Richard James Cowsill
August 26, 1949 - July 8, 2014

Richard James Cowsill was born Aug 23, 1949 in Portsmouth, Virginia to Navy man William Joseph and Barbara Clair (Russell) Cowsill Sr. and went to join the heavenly 'Family Band' on July 8, 2014.

Rich was the 2nd oldest child overall, and the older of the fraternal twins with brother Bob. Richard was the father of three, Nate, Barbie and Bryan and grandfather of at least four. Richard also leaves his beautiful wife, Susan, who lovingly took care of Richard until the end.

Richard served our country in the US Army and had several tours of duty in the Vietnam War where he was undoubtedly was exposed to the chemical Agent Orange. He was stationed for a time at Fort Gordon, Georgia where he joined the family onstage for the TV show Operation Entertainment. The show was filmed May 20, 1968, but didn't air until October of that year. Rich's military duty was also mentioned in A Family Thing when Susan gave a tribute to him at the end of the show as the intro to the song "What The World Needs Now."

Richard had many occupations during his life besides soldier. He sold real estate, did construction, and also sold phone plans. The natural Cowsill charm served him well in sales jobs.

Richard may well have been the most handsome of the Cowsill boys with Bud's gorgeous eyes and the Cowsill mega-watts smile. His sense of humor could be found often, such as in his answer to the Newport News question "What are you looking forward to most about winter?" Richard answered, "The fact that I'll be able to slide to school instead of walking all the time."

His siblings remember him as the fort builder and super-hero cape maker. Below is a clip of Barry talking about Richie building forts and sewing Barry's first Superman outfit, which led to an improvised song.

Editors Note: I realize this clip is hard to understand, so there's a transcipt of Barry's part the best I get from the original.

Barry: I love the guy. You know about Dickie, Richie. He used to be the fort builder in the family. Tree houses. He'd build fort ____ Tarzan. We'd wear our skivvies with the flap in the back. (Did you yell?) No, but we were Tarzan and we had capes. (Trazan?) And Richard made my first Superman suit when I was in the 4th grade. My only Superman suit. He stiched up . . . well it was my magic. He stitched up some sweatpants ______ until John ruined my Superman suit giving Susan a piggyback ride. And my cape was torn. I was pissed. (Singing-->) You took my Superman suit and you put it on. And you took our sister Sue and you made like she was a blind girl and you were _____. Except you couldn't hold her in your arms, so you tore my cape. God I was really pissed off. You wore my Superman suit, that Richie made.

In the early 1990's Richard cut his own solo demo tape including two songs: "Vagabond" and "This Mending Heart." (You can hear "This Mending Heart" on the Jukebox on the front page.)

What we've learned from the Cowsills "glory days," Richard was abused the most of all by his father. Richard often told the story of Bud breaking his toe kicking Richard after Richard disobeyed while trying to see how donuts were made. Richard appeared on several TV shows, including the Maury Povich Showand Inside Edition, in 1992 speaking of the abuse. Instead of being onstage, Richard became the road manager and ran the Cowsills sound and lighting (along with Paul) during those days.

Although he was often left out of the spotlight, Richard could occasionally be seen in family publicity photos and concert books.

In a December 1990 People magazine article, Richard said, "My ultimate dream is that one day I will perform with my brothers and sisters." That dream became reality when, on September 23, 2000, Richard joined ALL his siblings on stage for Taste of Rhode Island 2000 to a crowd of thousands. Richard sang Billy's song "Vagabond" with a little help from Billy himself. Rich was so excited about the event. He spent hours with fans singing in the hotel rooms and wore out his voice to the point of it cracking occasionally during the onstage performance. You can read more of Richard's thoughts of this event in the Newport Daily News article 'Forgotton' brother unites with family band.

Finally now you will sing without ceasing with the great choir of angels never ending. Enjoy the songs until we join you in a heavenly audience. Sing on Richard!



Credits:
A couple of the above photos were taken by Louise Palanker and Ian Boyles. The others were from magazine articles/TV shows and a couple I took.