Tom Shipley, Viv Prince, Jeff Meldrum, and Polly Holliday Dies

These individuals have performed in the highly successful rock band, Brewer and Shipley; was the drummer for the band the Pretty Things; was an American anthropologist and academic, an expert on foot morphology and locomotion in primates; and was an actress in movies such as All the President’s Men, Gremlins and Mrs. Doubtfire, and played the character Flo, in the television series Alice and Flo.

Tom Shipley (born April 1, 1941, in the Youngstown/Mineral Ridge, Ohio area) was an American singer-songwriter best known as one half of the folk-rock duo Brewer & Shipley; after earning a geology degree from Baldwin-Wallace College in 1963 he began playing the coffeehouse circuit, met Michael Brewer in Kent, Ohio,

and the two formed Brewer & Shipley, moving briefly to Los Angeles before returning to the Midwest where they recorded the albums that brought them national attention—most famously the 1970–71 Tarkio album and its Top-10 single “One Toke Over the Line.” Shipley’s career combined songwriting, touring and later occasional reunion projects.

Beyond music he lived for many years in Rolla, Missouri, worked on video productions for the Missouri University of Science & Technology and was involved with community and environmental efforts (including work with Engineers Without Borders), but there is no public record of military service in the standard biographies and obituaries.

He married Jan E. Shipley (Hoeffken) in 1981 and was father to children including sons Marc Ryan Shipley and Matthew W. Shipley as well as daughters from an earlier marriage (Deborah and Lisabeth); his obituaries describe a life centered on family, creativity and activism.

While Brewer & Shipley’s music earned them a lasting place in American folk-rock history, Shipley was not the recipient of major mainstream music industry awards commonly listed in encyclopedias; his legacy is carried more through the enduring popularity of his recordings, his live performances, and the documentary and reunion projects that followed. Shipley died Sunday, August 24, 2025, at University Hospital in Columbia,

Missouri; he was 84. Survivors listed in his published obituaries include his wife Jan, his sons Marc and Matthew (and Matthew’s wife Ashley), daughters Deborah and Lisabeth, and grandchildren; the family requested no public funeral service and suggested memorial donations to causes noted in the obituary.

Vivian Martin “Viv” Prince was born on August 9, 1941, in Loughborough, England; his father, Harry Prince, was a local jazz musician, and Viv’s earliest musical interest was guitar before switching to drums. He left school and briefly worked as a tax officer while also playing in local jazz bands, including with his father’s group.

In 1961 he joined Lennie Baldwin’s Dauphin Street Six, toured Denmark, then left during a German tour to join the Jazz Cardinals; after returning to London he worked as a session drummer before joining Carter-Lewis and the Southerners in 1963, recording several singles. In 1964 he became drummer for the Pretty Things, playing on their first two albums, The Pretty Things and Get the Picture? (both 1965).

Prince quickly became infamous for his wild, eccentric, and often destructive behavior—onstage antics, offstage excess, clashes with management—which led to his dismissal from the Pretty Things in late 1965. He did further session work and played with groups such as the Honeycombs, later living a more reclusive life, mostly in Portugal.

He never received major music industry awards, though his flamboyant style and drumming are cited as influences on peers such as Keith Moon of The Who. Personal life details remain sparse: his marriages, children, or close survivors were not mentioned in available obituaries. Viv Prince died at his home in Portugal sometime earlier in the week of September 11, 2025, with his death publicly announced on Thursday, September 11, 2025; he was 84.

Don Jeffrey “Jeff” Meldrum was born on May 24, 1958, in Pocatello, Idaho, and grew up with an early interest in biology and anatomy that shaped his later career; he pursued higher education at Brigham Young University, earning a B.S. in Zoology (Anatomy and Physiology) in 1982 and an M.S. in 1984, before completing a Ph.D. in Anatomical Sciences with a focus on Biological Anthropology at Stony Brook University in 1989 under John G. Fleagle.

Following postdoctoral work at Duke University Medical Center (1989–1991) and a brief appointment at Northwestern University, Meldrum joined Idaho State University in 1993, where he became a professor of Anatomy and Anthropology with additional appointments in the

Departments of Physical & Occupational Therapy and Anthropology. His academic work focused on vertebrate locomotion, primate and hominin bipedalism, and fossil trackways, and he published extensively on human evolution,

including the edited volume From Biped to Strider. Outside traditional academia, he became widely known for his research and advocacy regarding Sasquatch, publishing the book Sasquatch: Legend Meets Science (2006) and frequently appearing in documentaries, conferences, and media discussions on the subject, which made him both a controversial and influential figure.

He was a lifelong member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, active in faith and community, and was described by his family as a devoted husband and father above all. Meldrum married Lauren Stewart, with whom he shared 17 years, and together they raised children who survive him.

On Thursday, September 10, 2025, Meldrum died at the age of 67 after a brief battle with brain cancer, passing away in Idaho surrounded by family. His survivors include his wife Lauren and their children, who remembered him with love and gratitude.

Polly Dean Holliday was born on July 2, 1937, in Jasper, Alabama, the daughter of truck driver Ernest Sullivan Holliday and Velma Mabell (Cain) Holliday, and she grew up in Childersburg, Alabama, alongside her brother Doyle; she studied piano at Alabama College for Women (now the University of Montevallo), graduating in 1959, and later attended Florida State University, teaching piano before pursuing acting.

Her professional career began in regional theater with the Asolo Theatre Company in Sarasota, Florida, before moving to New York, where she made her Broadway debut in All Over Town (1974), directed by Dustin Hoffman. She became nationally famous for playing Florence Jean “Flo” Castleberry on the sitcom Alice (1976–1980),

winning back-to-back Golden Globe Awards in 1979 and 1980 and receiving several Emmy nominations, before starring in her short-lived spin-off Flo (1980–1981). She continued to work steadily on stage and screen, including roles in Gremlins (1984), Moon Over Miami (1993), Mrs. Doubtfire (1993), and a Tony Award-nominated turn as Big Mama

in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1990). An Episcopalian who often sang in church choirs, she never married and had no children, devoting her life instead to her craft and community. Holliday died on Tuesday, September 9, 2025, at her home in Manhattan, New York City, at the age of 88,

from complications of pneumonia; she was the last surviving member of the original Alice cast and is survived by extended family members and close friends who celebrated her warmth, humor, and trailblazing television career.