Alice Brock, Made Famous By ‘Alice’s Restaurant,’ Passes Away

PROVINCETOWN (WBSM) — Just one week before the holiday for which she had become synonymous, the eponymous Alice in “Alice’s Restaurant” has passed away.

Alice Brock died in her home of Provincetown on Thursday, November 21, at the age of 83.

Brock was working as a librarian at the Stockbridge School in Stockbridge, Massachusetts along with her husband Ray, a shop teacher, when future folk singer Arlo Guthrie (son of legendary folk singer Woody Guthrie) attended the school as a student.

Later, as a college student, he spent Thanksgiving 1965 with the Brocks in their home, a former church in Great Barrington, Massachusetts.

Guthrie’s 1967 song – formally titled “Alice’s Restaurant Massacre” – recounted the events of that Thanksgiving, including Guthrie and his friend Rick Robbins cleaning out the collected garbage from the church that had been left behind from the former owners and later getting arrested for illegally dumping the garbage.

The song became an anti-war anthem during the Vietnam conflict, and in 1969 was turned into a feature film. Brock declined to play herself, although she did have a cameo. She also opened multiple restaurants following the success of the song and the film under the name Alice’s Restaurant.

She also became an artist and an author, including publishing The Alice’s Restaurant Cookbook in 1969. She also wrote her autobiography My Life as a Restaurant and a children's book, How to Massage a Cat.

Brock also became well-known for her hand-painted rock art going all the way back to the 1960s, and helped grow The Kindness Rocks Project, in which painted rocks are left behind for others to find and enjoy.

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“Alice’s Restaurant Massacre” became a Thanksgiving staple on Boston radio when WBCN DJ Ken Shelton started playing it on the holiday.

For Thanksgiving 2022, Guthrie, Brock and Robbins reunited at the former church, which Guthrie purchased in 1991 and turned into the Guthrie Center. They then went to Robbins’ home for dinner. It was the first time the three had been together on Thanksgiving since the infamous one in 1965.

It turned out it would also be their last together.

“This coming Thanksgiving will be the first without her,” Guthrie wrote on the Facebook page of his Rising Son Records, remembering Brock as “a no-nonsense gal, with a great sense of humor.”

“Alice and my daughter, Annie had spoken together recently and Alice, knowing her circumstances, approved an exhibit at the church to tell her own story,” Guthrie wrote. “Alice and I spoke by phone a couple of weeks ago, and she sounded like her old self. We joked around and had a couple of good laughs even though we knew we'd never have another chance to talk together.”

This Thanksgiving, WBSM will launch its own tradition of playing “Alice’s Restaurant Massacre” in its entirety, with planned airings at 12 p.m., 3 p.m. and 6 p.m. It will be broadcast on 1420 AM and 99.5 FM, as well as streamed on WBSM.com and on the WBSM app.

We will dedicate this first year of playing the track to the memory of Alice Brock.