Actress Molly Ringwald has penned an obituary for her father, jazz pianist Bob Ringwald, who has died at the age of 80. The musician passed away on August 3, and no cause of death has been revealed.
“Anyone who knew Bob also knew his mischievous streak, and his ever-present, slightly ribald sense of humor,” Ringwald wrote in a tribute published by The Sacramento Bee.
“If you didn’t sufficiently beg to get off of his email joke list, you would have received one just a couple of days before he died.”
(@mollyringwald)
Bob Ringwald was born in November of 1940 in Roseville, California, and was declared legally blind from a young age. He began taking piano lessons at the age of five, and began playing in nightclubs as a professional musician from 17 – something he continued for six decades. By the 1970s, with a family of five, Ringwald was playing piano seven nights a week.
As a board member, Ringwald helped organise the first Sacramento Jazz Festival in 1974, where his Fulton Street Jazz band performed. The festival would go on to take place every Memorial Day in Old Sacramento for 44 years, honouring Ringwald as “The Emperor of Jazz” in 2012.
During his time in Los Angeles in the 1980s, he hosted a jazz radio program on KCSN-FM, Bob Ringwald’s Bourbon Street Parade. He was a dedicated Dodgers fan, once serving as a guest announcer, reading the lineup in Braille while standing on the field.
“Though he never wanted to be defined by his blindness, he couldn’t help being an ambassador for changing the perception of what is possible to do while living with a disability,” Molly Ringwald added in her obituary.
“His dignity, humor, strength of character and courage will always be remembered and cherished by everyone whose lives were touched by his.”
Ringwald’s family is asking that donations be made to either the Foundation Fighting Blindness or CURE Childhood Cancer.
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