Gothamist
A non-profit newsroom, powered by WNYC.
Gothamist
Listen Live
Arts & Entertainment
The Freewheelin' Suze Rotolo Dies At 67
By
Jen Carlson
Published Feb 28, 2011
Modified Feb 28, 2011
Share
FacebookTwitterRedditEmail
Never miss a story
Email address
By submitting your information, you're agreeing to receive communications from New York Public Radio in accordance with our Terms .
By
Jen Carlson
Published Feb 28, 2011
Modified Feb 28, 2011
Share
FacebookTwitterRedditEmail
We rely on your support to make local news available to all
Make your contribution now and help Gothamist thrive in 2026. Donate today
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Suze Rotolo may be best recognized from the cover of The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan, but there was more to her relationship with the musician than the snapshot of linked arms on a snowy Jones Street. Rotolo went more in-depth in her 2008 book, A Freewheeling Time: A Memoir of Greenwich Village in the Sixties; to narrow it down to modern cyber-speak, their relationship was "complicated." Now, at age 67—fifty years after first meeting Dylan—Rotolo has died.
According to the NY Times, she passed away in her Manhattan home last Thursday from lung cancer, with her husband of 40 years, Enzo Bartoccioli, by her side. She is also survived by a son.
Rotolo was a "red diaper baby," aka the daughter of card-carrying communists, raised in Jackson Heights, Queens. She was a major force in introducing Dylan to political activism. In his 2004 memoir, Dylan wrote, “Right from the start I couldn’t take my eyes off her. She was the most erotic thing I’d ever seen. She was fair skinned and golden haired, full-blood Italian. The air was suddenly filled with banana leaves. We started talking and my head started to spin. Cupid’s arrow had whistled past my ears before, but this time it hit me in the heart and the weight of it dragged me overboard.” For the most part Rotolo herself avoided talking about their 4-year relationship prior to this. Later, in her own memoir, she wrote that Dylan was “oddly old-time looking, charming in a scraggly way.” (She also eventually appeared in No Direction Home.)
Dylan's song "Ballad in Plain D" details the night of their break-up; in 1985, when asked if he regretted the song, he said, "I look back at that particular one and say... maybe I could have left that alone."
More on Rotolo's life at the Guardian, where they note she even joined the satirical street theatre troupe Billionaires for Bush in 2004!
Tagged
bob dylan
death
Suze Rotolo
Jen Carlson
Jen Carlson is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.
Read more
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
MORE arts-entertainment
How the NYC Marathon has changed in the last 50 years
Spoiler alert: It's still 26.2 miles.
By
Hannah Frishberg
Published Oct 14, 2026 at 2:36 p.m. ET
A visit to Art of Play, the Brooklyn store in an animatronic bird beef with Kelly Clarkson
"Kelly Clarkson has put us in danger," says the co-owner of Art of Play.
By
Sonia Rao
Arts & Entertainment
A visit to Art of Play, the Brooklyn store in an animatronic bird beef with Kelly Clarkson
"Kelly Clarkson has put us in danger," says the co-owner of Art of Play.
By
Sonia Rao
The hottest way to show you're an authentic New Yorker is… riding a Citi Bike?
By
Lindsay Lee Wallace
Is NYC’s hottest attraction the free observation deck at 1 Centre Street?
By
James Ramsay
What happens when NYC kids take lessons in rock music? Really good bands.
By
Jayson Greene
Never miss a story
Catch up on the most important headlines with a roundup of essential NYC stories, delivered to your inbox daily.
Sign upEmail address
By submitting your information, you're agreeing to receive communications from New York Public Radio in accordance with our Terms .