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17th Century depiction of Malcolm II
On this day in 1034, King of Scots from 1005 to 1034, Máel Coluim mac Cináeda (Modern Gaelic: Maol Chaluim mac Choinnich), Malcolm II, died at Glamis, a small village in Angus, Scotland (the location of Glamis Castle, the childhood home of Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother). The son of Kenneth II King of Scots. He was succeeded by his grandson Donnchad mac Crínáin, Duncan I.
19th Century engraving of King Malcolm II’s grave stone
The Final Footprint – Malcolm II is interred in what is now the ancient burial ground, the Rèilig Odhrain (Oran’s burial place or cemetery) of Iona Abbey. None of the graves are now identifiable; their inscriptions reportedly had worn away by the end of the 17th century. Iona rose to prominence in Scotland following the establishment of the Kingdom of Alba, Gaelic for Scotland, in the later 9th century. The ruling dynasty of Alba traced its origin to Iona, and the island thus became an important spiritual centre of the new kingdom, with many of its early kings buried there. Tradition knew the Pictish stone now called “Glamis 2” as “King Malcolm’s grave stone”. The stone is a Class II stone, apparently formed by re-using a Bronze Age standing stone. Its dating is uncertain, with dates from the 8th century onwards having been proposed. While an earlier date is favoured, an association with accounts of Máel Coluim’s has been proposed on the basis of the iconography of the carvings.
On this day in 1763, author Abbé Prévost died at the age of 66 in Chantilly, France. Born Antoine François Prévost d’Exiles on 1 April 1697 at Hesdin, Artois. While living in the Hague, he engaged on a translation of De Thou’s Historia, and, relying on the popularity of his first book, published at Amsterdam a Suite in three volumes, forming volumes v, vi, and vii of the original Mémoires et aventures d’un homme de qualité. The seventh volume contained the famous Manon Lescaut, separately published in Paris in 1731 as Histoire du Chevalier des Grieux et de Manon Lescaut. The book was eagerly read, chiefly in pirated copies, being forbidden in France. Puccini‘s opera, Manon Lescaut is based on the novel.
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On this day in 1949 tap dancer, actor, and singer, the best known and the most highly paid African-American entertainer in the United States during the first half of the 20th century, “Bojangles” Bill Robinson died from heart failure in New York City, aged 71. Cemetery of the Evergreens, Brooklyn.
His long career mirrored changes in American entertainment tastes and technology. His career began in the age of minstrel shows and moved to vaudeville, Broadway theatre, the recording industry, Hollywood films, radio, and television.
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Cemetery of the Evergreens, Brooklyn
On this day in 1968, writer Upton Sinclair died in a nursing home in Bound Brook, New Jersey at the age of 90. Born Upton Beall Sinclair Jr. on September 20, 1878 in Baltimore, Maryland. Sinclair’s work was well known and popular in the first half of the 20th century, and he won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1943.
In 1906, Sinclair acquired notoriety for his classic muck-raking novel The Jungle, which exposed labor and sanitary conditions in the U.S. meatpacking industry, causing a public uproar that contributed in part to the passage a few months later of the 1906 Pure Food and Drug Act and the Meat Inspection Act. In 1919, he published The Brass Check, a muck-raking exposé of American journalism that publicized the issue of yellow journalism and the limitations of the “free press” in the United States. Four years after publication of The Brass Check, the first code of ethics for journalists was created. Time magazine called him “a man with every gift except humor and silence”. He is also well remembered for the line: “It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends upon his not understanding it.” He used this line in speeches and the book about his campaign for governor as a way to explain why the editors and publishers of the major newspapers in California would not treat seriously his proposals for old age pensions and other progressive reforms.
Writing during the Progressive Era, Sinclair describes the world of industrialized America from both the working man’s and the industrialist’s points of view. Novels such as King Coal (1917), The Coal War (published posthumously), Oil! (1927), and The Flivver King(1937) describe the working conditions of the coal, oil, and auto industries at the time.
The Flivver King describes the rise of Henry Ford, his “wage reform”, and the company’s Sociological Department to his decline into antisemitism as publisher of The Dearborn Independent. King Coal confronts John D. Rockefeller Jr., and his role in the 1913 Ludlow Massacre in the coal fields of Colorado.
