On this day in 1981, singer, songwriter Harry Chapin died from a heart attack either prior to, or as the result of an automobile accident on the Long Island Expressway in Jericho, New York, at the age of 38. Born Harry Foster Chapin on 7 December 1942 in Brooklyn. Perhaps best known for his folk rock songs including “Taxi,” “W*O*L*D,” “Flowers Are Red,” and the No. 1 hit “Cat’s in the Cradle.” Chapin was also a dedicated humanitarian who fought to end world hunger; he was a key participant in the creation of the Presidential Commission on World Hunger in 1977. In 1987, Chapin was posthumously awarded the Congressional Gold Medal for his humanitarian work. Chapin was married to Sandy Cashmore (née Gaston) (1968-1981 his death). They are the parents of singer Jen Chapin.
The Final Footprint – Chapin’s remains were interred in the Huntington Rural Cemetery, Huntington, New York. His epitaph is taken from his song “I Wonder What Would Happen to this World”:
- Oh if a man tried / To take his time on Earth / And prove before he died / What one man’s life could be worth / I wonder what would happen / to this world
- #RIP #OTD 1995 poet, novelist, memoirist (Journal of a Solitude, The House by the Sea, Recovering) whose work is known for being strongly personalised with erotic female imagery, May Sarton died of breast cancer in York, Maine, aged 83. Nelson Cemetery, Nelson, New Hampshire
-
I am not ready to die,
But I am learning to trust death
As I have trusted life.
I am moving
Toward a new freedom― May Sarton
- #RIP #OTD in 1995 poet, novelist (The Temple), essayist whose work concentrated on themes of social injustice and the class struggle, US Poet Laureate in 1965, Stephen Spender died of a heart attack in Westminster, London, aged 86. Graveyard of St Mary on Paddington Green Church, in London
- But what we are? We are, we have
Six feet & seventy years, to see
The light, & then resign it for the grave.
Eye, gazelle, delicate wanderer,
Drinker of horizon’s fluid line;
Ear that suspends on a chord
The spirit drinking timelessness;
Touch, love, all senses - Paint here no draped despairs, no saddening clouds
Where the soul rests, proclaims eternity.
– Stephen Spender -
John Kennedy Jr. with his wife Carolyn Bessette Kennedy arrive at the annual John F. Kennedy Library Foundation dinner in honor of the former President’s 82nd Birthday, Sunday, May 23, 1999 at the Kennedy Library in Boston, MA. Staff Photo Justin Ide SAVED PHOTO MONDAY
On this day in 1999, elder son of JFK and Jacqueline Lee Bouvier Kennedy Onassis, lawyer, magazine publisher, pilot, John F. Kennedy, Jr. died, along with his wife Carolyn Bessette and his sister-in-law Lauren Bessette, when the Piper Saratoga plane he was piloting crashed in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Martha’s Vineyard. JFK, Jr. was 38, Carolyn was 33 and Lauren was 35. He was born on 25 November 1960 in Washington, D.C. JFK was assassinated on 22 November 1963, three days before JFK, Jr.’s third birthday. The funeral was held on his birthday and in a moment that became an iconic image, he stepped forward and saluted his father’s flag-draped casket as it was carried out of St. Matthew’s Cathedral. JFK, Jr. graduated from Brown University and earned his JD degree from New York University School of Law. Caroline Jeanne was born 7 January 1966 in White Plains, New York. Lauren Gail was born 5 November 1964 also in White Plains.
The Final Footprint – After the crash, the bodies of Kennedy, his wife and his sister-in-law were finally located in the afternoon of July 21. They were recovered from the ocean floor by Navy divers and taken by motorcade to the county medical examiner’s office. During a public memorial service for Kennedy, his paternal uncle, U.S. Senator Edward M. “Ted” Kennedy, stated:
“ We dared to think, in that other Irish phrase, that this John Kennedy would live to comb gray hair, with his beloved Carolyn by his side. But, like his father, he had every gift but length of years. ” U.S. President Bill Clinton attended the public memorial service and ordered that the flag at the White House and in public areas across the country to be lowered to half-staff to honor the passing of Kennedy. At President Clinton’s orders, warships of the U.S. Navy had assisted in the search for the crashed plane. Critics argued that this was a massive abuse of taxpayer dollars, as no ordinary citizen would receive similar treatment. On the evening of July 21, autopsies revealed that the crash victims had died upon impact. At the same time, the Kennedy and Bessette families announced their plans for memorial services. In the late hours of July 21, the three bodies were taken from Hyannis to Duxbury where they were cremated in the Mayflower Cemetery crematorium. On the morning of July 22, their ashes were scattered from the Navy ship USS Briscoe and into the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Martha’s Vineyard. The ship was used for the public memorial service with the permission of U.S. Secretary of Defense William Cohen.
#RIP #OTD in 2003, singer (“Bemba colorá”, “Quimbara”, “La vida es un carnaval”, “La negra tiene tumbao”) “La Guarachera de Cuba”, the “Queen of Salsa”, Celia Cruz died at her home in Fort Lee, New Jersey, from cancer, aged 77. Woodlawn Cemetery, The Bronx, with some Cuban soil
On this day in 2008, singer Jo Stafford died from congestive heart failure at the age of 90 in Century City, Los Angeles. Born Jo Elizabeth Stafford on 12 November 1917 in Coalinga, California. Her career spanned five decades from the late 1930s to the early 1980s. Admired for the purity of her voice, she was considered one of the most versatile vocalists of the era. Her 1952 version of the Pee Wee King, Chilton Price, and Redd Stewart song, “You Belong to Me” topped the charts in the United States and United Kingdom, and she became the first woman to reach number one on the UK Singles Chart.
