Kathleen Kinkade

LOUISA, Va.—Kathleen “Kat” Kinkade, one of the founders of the rural Twin Oaks commune, has died.

Kinkade, 77, died on July 3 at Twin Oaks from complications from bone cancer, the commune announced on its Web site.

Her involvement with communal living started when she was a 36-year-old secretary and single mother who read “Walden Two,” a utopian novel by Harvard psychologist B.F. Skinner. She, her husband and daughter were among the eight founders of the Louisa County commune.

Kinkade quickly discovered communal living was difficult, rife with personality clashes. She also found herself swamped with administrative chores and complaints that she was too authoritarian.

Eventually, Twin Oaks used facilitators to mediate the power struggle, and their recommendations resulted in more democratic governance.

Eighty-five adults and 15 children now live at Twin Oaks. Each member gets food, housing, health care and personal spending from the community, which gets most of its income from making rope hammocks, casual furniture, indexing books and tofu.

Kinkade moved into a home in nearby Mineral at the age of 70, and enjoyed planting flowers and rescuing abandoned kittens. When she was unable to live alone, she returned in December to Twin Oaks and community members cared for her until her death.

Bob King

SWIFTON, Ark.—Bob King, who owned the King of Clubs nightspot in Swifton, where Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash and other performers in the early days of rock’n’roll performed, has died. He was 83.

King died Monday, according to Jackson’s Funeral Home in Newport.

King ran the nightclub in Swifton for more than 50 years, playing host to country, rhythm and blues, and rock acts, including Jerry Lee Lewis, Conway Twitty and Sonny Burgess, who had five singles with Sun Records.



Sherman Maxwell

WEST CHESTER, Pa.—Pioneering black sportscaster Sherman “Jocko” Maxwell, who chronicled the triumphs of Negro league baseball players before the color barrier fell, has died at the age of 100.

Supporting himself by working at the post office during the day, Sherman Maxwell went to work at night as a sportscaster.

Maxwell began his career in 1929, doing a five-minute weekly sports report on WNJR in Newark. He went on to broadcast on other stations in northern New Jersey and eventually became the announcer for Sunday afternoon Newark Eagles games. His broadcasting career ended in 1967.

His sister, Bernice Maxwell Cross, said radio stations never paid her brother. He was instead motivated by his love of the games he got to see.