Today, I’m thinking of my friend Dennis Flannigan of Tacoma, Washington, who passed away last month – on July 10, 2024 at the age of 84.
Dennis, in conjunction with KISW-FM radio and the Tacoma Stars, produced a big LOUIE LOUIE event that took place at the Tacoma Dome a few months after the legendary “Maximum LOUIE LOUIE” marathon at KFJC Radio in the San Francisco Bay Area.
The date was Wednesday, December 28, 1983 and the event was billed as “The Best of Louie Louie” which took place after a soccer game between the Tacoma Stars and the Kansas City Comets. As the KFJC event provided Richard Berry, the author of LOUIE LOUIE, with his first experience with an event that celebrated his most famous composition, culminating with his first meeting with a member of the Kingsmen (Jack Ely, the original singer), this Tacoma event provided Richard an opportunity to meet Northwest musicians that embraced his song in a major way, including members of the Wailers (the band that backed Rockin’ Robin Roberts on the second LOUIE LOUIE record), Little Bill Engelhart, Gail Harris, as well as other members of the Kingsmen.
When I connected with Dennis, he told me about how honored he felt to bring Richard to this event. Dennis also introduced me to some good people in Tacoma that became great friends.
Over the years, Dennis would often reach out, sending me more LOUIE LOUIE things, and some wonderful holiday CDs with some delightfully obscure Christmas songs.
As we connected on the Facebook social networks, I learned more about Dennis and his remarkable life. I learned that Denis travelled to Mississippi in 1964 at a time when fighters for civil rights were getting murdered by white supremacists.
The University of Puget Sound – Collins (Memorial Library) Unbound blog shared some details about Denis’s journey:
In his 20s, rather than finishing his studies in American literature at Puget Sound, Flannigan decided to join the 1964 Freedom Summer campaign to help register African American voters in Mississippi and build community resources such as libraries. While in Mississippi, he wrote letters to his friends at Puget Sound. The seven letters were published in The Trail during the fall of 1964 as a series titled “Letters from Mississippi.” In these letters, Flannigan recalls the backlash against the Freedom Summer, including the bombing of the church the civil rights workers used as a meeting place.
Flannigan went on to become a four-term state representative and founded or co-founded of several local organizations including the Pierce County Alliance, Emergency Food Network, and Pierce County Reading Foundation, among others. He received an honorary Doctorate of Law from Puget Sound in 2012.
As I learn more about Dennis, I continue to be in awe, and am so very grateful to have known him. My thoughts go out to his family and friends.
Rest in peace, my friend.
– E.P. of LouieLouie.net
P.S. I’m still looking for footage of the Tacoma Dome show. If anyone has any photos or videos from this event, PLEASE drop a line to “Louie” at LouieLouie-net.
Reference Links:
Dennis Flannigan Obituary (echovita.com)