RIP The Final Impression | Have you planned yours yet?

On this day 28 March death of Modest Mussorgsky – Katharine Lee Bates – Virginia Woolf – Sergei Rachmaninoff – W. C. Handy – Dwight D. Eisenhower – Dorothy Fields – Françoise Rosay – Marc Chagall – Eugène Ionesco – Peter Ustinov

Posted on 29 MaramSat, 28 Mar 2026 00:09:00 -05002026-03-28T00:09:00-05:0012 2011 by MacGregor

#RIP #OTD in 1881 Russian composer (opera Boris Godunov, the orchestral tone poem Night on Bald Mountain, piano suite Pictures at an Exhibition) Modest Mussorgsky died in Saint Petersburg, aged 42. Tikhvin Cemetery of the Alexander Nevsky Monastery in Saint Petersburg

#RIP #OTD in 1929 professor, poet (“America the Beautiful”), author, social reformist, Katharine Lee Bates died in Wellesley, Massachusetts, while listening to a friend read poetry to her, aged 69. Oak Grove Cemetery at Falmouth, Massachusetts

On this day in 1941, writer Virginia Woolf put on her overcoat, filled its pockets with stones, walked into the River Ouse near her home in Lewes, East Sussex, England, and drowned herself, at the age of 59. Born Adeline Virginia Stephen at 22 Hyde Park Gate in London on 25 January 1882. In my opinion, one of the foremost modernists of the twentieth century. During the interwar period, Woolf was a significant figure in London literary society and a central figure in the influential Bloomsbury Group, an influential group of associated English writers, intellectuals, philosophers and artists. Her most famous works include the novels Mrs Dalloway (1925), To the Lighthouse (1927) and Orlando (1928), and the book-length essay A Room of One’s Own (1929), with its famous dictum, “A woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction.” Woolf suffered from severe bouts of mental illness throughout her life, thought to have been the result of what is now termed bipolar disorder. Virginia Stephen married writer Leonard Woolf on 10 August 1912. Despite his low material status (Woolf referring to Leonard during their engagement as a “penniless Jew”) the couple evidently shared a close bond. The ethos of the Bloomsbury group encouraged a liberal approach to sexuality, and in 1922 she met the writer and gardener Vita Sackville-West, wife of Harold Nicolson. After a tentative start, they began a sexual relationship. In 1928, Woolf presented Sackville-West with Orlando, a fantastical biography in which the eponymous hero’s life spans three centuries and both sexes. Nigel Nicolson, Sackville-West’s son, wrote “The effect of Vita on Virginia is all contained in Orlando, the longest and most charming love letter in literature, in which she explores Vita, weaves her in and out of the centuries, tosses her from one sex to the other, plays with her, dresses her in furs, lace and emeralds, teases her, flirts with her, drops a veil of mist around her”. After their affair ended, the two women remained friends until Woolf’s death.

The Final Footprint – Woolf’s body was not found until 18 April 1941. Woolf was cremated and her husband buried her cremated remains under an elm in the garden of Monk’s House, their home in Rodmell, Sussex. Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? is a Tony Award-winning 1962 play by Edward Albee. It examines the breakdown of the marriage of a middle-aged couple, Martha and George. The title is a pun on the song “Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?” from Walt Disney’s The Three Little Pigs (1933), substituting Woolf’s name. Martha and George repeatedly sing this version of the song throughout the play. The film adaptation was released in 1966, written by Ernest Lehman, directed by Mike Nichols, and starring Richard Burton, Elizabeth Taylor, George Segal and Sandy Dennis. Michael Cunningham’s 1998 Pulitzer Prize–winning novel The Hours focused on three generations of women affected by Woolf’s novel Mrs Dalloway. In 2002, a film version of the novel was released starring Nicole Kidman as Woolf, a role for which she won the 2002 Academy Award for Best Actress. The film also starred Julianne Moore and Meryl Streep and featured an award-winning score by American composer Philip Glass.

On this day in 1943, composer, virtuoso pianist, and conductor of the late Romantic period, Sergei Rachmaninoff died at his home in Beverly Hills from melanoma at the age of 69. Born Sergei Vasilyevich Rachmaninoff on 1 April [O.S. 20 March] 1873 on one of two family estates; either Oneg, near Veliky Novgorod, or Semyonovo, near Staraya Russa. Rachmaninoff took up the piano at the age of four. He graduated from the Moscow Conservatory in 1892, having already composed several piano and orchestral pieces. In 1897, following the negative critical reaction to his Symphony No. 1, Rachmaninoff entered a four-year depression and composed little until successful therapy allowed him to complete his enthusiastically received Piano Concerto No. 2 in 1901. In the course of the next sixteen years, Rachmaninoff conducted at the Bolshoi Theatre, relocated to Dresden, Germany, and toured the United States for the first time. Rachmaninoff often featured the piano in his compositions, and he explored the expressive possibilities of the instrument through his own skills as a pianist.

Following the Russian Revolution, Rachmaninoff and his family left Russia; in 1918, they settled in the United States, first in New York City. With his main source of income coming from piano and conducting performances, demanding tour schedules led to a reduction in his time for composition. Between 1918 and 1943, he completed six works, including Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, Symphony No. 3, and Symphonic Dances. By 1942, his failing health led to his relocation to Beverly Hills, California. One month before his death Rachmaninoff was granted American citizenship.

The Final Footprint

His funeral took place at the Holy Virgin Mary Russian Orthodox Church on Micheltorena Street in Silver Lake, Los Angeles. In his will, Rachmaninoff wished to be buried at Novodevichy Cemetery in Moscow, the same as Scriabin, Taneyev, and Chekhov, but his American citizenship could not see the request through. Instead, he was interred at Kensico Cemetery in Valhalla, New York on 1 June 1943.

In August 2015, Russia announced its intention to seek reburial of Rachmaninoff’s remains in Russia, claiming that Americans have neglected the composer’s grave while attempting to “shamelessly privatize” his name. The composer’s descendants have resisted this idea, pointing out that he died in the U.S. after spending decades outside of Russia in self-imposed political exile.

After Rachmaninoff’s death, poet Marietta Shaginyan published fifteen letters they exchanged from their first contact in February 1912 and their final meeting in July 1917. The nature of their relationship bordered on romantic, but was primarily intellectual and emotional. Shaginyan and the poetry she shared with Rachmaninoff has been cited as the inspiration for the six songs that make up his Six Songs, Op. 38.

A statue marked “Rachmaninoff: The Last Concert”, designed and sculpted by Victor Bokarev, stands at the World’s Fair Park in Knoxville, Tennessee as a tribute to the composer.

Other notable final footprints at Kensico include; Anne Bancroft, Tommy Dorsey, Geraldine Farrar, Lou Gehrig, Robert Merrill, Ayn Rand, Beverly Sills, and Florenz Ziegfeld.

#RIP #OTD in 1958 composer (“Memphis Blues”, “Beale Street Blues”, “Saint Louis Blues”) and musician, the Father of the Blues, W. C. Handy died of bronchial pneumonia at Sydenham Hospital in New York City, aged 84. Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx.

On this day in 1969, five-star general and the 34th President of the United States, Ike, Dwight David Eisenhower died of congestive heart failure at Walter Reed Army Hospital in Washington D.C. at the age of 78. Born 14 October 1890 in Denison, Texas. During World War II, he served as Supreme Commander of the Allied forces in Europe, with responsibility for planning and supervising the successful invasion of France and Germany in 1944–45. In 1951, he became the first supreme commander of NATO. A Republican, Eisenhower entered the 1952 presidential race and won by a landslide, defeating Democrat Adlai Stevenson and ending two decades of the New Deal Coalition holding the White House. In the 1956 election, he would again face Stevenson, easily winning re-election. Richard M. Nixon would serve as his vice president for both of his terms in office. Eisenhower graduated from the U. S. Military Academy in West Point. He married Mary Geneva “Mamie”Doud (1916-1969 his death). Eisenhower retired to the place where he and Mamie had spent much of their post-war time, a working farm adjacent to the battlefield at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.

The Final Footprint – Eisenhower is entombed in a small chapel, the Place of Meditation, on the grounds of the Eisenhower Presidential Library in Abilene, Kansas. The day following his death, his body was moved to the Washington National Cathedral’s Bethlehem Chapel where he lay in repose for twenty-eight hours. On March 30, his body was brought by caisson to the United States Capitol where he lay in state in the Capitol Rotunda. On March 31, Eisenhower’s body was returned to the National Cathedral where he was given an Episcopal Church funeral service. That evening, Eisenhower’s body was placed onto a train en route to Abilene. Nixon, by this time president himself, said of Eisenhower’s death; “Some men are considered great because they lead great armies or they lead powerful nations. For eight years now, Dwight Eisenhower has neither commanded an army nor led a nation; and yet he remained through his final days the world’s most admired and respected man, truly the first citizen of the world.” There are many tributes and memorials to Eisenhower. My personal favorite being the Eisenhower tree which overhangs the 17th fairway at Augusta National Golf Club, where he was a member. Evidently the tree proved to be quite an obstacle for him when he played.

#RIP #OTD in 1974 librettist, lyricist (“The Way You Look Tonight”, “A Fine Romance”, “On the Sunny Side of the Street”, “Don’t Blame Me”, “Pick Yourself Up”, “I’m in the Mood for Love”) Dorothy Fields died of a heart attack in New York City, age 69. Lahm private mausoleum Maimonides Cemetery, Brooklyn

#RIP #OTD in 1974 opera singer, diseuse, actress (Crainquebille, La Kermesse Heroïque, Pension Mimosas, Un Carnet de Bal, Une Femme Disparaît, Saraband for Dead Lovers, La Reine Margot, The Seventh Sin, Up From the Beach, Pas Folle la Guêpe, Carnival in Flanders, The Pedestrian) Françoise Rosay died in Montgeron, Île-de-France, near Paris aged 82. Cimetière Sorel-Moussel, Île-de-France

Marc Chagall
Chagall, c.1920 (by Pierre Choumoff)

On this day in 1985, artist Marc Chagall died in Saint-Paul-de-Vence, France at the age of 97. Born Moishe Zakharovich Shagal on 6 July [O.S. 24 June] 1887 in Liozna, near Vitebsk, Russian Empire (presetn day Belarus. An early modernist, he was associated with several major artistic styles and created works in virtually every artistic format, including painting, book illustrations, stained glass, stage sets, ceramic, tapestries and fine art prints.

