Alice's restaurant cop

Alice May Brock, a giant of a human being who touched people all over the world, left this earth on November 21, at the age of After recent years of courageous struggle with ill health, she was finally able to slip away comfortably and peacefully at The Lily House hospice in Wellfleet, Massachusetts.

Alice was the furthest thing from a statistic, so none here.

Alice Brock suffered from health issues, including chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and passed away at a hospice home in Wellfleet on Thursday. She was Brock's longtime close friend Viki Merrick was with her when she died. Merrick said up until the end Brock remained poetic, hilariously funny, and full of puns. She was busy preparing a Thanksgiving feast in her house — which was a deconsecrated church, just like in the song — and Guthrie wanted to help out by disposing a heap of garbage.

If you want facts, Google her since she’s a “famous person.” Not by personal choice, and through a bizarre series of circumstances, she became a touchstone and icon for thousands, over multiple generations. There’s that amazing song, there’s a movie, there are personal stories shared by individuals everywhere. If you knew her, or even just knew about her, you understand what we’re talking about.

Alice was an artist.

In every sense of the word.

Alice may brock biography of michael Guthrie wrote that she died in Provincetown, Massachusetts, her residence for some 40 years, and referred to her being in failing health. Other details were not immediately available. In the early s, she dropped out of Sarah Lawrence College, moved to Greenwich Village and married Ray Brock, a woodworker who encouraged her to leave New York and resettle in Massachusetts. Guthrie, son of the celebrated folk musician Woody Guthrie, first met Brock around when he was attending the Stockbridge School in Massachusetts and she was the librarian. By , Alice Brock was running The Back Room restaurant in Stockbridge, Guthrie was a rising star and his breakout song was an minute talking blues that recounted his arrest and how it made him ineligible for the draft.

She consumed life voraciously (just the way she read books) and gave back to countless people with a rush of richness. Her own creative gifts were abundant and remarkable. Countless paintings and drawings, several published books and her famous, whimsical painted rocks, placed by the hundreds all over the globe on beaches and roadways, in museums and on mountain tops.

A sublime alchemist, she reveled in creating improbable and magnificent combinations from the most improbable and unlikely of sources.

She was a legendary cook/chef whose passion was feeding people. She had restaurants, of course, and was the toughest boss imaginable, but those who survived walked away fuller and more confident people.

Alice May Brock, a giant of a human being who touched people all over the world, left this earth on November 21, at the age of After recent years of courageous struggle with ill health, she was finally able to slip away comfortably and peacefully at The Lily House hospice in Wellfleet, Massachusetts. Alice was the furthest thing from a statistic, so none here. If you want facts, Google her Alice was an artist.

Perhaps her greatest gift was her ability to bring out the very best and the very unexpected in the people and things around her.

Her generosity to anyone in need often left her in precarious financial position. Several years ago in her beloved Provincetown, friends ran a Go Fund Me for her. This comment on the site says it all: “Years ago Alice gave me a job for which I was completely unqualified.

I worked my ass off.

Biography of michael jackson Alice May Brock February 28, — November 21, [ 1 ] [ 2 ] was an American artist, author and restaurateur. A resident of Massachusetts for her entire adult life, Brock owned and operated three restaurants in the Berkshires —The Back Room, Take-Out Alice, and Alice's at Avaloch—in succession between and The first of these was the subject of Arlo Guthrie 's song " Alice's Restaurant ", which in turn inspired the film. Her mother, Mary Pelkey, was a Jewish native of Brooklyn; [ 5 ] her father, an Irish Catholic man, [ 6 ] was originally from Pittsfield, Massachusetts. Pelkey sold artwork for Peter Hunt.

She yelled at me all summer long. It was the best job of my life. Here’s $”

Alice is survived by her chosen family of friends, many of whom have remained close since the ’s. So how to honor her?

It begs the question: what would Alice do? Ponder something beautiful offered by nature; lose yourself in a painting; listen to some meaningful music; savor a good meal. Or, importantly, just reach out — as she would say — to a fellow human ‘bean’.

Please consider supporting The Lily House in Wellfleet, MA. The people there are angels on earth.
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Listen: American Icon Alice Brock Might Surprise You