As Arlyn came nearer to giving birth she made it clear it would be a natural one at home and she refused to go into the nearby hospital in Madras."it just scared me to death," said Nance. "i said, 'good God, that's dangerous. We've gotta have a doctor.' I even said I'd pay for it. Arlyn wanted the whole community in on helping with the birth. I didn't want anything to do with it." Worried about the what perceived as unhygenic conditions in the commune house, nance peruaded the Bottoms to move into the somewhat better conditions of a rundown shack on Dover Lane next to his house. Right up to her ninth month, Arlyn worked in the fields hoeing down in the mud next to John. When Arlyn did go into labor the whole commune rallied around to help. her labor lastedthree long days, a difficult birth, but Arlyn resisted calling for professional help. Finally at12.03 P.M. on Sunday, August 23, 1970, to a roar of applause by Arlyn's friends, River Jude Bottom came into the world. His joyous parents named him River after the river of life in hermann Hesse's Siddhartha, which the commune had been reading together, and Jude, after their favorite Beatles' song, "Hey Jude." Judy Knapp remembers John Bottom running excitedly into thegeneral store where he worked to bye up her complete stock of candles for the naming ceremony.  "he was exuberant," remembers Knapp. "He told me they'd named him River Bottom and that they needed candles for a ceremony they were having. I remember thinking that River Bottom was a very unusual name." Roy Nance held River when he was just an hour old after Arlyn proudly carried him accross the drive to his house to show him off. "River was just a cute little stinker, " said Nance. "I couldn't believe they had named him River Bottom."

from River Phoenix the Biography by John Glatt

Links to other pages on this site for River

River & Rainforest * TLC = The Leaf Campaign (In Memory Of River) *

Animal Rights * Petitions *  * A Mother's Note on her Son's Life and Death * Interview Seventeen April 1990 We Are The World * Poetry & Art for the Phoenix Family (You always can send in Poetry & Art about River to me, I will be happy to put them on my site :)) *

 Wallpapers (There are a 2 wallpapers for River fans) * Phoenix Family Pictures

This is a kinda Joaquin site, so the bar below is for the site for Joaquin, so if you want to stay in the River section, you just have to use the links above this :)

For River his siblings The Facts, just click on the symbols on that page, each standing for a phoenix member :) and for Joaquin the bar under here