Sinclair was an outspoken socialist and ran unsuccessfully for Congress as a nominee from the Socialist Party. He was also the Democratic Party candidate for Governor of California during the Great Depression, running under the banner of the End Poverty in California campaign, but was defeated in the 1934 elections.
In April 1900, Sinclair went to Lake Massawippi in Quebec to work on a novel. He had a small cabin rented for three months and then he moved to a farmhouse. Here, his future wife, Meta Fuller, and he became close. She was three years younger than him and had aspirations of being more than a housewife. Sinclair gave her direction as to what to read and learn. Meta had been a childhood friend whose family was one of the First Families of Virginia. Each had warned the other about themselves and would later bring that up in arguments. They married October 18, 1900. Meta and her family tried to get Sinclair to give up writing and get “a job that would support his family.” Around 1911, Meta left Sinclair for the poet Harry Kemp, later known as the “Dunes Poet” of Provincetown, Massachusetts.
In 1913, Sinclair married Mary Craig Kimbrough (1883–1961), a woman from an elite Greenwood, Mississippi, family. She had written articles and a book on Winnie Davis, the daughter of Confederate States of America President Jefferson Davis. He met her when she attended one of his lectures about The Jungle. In the 1920s, the Sinclair couple moved to California. They were married until her death in 1961. Sinclair married again, to Mary Elizabeth Willis (1882–1967).
Sinclair was opposed to sex outside of marriage and he viewed marital relations as necessary only for procreation. He told his first wife Meta that only the birth of a child gave marriage “dignity and meaning”. Despite his beliefs, he had an adulterous affair with Anna Noyes during his marriage to Meta. He wrote a novel about the affair called Love’s Progress, a sequel to Love’s Pilgrimage. It was never published. His wife next had an affair with John Armistead Collier, a theology student from Memphis.
Late in life Sinclair, with his third wife Mary Willis, moved to Buckeye, Arizona. They returned east to Bound Brook, New Jersey.
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He is buried in Rock Creek Cemetery in Washington, DC, next to Willis. Other notable final footprints at Rock Creek include; Tim Russert and Gore Vidal.
On this day in 1973, actor Laurence Harvey died from stomach cancer in Hampstead, London at the age of 45. Born Laruschka Mischa Skikne on 1 October 1928 in Joniškis, Lithuania. In a career that spanned a quarter of a century, Harvey appeared in stage, film and television productions primarily in the United Kingdom and the United States. His performance in Room at the Top (1959) resulted in an Academy Award nomination. That success was followed by the role of William Barret Travis in The Alamo (1960), and as the brainwashed Raymond Shaw in The Manchurian Candidate (1962).
Early in his career, Harvey reportedly had a live-in relationship with actress Hermione Baddeley (who appeared in a supporting role in Room at the Top, for which she was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress). He left Baddeley in 1951 for actress Margaret Leighton, who was then married to publisher Max Reinhardt. Leighton and Reinhardt divorced in 1955, and she married Harvey in 1957 off the Rock of Gibraltar. The couple divorced in 1961. In 1968 he married Joan Perry, the widow of film mogul Harry Cohn. Her marriage to Harvey lasted until 1972. His third marriage was to British fashion model Paulene Stone. She gave birth to Domino in 1969, while he was still married to Perry. Harvey and Stone married in 1972. The wedding took place at the home of Harold Robbins.
After working in two films with her, Harvey remained friends with Elizabeth Taylor for the rest of his life. She visited him three weeks before he died. Upon his death, Taylor issued the statement, “He was one of the people I really loved in this world. He was part of the sun. For everyone who loved him, the sun is a bit dimmer.”
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Domino, who later became a bounty hunter, was only four years old at the time of his death. She died at the age of 35 in 2005 after overdosing on painkillers. They are buried together in Santa Barbara Cemetery in Santa Barbara, California. Taylor and Peter Lawford held a memorial service for Harvey.
#RIP #OTD in 1998 comedian (The Devil Made Me Buy This Dress) and actor (The Flip Wilson Show) Flip Wilson died from liver cancer in Malibu, aged 64. He was cremated at Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery and his cremated remains were scattered off Malibu Beach.
#RIP #OTD in 2016 revolutionary, lawyer, leader of Cuba from 1959 to 2008, Fidel Castro died in Havanna, aged 90. Cremation with cremated remains entombed in the Santa Ifigenia Cemetery in Santiago de Cuba.
