Bea (Barbara) Oliver
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If you would like more information, or would like to help with this event please contact:
John Oliver at: joliver601@gmail.com
or
leave a message on the Bea Oliver Memorial Web Page on Facebook
www.wepay.com/donations/bea-oliver-memorial-fund
Love to all from Bea and tour family
Robert A Williamson from Santa Cruz posted this link at the donation site mentioned above.
It is a truly fitting tribute: [1] - she was probably working the show...
Bea`s Land Story (as told by Gary Starkweather)
Bea came with Jake and a tiny Summer Sparrow and moved into a teepee on the property above the land.
Some time later she hooked up with Gary Starkweather and lived in Evie's A-frame through the big snow before moving
to a cabin in the Frontlands where among many other things they were married and conceived Blake.
Shortly after, the family moved down the hill where Blake Woodson Starkweather was born in a perfect home birth (kudos to the midwives!).
She spent the most of the rest of her life behind stage - pioneering in the union - stage managing for the likes of Jackson Brown, The Stones, Michael Jackson, and many other top tier acts over the decades.
She also powered the annual Fall Music Festival in Sonoma which became a tradition.
Bea shifted to a higher gear on March 4, 2013 due to complications from illness.
She once told me I was uptight. She prescribed a pre-work Irish Coffee and a fat joint.
I got to the rooftop job site,,, and promptly walked off the edge of the plywood surface - straddling a rafter and landing on my freeking groin!
That was Bea... She had the prescriptions down. She just wasn't too sure about symptoms or healing or any of that namby-pamby stuff.
There should be lot's of Earth Shoe Store photos around, Bea was store manager and it was at Stanford Shopping Center in 1973?
In 1974 Bea and another woman from The Land (I don't remember who...) started a landscaping business using my sky-blue 1951 Chevy pick-up and working in the Los Altos area.
At about the same time, the SLA kidnapped Patty Hearst in Berkeley.
It seems that in the 60's, Bea had lived in Berkeley in a house full of radicals (including author David Wallechinsky) and, times being what they were, she was noted by the FBI.
Well, when the idea surfaced that there was a female gardener involved in the kidnapping plot (don't ask) the good old FBI which had always had an eye on The Institute and all nearby, said hey!
So, it came to pass that one day the FBI called the Front House and asked for Bea. After much consternation and confuddling, she got in touch with them and as my recollection goes she had an hour or so long phone interview with them wherein she explained that she was not involved.
In 1974-76 Bea produced concerts with Rollie Grogan. Jake Pierre usually did the poster as I recall and land folks did all kinds of support jobs - from security to staging.
Some highlights include:
15,000 hippies converged on Stanford Shopping Center (well, almost!)
It really was a beautiful day... It was glorious!
It was also the end of concerts at that venue.
And perhaps most infamously, they presented The Tubes at Foothill College gymnasium in early 1976.
It was a chaotic circus as you might imagine. White Punks On Dope indeed!
The Tubes and their gender blendered dancers and entourage turned the locker rooms into party central - there was all sorts of crazy stuff going on.
The concert was terrific with Fee Waybill's Quay Lude and his 18 inch platforms (not to mention the codpiece) and 'Don't Touch Me There' including simulated sex on the the Harley onstage. There were TVs suspended over the audience showing weird stuff - it was a major production. It was also raunchy, outrageous, and indecent for its day... it was like aliens had parachuted a psy-ops invasion into staid Los Altos Hills.
As I remember concerts were banned at Foothill for years afterward.
I think that for the most part, Bea got what she wanted from life.
Bea Oliver, June 19 1944-March 4 2013
Bea (Barbara) Oliver
[[file/view/bea-sparrow73-74.jpg|
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Bea Oliver, June 19 1944-March 4 2013
Bea's Family invites you to come and celebrate the incredible life of your friend BEA OLIVER.
All the things Bea loved in one place.... great friends, great conversation, great wine.... great fun!
Saturday, April 13, 1:00pm
B.R. Cohn Winery
50000 Sonoma Highway, Glen Ellen, CA
If you would like more information, or would like to help with this event please contact:
John Oliver at: joliver601@gmail.com
or
leave a message on the Bea Oliver Memorial Web Page on Facebook
www.wepay.com/donations/bea-oliver-memorial-fund
Love to all from Bea and tour family
Robert A Williamson from Santa Cruz posted this link at the donation site mentioned above.
It is a truly fitting tribute: [1] - she was probably working the show...
Bea`s Land Story (as told by Gary Starkweather)
Bea came with Jake and a tiny Summer Sparrow and moved into a teepee on the property above the land.
Some time later she hooked up with Gary Starkweather and lived in Evie's A-frame through the big snow before moving
to a cabin in the Frontlands where among many other things they were married and conceived Blake.
Shortly after, the family moved down the hill where Blake Woodson Starkweather was born in a perfect home birth (kudos to the midwives!).
She spent the most of the rest of her life behind stage - pioneering in the union - stage managing for the likes of Jackson Brown, The Stones, Michael Jackson, and many other top tier acts over the decades.
She also powered the annual Fall Music Festival in Sonoma which became a tradition.
Bea shifted to a higher gear on March 4, 2013 due to complications from illness.
She once told me I was uptight. She prescribed a pre-work Irish Coffee and a fat joint.
I got to the rooftop job site,,, and promptly walked off the edge of the plywood surface - straddling a rafter and landing on my freeking groin!
That was Bea... She had the prescriptions down. She just wasn't too sure about symptoms or healing or any of that namby-pamby stuff.
There should be lot's of Earth Shoe Store photos around, Bea was store manager and it was at Stanford Shopping Center in 1973?
In 1974 Bea and another woman from The Land (I don't remember who...) started a landscaping business using my sky-blue 1951 Chevy pick-up and working in the Los Altos area.
At about the same time, the SLA kidnapped Patty Hearst in Berkeley.
It seems that in the 60's, Bea had lived in Berkeley in a house full of radicals (including author David Wallechinsky) and, times being what they were, she was noted by the FBI.
Well, when the idea surfaced that there was a female gardener involved in the kidnapping plot (don't ask) the good old FBI which had always had an eye on The Institute and all nearby, said hey!
So, it came to pass that one day the FBI called the Front House and asked for Bea. After much consternation and confuddling, she got in touch with them and as my recollection goes she had an hour or so long phone interview with them wherein she explained that she was not involved.
In 1974-76 Bea produced concerts with Rollie Grogan. Jake Pierre usually did the poster as I recall and land folks did all kinds of support jobs - from security to staging.
Some highlights include:
15,000 hippies converged on Stanford Shopping Center (well, almost!)
It really was a beautiful day... It was glorious!
It was also the end of concerts at that venue.
And perhaps most infamously, they presented The Tubes at Foothill College gymnasium in early 1976.
It was a chaotic circus as you might imagine. White Punks On Dope indeed!
The Tubes and their gender blendered dancers and entourage turned the locker rooms into party central - there was all sorts of crazy stuff going on.
The concert was terrific with Fee Waybill's Quay Lude and his 18 inch platforms (not to mention the codpiece) and 'Don't Touch Me There' including simulated sex on the the Harley onstage. There were TVs suspended over the audience showing weird stuff - it was a major production. It was also raunchy, outrageous, and indecent for its day... it was like aliens had parachuted a psy-ops invasion into staid Los Altos Hills.
As I remember concerts were banned at Foothill for years afterward.
I think that for the most part, Bea got what she wanted from life.
Bea Oliver, June 19 1944-March 4 2013