On this day in 1554, English noblewoman, great-granddaughter of Henry VII, cousin of Edward VI, de facto monarch of England from 10 July until 19 July 1553, The Nine Days Queen, Lady Jane Grey and her husband Lord Guildford Dudley were executed by beheading at the Tower of London for high treason against Queen Mary I. Lady Jane Grey was 16 or 17 years old. Dudley was 18 or 19. Lady Jane Grey was the eldest daughter of Henry Grey, 1st Duke of Suffolk, and his wife, Lady Frances Brandon. The traditional view is that she was born at Bradgate Park in Leicestershire in October 1537, while more recent research indicates that she was born somewhat earlier, possibly in London, in late 1536 or in the spring of 1537. Guildford Dudley was born c. 1535, the second youngest surviving son of John Dudley, 1st Duke of Northumberland and his wife Jane, daughter of Sir Edward Guildford. Lady Jane Grey was the great-granddaughter of Henry VII through his younger daughter Mary, and a first cousin once removed of Edward VI. When the 15-year-old King lay dying in June 1553, he nominated Jane as successor to the Crown in his will, thus subverting the claims of his half-sisters Mary and Elizabeth under the Third Succession Act. Jane was imprisoned in the Tower of London when the Privy Council decided to change sides and proclaim Mary as queen on 19 July 1553. Jane was convicted of high treason in November 1553, which carried a sentence of death, although her life was initially spared. Wyatt’s rebellion of January and February 1554 against Queen Mary I’s plans for a Spanish match led to the executions. Lady Jane Grey had an excellent humanist education and a reputation as one of the most learned young women of her day. A committed Protestant, she was posthumously regarded as not only a political victim but also a martyr. 
The Final Footprint – On the morning of 12 February 1554, the authorities took Dudley from his rooms at the Tower of London to the public execution place at Tower Hill, where he was beheaded. A horse and cart brought his remains back to the Tower, past the rooms where Jane was staying. Seeing her husband’s corpse return, Jane is reported to have exclaimed: “Oh, Guildford, Guildford.” She was then taken out to Tower Green, inside the Tower, to be beheaded. According to the account of her execution given in the anonymous Chronicle of Queen Jane and of Two Years of Queen Mary, which formed the basis for Raphael Holinshed‘s depiction, Jane gave a speech upon ascending the scaffold:
Good people, I am come hither to die, and by a law I am condemned to the same. The fact, indeed, against the Queen’s highness was unlawful, and the consenting thereunto by me: but touching the procurement and desire thereof by me or on my behalf, I do wash my hands thereof in innocency, before God, and the face of you, good Christian people, this day.
She then recited Psalm 51 (Have mercy upon me, O God) in English, and handed her gloves and handkerchief to her maid. The executioner asked her forgiveness, which she granted him, pleading: “I pray you dispatch me quickly.” Referring to her head, she asked, “Will you take it off before I lay me down?”, and the axeman answered: “No, madam.” She then blindfolded herself. With her head on the block, Jane spoke the last words of Jesus as recounted by Luke: “Lord, into thy hands I commend my spirit!” Jane and Guildford are buried in the Chapel of St Peter ad Vincula on the north side of Tower Green. Jane’s father, Duke of Suffolk, was executed 11 days after Jane, on 23 February 1554. Jane could be called the traitor-heroine of the Reformation. During and in the aftermath of the Marian persecutions, Jane became viewed as a Protestant martyr for centuries, featuring prominently in the several editions of the Book of Martyrs by John Foxe. The tale of Lady Jane grew to legendary proportions in popular culture, producing a flood of romantic biographies, novels, plays, paintings, and films, one of which was the 1986 production Lady Jane, starring Helena Bonham Carter. Other notable final footprints at the Chapel include: William Hastings, 1st Baron Hastings; Queen Anne Boleyn, second wife of King Henry VIII; Margaret, Countess of Salisbury, the last of the Plantagenet dynasty; Queen Catherine Howard, fifth wife of Henry VIII; Jane Boleyn, Viscountess Rochford; and Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex.
