Editing Eric Dolphy (section)

==Personal life and death==
Dolphy was engaged to marry Joyce Mordecai, a classically trained dancer who lived in Paris.<ref name= Ratliff /> He did not smoke<ref name="sparked" /> and did not use drugs or alcohol.<ref name="sparked" /><ref>{{cite news|last=Miles|first=Milo|title=Young Saint with a Horn|work=[[Salon.com|Salon]]|date=1 May 1996|url=https://www.salon.com/1996/05/01/dolphy/|access-date=11 July 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170728131457/http://www.salon.com/1996/05/01/dolphy/|archive-date=28 July 2017}}</ref>

Before he left for Europe in 1964, Dolphy left papers and other effects with his friends [[Hale Smith]] and Juanita Smith. Eventually much of this material was passed on to the musician [[James Newton]].<ref name= Ratliff /> It was announced in May 2014 that six boxes of music papers had been donated to the [[Library of Congress]].<ref name= Ratliff /><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.loc.gov/item/2014565637/?loclr=blognls |title=Eric Dolphy collection |website=loc.gov |access-date=May 21, 2020 |archive-date=June 25, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200625224713/https://www.loc.gov/item/2014565637/?loclr=blognls |url-status=live }}</ref>

On June 27, 1964, Dolphy traveled to [[West Berlin]] to play with a trio led by [[Karl Berger]] at the opening of a jazz club called The Tangent.<ref name="bio85">{{cite book | last1 =Simosko | first1 =Vladimir | last2=Tepperman |first2=Barry | title =Eric Dolphy: A Musical Biography & Discography | publisher =Da Capo | year =1971 | page=3 }}</ref> He was apparently seriously ill when he arrived, and during the first concert was barely able to play. He was hospitalized that night, but his condition worsened.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.chicagoreader.com/Bleader/archives/2015/02/06/husband-and-wife-pianists-schlippenbach-and-takase-salute-eric-dolphy |title=Husband-and-wife pianists Schlippenbach and Takase salute Eric Dolphy |last=Margasak |first=Peter |date=February 6, 2015 |website=Chicago Reader |access-date=October 30, 2020 |archive-date=November 7, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161107210734/http://www.chicagoreader.com/Bleader/archives/2015/02/06/husband-and-wife-pianists-schlippenbach-and-takase-salute-eric-dolphy |url-status=live }}</ref> On June 29, Dolphy died after falling into a [[diabetic coma]]. While certain details of his death are still disputed, it is largely accepted that he fell into a coma caused by undiagnosed diabetes. The liner notes to the ''Complete Prestige Recordings'' box set say that Dolphy "collapsed in his hotel room in Berlin and when brought to the hospital he was diagnosed as being in a diabetic coma. After being administered a shot of [[insulin]] he lapsed into [[insulin shock]] and died". A later documentary and liner notes dispute this, saying Dolphy collapsed on stage in Berlin and was brought to a hospital. Allegedly, the attending hospital physicians did not know Dolphy was a diabetic and assumed, based on a stereotype of jazz musicians, that he had overdosed on drugs.<ref name="sparked" /> In this account, he was left in a hospital bed for the drugs to run their course.<ref>{{cite AV media| last1= Hylkema| first1= Hans| last2= Bruneau| first2= Thierry| url= https://blowpipe.bandcamp.com/album/last-date| title= Eric Dolphy: Last Date| format= video| publisher= Rhapsody Films| year= 1991| access-date= 2019-05-09| archive-date= 2019-05-09| archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20190509201356/https://blowpipe.bandcamp.com/album/last-date| url-status= live}}</ref> [[Ted Curson]] recalled the following: "That really broke me up. When Eric got sick on that date [in Berlin], and him being black and a jazz musician, they thought he was a [[Addiction|junkie]]. Eric didn't use any drugs. He was a diabetic—all they had to do was take a blood test and they would have found that out. So he died for nothing. They gave him some detox stuff and he died, and nobody ever went into that club in Berlin again. That was the end of that club."<ref>''[[Stop Smiling]]'' magazine, Jazz Issue</ref> Shortly after Dolphy's death, Curson recorded and released ''[[Tears for Dolphy]]'', featuring a title track that served as an elegy for his friend.

Charles Mingus remarked of Dolphy shortly after his death that "Usually, when a man dies, you remember—or you say you remember—only the good things about him. With Eric, that's all you could remember. I don't remember any drags he did to anybody. The man was absolutely without a need to hurt."<ref name="limelight" />

Dolphy is buried in [[Angelus-Rosedale Cemetery]] in Los Angeles. His headstone bears the inscription: "He Lives In His Music."<ref>{{cite book | last1=Thomas|first1=Lorenzo| last2=Nielsen|first2=Aldon|title=Don't Deny My Name: Words and Music and the Black Intellectual Tradition | publisher=University of Michigan Press | location=Ann Arbor |year=2008 | pages=84 }}</ref>