{"id":78821,"date":"2019-08-20T18:18:35","date_gmt":"2019-08-20T23:18:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/?p=78821"},"modified":"2019-08-20T22:53:37","modified_gmt":"2019-08-21T03:53:37","slug":"obituary-ronald-alan-ron-shapiro-aka-ronzo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/obituary-ronald-alan-ron-shapiro-aka-ronzo\/","title":{"rendered":"Obituary: Ronald Alan “Ron” Shapiro, aka “Ronzo”: August 27, 1943-August 19, 2019"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Ronald Alan \u201cRon\u201d Shapiro<\/strong>, passed away August 19, 2019 in Oxford, Mississippi<\/strong>; beloved son of the late Sylvia Cohen<\/strong> and the late Melvin Shapiro<\/strong> and stepson of the late Sam R. Cohen<\/strong>; dear brother and brother-in-law of Maureen Rudman<\/strong> and Shelly Shapiro Amster<\/strong> (Glenn); dear uncle of Douglas Rudman<\/strong> (Caryn), David Rudman<\/strong> (Julia), Derek Rudman<\/strong> (Cindy), Benjamin Amster<\/strong> (Anna Robinson) and Sophie Amster<\/strong>; our dear great-uncle, cousin and friend to many.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Following his student days at Washington University<\/strong> and Army<\/strong> service during the Vietnam War<\/strong>, Shapiro found his calling operating a series of art house movie theatres in Idaho, Wyoming<\/strong>, and Montana<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He moved to Oxford, Mississippi in 1975 and established the Hoka Theatre and Moonlight Caf\u00e9<\/strong>. The venue became a celebrated cultural location for 20 years. Home to Oxford\u2019s burgeoning literary and art scene, the Hoka also welcomed national names of the day including Forrest Gump<\/em> author Winston Groom<\/strong>, Chicago 8 activist Abbie Hoffman<\/strong> and Roots<\/em> author, Alex Haley<\/strong>. Local authors the late Willie Morris, Barry Hannah<\/strong>, and Dean Faulkner Wells<\/strong> (niece of William Faulkner<\/strong>) were regulars.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In later years Shapiro operated the Main Squeeze<\/strong> juice bar and The Shelter Caf\u00e9<\/strong> in Oxford. His celebration of the arts remained constant throughout his life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Visitation is Friday, August 23, 2019 12:30 pm at Berger Memorial Chapel<\/strong>, 9430 Olive Blvd, St. Louis, Missouri, followed by funeral service at 1:00 pm. Interment is at Chevra Kadisha Cemetery<\/strong>. Please visit bergermemorialchapel.com<\/a> for more information. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The family welcomes all but understands the distance and short notice for his Mississippi friends. A celebration of Ronzo’s life will be held Friday, November 1 in Oxford, Mississippi venue and time to be announced.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(featured photograph by Gaetano Catelli)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Ron
Ron “Ronzo” Shapiro. Photograph by Newt Rayburn.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Ron
Ron Sharpio. Photograph by Paul Gandy.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Ron Shapiro Painting by Jim Bulian.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Ron
Ron Shapiro in The Hoka Theatre in the 1970s.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ronald Alan \u201cRon\u201d Shapiro, passed away August 19, 2019 in Oxford, Mississippi; beloved son of the late Sylvia<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":238,"featured_media":43860,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1209],"tags":[9545,15045,15052,15053,15043,15044,15042,4683,3538,15050,11947,11458,15040,15038,5143,15049,1560,4,1409,1402,15036,4685,15039,15041,15046,15037,15051,15048,15047],"class_list":["post-78821","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-obituaries","tag-army","tag-benjamin-amster","tag-berger-memorial-chapel","tag-chevra-kadisha-cemetery","tag-david-rudman","tag-derek-rudman","tag-douglas-rudman","tag-hoka","tag-hoka-theatre","tag-hoka-theatre-and-moonlight-cafe","tag-idaho","tag-main-squeeze","tag-maureen-rudman","tag-melvin-shapiro","tag-missouri","tag-montana","tag-obituary","tag-oxford","tag-ron-shapiro","tag-ron-ronzo-shapiro","tag-ronald-alan-ron-shapiro","tag-ronzo","tag-sam-r-cohen","tag-shelly-shapiro-amster","tag-sophie-amster","tag-sylvia-cohen","tag-the-shelter-cafe","tag-vietnam-war","tag-washington-university"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/2018-01-09-Ronzo.jpg?fit=620%2C349&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78821","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/238"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=78821"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78821\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43860"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=78821"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=78821"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=78821"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}