Molly Ringwald pays moving tribute to her father

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This article was published 10/08/2021 (1757 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Jazz pianist and music ambassador Robert Ringwald died Aug. 3, his daughter, actress Molly Ringwald confirmed. He was 80.

“Robert Scott Ringwald, known to most as Bob, and to a lucky few as Dad and PopPop, died Tuesday,” Molly Ringwald wrote in an obituary posted Saturday in the Sacramento Bee.

The Pretty in Pink actress posted a photo gallery on Instagram. “It’s with a heavy heart that my family says goodbye to my father. I consider myself very lucky to have had him in my life for as long as I did,” she wrote.

No cause of death was given.

“A lyric to the song Old Bones, which he performed often in his later years, summed up his philosophy around a full life well-lived,” Ringwald wrote in her obituary tribute.

“I love life, I’d like to live it again/Just to have the chance to turn back the hands/ And let my life begin/Oh yeah, I’d like to do it again.”

Born in Roseville, Calif., on Nov. 26, 1940, with vision problems, Ringwald went blind at an early age. He began taking piano lessons at five and started his first band at 13.

It was the music of Louis Armstrong that inspired her father’s lifelong passion for the performance and preservation of “traditional” New Orleans jazz, Molly Ringwald wrote in the obituary.

Along with playing piano at clubs seven nights a week, Ringwald co-organized the first Sacramento Jazz Festival in 1974, with his band headlining.

In 2012, Ringwald was honoured by the festival as “The Emperor of Jazz.”

The honour “both touched and embarrassed him,” Molly Ringwald wrote. “Despite having been a performer for nearly his entire life, he was never comfortable having attention bestowed on him unless he was on stage with a piano.”

His bands included Sugar Willie and the Cubes, the Great Pacific Jazz Band, which he formed after having moved to Los Angeles in the 1980s; and the BoonDockers.

He hosted a radio program on KCSN-FM called Bob Ringwald’s Bourbon Street Parade, featuring jazz artists mostly from his extensive record collection.

“Though he never wanted to be defined by his blindness, he couldn’t help being an ambassador for changing the perception of what is possible to do while living with a disability,” Molly Ringwald wrote.

“His dignity, humour, strength of character and courage will always be remembered and cherished by everyone whose lives were touched by his.”

Besides his daughter Molly, Robert Ringwald is survived by Adele, his wife of 60 years; a sister, Renée Angus; another daughter, Beth Ringwald Carnes; a son, Kelly Ringwald; two grandsons; two granddaughters; two step-granddaughters; one great-grandson; and one step-great-grandson.

A memorial service is pending.

In lieu of flowers, the family asks that donations be made either to the Foundation Fighting Blindness or to CURE Childhood Cancer.

— USA Toda