Before World War I, he travelled between Saint Petersburg, Paris, and Berlin. During this period he created his own mixture and style of modern art based on his idea of Eastern European Jewish folk culture. He spent the wartime years in Soviet Belarus, becoming one of the country’s most distinguished artists and a member of the modernist avant-garde, founding the Vitebsk Arts College before leaving again for Paris in 1922.

He experienced modernism’s “golden age” in Paris, where “he synthesized the art forms of Cubism, Symbolism, and Fauvism, and the influence of Fauvism gave rise to Surrealism”. Yet throughout these phases of his style his work was one long dreamy reverie of life in his native village of Vitebsk. “When Matisse dies,” Pablo Picasso remarked in the 1950s, “Chagall will be the only painter left who understands what colour really is”.

Chagall’s Parents

Portrait by Yehuda (Yuri) Pen, his first art teacher in Vitebsk

1912, Calvary (Golgotha), oil on canvas, 174.6 × 192.4 cm, Museum of Modern Art, New York. Alternative titles: Kreuzigung Bild 2 Christus gewidmet [Golgotha. Crucifixion. Dedicated to Christ].

1911–12, The Drunkard (Le saoul), 1912, oil on canvas. 85 × 115 cm. Private collection

1912, The Fiddler, an inspiration for the musical Fiddler on the Roof

1912, Still-life (Nature morte), oil on canvas, private collection

Before leaving for Paris, Chagall became engaged to Bella Rosenfeld. He accepted an invitation from a noted art dealer in Berlin to exhibit his work, his intention being to continue on to Belarus, marry Bella, and then return with her to Paris. After the exhibit, he continued on to Vitebsk, where he planned to stay only long enough to marry Bella. However, after a few weeks, the First World War began, closing the Russian border for an indefinite period. A year later he married Bella. Before the marriage, Chagall had difficulty convincing Bella’s parents that he would be a suitable husband for their daughter. They were worried about her marrying a painter from a poor family and wondered how he would support her. Becoming a successful artist now became a goal and inspiration. His paintings of this time, show the young couple floating balloon-like over Vitebsk are the most lighthearted of his career. His wedding pictures were also a subject he would return to in later years as he thought about this period of his life.

Bella with White Collar, 1917

The Prophet Jeremiah (1968)

Photo portrait in 1941 by Carl Van Vechten

On 2 September 1944, Bella died suddenly due to a virus infection, which was not treated due to the wartime shortage of medicine. As a result, he stopped all work for many months, and when he did resume painting his first pictures were concerned with preserving Bella’s memory. Apparently, as news poured in through 1945 of the ongoing Holocaust at Nazi concentration camps, Bella took her place in Chagall’s mind with the millions of Jewish victims. He perhaps even considered the possibility that their “exile from Europe had sapped her will to live.

With Virginia Haggard McNeil

A few months after the Allies succeeded in liberating Paris from Nazi occupation, with the help of the Allied armies, Chagall published a letter in a Paris weekly, “To the Paris Artists”:

After a year, he entered into a romance with Virginia Haggard. Their relationship endured seven years. Haggard recalled her “seven years of plenty” with Chagall in her book, My Life with Chagall (Robert Hale, 1986).

In April 1952, Virginia Haggard left Chagall for the photographer Charles Leirens; she went on to become a professional photographer herself.

with Vava Brodsky in 1967

Chagall’s daughter Ida introduced him to Valentina (Vava) Brodsky, a woman from a similar Russian Jewish background, who had run a successful millinery business in London. She became his secretary, and after a few months agreed to stay only if Chagall married her. The marriage took place in July 1952, though six years later, when there was conflict between Ida and Vava, Chagall and Vava divorced and immediately remarried under an agreement more favourable to Vava.

Bestiaire et Musique (1969)

The Circus Horse

The Final Footprint

He would have died without Jewish rites, had not a Jewish stranger stepped forward and said the kaddish, the Jewish prayer for the dead, over his coffin. Chagall is buried alongside his last wife Valentina “Vava” Brodsky Chagall, in the multi-denominational cemetery in the traditional artists’ town of Saint Paul de Vence, in the French region of Provence.

Gallery

- , 1911, To My Betrothed, gouache, watercolor, metallic paint, charcoal, and ink on paper, mounted on cardboard, 61 × 44.5 cm, Philadelphia Museum of Art

- 1911, I and the Village, oil on canvas, 192.1 × 151.4 cm, Museum of Modern Art, New York

- 1911, Trois heures et demie (Le poète), Half-Past Three (The Poet) Halb vier Uhr, oil on canvas, 195.9 × 144.8 cm, The Louise and Walter Arensberg Collection, 1950, Philadelphia Museum of Art

- 1911–12, Hommage à Apollinaire, or Adam et Ève (study), gouache, watercolor, ink wash, pen and ink and collage on paper, 21 × 17.5 cm

- 1913, Paris par la fenêtre (Paris Through the Window), oil on canvas, 136 × 141.9 cm, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York

- 1913, La femme enceinte (Maternité), oil on canvas, 193 × 116 cm, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam

Bust in Celebrity Alley in Kielce (Poland)

#RIP #OTD in 1994, playwright (The Bald Soprano (1950), The Lesson (1951), The Chairs (1952), The Rhinoceros (1960)), Eugène Ionesco died in Paris aged 84. Cimetière du Montparnasse in Paris. Epitaph:
Prier le Je Ne Sais Qui
J’espère: Jésus-Christ
(To pray I Do No Know Who
I hope: Jesus Christ)

#RIP #OTD in 2004 filmmaker, writer, raconteur, actor (Spartacus, Topkapi, Quo Vadis, The Sundowners, Billy Budd, Hercule Poirot in Death on the Nile) Peter Ustinov died of heart failure in a clinic in Genolier, near his home in Bursins, Switzerland, aged 82. Cimetière de Bursins

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Posted in Artistic Footprints, Day in History, Literary Footprints, Military Footprints, Political Footprints | Tagged bloomsbury group, Cimetière de Montparnasse, Crypts, Dorothy fields, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Entomb, Eugène Ionesco, Françoise Rosay, History, katharine Lee bates, Maimonides Cemetery, Mamie Eisenhower, marc chagall, Modest Mussorgsky, mrs dalloway, oak grove cemetery, orlando, Richard M. Nixon, riptff, tff, the final footprint, the hours, tikhvin cemetery, Virginia Woolf, vita sackville west, wc handy, whos afraid of virginia woolf, Woodlawn Cemetery | Leave a comment

On this day 27 March death of James VI and I – Ella Maillart – Dudley Moore – Milton Berle – Billy Wilder – Farley Granger – Adrienne Rich

Posted on 29 MaramFri, 27 Mar 2026 00:27:00 -05002026-03-27T00:27:00-05:0012 2011 by MacGregor

On this day in 1625, King of Scots James VI and King of England as James I, died at Theobalds House, England at the age of 58. Born on 19 June 1566 at Edinburgh Castle. As the eldest son and heir apparent of the monarchy he automatically became Duke of Rothesay and Prince and Great Steward of Scotland. James was baptised “Charles James” on 17 December 1566 in a Catholic ceremony held at Stirling Castle. He became King of Scotland when he was just thirteen months old on 24 July 1567, succeeding his mother Mary, Queen of Scots, who had been compelled to abdicate in his favour. In 1603, he succeeded the last Tudor monarch of England and Ireland, Elizabeth I, who died without issue. He then ruled England, Scotland, and Ireland for 22 years, often using the title King of Great Britain. Under James, the “Golden Age” of Elizabethan literature and drama continued, with writers such as William Shakespeare, John Donne, Ben Jonson, and Sir Francis Bacon contributing to a flourishing literary culture. Sir Anthony Weldon claimed that James had been termed “the wisest fool in Christendom”, an epithet associated with his character ever since. James was the only son of Mary, Queen of Scots, and her second husband, Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley. Both Mary and Darnley were great-grandchildren of Henry VII of England through Margaret Tudor, the older sister of Henry VIII. James was the first cousin twice removed Elizabeth I. Mary’s rule over Scotland was insecure, for both she and her husband, being Roman Catholics, faced a rebellion by Protestant noblemen. James married the fourteen-year-old Anne of Denmark, younger daughter of the Protestant King of Denmark Frederick II. The couple were married formally at the Bishop’s Palace in Oslo on 23 November 1589 and, after stays at Elsinore and Copenhagen, returned to Scotland in May 1590. The stability of James’s government in Scotland and in the early part of his English reign, as well as his relatively enlightened views on religion and war, have earned him a positive evaluation from many recent historians.

The Final Footprint – James was entombed in Westminster Abbey. Bishop John Williams of Lincoln preached the sermon, observing, “King Solomon died in Peace, when he had lived about sixty years … and so you know did King James”. “As he lived in peace,” remarked the Earl of Kellie, “so did he die in peace, and I pray God our king [Charles I] may follow him”. Other notable Final Footprints at Westminster include; Robert Browning, Lord Byron, Geoffrey Chaucer, Oliver Cromwell, Charles Darwin, Charles Dickens, John Dryden, Edward The Confessor, Elizabeth I, George II, George Friederic Handel, Stephen Hawking, Samuel Johnson, Ben Jonson, Charles II, Edward III, Edward VI, Henry III, Henry V, Henry VII, Richard II, Rudyard Kipling, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, John Milton, Isaac Newton, Laurence Olivier, Henry Purcell, Mary I, Mary II, Mary Queen of Scots, Thomas Shadwell, Edmund Spenser, Lord Alfred Tennyson, Dylan Thomas, and William III.

#RIP #OTD in 1997 adventurer, travel writer and photographer, as well as a sportswoman, Ella Maillart died in Chandolin, Switzerland aged 94. Cremated remains scattered over Calvary of Chandolin (photo with Annemarie Schwarzenbach)

On this day in 2002, actor, comedian, musician and composer Dudley Moore died from pneumonia caused by progressive supranuclear palsy in Plainfield, New Jersey at the age of 66. Born Dudley Stuart John Moore on 19 April 1935 in Charing Cross, London.

Moore first came to prominence in the UK as one of the four writer-performers in the comedy revue Beyond the Fringe from 1960, and with one member of that team, Peter Cook, collaborated on the television series Not Only… But Also. The double act worked on other projects until the mid-1970s, by which time Moore had settled in Los Angeles to concentrate on his film acting.

His solo career as a comedy film actor was heightened by the success of hit Hollywood films, particularly Foul Play (1978), 10 (1979) and Arthur (1981). For Arthur, Moore was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor and won a Golden Globe Award. He received a second Golden Globe for his performance in Micki & Maude (1984).

