As you may have heard, Mark Bittner, author of The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill and subject of the film of the same name, died on March 1st in his sleep of a heart attack in Arcata, CA, where he’d been house-sitting for a friend of ours. His death was peaceful and quick.

His sister and next of kin, Beth Lyons, will handle his affairs going forward as his Executor, dealing with the CA probate process and the transport of his belongings to southern Washington where she lives. His ashes will be scattered in Trapper Creek, in an old-growth forest where the family had a cabin, next summer.

If you would like to honor Mark, please contribute to this GoFundMe for Beth. Your donation will help defray her upcoming expenses and make everything easier as we go forward. I will help Beth with the probate process and other details.

Here’s a link to Within You Without You . From the album Street Songs by Mark Bittner, the companion set of music to his as-yet-unpublished memoir, Street Song, this is an American folk/mountain version of George Harrison's classic, with Mark and his sister Beth singing harmonies. I filmed the music video on and near Telegraph Hill in San Francisco.

Thank you from Judy Irving, Mark’s longtime partner

(Note: this GoFundMe is created for Beth Lyons, by Judy Irving. Sarah Lemarié has handled the setup and management of this page with Judy's permission. More updates will be posted as we process this sudden loss.)