Alice Brock

Alice Brock (February 28, 1941 – November 21, 2024) (born Alice May Pelkey) was an American artist, author and restaurateur. A resident of Massachusetts for her entire adult life, Brock owned and operated three restaurants in the Berkshires—The Back Room (link to image), Take-Out Alice, and Alice's at Avaloch (link to sign); (link to menu)—in succession between 1965 and 1979. The first of these inspired the title of Arlo Guthrie's 1967 song "Alice's Restaurant", which in turn inspired a 1969 film of the same name.

See more at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alice_Brock

Family

• Daughter of Joseph Frederick Pelkey (1911-2010) and Mary Dubrovsky (1908-2010). They were married in 1937 and divorced in 1959.
• One sister: two nieces, one nephew.
• Ex-wife of Ray Brock (1928-1979). "21 y/o Alice M. Pelkey married 33 y/o Ray D. Brock on 4 September 1962 in a Civil service in New Canaan, Connecticut;" they divorced in 1968: no children.
• Three stepchildren by Ray Brock's former wife, named as her survivors by the New York Times.

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Brock lived with her husband at this former church from 1963 to 1971. Arlo Guthrie later purchased it.

Source: < Guthrie Center > CCA-SA 2.5 license

Activism

In addition to being the namesake of a famous restaurant and song, Brock was a notable activist in her native New York City under her birth name, Alice Pelkey. She was a registered member of the Socialist Workers Party, a founding member of Students for a Democratic Society, a member of the Fair Play for Cuba Committee (through which she spent one month in Cuba in late 1960), a writer for various left-wing publications, and a national organizer of students for various causes while she was attending Sarah Lawrence College, including the 1960 Campaign for Disarmament.

• April 1960 letter regarding disarmament in the Kenyon Collegian and the Bowdoin Orient
• October 1960 inclusion on a list of socialists endorsing Socialist Workers Party presidential candidate Farrell Dobbs in The Militant
• October 1960 inclusion as a signatory on an ad by "Independents and Socialists for Electoral Action" in The National Guardian
• January 1961 review of C. Wright Mills' book Listen, Yankee in The Young Socialist
• March 1961 article critiquing the Peace Corps in The Militant

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Records

1. Birth:"Biography & Genealogy Master Index (BGMI)" Gale Research Company; Detroit, Michigan; Accession Number: 562552 Ancestry Record 4394 #4916142 (accessed 25 November 2024) Alice May Brock born.
2. Marriage: Alice M Pelkey in the Connecticut, U.S., Marriage Index, 1959-2012 < AncestrySharing > Name Alice M Pelkey Gender Female Race White Age 21 Birth Year abt 1941 Residence Place Massachusetts, USA Marriage Date 4 Sep 1962 Marriage Place North Canaan, Litchfield, Connecticut, USA Spouse Ray D Brock Notes officiator Civil Official.
3. "Connecticut Marriage Index, 1959-2001," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:VWYV-JNX : 4 December 2014), Ray D Brock and Alice M Pelkey, 1962; from "Connecticut, Marriage Index, 1959-2001," database, Ancestry (http://www.ancestry.com : 2003); citing North Canaan, Litchfield, Connecticut, United States, Connecticut Department of Public Health, Hartford.
4. Death: Rising Son Records (Arlo Guthrie's record company) (November 22, 2024) < Facebook.com > "Alice May Brock ...February 28, 1941 – November 20, 2024. Alice passed away a week before Thanksgiving. She was living in one of her favorite places - Provincetown, Massachusetts where she'd been for over four decades. ..."