Moore was married and divorced four times: to actresses Suzy Kendall, Tuesday Weld, Brogan Lane, and Nicole Rothschild.

Moore dated Susan Anton in the early 1980s, with a lot of talk being made of their height difference: Moore at 5 feet 2 ¹⁄₂ inches (1.588 m) and Anton at 5 feet 11 inches (1.80 m).

The Final Footprint

Moore died the same day as Milton Berle and Billy Wilder. His friend Rena Fruchter was holding his hand when he died, and she reported his final words were, “I can hear the music all around me”. Moore was interred at Hillside Cemetery in Scotch Plains, New Jersey. Fruchter later wrote a memoir of their relationship (Dudley Moore, Ebury Press, 2004).

Also on this day in 2002, comedian and actor Milton Berle died from colon cancer in Los Angeles at the age of 93. Born Mendel Berlinger on July 12, 1908 in New York City. Berle’s career as an entertainer spanned over 80 years, first in silent films and on stage as a child actor, then in radio, movies and television. As the host of NBC’s Texaco Star Theater (1948–55), he was the first major American television star and was known to millions of viewers as “Uncle Miltie” and “Mr. Television” during TV’s golden age.

Berle and Ruth Cosgrove Berle, 1979.

After twice marrying and divorcing showgirl Joyce Mathews, Berle married publicist Ruth Cosgrove in 1953; she died in 1989. In 1989, Berle stated that his mother was behind the breakup of his marriages to Mathews. He also said that she managed to damage his previous relationships: “My mother never resented me going out with a girl, but if I had more than three dates with one girl, Mama found some way to break it up.” He married a fourth time in 1992 to Lorna Adams, a fashion designer 30 years his junior.

Berle’s autobiography contains many tales of his sexual exploits. He claimed relationships with numerous famous women, including actresses Marilyn Monroe and Betty Hutton, and columnist Dorothy Kilgallen.

The Final Footprint

Berle died the same day as Billy Wilder and Dudley Moore. Berle reportedly left arrangements to be buried with his wife, Ruth, at Mount Sinai Memorial Park Cemetery in Burbank, but his body was cremated and his cremains inurned at Hillside Memorial Park Cemetery in Culver City. Other notable Final Footprints at Hillside Memorial include; Jack Benny, Neil Bogart, Cyd Charisse, Percy Faith, Lorne Greene, Moe Howard, Al Jolson, Michael Landon, Leonard Nimoy, Suzanne Pleshette, Dinah Shore, Lupita Tovar, and Shelley Winters.

Studio publicity photo of Wilder and Gloria Swanson.

Also on this day in 2002, filmmaker, screenwriter, producer and artist Billy Wilder died from pneumonia at his home in Beverly Hills at the age of 95. Born Samuel Wilder on June 22, 1906 in Sucha Beskidzka, Galicia, Austria-Hungary. His career spanned more than five decades. In my opinion, he is one of the most brilliant and versatile filmmakers of Hollywood’s golden age. With The Apartment, Wilder became the first person to win Academy Awards as producer, director, and screenwriter for the same film.

Wilder became a screenwriter in the late 1920s while living in Berlin. After the rise of the Nazi Party, he left for Paris, where he made his directorial debut. He moved to Hollywood in 1933, and in 1939 he had a hit when he co-wrote the screenplay for the romantic comedy Ninotchka, starring Greta Garbo. Wilder established his directorial reputation with an adaption of James M. Cain’s Double Indemnity (1944), a film noir. Wilder co-wrote the screenplay with crime novelist Raymond Chandler. Wilder earned the Best Director and Best Screenplay Academy Awards for the adaptation of a Charles R. Jackson story The Lost Weekend(1945), about alcoholism. In 1950, Wilder co-wrote and directed the critically acclaimed Sunset Boulevard, as well as Stalag 17 in 1953.

From the mid-1950s on, Wilder made mostly comedies. Among the classics Wilder created in this period are the farces The Seven Year Itch (1955) and Some Like It Hot (1959), and satires such as The Apartment (1960). He directed fourteen different actors in Oscar-nominated performances. Wilder was recognized with the American Film Institute (AFI) Life Achievement Award in 1986. In 1988, Wilder was awarded the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award. In 1993, he was awarded the National Medal of Arts.

Wilder married Judith Coppicus on December 22, 1936. They divorced in 1946. Wilder met Audrey Young at Paramount Pictures on the set of The Lost Weekend in 1945, and she became his second wife on June 30, 1949.

The Final Footprint

He was interred in the Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery (a Dignity® Memorial property) in Westwood, Los Angeles near Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau. Wilder died the same day as two comedy legends: Milton Berle and Dudley Moore. The next day, French newspaper Le Monde titled its first-page obituary, “Billy Wilder dies. Nobody’s perfect.” – quoting the final gag line in Some Like It Hot. Other notable final footprints at Westwood include; Ray Bradbury, Sammy Cahn, Truman Capote, James Coburn, Rodney Dangerfield, Farrah Fawcett, Eva Gabor, Hugh Hefner, Florence Henderson, Brian Keith, Gene Kelly, Don Knotts, Burt Lancaster, Peter Lawford, Peggy Lee, Janet Leigh, Jack Lemmon, Sondra Locke, Robert Loggia, Karl Malden, Dean Martin, Walter Mathau, Marilyn Monroe, Elizabeth Montgomery, Carroll O’Connor, Roy Orbison, Bettie Page, Buddy Rich, George C. Scott, Dorothy Stratten, Joe Weider, Carl Wilson, Natalie Wood, and Frank Zappa.

#RIP #OTD in 2011 actor (Rope, Strangers on a Train) Farley Granger died of natural causes in his Manhattan apartment at age 85. Cremation

#RIP #OTD in 2012 poet, essayist and feminist Adrienne Rich died at the age of 82 in her Santa Cruz, California home from rheumatoid arthritis complications. Cremation

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Posted in Day in History, Extravagant Footprints, Film Footprints, Royal Footprints | Tagged adrienne rich, billy wilder, cremated remains, Cremation, Crypts, dudley moore, Ella Maillart, Entomb, Farley granger, History, James VI, King of Scots, Mary Queen of Scots, milton berle, riptff, tff, the final footprint, Westminster Abbey | Leave a comment

On this day 26 March death of Ludwig van Beethoven – Walt Whitman – Sarah Bernhardt – Raymond Chandler – John Kennedy Toole – Noël Coward – Jean Stafford – Jim Harrison

Posted on 29 MaramThu, 26 Mar 2026 00:57:00 -05002026-03-26T00:57:00-05:0012 2011 by MacGregor

Portrait by Joseph Karl Stieler

On this day in 1827, composer and pianist, Ludwig van Beethoven died in Vienna at the age of 56. Born in Bonn, then the capital of the Electorate of Cologne and part of the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation, now in present-day Germany. Beethoven was likely born on 16 December 1770. He moved to Vienna in his early 20’s, studying with Joseph Haydn and quickly gained a reputation as a virtuoso pianist. His hearing began to deteriorate in the late 1790s, yet he continued to compose, conduct, and perform, even after becoming completely deaf. In my opinion, Beethoven is the crucial figure in the transition between the Classical and Romantic eras in Western art music and he remains one of the most famous and influential composers of all time. My favorite Beethoven composition is his Piano Concerto No. 5 in E-flat major, Op. 73, the “Emperor Concerto”. Beethoven never married though he apparently had several loves. He met Giulietta Guicciardi in about 1800 and mentions his love for her in a letter to a friend. Beethoven dedicated to Giulietta his Sonata No. 14, popularly known as the “Moonlight” Sonata. Marriage plans were thwarted by Giulietta’s father and perhaps Beethoven’s common lineage. Perhaps Beethoven proposed to Josephine Deym, at least informally. While his feelings were apparently reciprocated, she turned him down possibly due to the fact that she was born of nobility and he was a commoner. It is also likely that he considered proposing (whether he actually did or not is unknown) to Therese Malfatti, the dedicatee of “Für Elise” in 1810; his common status may also have thwarted those plans. Apparently while staying in the Bohemian spa town of Teplitz, he wrote three love letters to an “Immortal Beloved.” While the identity of the intended recipient is the subject of ongoing debate, the most likely candidate, based on people’s movements and the contents of the letters, is Antonie Brentano, a married woman with whom he had begun a friendship in 1810.

The Final Footprint – Beethoven was initially interred in the Währing cemetery, north-west of Vienna, after a requiem mass at the church of the Holy Trinity (Dreifaltigkeitskirche). The funeral procession on 29 March 1827 was attended by an estimated 20,000 Viennese citizens. Franz Schubert, who would die the following year and would be buried next to Beethoven, was one of the torchbearers. Beethoven’s remains were exhumed for study in 1862, and moved in 1888 to Vienna’s Zentralfriedhof, the largest and most famous cemetery among Vienna’s nearly 50 cemeteries. His grave is marked by a large marble monument. Eddie Van Halen‘s middle name “Lodewijk” was derived from Beethoven (Lodewijk is the Dutch version of Ludwig). Other notable Final Footprints at Zentralfriedhof include; Johannes Brahms, Antonio Salieri, Schubert, Johann Strauss I, and Johann Strauss II. In addition, a cenotaph was erected there in honour of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

On this day in 1892, poet, essayist, journalist, teacher, government clerk, volunteer nurse during the Civil War, The Father of Free Verse, Walt Whitman died in Camden, New Jersey at the age of 72. Born Walter Whitman on 31 May 1819, in West Hills, Town of Huntington, Long Island. A humanist, he was a part of the transition between transcendentalism and realism, incorporating both views in his works. In my opinion, Whitman is among the most influential poets in the American canon. His work was very controversial in its time, particularly his poetry collection Leaves of Grass, which was described as obscene for its overt sexuality. First published in 1855 with his own money, Leaves of Grass was an attempt at reaching out to the common person with an American epic. He continued expanding and revising it until his death in 1892. Whitman never married.

