People - R
Famous and Infamous People, Leaders & Luminaries in Colorado Arts, Culture & Folklore

People Pages: A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W XYZ - Hall of Fame -

• Jon Benet Ramsey - Child pageant star Jon Benet Ramsey was found strangled to death in the basement of her home at 755 15th Street in Boulder in the early morning of December 26, 1996. Her extremely wealthy parents John and Patrica Ramsey became the worldwide focus of brutal public innuendos after police reportedly failed adequate procedures to secure an integral investigation. A ransom note has been the issue of intense scrutiny due in part to its mention of inside knowledge pertaining to John and his thriving software company Access Graphics which reportedly has sustained annual revenues in the billions of dollars. One little reported angle of the murder inquiry is a series of burglaries in the Ramsey residential neighborhood which abruptly ended when Jon Benet was killed. Some police have individually exhonnerated the Ramseys while at least one low ranking and bitter detective has all but found them guilty. Likewise the massive evidence, which has seemed both incriminating and exculpatory, has not shown itself fit for any public conclusion. A 1999 grand jury failed to indict the Ramsey parents or anyone else.
  This editor's opinion: Patricia might look guilty for bad posture but both John and Patricia are probably innocent. Hiding clues to a sensational homicide is all but impossible when you become a central suspect under massive scrutiny. Indeed the circumstances are haunting. Public theories that Jon Benet's death resulted from a coverup of parental pedophilia seem astonishing in their lack of sensitivity toward the grieving Ramseys. Until some new element of vital analysis tilts the case justly, we should all have our doubts but give the Ramseys the full benefit of those doubts and our sympathy. Otherwise we have crucified two surviving victims in the name of the first. Short of parental guilt, the wealth of the Ramseys has in no way circumvented justice but rather it has barely spared them from the fiery torches of vigilantes and what might have become overzealous prosecution if they had been poor, in which case the public would hardly have cared to find any truth short of lethal injection. Such is the inhuman nature of our society that we don't even seem to notice when little children of poor parents die every day under equally suspicious circumstances. Whoever killed Jon Benet has given oneself a horrendous curse much like a half dead soul living only for redemption. That deep wellspring of guilt may lead either to further harm or to a confession, most likely inadvertently if the case is not solved by investigative brilliance.
  
  • footnote: At the time of the murder, Access Graphics was based on Boulder's Pearl Street Mall (at 15th Street) in the former Citizen's National Bank Building. Arts watchers will note that the building is a landmark where Boulder's famed Glenn Miller used to perform. It was also the home to KRNW and later KGNU radio stations and a music publication Cake Eaters from the 1970s. Widely reknown band Firefall used to perform in the Good Earth nightclub on the top floor in the mid-1970s. (This editor knows because I was an ad rep for Cake Eaters in 1974/75.)
    
    
• Dean Reed - The late Dean Reed was one of the biggest pop stars to ever hit the Soviet Union. His brother Dale R. Reed reports he was planning to return to Colorado to live when his body was found floating in an East German lake as a result of what the Stasi (an infamous East German police authority) termed an "unfortunate accident." Dale also mentioned that Dean was a big star in South America before he started performing in the USSR. Correspondent Eric Rosenburg reports that Dean hails from Wheatridge. Another correspondent Oskar Back has passed along info that Dean "hails from Lakewood, according to biographer Jennifer Dunbar-Dorn" Brother Dale did not elaborate on Dean's suburb of origin although Westword reported many years ago that Dean is from Colorado. Dale reports Dean was born September 22, 1938. Their mother Ruth Anna Brown of Boulder, died on September 3, 2000.
  - ref e-mails rec'd from Dale 2kJL29, 2kSe23Sa, and Oskar Back 98Se10; E.Rosenburg 99JL04.
  
  
• Dizzy Reed - We received the following from email correspondent Amy Miller: "Born Darren Reed in Boulder, Colorado on June 18, 1963. He is in the band Guns N Roses. He joined the band in 1991, not to replace anyone, just to add to their sound. After 10 years of virtually no new music, and every other band member has left except for singer Axl Rose, Dizzy is still with the band."
  - ref email 2002 Jan. 05.
  
  
• Roseanne - (aka: Rosanne Barr; Rosanne Arnold)
  The Roseanne Show <TheRoseanneShow.com>
  Who could deny that obnoxious comedienne who took sitcom TV by storm. She was a standup at local comedy clubs in Denver before making it really BIG in Hollywood. Marilyn Megenity of the Mercury Cafe nightclub told CAN that Roseanne earned her very first fifty dollars in show biz at the old Merc at 1308 Pearl Street in Denver. Roseanne also did a number of standup shows at a tiny neighborhood women's bar called Three Sisters which was reportedly the oldest womens' bar in America. Veritably, Stephanie Holle (aka: Fanny) of Fanny's Corner Florist in Denver was rumored by an employee to be Roseanne's agent (unconfirmed) long before Roseanne got noticed. Roseanne married her first husband while living in Evergreen but hails originally from Utah.
  Roseanne's e-mail: Roseanne@kingworld.com
  
  
• Damon Runyon - One of Colorado's most dear figures from the underground was writer and sportscaster Damon Runyon. He originally hailed from Kansas but made his mark as a newspaper writer living in Pueblo in the early part of the century. At that time Pueblo was a hotbed of immigration, bootlegging, organized crime, steel mill labor, and illegal consumption. It was a social epicenture of the roaring twenties. Highway 50, which cuts through Pueblo, was perhaps the leading interstate highway in those years. Runyon's 'Runyonesque' tough talking manner was born out of the dangerous fast moving streetwise climate of early Pueblo. Legend has it the term "equalizer" meaning gun, was a term Runyon invented or picked up there. Runyon wrote Guys and Dolls, a milestone in American literature. I believe he worked and lived most of his later life in New York City where he achieved national prominence. For specific details of Runyon's life I'd recommend asking library for the Damon Runyon biography written by Boulder writer Tom Clark.
  
  
• Joe Russell - The Persuasions/vocalist
  Joe Russell is former and recent member of famed soul group The Persuasions which had its glory days in the 1960s. Russell lived in Boulder for about five years in the 1980s. He grew up in Henderson, NC.
  Indir.Survey: 950516G.Perry.