Benjamin Jonson, Abraham van Blyenberch
On this day in 1637, English Renaissance dramatist, poet and actor Ben Jonson died in Westminster, London at the age of 65. Born Benjamin Jonson c. 11 June 1572 in Westminster. A contemporary of William Shakespeare, he is best known for his satirical plays, particularly Volpone, The Alchemist, and Bartholomew Fair, and his lyric poems. Perhaps his best known poems are; “On My First Sonne”; “To Celia”; and “To Penshurst. Jonson influenced Jacobean and Caroline playwrights and poets. Jonson claimed his family was of Scottish Border country descent.
The Final Footprint – Jonson is interred in an upright vault in the north aisle of the Nave in Westminster Abbey. The inscription over his grave says; O Rare Ben Johnson. Other notable Final Footprints at Westminster include; Robert Browning, Lord Byron, Geoffrey Chaucer, Charles II, Oliver Cromwell, Charles Darwin, Charles Dickens, Edward III, Edward IV, Edward The Confessor, Elizabeth I, George II, Stephen Hawking, George Friederic Handel, Henry III, Henry V, Henry VII, James VI and I, Samuel Johnson, Rudyard Kipling, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Mary I, Mary II, Mary Queen of Scots, John Milton, Isaac Newton, Laurence Olivier, Henry Purcell, Richard II, Thomas Shadwell, Edmund Spenser, Lord Alfred Tennyson, Dylan Thomas, and William III.
On this day in 1660, artist Diego Velázquez died in Madrid at the age of 61. Baptized Diego Rodríguez de Silva y Velázquez on June 6, 1599 in Seville. He was the leading artist in the court of King Philip IV, and in my opinion, one of the most important painters of the Spanish Golden Age. He was an individualistic artist of the contemporary Baroque period. In addition to numerous renditions of scenes of historical and cultural significance, he painted portraits of the Spanish royal family, other notable European figures, and commoners, culminating in the production of his masterpiece Las Meninas (1656).
From the first quarter of the nineteenth century, Velázquez’s artwork was a model for the realist and impressionist painters.
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Vieja friendo huevos (1618, English: Old Woman Frying Eggs). National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh
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El Triunfo de Baco or Los Borrachos 1629 (English: The Triumph of Bacchus/The Drunks)
Portrait of the Infanta Maria Theresa, Philip IV’s daughter with Elisabeth of France
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La rendición de Breda (1634–1635, English: The Surrender of Breda)
Lady from court, c. 1635
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Portrait of Pablo de Valladolid, 1635, a court fool of Philip IV
Portrait of Juan de Pareja(c. 1650)
Las Meninas (1656)
Detail of Las Meninas (Velázquez’s self-portrait)
Portrait of the eight-year-old Infanta Margarita Teresa in a Blue Dress(1659)
The Final Footprint
He was entombed in the Fuensalida vault of the church of San Juan Bautista, and within eight days his wife Juana was buried beside him. Unfortunately, this church was destroyed by the French in 1811, so his place of interment is now unknown.
On this day in 2004, singer, songwriter, musician and record producer, Rick James died at the age of 56 in his Los Angeles home at the Oakwood apartment complex on Barham Boulevard from pulmonary failure and cardiac failure. Born James Ambrose Johnson, Jr. on 19 February 1948 in Buffalo, New York. Perhaps best known for being a major popularizer of funk music in the late 1970s and early 1980s thanks to million-selling hits such as “You and I” (1978), “Give It to Me Baby” (1981) and “Super Freak” (1981), the latter song crossing him over to pop audiences and selling over three million copies. It later contributed to the success of rapper MC Hammer’s “U Can’t Touch This” (1990), for which James sued him, in order to be credited. James won a Grammy Award for Best R&B Song with Hammer for the song, his only Grammy win.
The Final Footprint – James is interred in Forest Lawn Cemetery in Buffalo.
On this day in 2009, film director, producer and screenwriter, John Hughes died at the age of 59 of a heart attack while walking in Manhattan where he was visiting his family. Born John Wilden Hughes, Jr. on 18 February 1950 in Lansing, Michigan. He directed or scripted some of the most successful films of the 1980s and 1990s, including National Lampoon’s Vacation, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Weird Science, The Breakfast Club, Some Kind of Wonderful, Sixteen Candles, Pretty in Pink, Planes, Trains and Automobiles, Uncle Buck, Home Alone, and Home Alone 2: Lost in New York.
The Final Footprint – Hughes is interred in Lake Forest Cemetery in Lake Forest, Illinois.
On this day in 2012, composer, conductor, an EGOT (those who have been awarded an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony), Pulitzer Prize recipient, Marvin Hamlisch died in Los Angeles, California at age 68, following a short illness, primarily due to respiratory arrest caused by a combination of anoxic brain encephalopathy and hypertension. Born Marvin Frederick Hamlisch on 2 June 1944 in Manhattan. Hamlisch married Terre Blair (1989 – 2012 his death. His prior relationship with lyricist Carole Bayer Sager inspired the musical They’re Playing Our Song.
The Final Footprint – Hamlisch is interred in Mount Zion Cemetery, Maspeth, Queens, New York. At 8:00 p.m. EDT on August 8, the marquee lights of the 40 Broadway theaters were dimmed for one minute in tribute to Hamlisch, a posthumous honor traditionally accorded to those considered to have made significant contributions to the theater arts. Barbra Streisand, Aretha Franklin and Liza Minnelli took turns singing songs by Hamlisch during a memorial service for the composer on 18 September 2012. At the 2013 Academy Awards, Streisand sang “The Way We Were” in Hamlisch’s memory.
On this day in 2016, jazz clarinetist Pete Fountain died from heart failure in New Orleans at the age of 86. Born Pierre Dewey LaFontaine, Jr. on July 3, 1930 in New Orleans. He played in traditional and contemporary genres of jazz, such as Dixieland, pop jazz, honky-tonk jazz, as well as pop, and Creole music.
at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, 2006
Fountain married Beverly Lang on October 27, 1951; they remained married for sixty-five years until his death.
The Final Footprint
Fountain is interred in Metairie Cemetery in New Orleans. Other notable final footprints at Metairie include; Jim Garrison, Al Hirt, Louis Prima, and Stan Rice.
#RIP #OTD in 2018 poet (The Ninety-Third Name of God, I Watched You Disappear, From Nothing, Second Bloom, Saint Agnostica) Anya Krugovoy Silver died from breast cancer in Macon, Georgia at the age of 49
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