PHOTOSTREAM: Michael Heaton Memorial @ Beachland Ballroom by Anastasia Pantsios

11.27.2022 Michael Heaton Memorial

Sun 11/27

Cleveland native Michael Heaton returned home in 1987 to become the Plain Dealer’s music writer, and while that job didn’t last long, he became known for his weekly Minister of Culture column in the Friday magazine in which he ruminated on a number of topics, some pop culture-related, some not. He left the PD in 2018, one of the many legacy writers the paper purged. He passed away in September at the age of 66.

This past weekend, former colleagues and friends from journalism, pop culture and sports, packed the Beachland Ballroom for an evening of music and tributes to the affable and charming Heaton. Performers included musicians such as Kristine Jackson, Austin Charanghat, Alex Bevan, and young band Wish Queen, whose singer Grace Sullivan grew up with Heaton’s daughters. Among the speakers were Heaton’s daughter Zoe and sister Patricia, as well as sports journalists Mark Bishop and Dan Coughlin, former WMMS program director John Gorman, comedian Mike Polk Jr, musician/comic Charlie Wiener, former PD writer (now with ideastream) Mike McIntyre, and Cleveland-based band manager David Spero, who added a sobering (literally) note, when he spoke of his own journey to sobriety and how friends and family had attempted and failed to get Heaton to follow the same path.

View the PHOTOSTREAM here.

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