On this day in 1660, English courtier known for her beauty and wit and for her involvement in many political intrigues during the English Civil War, Lucy Hay died of apoplexy probably in London, age 60 or 61. Born Lucy Percy possibly in 1599. She became the second wife of James Hay, 1st Earl of Carlisle. Her charms were celebrated in verse by contemporary poets, including Thomas Carew, William Cartwright, Robert Herrick and John Suckling, and by Sir Toby Matthew in prose. She was a conspicuous figure at the court of King Charles I. Alexandre Dumas probably based Milady in his The Three Musketeers on Hay. She was the subject of a risqué poem by Suckling; “Upon My Lady Carlisle’s Walking in Hampton Court Garden.”
The Final Footprint – She died suddenly after ‘dining well’ at lunchtime she fell suddenly sick around 2pm whilst ‘cutting a piece of ribbon’. She was dead by 5 or 6pm that same day. Lucy is entombed in the Percy Family Vault, St. Mary the Virgin Chuchyard, Petworth, Chichester District, West Sussex, England.
On this day in 1933 actress, producer and speakeasy club manager Texas Guinan died in Vancouver, aged 49. Born Mary Louise Cecilia Guinan in Waco, Texas on January 12, 1884.
Guinan decided at an early age to become an entertainer. After becoming a star on the New York stage, the repercussions of her involvement in a weight loss scam motivated her to switch careers to the film business. Spending several years in California appearing in numerous productions, she eventually formed her own company.
Perhaps most remembered for the speakeasy clubs she managed during Prohibition. Her clubs catered to the rich and famous, as well as to aspiring talent. After being arrested and indicted during a law enforcement sweep of speakeasy clubs, she was acquitted during her trial.
For years, she claimed she had been born with the name Texas, and never let facts stand in the way of her narrative.
The Final Footprint – While on the road with Too Hot for Paris, she contracted amoebic dysentery in Chicago, Illinois, during the epidemic outbreak at the Congress Hotel during the run of the Chicago World’s Fair. The epidemic was traced to tainted water. She fell ill in Vancouver, British Columbia, and died, exactly one month before Prohibition was repealed; 7,500 people attended her funeral. Bandleader Paul Whiteman was a pallbearer along with two of her former lawyers and writer Heywood Broun.
Guinan is entombed in a private mausoleum at the Calvary Cemetery in Queens, New York. Her family donated a tabernacle in her name to St. Patrick’s Church in Vancouver in recognition of Father Louis Forget’s attentions during her last hours. When the original church was demolished in 2004, the tabernacle was preserved for the new church built on the site. She was survived by both of her parents.
Rev. Capt. Clayton
On this day in 1960, actor Ward Bond, died from a heart attack in Dallas, Texas at the age of 57. Born Wardell Edwin Bond on 9 April 1903 in Benkelman, Nebraska. Bond attended the University of Southern California and played football along side John Wayne. He appeared in three of my all time favorite movies; as Rev. Capt. Samuel Johnston Clayton in The Searchers (1956), as Tom Yankee Captain in Gone with the Wind (1939) and as Pat Wheeler in Rio Bravo (1959). My heroes have always been Cowboys.
The Final Footprint – Bond was cremated and his cremains were scattered in the Pacific Ocean somewhere between Newport Beach and Catalina Island. Wayne gave the eulogy at his funeral. Bond’s will bequeathed to Wayne the shotgun with which Wayne had once accidentally shot Bond. For his contribution to the television industry, Bond has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6933 Hollywood Blvd. In 2001, he was inducted into the Western Performers Hall of Fame at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City. There is also a Ward Bond Memorial Park in Benkelman.
On this day in 1960 singer, songwriter Johnny Horton died from injuries in a car crash in Milano, Texas, age 35. Born John LaGale Horton in Los Angeles on 30 April 1925.
