Jeffrey Lee Ayers

Jeffrey Lee Ayers

Indianapolis - Jeff Ayers, vocalist in multiple Indianapolis rock bands and pioneer in taking the sport of bocce off the lawn and into an alley, died unexpectedly this week. He was 62. Also, a former columnist for Nuvo newsweekly and frequent contributor to "Let It Out" — IndyStar's reader engagement feature — Ayers is being remembered for enlivening the setting wherever he went. "He was an artist," former IndyStar reporter Will Higgins said of Ayers. "His life was like a performance piece. You couldn't take your eyes off him." Ayers, an accomplished actor during his days at Pike High School, worked as a waiter at Some Guys Pizza and was a member of high-IQ organization Mensa.

As a singer, Ayers performed with acts ranging from the Shouts and Bangkok Rooster to the Reacharounds and Turnipseeds. A Shouts cover of Them's "Gloria" was included on the 2014 compilation "Early Indiana Punk And New Wave: The Crazy Al's Year(s) 1976-1983." Ayers eventually adopted the stage name "Ben Wah Salami," as he was known when collaborating with "Bob & Tom Show" producer Dean Metcalf in the Turnipseeds.

As a journalist, Ayers wrote for bygone Broad Ripple entertainment magazine Different Beat and he adopted the pen name "Harry Cheese" when writing for Nuvo. Ayers' daughter, Grace Ayers Junicic, said her father recently had begun work on a children's book titled "Angry Andy." Among Ayers' many tattoos, he sported five dedicated to Grace, plus the names of grandchildren Maribelle, 2, and 8-month-old Hunter. "He did everything for his grandchildren," Ayers Junicic said. "All kids always loved him because he was just like a big kid himself. He would get on the floor and play with them and laugh with them."

After moving into a house near Broad Ripple in the early 1990s, Ayers was known in his neighborhood for co-founding a vegetable and flower patch called "Squatters Garden."

Ayers and Dave Frohbieter transformed a strip of land near their backyards that had become an eyesore. "There was a junk car nestled among tall, scrubby mulberry trees in the area, which was overgrown with weeds and littered with trash blown in by the wind," Ayers wrote in a "Living Green" column published by IndyStar in 2011.

The alley adjacent to "Squatters Garden" was the site of Ayers' contribution to the sporting world. He and friends, a crew that at times included "Survivor" star Rupert Boneham, played bocce on the alley's rugged, unpredictable surface rather than on smooth courts generally associated with the bowling pastime. After stumbling across Ayers' game, journalist Higgins was inspired to modify the concept and establish linear bocce as a twice-a-year competition that stretches several blocks of alleys in the Meridian-Kessler neighborhood. "Jeff Ayers wanted the best for everybody," Higgins said. "He loved everybody. I've never met a more empathetic person, plus he was funny as hell." Ayers served as a linear bocce course marshal, a role he shared with longtime friend Jim Kelly.

In the realm of "Let It Out," Ayers and Kelly were good-natured rivals who apparently contributed more quips than anyone else in the column's 23-year-history. Kelly's total exceeds 125, enough to warrant a "Let It Out King" tattoo he picked up this spring. Ayers landed more than 60 items in "Let It Out," including these zingers:

•"People who throw away their little teeth-flossing tools in parking lots are the grossest people on the planet."

•"My two cats understand discipline. They have me very well-trained."

•"Many people are questioning Donald Trump's reported weight. It's called the girther movement."

Ayers is survived by his mother, Barbara Ayers; his daughter, Grace; son-in-law Damir Junicic; grandchildren Maribelle and Hunter; and sisters Dawn Ayers and Janie Ayers Byrd.

There will be a celebration of life for Jeff on July 14, from 3pm to 7pm at Some Guy's Pizza, 6235 Allisonville Road. Guests are invited to bring instruments, good stories about Jeff, and lots of love to share with Jeff's friends and family.

Online condolences may be shared by visiting flannerbuchanan.com. Arrangements were entrusted to Flanner Buchanan - Broad Ripple.