RIP The Final Impression

On this day 19 July deaths of Petrarch – Mary Jo Kopechne – Lefty Frizzell – James Garner – Rutger Hauer

Posted on 29 JulamSun, 19 Jul 2026 00:36:00 -05002026-07-19T00:36:00-05:0012 2011 by MacGregor

On this day in 1374, scholar, poet, humanist, “The Father of Humanism”, “The Father of the Renaissance”, Petrarch died at his home in Arquà Petrarca, Veneto, Italy one day before his 70th birthday. Born Francesco Petrarca on 20 July 1304 in Arezzo, Tuscany, Italy. He rediscovered many Ancient Greek and Roman writers and his belief that there was no real conflict between Classical and Christian thought anticipated the Renaissance spirit. He did not see a conflict between realizing humanity’s potential and having religious faith. Petrarch is perhaps best known for his Il Canzoniere (Song Book) a collection of 366 poems which address his lifelong unrequited love for a mysterious woman named Laura. In many of these he developed and perfected the sonnet form, and the “Petrarchan sonnet” still bears his name. Apparently, on 6 April 1327, Good Friday, the sight of a woman called “Laura” in the church of Sainte-Claire d’Avignon awoke in him a lasting passion. Laura may have been Laura de Noves, the wife of Count Hugues de Sade (an ancestor of the Marquis de Sade). According to his “Secretum”, she refused him for the very proper reason that she was already married to another man. Petrarch channeled his feelings into love poems. Upon her death in 1348, he found that his grief was as difficult to live with as was his former unrequited longing. Later in his “Letter to Posterity”, Petrarch wrote: “In my younger days I struggled constantly with an overwhelming but pure love affair – my only one, and I would have struggled with it longer had not premature death, bitter but salutary for me, extinguished the cooling flames. I certainly wish I could say that I have always been entirely free from desires of the flesh, but I would be lying if I did.” I have always been fascinated by poems and stories inspired by the exquisitely painful longing of unrequited love. Petrarch never married but possibly fathered two children, a son Giovanni and a daughter Francesca, with a woman or women who remain unknown to posterity.

The Final Footprint – Petrarch is entombed in the town square of Arquà Petrarca. There is a marble statue of Petrarch on the Uffizi Palace, in Florence. The Romantic composer Franz Liszt set three of Petrarch’s Sonnets (47, 104, and 123) to music for voice, Tre sonetti del Petrarca, which he later would transcribe for solo piano for inclusion in the suite Années de Pèlerinage.

RIP #OTD in 1850, journalist, editor, critic, translator, women’s rights advocate, the first American female war correspondent and full-time book reviewer in journalism, author (Woman in the Nineteenth Century), Margaret Fuller drowned in a shipwreck off the coast of Fire Island, New York aged 50. Body lost at sea. Cenotaph Mount auburn cemetery, Cambridge, Massachusetts

On this day in 1969, teacher, secretary, and political campaign specialist, Mary Jo Kopechne died at the age of 28 in a car accident in Chappaquiddick Island, Massachusetts while a passenger in a car being driven by U.S. Senator Edward M. “Ted” Kennedy. Born on 26 July 1940 in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. On 18 July 1969, Kopechne attended a party on Chappaquiddick Island, off the coast of Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts. The celebration was in honor of the dedicated work of the Boiler Room Girls, and was the fourth such reunion of the Robert F. Kennedy campaign workers. Kopechne reportedly left the party at 11:15 p.m. with Robert’s brother Ted, after he offered to drive her to catch the last ferry back to Edgartown, where she was staying. Kennedy drove the 1967 Oldsmobile Delmont 88 off a narrow, unlit bridge, which was without guardrails and was not on the route to Edgartown. The Oldsmobile landed in Poucha Pond and overturned in the water; Kennedy extricated himself from the vehicle and survived, but Kopechne did not. Kennedy failed to report the incident to the authorities until the car and Kopechne’s body were discovered the next morning.

The Final Footprint – A private funeral for Kopechne was held on 22 July 1969, at St. Vincent’s Roman Catholic Church in Plymouth, Pennsylvania, attended by Kennedy. She is buried in Saint Vincent DePaul Cemetery in Larksville, Pennsylvania.

Lefty_Frizzell_Columbia_publicity_-_cropped

On this day in 1975, singer and songwriter Lefty Frizzell died at age 47 after a massive stroke. Born William Orville Frizzell on 31 March 1928 in Corsicana, Texas. He gained prominence in 1950 after two major hits, and throughout the decade was a popular country performer.

Frizzell had four songs that reached No. 1 on the Billboard country chart in one year (1951). After the death of Hank Williams in 1953, Frizzell released many songs that charted in the Top 10 of the Hot Country Songs charts. A vocalist who set the style of singing “the country way” for the generations that followed, Frizzell became one of the most successful and influential artists of country music throughout his career. He smoothed out the rough edges of a honky tonk song by sounding out syllables longer and singing longer. Because of this, his music became more mainstream without losing its honky-tonk attitude and persona.

The Final Footprint – Frizzell was buried at Forest Lawn Memorial Gardens in Goodlettsville, Tennessee. In October 1982, Frizzell was posthumously inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame. Merle Haggard said “The impact Lefty had on country music is not even measurable. … No one could handle a song like Lefty. He would hold on to each word until he finally decided to drop it and pick up the next one. Most of us learned to sing listening to him.” George Strait recorded a Sanger D. Shafer song called “Lefty’s Gone” on the album Something Special. In addition, Willie Nelson’s 1977 album, To Lefty From Willie was a tribute to Frizzell and consisted entirely of cover versions of Frizzell songs. Frizzell has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. He is also in the Rockabilly Hall of Fame. Fellow Texan Roy Orbison was a devout fan of Frizzell’s sound, and in 1988, as a part of the Traveling Wilburys, he chose the name “Lefty Wilbury” to honor his musical hero.

#RIP #OTD in 2014 California Army National Guard veteran, actor (The Great Escape, The Americanization of Emily, Murphy’s Romance, Maverick, The Rockford Files, Space Cowboys) James Garner died; heart attack at his Brentwood, Los Angeles home, aged 86. Cremation

#RIP #OTD in 2019 actor (Turkish Delight, Blade Runner, The Osterman Weekend, Ladyhawke, The Hitcher, Batman Begins) Rutger Hauer died at his home in Beetsterzwaag, the Netherlands aged 75. Cremation

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Posted in Day in History, Extravagant Footprints, Literary Footprints, Musical Footprints | Tagged Cremation, Crypts, edward Kennedy, forest lawn memorial gardens, franz liszt, humanism, James Garner, laura, lefty frizzell, lefty wilbury, Margaret Fuller, mary jo kopechne, merle haggard, mount auburn cemetery, petrarch, poet, Private Mausoleum, Renaissance, riptff, Robert F Kennedy, roy orbison, Rutger Hauer, tff, the final footprint, traveling wilburys, unrequited love, Willie Nelson | 3 Comments

On this day 18 July deaths of Caravaggio – Jane Austen – Bobby Fuller – Alex Rocco – Bob Newhart

Posted on 29 JulamSat, 18 Jul 2026 00:03:00 -05002026-07-18T00:03:00-05:0012 2011 by MacGregor

On this day in 1610, Italian artist active in Rome, Naples, Malta, and Sicily between 1593 and 1610, Caravaggio died in Porto Ercole, Tuscany at the age of 38. Born Michelangelo Merisi on 29 September 1571 in Milan. His paintings, which combine a realistic observation of the human state, both physical and emotional, with a dramatic use of lighting, had a formative influence on the Baroque school of painting. Caravaggio trained as a painter in Milan under Simone Peterzano who had himself trained under Titian. Caravaggio’s novelty was a radical naturalism that combined close physical observation with a dramatic, even theatrical, use of chiaroscuro. This came to be known as Tenebrism, the shift from light to dark with little intermediate value. He burst upon the Rome art scene in 1600 with the success of his first public commissions, the Martyrdom of Saint Matthew and Calling of Saint Matthew. Thereafter he never lacked commissions or patrons, yet he handled his success poorly. Famous while he lived, Caravaggio was forgotten almost immediately after his death, and it was only in the 20th century that his importance to the development of Western art was rediscovered. His influence on the new Baroque style that eventually emerged from the ruins of Mannerism was profound. It can be seen directly or indirectly in the work of Rubens, Jusepe de Ribera, Bernini, and Rembrandt, and artists in the following generation heavily under his influence were called the “Caravaggisti” or “Caravagesques”, as well as Tenebrists or “Tenebrosi” (“shadowists”). It can be said that in what begins in the work of Caravaggio is modern painting.

The Final Footprint – His death is the subject of much confusion and conjecture. On 28 July an anonymous avviso (private newsletter) from Rome to the ducal court of Urbino reported that Caravaggio was dead. Three days later another avviso said that he had died of fever on his way from Naples to Rome. A poet friend of the artist later gave 18 July as the date of death, and a recent researcher claims to have discovered a death notice showing that the artist died on that day of a fever in Porto Ercole, near Grosseto in Tuscany. Human remains found in a church in Porto Ercole in 2010 are believed to almost certainly belong to Caravaggio. The findings come after a year-long investigation using DNA, carbon dating and other analyses. Some scholars argue that Caravaggio was murdered by enemies he may have made in Malta. Caravaggio might have died of lead poisoning. Bones with high lead levels were recently found in a grave likely to be Caravaggio’s. Paints used at the time contained high amounts of lead salts. Caravaggio is known to have indulged in violent behavior, which can be caused by lead poisoning. Caravaggio’s epitaph was composed by his friend Marzio Milesi. It reads: “Michelangelo Merisi, son of Fermo di Caravaggio – in painting not equal to a painter, but to Nature itself – died in Port’ Ercole – betaking himself hither from Naples – returning to Rome – 15th calend of August – In the year of our Lord 1610 – He lived thirty-six years nine months and twenty days – Marzio Milesi, Jurisconsult – Dedicated this to a friend of extraordinary genius.”

