Editing Roy Eldridge (section)

=== Late life ===
Eldridge became the leader of the house band at [[Jimmy Ryan's|Jimmy Ryan's jazz club]] on [[Manhattan]]'s [[54th Street (Manhattan)|West 54th Street]] for several years, beginning in 1969.<ref name=Wilson /> Although Ryan's was primarily a [[Dixieland]] venue, Eldridge tried to combine the traditional Dixieland style with his own more brash and speedy playing.<ref name=Wilson /> Eldridge was incapacitated by a stroke in 1970, but continued to lead the group at Ryan's soon after and performing occasionally as a singer, drummer and pianist.<ref name="Wilson, Roy Eldridge's Ambition">Wilson, "Roy Eldridge's Ambition".</ref> Writer Michael Zirpolo, seeing Eldridge at Ryan's in the late 1970s, observed: "I was amazed that he still could pop out those piercing high notes, but he did, with frequency....I worried about his health, because the veins at his temples would bulge alarmingly."<ref>Zirpolo, p. 54.</ref> As leader at Ryan's, Eldridge was noted for his occasional hijinx, including impromptu "amateur night" sessions during which he'd invite inexperienced players on stage to lead his band, often for comedic effect and to give himself a break.<ref>Zirpolo, p. 55.</ref> In 1971, Eldridge was inducted into ''[[DownBeat]]'' magazine's [[Down Beat|Jazz Hall of Fame]].

Eldridge has a Queens street sign at [[Liberty Avenue (New York City)|Liberty Avenue]], part of the Jazz Greats along the [[Van Wyck Expressway]], which commemorates Queens as the home of jazz in the 1940s and '50s. He had his home in [[Hollis, Queens|Hollis]], Queens. 
[[File:RoyEldridge home.jpg|thumb|Eldridge's home]]

After suffering a heart attack in 1980, Eldridge gave up playing the trumpet.<ref name="Wilson, Roy Eldridge's Ambition"/> He did however occasionally play the piano and can be heard as late as 1986 in an edition of Marian McPartland's "Piano Jazz" He died at the age of 78 at the Franklin General Hospital in [[Valley Stream, New York|Valley Stream]], New York, three weeks after the death of his wife, Viola.<ref name=Wilson />