#RIP #OTD in 1849 novelist (Agnes Grey, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall), poet, the youngest member of the Brontë literary family, Ann Brontë died most likely of pulmonary tuberculosis in Scarborough, England, aged 29. St. Mary’s Churchyard, Scarborough.
On this day in 1971, United States Army veteran, Medal of Honor recipient, actor, songwriter, Audie Murphy died in a private plane crash on Brush Mountain near Catawba, Virginia at the age of 46. Born Audie Leon Murphy on 20 June 1924 in Kingston, Texas. The most decorated American soldier of World War II. Murphy was awarded 33 U.S. medals, five medals by France and one from Belgium including; three Purple Hearts, two Bronze stars, the Legion of Merit, two Silver Stars, the Distinguised Service Cross and the Medal of Honor.
The official U.S. Army citation for Murphy’s Medal of Honor reads:
- Rank and organization: Second Lieutenant, U.S. Army, Company B 15th Infantry, 3rd Infantry Division.
- Place and date: Near Holtzwihr France, January 26, 1945.
- Entered service at: Dallas, Texas. Birth: Hunt County, near Kingston, Texas, G.O. No. 65, August 9, 1944.
- Citation: Second Lt. Murphy commanded Company B, which was attacked by six tanks and waves of infantry. 2d Lt. Murphy ordered his men to withdraw to a prepared position in a woods, while he remained forward at his command post and continued to give fire directions to the artillery by telephone. Behind him, to his right, one of our tank destroyers received a direct hit and began to burn. Its crew withdrew to the woods. 2d Lt. Murphy continued to direct artillery fire, which killed large numbers of the advancing enemy infantry. With the enemy tanks abreast of his position, 2d Lt. Murphy climbed on the burning tank destroyer, which was in danger of blowing up at any moment, and employed its .50 caliber machine gun against the enemy. He was alone and exposed to German fire from three sides, but his deadly fire killed dozens of Germans and caused their infantry attack to waver. The enemy tanks, losing infantry support, began to fall back. For an hour the Germans tried every available weapon to eliminate 2d Lt. Murphy, but he continued to hold his position and wiped out a squad that was trying to creep up unnoticed on his right flank. Germans reached as close as 10 yards, only to be mowed down by his fire. He received a leg wound, but ignored it and continued his single-handed fight until his ammunition was exhausted. He then made his way back to his company, refused medical attention, and organized the company in a counterattack, which forced the Germans to withdraw. His directing of artillery fire wiped out many of the enemy; he killed or wounded about 50. 2d Lt. Murphy’s indomitable courage and his refusal to give an inch of ground saved his company from possible encirclement and destruction, and enabled it to hold the woods which had been the enemy’s objective.
James Cagney invited Murphy to Hollywood in September 1945. Murphy’s 1949 autobiography To Hell and Back (became a national bestseller. He portrayed himself in the 1955 film version of his book. Murphy was married twice; Wanda Hendrix (1949-1950 divorce) and Pamela Archer.
The Final Footprint – On 7 June 1971, Murphy was buried with military honors at Arlington National Cemetery. In attendance were Ambassador to the U.N. George H. W. Bush, Army Chief of Staff William Westmoreland, and many of the 3rd Infantry Division. Murphy’s gravesite is in Section 46, headstone number 46-366-11, located across Memorial Drive from the Amphitheater. A special flagstone walkway was later constructed to accommodate the large number of people who visit to pay their respects. It is the cemetery’s second most-visited gravesite, after that of President John F. Kennedy.
The headstones of Medal of Honor recipients buried at Arlington National Cemetery are normally decorated in gold leaf. Murphy previously requested that his stone remain plain and inconspicuous, like that of an ordinary soldier. The headstone contains the birth year 1924, based upon purportedly falsified materials among his military records. In 1974, a large granite marker was erected just off the Appalachian Trail at 37.364554°N 80.225748°W at 3,100′ elevation, near the crash site.
Other notable Final Footprints at Arlington include; Space Shuttle Challenger, Space Shuttle Columbia, Medgar Evers, Dashiell Hammett, JFK, Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis, RFK, Edward Kennedy, Malcolm Kilduff, Jr., and Lee Marvin.
#RIP #OTD in 1981 jazz pianist, arranger, composer Mary Lou Williams died of bladder cancer in Durham, North Carolina at the age of 71. Calvary Catholic Cemetery in Pittsburgh
| Phil Hartman | |
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 in character as Chick Hazard, Private Eye, c. 1978 |
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On this day in 1998 actor, voice actor, comedian, screenwriter and graphic artist Phil Hartman was shot and killed by his wife Brynn Hartman while he slept in their Encino, Los Angeles home, at the age of 49. Born Philip Edward Hartmann on September 24, 1948 in Brantford, Ontario. Hartman and his family moved to the United States in 1958. After graduating from California State University, Northridge, with a degree in graphic arts, he designed album covers for bands like Poco and America. Hartman joined the comedy group The Groundlings in 1975 and there helped comedian Paul Reubens develop his character Pee-wee Herman. Hartman co-wrote the screenplay for the film Pee-wee’s Big Adventure and made recurring appearances as Captain Carl on Reubens’ show Pee-wee’s Playhouse.
Hartman garnered fame in 1986 when he joined the sketch comedy show Saturday Night Live. He won fame for his impressions, particularly of President Bill Clinton, and he stayed on the show for eight seasons. Given the moniker “The Glue” for his ability to hold the show together and help other cast members, Hartman won a Primetime Emmy Award for his SNL work in 1989.
