Jimi Hendrix Memorial at Woodland Park Zoo

Really enjoyed my trip to the zoo when I went to Seattle was pleasantly surprised to see this lovely tribute to Hendrix! Make sure you check it out!

In 1980 by rock radio station KZOK, Norm Gregory, the station’s general manager, and Janet Wainwright, the promotion director, launched a fundraising campaign by having the station sell Hendrix buttons for $ 2 each. Eventually, some $ 30,000 was raised.
There was no interest from the city in honoring Hendrix, remembers Wainwright.
«It was hell dealing with the city. We tried everything. Naming a street, one of those little pocket parks you see at the end of some streets. Nobody was interested,» Wainwright says.
«I was met with the most vehement objections, including from Walter Hundley, head of the Parks Department, who sat me in his office and basically said they were not going to memorialize a drug addict.»
She remembers the station getting hate mail «like you wouldn’t believe … death threats, people saying Jimi Hendrix was Satan.»
But Hendrix had a fan in David Hancocks, then director of the Woodland Park Zoo. Space for a memorial was found near the African Savanna Exhibit.
To some, the location seemed inappropriate.
Says Cross, «To me, it seems unbelievably misguided. It does seem racist, and if not racist, certainly culturally insensitive.»
But Wainwright says Al Hendrix was happy with the zoo memorial for his son. She says he told her, «Jimi loved animals.»
The zoo memorial was finally dedicated in June 1983, with Al Hendrix in attendance.
The design had a «hot rock» in the center that was heated and was meant to symbolize Hendrix’s music. But, says the zoo, the heating element inside the rock hasn’t been working for years.