On this day in 1817, novelist Jane Austen died in Winchester, England at the age of 41. Born 16 December 1775 at Steventon Rectory in Steventon, Hampshire, England. In my opinion, one of the great English writers.

With the publications of Sense and Sensibility (1811), Pride and Prejudice (1813), Mansfield Park (1814) and Emma (1816), she achieved success as a published writer. She wrote two additional novels, Northanger Abbey and Persuasion, both published posthumously in 1818, and began another, eventually titled Sanditon, but died before its completion. She also left behind three volumes of juvenile writings in manuscript, a short epistolary novel Lady Susan, and another unfinished novel, The Watsons. Her six full-length novels have rarely been out of print, although they were published anonymously and brought her moderate success and little fame during her lifetime.

A significant transition in her posthumous reputation occurred in 1833, when her novels were republished in Richard Bentley’s Standard Novels series, illustrated by Ferdinand Pickering, and sold as a set. They gradually gained wider acclaim and popular readership. In 1869, fifty-two years after her death, her nephew’s publication of A Memoir of Jane Austen introduced a compelling version of her writing career and supposedly uneventful life to an eager audience.

Austen did not marry.

The Final Footprint

Austen is entombed in the north aisle of the nave of Winchester Cathedral. Her inscription reads; “In memory of JANE AUSTEN, youngest daughter of Rev GEORGE AUSTEN, formerly Rector of Steventon in this court. She departed this life on the 18th of July 1817, aged 41, after a long illness supported with the patience and the hopes of a Christian. The benevolence of her heart, the sweetness of her temper, and the extraordinary endowments of her mind obtained the regard of all who knew her and the warmest love of her intimate connections. Their grief is in proportion to their affection they know their loss to be irreparable but in their deepest affliction they are consoled by a firm though humble hope that her charity, devotion, faith and purity have rendered her soul acceptable in the sight of her REDEEMER.” The term Janeite has been embraced by devotees of the works of Austen.

On this day in 1966, rock singer, songwriter, and guitarist, Bobby Fuller died in Los Angeles at the age of 23. Fuller was found dead in an automobile parked outside his Hollywood apartment. The Los Angeles deputy medical examiner, Jerry Nelson, performed the autopsy. Reportedly the autopsy states; “The report states that Bobby’s face, chest, and side were covered in “petechial hemorrhages” probably caused by gasoline vapors and the heat. He found no bruises, no broken bones, no cuts. No evidence of beating.” The boxes for “accident” and “suicide” were ticked, but next to the boxes were question marks. Despite the official cause of death, some believe Fuller was murdered. Born Robert Gaston Fuller on 22 October 1942 in Baytown, Texas.

Perhaps best known for his singles “I Fought the Law” and “Love’s Made a Fool of You,” recorded with his mid-1960s group, the Bobby Fuller Four.

The Final Footprint – He is interred in Forest Lawn Memorial Park Hollywood Hills in Los Angeles. Other notable final footprints at Hollywood Hills include; Gene Autry, David Carradine, Scatman Crothers, Bette Davis, Sandra Dee, Ronnie James Dio, Michael Clarke Duncan, Andy Gibb, Carrie Fisher, Michael Hutchence, Jill Ireland, Al Jarreau, Lemmy Kilmister, Jack LaLanne, Nicolette Larsen, Liberace, Strother Martin, Ricky Nelson, Bill Paxton, Brock Peters, Freddie Prinze, Lou Rawls, John Ritter, Debbie Reynolds, Telly Savalas, Lee Van Cleef, Paul Walker, and Jack Webb.

#RIP #OTD in 2015 actor (Moe Greene in The Godfather) Alex Rocco died from pancreatic cancer in his Studio City home, at the age of 79. Cremation

RIP #OTD in 2024 Grammy Award-winning comedian and Emmy Award-winning actor (The Bob Newhart Show; Newhart; The Big Bang Theory), Bob Newhart died at his home in Los Angeles aged 94. Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Hollywood Hills)

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Posted in Artistic Footprints, Day in History, Extravagant Footprints, Literary Footprints, Musical Footprints | Tagged Alex Rocco, Bob Newhart, bobby fuller, caravaggio, Crypts, Entomb, forest lawn hollywood hills, Forest Lawn Memorial Park Hollywood Hills, History, i fought the law, Inscription, jane austen, novelist, pride and prejudice, riptff, sense and sensibility, tff, the final footprint, winchester cathedral | Leave a comment

On this day 17 July deaths of Charlotte Corday – Jim Bridger – The Romanov Family – Billie Holiday – John Coltrane – Mickey Spillane – Walter Cronkite – John Lewis – C. T. Vivian – Alan Bergman

Posted on 29 JulamFri, 17 Jul 2026 00:09:00 -05002026-07-17T00:09:00-05:0012 2011 by MacGregor

On this day in 1793, a figure of the French Revolution, the Angel of Assassination, Charlotte Corday was executed under the guillotine for the assassination of Jacobin leader Jean-Paul Marat, in Paris at the age of 24. Born Marie-Anne Charlotte de Corday d’Armont on 27 July 1768 in Saint-Saturnin-des-Ligneries, a hamlet in the commune of Écorches (Orne), in Normandy. Marat was in part responsible, through his role as a politician and journalist, for the more radical course the Revolution had taken. More specifically, he played a substantial role in the political purge of the Girondins, with whom Corday sympathized. His murder was memorialized in a celebrated painting by Jacques-Louis David which shows Marat after Corday had stabbed him to death in his bathtub. In 1847, writer Alphonse de Lamartine gave Corday the posthumous nickname l’ange de l’assassinat (the Angel of Assassination). At her trial, when Corday testified that she had carried out the assassination alone, saying “I killed one man to save 100,000,” she was likely alluding to Maximilien Robespierre’s words before the execution and of King Louis XVI.

The Final Footprint – Corday’s body was disposed of in the Madeleine Cemetery. The decapitated corpses of the guillotine victims were thrown in specially dug trenches and covered in quicklime to speed up the decomposition process. There were no markers. After her decapitation, a man named Legros apparently lifted her head from the basket and slapped it on the cheek. Charles-Henri Sanson, the executioner, indignantly rejected published reports that Legros was one of his assistants. However, Sanson stated in his diary that Legros was in fact a carpenter who had been hired to make repairs to the guillotine. Witnesses report an expression of “unequivocal indignation” on her face when her cheek was slapped. This slap was considered unacceptable and Legros was imprisoned for three months because of his outburst. Jacobin leaders had her body autopsied immediately after her death to see if she was a virgin. They believed there was a man sharing her bed and the assassination plans. To their dismay, she was found to be virgo intacta (a virgin), a condition that focused more attention on women throughout France, laundresses, housewives, domestic servants, who were also rising up against authority after having been controlled by men for so long. The assassination did not stop the Jacobins or the Terror: Marat became a martyr, and busts of him replaced crucifixes and religious statues that had been banished under the new regime. In 1844, Madeleine Cemetery was cleared and the skeletal remains were transferred to the l’Ossuaire de l’Ouest (West Ossuary). When the ossuary was closed, the contents were transferred to the Paris catacombs.

On this day in 1881, one of the foremost mountain men, trappers, scouts and guides who explored and trapped the Western United States during the decades of 1820-1850, Jim Bridger died on his farm near Kansas City, Missouri at the age of 77. Born James Felix Bridger on 17 March 1804 in Richmond, Virginia. Bridger had a strong constitution that allowed him to survive the extreme conditions he encountered walking the Rocky Mountains from what would become southern Colorado to the Canadian border. He had conversational knowledge of French, Spanish and several native languages. He would come to know many of the major figures of the early west, including Brigham Young, Kit Carson, George Armstrong Custer, John Fremont, Joseph Meek, and John Sutter.

The Final Footprint – For some 23 years, Bridger’s grave was located in a nondescript cemetery just a few hundred yards from his farm house, but his remains were re-interred in the more notable Mount Washington Cemetery in Independence, Missouri in 1904. Bridger is briefly mentioned in Sydney Pollack‘s 1972 film Jeremiah Johnson, starring Robert Redford in which Will Geer‘s character introduces himself as, “Bear Claw Chris Lapp, blood kin to the grizz that bit Jim Bridger’s ass”. In the 2009 Quentin Tarantino movie Inglourious Basterds, lead character Lt. Aldo Raine (portrayed by actor Brad Pitt) states: “Now, I am the direct descendant of the mountain man Jim Bridger. That means I got a little Injun in me. And our battle plan will be that of an Apache resistance.” Consequently, his nickname in the movie is “Aldo the Apache.”

