Dear listeners,
I’m writing to you today with a heavy heart.
Last week, we were saddened to hear of the passing of one of our longtime volunteer music program hosts, the inimitable John Paul “J.P.” Schwartz, known for years on the West Texas airwaves by his DJ moniker “Doc Cactus.”
According to an obituary shared with Marfa Public Radio, J.P. died unexpectedly at his home in Cornwall, England, on April 14, 2025.
J.P. was a beloved member of our Marfa Public Radio community of staff, volunteers and listeners for years. He was one of our longest-running volunteer DJs, spending countless hours producing his weekly blues music program - the Far Out West Texas Blue Monday show - which he hosted for at least the last 15 years. He rarely missed a show, even after moving to England in 2023, where he produced the show remotely.
Doc Cactus was also, of course, a longtime local doctor in the Big Bend region, where he demonstrated a deep commitment to rural medicine.
This week, all of us here at the station have been trading memories of J.P., including with some of our own former staffers.
Rachel Osier-Lindley, one of the station’s earliest employees who now works at KERA in Dallas, was a patient of J.P.’s during his time at the Marfa Country Clinic. She told me that even after she moved on from the Big Bend, J.P. remained a helpful presence in her life.
"When I moved to Dallas, I had the hardest time getting a doctor established, so I just called him in a panic and he fixed everything for me," she said. "He really cared."
For my own part, when I first arrived at Marfa Public Radio as an intern back in 2012, J.P. was my first introduction to the kind of quirky, inquisitive and funny people who often call the Big Bend region home. He was ever-present at the station back in those early days - always popping by to just check on how things were going, how we interns were liking Marfa, if we’d met so and so or gone to Terlingua yet or heard someone’s local band play.
For us here at the station, J.P. was a tireless volunteer, but perhaps more than anything, he was just a big fan. He loved music, he loved the station, he loved the people here, he loved his listeners. He was pretty much always wearing a Marfa Public Radio shirt. He was certainly quick to get on our case when we screwed something up on the air, but he did that because he took great pride in this station and our community service mission.
There are undoubtedly many stories about J.P. to share, so that’s what we’re going to do on our airwaves tonight.
Tune into Marfa Public Radio Monday night - April 21 - for a special tribute show in honor of Doc Cactus during his regularly scheduled Far Out West Texas Blue Monday time slot at 7-9 p.m. Central Time.
Fellow DJs and friends in Marfa will get together on-air to dedicate songs and share stories about our friend. We hope you’ll tune in and join us in celebrating J.P. and all he’s brought to the station over the years. You can listen on the FM dial in the Big Bend, or online at our website.
This past Monday, the same day we learned of J.P.’s passing, we aired the last episode of his show that he sent us from across the pond. You can listen back to it here.
Coincidentally, cosmically, by the hand of the almighty - whatever you choose to believe - Doc Cactus closed that program with what he called “a really special song” from the singer Paul Robeson, a 1958 Carnegie Hall live recording of a spiritual, blues-tinged number that stems from a Czech composer’s late-19th century symphony.
The name of the song: “Going Home.”
Going home, going home,
I’m just going home,
Quiet like some still day,
I’m just going home.
It’s not far, just close by,
Through an open door,
Work all done, care laid by,
Going to fear no more.
Mother’s there expecting me,
Father’s waiting too,
Lots of folks gathered there,
All the friends I knew.
All of us here at the station were glad to count J.P. as a friend. He will be dearly missed.
The programming team at Marfa Public Radio is evaluating the best way to move forward with J.P.’s Monday blues program. In the interim, we'll be playing a mix of blues music during that time slot.
