Mission of Burma collaborator Holly Anderson has passed away from cancer caused by 9/11

Artist, Poet, and Mission Of Burma collaborator Holly Anderson has died from cancer at the age of 62.

Anderson’s poem “White Story” which she has described as being “an anthem to being disconnected, and feeling that perhaps you should be hospitalized, but of course you’re not” was adapted by the Boston post-punk Mission of Burma into the song “Mica”.

The track was featured on the band’s 1982 debut LP Vs—for which Anderson had designed the album sleeve, along with the band’s debut recording—1981’s Signals, Calls and Marches EP.

Additionally, Anderson shares songwriting credits on Mission of Burma’s reunion albums such as 2004’s ONoffON  and 2009 The Sound The Speed The Light.

According to the St. Paul, Minnesota Pioneer Press obituary, Anderson’s cancer was a result of her being one of the thousands of workers who breathed the toxic air from the debris at Ground Zero at the World Trade Center, where she had spent three months working at an emergency relief center near the main site of the September 11th, 2001 attacks.

Watch a 2012 interview below is a 2012 interview in which Anderson discusses her work with Mission of Burma.

Read more about Anderson in the touching obituary written by the Minnesota Twin Cities Pioneer Press.