JFK impersonator honored Friends pay tribute with mock funeral pyre on Kennebec River

HALLOWELL – The celebration of JFK impersonator Abbott Vaughn Meader’s life began when the musician’s widow set fire to a mock funeral pyre in the Kennebec River.

Gathered along the bank, Meader’s friends had watched the blue basket piled with notes and photos, trinkets and a cardboard model of a piano blow upriver against the current, then turn and drift back again.

It was as if Meader, who gained instant fame satirizing the presidency of John F. Kennedy in the multimillion-selling album “The First Family,” was taking a final curtain call.

More than 200 people from several states and Canada gathered Sunday at The Wharf, one of Meader’s favorite watering holes, to tell bawdy stories and express their love for a friend who died Oct. 29 in Auburn at age 68.

“This is such a tribute to Abbott and his life and his love and his ability to pull people together,” said Meader’s widow, Sheila.

“I’ve got to spread my wings and fly or lay down and die,” Sheila Meader sang from the lyrics of one of her husband’s songs.

Standing at the bar’s microphone, Randy Norcross of Winthrop recalled meeting Meader when his impressions of Kennedy were just starting to take hold on small stages in New York City.

After an incident in a posh hotel swimming pool, “We all ended up in night court wearing only towels,” Norcross recalled, bringing those who knew Meader best to their knees in laughter.

Similar stories were told throughout the evening as speakers reminisced of nights filled with drinking, music, wild adventures and friendship.

“The great thing about him was he brought people together,” said Bobby Watson, who met Meader in 1972 in a Louisville, Ky., bar where Meader was playing piano. The two met after the set and became close friends.

Watson, who traveled from Kentucky for Sunday’s gathering, spoke humorously about Meader’s propensity to borrow money from friends.

“We were all sponsors of Abbott for a long time, and thank God we did because he brought us a lot of joy,” Watson said.

“He said ‘I know I’ve cost you a lot of money. How much to you think it adds up to?’ I started tabulating and came up with about $10,000 and he said it was worth it.

“‘Aren’t you glad you met me?’ he asked. And I think it was worth every penny of $10,000.”