One for the Road: Studs Terkel

By Chuck Sudo in News on Oct 31, 2011 10:17PM

As you're trick or treating, out on the town or relaxing this evening, take the time to toast one to one Louis Terkel. "Studs" passed away three years ago today and Chicago has been the worse for the lack of his presence.

Here at Chicagoist we're unabashed Studs fans and happy the degrees of separation are narrowed to one, through his longtime friendship with Art Shay. Art's May 18 post on their relationship and gallery of some never before seen photos still stands as one of my favorite posts of my first year as editor. Other Studs-related posts that are favorites are this 2007 post from Karl Klockars featuring a couple of videos from the Media Burn Archive; Marcus Gilmer's "Conversations with History" post from the day of Terkel's death; and this one from September 2010 marrying Studs' words and storytelling prowess with animation.

And then there's this one we ran in June: another video from the Media Burn Archive that captures Studs and Nelson Algren discussing the latter's move to Paterson, NJ. Here's one more for the road: Studs talking about the first time he met Mahalia Jackson, again from the indispensable Media Burn Archive. May Studs haunt this city until he doesn't wish to anymore.