Mentor, scholar, and community activist Olivia Cadaval died on April 8, 2025 at the age of eighty-two. Olivia joined the AFS in 1979 and was elected to AFS Fellows in 2018.
In Memoriam
Dorothy Botkin Rosenthal, daughter of Benjamin A. Botkin and long-time friend of the field of folklore, died on December 17, 2024 after a brief illness.
Longtime AFS member Louie Attebery died on August 21, 2024, at the age of 97.
Dr. David Eugene Whisnant – researcher, writer, teacher, blogger; builder and fixer; devoted husband and father; lifelong learner – died peacefully and gently at his home in Chapel Hill, NC, enfolded by beloved family, on December 10, 2024.
Charles G. "Terry" Zug III, professor emeritus of folklore and English at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and long-time AFS member, died on January 19, 2025.
Bernard L. Herman, renowned scholar of American material culture and George B. Tindall Professor of Southern Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, died on December 30, 2024.
Bernice Johnson Reagon died on Tuesday, July 16. Read articles written in memory of Bernice Johnson Reagon and link to additional information below. Bernice Johnson Reagon practicing for her performance in Saratoga Springs, NY, 1962Courtesy of AFS Past President Ellen Stekert Bernice
Phil Wiggins died at his home on May 7. Phil Wiggins was a harmonica player, a 2017 NEA National Heritage Fellow, and a special guest speaker and performer for the Phillips Barry Lecture at the 2023 Annual Meeting of the American Folklore Society.
Mildred L. (Millie) Rahn, (age 72), of Belmont, Massachusetts, passed away due to cancer on April 9, 2024 in West Friendship, Maryland.
Robert "Bob" Klymasz died peacefully at the age of 87 at the Victoria Hospital in Winnipeg.