DCS: jim feezel

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Jim Feezel joined the US Army in 1944 and became a tech sergeant in the 12th Armored Division. He was given the assignment of driver, operating a Sherman tank for the division. One year into his service, on April 29, 1945, Jim’s division pulled up to the front gate of Dachau, the notorious Nazi concentration camp located in southern Germany. Jim’s commanding officer gave the order and Jim drove his tank right though the front gate of the camp, thus initiating its liberation. At the time, there were 30,000 prisoners inside. Jim recalled marveling with disbelief at the stacks of bodies piled up like firewood. He remembered a malnourished man staggering towards his tank and finally sitting down in the dirt, overcome by weakness.

After the war, Jim worked as an engineer for the Amoco Oil Company. In a newspaper interview in 2015, Jim reminisced: “I often reckon with the very fact that I was such a small pebble in a large stream of thousands and thousands of men who went to fight this war.”

Jim passed away on October 15, 2020 at the age of 95. He was haunted his entire life by what he saw in 1945.

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inktober52: viking

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Jim Souder was my illustration teacher in my senior year of art school. In my four years of art school, he was arguably the best teacher I had. (And this statement comes from someone who hates to rank and rate things. Let’s just say every other teacher I had was tied for second place.)

When Mr. Souder finished his stint in the United States Navy, he enrolled in the Hussian School of Art. After he graduated, he taught at the school for the next 51 years. I was lucky enough — no, make that privleged enough — to have him as an instructor.

Before Mr. Souder (as I can still only refer to him) was my teacher, I heard horror stories about his class. I heard that he was tough and angry and ruthless and a number of other fearsome and intimidating descriptors. However, on day one of his class, I found him to be informative, capable, knowledgeable and, most of all, very endearing. I learned a lot from Mr, Souder and what I learned, I feel, greatly improved my own illustrations.

He taught about backgrounds, citing of all things, the backgrounds on The Flintstones cartoon. He told his class to take special notice of the delicate and painterly aspect of the backgrounds of The Flintstones. When the statement elicited some giggles from members of the class, he frowned and repeated his assertion, demanding that we (as 20 year-olds) revisit the cartoon and see what he was talking about. Guess what, he was right. The backgrounds on The Flintstones are beautiful. No kidding.

Mr. Souder pushed his class to draw. And draw and draw and draw. Each week (I had his class once a week), he would give a different assignment to enhance our drawing ability. He would request that each student gather “scrap” to bring to class. “Scrap” is artist talk for “reference material.” Mr. Souder was adamant about drawing from reference. He dismissed drawing from imagination without a base in something real. He would tell his students: “You don’t really know what anything looks like without a reference. Studying something real will make your drawings better.” Once again, he was right.

Mr. Souder, I should note, was a typical, old school, “man’s man.” He was a gruff guy with a surprisingly kind disposition, but he was a stereotypical “man” and he liked manly things. When he asked students to bring in “scrap” for a drawing exercise, he would ask for pictures of cowboys and football players and Vikings and other manly examples. No flowers for this guy! No sir! It was always things like boxers or lumberjacks. It was cute and only added to Mr. Souder’s unique persona.

Despite his vast knowledge of drawing and technique, Mr. Souder was not without his quirks. He was a fountain of malapropisms. He would often talk about the artwork that would appear in the Sunday newspaper, specifically the “Sunday subligant.” There was a guy in our class whose name was Bob Eckert. Mr. Souder only referred to him as “Eggbert.” Bob never corrected him. He called every student “artist.” This was either a term of respect or, more likely, because Mr. Souder was terrible at remembering names. One day, Mr. Souder informed my class that a directive came from the office to have students create an illustration based on a reading assignment. (My art school did not offer any academic classes. That was the main reason I chose to enroll there.) He said, “The so-called ‘powers that be’ don’t think you people know how to read.” Then he glanced around the room and added, “You do know how to read, right?”

After I graduated, I ran into Mr. Souder a few times while visiting my art school for alumni events. Each time, I had to explain to him who I was. He always appeared to be happy to see me, even if he didn’t remember exactly who I was. And I always called him “Mr. Souder.”

Mr. Souder passed away in 2017 at the age of 91. I read in his online obituary that he was married for 61 years. He had three children, four grandchildren and a great-grandchild. He loved to draw and paint. He loved to travel. He loved to play handball, drink coffee and root for the Philadelphia Eagles.

Mr. Souder was a great teacher, a talented artist and a good guy.

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DCS: flick colby

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Pennsylvania-born Felicity Colby enrolled in ballet and other dance classes as a child. She had dreams of becoming a professional dancer. She was lucky enough to be cast in several musicals before trying her hand at dancing on the London scene in the 1960s.

In late 1966, Felicity — now going by “Flick” — founded Pan’s People, a modern dance troupe comprised of five women around her own age. The group made appearances on the BBC on top shows like The Two Ronnies and The Bobbie Gentry Show before becoming a weekly fixture on the wildly popular Top of the Pops. In addition to being a member of the group, Flick served as the main choreographer for the run of the series. She also supervised dance moves for several other dance troupe, as well as choreographing the rock musical Catch My Soul.

