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Robin’s rhythm: Shivers remembered by music community
In April 1994, Kevin Connor was fired from KGSR-FM for unspecified reasons and was moping at home, taking occasional “keep your head up” calls from friends. “My identity was so wrapped up in my job that when that was taken away from me, I was completely distraught,” recalls Connor, who’s now head of programming at ME-TV. One day he got a call out of the blue from Robin Shivers, whom he’d met casually when she was chairwoman of KLRU and hosted fundraising galas starring Garth Brooks, George Jones and others.
“She said, ‘You need a place to go every day,’ and said she had a spare office,” Connor says. “That was the best thing anyone could’ve done for me. It got me out of the house and back on my feet.” From his new office in a downtown high-rise, he was soon able to land a job as music marketing manager for the Austin Convention and Visitor’s Bureau. And two years later, he was back on KGSR.
Anecdotes such as that were flying all over town last week after the Austin music scene’s angel died in her sleep Oct. 26 from undetermined causes. The daughter of Fort Worth venture capitalist John Ratliff, Shivers was born into wealth, then married into Texas political royalty in 1978 when she wed the legendary former governor’s son Allan ‘Bud’ Shivers Jr. Among the Shivers’ closest friends were George W. and Laura Bush.
And yet Robin Shivers, who was just 53 and apparently in good health when she passed away, did not carry herself as a woman of privilege. “She’s just the coolest, most soulful and spiritual person I’ve ever known,” said Susan Antone of Antone’s nightclub. “She was a visionary who got things done.”
Shivers’ funeral will be at 2 p.m. Thursday at St. Mary Cathedral (203 E. 10th St.). Her closest musician friends, including Troy Campbell and Scrappy Jud Newcomb of the Shivers-managed Loose Diamonds, will play at the service.
Bringing affordable health care to working musicians was one of Shivers’ passions and Shivers used her connections with the Seton Family of Hospitals, where she and Bud served on the board for almost three decades, to found the Health Alliance for Austin Musicians in 2004. HAAM has provided low-cost health care to 1,600 uninsured musicians. Shivers’ work has saved lives and has provided a model for others to follow. When a group of musicians and club owners in Tucson, Ariz., decided to start a similar musicians assistance program, Shivers met with them and energized the effort. “What a woman,” David Slutes of the Tucson Artists and Musicians Healthcare Alliance, posted on Austin360.com. “She set us on a course that we were able to follow and begin our successful organization.”
Robin was never one to just write a check, Connor says. “She was always thinking ‘how can we make this work?’ She had a business sense to go with her amazing spirit of generosity.”
There are people who don’t play music, but they make it with the way they live their lives. Robin Shivers had a rhythm of righteousness in everything she did. She drew you in like a great song that will forever live in your heart.
“Robin’s passing has left a big hole that we all have to work harder to help fill,” Connor said.
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By modlang
November 2, 2009 8:55 PM | Link to this
“There are people who don’t play music, but they make it with the way they live their lives. Robin Shivers had a rhythm of righteousness in everything she did. She drew you in like a great song that will forever live in your heart.”
Michael, you are a poet. I don’t think a better epitaph could be written. I think Mrs. Shivers would appreciate those words.