On this day 15 April death of Abraham Lincoln – RMS Titanic – Gaston Leroux – Richard Conte – Jean-Paul Sartre – Jean Genet – Greta Garbo – Joey Ramone – R. Lee Ermey – Brian Dennehy

On this day in 1865, 16th President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln, died from a gunshot wound to the head, in the Petersen House which was across the street from Ford’s Theater where he had been shot by John Wilkes Booth.  Lincoln died six days after General Robert E. Lee‘s surrender at Appomatox Courthouse.  Born on 12 February 1809 in a one-room log cabin on the Sinking Spring Farm in southeast Hardin County, Kentucky (now LaRue County).  He successfully led the country through its greatest constitutional, military and moral crisis, the American Civil War, by preserving the Union with force while ending slavery.  Lincoln was the first Republican president, winning the 6 November 1860 election over Democrat Stephen Douglas and two other candidates.  He won reelection in 1864 in the Union states in a landslide.  Lincoln married Mary Todd (1842-1865 his death).  One of the great orators in American history, his Gettysburg Address is oft quoted.  Lincoln delivered the speech at the dedication of the Soldiers’ National Cemetery in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, on the afternoon of Thursday 19 November 1863.  In 272 words, and three minutes Lincoln summarized and defined the war:

“Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation, so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate, we can not consecrate, we can not hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”

The Final Footprint – Lincoln is entombed in Lincoln’s Tomb in Oak Ridge Cemetery in Springfield, Illinois.  His wife Mary and three of their four sons are entombed in the walls opposite his tomb.  Lincoln’s name and image appear in numerous places, including the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., the U.S. Lincoln $5 bill and the Lincoln cent, and Lincoln’s sculpture on Mount Rushmore.  Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton, who was present when Lincoln died said, “Now he belongs to the ages.”  Indeed he does.

RMS_Titanic_3On this day in 1912, RMS Titanic sank in the north Atlantic Ocean, four days into her maiden voyage from Southampton to New York City.  The largest passenger liner in service at the time, Titanic had an estimated 2,224 people on board when she struck an iceberg at 23:40 (ship’s time) on Sunday, 14 April 1912.  Her sinking two hours and forty minutes later at 02:20 (05:18 GMT) on Monday, 15 April resulted in the deaths of more than 1,500 people, which made it one of the deadliest peacetime maritime disasters in history.  Titanic received six warnings of sea ice on 14 April but was travelling near her maximum speed when her crew sighted the iceberg.  Unable to turn quickly enough, the ship suffered a glancing blow that buckled her starboard (right) side and opened five of her sixteen compartments to the sea.  Titanic had been designed to stay afloat with four of her forward compartments flooded but not more, and the crew soon realised that the ship would sink.  They used rocket flares and radio (wireless) messages to attract help as the passengers were put into lifeboats.  However, in accordance with existing maritime practice, the ship was carrying far too few lifeboats for everyone (though slightly more than the law required), and many boats were not filled to their capacity due to a poorly managed evacuation.  The ship sank with over a thousand passengers and crew members still on board.  Almost all those who jumped or fell into the water died from hypothermia within minutes.  RMS Carpathia arrived on the scene about an hour and a half after the sinking and had rescued the last of the survivors in the lifeboats by 09:15 on 15 April, little more than 24 hours after Titanic‘s crew had received their first warnings of drifting ice.

The Final Footprint – The disaster caused widespread public outrage over the lack of lifeboats, lax shipping regulations, and the unequal treatment of the different passenger classes aboard the ship.  Inquiries set up in the wake of the disaster recommended sweeping changes to maritime regulations. This led to the establishment in 1914 of the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS).  Titanic’s sinking became a cultural phenomenon, commemorated by numerous artists, film-makers, writers, composers, musicians and dancers from the time immediately after the sinking to the present day.  On 1 September 1985 a joint US-French expedition led by Robert Ballard found the wreck of Titanic, and the ship’s rediscovery led to increased interest in Titanic‘s story.  In 1997, James Cameron‘s eponymous film became the first movie ever to earn $1 billion at the box office, and the film’s soundtrack became the best selling soundtrack recording of all time.  Numerous expeditions have been launched to film the wreck and to salvage objects from the debris field.  Many artifacts have been recovered and conserved, but the wreck itself is steadily decaying.  In time, Titanic‘s structure will collapse into a pile of iron and steel fragments.  Eventually she will be reduced to a spot of rust on the seabed, with the remaining scraps of the ship’s hull mingled with her more durable fittings, like her propellers, the bronze capstans and the telemotor.  The following memorials have been erected in memory of those who lost their lives:

Titanic Memorial, Belfast

The Titanic Memorial in Belfast was erected to commemorate the lives lost.  It was funded by contributions from the public, shipyard workers and victims’ families, and was dedicated in June 1920.  It is located on Donegall Square in central Belfast in the grounds of Belfast City Hall.  The memorial presents an allegorical representation of the disaster in the form of a female personification of Death or Fate holding a laurel wreath over the head of a drowned sailor raised above the waves by a pair of mermaids.  It has been used as the site of annual commemorations of the Titanic disaster.  For a while it was obscured by the Belfast Wheel that was removed in April 2010.  It is now the centrepiece of a small Titanic memorial garden that was opened on 15 April 2012, the centenary of the disaster. Together with the garden, it is the only memorial in the world to commemorate all of the victims of the Titanic, passengers and crew alike.