#RIP #OTD in 1929, British socialite, stage actress (She Stoops to Conquer, The Lady of Lyons, Shakespeare’s As You Like It), producer, thoroughbred race horse owner, “The Jersey Lily”, Lillie Langtry died in Monaco at dawn, aged 75. St. Saviour’s Church, the island of Jersey
#RIP #OTD in 1976 actor (Rebel Without a Cause), singer, and director Sal Mineo died after being stabbed in the heart by a mugger in front of his West Hollywood apartment, aged 37. Gate of Heaven Cemetery in Hawthorne, New York
#RIP #OTD in 1979 film director (La Grande Illusion, La règle du jeu, The Southerner, French Cancan), screenwriter, actor, producer, author, son of Renoir, Jean Renoir died in Beverly Hills of a heart attack, aged 84. Essoyes Cimetière, France
#RIP #OTD in 1980 poet (The Book of the Dead, “To be a Jew in the Twentieth Century”), essayist, biographer, and political activist, Muriel Rukeyser died from a stroke in New York City aged 66. Salem Fields Cemetery, Brooklyn
#RIP #OTD in 1983 pianist, composer (broadway musical Shuffle Along, “Bandana Days”, “Charleston Rag”, “Love Will Find a Way”, “Memories of You”, “I’m Just Wild About Harry”), Eubie Blake died in Brooklyn aged 96. Cypress Hills Cemetery in Brooklyn
#RIP #OTD in 2000 singer-songwriter (I Put a Spell on You), musician, actor, film producer, boxer, Screamin’ Jay Hawkins died after emergency surgery from an aneurysm in Neuilly-sur-Seine, France, aged 70. Cremated remains scattered in the Atlantic
On this day in 2000, Texas Longhorn, U. S. Army Air Corp veteran, Hall of Fame coach, Tom Landry died in Dallas, Texas at the age of 75. Born Thomas Wade Landry on 11 September 1924 in Mission, Texas. Landry played fullback and defensive back for the Longhorns and was an all-pro defensive back for the New York Giants. He began his coaching career with the Giants, serving as their defensive coordinator from 1954 to 1959. The Giants offensive coordinator at that time was Vince Lombardi. The Giants appeared in three NFL Championship games during Landry’s tenure. Landry was the first coach to employ a 4-3 defensive formation. In 1960 he became the head coach of the newly established Dallas Cowboys. Landry served as head coach of the Cowboys until 1988 during which time the Cowboys won two Super Bowl titles (VI, XII), 5 NFC titles, 13 Divisional titles, and compiled a 270-178-6 record, the 3rd most wins of all time for an NFL coach. His 20 career playoff victories are the most of any coach in NFL history. Landry coached the Cowboys to 20 consecutive winning seasons (1966–1985), an NFL record that remains unbroken and unchallenged. It remains one of the longest winning streaks in all of professional sports history. Landry was married to Alicia Wiggs (1949 – 2000 his death). My heroes have always been Cowboys. 
The Final Footprint – Landry is interred in the Landry Private Estate in Sparkman Hillcrest Cemetery, a Dignity Memorial property, in Dallas. The estate is marked by a granite cap monument. His grave is marked by a flat granite foot marker with the inscription; WELL DONE, GOOD AND FAITHFUL SERVANT ENTER INTO THE JOY OF THY LORD. MATTHEW 25:21. An upright companion granite marker was placed in the official Texas State Cemetery in Austin in Landry’s honor. One side of the monument features the Cowboy star and an image of a fedora, his tradmark hat. The other side features the Cowboy star and a bronze image of Landry and a list of his accomplishments. A bronze statue of Landry is outside Cowboys Stadium. Other notable final footprints at Sparkman-Hillcrest include H. L. Hunt and Mickey Mantle.
