Column: Back home in Chicago, singer John Prine gets the celebration we’ve been waiting for

Chicago Tribune / by Rick Kogan / September 30, 2026

As understandably restrained and quiet was the 2020 funeral of John Prine, the upcoming celebrations surrounding what would have been this singer-songwriter’s 80th birthday will be lavish and music-filled.

After Prine died at 73 from complications of COVID-19 in the first months of the pandemic, his wife Fiona Whelan Prine was allowed to have only immediate family at the Nashville funeral home. As she said, “We had to beg for the opportunity for the immediate family to even gather. … We were literally sitting eight feet apart. There was no hugging. There was no commiserating.” Read More Here.