Richard Applegate

Richard W. Applegate, 75, of Carthage, Texas, son of W.C. "Bill" Applegate and Dorothy Salk Applegate was born on August 15, 1949 in Shreveport, Louisiana and passed away on Sunday morning May 25, 2025 at his home in Carthage. After graduating from Carthage High School in 1967, he furthered his studies at SMU in Dallas, graduating with a Bachelor's Degree in Communication Arts and Music. With a precise sense of hearing, music was his first love. Playing trombone in the CHS and SMU marching bands, forming his own band with Ray Akins (Dallas) and playing in the Paul Guerro Society Band (Dallas) he paid much of his way through college. After SMU, Richard worked for 2 years at the U.T. Health Science Center in Dallas doing instructional television. The series was broadcast throughout the University network across Texas. Wanting a greater challenge that combined his broadcast skills with his music, he moved to New York City in the early 1970's. To finance his first months, he played trombone in several Broadway pit bands and worked as an audio/visual tech at New York University. The latter entitled him to free tuition at NYU and he took graduate classes in scoring and television production. For his production class he worked with Tom Adelman to produce music videos of Jazz artists including Tom Pierson, Pat Metheny and Byard Lancaster. These half-hour segments were still being shown on WNYC in the late 1990's when he left the city. In 1979, Richard was recommended for a job building and running an in-house music demo studio for BBDO, a large Madison Avenue Advertising Agency. By 1981, he was promoted to a full music producer's position which led to several CLEO awards, including for the famous "Pony" spot for GE (We Bring Good Things to Life). During the late 70's he met Dede Shipman who was working in the fashion business for Mary McFadden. They were married in 1985 on a yacht in the waters around New York City. In the later 80's, Richard left BBDO and started Applegate and Schwartz Music. His partner, Stan Schwartz, was a native New Yorker who had been musical director for Melissa Manchester and had been narrowly beaten out by Paul Schaefer for the spot as musical director for Late Night with David Letterman. Applegate and Schwartz was commissioned by advertising agencies to create and produce original music or arrangements of familiar jingles based on lines or concepts created by the agencies. They did 16 versions of "This Buds for You" using artists like Leon Redbone, Harry Cary and Atchafayla. With Ashford and Simpson, they did a flight of commercials for Champale ("It's Been a Hard Day but It's Gonna Be a Good Night"). Spots for Macy's used famed Carlisle crooner, Bobby Short and they did the complete concept, music and production for Pillsbury products with the line "We've Got a Passion for You". In the 90's, Richard brought his music even closer to home by opening "Media Orphan". He wrote and produced short "midi" generated music that was used as bumpers or mood setters for such TV shows as Aaron Spellings soaps, Nickelodeon and Saturday Night Live. His audio services were varied and connected him with an additional layer of New York music. He reformulated the "sound" for Abbey Lincoln and in consequence her next album, "You Gotta Pay the Band", won a Grammy. He recorded the Ellington Society's engagements in New York, traveled through Germany and France with the Harlem Gospel Singers and did live sound for some of the great divas of Jazz, including Dakota Staton, Ruth Brown, Blossom Dearie and Shirley Horn. He was on call recording engineer for Cobi Narita's Universal Jazz Coalition, Marion McPartland's "Piano Jazz" that ran for many years on NPR and for the rebuilt Miller Theater at Columbia University. Richard retired in 2000, when he and Dede returned to Carthage to care for his mother after his father's death. He was a man of refined musical sensibilities whose life touched on nearly every aspect of music making. Richard is survived by his loving wife, Dorothy "Dede" Applegate of Carthage. Cremation arrangements are under the direction of Jimerson-Lipsey Funeral Home. A guestbook may be signed online at www.jimerson-lipsey.com.