John Lloyd Garretson died on the morning of Saturday, October 15, 2022 at New York Presbyterian- Lawrence Hospital in Bronxville, NY. He was 69 years old.
John was born at White Plains Hospital in New York on June 3, 1953, to Virginia Rumsey Holland and Summerfield Baldwin Garretson. He was the third of five children. He was predeceased by his infant brother “Bucky.”
Raised in Bronxville, New York and Marin County, California, he graduated from Bronxville High School and received his bachelor’s degree from Bennington College.
After college, he toured the East Coast with the integrated Rhythm and Blues band, Nite Trix, cooked for the Silver Palette, and worked for the artist Claes Oldenburg.
In 1981, he moved to Hollywood, California, and worked as a songwriter and musician. He led the bands DB House, The Gentlemen’s Club, and performed with his sister Weba as part of Weba and the Wailing Turbans. He also worked with the Los Angeles Theater Center, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and several theaters and performing arts organizations, running their telemarketing operations. John was married to Sarah Todd from 1982-1990.
He dedicated his life to writing and performing music, beginning with the trombone in childhood, then guitar as an adolescent, learning from Sam Andrew of Big Brother and the Holding Company, then Jimmy Garrison and Bill Dixon at Bennington College.
He is survived by daughter Frances Gray Garretson, grandson Enzo Ziggurat Garretson Gott, brother James Garretson of Greenport, New York and sisters Dr. Julia Strand of Seattle and Weba Garretson of Los Angeles.
There was a Memorial Blues Jam in his honor at the Bayou in Mt. Vernon, New York on October 24, 2022. His cremated remains will be scattered in Long Island Sound and the Pacific Ocean.
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