On this day in 1918, The Russian Imperial Romanov family (Tsar Nicholas II, his wife Tsarina Alexandra and their five children Olga, Tatiana, Maria, Anastasia, and Alexei) and all those who chose to accompany them into exile – notably Eugene Botkin, Anna Demidova, Alexei Trupp and Ivan Kharitonov, were shot in Yekaterinburg on 17 July 1918. The murder of the Tsar was carried out by the Ural Soviet which was led by Yakov Yurovsky. In the opinion of historians, the murder had been ordered in Moscow by Vladimir Lenin and Yakov Sverdlov to prevent the rescue of the Imperial Family by approaching White forces during the ongoing Russian Civil War.
The Final Footprint – Early next morning, when rumours spread in Yekaterinburg about the disposal site, Yurovsky removed the bodies and hid them elsewhere. When the vehicle carrying the bodies broke down on the way to the next chosen site, Yurovsky made new arrangements, and buried most of the acid-covered bodies in a pit sealed and concealed with rubble, covered over with railroad ties and then earth on Koptyaki Road, a cart track (subsequently abandoned) 12 miles (19 km) north of Yekaterinburg. In July 1991, the remains of all the family and their retainers (except two of the children, who were identified in 2008) were found by amateur enthusiasts and reburied by the Russian government following a state funeral. A ceremony of Christian burial took place in 1998. The bodies were laid to rest with state honors in the St. Catherine Chapel of the Peter and Paul Cathedral in Saint Petersburg, where most other Russian monarchs since Peter the Great lie. President Boris Yeltsin and his wife attended the funeral along with Romanov relations, including Prince Michael of Kent. On 15 August 2000, the Russian Orthodox Church announced the canonization of the family for their “humbleness, patience and meekness”. However, reflecting the intense debate preceding the issue, the bishops did not proclaim the Romanovs as martyrs, but passion bearers instead (see Romanov sainthood). On 1 October 2008, the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation ruled that Nicholas II and his family were victims of political repression and rehabilitated them.

On this day in 1959, jazz singer and songwriter, Lady Day, Billie Holiday died from cirrhosis of the liver at Metropolitan Hospital in New York at the age of 44. Born Eleanora Fagan on 7 April 1915 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. One of my very favorite singers. In my opinion, she had a seminal influence on jazz and pop singing. Holiday possibly took her professional name from Billie Dove, an actress she admired, and the musician Clarence Holiday, her probable father. She apparently worked as a prostitute in Harlem before she began singing in clubs. My favorite songs performed by Holiday include; “Embraceable You” written by George and Ira Gershwin, “God Bless the Child” written by Holiday and Arthur Herzog, Jr. and “Pennies from Heaven” written by Arthur Johnston and Johnny Burke. Frank Sinatra had this to say of Holiday; “With few exceptions, every major pop singer in the US during her generation has been touched in some way by her genius. It is Billie Holiday who was, and still remains, the greatest single musical influence on me. Lady Day is unquestionably the most important influence on American popular singing in the last twenty years.” Her autobiography, Lady Sings the Blues, was ghostwritten by William Dufty and published in 1956. Holiday married twice; Jimmy Monroe (1941-1947 divorce), Louis McKay (1957-1959 her death).

The Final Footprint – Holiday is interred next to her mother Sadie in Saint Raymonds Cemetery New in the Bronx. Their graves are marked by an upright companion granite marker. Holiday’s term of endearment says; BELOVED WIFE. Diana Ross portrayed Holiday in the film Lady Sings the Blues, which is loosely based on Holiday’s autobiography. The film earned Ross a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress. Holiday was posthumously awarded the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. In 1988 the group U2 released “Angel of Harlem” in her honor.

On this day in 1967, United States Navy veteran, jazz saxophonist and composer, Trane, John Coltrane died from liver cancer at Huntington Hospital on Long Island at the age of 40. Born John William Coltrane on 23 September 1926 in Hamlet, North Carolina. Working in the bebop and hard bop idioms early in his career, Coltrane helped pioneer the use of modes in jazz and later was at the forefront of free jazz. He organized at least fifty recording sessions as a leader during his recording career, and appeared as a sideman on many other albums, notably with trumpeter Miles Davis and pianist Thelonious Monk. As his career progressed, Coltrane and his music took on an increasingly spiritual dimension. Coltrane influenced innumerable musicians, and remains one of the most significant saxophonists in jazz history. He received many posthumous awards and recognitions, including canonization by the African Orthodox Church as Saint John William Coltrane. In 2007, Coltrane was awarded the Pulitzer Prize Special Citation for his “masterful improvisation, supreme musicianship and iconic centrality to the history of jazz. The Final Footprint – Coltrane’s funeral was held at St. Peters Lutheran Church in New York City. The Albert Ayler Quartet and The Ornette Coleman Quartet respectively opened and closed the service. He is buried alongside his wife Alice, at Pinelawn Cemetery in Farmingdale, N.Y.

#RIP #OTD in 2006 novelist (Mike Hammer series) the “king of pulp fiction” Mickey Spillane died at his home in Murrells Inlet, South Carolina, of pancreatic cancer aged 88. Cenotaph Murrells Inlet Marshwalk, Murrells Inlet

On this day in 2009, broadcast journalist, Texas Longhorn, Walter Cronkite died at his home in New York City, at the age of 92. He is believed to have died from cerebrovascular disease. Born Walter Leland Cronkite, Jr. on 4 November 1916 in Saint Joseph, Missouri. Best known as anchorman for the CBS Evening News for 19 years (1962–81), and for being the “the most trusted man in America”. He reported many events from 1937 to 1981, including bombings in World War II; the Nuremberg trials; combat in the Vietnam War; Watergate; the Iran Hostage Crisis; and the murders of President John F. Kennedy, civil rights pioneer Martin Luther King, Jr., and Beatles musician John Lennon. He was also known for his extensive coverage of the U.S. space program, from Project Mercury to the Moon landings to the Space Shuttle. He was the only non-NASA recipient of a Moon-rock award. Cronkite is well known for his departing catchphrase “And that’s the way it is,” followed by the date on which the appearance aired. Cronkite was married for nearly sixty-five years to Mary Elizabeth ‘Betsy’ Maxwell (25 January 1916 – 15 March 2005), from 30 March 1940 until her death from cancer. I watched his final broadcast with friends at a bar in Austin.

The Final Footprint – Cronkite’s funeral took place on 23 July 2009 at St. Bartholomew’s Church in midtown Manhattan, New York City. At his funeral, his friends noted his love of music, including, recently, drumming. He was cremated and his remains buried next to his wife, Betsy, in the family plot at Mount Moriah Cemetery in Kansas City, Missouri.

#RIP #OTD in 2020 politician, civil rights activist, United States House of Representatives member from Georgia (1987-2020), one of the Big Six, John Lewis died from pancreatic cancer in Atlanta, aged 80. South-View Cemetery, Atlanta

#RIP #OTD in 2020 minister, author, close friend and lieutenant of Martin Luther King Jr. during the civil rights movement, C. T. Vivian died from natural causes in Atlanta aged 95. Westview Cemetery, Atlanta

#RIP #OTD in 2025, lyricist with his wife Marilyn (The Windmills of Your Mind, The Way We Were, You Don’t Bring Me Flowers, In the Heat of the Night), Alan Bergman died at his home in Los Angeles aged 99. Cremation

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Posted in Cowboy Footprints, Day in History, Infamous Footprints, Musical Footprints, Political Footprints | Tagged Alan bergman, angel of harlem, billie holiday, brad pitt, Buried, C. T. Vivian, canongate kirkyard, cbs evening news, Cemetery, charlotte corday, companion marker, Cremation, diana ross, French Revolution, god bless the child, grammy lifetime achievement award, granite marker, Ground Burial, harlem, History, inglourious basterds, jazz, jean paul marat, jeremiah johnson, JFK, jim bridger, john coltrane, John Lennon, John Lewis, lady day, lady sings the blues, Marker, Mickey Spillane, Miles Davis, mlk, mount moriah cemetery, mount washington cemetery, mountain man, Pinelawn Cemetery, Quentin Tarantino, robert redford, romanov, saint raymonds cemetery new, scottish enlightemment, South-View cemetery, sydney pollack, term of endearment, the wealth of nations, Thelonious Monk, u2, University of Texas at Austin, Walter Cronkite, Westview cemetery | 2 Comments

On this day 16 July death of Harry Chapin – May Sarton – Stephen Spender – John F. Kennedy, Jr. – Carolyn Bessette Kennedy – Lauren Bessette – Celia Cruz – Jo Stafford – Kitty Wells – Johnny Winter – George A. Romero – Jane Birkin

Posted on 29 JulamThu, 16 Jul 2026 00:54:00 -05002026-07-16T00:54:00-05:0012 2011 by MacGregor

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…

“Now cracks a noble heart.

Good-night, sweet prince; And

flights of angels sing thee to they rest.”

