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Obituary from the Ventura County Star:
Terry (TJ) John Zeiler was born in Baltimore, MD on September 20, 1946, and passed on to Heaven on April 29, 2025, from a combination of Alzheimer’s and diabetes. His parents were Helen (Kaufmann) and John Zeiler, and he grew up in Baltimore, MD.
He became fascinated with submarines after watching the movie, Run Silent, Run Deep, and enlisted in the Navy at the age of 19. He spent three years alternating between shore duty and 3-month underwater deployments aboard the USS Madison as a radioman. He then was accepted in the Navy NESEP program and attended the University of Oklahoma while still on active duty. He received his Bachelor of Science degree in meteorological engineering in 1974. His next duty station was as a Naval Flight Officer (Navigator) out of Jacksonville, Florida navigating P-3 Orions as they chased Russian submarines in the Atlantic and the Mediterranean. As a lieutenant, he changed course and became the head of the NAS Lemoore Counseling and Assistance Center (CAAC) for drug and alcohol abuse.
While in Lemoore, he met, and married Sue Shaner Keith and they combined families. Three years after arriving in Lemoore, he was on his way to Point Mugu with the enlarged family. He joined VXE-6 squadron and headed to Antarctica as a flight navigator on C-130s. He used readings from the sun and the stars to guide the planes between Christchurch, NZ and Antarctica as the squadron delivered supplies for the National Science Foundation during the Antarctic summer.
After leaving the Navy in 1986, he worked in the defense industry as a Naval trainer and became an insurance agent. TJ loved mastering the land, air and sea on his Honda Goldwing, in his Cessna 172 and aboard his Aquarius sailboat. He was an avid bridge player and started several bridge groups. In retirement, he rediscovered his passion for music and joined Songmakers in 2000. He loved attending and hosting song circles and sharing his musical talents. He was a member of the band, Horseplay, and Nostalgic Duo, and he took his solo act, Music by TJ to retirement centers across California.
He will be truly missed by all that knew him, and he is survived by his wife of 44 years, Sue, children: Sherri (Greg), Terry John, Paul (Jenny) and Michelle (Vince), and eight grandchildren.
Services will be held on July 5, 2025, at 11:00 a.m. at the Camarillo United Methodist Church, 291 Anacapa Dr., Camarillo. In lieu of flowers, please make some music in memory of him.
Here is TJ playing Rain Dancer at Songmakers Kenney Grove saturday night concert in July 2017 with Gordon Roberts, Charletta Erb and Rick Cohen.
Far-West Campfire Zoom-based Songcircles
We have been invited by Far-West to participate in their twice a month Songcircles:
Every month on the 2nd & 4th Tuesdays Join us around the virtual campfire for our twice-monthly song circle, where artists and audiences from the FAR-West region and beyond are welcome to enjoy original songs, favorite covers, and tunes inspired by that week’s theme.
Don your slippers and join us around the campfire. First timers are always welcome!
Sign up in advance using the link to perform or be in the audience.
Every 2nd and 4th Tuesday of the month (with the exception of November and December due to holidays) you can register for free at found.ee/farwestcampfire. What started during the pandemic to keep us Folkies busy is still going strong! We would love to see a Songmakers presence there.
Just a reminder that reservations are now open for the remaining Kenney Grove campouts. Email Sally at sallykitt@gmail.com for details or check the Events section of Songmakers’ official Facebook page.
Summer Camp
June 19-22, 2025
[reserve c. Dec. 21, 2024]
Fall Out
October 16-19, 2025
[reserve c. April 4, 2025]
To make reservations up to 6 months in advance, go to https://www.venturaparks.org click on Camping & RV at the top, Select Kenney Grove Park and find your site.
Sally Charette
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If you are aware of any LIVE or virtual song circle or performance that will welcome Songmaker participation (or want to host one), please provide the info to the webmaster for inclusion to the calendar. Do you know of an upcoming musical event that may be of interest to our readers? Please provide a write-up with dates & website &/or other pertinent information and send to: webmaster@songmakers.org.
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Joining Songmakers is not accomplished via Meetup. The www.songmakers.org list of events will continue. Songmakers membership is only $10 per year per family / household – join via https://songmakers.org/member-registration
Additional event links are listed by Folknik at https://www.sffmc.org/community-folk-calendar/
A list of virtual Song Sessions: https://www.bostonsongsessions.org/virtual-sessions
Old Time & Celtic Music Calendars. The latest revisions on the oldtimeSF & celticSF groups.io groups. To join these groups go to https://groups.io/g/oldtimesf & https://groups.io/g/celticsf. Also available via: https://www.berkeleyoldtimemusic.org/ – select “Monthly Calendar of Old Time Music” under the About menu AND here https://sites.google.com/site/davbrown2/celtic Join the CelticSF group via https://groups.io/g/celticSF