Burl Ives nearing death

By CHRIS SEPER
Campus editor
The Daily Eastern News, April 14, 1995

Burl Ives remained in a coma late Thursday night, and family members said they were doubtful Eastern’s most famous alumnus would recover.

His daughter, Dorothy Ives, said her father’s coma had worsened Thursday.

‘The doctors are not expecting him to come out of the coma,” said Rob Grossman, Ives’ stepson, from Ives’ home Thursday afternoon in Anacortes, Wash. “At this stage of the game, and in all probability, there’s no way to know for sure. He should probably pass on in the next day or two at the most.

“He’s got a strong heart.”

The actor-balladeer slipped into a coma Wednesday and is not expected to regain consciousness. Ives, 85, attended Eastern from 1927-29 and in the summer of 1930.

“I know that he is very fond of his ties with Eastern Illinois University,” Grossman said. “He and I haven’t spo-ken of Eastern in many years, but that’s where his roots are.”

Ives health has been gradually deteriorating over the past year after doctors discovered he suffered from mouth cancer last summer. At the time, he was hospitalized for back surgery, and he has “had a number of little surgeries in the last few months,” said Marjorie Schicktanz Ashley, Ives’ agent for 20 years.

Ives may be best known for his recordings of folk and children’s songs including “Frosty the Snowman” and “The Blue Tail Fly,” which has the chorus “Jimmy Crack Corn (and I don’t care).” Poet Carl Sandburg once called him “the mightiest ballad singer of this or any other century” He also defined the role of Big Daddy in Tennessee Williams’ “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” on Broadway and film, and won an Oscar in 1958 for his supporting role in ‘The Big Country.”

At Eastern, Ives was a member of the school’s only undefeated football team. In 1929, he was selected as an all-conference left guard and the con-ference’s best tackle.

In 1987, he was given Eastern’s Distinguished Alumni Award, and in 1990, he attended the dedication of the Burl Ives Art Studio.

He performed at Eastern four times, including once in 1990.

“Eastern benefited greatly because of his willingness to speak out for it,” said Dan Thornburg, former executive officer of the EIU Foundation and a retired professor of journalism. “Because of his attendance here, the alums that went here with him and his fellow students remember him with a great fondness and he cer-tainly helped bring them out as sup-porters of the university.”

Ives helped promote the EIU Foundation’s Tenth Decade campaign that raised $7 million for the university.

Thornburgh described Ives as a strong football player, singer and a history teacher who struggled in class while at Eastern. In 1929, Ives met with Livingston C. Lord, former Eastern president, who told him to give up history and pursue his singing and per-forming career.

“President Lord called (Ives) into his office ... and said, ‘Burl, your talent lies elsewhere. I think you should find it,”’ Thornburgh said.

Thornburgh said Ives credited Lord for helping him begin his long career.

“It was a mutual love he had for this institution and the people of this time had for him,” he said.

Family members remained around Ives around the clock Thursday. His wife, Dorothy, and her three adult children were with him, Ashley said.

“None of us have gotten any sleep lately,” Grossman said. “We’ve pretty much got a vigil going on here.”

— The Associated Press contributed to this report.