While I didn't know Eddie very well on a personal level, I would see him out at almost every single event I've been to over the last 3+ years... probably longer than that though but wasn't aware of him much until I had met his acquaintance. The man was a dancing maniac, a lady's man, and the life of the party. He wasn't necessarily the type that I could ever see myself relating to closely, but knowing how deeply he touched so many of my friends and also knowing how great it was to say what's up to him every time I saw him... I know that I'll miss his presence in the scene.
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BENNETT, EDWARD Edward "Eddie" Angelo Bennett, 25, of Denver, passed away June 15, 2008. Son of Frank and Carla Bennett; brother of Heather (Larry) Reeder, Rachel (Chris) Barnes, and Sean Bennett. Also survived by wife Candice Clark and by two nephews and a niece, as well as many other relatives and friends. Service: Saturday, June 21, 10am, First Mennonite Church, 430 West 9th Ave., Denver. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to Colorado CASA, 1490 Lafayette St. Suite 207, Denver, CO 80218 or Colorado Coalition of Adoptive Families, P.O. Box 270398 Louisville, CO 80027-0398.
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http://www.rockymountainnews.com/new...e-underground/
JOHNSON: Eddie B. - king of the underground
By Bill Johnson
Friday, June 20, 2008
It was late Tuesday night and they were all standing on the sidewalk,
the overflow spilling onto 15th Street downtown, their still-saddened
faces lit by the soft glow of dozens of flickering candles.
Now and then, someone would walk up to place a small bouquet of flowers
- roses, carnations, a lily or two - in the spaces between the candles,
before bowing their heads and muttering a few words.
Clearly, someone had died. Such memorial displays have become
commonplace these days, mostly at the scene of car wrecks, fatal
shootings and the like. Few, though, are ever assembled at such a late
hour.
What I learned, having pulled over to inquire into it, was there could not have been a better hour scheduled.
This was, I found out, Eddie Bennett's hour, the near-midnight hour of
the day when he and those he surrounded himself with came alive, the
hour when for years he went to work pulling varied groups of young
people together for a long night's revelry.
Very few of those standing in the street that night to mourn Eddie
Bennett were over 30. Make it 25. Some, I'd hazard, were this close to
violating curfew.
Yet there they stood, candle wax oozing and bubbling on the pavement,
more than a few staring up at the tall building that loomed before
them, undoubtedly envisioning the long drop Eddie Bennett took that
night.
Denver police say they still have not figured out whether the
25-year-old man's fall from the top floors of the 42- story Brooks
Tower at 15th and Champa last weekend was intentional or accidental,
only that he was the second person to die from a fall from the landmark
high-rise in three years.
Either way, to those who came to mourn him it does not matter. Eddie
mattered, they said. And his life should not be remarked upon publicly
or remembered solely by the manner in which he died.
"Eddie B." is how they all called him. Oddly, few knew much of his
personal and family life, even Jeremy Hoff, 25, of Denver, who was a
partner with Eddie Bennett for three years in Skywire Production Co., a
lighting and concert promotion firm.
All that he knew of his personal life was that he was adopted when he was young. He never much brought up his family, he said.
No, Eddie Bennett's life, it was explained, was devoted to Denver's
night scene. It was something that I, admittedly - or, for that matter,
anyone else who can remember Ronald Reagan first taking office - could
possibly know little about.
"I met him in the scene," Jeremy Hoff explained. "We got close. We had a tight crew of friends who hung out and ran together."
The scene? Your crew?
"You know," he tried to explain, "the ravers, club kids - all the people who like electronic music and the clubs."
He might have well been speaking Russian. He clearly understood this.
"I'm talking about the electronic party scene," Jeremy Hoff said
slowly. "Eddie was the king of it, who made people, whether they were
15 or 50 years old, a part of that world, a man who was accepting of
all races, all types of people."
If you went to a club, an underground party, a rave, well, you would immediately know Eddie Bennett, he said.
"He would walk into a room full of people and put a smile on everyone's
face," Eric Soderlund, 20, explained. "He was an artist, a very unique
person, a guy who touched a lot of lives."
This was apparent in the sea of faces that swarmed 15th Street Tuesday
night: white kids, black, Hispanic and Asian. To them, those who
frequented this unfamiliar-to-a-middle-aged-man world with its
night-owl hours and language, he was a welcoming, pied-piper king.
"Look, you are never going to understand," Leah Hlewko finally said.
Eighteen years old, she had worked as a go-go dancer at a variety of
events Eddie Bennett staged.
"He was the glue that kept the whole crew together," she explained. "He
united so many people who you would think would never party or even be
seen together. Because of him, I have met a million people I would
never have met, ever."
He was visiting a friend that night, Jeremy Hoff said softly.
"Did he kill himself? That's the rumor going around. And yeah, he had his problems, here and there," he said.
What he and everyone else has heard, he said, is that Eddie knocked on
the door of his friend's home on the 39th floor, that when he was let
in, he eased through and dived off the balcony.
"To the people close to him, who knew him, that story is skeptical,"
Jeremy Hoff said. "We're just not sure. It would make me feel better
knowing, but that story sounds just too simple."
As the last of the candles began to flicker out, the few remaining
mourners began making plans to host a free underground party in Eddie
B.'s memory.
Though I understood half of what they were trying to explain to me, I left feeling glad that I had stopped.
I'm happy to be able share a few words about the king of underground Denver.
© Rocky Mountain News
Mr Edward "Eddie" Bennett
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