After Top of the Pops ended, Flick returned to her home in Clinton, New York and opened a small gift shop. She left her dance career in her distant past.

Flick passed away in 2011 from bronchopneumonia after a diagnosis of breast cancer. She was 65.

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DCS: bambi woods

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Debra DeSanto was born in Pierre, South Dakota in 1955. However, there may never have been a “Debra DeSanto” born in Pierre, South Dakota in 1955.

In 1978, producer-director-entrepreneur Jim Clark (sometimes known as “Jim Buckley”) released the pornographic film Debbie Does Dallas. The film, a loose account of the trials and tribulations of an innocent cheerleader on her way to fame as a member of the “Texas Cowgirls,” a thinly-veiled allusion to the popular Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders. The film starred blond-haired, blue-eyed “Bambi Woods,” a name conceived by Clark for his new starlet, based on Disney’s Bambi and that character’s forest habitat. The film proved extremely successful, selling over 50,000 copies in its initial video release and spawning dozens of sequels — both authorized and unauthorized.

Bambi Woods, in reality, was the former Debra DeSanto. As mentioned in an interview, “Bambi” had gotten herself into a financial pickle with an acquaintance. To fulfill her debt, “Bambi” agreed to appear in a pornographic film. The acquaintance was employed in the adult film industry. Jim Clark, the film’s producer, tagged Debra with a new moniker and she — reluctantly — made the movie. However, she was still unable to pay her debt and she saw no choice but to make two more films in the Debbie Does Dallas canon before calling it a career.

Then “Bambi/Debra” disappeared.

A wide variety of stories circulated regarding the former porn star’s whereabouts. One account said that her family found out about her exploits and she was embarrassed. She left the adult film industry for obscurity. An article in an Australian newspaper reported that “Bambi/Debra” was deep into the lurid life of the (then unregulated) porn industry. She allegedly died of a drug overdose in 1986, just after the release of Debbie Does Dallas III. In a 2005 British documentary about the 70s porn industry, producer Jim Clark said that “Bambi/Debra” had married a software developer, moved to Des Moines, Iowa and refuses to discuss or even acknowledge her former career.

None of these scenarios have been confirmed and the fate of “Bambi Woods” or “Debra DeSanto” or whoever she is remains a mystery.

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DCS: randy vanwarmer

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Colorado-born Randy VanWarmer moved to England with his family just after the sudden death of his father. The musical Randy, a teenager at the time, wrote several songs. He was signed by Albert Grossman’s Bearsville Records. In 1978, Randy released his debut album Warmer. The disc spawned the hit single Just When I Needed You Most, which hit Number 1 on the Billboard Adult Contemporary Chart and Number 4 on the Billboard Hot 100. Albert Grossman, inexplicably, would not allow Randy to make television appearances or tour the United States.

Randy’s follow-up albums were much darker in tone and most failed to chart but gained popularity in overseas markets like Japan and Australia. Randy resented being pigeonholed and labeled as a sappy balladeer. He turned his attention to writing for other singers, landing hits with his songs performed and recorded by Charley Pride, The Oak Ridge Boys and Alabama.

In 2004, Randy recorded a tribute album to Americana songwriter Stephen Foster. He began recording the album, on which he played all of the instruments, just after a diagnosis of leukemia. Randy passed away just after it was completed and the album was released posthumously. He was 48 years old.

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DCS: lynne marie stewart

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I met Lynne Marie Stewart at a collector show in Gaithersburg, Maryland, along with her best friend, actress Cindy Williams. I have been going to collector shows and autograph conventions for many, many years, back when I used to collect autographed photos of some of my favorite celebrities who featured prominently in films and TV shows from my youth. I met a lot of celebrities over the years and had mostly positive encounters. (There were some less-than-great ones. Ron Palillo and Christopher Lloyd come to mind, as well as a cringe-worthy exchange I witnessed between a fan and actor Kier Dullea.) But Lynne and Cindy were absolute darlings! My brief conversation with them, before requesting an autographed photo, was like talking to old friends. After telling them that I was a fan of their screen work, the topic veered off to a discussion of the striking black, somewhat gothy, jacket that my (then teenage) son was wearing. The two ladies were just adorable as they gushed and fussed over my son, who at this point was a combination of proud and embarrassed.

Lynne, of course, was best known as the lovely “Miss Yvonne,” undeniably “Most Beautiful Woman in Puppetland” on the Saturday morning lampoon Pee-Wee’s Playhouse. She was a long-time associate of the late Paul Reubens (Pee-Wee Herman) and appeared in a number of his productions… in roles other than the celebrated “Miss Yvonne.” Lynne was featured in the film American Graffiti, several episodes of M*A*S*H, several episodes of Laverne & Shirley and a recurring role on It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia as Charlie’s mother. Lynne even provided the voice of “Shirley” in the  animated Mork & Mindy/Laverne & Shirley/Fonz Hour in its single season in 1982. She reprised her most famous character in 2010 when the Pee-Wee Herman Show returned to the stage — this time on Broadway.

A long time participant in the Make-A-Wish Foundation with Paul Reubens, Lynne tended to her friend in the final days of his life. She passed away in February 2025 at the age of 78.

She was a sweet lady.

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