#RIP #OTD in 2023 singer (“Je t’aime… moi non plus’’), actress (Death on the Nile, Evil Under the Sun, A Soldier’s Daughter Never Cries), Jane Birkin died at home in Paris aged 76. Cremated remains Cimetière du Montparnasse, Paris

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Posted in Day in History, Musical Footprints, Political Footprints | Tagged carolyn bessette, cats in the cradle, Celia Cruz, cremains, Cremation, George romero, Graveyard of St Mary on Paddington Green Church, harry chapin, Holy Cross Cemetery, huntington rural cemetery, it wasnt god who made honky tonk angels, jackie O, Jacqueline Bouvier, Jacqueline Kennedy, JFK, jfk assassination, JFK Jr., jo stafford, john f kennedy jr, John Ford, johnny winter, kitty wells, lauren bessette, marthas vineyard, May sarton, Nelson Cemetery, riptff, scattered, scattering, sharon tate, spring hill cemetery, Stephen Spender, tff, the final footprint, Toronto Necropolis Cemetery, union cemetery, uss briscoe, Woodlawn Cemetery, you belong to me | Leave a comment

On this day 15 July death of Rosalía de Castro – Anton Chekhov – Gianni Versace – Celeste Holm – Martin Landau

Posted on 29 JulamWed, 15 Jul 2026 00:03:00 -05002026-07-15T00:03:00-05:0012 2011 by MacGregor

#RIP #OTD in 1885 poet, strongly identified with her native Galicia and the celebration of the Galician language, Rosalía de Castro died from uterine cancer in Padrón, Spain, aged 48. Panteón de Galegos Ilustres, Convent of San Domingos de Bonaval in Santiago de Compostela, Spain

On this day in 1904, playwright and short story writer Anton Chekhov died from tuberculosis at the age of 44 in Badenweiler, German Empire. Born Anton Pavlovich Chekhov on 29 January 1860 in Taganrog, Ekaterinoslav Governorate, Russian Empire. In my opinion, he is among the greatest writers of short fiction in history. His career as a playwright produced four classics, and his best short stories are highly regarded. Along with Henrik Ibsen and August Strindberg, Chekhov is often referred to as one of the three seminal figures in the birth of early modernism in the theatre. Chekhov practiced as a medical doctor throughout most of his literary career: “Medicine is my lawful wife”, he once said, “and literature is my mistress.”

Chekhov renounced the theatre after the reception of The Seagull in 1896, but the play was revived to acclaim in 1898 by Konstantin Stanislavski’s Moscow Art Theatre, which subsequently also produced Chekhov’s Uncle Vanya and premiered his last two plays, Three Sisters and The Cherry Orchard.

Chekhov had at first written stories only for financial gain, but as his artistic ambition grew, he made formal innovations which have influenced the evolution of the modern short story. He made no apologies for the difficulties this posed to readers, insisting that the role of an artist was to ask questions, not to answer them.

in 1882

in country clothes

(left) with brother Nikolai in 1882

family and friends in 1890 (Top row, left to right) Ivan, Alexander, Father; (second row) unknown friend, Lika Mizinova, Masha, Mother, Seryozha Kiselev; (bottom row) Misha, Anton

classic look: pince-nez, hat and bow-tie

in 1893

Osip Braz: Portrait of Anton Chekhov

with Leo Tolstoy at Yalta, 1900

with Olga, 1901, on their honeymoon

Anton Chekhov Monument in Alexandrovsk-Sakhalinsky, Russia

On 25 May 1901, Chekhov married Olga Knipper quietly, owing to his horror of weddings. She was a former protegée and sometime lover of Nemirovich-Danchenko whom he had first met at rehearsals for The Seagull. Up to that point, Chekhov, known as “Russia’s most elusive literary bachelor,” had preferred passing liaisons and visits to brothels over commitment. He had once written:

By all means I will be married if you wish it. But on these conditions: everything must be as it has been hitherto — that is, she must live in Moscow while I live in the country, and I will come and see her … I promise to be an excellent husband, but give me a wife who, like the moon, won’t appear in my sky every day.

The letter proved prophetic of Chekhov’s marital arrangements with Olga: he lived largely at Yalta, she in Moscow, pursuing her acting career.

By May 1904, Chekhov was terminally ill with tuberculosis. Mikhail Chekhov recalled that “everyone who saw him secretly thought the end was not far off, but the nearer [he] was to the end, the less he seemed to realise it.” On 3 June, he set off with Olga for the German spa town of Badenweiler in the Black Forest, from where he wrote outwardly jovial letters to his sister Masha, describing the food and surroundings, and assuring her and his mother that he was getting better. In his last letter, he complained about the way German women dressed.

The Final Footprint

Chekhov’s death has become one of the great stories of literary history, retold, embroidered, and fictionalised many times since, notably in the short story “Errand” by Raymond Carver. In 1908, Olga wrote this account of her husband’s last moments:

Anton sat up unusually straight and said loudly and clearly (although he knew almost no German): Ich sterbe (“I’m dying”). The doctor calmed him, took a syringe, gave him an injection of camphor, and ordered champagne. Anton took a full glass, examined it, smiled at me and said: “It’s a long time since I drank champagne.” He drained it and lay quietly on his left side, and I just had time to run to him and lean across the bed and call to him, but he had stopped breathing and was sleeping peacefully as a child …

Chekhov’s body was transported to Moscow in a refrigerated railway car meant for oysters. Some of the thousands of mourners followed the funeral procession of a General Keller by mistake, to the accompaniment of a military band. Chekhov was buried next to his father at the Novodevichy Cemetery, Moscow.

On this day in 1997, fashion designer and founder of Gianni Versace S.p.A., Gianni Versace died from a gunshot wound on the steps of his Miami Beach mansion, the former Casa Casuarina now known as “The Villa By Barton G.”, as he returned from a morning walk on Ocean Drive, at the age of 50. Versace was shot by Andrew Cunanan, who later shot himself, for unknow reasons. Born Gianni Marcus Versace on 2 December 1946, in Reggio Calabria, Italy, where he grew up with his elder brother Santo and younger sister Donatella, along with their father and dressmaker mother, Francesca.

Gianni Versace S.p.A., an international fashion house, produces accessories, fragrances, make-up and home furnishings as well as clothes. He also designed costumes for the theatre and films. Versace met his partner Antonio D’Amico, a model, in 1982. Their relationship lasted until Versace’s murder.

The Final Footprint – Versace’s body was cremated and his cremains were returned to the family’s estate near Cernobbio, Italy, and inurned in the family vault at Moltrasio cemetery near Lake Como. Versace’s brother, Santo, and Jorge Saud were named the new CEOs of Gianni Versace S.p.A. Versace’s sister, Donatella, became the new head of design. In his will, Versace left 50% of his fashion empire to his niece Allegra Versace. Her younger brother, Daniel, inherited Versace’s rare artwork collection. Versace was portrayed by Franco Nero in the 1998 film The Versace Murder, and by Enrico Colantoni in the 2013 Lifetime film House of Versace.

#RIP #OTD in 2012 actress (Gentleman’s Agreement, All About Eve, The Snake Pit, A Letter to Three Wives, High Society) Celeste Holm died at her Manhattan Central Park West apartment, aged 95. Cremation

#RIP #OTD in 2017 actor (North by Northwest; Mission: Impossible; Tucker; Crimes and Misdemeanors; Ed Wood; Rounders), Martin Landau died at UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles from internal bleeding and heart disease aged 89. Beth David Cemetery in Elmont, New York

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Posted in Cowboy Footprints, Day in History, Infamous Footprints | Tagged anton chekhov, Beth David Cemetery, Buried, Celeste Holm, Cemetery, cremated remains, Cremation, donatella versace, epitaph, gianni versace, Ground Burial, History, Martin Landau, riptff, Rosalía de Castro, tff, the final footprint, versace | Leave a comment

On this day 14 July death of Germaine de Staël – Billy the Kid – Quentin Roosevelt – Julie Manet – Maryam Mirzakhani

Posted on 29 JulamTue, 14 Jul 2026 00:18:00 -05002026-07-14T00:18:00-05:0012 2011 by MacGregor

RIP #OTD in 1817 philosopher, writer (Delphine, Corinne ou l’Italie, De l’Allemagne), political theorist, opponent of Napoleon, Germaine de Staël died at her home in Paris aged 51. Cimetière de Coppet, Switzerland

On this day in 1881, frontier outlaw, Henry McCarty, William H. Bonney, Billy the Kid died after being shot by Pat Garrett in Fort Sumner, New Mexico Territory at the age of 21. Possibly born William Henry McCarty, Jr. on 23 November 1859 in New York City. Very little is known of his early years. It is known that his mother’s name was Catherine and that she was Irish. She married William Antrim in 1873 in Santa Fe and the family settled in Silver City. Legend has The Kid killing 21 men but the actual tally is certainly far less. The legend and The Kid’s folk hero status were fueled by stories printed in the Las Vegas Gazette (Las Vegas, New Mexico) and the New York Sun. In 1877, The Kid moved to Lincoln County where he met Doc Scurlock and Charlie Bowdre and became involved in the Lincoln County War with John Tunstall and Alexander McSween on one side and Lawrence Murphy and James Dolan on the other side.

The Final Footprint – The Kid is interred in Old Fort Sumner Cemetery in Fort Sumner between his fellow outlaw companions, Tom O’Folliard and Bowdre. Their graves are marked by an upright stone marker with the epitaph; PALS. The gravesite is enclosed by a steel cage to prevent theft as their marker had been stolen twice. The Kid has been the subject and inspiration for many books, films and songs including;

Anything for Billy (1998) novel by Larry McMurtry
The Outlaw (1943) film by Howard Hughes starring Jack Buetel as Billy and featuring Jane Russell in her breakthrough role as the Kid’s fictional love interest
The Left Handed Gun (1958) film by Arthur Penn based on a Gore Vidal teleplay, starring Paul Newman as Billy and John Dehner as Garrett
Chisum (1970) film starring John Wayne as John Chisum, which deals with Billy the Kid’s involvement in the Lincoln County War. Billy is portrayed by Geoffrey Deuel
Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid (1973) film by Sam Peckinpah with Kris Kristofferson as Billy, James Coburn as Pat Garrett, and with a soundtrack by Bob Dylan, who also appears in the movie
Young Guns (1988) film by Christopher Cain starring Emilio Estevez as Billy, John Wayne’s son Patrick as Pat Garrett, Kiefer Sutherland as Doc Scurlock, Jack Palance as Lawrence Murphy, Lou Diamond Phillips as Chavez, Charlie Sheen as Richard Brewer, Brian Keith as Buckshot Roberts, Tom Cruise as an uncredited cowboy and Randy Travis as an uncredited Gatling gunner.
Gore Vidal’s Billy the Kid (1989) film by Vidal starring Val Kilmer as Billy and Duncan Regehr as Pat Garrett
Billy the Kid, (1938) ballet by Aaron Copland
“The Ballad of Billy the Kid” song by Billy Joel from his album Piano Man (1973)
“Me and Billy the Kid” song by Joe Ely from his album Lord of the Highway (1987)
Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid (1973) soundtrack album by Bob Dylan

On this day in 1918, Bastille Day, the youngest son of Teddy Roosevelt, United States Army Second Lieutenant, 95th Aero Squadron, Quentin Roosevelt died when his plane, a Nieuport 28, was shot down during aerial combat with German fighter planes over France, at the age of 20. Born on 19 November 1897 in Oyster Bay, New York. He was a graduate of Harvard. Lieutenant Roosevelt was engaged to Flora Payne Whitney, the great-granddaughter of Cornelius Vanderbilt, one of the country’s richest men, and also an heiress to the Whitney family fortune.

