Tommy Foster, Memphis 'visionary' artist and Java Cabana founder, has died

A pioneer in the rebirth of the Cooper-Young neighborhood as a center of art and commerce, visionary "Midtown folk artist" Tommy Foster died Saturday after a long battle with cancer.

A self-taught artist whose work became more conceptual after he began to study at the University of Memphis, Mr. Foster, 64, anticipated the rise of Cooper-Young and the renaissance in coffeehouse culture when he founded Java Cabana at 2170 Young in 1992, seven years before the arrival of the first free-standing Starbucks in the city.

In addition to hosting open-mic poetry nights, the coffeehouse showcased a popular and functional Elvis wedding chapel along with what may have been Mr. Foster's most famous creation, the "First Church of the Elvis Impersonator" shrine, a frequently on-the-fritz coin-operated assemblage complete with music and flashing lights. (The shrine is now located just west of Java Cabana, at Goner Records.)

"Even though I've had this place for 20 years, Tommy's presence is still here, and I'm always going to honor that," said Java Cabana owner Mary Burns, who bought the coffeehouse from Mr. Foster in 1998. With Java, "He kind of gave a place to people who hadn't found their tribe."

A lifelong Memphian, Thomas Mitchell Foster grew up in Whitehaven, where his traditional parents — mom kept house, dad sold furniture — weren't sure what to make of the nontraditional interests of their hip-if-not-a-hippie offspring.

Mr. Foster's son, Bennett Foster, 32, a local musician and activist, said his father was a wizard with "hot glue and found objects," covering objects in rhinestones, dice and gold lamé to create sculptures, "shrines" and photo booths at such locations as the Center for Southern Folklore and A. Schwab's on Beale Street. In another nod to Elvis lore, Mr. Foster signed many of his early works as "Colonel Tommy."

Bennett Foster's mother, Memphis theater actress and director Irene Crist, described her former husband's work as "visionary Midtown folk art."

For example, she said Mr. Foster created "designer life jackets" that transformed perhaps the most unfashionable of all wearable items into glam extravagances. He also devised cigar box dioramas that put a funky Memphis spin on the famous shadow box assemblages of the internationally acclaimed artist Joseph Cornell.

An eager collaborator and supporter of other artists who may have spent more money on his projects than he ever made, Mr. Foster for a time operated the Pyramid Club, an upstairs Downtown venue on Madison Avenue that hosted such musicians as the Grifters and Tav Falco's Panther Burns.

Mr. Foster was even, on occasion, an actor. "Tommy was the victim of the 'Woof Mon,' the screen's first Rastafarian werewolf, in 'Damselvis, Daughter of Helvis,' " said Memphis indie cinema pioneer Mike McCarthy, director of the 1994 movie.

At one point, Mr. Foster left Memphis, creating art in Austin, Texas; Bisbee, Arizona; and even on an island of Mexico, but "his magic never seemed to work anywhere but Memphis," said Katherine Fox, another ex-wife (Mr. Foster was married four times). "It was like watching a fish try to make it in the desert."

Mr. Foster had battled cancer for some time before going into hospice care at his Midtown home. Said Crist: "You can tell how beloved he was by how many exes were at his bedside."

In addition to his son, Mr. Foster leaves a brother, Charles Montgomery "Monty" Foster of Memphis.

A memorial service is planned for later this summer.