I am reminded in two ways that six months have passed.
First I have only today read the Bruce Olson thread. It is remiss of me not previously to have acknowledged someone I read avidly, even if not always with agreement. But as a spinoff, anent knowledge, the debt that Bert Lloyd, in writing "the Idiot" owed to Jacqui and to her husband Barry is not as widely acknowledged as perhaps it should be.
Secondly, it was but Sunday past that Pete Hicks (Crayfolk, Skinner's Rats, Slattery, Dickie (Cisco) Bishop and the Sidekicks, Barber's Jazzband) a folk singer/musician, 12-string-player, and tenor banjo player (not always the same things) generally to be admired, reminded me that it was a long time since Jacqui died. That may be the way that clocks measure six months. But I am still collecting any stories and memories of her life that other folkies who knew her in the great soup of 60s London may be able to contribute. You did not forget her. A blonde with hair several feet long, and a size 6 although 5 foot 8". And a husband who played clawhammer from hell. But he played DIFFERENT J-45, at least in later years. One slightly awkward folk evening we were all three there and he had not got his guitar with him so played hers. Halfway through the intro he bent a string hard and it did not return true. He stopped, said "My Gibson wouldn't have done that", tweaked one string (it had to be the right one of course), and resumed. In the 60s he had a Levin Goliath, but it ended up floating down the Ganges.
At the wake for Brixton Bert, a luthier who used to know her (she was standing by me at the time) came up to me and said of her Hagstrom (pegbridge j-45, 1963) "I knew a girl who had a guitar just like that once". I was then able to tell him to look over his shoulder and see her again. Take a bow Pete Chopyn (Crayfolk). He once made her a dulcimer, perhaps with an ulterior motive, which I am told was not gratified.
I now have her Hagstrom largely restored (thank you Brian Rodgers, recommended luthier if you are near Chatham, Kent), and I am slowly polishing off the wax reside that her 40 years of love for it, armed with wax furniture polish (despite, for 25 years, my objections) left.
I now have back from the luthiers the almost identical Hagstrom that I bought her on ebay for use as a spare, and then discovered was a wreck. Thank you Graham Noden, underneath Andy's, Denmark Street, London. Great job, great price. I shall play it myself in stead.
So far I have only one person who remembered seeing "the Chapmen" (unaccompanied, heavily researched, traditional harmony) - her main band in the 60's - live. I'd love to hear of more. But we should also remember the family members (no names no pack drill) who assert that her muse deprived them of the primacy that normative standard required.
So many songs she knew. So many I have yet to learn.