Alice Brock.Photo:Jonathan Wiggs/The Boston Globe via Getty
Jonathan Wiggs/The Boston Globe via Getty
Alice Brock, the artist and restaurant owner whose Massachusetts restaurant became the subject of folk singerArlo Guthrie’s famous 1967 song “Alice’s Restaurant Massacree,” has died. She was 83.
Guthrie, the 77-year-old musician whose father was 20th century folk music icon Woody Guthrie, announced Brock’s death on theFacebook pagefor his record company Rising Son Records on Nov. 22, stating that Brock died on Nov. 20 in Provincetown, Massachusetts, where Guthrie said she had been living for four decades. AsThe New York Timesreported, a longtime friend of Brock’s said she died in hospice care from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
As Guthrie wrote in his post mourning Brock’s death, he first met Brock in 1962 when she was working as a librarian at a boarding school in Stockbridge, Massachusetts that he attended and grew acquainted with Alice and her husband Ray along with another friend named Rick.
“Rick & I went to visit Ray & Alice for Thanksgiving in 1965. The rest is history,” Guthrie wrote. “Alice went into the restaurant business and I began my years as an entertainer. We were, both in our own ways, successful. As well as being a restauranteur, Alice also became an author, and an artist. We worked together on various projects. During the next few decades we remained friends while our lives kept us busy. She was a no-nonsense gal, with a great sense of humor.”
Alice Brock, circa 1970s.Jonathan Wiggs/The Boston Globe via Getty
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The song grew into enough of a hit that Guthrie starred in a 1969 movie titledAlice’s Restaurant, in which Brock makes a cameo appearance. The song is considered Guthrie’s best-known work, and theLibrary of Congresspreserved it in the National Recording Registry in 2018.
Alice Brock (right) circa 1969.Robert Altman/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty
Robert Altman/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty
source: people.com