Obituary of James Peter Landry Jr.

James (Jim) Peter Landry, Jr. Obituary

 

Jim Landry was an accomplished photographer, painter, musician, blogger, and poet but perhaps his field of greatest artistic achievement was as a friend. He remained friends with people from childhood, high school, college, jobs, romances, and bands, as well as beloved group house and family members. He was a dear son, brother, and cousin, and a wonderful husband and father, if somewhat unconventional. Jim died on December 7, 2021 after living with early-onset Alzheimers for many years. He was 72.

 

Jim was born at Fort Belvoir, Virginia, the oldest child of James Landry, Sr. and Stella Geraldine Fysz. His father was in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and Jim spent several years of childhood living in Heidelberg, Germany during postwar reconstruction. He graduated from Mt. Vernon High School.

 

After obtaining a B.A. from the University of Bridgeport, Connecticut, he moved to San Francisco. There he got his first “real” camera, a Nikon, and learned to process film and make black-and-white prints. In 1972, he moved back to Washington, D.C. and started a band, Acrylix, in which he played keyboards. The band toured the East Coast extensively and reorganized into a larger band, Shocko Bottom. He also played with the short-lived but timeless ensemble, Age of Animals, and recorded solo albums under One Lone Clone and Enaje, including the instrumental CD, Music From the Film. He rearranged and pressed on vinyl Mendelssohn's Wedding March and Recessional for his own wedding.

 

Jim's art included large acrylic paintings, gelatin silver photo prints, type C color photographs, and book collaborations with poets. For eight years, he cast his photographer's eye on the world of memory in an acclaimed photoblog, MusicFromTheFilm.blogspot.com, also excerpted in a full-color photography book, Memory Music. Before retiring, Jim was production manager then production director of SCIENCE magazine for 24 years. He lived in Riverdale Park, Maryland with his wife, playwright Nicole Burton, son Miles Landry, and various cats.

 

After his diagnosis in 2010, Jim continued painting and making music. In 2013, he was honored with a retrospective show at the Gallery at Iona Senior Center in Washington, D.C. He and Nicole continued traveling and enjoyed four trips with friends to Hawaii post-diagnosis, as well as visits with family and friends to Nottingham UK, Paris, Turkey, Chicago, California, and New York. Together they wrote and performed two multimedia shows, How to Catch a Moving Train and A Natural History of My Husband's Cars. Jim participated in an Alzheimers clinical study at NIH and a clinical trial for an experimental vaccine for Alzheimers at Georgetown Hospital. He is survived by his wife, son, brother Bill Landry, sister Beverly Landry, cousins, and about a million friends.

 

In lieu of flowers, donations in Jim's memory may be made to Joe's Movement Emporium of Mt. Rainier, Maryland (https://www.joesmovement.org/donate) and Archie Edwards Blues Heritage Foundation in Hyattsville, Maryland (https://www.acousticblues.com/donations).

 

There will be a funeral on Friday morning, December 10, 2021, 11AM EST. It will be both in-person at Mishkan Torah Synagogue, 10 Ridge Road, Greenbelt, MD (masked and socially distant) and on Zoom.

 

We will also sit shiva both in-person at our home on Saturday, December 11, 2021 at 7PM and on Sunday, December 12, 2021 at 7PM EST on Zoom.

 

Please email mileslandrywork@gmail.com for the Zoom links.  

 

Jim will be cremated according to his wishes and buried privately at Gardens of Remembrance at a later date.

 

Covid Note

If you are not well or are not fully vaccinated (preferably boosted) or for any other reason, please avail yourself of the Zoom funeral and Sunday shiva opportunities to protect yourselves and the community.

 

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