Illness and Death
Lindsay suffered a stroke in 1989 that reduced him simply to being the "titular leader" of the 9th District, with much of the real power in the hands of Bob Gay, his chief assistant, the Downtown News reported. "On the Council floor, he has had moments of confusion, and been both humored and manipulated by the other councilmembers. Those who deal with him say that he has moments of tremendous clarity, but that he is largely removed from the day-to-day workings of the office." Lindsay had lost "some control of his hands and has had trouble writing." City Council President John Ferraro said that Lindsay had "deteriorated to the point where he was incapable of doing his job." Lindsay was sent to a hospital again when, in the midst of the excitement occasioned by a planned visit to City Hall by South African anti-apartheid leader Nelson Mandela, he forgot to take his diabetes medicine and collapsed.
He was brought to a hospital in Inglewood, California, where he remained until his fellow City Council members talked about removing him from his Council seat because he had been outside the Los Angeles city limits for more than 90 days. He was then transferred to "another facility within Los Angeles to make him less vulnerable to efforts to unseat him."
By then in his 28th year as a City Council member, Lindsay died in a Hollywood hospital December 28, 1990, "as a result of a long illness which began with a severe stroke in early September that left him paralyzed on the right side and unable to speak and, at the end, was complicated by a heart attack." A funeral service was held at Victory Baptist Church, and he was buried in Evergreen Cemetery. Lindsay was a member of People's Baptist Church.
Read more about this topic: Gilbert W. Lindsay
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