Jerry Jeff Walker, 'Mr. Bojangles' songwriter, dies at 78
Jerry Jeff Walker, the singer-songwriter who wrote the much-recorded standard “Mr. Bojangles” and later became a mainstay of the Texas outlaw movement that catapulted Willie Nelson and Waylon Jennings to fame, died on Friday at a hospital in Austin, Texas. He was 78.
His former publicist John T. Davis said the cause was cancer. Mr. Walker learned he had throat cancer in 2017. Mr. Walker had been receiving chemotherapy and radiation.
A native New Yorker, Mr. Walker began his career in the 1960s, hitchhiking and busking around the country before establishing himself in Greenwich Village and writing the song that would secure his reputation.
A waltzing ballad about an old street dancer Mr. Walker had met in a New Orleans drunk tank, “Mr. Bojangles” was first recorded by Mr. Walker for the Atco label in 1968. The song achieved its greatest success in a folk-rock version that reached the pop top 10 in 1971 with the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, and went on to be covered by a wide range of artists, among them Nina Simone, Neil Diamond and even Bob Dylan. Sammy Davis Jr. included it in his stage show and performed it on television.
With the help of Susan Streit, his wife of 46 years, he gave up liquor and drugs in the late ’70s. In addition to Ms. Streit, Mr. Walker is survived by a daughter, Jessie Jane McLarty; a son, Django, who is also a musician; and two grandchildren.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/24/arts/music/jerry-jeff-walker-dead.html
= new reply since forum marked as read
that line always gets to me 