#RIP #OTD in 2020 Argentine professional football player, manager, 3x World Cup Champion Diego Maradona died; cardiac arrest in his sleep at his home in Dique Luján, Buenos Aires Province, aged 60.
Jardín de Bella Vista cemetery, Bella Vista, Buenos Aires.
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On this day in 1957, painter Diego Rivera died in Mexico City at the age of 70. Born Diego María de la Concepción Juan Nepomuceno Estanislao de la Rivera y Barrientos Acosta y Rodríguez on December 8, 1886 in Guanajuato, Mexico. His large frescoes helped establish the Mexican mural movement in Mexican art. Between 1922 and 1953, Rivera painted murals in, among other places, Mexico City, Chapingo, Cuernavaca, San Francisco, Detroit, and New York City. In 1931, a retrospective exhibition of his works was held at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Rivera had a volatile marriage with fellow Mexican artist Frida Kahlo.
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On this day in 1991, singer, songwriter, lyricist, lead singer of Queen, Freddie Mercury died at the age of 45 surrounded by friends at his home in Kensington, London, from bronchial pneumonia resulting from AIDS. Born Farrokh Bulsara in the British protectorate of Sultanate of Zanzibar, East Africa (now part of Tanzania) on 5 September 1946. As a performer, he was known for his flamboyant stage persona and powerful vocals over a four-octave range. As a songwriter, he composed many hits for Queen, including “Bohemian Rhapsody,” “Killer Queen,” “Somebody to Love,” “Don’t Stop Me Now,” “Crazy Little Thing Called Love,” and “We Are the Champions.” In addition to his work with Queen, he led a solo career, and also occasionally served as a producer and guest musician (piano or vocals) for other artists.
On this day in 1993, electric blues guitarist and singer, The Master of the Telecaster, The Ice Man, Albert Collins died from cancer at his home in Las Vegas at the age of 61. Born Albert Gene Drewery on October 1, 1932 in Leona, Texas. Known for his distinctive guitar style, using powerful playing and altered tunings and a capo.
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The Final Footprint – Malraux was cremated and his cremains were interred in the Verrières-le-Buisson (Essonne) cemetery. In 1996 on the twentieth anniversary of his passing, in honor of his contributions to French culture, his ashes were moved to the Panthéon in Paris. The Panthéon is a secular mausoleum containing the remains of distinguished French citizens. Other notable Final Footprints at the Panthéon include: Victor Hugo, Louis Braille, Pierre and Marie Curie, and Alexandre Dumas, père, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Voltaire, and Émile Zola.
On this day in 1990, Royal Air Force veteran, 
On this day in 2012, United States Air Force veteran, actor, director, producer, Larry Hagman died at Medical City Dallas Hospital in Dallas, Texas at the age of 81 from complications of acute myeloid leukemia. Born Larry Martin Hagman on September 21, 1931 in Fort Worth, Texas. Perhaps best known for playing oil baron J.R. Ewing in the 1980s primetime television soap opera Dallas and astronaut Major Anthony “Tony” Nelson in the 1960s sitcom I Dream of Jeannie.
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On this day in 1916 novelist, journalist and activist, Jack London died at his ranch in Glen Ellen, California, aged 40. A pioneer of commercial fiction and American magazines, he was one of the first American authors to become an international celebrity and earn a large fortune from writing. He was also an innovator in the genre that would later become known as science fiction.
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On this day in 1943 lyricist Lorenz Hart died in New York City of pneumonia from exposure, aged 48. Born Lorenz Milton Hart in Harlem on 2 May 1895. He was half of the Broadway songwriting team Rodgers and Hart. Some of his more famous lyrics include “Blue Moon”, “The Lady Is a Tramp”, “Manhattan”, “Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered”, and “My Funny Valentine”.
On this day in 1955 actor and comedian Shemp Howard died from a heart attack in Hollywood, at the age of 60. Born Samuel Horwitz in Bensonhurst in Brooklyn, on March 17, 1895.
