BEGBIE o@ca.on.york_county.toronto.globe_and_mail 2007-12-26 published
The humble legend
'He was one of the last of the giants, but his music and contributions
will be eternal.' Jazz impresario Quincy Jones 'He was a regular
on the French stage, where the public adored his luminous style.'
French President Nicolas Sarkozy 'He was the kindest, gentlest,
most forgiving person on the face of the earth.' Senator and
jazz pianist Tommy Banks
By Peter CHENEY,
Page A1
Mississauga -- The street is pleasant but ordinary, and so is
the house, a two-storey monument to the forgettable architecture
of the late 1960s. There's a two-car garage, a neatly kept lawn
and a driveway flanked by a pair of coach lamps. But look closer,
and you realize that this is a very special house indeed.
There is a windowless brick addition that looks like a military
command centre, and on the front door, carved into the wood so
subtly that you might miss it, is the face of one of the world's
most famous and respected musicians - jazz legend Oscar
PETERSON,
once described as "the maharaja of the piano."
Mr. PETERSON, who died this weekend at 82, put Canada on the
world musical map and helped forge a new era in race relations.
Yet he spent much of his life in a world drawn straight from
The Brady Bunch, a universe of suburban tract homes, strip malls
and winding avenues with names like King Forrest Drive and Friar
Tuck Boulevard.
Although his choice of neighbourhoods surprised many, Mr.
PETERSON
loved Mississauga. "He felt at home there," said his niece, Sylvia
SWEENEY. "It was his world."
Mr. PETERSON's house was tweaked to his special needs. There
was a soundproof brick studio that held his Bosendorfer grand
piano and multitrack recording suite. The bay windows that faced
the street were replaced with opaque glass blocks, to prevent
the curious from spying. But this was not the home of a star.
"All he wanted was an ordinary life," Gene
LEES, who authored
a biography of Mr.
PETERSON, said. "He wasn't a celebrity show-off."
To those who knew him best, Mr.
PETERSON's address was the result
of his love-hate relationship with Canada and its approach to
visible minorities. The musician chose Mississauga in the early
1970s after being snubbed by a landlord in Toronto's wealthy
Forest Hill neighbourhood who refused to rent to him because
he was black.
In the suburbs, Mr.
PETERSON found a new, more open society.
Although it was largely white, Mississauga seemed more amenable
to change, if only because it lacked the crushing social history
of downtown Toronto, still a White, Anglo-Saxon, Protestant bastion
at the time.
"I think it was a case of not being rejected," Ms.
SWEENEY said.
"In Mississauga, he got a chance to know his neighbours and build
a history together."
Mr. PETERSON, the
son of a railroad porter, was a musical icon
by the time he reached his mid-20s. He learned to play the piano
from his sister Daisy (who went on to become a world-renowned
music instructor) and dazzled fans around the world with his
impeccable technique and musical imagination. But in Canada,
where blacks were still a tiny minority, Mr.
PETERSON felt himself
largely shut out by a white-dominated musical and cultural establishment
that controlled access to key venues - particularly the Canadian
Broadcasting
Corporation, which Mr.
PETERSON loathed until the
end of his life.
Mr. PETERSON played a critical role in the battle for equal rights,
using his professional stature and personal dignity to help erode
long-standing barriers. Mr.
LEES, a former Hamilton Spectator
reporter who went on to become the editor of a music magazine
and Mr. PETERSON's biographer, met him in 1951, when Mr.
PETERSON
was caught up in a racial dispute. Mr.
LEES was assigned to cover
the story when a Hamilton barber refused to cut Mr.
PETERSON's
hair because he was black.
Mr. LEES came away impressed by Mr.
PETERSON's strength of character,
and by his humanity. Although he pursued the complaint against
the barber because he was offended by the man's prejudiced attitude,
Mr. PETERSON later spoke on the barber's behalf when Hamilton
city officials moved to revoke his business licence.
"He was never a nasty guy," Mr.
LEES said. "And he believed that
the point had been made. He was angry about what had happened,
but he didn't want to destroy the man. He said: 'This is Canada.
Here, the law is on my side.' "
His long Friendship with Mr.
PETERSON and other black jazz greats
gave Mr. LEES an inside view of the rejection they faced - even
though they were wealthy and famous, many experienced racism
in its cruellest, rawest form. He remembered how Mr.
PETERSON
was threatened by redneck Southern sheriffs, and how the manager
of a Ritz-Carlton hotel in the 1960s tried to stop him from performing,
saying, "That nigger isn't coming into this hotel."
Mr. PETERSON fought racism on several fronts. In the early 1970s,
he lobbied to have more minorities on television shows and advertisements,
in the belief that white-dominated media marginalized other cultures.
"He thought that kids got their view of the world from what they
saw on television," Ms.
SWEENEY said. "He was way ahead of his
time."
Mr. PETERSON married four times. His first wife was black. The
others were white. This surprised Mr.
LEES, who believed that
Mr. PETERSON had rejected mixed marriage - he had told his biographer
that unions between blacks and whites demanded "incredible intellectual
unselfishness."
When Mr. LEES asked Mr.
PETERSON about his apparent about-face,
the musician listened patiently, then explained that Mr.
