Gary Wickizer had four big loves in his life, said long-time friend Doug Larson on Monday. The well-known folk-blues musician with the laid-back, smooth style, loved people, music, musical instruments, and Rose.
Wickizer, widely known in southern Ontario and beyond by his stage name, Mo’ Kauffey, had a great love for people, said Larson, a retired University of Guelph professor, musician, and guitar builder.
Larson said his close friend had an unflagging love of music, and a passion for musical instruments, especially guitars. And he loved his dear wife, Rosita, the woman whose love brought him to Guelph about 15 years ago from his native Colorado.
Wickizer, 63, was diagnosed with stage four kidney cancer last year, serious cancer that spread to his lungs and bones. Chemotherapy could not stop its advance.
Maintaining a positive attitude, and supported by a vast network of friends and supporters, the man fought the cancer to the best of his ability. He was determined to live, but accepted that he might not. He never stopped playing shows, and he had a few booked into the future. And he never stopped showing up to support other musicians.
Wickizer died peacefully Saturday evening at his home on Willow Road in Guelph. He is survived by his wife, and his daughter Krista Wickizer Fowls, and grandson Cole.
A few days earlier he had taken a turn for the worse. Friends were contacted and invited to the home for a last visit, and those friends streamed in. They talked music with him, and laughed with him. Wickizer was known as a joker, and as a gentle man.
Right up to the end, Wickizer maintained his sense of humour, and his love of talking about music and guitars. He died surrounded by family and friends, in his own bed, which was his wish.
He will be cremated, and no funeral service will be held. At a future date his ashes will be scattered near the Colorado mountains where he grew up.
On Sunday, friends gathered to grieve together in a downtown Guelph apartment, sharing stories about Mo and singing the songs that he loved. Many tears were shed.
Wickizer was supported in recent months by friends, fellow musicians and fans who raised nearly $30,000 to help the musician and his family. A crowd-funding campaign is ongoing.
Back in November, a team of friends mounted a concert in downtown Guelph featuring dozens of performers, selling 400 tickets and packing the Royal Electric venue.
In an interview with GuelphToday.com in early February, Wickizer shed tears as he spoke of the overwhelming support he and his wife had received from the people of Guelph, and from musician friends and fans in Toronto, Hamilton and Kitchener-Waterloo.
“Sometimes you just don’t know how much support there is for you until there’s a crisis in your life,” he said at the time.
Cecile Gough, a former oncology nurse, supported Wickizer throughout his illness, and helped spearhead fundraising efforts. She was inspired by what she called the man’s fighting spirit. She was with him when he passed away.
On the Youcaring crowdfunding site for Wickizer, Gough described the final moments.
“Around mid-afternoon yesterday, Mo slipped quietly into unconsciousness and shortly after 9 last night, surrounded by Rose, his sister Joyce, myself and a whole lot of love, he took his last breath,” she wrote on Sunday. “To ease his transition we sang his favourite hymn Amazing Grace and as soon as he heard the music, there was no struggle, no strife, only peace. It was incredible to bear witness to the power and gift of music. It offered some amazing medicine when he needed it most.”
Artist and musician Greg Denton hosted a gathering Sunday in downtown Guelph for friends of Wickizer’s.
“What I’ve been thinking about in terms of memorials for him is there isn’t going to be one, there will be many,” said Denton. “That’s because he didn’t have a community, he had a bunch of communities.”
All those various communities had their own fundraising benefits for Mo, he said.
“A lot of people talk about community, want to cultivate it and make an effort to cultivate it,” Denton added. “I think with Mo, he just did what he loved, and what he loved was music, and he loved people. His love of those things made him attractive.”
Mo’ Kauffey, the guitar picking singer, had a deep love of music, and a humility in his relationship to it, Denton added. He loved the songs that he played, and that “quiet love” flowed through him.
Larson said Guelph friends also mounted a strong campaign of support over 15 years ago when Wickizer was stuck at the U.S./Canada border. A marijuana possession arrest from his youth had come back to haunt him. He was unable to get back to Guelph to be with Rose.
Coming through the Windsor/Detroit border crossing some 17 years ago, Wickizer encountered an overly zealous border guard.
“They wouldn’t let him in, and it took almost two years of campaigning and fundraising to help Rose,” Larson added. “There were all sorts of people involved in the attempt to help Mo get back into Canada.”
Most people would be “spitting nails of fury” over the injustice of the situation, said Larson. “But Mo was gentle. He would just say, ‘We’ll have to go with what comes.’ If you’re patient and you put up with crap, the crap will eventually flush down the system.”
Wickizer, a member of the Grand River Blues Society, grew up in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains in Colorado. As a boy he listened to his older sisters’ rock and pop records, and played accordion in grade school.
Singers like Sonny Boy Williamson, John Mayall and Hoyt Axton turned him into a singer and guitar player in the 70s.
Friends are currently planning a local memorial in honour of Mo.