The Final Footprint – A public viewing of his body was held at his Camden home; over one thousand people visited in three hours. Apparently, Whitman’s oak coffin was barely visible because of all the flowers and wreaths left for him. Four days after his death, he was entombed in the private mausoleum he had built at Harleigh Cemetery in Camden. Another public ceremony was held at the cemetery, with friends giving speeches, live music, and refreshments. Whitman’s friend, the orator Robert Ingersoll, delivered the eulogy. Later, the remains of Whitman’s parents and two of his brothers and their families were moved to the mausoleum. Whitman has been claimed as America’s first “poet of democracy”, a title meant to reflect his ability to write in a singularly American character. A British friend of Walt Whitman, Mary Smith Whitall Costelloe, wrote: “You cannot really understand America without Walt Whitman, without Leaves of Grass… He has expressed that civilization, ‘up to date,’ as he would say, and no student of the philosophy of history can do without him.”. Poet Ezra Pound called Whitman “America’s poet… He is America.”. Andrew Carnegie called him “the great poet of America so far”. Whitman considered himself a messiah-like figure in poetry. William Sloane Kennedy, speculated that “people will be celebrating the birth of Walt Whitman as they are now the birth of Christ”. The literary critic, Harold Bloom wrote, as the introduction for the 150th anniversary of Leaves of Grass:

If you are American, then Walt Whitman is your imaginative father and mother, even if, like myself, you have never composed a line of verse. You can nominate a fair number of literary works as candidates for the secular Scripture of the United States. They might include Melville’s Moby-Dick, Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, and Emerson’s two series of Essays and The Conduct of Life. None of those, not even Emerson’s, are as central as the first edition of Leaves of Grass.

Whitman’s vagabond lifestyle was adopted by the Beat movement and its leaders such as Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac in the 1950s and 1960s as well as anti-war poets like Adrienne Rich and Gary Snyder. Lawrence Ferlinghetti numbered himself among Whitman’s “wild children”, and the title of his 1961 collection Starting from San Francisco is a deliberate reference to Whitman’s Starting from Paumanok. Whitman also influenced Bram Stoker, author of Dracula, and was the model for the character of Dracula. Stoker said in his notes that Dracula represented the quintessential male which, to Stoker, was Whitman, with whom he corresponded until Whitman’s death. Other admirers included the Eagle Street College, an informal group established in 1885 at the home of James William Wallace in Eagle Street, Bolton, to read and discuss the poetry of Whitman. The group subsequently became known as the Bolton Whitman Fellowship or Whitmanites. Its members held an annual ‘Whitman Day’ celebration around the poet’s birthday. Whitman’s poetry has been set to music by a large number of composers including: Kurt Weill, Ralph Vaughan Williams, Frederick Delius, Paul Hindemith, Karl Amadeus Hartmann, Benjamin Britten, Leonard Bernstein, Ned Rorem, Ronald Corp, George Crumb, Roger Sessions and John Adams. The Walt Whitman Bridge crosses the Delaware River near his home in Camden.

#RIP #OTD in 1923 French stage actress (La Dame Aux Camelias, Ruy Blas, Fédora, La Tosca, L’Aiglon) Sarah Bernhardt died from kidney failure at home in Paris, aged 78. Pere Lachaise Cemetery, Paris

#RIP #OTD in 1959 novelist (The Big Sleep, Farewell, My Lovely, The Little Sister, The Long Goodbye), screenwriter Raymond Chandler died at Scripps Memorial Hospital, La Jolla CA of pneumonial peripheral vascular shock and prerenal uremia, aged 70. Mount Hope Cemetery, in San Diego

On this day in 1969, novelist John Kennedy Toole died by suicide by carbon monoxide poisoning in Biloxi, Mississippi at the age of 31. Born on December 17, 1937 in New Orleans. His posthumously published novel A Confederacy of Dunces won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1981. He also wrote The Neon Bible. Although several people in the literary world felt his writing skills were praiseworthy, Toole’s novels were rejected during his lifetime.

Toole received an academic scholarship to Tulane University in New Orleans. After graduating from Tulane, he studied English at Columbia University in New York while teaching simultaneously at Hunter College. He also taught at various Louisiana colleges, and during his early career as an academic he was valued on the faculty party circuit for his wit and gift for mimicry. His studies were interrupted when he was drafted into the army, where he taught English to Spanish-speaking recruits in San Juan, Puerto Rico. After receiving a promotion, he used his private office to begin writing A Confederacy of Dunces, which he finished at his parents’ home after his discharge.

Dunces is a picaresque novel featuring the misadventures of protagonist Ignatius J. Reilly, a lazy, obese, misanthropic, self-styled scholar who lives at home with his mother. It is hailed for its accurate depictions of New Orleans dialects. Toole based Reilly in part on his college professor friend Bob Byrne. Byrne’s slovenly, eccentric behavior was anything but professorial, and Reilly mirrored him in these respects. The character was also based on Toole himself, and several personal experiences served as inspiration for passages in the novel. While at Tulane, Toole filled in for a friend at a job as a hot tamale cart vendor, and worked at a family owned and operated clothing factory. Both of these experiences were later adopted into his fiction.

Toole submitted Dunces to publisher Simon & Schuster, where it reached noted editor Robert Gottlieb. Gottlieb considered Toole talented but felt his comic novel was essentially pointless. Despite several revisions, Gottlieb remained unsatisfied, and after the book was rejected by another literary figure, Hodding Carter Jr., Toole shelved the novel. Suffering from depression and feelings of persecution, Toole left home on a journey around the country. A journey that ended in Biloxi. Some years later, his mother brought the manuscript of Dunces to the attention of novelist Walker Percy, who ushered the book into print.

The Final Footprint

Toole died by suicide by running a garden hose from the exhaust pipe in through the window of his car on March 26, 1969. His car and person were immaculately clean, and the police officers who found him reported that his face showed no signs of distress. An envelope discovered in the car was marked “to my parents”. The suicide note inside the envelope was destroyed by his mother. He was buried at Greenwood Cemetery in New Orleans. Toole’s funeral service was private and only attended by his parents and his childhood nursemaid Beulah Matthews. The students and faculty at Dominican College were grief-stricken over Toole’s death, and the school held a memorial service for him in the college courtyard. The head of Dominican gave a brief eulogy; however, as the institution was Catholic, his suicide was never mentioned.

#RIP #OTD in 1973 playwright (Hay Fever, Private Lives, Design for Living, Present Laughter, Blithe Spirit, composer, director, actor, singer/songwriter (“Mad Dogs and Englishmen”) Noël Coward died at his home, Firefly Estate, in Jamaica of heart failure, aged 73. Firefly Estate

#RIP #OTD in 1979 short story writer, novelist (Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for The Collected Stories of Jean Stafford), Jean Stafford died of cardiac arrest in White Plains, New York. Green River Cemetery, East Hampton, New York

On this day in 2016, poet, novelist, and essayist Jim Harrison died from a heart attack in Patagonia, Arizona at the age of 78. Born James Harrison on December 11, 1937 in Grayling, Michigan. He was a prolific and versatile writer publishing over three dozen books in several genres including poetry, fiction, nonfiction, and children’s literature. He wrote screenplays, book reviews, literary criticism, and published essays on food, travel, and sport. Harrison indicated that, of all his writing, his poetry meant the most to him. He published 24 novellas during his lifetime and is considered “America’s foremost master” of that form. His first commercial success came with the 1979 publication of the trilogy of novellas, Legends of the Fall, two of which were made into movies. He was the recipient of multiple awards and honors including a Guggenheim Fellowship (1969), the Mark Twain Award for distinguished contributions to Midwestern literature (1990), and induction into the American Academy of Arts & Letters (2007). Harrison wrote that “The dream that I could write a good poem, a good novel, or even a good movie for that matter, has devoured my life.”

The Final Footprint

Unknown at this time.

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Posted in Day in History, Extravagant Footprints, Musical Footprints | Tagged Beethoven, Bram Stoker, Buried, Cemetery, Dracula, eddie van halen, green river cemetery, greenwood cemetery, Ground Burial, harleigh cemetery, History, Jean Stafford, jim harrison, john kennedy toole, leaves of grass, Monument, mount hope cemetery, noel coward, pere lachaise, Private Estates, raymond chandler, riptff, Sarah bernhardt, tff, the final footprint, walt whitman, Zentralfriedhof | 1 Comment

On this day 25 March death of Claude Debussy – Ida B. Wells – Buck Owens – Dan Seals – Larry McMurtry – Taylor Hawkins

Posted on 29 MaramWed, 25 Mar 2026 00:39:00 -05002026-03-25T00:39:00-05:0012 2011 by MacGregor

On this day in 1918, composer Claude Debussy died from cancer at his home in Paris at the age of 55. Born Achille-Claude Debussy on 22 August 1862 in Saint-Germain-en-Laye, France. He is sometimes seen as the first Impressionist composer, although he rejected the term. In my opinion, he was among the most influential composers of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Born to a family of modest means and little cultural involvement, Debussy showed enough musical talent to be admitted at the age of ten to France’s leading music college, the Conservatoire de Paris. He originally studied the piano, but found his vocation in innovative composition, despite the disapproval of the Conservatoire’s conservative professors. He took many years to develop his mature style, and was nearly 40 when he achieved international fame in 1902 with the only opera he completed, Pelléas et Mélisande.

Debussy’s orchestral works include Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune (1894), Nocturnes (1897–1899) and Images (1905–1912). His music was to a considerable extent a reaction against Wagner and the German musical tradition. He regarded the classical symphony as obsolete and sought an alternative in his “symphonic sketches”, La mer (1903–1905). His piano works include two books of Préludes and two of Études. Throughout his career he wrote mélodies based on a wide variety of poetry, including his own. He was greatly influenced by the Symbolist poetic movement of the later 19th century. A small number of works, including the early La Damoiselle élue and the late Le Martyre de saint Sébastien have important parts for chorus. In his final years, he focused on chamber music, completing three of six planned sonatas for different combinations of instruments.

With early influences including Russian and far-eastern music, Debussy developed his own style of harmony and orchestral colouring, derided – and unsuccessfully resisted – by much of the musical establishment of the day. His works have strongly influenced a wide range of composers including Béla Bartók, Olivier Messiaen, George Benjamin, and the jazz pianist and composer Bill Evans.

The Final Footprint

At the time of his death, the First World War was still raging and Paris was under German aerial and artillery bombardment. The military situation did not permit the honour of a public funeral with ceremonious graveside orations. The funeral procession made its way through deserted streets to a temporary grave at Père Lachaise Cemetery as the German guns bombarded the city. Debussy’s body was reinterred the following year in the small Passy Cemetery sequestered behind the Trocadéro, fulfilling his wish to rest “among the trees and the birds”; his wife and daughter are buried with him. Other notable final footprints at Passy include; Gabriel Fauré, Hubert de Givenchy, Édouard Manet, Octave Mirbeau, and Berthe Morisot.

