Travis Yeager Jerry Garcia Dead at 53

Dead-Heads are mourning a great loss this morning. Their leader, Jerry Garcia, died yesterday morning in his bed from a heart attack at the age of 53 on August 9, 1995. Jerry was an influential guitar player for the band The Grateful Dead. He also was someone who was very outspoken about many different issues that were affecting Americans since the 1960s. Jerome John Jerry Garcia was born on August 1, 1942 in San Francisco. He became extremely interested in playing the guitar at the age of 15. As he grew up in these important times, he was a devoted reader of beatnik king Jack Kerouac. He started the band, The Warlocks, in 1964. This band would come to be known as the Grateful Dead a few short years later. They were never a hugely radio friendly band at first but soon they did find mainstream success with the release of songs like Truckin, Casey Jones, Friend of the Devil, and the greatest hit Touch of Gray. I dont think theres anything else in life apart from a near-death experience that shows you how extensive the mind is, said Garcia of using psychedelic drugs to People Magazine. The band experimented with drugs throughout its existence and use of these drugs at concerts became something of a tradition with the avid followers, or Dead-Heads. In the past few years though, Jerry had calmed down a lot. He hired a personal trainer to work on his fitness level and even cut down on drugs. He was actually located in a residential drug treatment center in Forest Knolls, California, most likely for use of heroin and psychedelic drugs like LSD, when he died. His wife, Deborah Koons Garcia, and four daughters: Heather, 32; Annabelle, 25; Teresa, 21; and Keelan, 6 will survive him. There are no funeral arrangements at time of publication. In an interview with KFOG-FM, Garcia talked about how he would like to be remembered after he died, Ideally I would just like to disappear gracefully and not leave behind any legacy to hang people up. I dont want people agonizing over who or what I was when I was here when Im not here any

more. I would like to be thought of as a competent musician. That would be good. Id like that. 3O