Singer Terry Black remembered at service
Terry Black, who was once known as Canada's teen singing sensation, died Sunday.
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Updated: July 03, 2009 3:26 PM
When he was a teenager living in Vancouver, John Howell hated to go to Dance Party nights if Terry Black was there.
“He was so good looking,” the Port Moody resident said, “that nobody else ever had a chance with any of the girls.”
On Friday in Kamloops, Howell didn’t want to be at St. Andrew’s on the Square, again because of Black — whose life was being honoured by Howell, his wife Barbara and about 90 others who shared the common bond of having been touched by the man who was once called Canada’s teen singing sensation.
“You know why you don’t see any of Terry’s albums up there,” Howell said of the display marking the life of the man who died Sunday, June 28 at the age of 60.
“It’s because he gave everything away. You couldn’t ask for a better friend. He was the most considerate person, which the world’s lacking today.”
As an example, Howell told of how Black was planning to appear with legendary songwriter Phil Sloan in the summer of 2007.
Sloan had written Black’s first hit, Unless You Care, as well as the 1960s anti-war anthem, Eve of Destruction.
“Terry was really looking forward to it, but then he got sick and he couldn’t do it so he called me up and asked me if Phil was mad because he couldn’t do it. That’s the kind of guy he was, always caring about others.”
The service at the downtown Kamloops heritage site was filled with Black’s songs.
His partner, Pam Tedder, told of how the man she lived with and loved for 16 years would spend every birthday and Valentine’s Day painting cards for her and writing poems to put into them.
Black’s sons, Alex and Scott, spoke of the man they knew, a man who was never a singing star to them but, quite simply, their incredible dad.
Howie Reimer, who hosted the Radio ’NL Sixties at Six show for years, read letters sent by people who couldn’t be at the service, including iconic Canadian DJ Red Robinson, Steve Kennedy (who was in Dr. Music with Black) and another Canadian musical legend, Bobby Curtola.
“You know, Terry was never conceited,” Howell said. “He never dreamed all this was going to happen to him.
“I make my own CDs and, on the way up, I couldn’t play any because they’ve all got Terry on them.
“Forty-five years. I never thought I’d be here doing this.”
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