#RIP #OTD in 1931 journalist, educator, and early leader in the civil rights movement, Ida B. Wells died of kidney failure in Chicago at the age of 68. Oak Woods Cemetery on Chicago’s South Side

On this day in 2006, singer and songwriter, Buck Owens died in his sleep at his ranch in Bakersfield, California at the age of 76. Born Alvis Edgar Owens, Jr. on 12 August 1929 in Sherman, Texas. Evidently Buck was a donkey on the Owens farm and one day Alvis, Jr. announced that his name was also Buck and it stuck. Owens settled in Bakersfield in 1951 and pioneered what came to be known as the Bakersfield sound. From 1969 to 1986, Owens co-hosted the TV series Hee Haw with Roy Clark. My favorite Owens’ songs are “Together Again” and “Love’s Gonna Live Here.”

Owens was married four times all ending in divorce; Bonnie Campbell, Phyllis Buford, Jana Jae Greif, Jennifer Smith.

The Final Footprint – Owens is entombed in the The Buck Owens Family Private Mausoleum “Buck’s Place” at Greenlawn Southwest Mortuary and Cemetery in Bakersfield.

#RIP #OTD on this day in 2009 singer (“Meet Me in Montana”, “Everything That Glitters (Is Not Gold)”), songwriter, musician Dan Seals died from lymphoma at his daughter’s home in Nashville, age 61. Woodlawn Memorial Park and Mausoleum, Nashville

#RIP #OTD in 2021 novelist (Horseman, Pass By; The Last Picture Show; Terms of Endearment, Lonesome Dove), essayist, screenwriter, Larry McMurtry died at his home in Tucson aged 84. Cremation

#RIP #OTD 2022 musician, best known as the drummer of the rock band Foo Fighters, Taylor Hawkins died from cardiac arrest in the Four Seasons Casa Medina hotel in Bogotá, Colombia, aged 50. Cremated remains scattered at sea

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Posted in Day in History, Extravagant Footprints, Musical Footprints | Tagged Bakersfield sound, Buck Owens, Cemetery, Claude debussy, cremated remains, Cremation, Crypts, dan seals, Entomb, Greenlawn Southwest Mortuary and Cemetery, History, Ida b wells, Larry McMurtry, oak woods cemetery, passy cemetery, Private Mausoleum, riptff, Taylor hawkins, tff, the final footprint, woodlawn memorial park | Leave a comment

On this day 24 March death of Elizabeth I – Henry Wadsworth Longfellow – Jules Verne – John Millington Synge – Alice Guy-Blaché – Richard Widmark – Garry Shandling – Jessica Walter

Posted on 29 MaramTue, 24 Mar 2026 00:03:00 -05002026-03-24T00:03:00-05:0012 2011 by MacGregor

“Darnley Portrait” c. 1757

On this day in 1603, Queen regnant of England and Queen regnant of Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death, The Virgin Queen, Gloriana, Good Queen Bess, Elizabeth I died at Richmond Palace at the age of 69. Born in Greenwich Palace in the Chamber of Virgins on Sunday 7 September 1533, and named after both her grandmothers, Elizabeth of York and Elizabeth Howard. She was the second child of Henry VIII of England to survive infancy born in wedlock; her mother was Henry’s second wife, Anne Boleyn. Following the death of Henry on 28 January 1547, Elizabeth’s half-brother Edward VI would rule for six years until his death at the age of fifteen, Lady Jane Grey would rule for nine days and Elizabeth’s half-sister Mary I would rule for five years until her death at the age of 42. Elizabeth’s 44 year reign provided welcome stability for the kingdom and helped forge a sense of national identity. Elizabeth’s reign is known as the Elizabethan Era, famous above all for the flourishing of English drama, led by playwrights such as William Shakespeare and Christopher Marlowe. Elizabeth never married. Apparently she was in love with her childhood friend Lord Robert Dudley. Unfortunately due to the scandal surrounding the death of his wife, marriage to him was not possible. On her marital status she said; “If I follow the inclination of my nature, it is this: beggar-woman and single, far rather than queen and married”. And; “And, in the end, this shall be for me sufficient, that a marble stone shall declare that a queen, having reigned such a time, lived and died a virgin.” Elizabeth opposed a French presence in Scotland. She feared that the French planned to invade England and put her first cousin, Mary, Queen of Scots, who was Catholic and considered by many to be the heir to the English crown on the throne. When Mary was forced by the Protestant Scottish lords to abdicate in favour of her son James, Mary fled to England seeking the protection of Elizabeth. Perceiving her as a threat, Elizabeth had her arrested. After 19 years in custody in a number of castles and manor houses in England, she was tried and executed for treason for her alleged involvement in three plots to assassinate the queen. Elizabeth weathered the storm of religious division, surrounded herself with wise advisors who were dedicated to her, and used her own considerable political savvy, some would say luck, to become one the most beloved monarchs of all time. The impoverished and tattered country she had inherited had become one of the richest, most powerful nations in the world.

The Final Footprint – Elizabeth’s coffin was carried downriver at night to Whitehall, on a barge lit with torches. At her funeral on 28 April, the coffin was taken to Westminster Abbey on a hearse drawn by four horses hung with black velvet, where she was entombed. Her death marked the end of the Tudor dynasty. Many books and movies have featured Elizabeth, including Elizabeth (1998) and Elizabeth: The Golden Age (2007), both starring Cate Blanchett in the title role. She was nominated for an Academy Award for both films. The first film was nominated for best picture. Other notable Final Footprints at Westminster include; Robert Browning, Lord Byron, Geoffrey Chaucer, Oliver Cromwell, Charles Darwin, Charles Dickens, Edward The Confessor, George II, George Friederic Handel, Stephen Hawking, James I (James VI of Scotland), Samuel Johnson, Ben Jonson, Charles II, Edward III, Edward VI, Henry III, Henry V, Henry VII, Richard II, Rudyard Kipling, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, John Milton, Sir Isaac Newton, Laurence Olivier, Henry Purcell, Mary I, Mary II, Mary Queen of Scots, Thomas Shadwell, Edmund Spenser, Lord Alfred Tennyson, Dylan Thomas, and William III.

On this day in 1882, poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow died from peritonitis at his home in Cambridge, Massachusetts, at the age of 75. Born on February 27, 1807 in Portland, Maine. His works include “Paul Revere’s Ride”, The Song of Hiawatha, and Evangeline. He was the first American to translate Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy and was one of the Fireside Poets from New England.

He studied at Bowdoin College and became a professor at Bowdoin and later at Harvard College after spending time in Europe. His first major poetry collections were Voices of the Night (1839) and Ballads and Other Poems (1841). He retired from teaching in 1854 to focus on his writing, and he lived the remainder of his life in the Revolutionary War headquarters of George Washington in Cambridge, Massachusetts. His first wife Mary Potter died in 1835 after a miscarriage. His second wife Frances Appleton died in 1861 after sustaining burns when her dress caught fire. After her death, Longfellow had difficulty writing poetry for a time and focused on translating works from foreign languages.

Longfellow wrote many lyric poems known for their musicality and often presenting stories of mythology and legend. He became the most popular American poet of his day and also had success overseas. He has been criticized by some, however, for imitating European styles and writing specifically for the masses.

The Final Footprint

On August 22, 1879, a female admirer traveled to Longfellow’s house in Cambridge and, unaware to whom she was speaking, asked him: “Is this the house where Longfellow was born?” He told her that it was not. The visitor then asked if he had died here. “Not yet”, he replied. In March 1882, Longfellow went to bed with severe stomach pain. He endured the pain for several days with the help of opium before he died surrounded by family. He had been suffering from peritonitis. He is entombed with both of his wives at Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Other notable final footprints at Mount Auburn include; Winslow Homer, Julia Ward Howe, Amy Lowell, Bernard Malamud, and Frances Sargent Osgood.

Photograph by Nadar c. 1878

On this day in 1905, novelist, poet and playwright Jules Verne died at his home in Amiens, 44 Boulevard Longueville (now Boulevard Jules-Verne) from diabetes at the age of 77. Born Jules Gabriel Verne on 8 February 1828 in Nantes, France.

Verne was trained to follow in his father’s footsteps as a lawyer, but quit the profession early in life to write for magazines and the stage. His collaboration with the publisher Pierre-Jules Hetzel led to the creation of the Voyages extraordinaires, a popular series of scrupulously researched adventure novels including Journey to the Center of the Earth (1864), Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea (1870), and Around the World in Eighty Days (1873).

Verne has been the second most-translated author in the world since 1979, ranking between Agatha Christie and William Shakespeare. He has sometimes been called the “Father of Science Fiction”, along with H. G. Wells and Hugo Gernsback.

In May 1856, Verne traveled to Amiens to be the best man at the wedding of a Nantes friend, Auguste Lelarge, to an Amiens woman named Aimée du Fraysse de Viane. Verne, invited to stay with the bride’s family, took to them warmly, befriending the entire household and finding himself increasingly attracted to the bride’s sister, Honorine de Viane Morel, a widow aged 26 with two young children. Verne won the favor of Morel and her family, and the couple were married on 10 January 1857.

Jules Verne Funeral Procession, headed by his son and grandson, 1905

Jules Verne and Madame Verne ca. 1900

The Final Footprint

Verne is entombed in La Madeleine Cemetery in Amiens, France

On his deathbed, 1905

Monument to Jules Verne in Redondela, Spain

#RIP #OTD 1909 playwright (The Playboy of the Western World, Deirdre of the Sorrows), poet, Irish Literary Revival key figure, John Millington Synge died; Hodgkin lymphoma; Elpis Nursing Home, Dublin, aged 37. Mount Jerome Cemetery, Harold’s Cross, Dublin

#RIP #OTD in 1968 pioneer film director, one of the first filmmakers to make a narrative fiction film, as well as the first woman to direct a film, Alice Guy-Blaché died in a nursing home in Mahwah, New Jersey aged 94. interred at Maryrest Cemetery in Mahwah

On this day in 2008 actor Richard Widmark died at his home in Roxbury, Connecticut, at the age of 93. Born Richard Weedt Widmark on December 26, 1914 in Sunrise Township, Minnesota.

He was nominated for an Academy Award for his role as the villainous Tommy Udo in his debut film, Kiss of Death (1947), for which he also won the Golden Globe Award for Most Promising Newcomer. Early in his career, Widmark was typecast in similar villainous or anti-hero roles in films noir, but he later branched out into more heroic leading and supporting roles in Westerns, mainstream dramas, and horror films among others.

