The Koshare of Camden, Maine, Alonzo Charlie Burgess, brought smiles and laughs to countless people he encountered over the 40+ years he resided in Camden. Coming by it seemingly innately, his wit and wry humor accompanied him wherever he went his entire life. Charlie passed away May 22, 2026.

Born in south coastal Virginia to Indigenous parents on July 25, 1944, Charlie was adopted into the family of Alonzo and Emma Burgess just before his second birthday, growing up in the Norfolk area, graduating from high school there. His father wanted an athlete, yet Charlie (the name he carried throughout most of his life) had no interest or skill in any sport. Instead, music became his passion. As a drummer in the high school band he won accolades from the community and admiration from his father.

In 1963, as the Vietnam war was heating up, Charlie enlisted in the US Air Force, spending his term of service in Amarillo, Texas. It was here he began his education in Indigenous culture, becoming a collector of Pueblo and Dine art. These connections brought awareness to his own indigenous roots in Virginia.

After military service, Charlie spent years in San Francisco, living and working in the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood, often frequenting Ferlinghetti's City Lights Bookstore, meeting characters like poet Richard Brautigan and musician Ramblin' Jack Elliot, occasionally encountering the likes of The Grateful Dead and Jefferson Airplane. He took part in assisting the Indigenous American Indian occupation of Alcatraz in 1969. He offers commentary in the 1991 PBS documentary series “Making Sense of the Sixties”.

Charlie moved to midcoast Maine with his dear friend Lois Hill in the early 1980s, bringing with him the unique, witty character many of us remember so well. For years he wrote a humorous weekly column on everyday Camden life in the Camden Herald newspaper. He was a man about town and brought a smile to nearly everyone he met. He was an avid reader and prodigious fly fisherman.

Charlie was a spiritual human being, drawing faith from tribal Earth based spirit life. He carried many one of a kind sayings in his pocket, one of them being, “When I want to go to church, I step outside”...

All Praise to Alonzo Charlie Burgess!