Partner Rod McKuen
Queer Places:
1155 Angelo Dr, Beverly Hills, CA 90210
Westwood Memorial Park
Westwood, Los Angeles County, California, USA
Edward McKuen Habib (April 27, 1935 - May 12, 2018) was born in Fall River, Massachusetts; He was one of 14 siblings and served two years in the army. He moved to Los Angeles County in 1963 and was the VP of publishing and recording at Stanyon Records for 50 years.
Rod McKuen had an unconventional relationship with his half-brother Edward Habib, publicly calling Edward ”my partner”. In 2005, a gay male fan wrote a fan letter saying of McKuen’s poem I Always Knew: ”I plan on presenting it to my partner on his 54th. This will be our 8th year together. Thank you.” McKuen responded by comparing his relationship with his brother to his fan’s partnership: Relationships take hard work so you both must be doing something right for each other. In case you missed it here is a poem I wrote a few years ago that you might find interesting. The poem is titled PARTNER / For Edward. In another interview, McKuen said: As for Edward, he is my brother, father, mother, best friend and partner in almost every way. He’s a cute kid all right, but not my lover or my type. Besides, wouldn’t that be incest?
A Voice of the Warm: The Life of Rod McKuen, Barry Alfonso’s biography of the late, polarizing poet/singer/songwriter who met with commercial success and critical disdain in the 1960s and ’70s, argues for a reassessment of McKuen’s place in pop culture history. Despite using the opening of the book to set up McKuen’s relationship with Edward Habib as “a loving, tormented, but ultimately enduring relationship that would last over fifty years,” Habib makes but a few paragraphs’ worth of appearances. Alfonso writes that “no one will probably know for certain what Rod McKuen and Edward Habib meant to each other as they approached the ends of their lives.
Edward McKuen Habib died peacefully at his home. He was preceded in death by his partner, Rod McKuen. He is survived by his three cats, Buddy, Clint and Boots.
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