#RIP #OTD in 2000, cartoonist, the creator of the comic strip Peanuts, Charles M. Schulz died in his sleep of a heart attack while battling colon cancer at his home in Santa Rosa, California, at the age of 77. Pleasant Hills Cemetery in Sebastopol, California
#RIP #OTD in 2005 singer (Help Me Make It Through the Night), songwriter, Sammi Smith died at her home in Oklahoma City of emphysema aged 61. Elmhurst Cemetery in Guymon, Oklahoma
On this day in 2014, comic actor and writer Sid Caesar died at his home in Beverly Hills, California, at the age of 91, after a short illness. Born Isaac Sidney Caesar on September 8, 1922 in Yonkers. Perhaps best known for two pioneering 1950s live television series: Your Show of Shows, which was a 90-minute weekly show watched by 60 million people, and its successor, Caesar’s Hour. Your Show of Shows and its cast received seven Emmy nominations between the years 1953 and 1954 and tallied two wins. He also acted in movies; he played Coach Calhoun in Grease (1978) and its sequel Grease 2 (1982) and appeared in the films It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963), Silent Movie (1976), History of the World, Part I (1981), Cannonball Run II (1984), and “Vegas Vacation” (1997).
Caesar was considered a “sketch comic” and actor, as opposed to a stand-up comedian. He also relied more on body language, accents, and facial contortions than simply dialogue. Unlike the slapstick comedy which was standard on TV, his style was considered “avant garde” in the 1950s. He conjured up ideas and scene and used writers to flesh out the concept and create the dialogue. Among the writers who wrote for Caesar early in their careers were Mel Brooks, Neil Simon, Larry Gelbart, Carl Reiner, Michael Stewart, Mel Tolkin, Selma Diamond, and Woody Allen. “Sid’s was the show to which all comedy writers aspired. It was the place to be,” said Steve Allen.
His TV shows’ subjects included satires of real life events and people—and parodies of popular film genres, theater, television shows, and opera. But unlike other comedy shows at the time, the dialogue was considered sharper, funnier, and more adult-oriented. He was “…best known as one of the most intelligent and provocative innovators of television comedy,” who some critics called television’s Charlie Chaplin and The New York Times refers to as the “…comedian of comedians from TV’s early days.”
Honored in numerous ways over 60 years, he was nominated for 11 Emmy Awards, winning twice. He was also a saxophonist and author of several books, including two autobiographies in which he described his career and later struggle to overcome years of alcoholism and addiction to barbiturates.
The Final Footprint
He was predeceased by his wife, Florence (2010). His interment was at Mount Sinai Memorial Park Cemetery, Hollywood Hills. Another notable final footprint at Mount Sinai is Don Rickles.
1996: Jarreau performing at the Molde International Jazz Festival.
On this day in 2017, singer and musician Al Jarreau died of respiratory failure, at the age of 76, in Los Angeles. Born Alwin Lopez Jarreau on March 12, 1940 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He received a total of seven Grammy Awards and was nominated for over a dozen more. Perhaps best known for his 1981 album Breakin’ Away. He also sang the theme song of the late-1980s television series Moonlighting, and was among the performers on the 1985 charity song “We Are the World.”
Jarreau was married twice. Jarreau and Phyllis Hall were married from 1964 until their divorce in 1968. Jarreau’s second wife was model Susan Elaine Player, who was fourteen years his junior. They were married from 1977 until his death in 2017.
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He is interred in the Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Hollywood Hills). Other notable final footprints at Hollywood Hills include; Gene Autry, Albert “Cubby” Broccoli, David Carradine, Scatman Crothers, Bette Davis, Sandra Dee, Ronnie James Dio, Michael Clarke Duncan, Carrie Fisher, Bobby Fuller, Andy Gibb, Michael Hutchence, Jill Ireland, Buster Keaton, Lemmy Kilmister, Jack LaLanne, Nicolette Larson, Liberace, Strother Martin, Jayne Meadows, Brittany Murphy, Ricky Nelson, Bill Paxton, Brock Peters, Freddie Prinze, Lou Rawls, Debbie Reynolds, Telly Savalas, Lee Van Cleef, and Paul Walker.