For his contributions to the motion picture industry, Widmark has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6800 Hollywood Boulevard. In 2002, he was inducted into the Western Performers Hall of Fame at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

Widmark was married to screenwriter Jean Hazlewood from 1942 until her death in 1997. In 1999, Widmark married Susan Blanchard, the daughter of Dorothy Hammerstein and stepdaughter of Oscar Hammerstein II; she had been Henry Fonda’s third wife.

The Final Footprint

He was buried at Roxbury Center Cemetery.

On this day in 2016, stand-up comedian, actor, director, writer, and producer Garry Shandling died in his home in Los Angeles, California at age 66 from a pulmonary embolism. Born Garry Emmanuel Shandling on November 29, 1949 in Chicago. Perhaps best known for his work in It’s Garry Shandling’s Show and The Larry Sanders Show.

Shandling began his career writing for sitcoms, such as Sanford and Son and Welcome Back, Kotter. He made a successful stand-up performance on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson and became a frequent guest-host on the series. Shandling was for a time considered the leading contender to replace Johnny Carson. In 1986, he created It’s Garry Shandling’s Show for Showtime. It was nominated for four Emmy Awards (including one for Shandling) and lasted until 1990. His second show titled The Larry Sanders Show, which began airing on HBO in 1992, was even more successful. Shandling was nominated for 18 Emmy Awards for the show and won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series in 1998, along with Peter Tolan, for writing the series finale. In film, he had a recurring role in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, appearing in Iron Man 2 and Captain America: The Winter Soldier. He also lent his voice to Verne in Over the Hedge. Shandling’s final performance was as the voice of Ikki in The Jungle Book.

Shandling was neither married nor had any children. He revealed little about his personal life. He shared an apartment with his fiancée Linda Doucett from 1987 until 1994. On The Larry Sanders Show, Doucett portrayed Darlene, Hank Kingsley’s doting assistant.

The Final Footprint

Shandling was cremated.

#RIP #OTD in 2021 actress (Play Misty for Me, Grand Prix, Arrested Development, Archer) Jessica Walter died in her sleep at her Manhattan home, aged 80. Cremation

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Posted in Day in History, Extravagant Footprints, Film Footprints, Literary Footprints, Royal Footprints | Tagged Alice Guy-Blaché, Anne Boleyn, Cremation, Crypts, Elizabeth I, Elizabethan Era, Entomb, garry shandling, Henry VIII, henry wadsworth longfellow, Jessica walter, John Millington Synge, jules verne, la madeleine cemetery, Lord Robert Dudley, Mary, Maryrest Cemetery, Mount Jerome Cemetery, Queen of Scots, richard widmark, Roxbury Center Cemetery, The Virgin Queen, Tudor dynasty, Westminster Abbey | Leave a comment

On this day 23 March deaths of Stendhal – Nadar – Peter Lorre – Giulietta Masina – Cindy Walker – Elizabeth Taylor – George Segal

Posted on 29 MaramMon, 23 Mar 2026 00:18:00 -05002026-03-23T00:18:00-05:0012 2011 by MacGregor

On this day in 1842, writer Stendhal died in Paris at the age of 59. Born Marie-Henri Beyle on 23 January 1783 in Grenoble. Perhaps best known for the novels Le Rouge et le Noir (The Red and the Black, 1830) and La Chartreuse de Parme (The Charterhouse of Parma, 1839), he is highly regarded for the acute analysis of his characters’ psychology and considered one of the earliest and foremost practitioners of realism.

Stendhal was a dandy and wit about town in Paris, as well as an obsessive womaniser. His genuine empathy towards women is evident in his books; Simone de Beauvoir spoke highly of him in The Second Sex. One of his early works is On Love, a rational analysis of romantic passion that was based on his unrequited love for Mathilde, Countess Dembowska, whom he met while living at Milan. This fusion of, and tension between, clear-headed analysis and romantic feeling is typical of Stendhal’s great novels; he could be considered a Romantic realist.

The Final Footprint

He is interred in the Cimetière de Montmartre. Other notable final footprints at Montmartre include; Hector Berlioz, Dalida, Edgar Degas, Léo Delibes, Alexandre Dumas, fils, Marie Duplessis, Theophile Gautier, Gustave Moreau, Henri Murger, Jacques Offenbach, Francis Picabia, François Truffaut, Horace Vernet, and Alfred de Vigny.

#RIP #OTD in 1910 photographer, caricaturist, journalist, novelist, balloonist,Gaspard-Félix Tournachon, known by the pseudonym Nadar, died in Paris, aged 89. Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris

#RIP #OTD in 1964 actor (M, The Man Who Knew Too Much, The Maltese Falcon, Casablanca, Arsenic and Old Lace, Tales of Terror), Peter Lorre died from a stroke in Los Angeles aged 59. Cremated remains inurned at Hollywood Forever Cemetery

#RIP #OTD in 1994 film actress (La Strada, Le notti di Cabiria) Giulietta Masina died from cancer in Rome, aged 73. Entomed with her husband Federico Fellini at Rimini cemetery marked by a monument by sculptor Arnaldo Pomodoro. “La Strada” by Nino Rota was played per her wishes

On this day in 2006, singer and songwriter Cindy Walker died at the Parkview Regional Hospital in Mexia, Texas at the age of 87. Born July 20, 1918 in Mart, Texas. As a songwriter Walker was responsible for a large number of popular and enduring songs recorded by many different artists.

She adopted a craftsman-like approach to her songwriting, often tailoring particular songs to specific recording artists. She had Top 10 hits spread over five decades.

Walker was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1997 and inducted into the Texas Heritage Songwriters Hall of Fame in March 2011.

The Final Footprint

She died nine days after Willie Nelson’s tribute album was released. She was buried in the Mexia City Cemetery. Her family had a custom-designed sculpture created for her gravestone to honor the songwriter and her work. The memorial sculpture is a large pink-granite guitar (in her signature color).

On this day in 2011, multiple Academy Award nominated actress and two-time winner, social activist, champion of AIDS awareness, Liz, Elizabeth Taylor, died from congestive heart failure in Los Angeles at the age of 79. Born Elizabeth Rosemond Taylor on 27 February 1932 in Hampstead Garden Suburb, London. My all-time favorite movie in which she appeared was George Steven‘s epic Giant (1956) based on the Edna Ferber novel and starring Rock Hudson and James Dean. My other favorites include; Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958) based on the Tennesse Williams play and co-starring Paul Newman; Suddenly, Last Summer (1959) based on the Williams play and co-starring Katharine Hepburn and Montgomery Clift; Cleopatra (1963) co-starring Richard Burton; Relections in a Golden Eye (1967) based on the novel by Carson McCullers and co-starring Marlon Brando. In 1959, Taylor converted from Christian Science to Judaism. Taylor was married eight times to seven men; Conrad Hilton, Jr. (1950-1951 divorce), Michael Wilding (1952-1957 divorce), Mike Todd (1957-1958 his death), Eddie Fisher (1959-1964 divorce), Richard Burton (1964-1974 divorce, 1975-1976 divorce), John Warner (1976-1982 divorce) and Larry Fortensky (1991-1996 divorce). Taylor married Fortensky at Michal Jackson’s Neverland Ranch. Taylor attended Jackson’s private funeral. Long Live Liz!

The Final Footprint – Taylor was entombed in the Great Mausoleum at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California, the day after her death in accordance with Jewish custom. The Great Mausoleum was fashioned after Campo Santo in Genoa, Italy and contains many of the most highly sought after final resting spaces within Forest Lawn Glendale. Within the Great Mausoleum is the Court of Honor where individuals are inducted as “Immortals” by Forest Lawn’s Council of Regents and the structure is protected by guards and is not accessible by the public. Time Magazine described it as the “New World’s Westminster Abbey”. Other notable Final Footprints at Forest Lawn Glendale include; L. Frank Baum, Humphrey Bogart, Lon Chaney, Nat King Cole, Natalie Cole, Sam Cooke, Dorothy Dandridge, Walt, Disney, Don Drysdale, Errol Flynn, Clark Gable, Jean Harlow, Michael Jackson, Louis L’Amour, Lash LaRue, Carole Lombard, Ida Lupino, Tom Mix, Merle Oberon, Red Skelton, Casey Stengel, Jimmy Stewart, Spencer Tracy, and Bobby Womack.

#OTD #RIP in 2021 actor (Ship of Fools, King Rat, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?), comedian and musician (banjo), George Segal died of complications from bypass surgery in Santa Rosa, California, at age 87. Cremation

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Posted in American Icon, Day in History, Extravagant Footprints, Film Footprints | Tagged Cemetery, cimitiere de montmartre, cindy walker, cremated remains, Cremation, Crypts, Elizabeth Taylor, Entomb, forest lawn glendale, george segal, giulietta masina, History, hollywood forever cemetery, Mausoleum, nadar, Pere Lachaise Cemetery, Peter lorre, Richard Burton, Rimini cemetery, riptff, stendhal, tff, the final footprint | Leave a comment

On this day 22 March death of Goethe – William Hanna – Morgana King

Posted on 29 MaramSun, 22 Mar 2026 00:03:00 -05002026-03-22T00:03:00-05:0012 2011 by MacGregor

Portrait 1828 by Joseph Karl Stieler

On this day in 1832, writer and polymath, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, died in Weimar, Grand Duchy of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach at the age of 82. Born 28 August 1749 in Frankfurt, then an Imperial Free City of the Holy Roman Empire. It is my opinion that Goethe is the greatest writer in German literature. His Faust is one of the best long poems ever written. In 1774 he wrote the book which would bring him worldwide fame, The Sorrows of Young Werther. Goethe appears to have had several muses who influenced his writing. In Leipzig, Goethe fell in love with Käthchen Schönkopf and wrote cheerful verses about her in the Rococo genre. On a trip to the village Sesenheim, Goethe fell in love with Friederike Brion. In 1776, Goethe formed a close relationship to Charlotte von Stein, an older, married woman. The intimate bond with Frau von Stein lasted for ten years. In 1806, Goethe was living in Weimar with his mistress Christiane Vulpius. They would finally marry after eighteen years (1806 – 1816 her death). By 1820, Goethe was on amiable terms with Kaspar Maria von Sternberg. In 1823, having recovered from a near fatal heart illness, Goethe fell in love with Ulrike von Levetzow whom he wanted to marry. As a would be, want to be, frustrated writer, I fully understand the value of a good muse. Goethe’s influence would spread across Europe and across varied artistic mediums. The first production of Richard Wagner‘s opera Lohengrin took place in Weimar in 1850. The conductor was Franz Liszt, who chose the date 28 August, Goethe’s birthday, in honour of Goethe. He is widely quoted; “Against criticism a man can neither protest nor defend himself; he must act in spite of it, and then it will gradually yield to him”, “Divide and rule, a sound motto; unite and lead, a better one”, and “Enjoy when you can, and endure when you must.” Goethe, one of the world’s greatest thinkers.

