RIP, Jamie Lembeck

Jamie Lembeck

Jamie Lembeck, a patron of the arts and man about town known to most everyone in the art and music scene of Buffalo, died at home overnight, June 24-25. At his request, he had been released from the hospital the day before, where he had been treated for respiratory problems and had contracted a serious infection, both complications of the prolonged paralysis that required him to use a wheelchair for most of his adult life, but which never kept him from getting around or attending more concerts and other art events than just about any non-wheelchair-using person you could name. You never thought of Jamie as being “wheelchair bound”; his wheelchair was his means of mobility, and he was always on the cutting edge of technologies for independent living.

He passed away peacefully in his home in the former firehouse at 1416 Main Street, which he had designed and built as a multi-unit model of independent living, with both close friends and hospice caregivers present, though he had been expected to last longer than the few hours he had left there.

There will be a memorial service on Wednesday, July 9, 6:30pm, at the Unitarian Church at the corner of Elmwood Avenue and West Ferry Street. A musical celebration of Jamie’s life will follow immediately after the service in the church hall.

—ed cardoni