Untimely Police Death Touches St. Louis Music Scene

Back in 1973 and part of 1974 I was a police dispatcher in Creve Coeur where we dispatched officers with Town and Country, Frontenac and Creve Coeur police departments.

Forty years ago, many police dispatchers were like me—young men waiting to get hired as cops and be sent to the police academy. That has all changed. Now police communication officers are professionals hired with the hope they'll stick around on the job for 10, 20, 30 years.

The one thing I remember most is that often after an 8-hour shift, I would be exhausted. An officer may have been sent to one stressful call or had a problem arrest, but dispatchers working the radio, the phone and the desk would have many things at one time to deal with. Citizens would need immediate help and burglar alarms would buzz while police officers on the radio demanded information now. 

I thought of all that when I heard that West County Dispatch Center dispatcher Lisa O’Brien died July 18. Lisa went on sick leave with a bad chest cold and didn't return—dying of bacterial pneumonia. She was just 31-years-old and had an 8-month-old daughter and a 5-year-old son. She had been helping folks for the past 10 years as a police dispatcher.

Immediately after Lisa’s death I went to see local jazz trumpeter Jim Manley during a break at a performance in Kirkwood. I told Jim the story and asked if we could do a benefit concert where we could surely raise two or three thousand dollars for the family.

Jim said his nine-piece 60s Las Vegas style band, “Wild, Cool and Swingin” normally will do one or two benefit concerts a year, where they play at a discounted price. He added they haven’t done a benefit yet this year. We decided on a price that was just 1/3 of the normal fee. For some musicians who live in St. Charles and Jefferson counties their pay for this benefit will be little more than gas money. Jim gave me four open weekend dates in August.   

While Jim’s various bands have real followings, I was hoping to broaden the field to get more people. The first person I thought of was Dean Christopher. Dean lives in South County and is a great vocalist. He also has experience in New York in Broadway plays and television soap operas.

But Dean’s real talent is mixing music and comedy. He does dead on impersonations and has developed an act of doing members of the Rat Pack and others from the 1960s Las Vegas and Hollywood scene that is hilarious. Dean has a large St. Louis following. He regularly used to sell out shows at the old Finale nightclub in Clayton.

Dean was happy to perform. He was offered a rather lowly sum, which he said he may just donate. The only problem was Dean was available only on Friday August 26. He gets back from performing in Europe on August 25 at midnight.         

The Meramec Lab Jazz Band consisting of professional musicians who get together on Wednesdays as a big band, can usually put 100 people in the room when they play.  They have a terrific female vocalist, Valerie Tichacek. She immediately said she’d love to perform with Wild, Cool and Swinging and even cancelled a paying job for that night to be on the bill.

The next trick was to find a venue to put on the show. I found two area clubs that were available on August 26. One held about 100 people and the other could handle 150.  They both wanted $500 and the bar. Five hundred dollars really takes quite a bit away from the amount being raised for Lisa’s kids. The AKC Dog Museum at Queeny Park has a beautiful room that holds 200. Their price was lower, but they didn’t have a date on a Friday or Saturday night for months.

A neighbor called me during the venue search and offered her church; the Parkway United Church of Christ. It is on Ballas Road next to Missouri Baptist Hospital. It seats 300 so we would have the ability to double the money raised if we get a really good turnout.  We plan to ask for $15 donations at the door for over two hours of entertainment with music and comedy. The show is on Friday night August 26 at 8 o’clock.  This will not be somber event, but a very entertaining evening.  

Lisa lived in Florissant. None of the musicians knew her. Her family did not attend Parkway United Church of Christ. It didn’t make any difference everyone wanted to help.          

These musicians are used to closing up clubs and bars on a Friday night. On August 26 they will be closing up a church.