Robert Christie (Burns) Hunter (1941 - 2019)

Born 23 Jun 1941 in San Luis Obispo, California, United States

Died 23 Sep 2019 at age 78 in San Rafael, Marin, California, United States

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Biography

Robert was born in 1941. He passed away in 2019.

Mother's name was Christie.

From an article about his induction into the Rock and Rock Hall of Fame written by Grateful Dead Biographer Dennis McNally^[1]:

"A descendant of Robert Burns*, Hunter was born near San Luis Obispo, California, in 1941. His alcoholic father deserted the family when Robert was 7, and he spent several years in foster homes before he was reunited with his mother. Deeply scarred by it all, he took refuge in books, and by the age of 11 he had already written a 50-page fairy tale. His mother remarried at that time, and his new stepfather, Norman Hunter, worked in publishing, passing on writing lessons that Hunter took to heart."

• *Unsubstantiated, and these sources casts doubt on the claim.^[2][3]

He wrote songs with Jerry Garcia. Other Grateful Dead-related profiles:

• Ron "Pigpen" McKernan
• John Perry Barlow
• Keith Godchaux
• Owsley Stanley

Sources

1. ↑ McNally, Dennis. “Songwriters Hall of Fame Honors Hunter and Garcia, Tuneful Wizards of the Grateful Dead.” The Daily Beast. The Daily Beast Company, June 18, 2015. https://www.thedailybeast.com/songwriters-hall-of-fame-honors-hunter-and-garcia-tuneful-wizards-of-the-grateful-dead?ref=scroll.
2. ↑ https://www.burness.ca/burns.html
3. ↑ https://www.burness.ca/g0/p92.htm#i919

• "California Birth Index, 1905-1995," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:VG4B-PXD : 27 November 2014), Robert Christie Burns, 23 Jun 1941; citing San Luis Obispo, California, United States, Department of Health Services, Vital Statistics Department, Sacramento.

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Hunter_(lyricist)

• https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1187983/bio?ref_=nm_ov_bio_sm