Stafford made her first musical appearance at age 12. While still at high school, she joined her two older sisters to form a vocal trio named the Stafford Sisters, who found moderate success on radio and in film. In 1938, while the sisters were part of the cast of Twentieth Century Fox’s production of Alexander’s Ragtime Band, Stafford met the future members of the Pied Pipers and became the group’s lead singer. Bandleader Tommy Dorsey hired them in 1939 to perform back-up vocals for his orchestra.
In addition to her recordings with the Pied Pipers, Stafford featured in solo performances for Dorsey. After leaving the group in 1944, she recorded a series of pop standards for Capitol Records and Columbia Records. Many of her recordings were backed by the orchestra of Paul Weston. She also performed duets with Gordon MacRae and Frankie Laine. Her work with the United Service Organizations giving concerts for soldiers during World War II earned her the nickname “G.I. Jo”. Starting in 1945, Stafford was a regular host of the National Broadcasting Company (NBC) radio series The Chesterfield Supper Club and later appeared in television specials—including two series called The Jo Stafford Show, in 1954 in the U.S. and in 1961 in the U.K.
Stafford married twice, first in 1937 to musician John Huddleston (the couple divorced in 1943), then in 1952 to Weston, with whom she had two children. Weston and she developed a comedy routine in which they assumed the identity of an incompetent lounge act named Jonathan and Darlene Edwards, parodying well-known songs. The couple released an album as the Edwardses in 1957. In 1961, the album Jonathan and Darlene Edwards in Paris won Stafford her only Grammy Award for Best Comedy Album. Stafford largely retired as a performer in the mid-1960s, but continued in the music business. She had a brief resurgence in popularity in the late 1970s when she recorded a cover of the Bee Gees hit, “Stayin’ Alive” as Darlene Edwards. In the 1990s, she began re-releasing some of her material through Corinthian Records, a label founded by Weston. Her work in radio, television, and music is recognized by three stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
The Final Footprint – Stafford’s final resting place is with her husband, Paul Weston, at the Holy Cross Cemetery in Culver City, California. Other notable final footprints at Holy Cross include; John Candy, Bing Crosby, Jimmy Durante, John Ford, Rita Hayworth, Chick Hearn, Bela Lugosi, Al Martino, Audrey Meadows, Ricardo Montalbán, Evelyn Nesbit, Hermes Pan, Chris Penn, and Sharon Tate.
On this day in 2012, singer, songwriter, The Clock Stopper, The Queen of Country Music, Kitty Wells died in Madison, Tennessee, from complications of a stroke at the age of 92. Born Ellen Muriel Deason on 30 August 1919 in Nashville, Tennessee. Her 1952 hit recording version of the J. D. Miller song, “It Wasn’t God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels”, made her the first female country singer to top the U.S. country charts, and turned her into the first female country star. Her Top 10 hits continued until the mid-1960s, inspiring a long list of female country singers who came to prominence in the 1960’s. In 1976, she was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame. In 1991 she received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. Wells was married to singer, songwriter Johnnie Wright (1937-2011 his death).
The Final Footprint – Wells is interred with her husband in Spring Hill Cemetery in Nashville. Other notable final footprints at Spring Hill include; Roy Acuff, Earl Scruggs, Hank Snow, and Keith Whitley.
On this day in 2014, blues singer and guitarist Johnny Winter died in his hotel room near Zurich at the age of 70. Born John Dawson Winter III on February 23, 1944 in Beaumont, Texas. Perhaps best known for his high-energy blues-rock albums and live performances in the late 1960s and 1970s, Winter also produced three Grammy Award-winning albums for blues singer and guitarist Muddy Waters. After his time with Waters, Winter recorded several Grammy-nominated blues albums. In 1988, he was inducted into the Blues Foundation Hall of Fame.
Woodstock Reunion, Parr Meadows, Ridge, New York, 1979
The Final Footprint
Winter is interred in Union Cemetery, Easton, Connecticut.
On this day in 2017, filmmaker, writer and editor George A. Romero died from lung cancer in Toronto, at the age of 77. Born George Andrew Romero on February 4, 1940 in The Bronx. Perhaps best known for his series of gruesome and satirical horror films about an imagined zombie apocalypse, beginning with Night of the Living Dead (1968). This film is considered a progenitor of the fictional zombie of modern culture. Other films in the series include Dawn of the Dead (1978) and Day of the Dead (1985). Aside from this series, his works include The Crazies (1973), Martin (1978), Creepshow (1982), Monkey Shines (1988), The Dark Half (1993) and Bruiser (2000). He also created and executive-produced the 1983–88 television series Tales from the Darkside.
Romero was married three times. He married his first wife, Nancy, in 1971. They divorced in 1978. Romero met his second wife, actress Christine Forrest, on the set of Season of the Witch (1973), and they married in 1980. She had bit parts in most of his films. The couple divorced in 2010 after three decades of marriage. Romero met Suzanne Desrocher while filming Land of the Dead (2005), and they married in September 2011 at Martha’s Vineyard and lived in Toronto. He acquired Canadian citizenship in 2009, becoming a dual Canada-U.S. citizen.
The Final Footprint
Toronto Necropolis Cemetery and Crematorium, Toronto. His epitaph reads…
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