Age 54. 200 Norfolk Street, Cambridge, MA. Born 10/09/1888, in Richmond, VA. Died 11/29/1942 (Sunday), at Boston City Hospital, carbon monoxide poisoning (death certificate). Foyer mens room porter. Known as "Shady" (also "Shorty"). Employed at the Circle Lounge and Grille, Brighton (Boston), MA, for the past ten years, owned by James Welansky, age 46, fire survivor and older brother of Grove owner Barnett "Barney" Welansky, age 45 (latter was not present due to illness). Was substituting for one month at the Grove while the regular attendant was on vacation. Was reported carried out of the ruins in the arms of a naval officer and three others with his clothes burned off. "En route they passed a stretcher and he was laid on it and whisked away in a City hospital ambulance" (The Boston Herald, 11/29/1942). Open letter by patron and survivor Ensign A. Perry Gordy, U.S.N.R., age 30 (Born 12/16/1911. Died 5/07/1983, age 71), Columbus, GA, to the 12/06/1942 Sunday Ledger-Enquirer, Columbus, GA: "...I helped remove a Negro cook [sic] from the building and gladly did so. It was written up in the Boston Herald or Globe or one of the papers here that an Ensign helped remove a Negro cook from the inferno" (note: no kitchen help of color was employed at the Grove). Keen observation: "As a result of the omnipresent color bar...of the approximately 500 whose lives were snuffed out at the Cocoanut Grove fire...only one Negro, Shadracke [sic] E. 'Shady' Plenty, wash-room attendant and one-time minstrel man, lost his life" (American Negro Press wire article, 12/12/1942). Also: "Unlike the nearby Tic-Toc which encourages Negro business...the policy of the Cocoanut Grove was not to employ colored entertainers or bands and to frown on Negro patronage." Was a widower, late wife former Gertrude F. Kelley (Born 2/06/1888. Died 10/12/1940, of heart disease, age 52). Married on 9/19/1939, in Boston. Was erroneously reported in the 12/05/1942 Boston Chronicle (ethnic newspaper) that an unnamed "wife" waited outside the club in the cold during the blaze, possibly refers to his married older sister Mrs. Maybelle Cotten, age 57 (Born 2/06/1885. Died 11/02/1959, in Jamaica Plain, MA, age 74), same address, a New Lounge ladies room attendant, survived. At 5' 0," 128 lbs. (WWII draft registration, April '42) was the second-shortest male casualty of the disaster (after patron Max Gorvine, height 4' 9½"), among those with WWII draft registrations (includes almost all men present). Middle initial was reported "F." on the final official Committee on Public Safety master list of casualties, "E." elsewhere. Was the lone person of color of to perish in the tragedy. Parents Mr. and Mrs. Samuel and Betty F. (Jennings) Plenty. Burial at Cambridge Cemetery, Cambridge.

‍