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by Bridgette A. Wimberly
On March 9, 1955, on his way to a gig in Boston, jazz
great Charlie Parker stopped at the Stanhope Hotel to
visit his friend and jazz patron, the Baroness “Nica” de
Koenigswarter.
He was near death; decades of heroin addiction,
alcoholism, a bad heart, cirrhosis, and depression had taken their toll. His wife
Chan had left him and moved to another state with their remaining children
after the devastating death of their two-year old daughter, Pree.
For the next few days, Nica would try her best to nurse him back to health,
soliciting the help of her physician who warned Charlie that he should be
hospitalized or risk death, but Charlie refused. On March 12, while watching
television, Charles Parker, Jr. died at the age of 34. His death certificate
stated the cause of death as lobar pneumonia.
No good deed goes unpunished. The facts about his untimely death and
what happened to him postmortem created quite a media sensation that
followed the Baroness for the rest of her life.
Because Nica was part of the Rothschild family, her actions were attributed
to covering up the scandal of a black man dying in a wealthy, married,
white woman’s hotel suite. Nica vehemently countered, stating she was only
trying to help a sick friend get well and had immediately called the doctor
when it appeared that he had passed.
Charlie was taken to Bellevue’s Morgue with his correct name, and Nica said
she wanted to find Chan to let her know about his death first, from a friendly
source, before the newspapers or radio announced it. Nica searched all of
New York, but Chan had moved to Pennsylvania.
It wasn’t until Nica was able to find and notify Chan’s mother that Chan
found out, adding a day or two more to Charlie’s stay in the morgue. As
soon as Chan claimed his body, however, Charlie’s third wife Doris claimed
him because Charlie and Chan had not legally married.
As they fought over his body and estate for decades, Nica was evicted
from the Stanhope, a segregated hotel, and disinherited by her family. Her
husband later divorced her and took custody of their youngest children.
Unfortunately for both Chan and Nica, despite their best intentions, none of
their good deeds went unpunished.
The women in Parker’s life all lived full, long lives. Though, they would always
be remembered in relation to the famous man whom they all once adored.
A Historical Introduction
< > CONTENTS“If you don’t live it, it won’t come out of your horn.”
–Charlie Parker, Jr.
Soprano Chrystal E. Williams as Charlie’s first wife, Rebecca Parker, and
soprano Angela Brown as Charlie’s mother, Addie Parker in
Charlie Parker’s
Yardbird
c. Dominic M. Mercier - Opera Philadelphia