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References

1. "Youths Ordered to Clean Up Rubbish Mess". Berkshire Eagle. Pittsfield, Massachusetts. November 29, 1965. p. 25 – via < Newspapers.com > Open access icon
2. The North Adams Transcript, July 21, 1967, Page 10. via Newspapers.com (https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-north-adams-transcript-back-... : accessed November 24, 2024), clip page for Back Room "Alice's" Restaurant. Immortalizes 'Alices' PITTSFIELD -- Arlo Guthrie, who totally captivated an audience of nearly 10,000 at the final Newport Foik Festival 'concert m Sunday, did it all with a 20-minute monologue and a catchy little song about a not-so-fictitious establishment called Alice's Restaurant -- which once did business in downtown Stockbridge. Under new management, it is now Theresa's Village Rest. In actual fact, the restaurant was known officially as the Back Room Rest, but it was owned and operated by one Alice Brock, whose personal friends, like Arlo, referred to the place as Alice's. Judging from the lyrics Guthrie was inspired to write, it catered to a wide variety of tastes: "You can get anything you want at Alice's Restaurant, Just walk right in, It's around the back, just a half-mile from the railroad track. You can get anything you want at Alice's Restaurant." Whatever the song's import, it sent the Newport audience into paroxysms of applause, and the New York Times reported that after the all-star cast of more 30 performers joined Guthrie on the stage for the final chorus of the "maddeningly memorable" line, "audience and performers . . . went happily out into the night humming, chanting and mumbling 'Alice's Restaurant'.".
3. The Berkshire Eagle, November 16, 1968, Page 11. via Newspapers.com (https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-berkshire-eagle-alice-m-pelk... : accessed November 24, 2024), clip page for Alice M. Pelky Brock. Probate Court Divorces Alice M. Pelkey Brock of Stockbridge, the original Alice of Alice's Restaurant, has been granted a divorce from Ray Dean Brock of Great Barrington. The couple were married in North Canaan, Conn., Sept. 4, 1962.
4. "Alice's restaurant cookbook," by Brock, Alice May, 1941- (Publication date 1969) < Archive.Org > (free ID needed to borrow)
5. "About the Author," Alice's Restaurant Cookbook, Alice May Brock [Random House:New York] 1969 (p. 149) "Alice May Brock, born in Brooklyn, New York, on February 28, 1941. A Pisces...Grew from a difficult child to a juvenile delinquent to a regular (irregular) person...Spent a few years in high school...reform school...fancy school...Moved to the low Lower East Side, then to the green greener Berkshires...Married crazy Ray D. Brock...Worked as a librarian at the Stockbridge School...Bought a church...Sang songs...Fooled around...Cooked good good food with a smile and other expressions...Turned it into a crazy-yummy- cozy restaurant...Got tired...Got divorced...Got famed by Arlo Guthrie, an old friend...Thru it all Alice is a real live human bean--Still foolin' around and still cookin'..."
6. "Who is Alice May Brock?" < foodtimeline.org > " ... Few people read cookbooks cover to cover. Alice's Restaurant Cookbook is worthy of this experience. If for no other reason? Ms. Brock's personal observations (chapter headers & recipe notes) are gold. They echo the great chefs of all time, funky style. If you want any of the recipes, we're happy to share."
7. The Berkshire Eagle, August 7, 1979, Page 13. via Newspapers.com (https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-berkshire-eagle-ray-d-brock/... : accessed November 24, 2024), clip page for Ray D. Brock. "Ray D. Brock, ex-husband of restaurateur Ray Dean Brock, 50, former husband of Alice Brock, was found dead at his home in Hartfield, Va., last Wednesday. ... "
8. "A Restaurant Seasoned by the 1960's," Maria Lisa Calta, New York Times, November 30, 1988 (p. C12) "As a restaurateur, Ms. Brock broke ground in the Berkshires. 'She was a great cook and made fabulous food,; Mr. Guthrie said. 'She made the first phyllo pastries. That was not part of my bohemian past. And she made a great chocolate mousse.' She also made pasta dishes like orzo with mussels in white wine and homemade borscht when such fare was rare."
9. NPR story on ‘Alice’s Restaurant’ namesake inspires listeners to give back on Thanksgiving (1 December 2020) < current.org >
10. Stanmeyer, Anastasia, "Breaking Bread with Alice", Berkshire Magazine, Holiday 2022. Retrieved 2024-11-23. < berkshiremag.com >
11. "Alice Brock, Restaurant Owner Made Famous by a Song, Dies at 83" (Published November 22, 2024) < NYTimes.com > Arlo Guthrie’s antiwar staple “Alice’s Restaurant” was inspired by a Thanksgiving Day visit to her diner in western Massachusetts. "Ms. Brock is survived by her stepchildren; two grandchildren; one great-granddaughter; and two great-great-grandchildren."
12. The real Alice of Arlo Guthrie’s “Alice’s Restaurant” dies at 83 (November 22, 2024) < wbur.org >
13. "Alice as she really was" (Published November 23, 2024) < capeandislands.org >
14. legacy.com (Published by Legacy Remembers on November 22, 2024) "Alice is survived by her chosen family of friends, many of whom have remained close since the 1960's. So how to honor her? It begs the question: what would Alice do? Ponder something beautiful offered by nature; lose yourself in a painting; listen to some meaningful music; savor a good meal. Or, importantly, just reach out - as she would say - to a fellow human 'bean'."
15. "Alice Brock of ‘Alice’s Restaurant’ dies" < theBerkshireedge.com > (November 22 2024) Back in 1964, Alice and her former husband Ray Brock purchased the St. James Chapel building located at 2 Van Deusenville Road. ... The Brocks sold the church in 1971, and it fell under different ownership over the years, while Alice Brock shut down Alice’s Restaurant in Stockbridge in 1979.
16. https://www.alicebrockstudio.com/
17. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alice_Brock
18. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alice%27s_Restaurant
19. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alice%27s_Restaurant_(album)
20. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alice%27s_Restaurant_(film)
21. https://www.ancestry.com/family-tree/person/tree/88560392/person/46...
22. https://www.familysearch.org/tree/person/details/G1DR-MXD
23. https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Pelkey-415
24. Arlo Guthrie: The Warner/Reprise Years. By Hank Reineke. < GoogleBooks >'
25. Alice's Restaurant - Original 1967 Recording < YouTube >