Did anybody see the story on the news today , about 83 year old "Okie" Adams of dropped axle fame being killed today in Eagle rock Ca. in a fire ? Tragic story . Anybody here knew him personally ?
Man, I watched that fire on KTLA this mornin' when it wuz happenin'. That thing went from a small fire to engulfed in nothin' flat. Hate ta hear bad fate for an ol' hot rod hand.
Wow,..... another one gone,.. This is a quote from Pete Chapouris about the Okie Adams axle on "Ol Dad's" roadster,... "The roadster featured an "Okie" Adams dropped axle that was available only at Blair's speed shop . Okie is almost worthy of a sidebar himself, because, as Chapouris recalls, "He'd weld those flame-cut ends on a Deuce axle and they'd be aligned perfectly! Gray's tires were worn absolutely even all the way across."
After Okie made his fame with Hot Rods, he became famous for building custom banjos. That's how I met him back in the late '70s, he generously took me into his workshop and taught me about banjo building, as he did for a number of others too. Okie has a long and colorful history in the Southern California banjo building scene. The last time I saw and talked with him was early this summer at the Topanga Canyon Banjo/Fiddle Contest. Although hampered by old age and poor health, he was still active and happy, still building banjos then. Okie was a fun, generous, humorous, non-conventional person to know. He was a straight shooter, strong on clean living, hard, accurate work and faith; he helped many of us along as we were growing up in the banjo scene, leaving his mark permanently in our lives. Okie will be missed. I'm honored to have known him. Best, -- Don
<TABLE id=HB_Mail_Container height="100%" cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%" border=0 UNSELECTABLE="on"><TBODY><TR height="100%" UNSELECTABLE="on" width="100%"><TD id=HB_Focus_Element vAlign=top width="100%" background="" height=250 UNSELECTABLE="off">R.I.P. Okie!! The angels will be trading in those old harps for some "Banjos by Okie". Another of the "cl***ic craftsmen" gone to the big speed shop in the sky!!!-Sololobo/Roadburners of Omaha </TD></TR><TR UNSELECTABLE="on" hb_tag="1"><TD style="FONT-SIZE: 1pt" height=1 UNSELECTABLE="on"> </TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
The thread was started Nov 23, 2007 right after he died in the fire. Sounds like Oldtimeboy was having a boring day and was snooping the archives.
The Jalopy Journal
