David Cassidy on the Web
Davy Jones, former Monkee and long time South Florida resident, dies of heart attack
February 29, 2012
By Robert Nolin
Sun Sentinel
www.sun-sentinel.com
He was the Justin Bieber of his day, a magnet for teenage girls with his mop top, compact build and oversized voice.
Former Monkee Davy Jones, who owned a Hollywood condo and was a familiar figure on stages across South Florida, where he was a long time resident, died Wednesday morning of a heart attack at his Indiantown home in Martin County. He was 66.
"I lost a very good friend today," said Fort Lauderdale resident David Cassidy, whose posters may have replaced Jones' on many a young girl's bedroom wall in the early 1970s.
Jones and Cassidy, who gained fame as Keith Partridge in the made-for-TV-band The Partridge Family, were scheduled for a double-bill on April 14 at Magic City Casino in Miami. An emotional Cassidy, speaking by phone Wednesday afternoon, said the show will go on.
"The show will be dedicated to him. I'll do some of his songs, tell stories of how we became friends," said Cassidy, pausing. "I truly loved him."
Martin County Sheriff's officials said Jones told an unnamed witness he was "not feeling well and having trouble breathing." Paramedics rushed him to a Stuart hospital, where he was pronounced dead, the Sheriff's Office said in a statement.
"At this time, there do not appear to be any suspicious circumstances surrounding the death," the statement said. The Martin County Medical Examiner's Office will determine cause of death, but Jones' publicist, Helen Kensick, told The Palm Beach Post he died of an apparent heart attack.
"He was very friendly, friendly with everybody on the street," said Diane Bottos, 69, who lived downstairs from Jones and his wife, Jessica Pacheco, in a four-unit beachfront condo in Hollywood. "He wasn't hoity-toity or a snobby type of man at all."
Jones and two of his fellow Monkees, Micky Dolenz and Peter Tork, played in South Florida last summer during the group's 45th anniversary tour.
Prior to the tour, Jones passed a routine stress test. "The doctor says my heart's so good, the door's open to do any kind of exercise I want," he told The Post.
Bottos, too, said Jones appeared fit when he and Pacheco went to the beach. "Very healthy looking, very good shape," she said.
Jones kept horses at a Martin County stable and raced them at South Florida tracks, where on at least one occasion he performed himself. He also sang at local benefits and acted in area musicals, from West Palm Beach to Miami.
But he never lost the common touch. "We're just all shocked here," Bottos said. "He talked to everybody. Everybody in the neighborhood liked him."
Jones lived in South Florida for nearly two decades. In 2009, he married Miami native Pacheco, 34, an actress. She was his third wife. Jones has four daughters, ranging in age from their 40s to their 20s, from previous marriages.
In a January 2001 interview, he told the Chicago Tribune: "I got exactly what I asked for [in life] and I'm very happy."
