Carrie Fisher, the actress best known for her role as Princess Leia in Star Wars movies, died today at age 60.
Destination Duluth recently found this WDIO-TV news report on YouTube. The clip is from Dec. 22, 1977, the day the original Star Wars closed in Duluth. Destination Duluth posted it to Facebook with a note that “Star Wars smashed box office records with 459 showings over 191 days in Duluth.”
Demolition of the former West Duluth Baptist Church at 5907 Grand Ave. is underway. In August the Duluth City Council unanimously approved the plan to tear down the structure, built in 1938.
Monty Lee Wilkes
We mourn the passing of Monty Lee Wilkes, local boy who made good.
Noted writer Jim Northrup died Aug. 1 from complications with kidney cancer. He was 73.
A U.S. Marine veteran of the Vietnam War, Northrup attributed his cancer to exposure to Agent Orange, a defoliant used by the U.S. military in herbicidal warfare.
Northrup was a member of the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa. The Duluth News Tribune notes he “was an ardent keeper of Anishinaabe tradition. He and his wife started a summer Ojibwe language camp on the reservation, made birch bark winnowing baskets, took part in the yearly sugarbush to make maple syrup and harvested wild rice on the reservation’s lakes.”
Footage sent to the Duluth News-Tribune and leaked here in the wake of Jim Richardson’s disappearance.
John W. Berquist, founder of the Moose Wallow Ramblers band and writer of the song “I Like it in Duluth,” died May 12 at his home in Fayal Township. He was 69.
Recently, the Duluth music community lost a great guitarist and better person when Shawn Burr passed away after a battle with brain cancer. He was only 40, and was a father and a husband.
In 2004, Shawn was part of a short-lived band called “CUD,” who recorded an album at that time that went unreleased due to various technical issues. With Shawn’s diagnosis, it was decided that the album should be completed as a way of attracting monetary donations that will help his wife and two-year-old child in some small way. With the assistance of talented engineer Jake Larson, the CUD album was completed, and it is now available to purchase on Bandcamp. Fans of Ministry, the Melvins, and guitar harmonies might particularly enjoy the record.
Please visit cudduluth.bandcamp.com to purchase this album. (Streaming is free, but keep in mind that no money goes to the cause for streams.) 100% of the money donated will go to Shawn’s wife and child. The album is pay-what-you-can, and any amount is welcome. Thank you.
Walter H. Pederson, a Duluth native and member of the Plaisted Arctic expedition, died Friday in St. Cloud at the age of 88.
Pederson served as mechanic on Ralph Plaisted’s crew, which reached the North Pole by snowmobile in 1968. The subject gained new attention last month when the New York Times published an account of the expedition. In early April the Hollywood infotainment website Deadline reported Will Ferrell will star in film about the Plaisted expedition.
Pederson’s obituary in the St. Cloud Times notes he was a “sailor, cowboy, mechanic, racer, teacher, businessman, inventor, explorer, author, politician, entrepreneur, scientist, private eye, hero, friend, husband, father and grandfather.” Services will be held Friday in Milaca.
After 20 years in business, the Timber Lodge Steakhouse in Canal Park is calling it quits. Bruce Taher, CEO of Timber Lodge’s parent company, Taher Inc., says he regrets having to make the decision. He hoped to close the restaurant for the winter and reopen it this spring, but a number of challenges precipitated the restaurant’s demise.
Somehow, I missed this.
Professional wrestling great Nick Bockwinkel died Saturday night at age 80. The image above is from what was probably his last appearance in Duluth, as special referee during a World Wrestling Federation card at the Duluth Arena in 1987. (WWF is now World Wrestling Entertainment; Duluth Arena is now the Duluth Entertainment Convention Center Arena.)
