JC Wagner's battle with
cancer comes to an end
By Bobby Warren

Nearly nine months after undergoing surgery to remove a tumor, J.C. Wagner's battle with colon cancer ended. The beloved bar magician died Aug. 15, 2010.

A simple announcement about Wagner's death was posted on a page on the magician's website designed to keep friends updated about his health. It read, "We are sad to announce that JC Wagner died peacefully this evening at 7:11 PM  with his family in attenance."

Magicians were visting Wagner's website before his death and leaving him messages in his online guestbook. Among them was Michael Finney. About 16 hours before Wagner died, Finney wrote his old friend, "Dear JC, What would I have done without you at Magic Island, Man we had some great times, When ever you were around, everybody had a good time, I love you J C Wagner. Thanks for everything!"

News about Wagner's death spread quickly over the Internet and Facebook.

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Please help us to post deaths in a timely manner.   

The Broken Wand section of the IBM Portal and The Linking Ring is: (1) to pay tribute to magicians who have died, (2) to notify friends of the deaths, and (3) to archive those obituaries for historical purposes. People honored do not need to be I.B.M. members.

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Illusionist Jerry Conklin dies at 82

Cancer claims life of
Sid Fleischman, 90

Sid Fleischman, the Newbery Award-winning author of The Whipping Boy and member of the International Brotherhood of Magicians, died March 17, 2010, at home, the day following his 90th birthday, according to The Los Angeles Times' Web site.

Fleischman said he was surprised he grew up to be a writer. "I had a childhood much like everyone else's," he wrote in his autobiography, The Abracadabra Kid: A Writer's Life. "What went wrong?"

His biography page on his Web site, www.sidfleischman.com, provides a glimpse into his life, noting his childhood was not a typical one. He was born in Brooklyn, N.Y., and he grew up in San Diego, Calif., during the Great Depression. In the fifth grade, he decided to become a magician. Just out of high school, he traveled widely in vaudeville and with a midnight ghost-and-goblin show.
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James S. Krzak, 1944-2009:
Magician at Schulien's restaurant

Trevor Jensen, a reporter for the Chicago Tribune, reported the death of James S. Krzak. He was 65 and died Tuesday.

Jensen writes: