Alice Brock, the woman who was the real life inspiration for the iconic Arlo Guthrie song “Alice’s Restaurant,” has died, Guthrie announced on social media on Friday. She was 83.
“We worked together on various projects. During the next few decades we remained friends while our lives kept us busy,” Guthrie wrote. “She was a no-nonsense gal, with a great sense of humor.”
As WBUR reported, she died Thursday after suffering health issues including chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Alice’s death just before the holiday is notable given that the song is now known as a Thanksgiving classic. In 1967’s “Alice’s Restaurant,” Guthrie chronicles the hilarious true story of how he was disqualified from the Vietnam War draft over the course of his recorded 18-minute monologue.
The beloved song is broken up with an eponymous chorus: “You can get anything you want at Alice’s Restaurant.” Brock herself would publish a cookbook of the same name in 1969.
The story goes that he was visiting Alice on Thanksgiving in 1965 at the church that she’d turned into her home. Guthrie went to take out the garbage, but the dump was closed so he threw the trash off a cliff instead. He was arrested the next day and his tarnished record kept him out of the draft. Radio stations all over the country now play the song each year on Turkey Day. The song became a movie in 1969, directed by Arthur Penn. Guthrie starred as himself in the movie and Pat Quinn played Alice.
“I think it’s just one of those funny, crazy coincidences that you have an event that takes place on Thanksgiving; therefore it becomes associated with the holiday,” Guthrie told Rolling Stone in 2014.
The church described in the song is now the Guthrie Center, and Guthrie wrote that before her death, Alice approved an exhibit there to “tell her own story.”
“This coming Thanksgiving will be the first without her,” Guthrie wrote on Friday. “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.”
Guthrie finished his tribute remembering visiting Brock and several other friends on Thanksgiving in 2022 to celebrate 60 years of friendship.
“This year we get to add one more to those whose life we celebrate — An important one,” he said. “Alice was a lifelong friend.”