THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, January 8, 1995 TAG: 9501060169
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 08 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY TOM HOLDEN, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Short : 47 lines
In death as in life, Richard M. Hamilton had his friends.
The 36-year-old musician, who died Dec. 9 after an automobile accident on Oceana Boulevard, left a legacy of music that will be remembered Monday when his friends hold a benefit concert in his memory.
The show begins at 7 p.m. at the Virginia Beach Center for the Arts and will feature the music of a wide range of bands, many of whose members knew Hamilton as a talented bass player.
The purpose is to raise money to help his wife, Deborah Childers Hamilton, 38, pay the medical bills that remain after he was admitted to Virginia Beach General Hospital. The bills now exceed $50,000 and may go higher.
The musical lineup includes the Easy Street Band, a country band with which Hamilton played; Six String Rodeo; Wildfire; Diamond Back Road; Barbara Jean and the Band of Gold; Doc Hearl; Wayne Phillips; Warren Seeburg; Melissa Lewis; Jeff Bowen; Chris Van Cleave; and the Mann Sisters.
The concert will end about 10 p.m., and the suggested minimum donation is $5.
The single-car accident, which involved alcohol, took place Nov. 20, police said. Hamilton was driving on Oceana Boulevard near Harpers Road with his lights off when he swerved to miss an oncoming police car, police said.
Hamilton's car, a 1986 Oldsmobile Cutlass Cierra, left the road, went into a ditch and struck a culvert.
He was admitted to intensive care at Virginia Beach General Hospital, where he recovered enough to be sent home Dec. 2. While recovering, he developed a breathing problem and was rushed back to the emergency room. Doctors diagnosed a blood clot in a lung, which eventually killed him.
Hamilton had no medical insurance and his wife, an employee of Food Lion, is 28 weeks pregnant. The couple had been married four years but had been together for 10.
``We had worked on a lot of recordings over the years,'' said his friend Chris Van Cleave, a fellow musician. ``We were very close. I considered him like a brother.''
KEYWORDS: FUND RAISER ACCIDENT TRAFFIC FATALITY
by CNB