Cyndi Loza

Richard Stamz: 1906-2007

Being 101 years old didn’t get cool cat Richard Stamz down.

He was proclaimed by many as a legend — hopping off a freight train from Tennessee with 50 cents in his pocket and rising to become one of Chicago’s first black radio disc jockeys.

Known as “Open the door, Richard!” on his WGES-AM radio show, he was a “jack of all trades” Chicagoan: author, entrepreneur and philosopher. He never stopped spitting out wisdom or wisecracks, and had endless energy to jam.

In April, WVON radio’s Pervis Spann invited Mr. Stamz to a ceremony where diva KoKo Taylor performed her signature hit, “Wang Dang Doodle.”

“Richard was right there doing the same thing KoKo was doing,” Spann said, laughing. “Shaking his tail feather.”

Mr. Stamz died Tuesday at Kindred Healthcare Center in Chicago from congestive heart failure and pneumonia.

Born April 10, 1906, in Memphis, Tenn., he arrived in Chicago via freight train at the age of 16, said a daughter, Valeria Hankins. Looking to make a living here in the pre-Depression era, he got a job as a busboy at the Edgewater Hotel. He later got to know some celebrities and worked as a road manager of sorts for years.

‘He was a fiery person’

It’s unclear exactly how he got his start in Chicago radio, but it’s clear he was a major hit. His 1950s show was on WGES, the most powerful black radio station at that time, and it opened the door for many others, Spann said. Mr. Stamz also served as an emcee for shows at the Regal Theater in the 1950s. Spann met him there and said their friendship blossomed because Mr. Stamz always spoke the truth.

“He was good as gold,” Spann said. “Whatever he told you, that’s what he did.”

Mr. Stamz also occasionally helped Spann interview music greats like B.B. King and James Brown on his show over the years.

“He was a fiery person,” said longtime V-103 disc jockey Herb Kent. “It was nothing laid back about Richard Stamz.”

Kent said he doesn’t know where Mr. Stamz got the soulful energy that pumped crowds and held the ears of Chicago listeners.

“He was just born with that type of personality,” Kent said. “And [he was] gifted with it.”

Mr. Stamz rode through the streets in his “Soul Machine” van, playing his music loud and stopping when crowds followed him. He would even pass out “Soul Pills” for those he felt were lacking in the area.

Another daughter, Phyllis Stamz-Willis, described her father as an articulate historian who read many books and stayed up to date on politics. He had attended LeMoyne-Owen College in Memphis for two years, and most said no one could win an argument with him.

Mr. Stamz was also a strong community activist. Hankins said he helped New York congresswoman Shirley Chisholm with her presidential campaign in the early 1970s.

He also once had a memorable showdown with Ku Klux Klan members on the “The Jerry Springer Show” in the 1990s. Hankins said her father wanted people to understand that there were no differences between the races.

“My father was very bold,” she said. “He would not hold back.”

In recent years, he did book signings for Chicago’s Englewood Neighborhood, which he co-wrote with Maria Lettiere Roberts. Mr. Stamz once owned a grocery store on the South Side and Richard’s Record Shop on Roosevelt Road.

“I’m liable to do anything,” Mr. Stamz said in an April article in Time-Out Chicago. “I should get a medal for it.”

He is survived by two more daughters, Yvette White and Harriett Hoskins, seven grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.

A memorial service will be at 6 p.m. Wednesday at Fernwood United Methodist Church, 10057 S. Wallace.