Leif Rego, 33, died at Duke Hospital on July 18, 2011, amidst an outpouring of love and music from his family and friends.
We loved him from Chapel Hill and Carrboro to the coast of California. We admired the brave athlete biking amongst the Monterrey cypress, the redwoods, the North Carolina mountains, surfing and praying with the strength of the ocean, singing straight from the heart through many instruments. We will forever be grateful for the experiences we shared with Leif.
His energy was effervescent, an outpouring of love. He was respected for his integrity and self-awareness, and his huge and generous heart invited beautiful connections and inspired friends and musicians to be their best and to love themselves. He truly cherished his friends and family; his gifts of love will continue to nourish us.
Leif could feel the vibrations of those around him, and through music and spirit he ignited what was the most beautiful and positive, bringing it to song and to life.
His memory is cherished by his parents, Carol Verner and Philip Rego; his brother, Daniel Rego; and his many friends who were touched by the beautiful energy he offered to this world.
To hear Leif’s music, please visit youtube.com/LeifWynn
Leif will be honored at a memorial service at the Barn at Valhalla, west of Chapel Hill, Saturday, July 23, 2011 at 11 a.m. (Visit barnatvalhalla.com for directions.) There will be great music and sharing of memories. A potluck reception will follow the service.
John Sweet
John Sweet died on Monday, July 5 at the age of 95.
John was serving in the U.S. Army in 1943 when he was posted to the UK. He worked on Eisenhower’s staff helping with the preparations for D-Day. He did a bit of amateur theatricals and it was in a Red Cross production for the troops that he was spotted by Michael Powell, who realized that he would be perfect for the role of the American in their next film, A Canterbury Tale.
After the film was made, John went with the troops to Europe to do his bit for freedom and democracy. When he was able to be spared from his work for the Army, he did a bit of promotional work for the film – there was even an article about him in Life magazine (June 26, 1944).
He tried out for a few other films, but nobody else could see his charm, and he never got the jobs. After the war, he tried out for a few theater jobs, but they never quite panned out either. So he went back to his pre-war job of teaching and would have remained buried in obscurity if Paul Tritton hadn’t tracked him down when he was researching his book A Canterbury Tale – Memories of a Classic Wartime Movie.
John and his wife, Barbara, were eventually persuaded to come and visit England again, and in October 2000 they did just that. John Sweet and Sheila Sim (Lady Attenborough) had their red carpet moment and were pleased to see that the cinema was full, even on a wet Monday in Canterbury. The next day, John went back to a lot of the locations where they had made that film all those years before.
Sweet by name, he was sweet by nature. A lovely man.