Initially performing traditional country, Horton later performed rockabilly songs. He is best known for a series of history-inspired narrative country saga songs that became international hits. His 1959 single “The Battle of New Orleans” was awarded the 1960 Grammy Award for Best Country & Western Recording.[2] The song was awarded the Grammy Hall of Fame Award and in 2001 ranked No. 333 of the Recording Industry Association of America’s “Songs of the Century”. His first No. 1 country song was in 1959, “When It’s Springtime in Alaska (It’s Forty Below)”.
He had two successes in 1960 with both “Sink the Bismarck” and “North to Alaska,” the latter used over the opening credits to the John Wayne film of the same name. Horton died in November 1960 at the peak of his fame in a traffic collision, less than two years after his breakthrough. Horton is a member of the Rockabilly Hall of Fame and the Louisiana Music Hall of Fame.
The Final Footprint – On the night of November 4–5, 1960, Horton and two other band members, Tommy Tomlinson and Tillman Franks, were traveling from the Skyline Club in Austin, Texas, to Shreveport when they collided with an oncoming truck on a bridge near Milano in Milam County, Texas. Horton died en route to the hospital, and Tomlinson (1930–1982) was seriously injured; his leg later had to be amputated. Franks (1920–2006) suffered head injuries, and James Davis, the driver of the truck, had a broken ankle and other minor injuries.
The funeral was held in Shreveport on November 8, 1960, officiated by Tillman Franks’ younger brother, William Derrel “Billy” Franks, a Church of God minister. Johnny Cash did one of the readings, choosing Chapter 20 from the Gospel of John. Horton is interred at Hillcrest Memorial Park and Mausoleum in Haughton, east of Bossier City in northwestern Louisiana.
On this day in 2005, United States Army veteran, rock and roll guitarist, songwriter, and vocalist, The King of Grunge, Link Wray died of heart failure at his home in Copenhagen, at the age of 76. Born Fred Lincoln Wray, Jr. on May 2, 1929 in Dunn, North Carolina. Wray became popular in the late 1950s. Building on the distorted electric guitar sound of early records, his 1958 instrumental hit “Rumble” by Link Wray & His Ray Men popularized the power chord, facilitating the emergence of punk and heavy rock. Though he began in country music, his musical style went on to consist primarily of rock and roll, rockabilly, and instrumental rock.
Born three-quarters Shawnee Indian, his life’s passion for the guitar and playing began at age 8. His first band was in the late 1940s with his brothers known as, “Lucky Ray & the Lazy Pine Wranglers.” In the mid-1950s, after serving in the U.S. Army he relocated to Washington DC, where he experimented with different guitar techniques and was performing with his band “The Wraymen.” “Rumble” was recorded by the Cadence label and reached number 16 on the national pop charts. He had the follow up hit “Raw-Hide” and with his brother formed Rumble records in 1959. Under their own label, he recorded “Branded” and “Jack the Riper” which was picked up by the Swan label in 1963. By the late 1960s he’d retired from music but his guitar swagger style continued to be an inspiration for some of the most potent guitarists of the classic rock era. Over the years his early instrumentals have become natural favorites of soundtrack producers, appearing in “Pink Flamingos” 1983, “Pulp Fiction” 1994, “Independence Day” 1996 and many other films. In 1998, his tune “Jack the Riper” was the feature song for the Taco Bell television commercials. With the soundtrack activity in the mid-1990’s, he was convinced to return once again to stage and tour. In 2002, Guitar World magazine elected him one of the 100 greatest guitarists of all time. He passed away after performing forty North American dates in 2005, to celebrate the release of his album “Wray’s Three Track Shack.”
Wray’s first three marriages, to Elizabeth Canady Wray, Katherine Tidwell Wray, and Sharon Cole Wray, produced eight children. Wray relocated to Denmark in the early 1980s.
The Final Footprint
Wray was cremated and his cremated remains are inurned in the Christian’s Church, Copenhagen.
#RIP #OTD in 2010 actress (An Unmarried Woman, Starting Over, Semi-Tough, La Luna, It’s My Turn) Jill Clayburgh died from chronic lymphocytic leukemia at her home in Lakeville, Connecticut aged 66. Cremation
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