#RIP #OTD in 2022 film director (Meatballs, Stripes, Ghostbusters, Twins, Kindergarten Cop, Dave), Ivan Reitman died in his sleep at his home in Montecito, California, aged 75. Santa Barbara Cemetery, Santa Barbara, California
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On this day in 1862, wife of Dante Gabriel Rossetti, artists’ model, muse, poet and artist Elizabeth ‘Lizzie’ Siddal died at the age of 32, from complications related to an overdose of laudanum, at her home at 14 Chatham Place, London, now demolished and covered by Blackfriars Station. Born Elizabeth Eleanor Siddall, on 25 July 1829, at the family’s home at 7 Charles Street, Hatton Garden, London. Siddal was painted and drawn extensively by artists of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, including Walter Deverell, William Holman Hunt, John Everett Millais (including his notable 1852 painting Ophelia) and her husband. She featured prominently in Rossetti’s early paintings of women. Rossetti’s relationship with Siddal is explored by Christina Rossetti (Dante’s sister) in her poem “In an Artist’s Studio”:
The Final Footprint – Siddal was interred at Highgate Cemetery in London. Rossetti enclosed in his wife’s coffin a journal containing the only copy he had of his many poems. He reportedly slid the book into Siddal’s red hair. By 1869, before publishing any newer poems, he became obsessed with retrieving the poems he had slipped into his wife’s coffin. Rossetti and his agent, Charles Augustus Howell, applied to the Home Secretary for an order to have her exhumed. It was done at night to avoid public curiosity and attention. Rossetti was not present. Howell reported that her corpse was remarkably well preserved and her delicate beauty intact, probably as a result of the laudanum. Her hair was said to have continued to grow after death so that the coffin was filled with her flowing coppery hair. Rossetti published the old poems with his newer ones. They were not well received by some critics because of their eroticism, and he was reportedly haunted by the exhumation through the rest of his life.
On this day in 1963 poet, novelist, short story writer, Pulitzer Prize recipient, Sylvia Plath committed suicide by carbon monoxide poisoning in the kitchen of her flat at 23 Fitzroy Road near Primrose Hill, London, at the age of 30. Born on 27 October 1932, in Massachusetts Memorial Hospital, in Boston’s Jamaica Plain neighborhood. Plath studied at Smith College and Newnham College, Cambridge, before receiving acclaim as a professional poet and writer. She married fellow poet Ted Hughes in 1956 and they lived together first in the United States and then England, having two children together, Frieda and Nicholas. Plath suffered from depression for much of her adult life. Controversy continues to surround the events of her life and death, as well as her writing and legacy. Plath is generally credited with advancing the genre of confessional poetry with her two published collections, The Colossus and Other Poems and Ariel. In 1982, she won a posthumous Pulitzer Prize for The Collected Poems. She also wrote The Bell Jar, a semi-autobiographical novel published shortly before her death. 
On this day in 2012, singer, actor, model Whitney Houston died of accidental drowning in her hotel room at the Beverly Hilton, in Beverly Hills, at the age of 48. Born Whitney Elizabeth Houston on August 9, 1963 in Newark, New Jersey. Houston is one of the best-selling music artists of all-time. She released seven studio albums and two soundtrack albums, all of which have diamond, multi-platinum, platinum, or gold certification. Houston’s crossover appeal on the popular music charts, as well as her prominence on MTV, starting with her video for “How Will I Know”, influenced several artists who follow in her footsteps.
On February 11, Houston was found unconscious in Suite 434 at the Beverly Hilton Hotel, submerged in the bathtub. Beverly Hills paramedics arrived at approximately 3:30 p.m. and found the singer unresponsive and performed CPR. Houston was pronounced dead at 3:55 p.m. PST. On March 22, 2012, the Los Angeles County coroner’s office reported the cause of Houston’s death was drowning and the “effects of atherosclerotic heart disease and cocaine use”. The manner of death was listed as an “accident”.
On this day in 1992, writer Alex Haley died in Seattle, Washington, of a heart attack at the age of 70. Born Alexander Murray Palmer Haley on August 11, 1921 in Ithaca, New York. He was the author of the 1976 book Roots: The Saga of an American Family. ABC adapted the book as a television miniseries of the same name and aired it in 1977 to a record-breaking audience of 130 million viewers. In the United States, the book and miniseries raised the public awareness of African American history and inspired a broad interest in genealogy and family history.
