Folklorist and ethnologist Ekaterina Anastasova died suddenly at the age of sixty-three on June 15, 2025.
In Memoriam
Folklorist Worth Long died on May 8, 2025 in Atlanta, GA at the age of eighty-nine.
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.
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.