Patrick Allan Ludwick

Local icon and beloved singer/songwriter Patrick “Calabash Flash” Ludwick of Calabash, NC, peacefully left his earthly paradise on June 4, 2017. We are stunned. We are lost. We are heartbroken. But we are smiling because that’s what Calabash Flash left for all of us. His greatest legacy is how he made us feel. You never saw Flash without a smile and you couldn’t help but smile back. Even now.

Flash loved life—he loved Babs, his beautiful wife of 51 years; he loved his kids, Pam and Mike, and daughter-in-law Suzy. His grandchildren—Emily Rose and Jacob, and twins Trevor and Darren—made him beam even more.

“If you say I fought a good fight, I will come back and haunt you,” he warned, regarding his experience with prostate cancer. “I’m a Marine. I know what fighting is. This is no war—no fight. This is researchers, nurses, doctors—devoting their lives to curing cancer. This is a cooperative effort. This is not a fight.” Even so, his children remember with laughter and love how he would wake them out of a sound sleep, blaring the Marines' Hymn every year on Nov. 10, the U.S. Marine Corps birthday--a tradition he continued by telephone once they grew to adulthood.

Flash was born on December 30, 1941 to William E. “Skins” Ludwick and Rose Mary Pallotini Ludwick. He grew up around Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania—though, he always rooted for the Chicago Cubs. He joined the Marines after high school and initially served in Washington D.C. as part of the drill team that marched in President John F. Kennedy's inaugural parade. Later he was stationed at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, during the Cuban Missile Crisis.

After his military service, Flash worked many years for the federal government as a computer systems analyst. Music was on the back burner, but he still found time to sing in the folk group at his church and work as a mobile deejay for local dances and weddings. Songwriting was a weekend hobby. A devoted father, Flash coached both his children in many sports and attended nearly every game in which they played.

In 1994, when he and Babs retired to North Carolina from Virginia, they immediately took shag lessons and joined the Ocean Drive Shag Club in North Myrtle Beach, SC. For years, he and Babs taught line dancing at Fat Harold’s on Sunday nights. Flash said, “I found out at an early age that girls liked guys who could dance, so I learned to dance.” And once he started, he never stopped.

Even more than dancing, though, he loved singing. After the move, Flash began writing songs in earnest. When a Wilmington fireman dubbed him “Calabash Flash,” he had a new name to begin his new life as a singer/songwriter. In 1996, he released his debut single, “Shaggin’ in the Moonlight.” More tunes followed. There was a Carolina Beach Music Academy (CBMA) songwriting award nomination for “One Track Mind,” along with performances at the CBMA show at the Alabama Theatre, Beach Music Days in both Carolinas, Endless Summer Festivals in North Myrtle Beach and many more.

A true ambassador of beach music, Flash served as a North American correspondent for Bondi Tunes, a radio show out of Australia. Flash created weekly segments introducing beach music artists to the world via the Internet. The show would later be syndicated in the U.S.

Whenever he and Babs went out on the town, which was several times week, they dressed to the nines, always color-coordinating their outfits. It wasn’t at all surprising to see him in black-tie at one of the local clubs; after all, in his mind, there was always something to celebrate.

Services for Flash will be held at 1:00 pm on Saturday, June 10, at Our Lady Star of the Sea Catholic Church in North Myrtle Beach, SC, with a party afterward to give him a proper send off. (We’re not sure if the Church knows what they’re in for!)

The family requests that in lieu of flowers, you make a donation to Lower Cape Fear Hospice in Brunswick County, NC. https://lcfhospicefoundation3233.thankyou4caring.org/sslpage.aspx?pid=298.

A guestbook is available at www.leefhandcrematory.com.

Shag on, Flash! From here on out we know every day is truly a heavenly “Just Another Day in Paradise” for you.

Lee Funeral Home/Crematory of Little River, SC is serving the family.