—Hartman on his acting skills.
Hartman’s original Saturday Night Live characters included Eugene, the Anal Retentive Chef and Unfrozen Caveman Lawyer. His impressions included Frank Sinatra, Ronald Reagan, Ed McMahon, Barbara Bush, Charlton Heston, Phil Donahue and Bill Clinton; the last was often considered his best-known impression.
as Bill Clinton on an episode of Saturday Night Live.
Hartman married Gretchen Lewis in 1970, and they divorced sometime before 1972. He married real estate agent Lisa Strain in 1982, and their marriage lasted three years. Strain told People that Hartman was reclusive off screen and “would disappear emotionally […] he’d be in his own world. That passivity made you crazy.” Hartman married former model and aspiring actress Brynn Omdahl (born Vicki Jo Omdahl) in November 1987, having met her on a blind date the previous year. The marriage had difficulties — Brynn reportedly felt intimidated by her husband’s success and was frustrated she could not find any on her own, although neither party wanted a divorce. Hartman considered retiring to save the marriage. He tried to get Brynn acting roles but she became progressively more reliant on narcotics and alcohol, entering rehab several times.
The Final Footprint
Los Angeles police stated Hartman’s death was caused by “domestic discord” between the couple. A friend stated that Brynn allegedly “had trouble controlling her anger […] She got attention by losing her temper”. In accordance with Hartman’s will, his body was cremated by Forest Lawn Memorial Park and Mortuary, Glendale, California, and his ashes were scattered over Santa Catalina Island’s Emerald Bay.
| Maya Angelou | |
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 reciting her poem “On the Pulse of Morning” at President Bill Clinton’s inauguration, January 20, 1993 |
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On this day in 2014, poet, singer, memoirist, civil rights activist Maya Angelou died in Winston-Salem, North Carolina at the age of 86. Born Marguerite Annie Johnson on April 4, 1928 in St. Louis, Missouri. She published seven autobiographies, three books of essays, several books of poetry, and was credited with a list of plays, movies, and television shows spanning over 50 years.
She became a poet and writer after a series of occupations as a young adult, including fry cook, sex worker, nightclub dancer and performer, cast member of the opera Porgy and Bess, coordinator for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, and journalist in Egypt and Ghana during the decolonization of Africa. She was an actor, writer, director, and producer of plays, movies, and public television programs. In 1982, she was named the first Reynolds Professor of American Studies at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. She was active in the Civil Rights Movement and worked with Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X. Beginning in the 1990s, she made around 80 appearances a year on the lecture circuit, something she continued into her eighties. In 1993, Angelou recited her poem “On the Pulse of Morning” (1993) at President Bill Clinton’s inauguration, making her the first poet to make an inaugural recitation since Robert Frost at the inauguration of John F. Kennedy in 1961.
With the publication of I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Angelou publicly discussed aspects of her personal life. Her works are widely used in schools and universities worldwide, although attempts have been made to ban her books from some U.S. libraries. Angelou’s most celebrated works have been labeled as autobiographical fiction, but many critics consider them to be autobiographies. She made a deliberate attempt to challenge the common structure of the autobiography by critiquing, changing and expanding the genre. Her books center on themes such as racism, identity, family and travel.
In 1951, Angelou married Tosh Angelos, a Greek electrician, former sailor, and aspiring musician, despite the condemnation of interracial relationships at the time and the disapproval of her mother. She took modern dance classes during this time, and met dancers and choreographers Alvin Ailey and Ruth Beckford. Ailey and Angelou formed a dance team, calling themselves “Al and Rita”, and performed modern dance at fraternal black organizations throughout San Francisco, but never became successful. Angelou, her new husband, and her son moved to New York City so she could study African dance with Trinidadian dancer Pearl Primus, but they returned to San Francisco a year later.
Angelou’s friend James Baldwin was instrumental in the publication of her first autobiography.
I make writing as much a part of my life as I do eating or listening to music.
Maya Angelou, 1999
Maya Angelou, 1984
Maya Angelou, 1989
Angelou was married at least twice, but never clarified the number of times she had been married, “for fear of sounding frivolous”. According to her autobiographies she married Tosh Angelos in 1951 and Paul du Feu in 1974, and began her relationship with Vusumzi Make in 1961, but never formally married him. In a 1995 interview, Angelou said, “I wrote about my experiences because I thought too many people tell young folks, ‘I never did anything wrong. Who, Moi? – never I. I have no skeletons in my closet. In fact, I have no closet.’ They lie like that and then young people find themselves in situations and they think, ‘Damn I must be a pretty bad guy. My mom or dad never did anything wrong.’ They can’t forgive themselves and go on with their lives”.
The Final Footprint
During her memorial service at Wake Forest University, her son Guy Johnson stated that, “She left this mortal plane with no loss of acuity and no loss in comprehension”.
Tributes to Angelou and condolences were paid by artists, entertainers, and world leaders, including President Bill Clinton, and President Barack Obama, whose sister was named after Angelou. On May 29, 2014, Mount Zion Baptist Church in Winston-Salem, of which Angelou was a member for 30 years, held a public memorial service to honor Angelou. On June 7, a private memorial service was held at Wait Chapel on the campus of Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem. The memorial was shown live on local stations in the Winston-Salem/Triad area and streamed live on the university web site with speeches from her son, Oprah Winfrey, Michelle Obama, and Bill Clinton. On June 15, a memorial was held at Glide Memorial Church in San Francisco, where Angelou was a member for many years. Her cremated remains were scattered.
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