There was an old movie theater on Fillmore Street, one of those earlier twen-cen venues with a stage and everything. The Grateful Dead were there getting ready for the 72 European tour I think, and Donna Godchaux was introduced. She said, “I know what you’re thinkin’. ‘A chick singin’ with the Grateful Dead….’”

For all their broader community magnetism, finding a place in the core of the Dead “family” must have been tough for an adoptee.

How much harder then for Vince Welnick, the last of the four ill-fated Grateful Dead keyboard players and the most recently deceased.

I learned of this passing at the blog of Brian Moffatt.