Parks and Recreation star Rashida Jones has paid tribute to her father, music industry titan Quincy Jones, days after his death.
Jones, the legendary record producer who worked with the likes of Michael Jackson, Frank Sinatra, Count Basie and Celine Dion, died on November 3 at the age of 91.
On Thursday (November 7), Rashida – best known for her portrayal of Ann Perkins on the hit NBC mockumentary – honored her father in an Instagram post.
“My dad was nocturnal his whole adult life. He kept ‘jazz hours’ starting in high school and never looked back. When I was little, I would wake up in the middle of the night to search for him,” she wrote, alongside a throwback picture of herself as a baby with her father.
“Undoubtedly, he would be somewhere in the house, composing (old school, with a pen and sheet music). He would never send me back to bed. He would smile and bring me into his arms while he continued to work... there was no safer place in the world for me,” she added.
“He was a giant. An icon. A culture shifter. A genius,” she continued. “All accurate descriptions of my father but his music (and ALL of his work) was a channel for his love. He WAS love. He made everyone he ever met feel loved and seen. That’s his legacy.
“I was fortunate enough to experience this love in close proximity. I’ll miss his hugs and kisses and unconditional devotion and advice. Daddy, it is an honor to be your daughter. Your love lives forever,” she concluded.
The Office alum, 48, is one of Jones’s seven children. The TV producer welcomed Rashida and her older sister, Kadida Jones, with his third wife, the late actor and model Peggy Lipton.
Jones was first married to his high school girlfriend Jeri Caldwell, with whom he shares his first child, Jolie. He then welcomed his second child, Rachel, with dancer Carol Reynolds. He later remarried to Ulla Andersson, with whom he had two more children: Martina and Quincy. Following his divorce from Lipton, he welcomed his youngest child, Kenya Kinski-Jones, with his then-girlfriend Nastassja Kinski.
Over the course of his career, which spanned more than seven decades, Jones won a total of 28 Grammy Awards.
Jones’s passing was announced by his family, who said in a statement: “Tonight, with full but broken hearts, we must share the news of our father and brother Quincy Jones’s passing. And although this is an incredible loss for our family, we celebrate the great life that he lived and know there will never be another like him.”