On this day in 2005, playwright and essayist, Tony Award winner, recipient of the Nobel Prize for Drama, Arthur Miller, died at his home in Roxbury, Connecticut at the age of 89. Born Arthur Asher Miller on 17 October 1915 in Harlem, New York City. His notable plays include; All My Sons (1947), Death of a Salesman (1949), The Crucible (1953), and A View from the Bridge (one-act, 1955; revised two-act, 1956). Death of a Saleman was commercially successful and critically acclaimed, winning a Tony Award for Best Author, the New York Drama Circle Critics’ Award, and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama; the first play to win all three of these major awards. Miller received a BA in English from the University of Michigan. Miller married three times; Mary Slattery (1940 – 1956 divorce), Marilyn Monroe (1956 – 1961 divorce) and Inge Morath (1962 – 2002 her death). Miller also wrote the screenplay for the movie The Misfits (1961) starring Monroe, Clark Gable, Montgomery Clift and Eli Wallach. Miller and Monroe would divorce shortly before the movie’s premier. The film marked the final movie for both Monroe and Gable. Miller’s papers are housed at the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center at The University of Texas at Austin. 
On this day in 2008, amateur boxer, U.S. Air Force veteran, and actor Roy Scheider died from 
On this day in 1881, writer and essayist, Fyodor Dostoevsky, died in St. Petersburg, Russian Empire at the age of 59 from a pulmonary haemorrhage. Born Fyodor Mikhaylovich Dostoevsky on 11 November 1821 in Moscow, Russian Empire.
On this day in 1906; poet, novelist, playwright Paul Laurence Dunbar died 
He was interred in the Woodland Cemetery in Dayton.
On this day in 1587, Queen regnant of Scots,
Queen consort of France, Mary Stuart, Mary Queen of Scots, was executed at Fotheringhay Castle Northamptonshire, England, at the age of 44. Born on 8 December 1542 at Linlithgow Palace, Linlithgow, Scotland. Mary was the only surviving legitimate child of King James V of Scotland. Mary of Guise was her mother. She was 6 days old when her father died and she was crowned nine months later. In 1558, she married Francis, Dauphin of France, who ascended the French throne as Francis II in 1559. Mary was widowed on 5 December 1560 and then returned to Scotland, arriving in Leith on 19 August 1561. As a devout Catholic, she was regarded with suspicion by many of her subjects. Scotland was torn between Catholic and Protestant factions, and Mary’s illegitimate half-brother, James Stewart, 1st Earl of Moray, was a leader of the Protestant faction. The Protestant reformer John Knox also preached against Mary, condemning her for hearing Mass, dancing, dressing too elaborately, and many other real and imagined offences. In 1565, she married her first cousin, Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley. Their marriage was not a happy one. In February 1567, there was an explosion at their house, and Darnley was found dead, apparently strangled, in the garden. Mary then
On this day in 1959, New Orleans blues guitarist Guitar Slim died of pneumonia in New York City, at the age of 32. Born Eddie Jones on December 10, 1926 in Greenwood, Mississippi.
On this day in 2000, singer and songwriter, founder of the blues-rock band Foghat, Lonesome Dave, Dave Peverett, died in Orlando, Florida at the age of 56 from cancer. Born on 16 April 1943 in Dulwich, South East London, UK.
On this day in 2001, writer, film star and singer-songwriter, the third wife of singing cowboy Roy Rogers, Dale Evans died of congestive heart failure at the age of 88 in Apple Valley, California. Born Lucille Wood Smith in Uvalde, Texas on 31 October 1912. She took the name Dale Evans in the early 1930s to promote her singing career. Evans wrote one of the classic cowboy songs, “Happy Trails”. Evans married four times; Thomas Frederick Fox (1927–1929 divorce), August Wayne Johns (1929–1935 divorce), R. Dale Butts (1937–1946 divorce) and Roy Rogers (1947–1998 his death). My heroes have always been cowboys and cowgirls. 