LEES
had failed to understand him: "I didn't say I was against it,"
he said. "I just said it was hard."
To his neighbours in Mississauga, Mr.
PETERSON was a compelling
figure, an unpretentious, decent man who happened to be a world-renowned
musical genius.
"He was very gracious," said Renneth
BEGBIE, a retired school
teacher who lived next to Mr.
PETERSON for 22 years. "So is his
family."
Mr. PETERSON wore his fame lightly, Ms.
BEGBIE said. He and his
wife sent her a Christmas card each year, and apologized for
the mess when they landscaped their yard. In return, she treated
Mr. PETERSON as he wished - like anybody else.
"That's just common sense," she said. "He was my neighbour. People
need to be respected and appreciated for who they are. If Julia
Roberts lived next door, I'd do the same thing."
Award highlights
Oscar PETERSON accumulated about 100 awards, prizes and honorary
degrees, eight Grammys and two Junos.
1972: Officer, Order of Canada.
1978: Inducted, Juno Hall of Fame.
1984: Companion, Order of Canada.
1992: Governor-General's Performing Arts Award for Lifetime Achievement.
1997: Grammy for Lifetime Achievement and
an International Jazz
Hall of Fame Award.
1999: Praemium Imperiale Award, the Nobel equivalent for the
arts.
2000: United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization
International Music Prize.
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BEGG o@ca.on.grey_county.owen_sound.the_sun_times 2007-10-01 published
BEGG,
Eva
Elizabeth (née
MacPHERSON)
Of Tiverton, at South Bruce Grey Health Centre-Kincardine, on
Sunday, September 30, 2007, in her 80th year. Beloved wife of
the late Grant
BEGG. Dear mother of Stuart (Norma)
BEGG of R.R.#4
Walkerton and Beverley (Scott)
RAMAGE of Tiverton. Cherished
grandmother of Shawn and Cynthia
BEGG and Maggie and James
RAMAGE.
Loved sister of Catherine (Harry)
RUETZ of North Bruce, Jean
(Norman) CAMPBELL of Port Elgin, Marguerite (Mervin)
CATTO of
Tiverton, and Bruce (Grace)
MacPHERSON of Inverhuron. Predeceased
by brothers, Stuart, Angus and Eoin
MacPHERSON.
Also survived
by sisters-in-law, Grace
MacPHERSON of R.R.#1 Tiverton, Marianne
GREER/GRIER of Inverhuron and Helen
MacPHERSON of Kincardine. Sadly
missed by many nieces and nephews. Visitation at the Davey-Linklater
Funeral Home, 757 Princes Street, Kincardine, Ontario, N2Z 1Z5,
519-396-2701, on Tuesday from 2: 00 to 4:00 and 7:00 to 9:00 p.m.
The funeral service will be held at Knox Presbyterian Church-Tiverton
on Wednesday, October 3, at 2: 00 p.m., with Rev. Wendy
LAMPMAN
officiating. Interment, Tiverton Cemetery. Memorial donations
to the Heart and Stroke Foundation, Knox Presbyterian Church
- Tiverton, or the Kincardine Hospital would be appreciated as
expressions of sympathy. Portrait and memorial online at www.daveylinklaterfuneralhome.com
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BEGG o@ca.on.simcoe_county.nottawasaga.stayner.stayner_sun 2007-05-30 published
BEGG,
Ivy
Gertrude - Estate of
Notice To Creditors and Others
In the Estate of Ivy Gertrude
BEGG
All persons having claims against or claiming an interest in
the Estate of Ivy Gertrude
BEGG, late of the Town of Wasaga Beach,
County of Simcoe, who died on or about the 20th day of April,
2007, are hereby notified to send particulars of same to the
undersigned on or before June 22, 2007 after which date the Estate
will be distributed with regard only to the claims of which the
undersigned shall then have notice and neither the Estate nor
the undersigned will be liable to any person whose notice of
claim has not been so given.
Dated At Wasaga Beach, May 16, 2007
Maurice A.
LOTON,
Solicitor for the Estate
802 Mosley Street, Wasaga Beach, Ontario L9Z 2H4
Page 12
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BEGLEY o@ca.on.simcoe_county.nottawasaga.stayner.stayner_sun 2007-08-08 published
CRIPPS,
Douglas Ann-Drew
Peacefully on Tuesday July 31, 2007 at his home with his family
by his side at the age of 73. Doug of Stayner, beloved husband
of Helen (née
HANSON.)
Loving father of Laura
BEGLEY of Burlington,
Leslie and her husband Gerry
HOUTZAGER
Jr. of Stayner and Ian
and his wife Sharon of Stayner. Cherished grandfather of Johanna,
Liam, Behra, Jenna, Kelsey, Elias, Macy and Hanson. Survived
by his sisters Doreen
MacCALLUM and Phillis
LANGFORD.
Pre-deceased
by brothers Frank and James. A Private Family Service was held
with interment at Stayner Union Cemetery. Remembrances to the
Canadian Cancer Society would be appreciated by Doug's family.
Arrangements under the direction of Carruthers and Davidson Funeral
Home, Stayner (705-428-2637) For further information or to sign
the on-line guest book, log on to www.carruthersdavidson.com.
Page 10
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