****EDIT- I received an anon. comment telling me that it was tasteless for me to talk about the circumstances surrounding Mr. Sorby's death, and also pointing out that he didn't actually own the Focal Point (apparently just booked the shows there). I'd like to apologize if anyone thought my original post was crass or tasteless. Upon further review, I have to agree. I certainly didn't mean to offend anyone, and have thus edited this post to reflect this. I'm not excusing myself, but I think lack of sleep and the fact that I got the text message at 1:30am had something to do with my lapse of judgment. I've met Mr. Sorby a handful of times, and he was a pretty cool guy, and the last thing I want to do is besmirch his name. My most sincere apologies and condoloences to his family and friends.****
R.I.P. Bill Sorby.
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“A man in a roomful of women is ecstatic, whereas a woman in a roomful of
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6 comments:
I too believe Bill Sorby was a very cool guy and I certainly would not want to besmirch his name but I do wish I could find out the circumstances surrounding his sudden death. No body is talking and it is such a shock. Can you give any details of his death, at all?
The only info I have is what a friend of mine- who was a business associate of Bill's- gave me. He was closer to Bill than I was. In fact, like I said, I only met Bill a few times. The circumstances surrounding his death are not entirely known to me, although a theory is that it may have been self-inflicted, but family and friends think otherwise. I originally posted that info, but came under scrutiny from friends of his looking up his obituary. I edited my original post as to not to offend, and allow friends and family looking him up via Google to keep from getting too upset.
So let me state that I don't know the cause, only the two theories about it.
I also know- thanks to a commenter- that he left behind two children and a loving family and collection of friends, and that he will be missed by them and the patrons of his restaurant.
Please note that I am only mentioning what I know here because I have gotten numerous requests for more info, and since most of these requests are coming in via anonymously, I have no way of addressing them on an individual basis.
So to any friends or family who may read this, please understand that I am not propagating any rumors, merely the theories as they have been presented to me, and that you have my most sincere condolences foryour loss.
It's one thing to comment on something if you know something about the subject. Bill didn't book the music acts at the Focal Point. I always thing that information is best passed from a friend of a business associate and then circulated on a blog.
The circumstances around his death are private for a reason. No one has suspected that there was any foul play involved. Do you think that for the sake of Bill's young children you could keep your thoughts to yourself? Your blog just shows your ignorance to the whole situation.
OK, the above anonymous comment (which I decided to post to get my point across) is the kind of thing I've been getting from several people. Its the reason I edited my original post in the firt place, but now I'm beginning to get a little annoyed with the tone of these comments.
First off: Bill booked a sketch comedy group that I was in to perform at the Focal Point earlier this year. He was the guy we talked to. He was the one who set it up. If he normally didn't do that, then fine, whatever.. I guess he didn't do it, but I know he booked us for that occasion, and for several other sketch shows in years past that other friends of mine were involved in.
Secondly: I never mentioned foul play. The commentor assumed that. My friend who told me of Bill's passing said, "... but friends think otherwise." I was quoting.
Third: I will not keep my thoughts to myself. I'm not expressing opeinon here. I'm presenting what has been told to me, and the only reason I'm doing so is that other friends of his seem to have a problem finding out information about waht happened, and I made the decision to simply say what had been told to me. I'm not speculating one way or the other as to what happened. If someone with some actual information would like to post here and clear the air, please do. I welcome it.
I wrote about this in the first place because Bill was part of the St. Louis culture, and a fixture in the Maplewood rejuvination movement. He was relevant to what this blog is about: St. Louis. If the Post-Dispatch were to have picked up this story, would you also have berated them for publishing information? His kids are going to find out (or already know) what happened. I doubt that the little information posted here is going to traumatize them any more than the actual event. I also sincerely doubt they'll see this blog anyway.
So, to the anonymous poster who keeps sending me these comments, I ask that you identify yourself and tell what you know so that friends of Bill's who don't know what happened stop asking me. For the record, I've gotten about seven emails from people claiming to be Bill's friends, and they were searching for more information about him, and they were asking me to post what I know. So I did. If you can say for certain that what I mentioned in the above post was inaccurate, then I will rescind what has been said. Otherwise, I invite you to stop reading this blog and harrassing me with your emails.
what I know for certain is that he is gone, and that St. Louis has lost a unique thread in its culinary fabric.
And I know that he will be missed by many people.
I am a close friend of Bill's. And yes, Bill was a staple of the Maplewood Community and he was an important part of St. Louis. I think it's wonderful that someone has written a blog about him. But I don't think there needs to be any mention of how his death happened. It's irrelevant. He is gone. He will be missed. If these people who are contacting you are his real friends, they would already know all the information they needed to and wouldn't press a guy who's only met him a couple of times for information. And I'm not saying that to be rude. It's just the truth. So just let this rest please.
Believe me, I'd like to let this rest. In fact, I'm not going to post any more comments or comment myself on this anymore. But I will say one last thing: its not a fair assumption to say that if they were his real friends that they'd know. Apparently some of these people are out of the area and don't know of a way to contact his family. I'll let you debate the merits of what makes a "true friend" but I think some would take umbrage to that statement. Not me personally, but the people who contacted me asking about this incident.
With that said, I'm done with this topic.
With respect to Bill, he will not be forgotten anytime soon by the people of St. Louis and Maplewood.
* All future comments will be rejected. If you send one and want a response from me, you're going to have to provide your email address (which WILL NOT be posted publicly).
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