On this day in 1916, “The Prince of Castillian Letters”, poet Rubén Darío died aged 49, in León, Nicaragua. Born Félix Rubén García Sarmiento on 18 January 1867 in Metapa, today known as Ciudad Darío, Matagalpa, Nicaragua.
On this day in 1918, painter Gustav Klimt died in Vienna at the age of 55, having suffered a stroke and pneumonia due to the influenza epidemic of that year. Born 14 July 1862 in Baumgarten, near Vienna in Austria-Hungary. Klimt was a symbolist painter and one of the most prominent members of the Vienna Secession movement. His primary subject was the female body, and his works are marked by a frank eroticism. In addition, he painted landscapes. Early in his artistic career, he was a successful painter of architectural decorations in a conventional manner. His work was the subject of controversy that culminated when the paintings he completed around 1900 for the ceiling of the Great Hall of the University of Vienna were criticized as pornographic. He subsequently accepted no more public commissions, but achieved a new success with the paintings of his “golden phase,” many of which include gold leaf. 
On this day in 1976, United States Army Veteran, Grammy award winning jazz musician and songwriter, Vince Guaraldi died of a heart attack at the age of 47 at the Red Cottage Inn in Menlo Park, California. Born Vincent Anthony Dellaglio on 17 July 1928 in San Francisco’s North Beach area. Noted for his innovative compositions and arrangements and for composing music for animated adaptations of the Peanuts comic strip. Guaraldi went on to compose scores for seventeen Peanuts television specials, including the Christmas special, plus the feature film A Boy Named Charlie Brown. 
On this day in 1990, composer Jimmy Van Heusen died in Rancho Mirage, California, from complications following a stroke, at the age of 77. Born Edward Chester Babcock on January 26, 1913 in Syracuse, New York. He wrote songs for films, television and theater, and won an Emmy and four Academy Awards for Best Original Song.
The Final Footprint
On this day in 1991, nightclub comedian, singer, actor, producer, and philanthropist Danny Thomas died of heart failure at age 79, in Los Angeles, California. Born Amos Muzyad Yakhoob Kairouz on January 6, 1912 in Deerfield, Michigan. His career spanned five decades. He created and starred in one of the most successful and long-running situation comedies in the history of American network television. In addition to guest roles on many of the comedy, talk, and musical variety programs of his time, his legacy includes a lifelong dedication to fundraising for charity.
The Final Footprint
On this day in 1993, U. S. Army veteran, tennis legend and social activist, Arthur Ashe, died in New York City at the age of 49 from AIDS-related pneumonia. He contracted the HIV virus from blood transfusions during heart bypass surgery. Born Arthur Robert Ashe. Jr. on 10 July 1943 in Richmond, Virginia. Ashe attended UCLA and was the first African-American man to win Wimbledon and the U. S. Open. I enjoyed playing tennis once ago and Ashe has always been one of my favorite players. I was pulling for him to win that match at Wimbledon. I used Head tennis rackets because Ashe did. Ashe was married to Jeanne Moutoussamy.
The Final Footprint – Ashe is interred in the Ashe Private Estate in Woodland Cemetery, Richmond, Virginia. His grave is marked by a large black granite marker. The marker features the inscription; Distinguished Athlete, Scholar and Humanitarian, and A HARD ROAD TO GLORY. After his death, Arthur Ashe’s body lay in state at the governor’s mansion in Virginia. The last time this was allowed was for Stonewall Jackson of the Confederate Army during the Civil War. The city of Richmond posthumously honored Ashe’s life with a statue on Monument Avenue, a place traditionally reserved for statues of key figures of the Confederacy. In 1993, Ashe was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Bill Clinton. The main stadium at the USTA National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows Park, where the US Open is played, is named Arthur Ashe Stadium in his honor. This is also the home of the annual Arthur Ashe Kids’ Day. His memoir is entitled Days of Grace. 
