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GREENSBORO — Tommy Tucker's saxophone is silent.

A career that started as a sensational teen musician is over.

Tucker died on Aug. 7 at Moses Cone Hospital after becoming ill a day earlier. He was 62.

No obituary has noted his passing. His ashes are in an urn on the floor of the Greensboro log cabin he inherited from his parents.

Neither a tribute service nor burial is planned, said Corey Tucker, his widow.

"I couldn't do the funeral thing," she said. "Our daughter Kaelyn wanted to keep her father here. That's what he would have wanted."

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Amid his glory as a musician, Tucker passed away destitute — except for the thousands of good memories stored away by fans and fellow musicians.

"Tommy was a musician the day he was born," said cousin Ray Pardue, a Greensboro native now living in Southport. "Some of the big bands would come into the (Greensboro) Coliseum and call Tommy to come play with them. He was playing the sax with big bands when he was 12 or 13 years old."

"On a scale of one to 10, he probably was a 10; he didn't take a back seat to anyone," said Gary Moser of the Dockside Band in Greensboro.

Veteran musician Billy Koontz of High Point said, "Tommy did something special on the sax. It was like it was coming out of his soul."

Tucker could play the alto, tenor and baritone saxophones, and "every woodwind instrument," his wife said.

But the saxophone was "his baby."

Tucker played for bands all along the Eastern Seaboard and for several area groups in the Piedmont, most notably with Bob Collins and the Fabulous Five of Stoneville.

Although Tucker played a lot of beach music, "he didn't like it," his wife said.

"He considered himself a jazz musician above all. That's what he loved most. The improv style of music allowed him to have more of a spiritual expression. He'd get in a zone — a creative or spiritual thing."

The last music Tucker played for no fee was with the five-man High Point Boys, a group that was organized by Koontz recently to compete in the State Senior Games.

Koontz, a drummer, knew about Tucker's outstanding music skills long before they ever played together.

"I had heard him with the Fabulous Five and I knew what he could do," Koontz said. "We entered
the Senior Games music competition in High Point and won, and then we went to Raleigh and won first place in the state.

"I have a picture of us with our medals around our necks and Tommy showing his famous smile."

Tucker, who followed in his father Clarence's footsteps as a professional photographer, had "pretty much given up playing regularly a couple years ago because of poor health," Moser said. "He had congestive heart failure."

He was working part-time for two photo companies, one in Greensboro and one in Goldsboro.

"We didn't have any insurance," his wife said, "and Tommy had a great many health problems."
His financial problems often caused Tucker to be depressed.

The depression started several years earlier when he and his fourth wife, Shirley, divorced in Austin, Texas.

"That was the worst thing that happened to him — when he and Shirley divorced. He kept talking about it even after we were married," Corey Tucker said.

Behind Tommy's smile were other experiences that left a mark on his psychological well-being, she said.

"He was deeply traumatized by his service in the Marine Corps. They forced him to jump out of helicopters and take photographs of political assassinations in Cambodia — something he didn't like.

"The seven years that he spent working as a paramedic in Virginia Beach and the things he saw in that job also bore on his mind."

His divorces and alienation from his other four children bothered Tucker, as well.

"When I met him he had a lot of fearless energy," Corey Tucker said. "He was happy most of his life — even in the hard times. He had the ability to put things aside, no matter how bad they were, and do what he needed to do.

"Until about three years ago when he started having bad health, he was enjoying life despite the financial problems. He figured all of that was going to be worked out."

The family remains in financial difficulty and is trying to get assistance from Social Services and Social Security, Corey Tucker said.

"Even through the pain, he still wanted to accomplish something spiritual to give to humanity with his art. Right up to the very end, he expected to do that."

Contact Bob Burchette at bburchette@triad.rr.com