Obituaries - May 5, 1998

Harold Chalker; Steel Guitarist on TV’s ‘Hee Haw’

Harold “Curly” Chalker, 66, steel guitarist on the “Hee Haw” country music show. Chalker, a native of Enterprise, Ala., appeared on the television series for 18 years. He also was a recording session guitarist for several top country and pop artists and is heard on Marie Osmond’s “Paper Roses” and Simon & Garfunkel’s “The Boxer.” Chalker played background for Willie Nelson, the Gap Band, Ray Price, Little Jimmy Dickens, Leon Russell, Lefty Frizzell, and Bill Haley and the Comets, among others. He also worked in Las Vegas at the Golden Nugget. On Thursday in Nashville, Tenn., of a cancerous brain tumor.

J. Patrick Hayes; Founded Performing Arts Society

J. Patrick Hayes, 89, founder of the Washington Performing Arts Society. Born in New York City and educated at Harvard, Hayes was manager of the National Symphony in the 1940s and served in the Navy during World War II. In 1946, he founded the Hayes Concert Bureau in Washington, which was incorporated in 1965 as the nonprofit Washington Performing Arts Society. In more than 40 years of presenting artists, Hayes staged Marian Anderson’s first recital at Constitution Hall and later her farewell tour. He also presented the farewell tour of Arturo Toscanini. On Sunday in Washington of a sepsis infection.

Don Petersen; Screenwriter and Playwright

Don Petersen, 70, playwright and screenwriter whose films included “Deadly Hero” and “Target.” Petersen wrote “Does a Tiger Wear a Necktie?” in which actor Al Pacino made his Broadway debut in 1969. The play, involving a teacher trying to connect with juvenile addicts, received four Tony nominations. Pacino won a Tony for best dramatic actor in a supporting role. Petersen also wrote the play “The Enemy Is Dead,” which opened on Broadway in 1973. In addition to “Deadly Hero” starring Don Murray and James Earl Jones in 1976, Petersen wrote “An Almost Perfect Affair” starring Keith Carradine in 1979 and “Target” starring Gene Hackman in 1985. On April 25 in Pittsfield, Mass.