The Final Footprint – Lieutenant Roosevelt was interred by the Germans near Chamery, France where his plane crashed. After his grave came under Allied control, thousands of American soldiers visited it to pay their respects. Lieutenant Roosevelt’s resting place became a shrine and an inspiration to his comrades in arms. The French placed a headstone with the inscription:

Lieutenant

Quentin Roosevelt

Escadrille 95

Tombé glorieusement

En combat aerien

Le 14 Juillet 1918

Pour le droit

Et la liberté

(Fell Gloriously In air combat For the right And freedom)

Allied troops visiting Lieutenant Roosevelt’s grave near Chamery, France during WWI

Later, his grave was marked with a full ledger marble marker with the epitaph; “He has outsoared the shadow of our night.” When the World War II Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial was established in France at Colleville-sur-Mer, Lieutenant Roosevelt’s body was exhumed and moved there. He is interred next to his brother Brigadier General Theodore Roosevelt, Jr., who had died of a heart attack in France shortly after leading his troops in landings on Utah Beach on D-Day as Assistant 4th Infantry Division Commander. Lieutenant Roosevelt’s grave is marked by an upright marble cross. When Lieutenant Roosevelt was exhumed, his marble ledger was moved to Sagamore Hill, the Roosevelt home near Oyster Bay, which is now Sagamore Hill National Historic Site and also includes the Theodore Roosevelt Museum. The Normandy American Cemetery is featured in the Steven Spielberg film Saving Private Ryan (1998) starring Tom Hanks, Tom Sizemore, Matt Damon and Vin Diesel. The film’s premise is possibly based on the Niland brothers, four American brothers (Frederick, Edward, Robert and Preston) from Tonawanda, New York, serving in the military during World War II. Of the four, two survived the war, but for a time it was believed that only one, Frederick, had survived. Preston and Robert are interred at the Normandy American Cemetery.

#RIP #OTD in 1966 painter, model, diarist, art collector daughter of Berthe Morisot & Eugène Manet, Julie Manet died in Paris aged 87. Passy Cemetery, Paris (Morisot, Julie Manet and Her Greyhound Laertes, 1893)

#RIP #OTD in 2017 mathematician, a professor of mathematics at Stanford University, first woman an Iranian Fields Medal winner, Maryam Mirzakhani died from breast cancer at Stanford Hospital in Stanford, aged 40. Los Gatos Memorial Park, San Jose, California

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Posted in Day in History, Extravagant Footprints, Military Footprints | Tagged Billy the Kid, Buried, Cemetery, chamery, Cimetière de Coppet, Cimetière de Passy, Colleville-sur-Mer, epitaph, Germaine de Staël, Ground Burial, Harvard College, History, Julie Manet, Los Gatos Memorial Park, marble cross, marble ledger, Maryam Mirzakhani, matt damon, niland brothers, normandy, quentin roosevelt, riptff, sagamore hill, saving private ryan, steven spielberg, Teddy Roosevelt, tff, the final footprint, Theodore Roosevelt, theodore roosevelt jr, tom hanks | Leave a comment

On this day 13 July death of Jean-Paul Marat – Johnny Ringo – Alfred Stieglitz – Frida Kahlo – George Steinbrenner – Thomas Berger

Posted on 29 JulamMon, 13 Jul 2026 00:03:00 -05002026-07-13T00:03:00-05:0012 2011 by MacGregor

On this day in 1793, physician, political theorist, and scientist, Jean-Paul Marat was murdered in his bathtub in Paris by Charlotte Corday, a Girondist sympathizer. He was 50. His last words were to his wife Simonne, “Aidez-moi, ma chère amie!” (“Help me, my dear friend!”) Born on 24 May 1743 in Boudry, Principality of Neuenburg (Neuchâtel), Prussia (in present-day Canton of Neuchâtel, Switzerland). Perhaps best known for his career in France as a radical journalist and politician during the French Revolution. His journalism became renowned for its fierce tone, uncompromising stance toward the new leaders and institutions of the revolution, and advocacy of basic human rights for the poorest members of society. Marat was one of the most radical voices of the French Revolution. He became a vigorous defender of the sans-culottes, publishing his views in pamphlets, placards and newspapers, including the “L’ami du peuple”, which helped make him their unofficial link with the radical, republican Jacobin group that came to power after June 1793. In his death he became an icon to the Jacobins, a sort of revolutionary martyr, as portrayed in Jacque-Louis David’s famous painting of his death.

The Final Footprint – After his death, he was immortalized in various ways in order to preserve the values he stood for. His heart was removed and hung from the ceiling of the Cordeliers Club in order to inspire speeches that were similar in style to Marat’s eloquent journalistic skills. On his tomb, the inscription on a plaque read: “Unité, Indivisibilité de la République, Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité ou la mort”. His remains were transferred to the Panthéon on 25 November 1793 and his near messianic role in the Revolution was confirmed with the elegy: Like Jesus, Marat loved ardently the people, and only them. Like Jesus, Marat hated kings, nobles, priests, rogues and, like Jesus, he never stopped fighting against these plagues of the people. The eulogy was given by the Marquis de Sade, delegate of the Section Piques and an ally of Marat’s faction in the National Convention. On 19 November, the port city of Le Havre-de-Grâce changed its name to Le Havre-de-Marat and then Le Havre-Marat. When the Jacobins started their dechristianisation campaign to set up the Cult of Reason of Hébert and Chaumette and Cult of the Supreme Being of Robespierre, Marat was made a quasi-saint, and his bust often replaced crucifixes in the former churches of Paris. By early 1795, Marat’s memory had become tarnished. On 13 January 1795, Le Havre-Marat became simply Le Havre, the name it bears today. In February, his coffin was removed from the Panthéon and his busts and sculptures were destroyed. His final resting place is the cemetery of the church of Saint-Étienne-du-Mont.

On this day in 1882, outlaw Cowboy of the American Old West who was affiliated with Ike Clanton and Frank Stilwell in Cochise County, Arizona Territory during 1881-1882, Johnny Ringo was found dead in the crotch of a large tree in West Turkey Creek Valley, near Chiricahua Peak, Arizona, with a bullet hole in his right temple and an exit wound at the back of his head. He was 32. A single shot had been heard by a neighbor late in the evening the day before on July 13. The property owner found Ringo sitting on the low-leaning trunk and fork of a large tree by the river (a fallen trunk next to which Ringo is now buried). Ringo’s revolver had one round expended and was found hanging by one finger in his hand. His feet were wrapped in pieces of his undershirt. His horse was found two weeks later, Ringo’s boots tied to the saddle of his horse, a common method to keep scorpions out of boots. After an inquest, the coroner found that death had been caused by a single shot through the head, and Ringo’s death was officially ruled a suicide. Born John Peters Ringo on 3 May 1850 in Greensfork, Indiana.

The Final Footprint – Ringo is buried close to where his body was found in West Turkey Creek Canyon at the base of the tree in which he was found, which fell around 2010. The grave is located on private land and is not publicly accessible. In the 1993 film Tombstone, Ringo is played by Michael Biehn. In this version, he is second in command of The Cowboys. He is characterized as a violent sociopath who aspires to humiliate and destroy Doc Holliday, portrayed by Val Kilmer. He is also characterized as highly educated, at one point trading taunts in Latin with Holliday. In the film, Holliday kills him.

#RIP #OTD in 1946 photographer, modern art promoter, husband of Georgia O’Keeffe, Alfred Stieglitz died from a stroke in New York City with O’Keeffe by his side, aged 82. Cremated remains interred under a tree on the shore of Lake George, New York

On this day in 1954, painter Frida Kahlo died at the age of 47 at her home, La Casa Azul in Coyoacán, Mexico City, Mexico. The official cause of death was pulmonary embolism, although no autopsy was performed. Born Magdalena Carmen Frida Kahlo y Calderón on July 6, 1907 in Coyoacán. Inspired by Mexican popular culture, she employed a naïve folk art style to explore questions of identity, postcolonialism, gender, class, and race in Mexican society. Her paintings often had autobiographical elements and mixed realism with fantasy. In addition to belonging to the post-revolutionary Mexicanidad movement, which sought to define a Mexican identity, Kahlo has been described as a Surrealist or magical realist. Her work has been celebrated internationally as emblematic of Mexican national and indigenous traditions, and by feminists for what is seen as its uncompromising depiction of the female experience and form.

