Dear Alan,

I will miss you; we will all miss you. You slipped away without telling us goodbye. It has been a privilege being your friend in spite of our little differences from time to time. As I came to know you I saw what a gentle, kind human being you were, and devoted–to your fiddle research and playing, to folklore and most of all to Karen.

I should have asked you more about how it was growing up in Jacksonville when you did, about how you got started on the fiddle, and folklore. I know you cared about Alan, that he was your difficult friend. You fought together for the AFC’s authorization. Later you helped me give his archive the best home it could have.

Dear Alan, I will miss hearing that unique slightly hesitant, resonant voice of yours and looking up, and up, to see you smiling–Karen by your side–twinkling when you had some special project in hand. I looked for you everywhere at the 2016 Folklore Meetings, but you were not there, alas.

Anna Lomax Wood