Forrest Rose

Columnist, musician Rose dies

By JOSH FLORY of the Tribune’s staff
Published Monday, March 21, 2005

Good friends and good music were a cornerstone of Forrest Rose’s life, and they surrounded him when he died.

Rose was an information specialist at the University of Missouri and was known for his weekly column, but his passion was music. An accomplished bass player, his career on the local music scene spanned decades, from his stint in the Mid-Missouri Hellband in the 1970s to more recent gigs with the Rank Sinatras, Perfect Strangers and other groups.

Rose was in Arizona over the weekend for a pair of shows with Perfect Strangers. After playing Saturday in Avondale, the band retired to the home of a friend to play more tunes, said Jody Stecher, the band’s mandolin player.

After 1½ hours of music, he said, Rose put down his bass, sat on the couch and asked two other band members to sing some old-time duets. In the middle of one song, Stecher said, he looked over and Rose’s eyes had rolled back in his head. Friends called 911, and a doctor who was present tried to administer aid. Rose was pronounced dead at a hospital.

"Forrest’s last memory is of listening to music that he likes, having a good time with the band and having just played great and doing what he wanted to do," Stecher said.

Rose used his wit to good effect as the band’s emcee, Stecher said, and he did most of the talking during shows. At one concert, Rose was joking about a song called "Wanderlust" and told the audience that singer Chris Brashear’s wanderlust was because of his enrollment in the federal witness protection program. The government, Rose said, had Brashear make a bluegrass album because "then he’ll disappear into total obscurity."

Claud Crum, who played in the Rank Sinatras, said when Rose set the tempo with his bass it was "like a cruise control." "Man, you could set a speed, and it never moved," he said.

The Maricopa County medical examiner’s office said an autopsy is scheduled for Thursday. Rose suffered an aneurysm during a performance in 1987 in Nashville and spent more than two weeks in a coma before recovering.

It was important to Rose that the aneurysm not affect his life, said his former wife, Boone County Clerk Wendy Noren. "It really was a traumatic, near-death experience, and he wanted to move on and enjoy life," she said. "And I think the most important thing to him was the lack of impact it had."

The two had a son, Brennan, now 15, and a scholarship fund has been set up for the teenager at First National Bank.

Rose penned a Tuesday column for the Tribune that veered between self-deprecating humor and biting commentary about a range of issues.

Not that he was overly enamored of his own stature as a shaper of public opinion. In a recent column about one of his favorite targets - Wal-Mart - Rose began by writing, "Think your vote doesn’t mean anything? Try writing a weekly newspaper column! You spend agonizing hours wringing your soul all over the page, working out thoughtful themes and irrefutable arguments - and nothing happens."

The column earned him kudos and criticism from readers, and it also earned him a special relationship. His girlfriend, Bernadette Dryden, said this morning that she and Rose began dating about five years ago after she praised a column he wrote about Stephens Park.

Besides his son, Dryden said, music was the most important thing in his life.

"He was brilliant and the most … interesting person I’ve ever met probably," she said. "Just full of ideas and wit and so generous."

Dryden wasn’t in Arizona when Rose died, but she said his friends were in the middle of singing a death ballad when they noticed Rose had been stricken.

"I think he’d probably love that," she added.

A memorial service is scheduled for 4 p.m. Friday at Unitarian Universalist Church, 2615 Shepard Blvd., with a celebration of Rose’s life scheduled for 6 p.m. at The Blue Note, 17 N. Ninth St.