Kahlo was interested in politics and in 1927 joined the Mexican Communist Party. Through the Party, she met the celebrated muralist Diego Rivera. They were married in 1928, and remained a couple until Kahlo’s death. The relationship was volatile due to both having extramarital affairs; they divorced in 1940, but remarried the following year.

The Final Footprint –

Kahlo seemed to anticipate her death, as she spoke about it to visitors and drew skeletons and angels in her diary. The last drawing was a black angel, which biographer Hayden Herrera interprets as the Angel of Death. Reportedly, it was accompanied by the last words she wrote, “I joyfully await the exit — and I hope never to return — Frida” (“Espero alegre la salida — y espero no volver jamás”).

Herrera has argued that Kahlo in fact died by suicide. The nurse, who counted Kahlo’s painkillers to monitor her drug use, stated that Kahlo had taken an overdose the night she died. She had been prescribed a maximum dose of seven pills, but had taken eleven. She had also given Rivera a wedding anniversary present that evening, over a month in advance.

On the evening of July 13, Kahlo’s body was taken to the Palacio de Bellas Artes, where it laid in state under a Communist flag. The following day, it was carried to the Panteón Civil de Dolores, where friends and family attended an informal funeral ceremony. In accordance with her wishes, Kahlo was cremated. Rivera, who stated that her death was “the most tragic day of my life”, died three years later in 1957. Kahlo’s ashes are displayed in a pre-Columbian urn at La Casa Azul, which was opened as a museum in 1958.

On this day in 2010, the morning of the 2010 Major League Baseball All-Star Game, United States Air Force veteran, shipping magnate, entrepreneur and owner of the New York Yankees, "The Boss", George Steinbrenner died of a heart attack at St. Joseph's Hospital in Tampa, Florida, at the age of 80. Born George Michael Steinbrenner III on 4 July 1930 in Rocky River, Ohio. During Steinbrenner's 37-year ownership, beginning in 1973, the longest in club history, the Yankees earned 7 World Series titles and 11 pennants. He received his B.A. from Williams College and his M.A. from Ohio State University. Steinbrenner was married once to Elizabeth Joan Zieg (1956-2010 his death).

The Final Footprint - Steinbrenner is entombed in the Steinbrenner Private Mausoleum at Trinity Memorial Gardens in New Port Richey, Florida. The Steinbrenner family added a monument to Monument Park at Yankee Stadium on 20 September 2010 to honor Steinbrenner. Monument Park is an open-air museum containing a collection of monuments, plaques, and retired numbers honoring distinguished members of the Yankees. Other notable Yankees whose final footprints include memorialization in Monument Park; Mel Allen, Lou Gehrig, Joe DiMaggio, Billy Martin, Babe Ruth, Bob Sheppard, Thurman Munson, Mickey Mantle, Roger Maris, Phil Rizzuto, and Casey Stengel.

#RIP #OTD in 2014, novelist (Little Big Man, Neighbors, The Feud, the return of little big man), Thomas Berger died in Nyack, New York aged 89. Cremation

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Posted in Athletic Footprints, Cowboy Footprints, Day in History, Extravagant Footprints, Political Footprints | Tagged Alfred Stieglitz, all star game, baseball, Cemetery, charlotte corday, church of saint etienne du mont, Cremation, Crypts, doc holliday, Entomb, frank stilwell, French Revolution, Frida kahlo, george steinbrenner, History, ike clanton, jacque louis david, jean paul marat, johnny ringo, marquis de sade, michael biehn, Monument Park, New York Yankees, ohio state university, Pantheon, pennant, Private Mausoleum, riptff, tff, the boss, the final footprint, Thomas Berger, tombstone, trinity memorial gardens, val kilmer, world series, yankee stadium | Leave a comment

On this day 12 July death of Alexander Hamilton – Gertrude Bell – Alfred Dreyfus – Lon Chaney, Jr. – Minnie Riperton – Bobby Murcer – Kelly Preston – Ruth Westheimer

Posted on 29 JulamSun, 12 Jul 2026 00:57:00 -05002026-07-12T00:57:00-05:0012 2011 by MacGregor

Hamilton portrait by John Trumbull

On this day in 1804, military officer, lawyer, financier, political theorist, economist, philosopher, one of the Founding Fathers of the United States, 1st United States Secretary of the Treasury, Alexander Hamilton died from a gunshot wound suffered in a duel with Vice President Aaron Burr along the west bank of the Hudson River on a rocky ledge in Weehawken, New Jersey, at the age of either 47 or 49. Born 11 January in 1755 or 1757 in Charlestown, the capital of the island of Nevis, in the Caribbean Sea; Nevis was then one of the British West Indies.

He was an influential interpreter and promoter of the U.S. Constitution, as well as the founder of the nation’s financial system, the Federalist Party, the United States Coast Guard, and the New York Post newspaper. As the first Secretary of the Treasury, Hamilton was the main author of the economic policies of George Washington’s administration. He took the lead in the Federal government’s funding of the states’ debts, as well as establishing the nation’s first two de facto central banks, the Bank of North America and the First Bank of the United States, a system of tariffs, and friendly trade relations with Britain. His vision included a strong central government led by a vigorous executive branch, a strong commercial economy, government-controlled banks, support for manufacturing, and a strong military.

Hamilton was born out of wedlock. He was orphaned as a child and taken in by a prosperous merchant. When he reached his teens, he was sent to New York to pursue his education. He took an early role in the militia as the American Revolutionary War began. In 1777, he became a senior aide to General Washington in running the new Continental Army. After the war, he was elected as a representative from New York to the Congress of the Confederation. He resigned to practice law and founded the Bank of New York before entering politics. Hamilton was a leader in seeking to replace the weak confederal government under the Articles of Confederation; he led the Annapolis Convention of 1786, which spurred Congress to call a Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia. He helped ratify the Constitution by writing 51 of the 85 installments of The Federalist Papers, which are still used as one of the most important references for Constitutional interpretation.

Hamilton led the Treasury Department as a trusted member of President Washington’s first Cabinet. Hamilton successfully argued that the implied powers of the Constitution provided the legal authority to fund the national debt, to assume states’ debts, and to create the government-backed Bank of the United States (the First Bank of the United States). These programs were funded primarily by a tariff on imports, and later by a controversial whiskey tax. He opposed friendly relations with the French revolutionaries. Hamilton’s views became the basis for the Federalist Party, which was opposed to the Democratic-Republican Party led by Thomas Jefferson and James Madison. In 1795, he returned to the practice of law in New York. He called for mobilization against the French First Republic in 1798–99 under President John Adams, and became Commanding General of the U.S. Army, which he reconstituted, modernized, and readied for war. The army did not see combat in the Quasi-War, and Hamilton was outraged by Adams’ diplomatic approach to the crisis with France. His opposition to Adams’ re-election helped cause the Federalist party defeat in 1800. Jefferson and Aaron Burr tied for the presidency in the electoral college, and Hamilton helped to defeat Burr, whom he found unprincipled, and to elect Jefferson despite philosophical differences.

Hamilton continued his legal and business activities in New York City, and was active in ending the legality of the international slave trade. Vice President Burr ran for governor of New York State in 1804, and Hamilton campaigned against him as unworthy. Taking offense, Burr challenged him to a duel on July 11, 1804, in which Burr shot and mortally wounded Hamilton. Hamilton is generally regarded as an astute and intellectually brilliant politician and financier, if often impetuous. His ideas are credited with laying the foundation for American government and finance.

The Final Footprint – Hamilton is entombed in a marble tomb in the graveyard of Trinity Church at Wall Street and Broadway in Lower Manhattan. His epitaph reads; The PATRIOT of incorruptible INTEGRITY. The SOLDIER of approved VALOUR. The STATESMAN of consummate WISDOM; Whose TALENTS and VIRTUES will be admired Grateful Posterity. Long after this MARBLE shall have mouldered into DUST.

#RIP #OTD in 1926, writer, traveller, political officer, administrator, and archaeologist Gertrude Bell died in Baghdad of an apparent overdose of sleeping pills at the age of 57. British cemetery in Baghdad’s Bab al-Sharji district

#RIP #OTD in 1935 French artillery officer of Jewish ancestry whose trial and conviction in 1894 on charges of treason became one of the most polarizing political dramas in modern French history, Alfred Dreyfus died in Paris aged 75. Cimetière du Montparnasse, Paris

On this day in 1973, the son of famous silent film actor, Lon Chaney, actor Lon Chaney, Jr. died of heart failure at age 67 in San Clemente, California. Born Creighton Tull Chaney on 10 February 1906 in Oklahoma City. Perhaps best known for playing such characters as The Wolf Man, The Mummy, Frankenstein’s Monster and Count Alucard for Universal. He is also notable for portraying Lennie Small in Of Mice and Men. From Warren Zevon’s song “Werewolves of London”; Well, I saw Lon Chaney walking with the Queen, / Doing the Werewolves of London / I saw Lon Chaney, Jr. walking with the Queen / Doing the Werewolves of London.

The Final Footprint – His body was donated for medical research. Chaney’s corpse was dissected by medical students, and the medical school kept his liver and lungs in jars as specimens of what extreme alcohol and tobacco abuse can do to human organs. There is no grave to mark his final resting place.

#RIP #OTD in 1979 singer-songwriter (“Lovin’ You”), the “Queen of the Whistle Register”, Minnie Riperton died from breast cancer at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles in the arms of her husband Richard Rudolph, aged 31. Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery, Los Angeles

On this day in 2008, baseball player, 5x All-Star, New York Yankee, Bobby Murcer died from brain cancer, surrounded by his family at his home in Oklahoma City at the age of 62. Born Bobby Ray Murcer on 20 May 1946 in Oklahoma City.