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On this day in 1963, U.S. Navy veteran, U.S. Congressman, U.S. Senator, the 35th President of the U.S., author, American Icon, Jack, JFK, John F. Kennedy, died in Dallas, Texas at the age of 46. Born John Fitzgerald Kennedy on 29 May 1917 at 83 Beals Street in Brookline, Massachusetts. He graduated from Harvard in 1940 with a degree in international affairs. Kennedy met his future wife Jacqueline Lee “Jackie” Bouvier at a dinner party. They married 12 September 1953. They had four children; Arabella (23 August 1956 – 23 August 1956), Caroline Bouvier (27 November 1957 – ), John Fitzgerald Jr. (25 November 1960 – 16 July 1999), Patrick Bouvier (7 August 1963 – 9 August 1963). On Tuesday 8 November 1960, Kennedy won the presidential election over Republican Vice President Richard M. Nixon. The Kennedys were popular on a level more common with movie stars than politicians. This popularity and his charisma led to his administration being referred to as Camelot. The Kennedys travelled to Texas in an attempt to reconcile a widening rift in the Texas Democratic party between the conservative wing led by Governor John B. Connally and the liberal wing led by U.S. Senator Ralph Yarborough and Don Yarborough (no relation). Kennedy was fatally shot while riding in a Presidential motorcade with Jackie, Governor Connally and his wife Nellie Connally. He was succeeded as president by vice president Lyndon Baines Johnson. Conspiracy theories abound as to who was behind the assassination. The Warren Commission finding that Lee Harvey Oswald was the lone gunman has been debated and disputed since the findings were released. Groups behind supposed assassination plots include; the Mafia, the CIA, the Cubans, the Russians, the military industrial complex, or some combination of the above. Mrs. Connally, who as mentioned was riding in the car with JFK, believed to her grave that there was more than one shooter. November 22nd was a Friday that year. All three major networks suspended their regular schedules and switched to all news coverage through November 25th, 70 straight hours. I was three years old and Daddy and Uncle Ben told me later that I was upset because Saturday morning cartoons were not shown.
The Final Footprint – Kennedy was interred in a temporary plot at Arlington National Cemetery on 25 November 1960. On 14 March 1967, he was moved to his current plot at Arlington. His grave area is paved with irregular stones of Cape Cod granite, which were quarried around 1817 near the site of the president’s home and selected by members of his family. Clover, and later, sedum were planted in the crevices to give the appearance of stones lying naturally in a Massachusetts field. His grave is lit with an “Eternal Flame”. His brother Robert F. Kennedy was interred nearby following his assassination in 1968. Upon her death in 1994, Jackie was interred next to JFK. Upon his death in 2009, JFK’s brother Edward Kennedy was interred nearby. Other notable Final Footprints at Arlington include; the Space Shuttle Columbia, the Space Shuttle Challenger, Medgar Evers, Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis, RFK, Edward Kennedy, Lee Marvin, Audie Murphy and Malcolm Kilduff, Jr.
On this day in 1963 writer and lay theologian C. S. Lewis died at his home in Oxford from kidney failure, age 64. Born Clive Staples Lewis in Belfast in Ulster, Ireland (before partition), on 29 November 1898.
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On this day in 1963 writer, philosopher Aldous Huxley died from an assisted intentional overdose of LSD, aged 69. Born Aldous Leonard Huxley in Godalming, Surrey, England, on 26 July 1894.
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On this day in 1980 actress, playwright, screenwriter, singer, sex symbol Mae West died in Los Angeles, aged 87. Born Mary Jane West on August 17, 1893, in Brooklyn.
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On this day in 1986 actor, singer and musician Scatman Crothers died from lung caner at his home in Van Nuys, California, age 76.
On this day in 1997 singer-songwriter, Michael Hutchence died at the Ritz-Carlton hotel, Double Bay, Sydney, aged 37. Born Michael Kelland John Hutchence on 22 January 1960 in Sydney.
On this day in 1695, organist and Baroque composer, Henry Purcell, died at his home in Dean’s Yard, Westminster at the age of 35 or 36. Born on or about 10 September 1659 in St Ann’s Lane, Old Pye Street, Westminster. His legacy was a uniquely English form of Baroque music, a style of European classical music extending from about 1600 to 1750. This era begins after the Renaissance and was followed by the Classical era. The word “baroque” came from the Portuguese word barroco, meaning “misshapen pearl”. Baroque music forms a major portion of the classical music canon and is associated with composers such as Johann Sebastian Bach, George Frideric Handel, Alessandro Scarlatti, Antonio Vivaldi, Claudio Monteverdi and Purcell. Most importantly to me, it was during this period that opera became established as a musical genre. Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas (c. 1689) is, in my opinion, the first important English opera, and is still performed. Purcell had a direct influence on rock and roll. Apparently, both Pete Townshend of The Who and Queen, list Purcell’s music as an influence on their own.
