Marin Town to Honor Late Grateful Dead Musician with "Jerry Garcia Day"

This week the Fairfax Town Council is expected to approve a proclamation honoring Jerry Garcia, the Grateful Dead founder and longtime Marin resident who has “innumerable” connections to Fairfax. 

The proclamation approval is on the council’s Wednesday, Aug. 7 meeting agenda. The meeting, held the Fairfax Women’s Club, begins at 7 p.m.

The council document proclaims Aug. 7, 2013, as Jerry Garcia Day, a date that’s a week after what would have been Garcia’s 71st birthday and two days before the anniversary of his Aug. 9, 1995 death in Forest Knolls.

Memories of Garcia in Fairfax include a softball game between theGrateful Dead and Jefferson Airplane that was played in Central Field, which is now-called Contratti Park in the 1960s and Garcia performing with the Jerry Garcia Band at a former Fairfax bar called River City on Bolinas Avenue on Sept. 20 and 21 in 1970, according to the proclamation.

Part of the proclamation reads:

“Jerry Garcia has a special place in the hearts and minds of many Fairfaxians and will forever be a part of our town’s culture and history.”

The last week was Jerry Garcia Week in the Bay Area, which included “Grateful Dead Tribute Night” at the Monday night San Francisco Giants game at AT&T Park.

Mill Valley resident and Grateful Dead founder Bob Weir celebrated Garcia’s birthday last week with a special “Weir Here” webcast filmed at his San Rafael-based TRI Studios.

More from the Fairfax proclamation:

“Jerry Garcia’s iconic fame and popularity have become an essential part of American Folklore and given way to new musical traditions, and because he is and was known as the heart and soul of a brotherhood of sound, the leader of a multicultural, multigenerational tribe known as “Deadheads,” and a musician so well steeped in a variety of American styles both Traditional and Avante Garde that the only way to classify his guitar playing is to stay it was and is Garcia’s.”

A new website honoring the musician, jerrygarcia.com was recently launched.

Do you have a memory involving Jerry Garcia in Marin? Share it with us in the Comments!