He played for 17 seasons between 1965 and 1983, mostly with the Yankees, whom he later rejoined as a longtime broadcaster.

Murcer married his high school sweetheart, Diana Kay Rhodes (known as “Kay”), in 1966. They were married for 42 years until his death.

The Final Footprint – Yankees owner George Steinbrenner issued a statement following his death: “Bobby Murcer was a born Yankee, a great guy, very well-liked and a true friend of mine. I extend my deepest sympathies to his wife Kay, their children and grandchildren. I will really miss the guy.” Baseball commissioner Bud Selig eulogized, “All of Major League Baseball is saddened today by the passing of Bobby Murcer, particularly on the eve of this historic All-Star game at Yankee Stadium, a place he called home for so many years. Bobby was a gentleman, a great ambassador for baseball, and a true leader both on and off the field. He was a man of great heart and compassion.” The memorial service for Bobby was held in Edmond, OK on 6 August 2008, at the Memorial Road Church of Christ. Among the some 2,000 attending the memorial were Reggie Jackson, Derek Jeter, Andy Pettitte and Joe Girardi. Also in attendance Diana Munson, widow of Yankee captain Thurman Munson. The August 6 date was 29 years, to the day, since Murcer gave a eulogy at Munson’s funeral and is also the 25th anniversary of Bobby Murcer Day at Yankee Stadium. The uniform worn by Murcer at his final Yankee Stadium Old Timer’s Day appearance in 2007 was presented to his spouse Kay. Murcer is entombed in Rose Hill Mausoleum, in Oklahoma City, in the left side of the building.

#RIP #OTD 2020 actress (Mischief, Twins, Jerry Maguire, For Love of the Game, The Experts, Gotti, SpaceCamp, The Cat in the Hat, What a Girl Wants, Sky High, Old Dogs) Kelly Preston died at her home in Clearwater, Florida, from breast cancer, aged 57. Cremation

#RIP #OTD in 2024, sex therapist, academic, talk show host, author, Dr. Ruth Westheimer died in her Manhattan home aged 96. Cedar park Cemetery, Paramus, New Jersey

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Posted in Athletic Footprints, Day in History, Extravagant Footprints, Film Footprints, Military Footprints, Political Footprints | Tagged aaron burr, alexander hamilton, alfred dreyfus, andy pettitte, bobby murcer, bud selig, Cedar park cemetery, Cemetery, Cimetiere du Montparnasse, Crypts, derek jeter, duel, Entomb, epitaph, Founding Fathers, george steinbrenner, Gertrude Bell, History, Inscription, joe girardi, Kelly preston, lon chaney, lon chaney je, Minnie Riperton, Monument, nevis, New York Yankees, reggie jackson, riptff, rose hill mausoleum, Ruth Westheimer, secretary of the treasury, tff, the final footprint, the wolf man, thurman munson, trinity church, warren zevon, werewolves of london, Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery | Leave a comment

On this day 11 July death of George Gershwin – Laurence Olivier – Lady Bird – Bob Sheppard – Shelley Duvall

Posted on 29 JulamSat, 11 Jul 2026 00:21:00 -05002026-07-11T00:21:00-05:0012 2011 by MacGregor

On this day in 1937, composer and pianist, George Gershwin died from a brain tumor at the age of 38 at Cedars Lebanon Hospital in Los Angeles. Born Jacob Gershowitz on 26 September 1898 in Brooklyn. Gershwin’s compositions spanned both popular and classical genres, and his most popular melodies are widely known. Among his best known works are the orchestral compositions Rhapsody in Blue (1924) and An American in Paris (1928), as well as the opera Porgy and Bess (1935). He composed Broadway theatre works with his brother Ira Gershwin and Buddy DeSylva. He moved to Paris to study with Nadia Boulanger, where he began to compose An American in Paris. After returning to New York City, he wrote Porgy and Bess with Ira and the author DuBose Heyward. Porgy and Bess is now considered one of the most important American operas of the twentieth century. Gershwin moved to Hollywood and composed numerous film scores. Gershwin’s compositions have been adapted for use in many films and for television, and several became jazz standards recorded in many variations. Countless celebrated singers and musicians have covered his songs.

The Final Footprint – Gershwin is entombed in the George Gershwin Private Mausoleum at Westchester Hills Cemetery in Hastings-on-Hudson, New York. His brother Ira was entombed in the mausoleum upon his death, 17 August 1983.

On this day in 1989, actor, director and producer, The Right Honourable, The Lord Olivier, Laurence Olivier died at his home in Steyning, West Sussex, England, from renal failure at the age of 82. Born Laurence Kerr Olivier on 22 May 1907 in Dorking, Surrey, United Kingdom. Olivier became determined early on to master Shakespeare, and eventually came to be regarded as one of the foremost Shakespeare interpreters of the 20th century. His three Shakespeare films as actor-director, Henry V (1944), Hamlet (1948), and Richard III (1955), are among the pinnacles of the Bard at the cinema. Olivier was the youngest actor to be knighted as a Knight Bachelor, in 1947, and the first to be elevated to the peerage two decades later. He married three times, to actresses Jill Esmond (1930 – 1940 divorce), Vivien Leigh (1940 – 1960 divorce) and Joan Plowright (1961 – 1989 his death).

The Final Footprint – He was cremated and his ashes inurned in Poets’ Corner in Westminster Abbey, London. 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, George Friederic Handel, Henry III, Henry V, Henry VII, Stephen Hawking, James VI and I, Samuel Johnson, Ben Jonson, Rudyard Kipling, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Mary I, Mary II, Mary Queen of Scots, John Milton, Isaac Newton, Henry Purcell, Richard II, Thomas Shadwell, Edmund Spenser, Lord Alfred Tennyson, Dylan Thomas, and William III.

On this day in 2007, Texas Longhorn, First Lady of the United States, entrepreneur, beloved daughter of Texas, Lady Bird Johnson died at her home in West Lake Hills, Texas at the age of 94. Born Claudia Alta Taylor on 22 December 1912 in Karnack, Texas. Throughout her life, she was an advocate for beautification of the nation’s cities and highways and conservation of natural resources and made that her major initiative as First Lady. After first attending the University of Alabama and St. Mary’s junior college in Dallas, she attended the University of Texas at Austin and earned two bachelor’s degrees; in history and journalism, both with honors. On 17 November 1934 she married Lyndon Baines Johnson at St.Mark’s Episcopal Church in San Antonio. They were married until his death in 1973. Lady Bird was instrumental in froming LBJ Holding Company which owned KTBC radio station, KTBC-TV/7, KLBJ-AM, KLBJ-FM and KGSR. Lady Bird was one of the speakers to address the graduates at UT’s Centennial graduation ceremony in May 1983. We wore burnt orange caps and gowns that night. The Goodyear blimp circled the outdoor ceremony. Some of my fondest childhood memories are playing at my cousins’s house in West Lake Hills where Lady Bird would one day own a home.

The Final Footprint – Lady Bird is interred in the Johnson family cemetery next to LBJ at the LBJ Ranch near Stonewall, Texas. Her grave is marked by an upright individual granite marker with the epitaph; “A gentle heroine for nature and mankind”. Her funeral was attended by representatives of eight presidential families; Nancy Reagan, Rosalynn Carter, Jimmy Carter, Laura Bush, Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton, Caroline Kennedy, Barbara Bush, Susan Ford Bales, Maria Shriver, and Patricia “Tricia” Nixon Cox. Lady Bird declined many overtures to name Austin’s Town Lake in her honor after she had led a campaign to clean up the lake and add trails to its shoreline. After her death, Austin Mayor Will Wynn’s office said it was a “foregone conclusion that Town Lake is going to be renamed” in honor of Lady Bird.The lake was renamed Lady Bird Lake on 26 July 2007. The hike and bike trails around the lake are one of my favorite places in Austin. I have spent many hours walking and running and thinking on those trails.

On this day in 2010, United States Navy veteran, public address announcer Bob Sheppard died at his home in Baldwin, New York on July 11, 2010, three months and nine days shy of his 100th birthday. Born Robert Leo Sheppard on 20 October 1910, in Richmond Hill, Queens, New York City. Sheppard was the long-time public address announcer for numerous New York area college and professional sports teams, in particular the MLB New York Yankees (1951–2007), and the NFL New York Giants (1956–2006). Sheppard announced more than 4,500 Yankees baseball games over a period of 56 years, including 22 pennant-winning seasons and 13 World Series championships; he called 121 consecutive postseason contests, 62 games in 22 World Series, and six no-hitters, including three perfect games. Sheppard was also the in-house voice for a half-century of Giants football games, encompassing nine conference championships, three NFL championships (1956, 1986, 1990), and the game often called “the greatest ever played”, the classic 1958 championship loss to Baltimore. His smooth, distinctive baritone and precise, consistent elocution became iconic aural symbols of both the old Yankee Stadium and Giants Stadium. Reggie Jackson famously nicknamed him “The Voice of God”, while Carl Yastrzemski once said, “You’re not in the big leagues until Bob Sheppard announces your name.”