On this day in 1941, Australian bush poet, journalist and author Banjo Paterson died of a heart attack in Sydney, aged 76. Born Andrew Barton Paterson at the property “Narrambla”, near Orange, New South Wales, the eldest son of Andrew Bogle Paterson, a Scottish immigrant from Lanarkshire, and Australian-born Rose Isabella Barton, related to the future first Prime Minister of Australia Edmund Barton. Paterson wrote many ballads and poems about Australian life, focusing particularly on the rural and outback areas, including the district around Binalong, New South Wales, where he spent much of his childhood. His more notable poems include “Waltzing Matilda”, “The Man from Snowy River” and “Clancy of the Overflow”. On 8 April 1903 he married Alice Emily Walker, of Tenterfield Station, in St Stephen’s Presbyterian Church, in Tenterfield, New South Wales.
On this day in 1995, actor Doug McClure died from lung cancer in Sherman Oaks, California at the age of 59. Born Douglas Osborne McClure on 11 May 1935 in Glendale, California. Perhaps best remembered for his role as Trampas on the Western television servies The Virginian which ran from 1962 to 1971. One of my favorite shows as a kid. McClure was married five times; Faye Brash (1957 – 1961 divorce), BarBara Luna (1961 – 1963 divorce), Helen Crane (1965 – 1968 divorce), Diane Soldani (1970 – 1979 divorce) and Diane Furnberg (1979 – 1995 his death). 
On this day in 2020, 
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On this day in 1983, drummer, singer and songwriter, Karen Carpenter, died at her parents’s home in Downey, California at the age of 32 from complications related to anorexia nervosa. Born Karen Anne Carpenter on 2 March 1950 in New Haven, Connecticut. Along with her brother Richard, they formed the duo The Carpenters. Best known for their album, 1970’s Close to You, featuring two big hit singles: “(They Long to Be) Close to You” and “We’ve Only Just Begun.” The songwriter Tom Bahler wrote the song “She’s Out of My Life” after she broke up with him. The song would eventually became a hit single for Michael Jackson. Carpenter married Thomas James Burris (1980 – 1983 her death). 
On this day in 1987, 
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On this day in 1995, novelist and short story writer Patricia Highsmith died from lung cancer at Carita hospital in Locarno, Switzerland, at the age of 74. Born Mary Patricia Plangman on January 19, 1921 in Ft. Worth, Texas. Perhaps best known for her psychological thrillers, including her series of five novels featuring the character Tom Ripley. She wrote 22 novels and numerous short stories throughout her career spanning nearly five decades. Her writing derived influence from existentialist literature, and questioned notions of identity and popular morality. She was dubbed “the poet of apprehension” by novelist Graham Greene.
The Final Footprint
On this day, in 1959, singer and songwriter, rock and roll pioneer, Buddy Holly died in a plane crash near Clear Lake, Iowa, at the age of 22. Ritchie Valens, J. P. “The Big Bopper” Richardson and the pilot, Roger Peterson, were also killed in the crash. Holly’s bandmate Waylon Jennings reportedly gave up his seat on the plane, causing Holly to jokingly tell Jennings, “I hope your ol’ bus freezes up!” Jennings shot back facetiously, “Well, I hope your ol’ plane crashes!” It was a statement that would haunt Jennings for decades. Born Charles Hardin Holley on 7 September 1936 in Lubbock, Texas. Music critic Bruce Elder described Holly as “the single most influential creative force in early rock and roll.” Holly apparently inspired contemporary and later musicians, notably The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, and Eric Clapton. In my opinion he exerted a profound influence on popular music. Paul McCartney owns the publishing rights to Holly’s song catalogue. In his 1998 Grammy acceptance speech for his Time out of Mind being named Album of the Year, Dylan said; “And I just want to say that when I was sixteen or seventeen years old, I went to see Buddy Holly play at Duluth National Guard Armory and I was three feet away from him…and he looked at me. And I just have some sort of feeling that he was — I don’t know how or why — but I know he was with us all the time we were making this record in some kind of way.” Keith Richards reportedly said that Holly had “an influence on everybody.” In a 24 August 1978 Rolling Stone interview, Bruce Springsteen told Dave Marsh, “I play Buddy Holly every night before I go on; that keeps me honest.” Don McLean’s popular 1971 ballad “American Pie” is inspired by Holly and the day of the plane crash. The American Pie album is dedicated to Holly. Holly was married to Maria Elena Santiago. My favorite Holly songs are “That’ll be the Day” and “Not Fade Away”. Holly co-wrote “That’ll be the Day” with Jerry Allison apparently after watching the movie The Searchers, starring John Wayne. In the movie Wayne’s character, Ethan Edwards says that line four times; once in response to Jeffrey Hunter’s character Martin Pawley telling Ethan, “I hope you die!” Ethan responds. “That’ll be the day.” Holly’s music has certainly not faded away. Indeed, 3 February 1959; the day the music died.
