Wadsworth
From: GUEST,Summer Wadsworth
Date: 04 Feb 19 - 03:28 PM

Hello anyone....
I'm looking for a digital copy of Mist on Dog Mountain written by my Father, Terry Wadsworth..

Subject: RE: Looking for Terry Wadsworth
From: Deckman
Date: 05 Feb 19 - 07:34 AM

I'm afraid that I can't help you with that song. Bob(deckman)nelson

Subject: RE: Looking for Terry Wadsworth
From: GUEST, Bob Pegg
Date: 31 Jul 21 - 11:28 PM

I was really happy to see this thread and learn a few things about Terry that I did not know. As a long time record collector, I ‘be always liked his 45 “Pretty Janeil”, a nice teen ballad. I used to know the label owner that issued that 45, Kearney Barton. Shortly after Kearney passed away about 10-11 years ago
I was invited to a party in Seattle by John Hill who also recorded for Kearney.
Late in the night, I mentioned Terry’s song and a lady I was talking to started to sing it!
I thought that was pretty cool! Bob Pegg at [e-mail] in
Tacoma on July 31,2021

Subject: RE: Looking for Terry Wadsworth
From: GUEST
Date: 03 Feb 22 - 03:00 AM

It was great to find this thread and to learn more about Terry's early days. I met Terry in about 1962 when he played eat a small coffee house in San Francisco called The Shiloh. I ended up living with him in Berkeley for a few months in the spring of 1965. I was 18 at the time and learned a lot from being around him. We played music together and co-wrote a song, Gemini, which is on my band's 2020 album, Sing Your Dreams. The band is the Ace of Cups and the record label is High Moon Records. We recorded the song with the psychedelic spirit of those times. May Terry's spririt live on through his music and those who loved him.

Subject: RE: Looking for Terry Wadsworth
From: GUEST,Guest
Date: 25 Jul 22 - 11:26 PM

I can't tell you all how much it has meant to read about this person. I would love to learn more, and will try to reach out to you individually.
There is a lot more. If you would like to chat, reach out at [e-mail]

Subject: RE: Looking for Terry Wadsworth
From: Deckman
Date: 29 Jul 22 - 10:08 PM

TO "GUEST",

I STARTED THIS THREAD ON TERRY 22 YEARS AGO. I WOULD LOVE TO HEAR MORE STORIES OF TERRY. UNOFRTUNATLY, I'M LEAGALLY BLIND NOW AND CAN ON;Y SEE IN CAPITAL; LETTERS. IF YOU WILL JOIN MUDCAT, YOU CAN CONTACT ME THRU THE "PERSONAL PAGES" ... THAT IS THE ON;T E-MAIL I CAN NOW ACESS.

THANKS ... BOB(DECKAN)NELSON