The Final Footprint – Sheppard was interred in Long Island National Cemetery, Farmingdale, New York. In announcing his father’s death, Sheppard’s son Paul said, “I know St. Peter will now recruit him. If you’re lucky enough to go to Heaven, you’ll be greeted by a voice saying, ‘Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to Heaven!” In 2008, Derek Jeter asked Sheppard to record his at-bat introductions. The recordings have been used to introduce each of Jeter’s home at-bats since the beginning of the 2008 season, and will continue to do so for the rest of his Yankee career. Sheppard said: “It has been one of the greatest compliments I have received in my career of announcing. The fact that he wanted my voice every time he came to bat is a credit to his good judgment and my humility.” A recording of Sheppard was also used to introduce Jeter at the 2010 All-Star Game in Anaheim two days after Sheppard’s death. The Yankees wore a Bob Sheppard commemorative patch on the left sleeve of their home and road jerseys for the remainder of the 2010 season. The Yankees’ first home game after Sheppard’s death, a 5–4 victory over the Tampa Bay Rays on 16 July 2010, was played with an empty PA booth and no public address announcements. On 26 September 2013 a recording of Sheppard’s introduction, followed by Metallica’s “Enter Sandman”, was played as Mariano Rivera stepped to the mound at Yankee Stadium for the final time. The Yankees dedicated a plaque in his memory for Monument Park at Yankee Stadium. Monument Park is an open-air museum containing a collection of monuments, plaques, and retired numbers honoring distinguished members of the Yankees. Other notable Yankees whose final footprints include memorialization in Monument Park; Mel Allen, Lou Gehrig, Joe DiMaggio, Babe Ruth, George Steinbrenner, Roger Maris, Thurman Munson, Mickey Mantle, Roger Maris, Phil Rizzuto, Billy Martin, and Casey Stengel.

#RIP #OTD in 2024 actress (Popeye; Nashville; 3 Women; Time Bandits; The Shining), producer, Shelley Duvall died in her sleep from diabetes complications in Blanco, Texas aged 75. Cremated

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Posted in Athletic Footprints, Day in History, Extravagant Footprints, Film Footprints, Longhorn Footprints, Musical Footprints, Political Footprints | Tagged an american in paris, bob sheppard, Buried, Cemetery, Cremation, derek jeter, enter sandman, first lady of the united states, george gershwin, Ground Burial, History, Inscription, ira gershwin, KLBJ, ktbc, Lady Bird, lady bird johnson, lake lady bird, laurence olivier, LBJ, lbj ranch, mariano rivera, Marker, metallica, Monument Park, New York Yankees, Poet's Corner, porgy and bess, Private Estates, rhapsody in blue, riptff, shakespeare, Shelley Duvall, tff, the final footprint, town lake, University of Texas at Austin, ut, Vivien Leigh, west lake hills, westchester hills cemetery, Westminster Abbey | 1 Comment

On this day 10 July death of Louis Daguerre – Jelly Roll Morton – Frank Hamer – Mel Blanc – Omar Sharif

Posted on 29 JulamFri, 10 Jul 2026 00:48:00 -05002026-07-10T00:48:00-05:0012 2011 by MacGregor

#RIP #OTD 1851 artist, inventor, photographer, Louis Daguerre died from a heart attack in Bry-sur-Marne, France, aged 63. Cimetière de Bry-sur-Marne

On this day in 1941, ragtime and early jazz pianist, bandleader and composer, Jelly Roll Morton died in Los Angeles County General Hospital at the age of 55 from asthma related complications. Born Ferdinand Joseph LaMothe (possibly spelled Lemott, LaMotte or LaMenthe) on 20 September 1885 in the Faubourg Marigny neighborhood of downtown New Orleans. Widely recognized as a pivotal figure in early jazz, Morton is perhaps most notable as jazz’s first arranger, proving that a genre rooted in improvisation could retain its essential spirit and characteristics when notated. His composition “Jelly Roll Blues” was the first published jazz composition, in 1915. Morton is also notable for naming and popularizing the “Spanish tinge” (habanera rhythm and tresillo), and for writing such standards as “Wolverine Blues”, “Black Bottom Stomp”, and “I Thought I Heard Buddy Bolden Say”, the latter a tribute to New Orleans personalities from the turn of the 19th century to 20th century.

The Final Footprint – Morton is interred in Calvary Cemetery in Los Angeles 4201 Whittier Blvd, Los Angeles, California, Section N, Lot 347, grave #4,in the north west quadrant of the cemetery. Read David Fulmer’s novel of murder, music and madness, Chasing the Devil’s Tail, a well written time travel to early 1900 New Orleans and the Storyville district with a cast of real (Bolden, E. J. Bellocq, Jelly Roll Morton) and fictional characters

On this day in 1955, Texas Ranger, Frank Hamer died in Austin, Texas at the age of 71. Born Francis Augustus Hamer on 17 March 1884 in Fairview, Texas. Known in popular culture for his involvement in tracking down and killing the criminal duo Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow in 1934. In a career that spanned the last days of the Wild West well into the automobile age, Hamer acquired legendary status in the Southwest as the archetypal Texas Ranger. He is an inductee to the Texas Ranger Hall of Fame. Hamer fought in nearly 100 gunfights during his career as a lawmen in the Southwest and is reputed to have killed fifty-three men. He was also wounded in action seventeen times and left for dead four times. J. Edgar Hoover rated Hamer as being “one of the greatest law officers in American history.” Furthermore, several Texas governors regarded him as “the best, most fearless and most effective peace officer Texas has ever known.”

The Final Footprint – Hamer is interred near his son in Austin Memorial Park Cemetery in Austin. Other notable final footprints at Austin Memorial Park inlcude James Michener, Harvey Penick, Bibb Falk, and Noble Doss.

On this day in 1989, voice actor and comedian, The Man of a Thousand Voices, Mel Blanc died at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, California of heart disease and emphysema at the age of 81. Born Melvin Jerome Blank on 30 May 1908 in San Francisco. Blanc is best remembered for his work with Warner Bros. and Hanna-Barbera television productions as the voice of such well-known animated characters as Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Porky Pig, Sylvester the Cat, Tweety Bird, Pepé Le Pew, Elmer Fudd, Foghorn Leghorn, Yosemite Sam, Wile E. Coyote, The Tasmanian Devil, Woody Woodpecker, Barney Rubble, Dino the Dinosaur, Mr. Spacely, Speed Buggy, Captain Caveman, Heathcliff, and Speedy Gonzales. Blanc was married once to Estelle Rosenbaum (1933-1989 his death).

The Final Footprint – Blanc is interred in the Garden of the Exodus in Hollywood Forever Cemetery in Hollywood. His grave is marked by a large upright individual granite marker engraved with the Star of David and the inscriptions, “THAT’S ALL FOLKS” and MAN OF A THOUSAND VOICES and the term of endearment, BELOVED HUSBAND AND FATHER. Other notable Final Footprints at Hollywood Forever include; Chris Cornell, Cecil B. DeMille, Victor Fleming, Judy Garland, Joan Hackett, John Huston, Jayne Mansfield’s cenotaph, Hattie McDaniel‘s cenotaph, Tyrone Power, Nelson Riddle, Mickey Rooney, Bugsy Siegel, Carl “Alfalfa” Switzer, Rudolph Valentino, Fay Wray, and Anton Yelchin.

#RIP #OTD in 2015, actor (Lawrence of Arabia, Doctor Zhivago, Funny Girl) Omar Sharif died from a heart attack at a hospital in Cairo, aged 83. El Sayeda Nafisa Cemetery, Cairo

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Posted in Day in History, Film Footprints, Musical Footprints | Tagged austin memorial park cemetery, bonnie and clyde, bonnie parker, bugs bunny, Buried, Calvary Cemetery, Cemetery, clyde barrow, daffy duck, El Sayeda Nafisa Cemetery, epitaph, foghorn leghorn, frank hamer, granite marker, Ground Burial, History, hollywood forever cemetery, Inscription, j edgar hoover, jelly roll morton, Louis Daguerre, Lovie Austin, mel blanc, Mount Glenwood Memory Gardens, Omar Sharif, pepe le pew, riptff, term of endearment, Texas Ranger, tff, the final footprint, tweety bird, wile e coyote | Leave a comment

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On this day 19 July deaths of Petrarch – Mary Jo Kopechne – Lefty Frizzell – James Garner – Rutger Hauer

On this day 18 July deaths of Caravaggio – Jane Austen – Bobby Fuller – Alex Rocco – Bob Newhart

On this day 17 July deaths of Charlotte Corday – Jim Bridger – The Romanov Family – Billie Holiday – John Coltrane – Mickey Spillane – Walter Cronkite – John Lewis – C. T. Vivian – Alan Bergman

On this day 16 July death of Harry Chapin – May Sarton – Stephen Spender – John F. Kennedy, Jr. – Carolyn Bessette Kennedy – Lauren Bessette – Celia Cruz – Jo Stafford – Kitty Wells – Johnny Winter – George A. Romero – Jane Birkin

The Final Footprint

The Final Footprint

On this day 15 July death of Rosalía de Castro – Anton Chekhov – Gianni Versace – Celeste Holm – Martin Landau

The Final Footprint

On this day 14 July death of Germaine de Staël – Billy the Kid – Quentin Roosevelt – Julie Manet – Maryam Mirzakhani

On this day 13 July death of Jean-Paul Marat – Johnny Ringo – Alfred Stieglitz – Frida Kahlo – George Steinbrenner – Thomas Berger

On this day 12 July death of Alexander Hamilton – Gertrude Bell – Alfred Dreyfus – Lon Chaney, Jr. – Minnie Riperton – Bobby Murcer – Kelly Preston – Ruth Westheimer

On this day 11 July death of George Gershwin – Laurence Olivier – Lady Bird – Bob Sheppard – Shelley Duvall

On this day 10 July death of Louis Daguerre – Jelly Roll Morton – Frank Hamer – Mel Blanc – Omar Sharif

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