The Final Footprint – Purcell is entombed in Westminster Abbey near the organ in the North Choir Aisle. His epitaph reads: “Here lyes Henry Purcell Esq., who left this life and is gone to that blessed place where only his harmony can be exceeded.” A bronze memorial sculpture by Glynn Williams, The Flowering of the English Baroque, in tribute to Purcell was installed in a park on Victoria St,. Westminster. Other notable Final Footprints at Westminster include; Robert Browning, Lord Byron, Geoffrey Chaucer, Oliver Cromwell, Charles Darwin, Charles Dickens, Edward The Confessor, Elizabeth I, George II, George Friederic Handel, James I (James VI of Scotland), Samuel Johnson, Ben Jonson, Charles II, Edward III, Edward VI, Henry III, Henry V, Henry VII, Richard II, Rudyard Kipling, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, John Milton, Sir Isaac Newton, Laurence Olivier, Mary I, Mary II, Mary Queen of Scots, Thomas Shadwell, Lord Alfred Tennyson, Dylan Thomas, and William III.
On this day in 2017, actor, singer, songwriter, and guitarist David Cassidy died of liver failure in Fort Lauderdale, Florida at the age of 67. Born David Bruce Cassidy on April 12, 1950 in Manhattan. Perhaps best known for his role as Keith Partridge, the son of Shirley Partridge (played by his stepmother Shirley Jones), in the 1970s musical-sitcom The Partridge Family, which led to his becoming one of popular culture’s teen idols and superstar pop singers of the 1970s. He later had a career in both acting and music.
On this day in 1903, American Old West scout, hired gunman, Pinkerton, range detective, cowboy, and soldier Tom Horn executed by hanging in Cheyenne, Wyoming. Born Thomas Horn, Jr. on the Horn family farm in rural northeastern Scotland County, Missouri. Believed to have committed 17 murders as a hired gunman in the West, in 1902 Horn was convicted of the murder of 14-year-old Willie Nickell near Iron Mountain, Wyoming. The boy was the son of sheep rancher Kels Nickell, who had been involved in a range feud with neighbor and cattle rancher Jim Miller.
The Final Footprint – Horn was buried in the Columbia Cemetery in Boulder, Colorado on 3 December 1903. Rancher Jim Coble paid for his coffin and a stone to mark his grave. While in jail he wrote his autobiography, Life of Tom Horn: Government Scout and Interpreter (1904), which was published posthumously. Numerous editions have been published of this book since the late 20th century, and debate continues as to whether he was guilty of Nickell’s murder. Horn was portrayed by Steve McQueen in movie Tom Horn (1980). While the film took liberties with facts, McQueen’s performance was highly praised, and the film was well received.
On this day in 1910, writer, Leo Tolstoy, died at the Astapovo railway station, Russia at the age of 82. Born Lyev Nikolayevich Tolstoy on 9 September 1828 in Yasnaya Polyana, the family estate in the Tula region of Russia. Perhaps best known for his masterpieces Anna Karenina (1877) and War and Peace (1869). Some condsider Tolstoy to be the worlds greatest novelist. Tolstoy is also known for his complicated and paradoxical persona and for his extreme moralistic and ascetic views, which he adopted after a moral crisis and spiritual awakening in the 1870s, after which he also became noted as a moral thinker and social reformer. His literal interpretation of the ethical teachings of Jesus, centering on the Sermon on the Mount, caused him in later life to become a fervent Christian anarchist and anarcho-pacifist. His ideas on nonviolent resistance, expressed in such works as The Kingdom of God Is Within You, were to have a profound impact on other thinkers and reformers. On 23 September 1862, Tolstoy married Sophia “Sonya” Andreevna Bers, who was 16 years his junior and the daughter of a court physician. Their relationship was apparently passionate and tumultuous and they had 13 children.
