The Godmother of 6th has passed.

Whether you call it 6th Street, The Strip, Austin’s bar scene, or simply Downtown, the area and those who live and work in it are sadder this week. Your friend and mine, Marilyn Crawford, passed away last Friday evening while visiting with her Sister, Susan, at her home in Austin. Everyone who devoted any significant part of their lives to this part of the Austin community over the past 15 years benefited from Marilyn Crawford’s having been a part of the community. If you were part of that community, the chances are at some point you worked for Marilyn, or worked with her on some event. If you knew her, then you know that her tireless and energetic work ethic, and her innovative ideas, immeasurably improved the Austin bar scene. Even if you didn’t know her personally, Marilyn probably had a positive influence on your life without your even knowing it, by making the Austin bar scene a more enjoyable, safer, and rewarding place to work and live. Like a rock thrown into a pond, Marilyn’s innovative leadership as an owner of Maggie Maes rippled outward, improving not only the downtown bar scene, but nearly every other aspect of downtown life. She made Maggie Maes a place that so many of us were happy to call home for so many years. Under her management Maggie Maes went from a little one horse bar, into the iconic powerhouse that she made it before she was forced to leave it behind in January 2017. In honor of her memory, we are now asking for your help by donating whatever you can to help her sister, Susan, with the final expenses associated with Marilyn’s passing. Thank you all in advance for your help!!