The Final Footprint – Goethe is entombed in the Ducal Vault in Weimar’s Historical Cemetery. Friedrich Schiller is entombed there as well. A bronze statue of Goethe and Schiller was erected in Weimar. The Goethe Monument was erected in Chicago’s Lincoln Park.

#RIP #OTD in 2001, animator, voice actor, musician, with Joseph Barbera co-creator of Tom and Jerry and co-founder the animation studio and production company Hanna-Barbera (The Flintstones, The Huckleberry Hound Show, The Jetsons, Scooby-Doo, The Smurfs, Yogi Bear), William Hanna died of esophageal cancer at his home in North Hollywood, at the age of 90. Ascension Cemetery in Lake Forest, California

On this day in 2018, jazz singer and actress Morgana King died, aged 87, of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma in Palm Springs, California. Born Maria Grazia Morgana Messina on June 4, 1930 in Pleasantville, New York. She began singing at a young age and a professional singing career at sixteen years old. In her twenties, she was singing at a Greenwich Village nightclub when she was recognized for her unique phrasing and vocal range, described as a four-octave contralto range.

King had her debut and breakout acting role in film as Carmela Corleone in The Godfather (1972) and The Godfather Part II (1974).

King married twice. Her first marriage (when she was 17 years old) was to jazz trumpeter Tony Fruscella (1927–1969), which ended in divorce after nine years. Her second marriage, in 1961, was to jazz trombonist Willie Dennis (né William DeBerardinis; 1926–1965), whom she met during an off-night visit to the Birdland Jazz Club. She traveled to Brazil with Dennis to experience this “new” music style when he toured with Buddy Rich in 1960. Their close collaboration was ended suddenly in 1965 with his death from an automobile accident in New York’s Central Park. It’s a Quiet Thing (Reprise, 1965) is a memorial to him.

After Dennis’s death, King relocated and lived for more than two decades in Malibu, California. She accepted Frank Sinatra‘s offer to record three albums on his record label Reprise Records (It’s A Quiet Thing (1965), Wild Is Love (1966) and Gemini Changes (1967)).

The Final Footprint

Cremation.

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Posted in Day in History, Extravagant Footprints, Literary Footprints | Tagged ascension cemetery, Bronze Statue, Cemetery, Entomb, Faust, Goethe, History, morgana king, ruptff, Schiller, tff, the final footprint, William Hanna | Leave a comment

On this day 21 March death of Pocahontas – Cornelia Fort – Candy Darling – Leo Fender – Ludmilla Tchérina – Pinetop Perkins – George Foreman

Posted on 29 MaramSat, 21 Mar 2026 00:54:00 -05002026-03-21T00:54:00-05:0012 2011 by MacGregor

On this day in 1617, Native American woman, Pocahontas died in Gravesend, Kent, England at the approximate age of 21. Born about 1595 in what is now Virginia. She was the daughter of Powhatan, the paramount chief of Tsenacommacah, an alliance of about thirty Algonquian-speaking groups and chiefdoms in Tidewater Virginia. Pocahontas was known for having assisted colonial settlers at Jamestown and for reportedly saving Captain John Smith‘s life. She converted to Christianity and married the English settler John Rolfe. They had a son, Thomas Rolfe and her many descendants include; Edith Bolling Galt Wilson, wife of Woodrow Wilson; Admiral Richard Byrd; Virginia Governor Harry Flood Byrd; fashion-designer and socialite Pauline de Rothschild; former First Lady Nancy Reagan. The Rolfes left Virginia for England in 1616. She died just as they were beginning a return trip to Virginia.

The Final Footprint – Pocahontas is interred somewhere in Gravesend, the exact whereabouts are not known. Her memory is honored in Gravesend with a life-size bronze statue at St. George’s Church.

#RIP #OTD in 1943 US aviator, Women Airforce Service Pilots member, the first US pilot to encounter the Japanese air fleet during the Attack on Pearl Harbor, Cornelia Fort died on active duty after a mid-air collision near Merkel, Texas aged 24.

Candy Darling
“Candy Darling on her Deathbed” by Peter Hujar

On this day in 1974, transgender actress Candy Darling died of lymphoma, aged 29, at the Columbia University Medical Center division of the Cabrini Health Center in New York City. Born James Lawrence Slattery on November 24, 1944 in Forest Hills, Queens, New York. Perhaps best known as a Warhol Superstar. She starred in Andy Warhol’s films Flesh (1968) and Women in Revolt (1971), and was a muse of the protopunk band The Velvet Underground. She appeared in Klute with Jane Fonda and Lady Liberty with Sophia Loren. Her theatre credits include two Jackie Curtis plays, Glamour, Glory and Gold (1967) and Vain Victory: The Vicissitudes of the Damned (1971). She was also in Tennessee Williams‘ play Small Craft Warnings, at the invitation of Williams himself. Darling and friend Taffy are paid tribute to in the chorus of The Rolling Stones’ 1967 song “Citadel”. Darling is the subject of the song “Candy Says”, the opening track on The Velvet Underground’s third, self-titled album in 1969. The second verse of Lou Reed’s 1972 hit “Walk on the Wild Side” is devoted to Darling.

The Final Footprint

In a letter written on her deathbed and intended for Warhol and his followers, Darling said, “Unfortunately before my death I had no desire left for life … I am just so bored by everything. You might say bored to death. Did you know I couldn’t last. I always knew it. I wish I could meet you all again.“

Her funeral, held at the Frank E. Campbell Funeral Chapel, was attended by huge crowds. Julie Newmar read the eulogy. A piano piece was played by Faith Dane. Gloria Swanson saluted Darling’s coffin.

Darling was cremated, and her cremated remains interred by friend Jeremiah Newton in the Cherry Valley Cemetery, located in Cherry Valley, New York, a historical village located at the foot of the Catskill Mountains.

A feature-length documentary on Darling, titled Beautiful Darling, premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival (or Berlinale) in February 2010. The documentary features archival film and video footage, photographs, personal papers, and archival audio interviews.

Darling was first portrayed on film by Stephen Dorff in I Shot Andy Warhol (1996).
Darling appears as a character in the 2011 HBO film Cinema Verite, portrayed by Willam Belli.

#RIP #OTD in 1991 inventor, designer of the Fender Telecaster and Stratocaster (his instruments played by many including Jimi Hendrix and Stevie Ray Vaughan), Leo Fender died from Parkinson’s disease in Fullerton, California, aged 81. Fairhaven Memorial Park in Santa Ana CA

#RIP #OTD in 2004 French prima ballerina, artist, author, actress (The Red Shoes, Les Rendezvous, The Tales of Hoffmann, Oh… Rosalinda!!, Luna de Miel) Ludmilla Tchérina died in Paris aged 79. Montmartre Cemetery, Paris

#RIP #OTD in 2011 blues pianist Pinetop Perkins died in his sleep of cardiac arrest at his home in Austin, Texas at the age of 97. McLaurin Memorial Garden cemetery in Clarksdale, Mississippi

#RIP #OTD 2x world heavyweight boxing champion, businessman, minister, author, namesake of the George Foreman Grill, tv personality, Big George Forman died in a hospital in Houston, at age 76. His memorial service was held at the Wortham Theater Center in Houston. Final resting place in the Foreman family plot at paradise north cemetery in Houston

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Posted in American Icon, Day in History, Extravagant Footprints | Tagged Bronze Statue, Buried, candy darling, Captain John Smith, Cimetière de Montmartre, cornelia fort, Fairhaven Memorial Park, George Foreman, Ground Burial, History, John Rolfe, leo fender, Ludmilla Tchérina, McLaurin Memorial Garden cemetery, paradise north cemetery, Pinetop perkins, Pocahontas, Powhatan, riptff, St. Georges Church, tff, the final footprint | 1 Comment

On this day 20 March deaths of Isaac Newton – Adrienne Lecouvreur – Brendan Behan – Lewis Grizzard – Kenny Rogers

Posted on 29 MaramFri, 20 Mar 2026 00:48:00 -05002026-03-20T00:48:00-05:0012 2011 by MacGregor

Portrait of Newton by Godfrey Kneller (1689)

On this day in 1727, physicist, mathematician, astronomer, natural philosopher, alchemist, and theologian, Sir Isaac Newton died in his sleep in Kensington, Middlesex, England at the age of 84. Born 25 December 1642 at Woolsthorpe Manor in Woolsthorpe-by-Colsterworth, a hamlet in the county of Lincolnshire. In my opinion, one of the most influential people in human history. His Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica (Latin for “Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy”; usually called the Principia) (1687) lays the groundwork for most of classical mechanics and describes universal gravitation and the three laws of motion. Newton often told the story that he was inspired to formulate his theory of gravitation by watching the fall of an apple from a tree. Seems to me it is unlikely that the apple actually hit him on the head. Newton was an unorthodox Christian and actually wrote more on Biblical studies than on science and mathematics. English poet Alexander Pope wrote of Newton; “Nature and nature’s laws lay hid in night/God said “Let Newton be” and all was light.” Newton himself wrote; “If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of giants.”, and “I do not know what I may appear to the world, but to myself I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the sea-shore, and diverting myself in now and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me.”

The Final Footprint – Newton is entombed in Westminster Abbey. His monument is north of the entrance to the choir against the choir screen, near his tomb. Executed by the sculptor Michael Rysbrack (1694–1770) in white and grey marble with design by the architect William Kent. The monument features a figure of Newton reclining on top of a sarcophagus, his right elbow resting on several of his great books and his left hand pointing to a scroll with a mathematical design. Above him is a pyramid and a celestial globe showing the signs of the Zodiac and the path of the comet of 1680. The Latin inscription on the base translates as: “Here is buried Isaac Newton, Knight, who by a strength of mind almost divine, and mathematical principles peculiarly his own, explored the course and figures of the planets, the paths of comets, the tides of the sea, the dissimilarities in rays of light, and, what no other scholar has previously imagined, the properties of the colours thus produced. Diligent, sagacious and faithful, in his expositions of nature, antiquity and the holy Scriptures, he vindicated by his philosophy the majesty of God mighty and good, and expressed the simplicity of the Gospel in his manners. Mortals rejoice that there has existed such and so great an ornament of the human race!” Other notable Final Footprints at Westminster include; Robert Browning, Lord Byron, Charles II, Geoffrey Chaucer, Oliver Cromwell, Charles Darwin, Charles Dickens, Edward III, Edward VI, Edward The Confessor, Elizabeth I, George II, George Friederic Handel, Stephen Hawking, Henry III, Henry V, Henry VII, James I (James VI of Scotland), Samuel Johnson, Ben Jonson, Rudyard Kipling, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Mary I, Mary II, Mary Queen of Scots, John Milton, Laurence Olivier, Henry Purcell, Thomas Shadwell, Edmund Spenser, Lord Alfred Tennyson, Dylan Thomas, and William III.

