On a rainy day in 1969, Nick and Bobbi Ercoline became the face of Woodstock and the hippie generation. The couple famously appeared on the cover of Atlantic Records’ original 1970 Woodstock: Music from the Original Soundtrack and More. The iconic duo remained together for over five decades – but sadly, this year, their love story has concluded with the death of Bobbi.
On Saturday, March 18, Bobbi Ercoline, nee Kelly, passed away. News of her death came from her husband Nick, to whom she’d been married for 54 years. His Facebook post, announcing her death, did not specify her age or cause of death, but he did assure that she was surrounded by family.
Bobbi and Nick Ercoline become the faces of Woodstock
Woodstock ran from August 15 to August 18, 1969. An estimated 400,000 people flocked to the venue in a show of friendship and love, along the way enjoying the musical stylings of Janis Joplin, Santana, Jimi Hendrix, The Who, and many more.
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By that point, Bobbi and Nick had been going out together for 10 weeks, having just met in winter of that year; he was a waiter at Dino’s, in Middletown, N.Y., and she had actually been dating a waiter there. Her soon-to-be-ex left her out of a promising outing with other friends, and so Nick invited her out for pizza and a movie.
They thought Woodstock would be a fun, memorable date opportunity and so they, along with some friends, packed into a 1965 Impala station wagon and headed over. Already, radio reports told of overcrowding and chaos, begging prospective attendees to reconsider. “We were 20… we had to go,” countered Bobbi.
At the time, the definitive counterculture event was not a picture of grandeur. “Water was intermittent, sketchy. Food was sold out Friday night. The weather was absolutely awful,” said Bobbi. But something remarkable happened, even before their photographed scene: nothing. “450,000 people gathered here and not one incident of violence. That’s pretty amazing. The world needs more Woodstock.”
On an otherwise dreary-looking morning of Woodstock, photographer Burk Uzzle was taking photos and one of those ended up being Nick and Bobbi cuddled close against the morning chill. This shot ended up being the famous album cover starring “the Woodstock album couple,” a fact they did not learn until a year later listening to music with friends.
“We didn’t know that the photo was taken,” revealed Nick. “But that’s a pose you can see Bobbi and I perform every morning… and every night before we go to bed.”
Just as the sentiments of Woodstock and their album cover endured over the decades, so too did their love story until death did they part.
The love story between Bobbi and Nick Ercoline was bittersweet and tender
Nick Ercoline shared news of Bobbi’s passing on social media. She died at her home in Pine Bush, New York surrounded by loved ones. “It’s with beyond great sadness that I tell my FB family and friends, that after 54 years of life together, of the death of my beautiful wife, Bobbi, last night surrounded by her family,” announced Nick.
“She lived her life well, and left this world in a much better place. If you knew her, you loved her. She lived by her saying, ‘Be kind.'”
He further shared, “As a School Nurse she always championed the kids … ALWAYS! As a person, she always gave. ‘How much do you really need if you have all you need or want?’ So she gave and gave and gave.”
Nick did not specify a cause of death, but did mourn, “She didn’t deserve this past years nightmare, but she isn’t suffering from the physical pain anymore and that brings some comfort to us.” The couple were around 19 to 20 when their photo was famously taken, and so would be in their seventies when she passed.
Just as Woodstock and her image remained celebrated by so many people, Bobbi too cherished everything Woodstock stood for right to the end. “Woodstock has grown in significance with each passing year,” she praised. “It was such a special event: half a million people gathered in the name of peace, with no violence. It took place at the cusp of great change in America — the civil rights movement, the pill, Vietnam.”
Recalling the event in 2015, Bobbi remembered, “The air was damp and smelled of campfires and pot. I’d not seen anything like it before.”
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