Readers of the News Journal might not know this, but Delaware folksinger and raconteur Jerry “Crabmeat” Thompson died in June. I first heard this from friends who saw it on social media, but the only obituary I could find ran a month later in the Middletown Transcript.
Back in the days when I worked the obit desk we kept a file of “glory” obits — people notable enough to deserve a headline story on their passing — that were prepared before a person’s death. Given how much ink Crabmeat got from columnist Al Cartwright alone, there must be a clip file on the guy who, after all, wrote the unofficial state song. This is not the official version — the stuff about the DuPonts wouldn’t fly with the state tourism folks who came up with the slogan — but it does give you an idea of both his stream-of-consciousness wit and his political leanings.