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On this day in 2006, film director, screenwriter, and producer, five-time nominee of the Academy Award for Best Director, Robert Altman died from leukemia complications at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles at the age of 81. Born Robert Bernard Altman on February 20, 1925 in Kansas City, Missouri. An enduring figure from the New Hollywood era, Altman was considered a “maverick” in making films with a highly naturalistic but stylized and satirical aesthetic. In my opinion, he is one of the most influential filmmakers in American cinema.
On this day in 1665, classical French painter, Nicolas Poussin, died in Rome at the age of 71. Perhaps the leading painter of the classical French Baroque style, although he spent most of his working life in Rome. He worked in Rome for a circle of leading collectors there and elsewhere, except for a short period when Cardinal Richelieu ordered him back to France to serve as First Painter to the King. Most of his works are history paintings of religious or mythological subjects that often have a large landscape element. He served as inspiration for classically-oriented artists, notably Paul Cézanne.
The Final Footprint – Poussin is interred at Basilica di San Lorenzo in Lucina in Rome. The French writer, politician, diplomat and founder of Romanticism in French literature, François-René, vicomte de Chateaubriand, donated the marble memorial in honour of Poussin in 1820. It reads; POUR LA GLORIE DES ARTS ET LHONNEUR DE LA FRANCE.
On this day in 1692, English poet and playwright who was appointed poet laureate in 1689, Thomas Shadwell died from an overdose of opium at Chelsea on 19 November 1692. Born ca. 1642 at Stanton Hall, Norfolk, England.
The Final Footprint – Shadwell was interred at Chelsea Old Church which was destroyed during World War II bombing. He has a memorial in Poets’ Corner of Westminster Abbey. Other notable Final Footprints at Westminster include; Robert Browning, Lord Byron, Geoffrey Chaucer, Oliver Cromwell, Charles Darwin, Charles Dickens, Edward The Confessor, Elizabeth I, George II, George Friederic Handel, James I (James VI of Scotland), Samuel Johnson, Ben Jonson, Charles II, Edward III, Edward VI, Stephen Hawking, Henry III, Henry V, Henry VII, Richard II, Rudyard Kipling, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, John Milton, Sir Isaac Newton, Laurence Olivier, Henry Purcell, Mary I, Mary II, Mary Queen of Scots, Lord Alfred Tennyson, Dylan Thomas, and William III.
On this day in 1887 author of poetry, prose, and translations, activist Emma Lazarus died from Hodgkin’s lymphoma in New York City, age 38. Born in New York City on July 22, 1849.
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On this day in 2014 film and theater director, producer, actor, and comedian, Mike Nichols died of a heart attack at his apartment in Manhattan, thirteen days after his 83rd birthday. Born Michael Igor Peschkowsky on November 6, 1931 in Berlin.
On this day in 2017 professional tennis player, Wimbledon Champion Jana Novotná died from cancer with her friends and family in the Czech Republic, age 49. Born on 2 October 1968 in Brno, in the South Moravian Region of the Czech Republic.
On this day in 2017, singer, actress, and ordained minister whose career spanned seven decades Della Reese died at her home in Encino, Los Angeles, age 86. Born Delloreese Patricia Early on July 6, 1931, in the historic Black Bottom neighborhood of Detroit, Michigan.
And on this day in 2017, singer and songwriter Mel Tillis died of respiratory failure in Ocala, Florida, at the age of 85. Born Lonnie Melvin Tillis on August 8, 1932 in Tampa, Florida. Although he recorded songs since the late 1950s, his biggest success occurred in the 1970s, with a long list of Top 10 songs.
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On this day in 1922, novelist Marcel Proust, died in Paris at the age of 51. Born Valentin Louis Georges Eugène Marcel Proust on 10 July 1871 in Auteuil, France. Author of the monumental À la recherche du temps perdu (In Search of Lost Time; earlier translated as Remembrance of Things Past). It was published in seven parts totaling about 3200 pages between 1913 and 1927. W. Somerset Maugham called the novel the “greatest fiction to date”. Graham Greene called Proust the “greatest novelist of the 20th century”.
The Final Footprint – Proust is entombed in an individual above ground crypt in the Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris. Père Lachaise is the largest cemetery in Paris and one of the most visited cemeteries in the world. Other notable Final Footprints at Père Lachaise include; Guillaume Apollinaire, Honoré de Balzac, Georges Bizet, Jean-Dominique Bauby, Maria Callas, Chopin, Colette, Auguste Comte, Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, Ma Ernst, Molière, Jim Morrison, Édith Piaf, Camille Pissarro, Sully Prudhomme, Gioachino Rossini, Georges-Pierre Seurat, Simone Signoret, Gertrude Stein, Dorothea Tanning, Alice B. Toklas, Oscar Wilde, and Richard Wright.