RIP #OTD in 1730 the greatest French actress of her time, inspiration for playwrights, composers and poets, Adrienne Lecouvreur died in Paris aged 37. she was denied religious rites and buried in a ditch near the banks of the Seine

On this day in 1964, Irish poet, short story writer, novelist and playwright Brendan Behan died after collapsing at the Harbour Lights bar in Dublin at the age of 41. Born Brendan Francis Aidan Behan (christened Francis Behan) on 9 February 1923 in . Behan wrote in both English and Irish. In my opinion, he was one of the greatest Irish writers of all time.

An Irish republican and a volunteer in the Irish Republican Army, Behan was born in Dublin into a staunchly republican family becoming a member of the IRA’s youth organisation Fianna Éireann at the age of fourteen. There was also a strong emphasis on Irish history and culture in the home, which meant he was steeped in literature and patriotic ballads from an early age. Behan eventually joined the IRA at sixteen, which led to his serving time in a borstal youth prison in the United Kingdom and he was also imprisoned in Ireland. During this time, he took it upon himself to study and he became a fluent speaker of the Irish language. Subsequently released from prison as part of a general amnesty given by the Fianna Fáil government in 1946, Behan moved between homes in Dublin, Kerry and Connemara, and also resided in Paris for a time.

In 1954, Behan’s first play The Quare Fellow, was produced in Dublin. It was well received; however, it was the 1956 production at Joan Littlewood’s Theatre Workshop in Stratford, London, that gained Behan a wider reputation. This was helped by a famous drunken interview on BBC television with Malcolm Muggeridge. In 1958, Behan’s play in the Irish language An Giall had its debut at Dublin’s Damer Theatre. Later, The Hostage, Behan’s English-language adaptation of An Giall, met with great success internationally. Behan’s autobiographical novel, Borstal Boy, was published the same year and became a worldwide best-seller and by 1955, Behan had married Beatrice ffrench Salkeld.

By the early 1960s, Behan reached the peak of his fame. He spent increasing amounts of time in New York, famously declaring, “To America, my new found land: The man that hates you hates the human race.” By this point, Behan began spending time with people including Harpo Marx and Arthur Miller and was followed by a young Bob Dylan. He turned down his invitation to the inauguration of John F. Kennedy. He had long been a heavy drinker (describing himself, on one occasion, as “a drinker with a writing problem” and claiming “I only drink on two occasions—when I’m thirsty and when I’m not”) and developed diabetes in the early 1950s but this was not diagnosed until 1956. His Brendan Behan’s New York and Confessions of an Irish Rebel received little praise. He briefly attempted to combat this by a sober stretch while staying at Chelsea Hotel in New York, but once again turned back to drink.

The Final Footprint

He was given a full IRA guard of honour, which escorted his coffin. It was described by several newspapers as the biggest Irish funeral of all time after those of Michael Collins and Charles Stewart Parnell. He is interred at Glasnevin Cemetery in Dublin. Other notable final footprints at Glasnevin include; Michael Collins, Maud Gonne, Gerard Manley Hopkins, and Seán MacBride.

#RIP #OTD in 1994 writer, humorist, newspaper columnist (Atlanta Journal-Constitution), Lewis Grizzard died from complications of his 4th heart-valve surgery in Atlanta, aged 47. Some of his cremated remains scattered at the 50-yard line of Sanford Stadium, University of Georgia

#RIP #OTD in 2020 singer (“Ruby, Don’t Take Your Love to Town”, “Lucille”, “Coward of the “County”, “The Gambler”), songwriter, musician, actor, entrepreneur Kenny Rogers died while under hospice care at his home in Sandy Springs, Georgia, aged 81. Oakland Cemetery in Atlanta

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Posted in Day in History, Extravagant Footprints | Tagged cremated remains, Cremation, Entomb, History, Inscription, kenny rogers, Lewis Grizzard, Monument, Oakland Cemetery, riptff, Sir Isaac Newton, tff, the final footprint, tomb, Westminster Abbey | Leave a comment

On this day 19 March deaths of Randy Rhoads – Willem de Kooning – Larry Bud Melman – Arthur C. Clarke

Posted on 29 MaramThu, 19 Mar 2026 00:51:00 -05002026-03-19T00:51:00-05:0012 2011 by MacGregor

On this day in 1982, heavy metal guitarist Randy Rhoads died in a plane accident in Leesburg, Florida, at the age of 25. Born Randall William Rhoads on December 6, 1956 in Santa Monica, California. Rhoads played with Quiet Riot and Ozzy Osbourne. A devoted student of classical guitar, Rhoads combined his classical music influences with his own heavy metal style. Despite his short career, Rhoads, who was a major influence on neoclassical metal, is cited as an influence by many guitarists.

The Final Footprint

A 1957 Beechcraft Bonanza Model H35, very similar to the 1955 model in which Rhoads died.

Rhoads’ funeral was held at the First Lutheran Church in Burbank, California. Pall-bearers at the funeral included Osbourne and Rhoads’ former Quiet Riot bandmate Kevin DuBrow. On his coffin was a photo of the guitarist as well as a photo of himself on stage with Osbourne in San Francisco. Rhoads is entombed in a private mausoleum at Mountain View Cemetery in San Bernardino, California.

On this day in 1997, artist Willem de Kooning died from complications of Alzheimer’s disease at the age of 92 in East Hampton, New York. Born April 24, 1904 in Rotterdam, Netherlands. He moved to the United States in 1926, and became an American citizen in 1962. On December 9, 1943, he married painter Elaine Fried.

In the years after World War II, de Kooning painted in a style that came to be referred to as Abstract expressionism or “action painting”, and was part of a group of artists that came to be known as the New York School.

Willem de Kooning (1968)

De Kooning met Fried, at the American Artists School in New York. She was 14 years his junior. Thus was to begin a lifelong partnership affected by alcoholism, lack of money, love affairs, quarrels and separations.

Elaine had admired Willem’s artwork before meeting him, in 1938 her teacher introduced her to De Kooning at a Manhattan cafeteria when she was 20 and him 34. After meeting, he began to instruct her in drawing and painting. They painted in Willem’s loft at 143 West 21st Street, and he was known for his harsh criticism of her work. He even destroyed many of her drawings. When they married, she moved into his loft and they continued sharing studio spaces. They had an open marriage; they both were casual about sex and about each other’s affairs. Elaine had affairs with men who helped further Willem’s career

Elaine and Willem both struggled with alcoholism, which eventually led to their separation in 1957. While separated, Elaine remained in New York, struggling with poverty, and Willem moved to Long Island and dealt with depression. Despite bouts with alcoholism, they both continued painting. Although separated for nearly twenty years, they never divorced, and ultimately reunited in 1976.

Woman III, 1953, private collection

The Final Footprint

De Kooning was cremated.

On this day in 2007, actor and comedian, Larry Bud Melman, died at Good Samaritan Hospital in West Islip, New York at the age of 85. Born Calvert Grant DeForest on 23 July 1921 in Brooklyn. Perhaps best known for his appearances on Late Night with David Letterman and the Late Show with David Letterman. He was the cousin of actor DeForest Kelley of Star Trek fame. His appearances on Letterman were so funny. I used to watch Letterman back in the day when I could stay awake past 2300 hours.

The Final Footprint – DeForest was cremated and his cremated remains were inurned in Pinelawn Cemetery in Farmingdale, New York.

On this day in 2008, science fiction writer, science writer and futurist, inventor, undersea explorer, and television series host Arthur C. Clarke died in Colombo, Sri Lanka from respiratory failure at the age of 90. Born Arthur Charles Clarke on 16 December 1917 in Minehead, Somerset, England, UK.

He is famous for being co-writer of the screenplay for the 1968 film 2001: A Space Odyssey, in my opinion, one of the most influential films of all time. Clarke was a science writer, and an avid populariser of space travel. In 1961 he was awarded the Kalinga Prize, an award which is given by UNESCO for popularising science. These along with his science fiction writings eventually earned him the moniker “Prophet of the Space Age”. His other science fiction writings earned him a number of Hugo and Nebula awards. For many years Clarke, Robert Heinlein and Isaac Asimov were known as the “Big Three” of science fiction.

In 1934, while still a teenager, he joined the British Interplanetary Society. In 1945, he proposed a satellite communication system. He was the chairman of the British Interplanetary Society from 1946–47 and again in 1951–53.

Clarke emigrated from England to Sri Lanka (formerly Ceylon) in 1956, largely to pursue his interest in scuba diving. That year he discovered the underwater ruins of the ancient Koneswaram temple in Trincomalee. Clarke augmented his fame later on in the 1980s, from being the host of several television shows such as Arthur C. Clarke’s Mysterious World. He lived in Sri Lanka until his death. He was knighted in 1998 and was awarded Sri Lanka’s highest civil honour, Sri Lankabhimanya, in 2005.

On a trip to Florida in 1953 Clarke met and quickly married Marilyn Mayfield, a 22-year-old American divorcee with a young son. They separated permanently after six months, although the divorce was not finalised until 1964. “The marriage was incompatible from the beginning”, said Clarke. Clarke never remarried, but was close to a Sri Lankan man, Leslie Ekanayake (13 July 1947 – 4 July 1977), whom Clarke called his “only perfect friend of a lifetime”, in the dedication to his novel The Fountains of Paradise.

The Final Footprint

Clarke at his home in Sri Lanka, 2005

Clarke was interred alongside Ekanayake in Colombo’s central cemetery in a traditional Sri Lankan fashion on 22 March. His younger brother, Fred Clarke, and his Sri Lankan adoptive family were among the thousands in attendance.

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Posted in Artistic Footprints, Day in History, Literary Footprints, Musical Footprints | Tagged arthur c clarke, Cemetery, cremains, Cremation, DeForest Kelley, History, Larry Bud Melman, Late Show with David Letterman, Pinelawn Cemetery, randy rhoads, riptff, tff, the final footprint, willem de kooning | Leave a comment

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