The Final Footprint – Holly is interred in the City of Lubbock Cemetery in Lubbock. His grave is marked be a flat granite marker, with the inscription; IN LOVING MEMORY OF OUR OWN BUDDY HOLLEY. A memorial has been created near the crash site, where fans still leave mementos in honor of those who died in the crash. There is a bronze statue of Holly on Lubbock’s Walk of Fame and a Holly mural on 19th street. In June 1988, a four-foot tall granite memorial bearing the names of the three entertainers and Peterson was dedicated outside The Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake, the site of their final performance. In 1988, Ken Paquette, a Wisconsin fan of the 1950s era, erected a stainless-steel monument depicting a steel guitar and a set of three records bearing the names of each of the three performers. It is located on private farmland, about one quarter mile west of the intersection of 315th Street and Gull Avenue, approximately eight miles north of Clear Lake. I have visited the crash sight. Stood there in the blowin’ cold, thinkin’ about what happened. Paquette also created a similar stainless steel monument to the three musicians near the Riverside Ballroom in Green Bay, Wisconsin. That memorial was unveiled on 17 July 2003. Holly’s life story inspired a Hollywood biographical film, The Buddy Holly Story (1978). Gary Busey received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actor for his portrayal of Holly. Paul McCartney produced and hosted a documentary about Holly in 1985, titled The Real Buddy Holly Story. In 1987, Marshall Crenshaw portrayed Buddy Holly in the movie La Bamba. Other notable final footprints in Lubbock cemetery include Bobby Layne.
Born Jiles Perry Richardson, Jr. on 24 October 1930 in Sabine Pass, Texas. Perhaps best known for his recording of “Chantilly Lace”, a song he co-wrote with Jerry Foster and Bill Rice. 
Born Richard Steven Valenzuela on 13 May 1941 in Pacoima, a neighborhood in the San Fernando Valley region of Los Angeles. Valens is considered rock and roll pioneer and a forefather of the Chicano rock movement. His recording career lasted only eight months but he had several hits, most notably “La Bamba”, which was originally a Mexican folk song. Valens transformed the song into one with a rock rhythm and beat, and it became a hit in 1958, making Valens a pioneer of the Spanish-speaking rock and roll movement. 
The Final Footprint – Valens was interred at San Fernando Mission Cemetery, Mission Hills, California. Valens has been the subject of several biopic films, including the 1987 film La Bamba. Primarily set in 1957-1959, it depicted Valens from age 16 to 17 and introduced Lou Diamond Phillips as Valens.
On this day in 1961, actress Anna May Wong died of a heart attack as she slept at home in Santa Monica, at the age of 56. Born Wong Liu Tsong on January 3, 1905 in near Chinatown in Los Angeles. Considered to be the first Hong Kong-Chinese American Hollywood movie star, as well as the first Chinese American actress to gain international recognition. Her long and varied career spanned silent film, sound film, television, stage, and radio.
And on this day in 2011, actress Maria Schneider died of breast cancer in Paris at age 58. Born Maria-Hélène Schneider on 27 March 1952 in Paris. She starred opposite Marlon Brando in Bernardo Bertolucci‘s film Last Tango in Paris (1972).
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