By Scott Detweiler
Timothea, the acclaimed New Orleans blues singer and composer, lost her battle with the hepatitis C virus at the New York Presbyterian hospital on November 14th. She is the founder of Siren to Wail, the New Orleans based non-profit, hepatitis C awareness organization, and had dedicated the end of her life to raising awareness of the disease. She was 55.
She described her story in a 2002 interview for the cover story of Gambit Weekly, a weekly New Orleans publication.
In 1999 she was working in Florida and had returned to New Orleans for a visit. She ran into a friend at a nightclub and when they embraced, her friend’s squeeze gave her so much pain that she had thought he had broken her ribs.
An x-ray revealed no skeletal damage; however, other tests indicated that the pain had come from a swollen liver. The diagnosis was hepatitis C. She was 48 years old.
Timothea believed that she might have been infected in her late teens because at the time, she was using intravenous drugs. But she acknowledged that she could have also contracted the virus from snorting cocaine and sharing the straw with someone who had the virus.
Because there was no test to diagnose hepatitis C prior to 1992, she thought she also could have contracted the virus via blood products she received in transfusions during two cesarean sections and a hysterectomy.
But if that wasn’t enough to have the disease, Timothea also suffered discrimination in the workplace because of the fact that she admitted she had hepatitis C. She learned very quickly, after first learning that she was infected, that there was an awful stigma attached.
Around the time she was diagnosed she landed a regular job as a singer in a nightclub in Florida. Because of her condition, she abruptly abandoned her usual known practice of having a glass of wine at the conclusion of her performances. A curious bartender at the establishment took notice and kept inquiring as to why she had given up alcohol. When she eventually told him that the reason was because she had hepatitis C, she was fired the very next day.
She had been quoted as saying, “It’s the same stigma that used to be attached to AIDS. We need to break that stigma.”
The experience of being fired from her job for having hepatitis C would be the catalyst that would ultimately prompt her to found Siren to Wail. Not only to raise money to help get the word out about hepatitis C, but also to provide information about how infected persons could more effectively navigate the medical system to get the best possible treatment.
In spite of the fact that her infection had caused cirrhosis of her liver, she had chosen to forego the commonly known interferon treatments because of their side effects. In order to avoid these side effects, she chose to control her infection through healthy living. This approach would include cutting her performance schedule down to singing only 3 (three) times a week so that she could devote the rest of her time to working with Siren to Wail. Additionally, she drank plenty of water, maintained a strict diet and exercised regularly.
Her “Once in a Blue Moon” concerts, produced annually in New Orleans to benefit Siren to Wail, are remembered for their line-ups of incredible and legendary talent. Timothea used her connections among musicians to provide the big-name entertainment for the events (there were 5 (five) of these concerts). For example, the roster for the 2004 “Once in a Blue Moon” concert held at Tipitina’s included such notable performers as Walter “Wolfman” Washington, The Dixie Cups, Allen Toussaint, and Frankie Ford.
Timothea’s health had been on the decline before the Hurricane Katrina disaster, from which she fled in the mass evacuation of the city. She lost her possessions in her apartment to the rising waters and then ultimately lost the apartment due to increased rent.
Her last year was spent staying with friends throughout the south and then finally in New York, where she had a place on a waiting list for a liver transplant.
She was born Timothea Beckerman in 1951. As a child, she used to sing for spare change in front of the jukebox at her aunt’s roundhouse near Westwego (just across the Mississippi River from New Orleans).
By age 12 (twelve), she was singing on stage with legendary musicians such as Dr. John and Ernie K. Doe and then by age 14 (fourteen) had cut her first single.
By age 18 (eighteen) she had two marriages and two children and would then stay away from the music business for the next 15 (fifteen) years, returning in 1981, as a recording artist and performer with many artists, including Leon Russell and Walter “Wolfman” Washington.
Timothea was the recipient of many honors including a W.C. Handy nomination for the best blues album and also had movie and television roles.
She is survived by her son Jesse and many friends.
©2006 Scott Detweiler. All Rights Reserved.
Sources: IMBD.com, Times-Picayune, Offbeat Magazine, Gambit Weekly, timothea.com, bignewsnetwork.com and sirentowail.org.
Scott Detweiler is a volunteer for www.HepCAware.org |