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Anderson Alphonso “Al” Hartfield (1953-2019)

Anderson Alphonso “Al” Hartfield (1953-2019)

Postal worker played in jazz bands

Anderson Alphonso “Al” Hartfield, Jr., a retired U.S. Postal Service maintenance supervisor in Toledo who was a jazz and blues musician and a Navy veteran, died in his Spring Valley, Calif., home. He was 65.

He died of kidney cancer, said daughter Tamara Vonette Paige.

Mr. Hartfield retired from the postal service in 2014 after 13 years as a maintenance supervisor.

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He previously served in the Navy for 20 years.

But his true passion in life was being a musician and playing the guitar, his daughter said. After he returned to Toledo from the service, he reunited with his lifelong friends and former bandmates to form the Jamm Band, one of Toledo’s premier smooth jazz groups.

He played the guitar with the group until he retired from the postal service and moved to Spring Valley.

He also played the guitar and sang with Curtis Jr. and The Midnight Rockers blues group in Toledo. Other bands with which he played included The Corruptors and The Social Lubricators.

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“He was a showman. He liked how he influenced other people. He enjoyed the feeling of moving the crowd,” Ms. Paige said, adding that his favorite piece to perform was “Westchester Lady” by Bob James.

“He was generous, caring, and he loved his family,” she said.

“[And] he was a real positive person,” brother Gary Hartfield added.

He said he remembers how his brother took interest in music when they watched their grandfather play his guitar on the porch.

“Al” Hartfield, Jr., who was about 10 at the time, started playing violin in elementary school when he was 11 because they did not have a guitar class at school, his brother said.

He then switched to the guitar when he was 12 or 13, when his uncle from Mississippi came in to live with them in Toledo. That was Robert Lee, a blues singer known in Toledo by his stage name Bobby G.

Said Gary Hartfield: “Al used to sneak into his room when he was away and play the guitar. Soon, mom bought him his own guitar for Christmas.”

Mr. Hartfield was born July 16, 1953, in Toledo to Elizabeth Bernice Robinson and Anderson Alphonso Hartfield. He graduated from Libbey High School in 1972 and played in local bands for a few years.

In 1981, he volunteered for the Navy and served 20 years in aviation maintenance administration at Naval Air Station North Island on the Coronado peninsula in California until his honorable discharge in 2001 with the rank of petty officer 1st class.

He then returned to Toledo and hired on as a maintenance supervisor for the postal service.

Mr. Hartfield was married twice, to Barbara Hartfield and to Sandra Broom-Hartfield. They survive.

Also surviving are his mother, Elizabeth Bernice Liggins; daughter, Tamara Vonette Paige; brothers, Gary, Alvin, Raymond Hartfield and Patrick Legare; sisters, Marjean Mumford, Karen Hartfield, Stacey Legare-Mayes, Rebecca Legare, Marilyn Jane Wasson, Angelique Hartfield-Beale, Amanda Hartfield, and Cheryl Denise Williams; and a grandson.

A memorial service will begin at 1 p.m. Sunday at Perfecting Church Toledo on Glendale Avenue in Toledo.

First Published June 22, 2019, 4:00 a.m.

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