Blog Topic: R.I.P.

In the Loop: Ex-UGA Player Quentin Moses Remembered as 'True Gentleman'

By Joshua L. Jones | February 20, 2017 4:33pm

Photo Credit: Joshua L. Jones

Quentin Moses' father, Preston, comforts his mother, Claudette Smith, at a memorial service Thursday at Cedar Shoals High School.

A crowd of over 300 people gathered at Cedar Shoals High School on Thursday for a vigil in remembrance of Athens native and former University of Georgia football player Quentin Moses, Andria Godard, and her daughter, Jasmine Godard, who died in a house fire Sept. 12.

The only people who talked ill of Moses were the players on the opposite side of the ball, who were faced with the challenge of getting by him, said Moses’ former high-school coach Scott Wilkins during the vigil. “On the field, he was a player that locked down the left side of the field defensively, and off the field he was a true gentleman,” Wilkins said, adding, "He was the best player I ever coached.”

Read More...
In the Loop: Memorial for Ex-UGA Player Quentin Moses Scheduled for Thursday

By Blake Aued | February 15, 2017 1:19pm

Photo Credit: UGA Athletics

Moses playing for the Bulldogs in 2005.

A memorial service for Athens native and former University of Georgia football player Quentin Moses will be held at 7 p.m. Thursday at Cedar Shoals High School.

Moses, 33, was killed in a house fire in Monroe Sunday morning, along with Andria Godard, 31, and her 10-year-old daughter, Jasmine Godard.

Read More...
Homedrone: RIP Athens Musician and Promoter Rich Mullinax

By Gabe Vodicka | February 8, 2017 1:13pm

Friends and family of Richard "Rich" Mullinax are mourning the Athens-music fixture, who died on Jan. 25.

Read More...
Culture Briefs: UGA Schedules Memorial Service for Late Professor Judith Ortiz Cofer

By Blake Aued | January 10, 2017 3:27pm

Photo Credit: The University of Georgia

The University of Georgia will hold a memorial service Friday, Jan. 27 for Judith Ortiz Cofer, an award-winning author, poet and professor who died of cancer at her Jackson County home Dec. 30.

Ortiz Cofer was born in Puerto Rico in 1952. Her family moved to New Jersey in 1956, then to Augusta, GA when she was 15. She taught English and creative writing at UGA for nearly 30 years before retiring in 2013.

Ortiz Cofer was known for her prose and poetry about growing up Puerto Rican and being torn culturally between the mainland U.S. and her traditional family. Her 1989 novel The Line of the Sun was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize, and she was inducted into the Georgia Writers Hall of Fame in 2010.

The memorial service is scheduled for 3 p.m. at The Chapel, with a reception following at the Demosthenian Hall.

Read More...
Culture Briefs: RIP Georgia Superfan Mike 'Big Dawg' Woods

By Blake Aued | January 4, 2017 11:09pm

Photo Credit: UGA Football Live via Twitter

You know who I'm talking about—the bald guy with the bulldog painted on top of his head who's ubiquitous on Athens gameday Saturdays.

Georgia superfan Mike "Big Dawg" Woods died earlier today, according to several sources. UGA Football Live appears to have broken the news:

Read More...
Homedrone: Watch Michael Stipe Sing Nat King Cole's 'Nature Boy' at Jeremy Ayers' Memorial

By Gabe Vodicka | December 6, 2016 11:27am

When Athens arts icon Jeremy Ayers died in October, it inspired an outpouring of tributes and remembrances from his friends, who described his kindness, generosity and abiding love of both people and the natural world.

Last month, a memorial for Ayers took place at the Morton Theatre downtown, where friends and family gathered to celebrate his life.

Read More...
In the Loop: RIP Athens Civil Rights Leader A.R. Killian

By Blake Aued | October 26, 2016 2:40pm

Killian in 2013.

The Rev. Archibald “A.R.” Killian, Athens’ first black police officer and an outspoken local civil rights leader for decades, died Tuesday at age 83.

Killian was born in Athens and served as a military policeman during the Korean War. After leaving the Air Force, he nearly took a job as a police officer in Los Angeles but returned to Athens instead.

When Hamilton Holmes and Charlayne Hunter integrated the University of Georgia in 1961, Killian let Holmes live in his house and protected him from white mobs.

Read More...
Culture Briefs: R.I.P. Artist and Athens Scene Fixture Jeremy Ayers

By Gordon Lamb | October 24, 2016 3:30pm

Photo Credit: Jason Thrasher

The Athens arts and music scene took another terrible blow today, Monday, Oct. 24, as reports spread through town that Jeremy "Jerry" Ayers had passed away after suffering a seizure and falling into a brief coma.

Read More...
Homedrone: R.I.P. Athens Musician and Chef Damien Schaefer

By Gordon Lamb | October 18, 2016 1:05pm

Longtime Athenian musician, chef and friend Damien Schaefer passed away the morning of Saturday, Oct. 15 after battling cancer.

Read More...
In the Loop: RIP Darius Weems

By Blake Aued | October 9, 2016 2:45pm

Photo Credit: Darius Goes West via Facebook

Darius Weems—the subject of the award-winning documentary Darius Goes West—died today at the age of 27.

Weems died of complications from Duchenne Musculary Dystrophy, the disease that confined him to a wheelchair for most of his life.

Logan Smalley, then a University of Georgia student, organized a trip to California for Weems in 2004, fulfilling his lifelong dream of traveling across the country, and documented it for the film, which has raised more than $1 million for DMD research.

The Darius Goes West Facebook page posted the following tribute:

Read More...