Chris Boggs is amazed at how quiet her house is without her husband Eddie, who died in January after an eight-month battle with cancer. She’s thankful for all the songs he recorded during his decades of making music so she — and others who loved him — can still hear his voice.
“We cry every time we listen to his songs, but I do every day,” Chris wrote in an email to Toledo Free Press.
Boggs, 68, a folk musician and retired teacher and counselor, loved music but made serving others his life’s work.
“His kindness, his positive spin on life, his whole being was about love and being thankful for what he could do for others,” Chris said. “He was a simple man. He loved life and he lived to lighten people’s loads. And his avenue was music and kindness. He took time to listen to people, and sang as a way to make them smile.”
Boggs was always involved with charity projects. For years, he hosted an annual holiday variety show that raised more than $250,000. He contributed a song, “That First Snowfall,” to Toledo Free Press’ Make-A-Wish benefit CD in 2012 and “Another Put-in-Bay Summer” to last year’s American Red Cross benefit CD.
This summer’s Red Cross benefit CD, “Red, White & You, Too!” is dedicated to Boggs and contains one of his signature songs, “Uptown Boogie Down Saturday Night.”
“Eddie believed in these projects when no one else understood what we were trying to accomplish, and he connected me with a score of local musicians,” said Toledo Free Press Editor in Chief Michael S. Miller, who produces the Toledo Free Press charity CDs. “No one has been as gracious and patient as Eddie and I can’t imagine these CDs without his voice.”
“When we were contacted this year for an upbeat song, ‘Uptown Boogie Down Saturday Night’ immediately came to mind,” Chris said.
“Come Monday morning, I’m up at dawn, ’cause I’m a working man,” the song goes. “In less than an hour, I’m out of the shower and headed down to the plant / And all week long, I give it my best, but come Friday evening I give it a rest / I leave my worries all behind ’cause there’s one thing on my mind / And that’s an uptown boogie down Saturday night.”
“He wrote and recorded it around 1992-93 specifically for the people of Toledo — the hardworking individuals who give their time Monday through Friday at a job and enjoy their weekends, specifically Saturday night, with the people they love,” Chris said. “He wanted to capture the simple joys in life. We always called it his hokey song, but it has a catchy tune and over the years became a favorite original of his with the people that came to see him.”
Those who worked with Boggs at Sylvania Schools also remember his impact.
“He did so much to make this little corner of the globe a better place,” retired teacher Al Thompson said.
