Obituary
Tom Keith, Prairie Home sound-effects sideman, 64
A Prairie Home Companion’s Tom Keith, who created sound effects on public radio alongside Garrison Keillor for 35 years, died Oct. 30 [2011] of a heart attack after collapsing at his Woodbury, Minn., home. He was 64.
Keillor said in a statement that Keith had complained of shortness of breath the previous week “but put off going to see a doctor.” Keith was conscious after his collapse but died in an ambulance on the way to the hospital.
Keith had worked with Keillor since 1976. “Whenever Tom came onstage for a sketch, I could see the audience’s heads turn in his direction,” Keillor said. “They could hear me, but they wanted to see Tom, same as you’d watch any magician.”
During his final performance Oct. 22, Keith played a zombie and an Elizabethan bartender, provided sounds for “Lives of the Cowboys” and “did a wonderful and shocking sound effect of a grade-school teacher being shrunk from 6 feet to 3 inches, using a balloon, some small sticks, and vocal thwops and splorts, and then did the voice of a 3-inch-tall female,” Keillor said. In all, a pretty typical workday for the sound artist.
In a 2009 interview with Seattle’s KUOW, Keith discussed the minutiae of his craft, complaining that balsa raspberry cartons made wonderful “cracking wood” noises but were no longer available. “So one day I was throwing away some egg cartons, the ones made of Styrofoam, breaking them up, and they made nice, loud cracks,” Keith said. “You need a good loud sound so the guys running the sound board, especially for the hall, don’t have to bring the microphones up so high for fear of feedback.”
He also recalled first meeting Keillor. Keith was a few credits short of graduation from the University of Minnesota in 1972, so he picked up a course simply titled, Comedy. “I thought it was kind of a joke myself, trying to explain comedy,” he said. For one assignment, he had to critique an article by Keillor. “He showed up and said, ‘How did you like it?’” Keith recalled. “And I said, ‘Oh, it was okay.’ He likes it when people say about his stuff, ‘Oh, it’s okay.’ You know, ‘Not bad.’ I think I won him over with that.”
He grew up in West St. Paul, Minn., a son of Elizabeth and James Keith. He joined the Marine Corps in 1965, serving four years, and received a degree in speech and broadcasting from the University of Minnesota in 1972.
He is survived by his wife, Ri Wei Liu-Keith; twin sister, Terry Keith Green; brothers Jeffrey and David; and 10 nieces and nephews.
A private family service took place Nov. 4. His colleagues are planning a tribute show the evening of Nov. 12 at the Fitzgerald Theater in St. Paul.
The family suggested donations to charities of the donor’s choice.
Copyright 2011 American University