Subject: (urth) RIP Joe Mayhew

From: Michael Andre-Driussi <mantis at sirius.com>
Date: Thu, 15 Jun 2000 11:56:55 +0000

I just found out that our Wolfe-brother Joe Mayhew died on June 10th after
a month long illness.

Joe was a close friend of Gene Wolfe, which is pretty much how I met him.
I shared a room with him at the World Fantasy Con in Baltimore (which is
where I first met Patrick O'Leary).  His health was failing and we thought
he was going to die years ago--I even made a promise to "see him at World
Con in Los Angeles," and then he actually survived so I had to go (I saw
Patrick there, too).

He was a writer, a cartoonist, a carver of canes (Gene Wolfe has at least
one; his wife Rosemary has one too).  He was funny, he was sharp, he was
fast and free with his wit.  He could argue!  It seemed to me that there
was always music going on in his head, and often as we walked and talked,
the most surprising things would burst out of him: Latin church songs,
sure, but so often it was something or other from "The Rocky Horror Picture
Show."

That he has finally passed away comes as no surprise to me, since I've had
plenty of time to prepare; two or three cases that turned out to be merely
close calls.  Still, I shed a tear at his going.

Goodbye Joe!

=Michael=

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