On this day in 1952 poet (Capitale de la douleur, L’Amour la Poésie, “Liberté”) a founder of the Surrealist movement Paul Éluard died from a heart attack at his home, in Charenton-le-Pont, Paris, aged 56. Born Eugène Émile Paul Grindel in Saint-Denis, Seine-Saint-Denis on 14 December 1895.
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On this day in 1969, American businessman, investor, and government official, patriarch of the Kennedy Family, Joseph Kennedy died in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts at the age of 81. Born Joseph Patrick Kennedy on 6 September 1888 in Boston. He was the father of U.S. President John F. Kennedy, United States Attorney General and Senator Robert F. Kennedy, United States Senator Edward M. Kennedy, naval officer Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr., Special Olympics co-founder Eunice Kennedy Shriver, and former U.S. Ambassador to Ireland Jean Kennedy Smith. He was a leading member of the Democratic Party and of the Irish Catholic community. Kennedy was the inaugural Chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), appointed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt (FDR), and later directed the Maritime Commission. Kennedy served as the United States Ambassador to the United Kingdom from 1938 until late 1940, including the early part of World War II. Kennedy was educated at Harvard University, and embarked on a career in finance, making a large fortune as a stock market and commodity investor and by investing in real estate and a wide range of industries. During World War I, he was an assistant general manager of a Boston area Bethlehem Steel shipyard, through which he developed a friendship with FDR, then Assistant Secretary of the Navy. In the 1920s Kennedy made huge profits from reorganizing and refinancing several Hollywood studios, ultimately merging several acquisitions into Radio-Keith-Orpheum (RKO) studios. After Prohibition ended in 1933, Kennedy consolidated an even larger fortune when he traveled to Scotland with FDR’s son, James Roosevelt, to buy distribution rights for Scotch whisky. His company, Somerset Importers, became the exclusive American agent for Gordon’s Gin and Dewar’s Scotch. He owned the largest office building in the country at that time, Chicago’s Merchandise Mart, giving his family an important base in that city and an alliance with the Irish-American political leadership there. His term as ambassador and his political ambitions ended abruptly during the Battle of Britain in November 1940, with the publishing of his controversial remarks suggesting that “Democracy is finished in England. It may be here, [in the US].” Kennedy resigned under pressure shortly afterwards. In later years, Kennedy worked behind the scenes to continue building the financial and political fortunes of the Kennedy family. Kennedy married Rose Elizabeth Fitzgerald, the eldest daughter of Boston Mayor John Francis “Honey Fitz” Fitzgerald (political rival of his father P. J. Kennedy) and Mary Josephine “Josie” Hannon. The marriage joined two of the city’s most prominent Irish-American political families. The couple had nine children, four boys and five girls. Kennedy survived all but one of his sons and one of his daughters.
On this day in 1976, visual artist, Man Ray died in Paris from a lung infection at the age of 86. Born Emmanuel Radnitzky on August 27, 1890 in Philadelphia. He spent most of his career in Paris. He was a significant contributor to the Dada and Surrealist movements. He produced major works in a variety of media but considered himself a painter above all. Perhaps best known for his fashion and portrait photography. Man Ray is also noted for his work with photograms, which he called “rayographs” in reference to himself.
On this day in 1986 supermodel Gia Carangi died of AIDS-related complications at Hahnemann University Hospital, Philadelphia, aged 26. Born Gia Marie Carangi in January 29, 1960 in Philadelphia.
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On this day in 1994, 
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On this day in 1999, musician, singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Doug Sahm died from a heart attack in Taos, New Mexico, aged 58. Born Douglas Wayne Sahm in San Antonio, Texas on 6 November 1949.
