I, too, hate funerals. The last one I attended was for Louis Aborn, who was - as far as I'm concerned - Tams-Witmark Music Library. He wasn't an easy employer, I gathered from my my friend there, librarian Dale Kugel, who brought me in for two projects, but I loved Louis. He was always respectful and very kind to me, and I behaved silly around him. Around 1995,I was working on the rental edition of
Good News when he came into Tams-Witmark one winter morning. It was a cold and windy morning and his coat was open. He asked me how I was progressing and I started singing "Button up your overcoat . . ." as I started to button his coat, then I started dancing with him as I sang. Dale Kugel look aghast, Louis laughed and went off to his office.
From that point on, he and I were on friendly ground, and every time he passed me, he stopped to talk briefly. One day, when I was at Tams-Witmark, working on the debris John McGlinn left after being sacked from his recording debacle of 2001, Louis asked me what I was working on.
Have A Heart, I told him. Ah, yes, he replied, Henry Savage produced that, and he headed off to the men's room.
Henry Savage produced that show in 1917, I thought. I remember saying later to Dale Kugel, his mind's sharper at 90 than mine is at 55!
At Louis' funeral, his wonderful son Sargent, whom I'd met at Tams-Witmark - it was a family business - introduced me to his wife, saying, Larry is the only person who ever got my dad to dance at work. Then he and I both burst into tears.
https://playbill.com/article/louis-h-aborn-guiding-force-at-tams-witmark-dead-at-93-com-128556
