This chapter recounts Richard Durham's memorial service at Rayner's funeral home in his hometown Chicago. Durham died unexpectedly of a heart attack on April 27, 1984, during a business trip in New York City. Among those who paid tribute to the complicated family man, friend, and mentor—as well as the writer and dedicated freedom fighter—were Durham's thirty-four-year-old son, Mark; one of Mark's uncles, his mother's oldest brother, Robert Davis; Pulitzer Prize–winning author Louis Terkel; and Margaret Burroughs, the visual artist, writer, and co-founder of the South Side's Du Sable Museum of African American History. Others who spoke fondly of Durham were journalist Vernon Jarrett and activists Ishmael Flory and Edward “Buzz” Palmer; the singer, actor, and activist Oscar Brown Jr.; and Harold Washington, Chicago's first black mayor. The final speaker was Durham's brother Earl Durham.
Firefighter suffers heart attack after participating in a parade - New York.