The hippie-era icon who inspired folk singer Arlo Guthrie’s epic anti-establishment song “Alice’s Restaurant” has died. Alice Brock suffered from health problems, including chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and died Thursday at a hospice home in Wellfleet. She was 83.

Brock’s longtime close friend Viki Merrick was with her when she died. Merrick said Brock remained poetic, incredibly funny and full of puns until the end. “Alice has always been like that.”

The timing of Brock’s death is poignant. It has long been a Thanksgiving tradition for radio stations across the country to broadcast Guthrie’s 18-minute spoken-word ramble that made “Alice” famous.

On Facebook, Guthrie remembered his friend as “a no-nonsense girl with a great sense of humor.” The musician wrote that they spoke on the phone a few weeks ago, adding, “This coming Thanksgiving will be the first without her.”

In a 2020 interview, Brock shared how she became “a living legend, Earth Mother, Alice from ‘Alice’s Restaurant.'” In the 1960s she was the chef and owner of The Back Room in the Berkshires. But an unfortunate incident occurred with the garbage disposal Brock’s house inspired Guthrie to write his song.

She was busy preparing a Thanksgiving feast at her home — which, as in the song, was a deconsecrated church — and Guthrie wanted to help by taking out a bunch of trash. When he and a friend found out that the city landfill was closed for the holidays, they decided to throw the trash off a cliff.

Brock described how a real police officer called the day after Thanksgiving to track down the trash offender. When he asked Brock if she did the deed, she said, “No, but I know who did it.”

Guthrie ended up in the local jail, but Brock said she bailed him out with $50 worth of quarters and foreign coins.

The musician then invented a satirical cavalry of the events that occurred this Thanksgiving. He called his 1967 rant “Alice’s Restaurant Massacre.” In it, Guthrie sings the now famous line: “You can get anything you want at Alice’s Restaurant.”

Brock said she enjoyed her friend’s decorations. The song was later made into a film, which brought her unwitting fame.

She was annoyed by director Arthur’s portrayal of the life of a hippie in Penn’s Hollywood. “So that’s not true,” she said in 2020. But Brock wrote a spinoff cookbook that she filled with her favorite dishes, dry wit and illustrations. A tour to promote the book and film gave her greater exposure, but also made Brock feel exploited. “Everyone attached me to this character,” she said. “And that wasn’t my character at all.”

Brock owned three different restaurants in western Massachusetts between 1965 and 1979, including Take-Out Alice and Alice’s at Avaloch. The old church where she lived in Great Barrington is now the Guthrie Center, an interfaith venue for worship services and live performances.

Brock grew up in Brooklyn but said her family spent summers in Provincetown, where her father ran a business. She fell in love with the idea of ​​living by the sea.

“There are all these pictures of me, happy, happy, happy, just wearing underwear,” Alice recalled in 2020. “I don’t think I wore a swimsuit until I was about 12 years old. But that’s how it was here.” .”

After leaving the Berkshires about four decades ago, Brock began a new life as an artist and children’s book author in Provincetown. There she met Dini Lamot, who, together with his husband Windle Davis, founded the new wave band Human Sexual Response of the 1970s and 1980s.

“I was impressed,” Lamot recalled in 2020. “I heard about all the things she did for all the people she took in and the food she prepared for everyone and her generosity.”

According to Lamot, Brock was always helping others and taking in wayward souls. She also supported the gay community in Provincetown during the AIDS epidemic.

In 2020, Alice faced financial difficulties due to her poor health. So Lamot and Davis organized a GoFundMe campaign that quickly raised $180,000. Friends and strangers donated, and Alice was humbled by the many kind words and donations. At that time she wrote:

“To all the lovely, kind and generous people who contributed to my GoFunMe page. It went over the top and I’m overwhelmed by the response. The comments people have written are heartwarming and I hope my head doesn’t swell. Everyone has a story and I appreciate you sharing yours with me. I thank you from the bottom of my heart. Peace and love to all, Alice”

In 2020, Alice said She didn’t expect to live longer than two more years. But she managed to survive four – and was able to stay near the water – like she always wanted.

Merrick, who formerly worked at one of Brock’s Berkshires restaurants, said Alice leaves behind a family of friends she chose who are planning a celebration of her life. And you can bet it will be a celebration that “Alice” will be proud of.

This article was originally published on WBUR.org.