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On this day in 2002, Academy Award winning actor James Coburn died of heart attack while listening to music in his Beverly Hills home at the age of 77. Born James Harrison Coburn III in Laurel, Nebraska on 31 August 1928. Coburn was featured in over 70 films and made 100 television appearances during his 45-year career, winning an Academy Award for his supporting role as Glen Whitehouse in Affliction. His rugged and “cool” persona made him a prpminent tough guy in numerous leading and supporting roles in westerns and action films, such as The Magnificent Seven (1960), The Great Escape (1963), Major Dundee (1965), Our Man Flint (1966), In Like Flint (1967), Duck, You Sucker! (1971), Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid (1973), Charade (1963) and Cross of Iron (1977). Coburn married twice; Beverly Kelly (1959 – 1979 divorce) and Paula Murad (1993 – 2002 his death).
The Final Footprint – Coburn was cremated and his cremains were inurned in Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery (a Dignity Memorial® provider) in Los Angeles, California, and marked by a stone bench inscribed with his name. Other notable final footprints at Westwood include; Ray Bradbury, Sammy Cahn, Truman Capote, Rodney Dangerfield, Farrah Fawcett, Brian Keith, Don Knotts, Hugh Hefner, Burt Lancaster, Peter Lawford, Peggy Lee, Janet Leigh, Jack Lemmon, Karl Malden, Dean Martin, Walter Matthau, Marilyn Monroe, Carroll O’Connor, Roy Orbison, George C. Scott, Dorothy Stratten, Natalie Wood, and Frank Zappa.
On this day in 1917, sculptor Auguste Rodin, died at his villa in Meudon, Île-de-France, on the outskirts of Paris at the age of 77. Born François-Auguste-René Rodin on 12 November 1840 in Paris. Among his best known works: Le Penseur, La Porte de L’enfer, Monument à Balzac, Monument à Victor Hugo, Monument aux Bourgeois de Calais, L’homme qui Marche, L’age D’airain, and Le Baiser. Clearly, Le Baiser (The Kiss) is my personal favorite. 
The sculpture was originally titled Francesca da Rimini, as it depicts the 13th-century Italian noblewoman immortalised in Dante’s Inferno (Circle 2, Canto 5) who falls in love with her husband Giovanni Malatesta’s younger brother Paolo. They fall in love while reading the story of Lancelot and Guinevere, but the couple are discovered and killed by Giovanni. In the sculpture, the book can be seen in Paolo’s hand. The lovers lips do not actually touch in the sculpture to suggest that they were interrupted and met their demise without their lips ever having touched. In 1864 Rodin began living with Rose Beuret, with whom he would have a son. In 1883, at the age of 43, Rodin met the 18 year-old artist Camille Claudel. The two commenced a passionate but stormy relationship and they influenced each other artistically. She inspired him as a model for many of his female figures. His muse if you will. Rodin parted with Claudel in 1898.
The Final Footprint
On this day in 2006 singer, songwriter, actress, the “Queen of R&B”, Ruth Brown died in Henderson, Nevada from a heart attack and stroke, aged 78. Born Ruth Alston Weston in Portsmouth, Virginia on 12 January 1928. She was noted for bringing a pop music style to R&B music in a series of hit songs for Atlantic Records in the 1950s, such as “So Long”, “Teardrops from My Eyes” and “(Mama) He Treats Your Daughter Mean”. For these contributions, Atlantic became known as “the house that Ruth built” (alluding to the popular nickname for the old Yankee Stadium). Brown was a 1993 inductee into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
The Final Footprint
And on this day in 2013 novelist Doris Lessing died at her home in London, aged 94. Born Doris May Tayler in Kermanshah, Iran, on 22 October 1919. She lived in Iran until 1925. Her family then moved to Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), where she remained until moving in 1949 to London, England. Her novels include The Grass Is Singing (1950), the sequence of five novels collectively called Children of Violence (1952–1969), The Golden Notebook (1962), The Good Terrorist (1985), and five novels collectively known as Canopus in Argos: Archives (1979–1983).
The Final Footprint – Gable is entombed next to Lombard in the Great Mausoleum, Sanctuary of Trust, Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Glendale, California. Other notable Final Footprints at Forest Lawn Glendale include; L. Frank Baum, Humphrey Bogart, Lon Chaney, Nat King Cole, Sam Cooke, Dorothy Dandridge, Sammy Davis, Jr., Walt Disney, Errol Flynn, Jean Harlow, Michael Jackson, Carole Lombard, Tom Mix, Casey Stengel, Jimmy Stewart, Elizabeth Taylor, and Spencer Tracy.
