The community is mourning the loss of a friend and colleague who left her mark on the region’s music scene through a decades-long career.
Julia J. Burrough, 74, died peacefully under hospice care in Springfield on Aug. 11, according to her obituary. Those close to her remember a woman whose passion for art was matched only by her love for helping others via the health care field.
“I was pretty amazed that she went back to school to change careers like that,” said longtime friend Flo Newman. “I thought it was pretty brave.”
Burrough was born and raised in Wilmington, Delaware. She eventually moved to Greenfield and graduated from Smith College in Northampton through the Ada Comstock Scholars Program, which enables women of nontraditional college age to complete a bachelor’s degree through either part-time or full-time education. She later received a nursing degree from Greenfield Community College and worked for many years with the Tapestry program for women facing addiction in Brattleboro, Vermont.
“She was very good at it. She was good with patients,” said sister Lynn Burrough, who lives in North Carolina. “She liked that work.”
Lynn Burrough said she and her sister (and their brother) received piano lessons as children and her sister’s passion grew rapidly from there.
“But she had a voice, also,” she said.
Julia grew into a talented pianist, guitarist and singer-songwriter, releasing CDs of her own music. Lynn owns copies of “Daylight,” “Demons & Dreams” and “Brighter Road: A Journey of Miracle.” She said her sister’s CDs were inspired by general life experiences and “the normal ups and downs” of living.
Julia Burrough’s résumé included performing at the The Iron Horse in Northampton and opening for 10,000 Maniacs at Symphony Hall in Springfield.
Newman said she and her husband, Rich, met Burrough through a mutual friend who was a blues musician.
“I heard her play with a couple of other people, and I thought it was really, really wonderful,” she recalled.
Newman said they eventually lived together in a cooperative house in Amherst for six years.
“That was when she was trying to be a road-warrior musician,” she recounted, adding how her friend kept a huge bread truck in the yard and would wheel a piano into it to play gigs on the road. “We had the privilege of listening to her writing music here.”
Wendell resident Karen Copeland said she met Burrough about 30 years ago after a mutual friend played drums on one of Burrough’s CDs. She said she saw Burrough perform at a solo concert in Wendell and was blown away.
“She was a very accomplished musician and she was a feeling person. She really went on her feelings a lot. That’s what made her songs beautiful, because they were all based on her feelings,” Copeland reflected. “She was widely known and respected in the valley for a long time, and she played at all the local venues.”
Copeland also said her friend belonged to the People’s Music Network, a membership organization that sustains and grows a diverse community of performing artists, activists and allies who use music, poetry and other forms of art as catalysts for a just and peaceful world.
The Wendell Meetinghouse will host a celebration of life honoring Burrough on Sunday, Sept. 13, from 12:30 to 3 p.m. Copeland encourages attends to bring one of Burrough’s songs to perform.
