|
NEWPORT - Barry Cowsill wanted a party, and his family plans to give him one.
The Cowsills will celebrate their brother's life on Saturday, Feb. 18, at 7 p.m. at the Hotel Viking, and are inviting the public to help them bid him farewell. The Cowsills and other musical acts will perform.
"This is Barry's longstanding wish - that if anything happens, we're to party in his honor," Bob Cowsill said in a recent e-mail.
It will be a two-part public event. The family will scatter Barry Cowsill's ashes at Halidon Hall off Wellington Avenue about 1 p.m. The site, one of the Cowsills' childhood homes, is occupied by former U.S. Rep. Fernand St. Germain, whose daughter Lisette was close to Barry Cowsill.
Barry Cowsill, 51, a sometimes troubled musician, died from drowning in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans, to which he had moved from Newport this past summer. He had been missing since Sept. 3, after he had called his sister Susan's cell phone to say he was inside a warehouse and was frightened.
No one heard from him again.
Police found his body on a wharf in New Orleans on Dec. 27 and identified him through dental records about 10 days later. Medical officials estimate that Cowsill died sometime in September.
The Newport-based Cowsills emerged nationally as a family act in the late 1960s with Top 10 hits including "The Rain, the Park and Other Things" and "Hair." The group, five brothers, a sister and mother, Barbara, disbanded in the early 1970s and the family grew apart.
Since 1990, the group, with everyone except Barbara, who died in 1986, has performed a few reunion shows in Newport, including the 2000 Taste of Rhode Island show at the Newport Yachting Center.
Bob Cowsill said the family has received an outpouring of support since Barry's death. A memorial book is available at Cowsill.com. Cowsill said the family thinks it's fitting to make Barry's memorial a public event.
"Everyone's been great and we all need closure, so those who think it would be a good idea to attend are certainly welcome," he said.
|
