The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #125356 Message #2775797
Posted By: Don Firth
28-Nov-09 - 06:18 PM
Thread Name: Obit: Bess Lomax Hawes 1921-2009)
Subject: RE: Obit: Bess Lomax Hawes (Nov. 28, 2009)
I'm very sorry to hear this.
I had the honor of meeting Bess Hawes at the 1964 Berkeley Folk Festival. I had been teaching folk guitar classes (groups of about ten) for about four years. She was conducting a workshop in teaching guitar in classes, which she had been doing for years—groups of as many as 60!
Fortunately, I was on the right track, but taking in her workshop and then talking with her afterwards helped me to refine my teaching quite a bit.
The last time I saw her was just a few nights ago on television. PBS's "American Masters" has a show about Woody Guthrie. I didn't know about it until about fifteen minutes before the show came on. Bess Hawes (looking a bit greyer than when I had met her 45 years ago) had a number of comments and stories about Guthrie.
She was a great lady.
Don Firth