I only saw my father cry twice. The first time was when Nat King Cole died. I had just come home from school, and I heard him crying in the bathroom. "What's the matter with dad?" I asked my mom. "It's just a very sad day," she said. The second time was when Count Basie died in 1984. My father, Jack Ellsworth, (his radio name) always opened his long-running radio show "Memories in Melody" on WALK and on WLIM, the independent station my parents purchased together in Patchogue, N.Y., with a Count Basie song. "We lost Count today," he whispered through tears. This picture was taken at one of Count's shows at the V.F.W. Hall in Patchogue that my father often M.C.'d. "I really appreciate all you and Dot do for me," he told my father. My dad thanked him, and Count grabbed his arm and said: "I really mean it man. Thank you. ..." My mom passed away on July 17, and my father died less than two months later on Sept. 12. When I pulled out an old Count Basie album last week, I fondly remembered this photo.
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