Memorial to the Engine Room Heroes of the Titanic

The Memorial to the Engine Room Heroes of the Titanic is a granite monument located in St. Nicholas Place, Pier Head, Liverpool, England.  The city of Liverpool is strongly associated with the ill-fated liner.  The RMS Titanic was owned by White Star Line which was founded in Liverpool in 1840.  Liverpool was also the port of registry of the liner with the words ‘Titanic, Liverpool’ visible on the stern of the ship.  The memorial on Liverpool’s waterfront is dedicated to the 244 engineers that lost their lives in the disaster as they remained in the ship supplying the stricken liner with electricity and other amenities for as long as possible.  The monument is notable as the first monument in the United Kingdom to depict The Working Man.  The monument dedicated to the hundreds of men who died during the sinking was designed by Sir William Goscombe John and constructed circa 1916.  It stands 14.6 m tall and although it is most strongly associated with the RMS Titanic, its dedication was broadened to include all maritime engine room fatalities incurred during the performance of duty in World War I.  The monument is Grade II* listed.  Shrapnel damage from bombs that fell during the Second World War can be clearly seen on the monument.

Titanic Memorial (New York City)

Titanic Memorial Lighthouse

Dedication plaque on the Lighthouse

The Titanic Memorial is a 60-foot-tall (18 m) lighthouse built, due in part to the instigation of Margaret Brown, to remember the people who died on the RMS Titanic on April 15, 1912. Its design incorporates the use of a time ball.

Titanic Engineers’ Memorial, Southampton

The Titanic Engineers’ Memorial is a memorial in East (Andrews) Park, Southampton, United Kingdom, to the engineers who died in the RMS Titanic disaster on 15 April 1912.  The bronze and granite memorial was originally unveiled by Sir Archibald Denny, president of the Institute of Marine Engineers on 22 April 1914.  The event was attended by an estimated 100,000 Southampton residents.

Titanic Memorial (Washington, D.C.)

Titanic_Memorial_-_Washington,_D_CThe Titanic Memorial is a granite statue in southwest Washington, D.C., that honors the men who gave their lives so that women and children might be saved during the RMS Titanic disaster.  The thirteen-foot-tall figure is of a partly clad male figure with arms outstretched.  The statue was erected by the Women’s Titanic Memorial Association.  The memorial is located on P Street SW next to the Washington Channel near Fort Lesley J. McNair.  It was designed by Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney, who won the commission in open competition, and sculpted by John Horrigan from a single piece of red granite furnished from Westerly, RI, by the Henry C. Smalley Granite Co.  It was unveiled on May 26, 1931, by Helen Herron Taft, the widow of President Taft.  Originally located at the foot of New Hampshire Avenue, NW in Rock Creek Park along the Potomac River, the monument was removed in 1966 to accommodate the Kennedy Center.  The memorial was re-erected without ceremony in 1968 on the south Washington waterfront outside Fort McNair in Washington Channel Park at Fourth and P Streets, SW.  A replica of the head of the memorial, carved in marble and exhibited in Paris in 1921, was purchased by the French Government for the Musée du Luxembourg.

Gaston__LEROUXOn this day in 1927, journalist and author Gaston Leroux died in Nice, France at the age of 58.  In the English-speaking world, he is perhaps best known for writing the novel The Phantom of the Opera (Le Fantôme de l’Opéra, 1911).  Born Gaston Louis Alfred Leroux in Paris on 6 May 1868.  His novel The Mystery of the Yellow Room is also one of the most famous locked room mysteries ever written.

The Final Footprint – Leroux is interred in Cimetiére du Château in Nice.  La Belle Otero is interred there as well.   The Phantom of the Opera has been made into several film and stage productions of the same name, notably the 1925 film starring Lon Chaney, and Andrew Lloyd Webber‘s 1986 musical.

#RIP #OTD in 1975 actor (Call Northside 777, Cry of the City, House of Strangers, Whirlpool, The Blue Gardenia, The Big Combo, Ocean’s 11, Tony Rome, Lady in Cement, The Godfather), Richard Conte died from a heart attack at UCLA Medical Center aged 65. Westwood Memorial Park in Los Angeles

Jean-Paul_Sartre_FPOn this day in 1980, philosopher, playwright, novelist, screenwriter, political activist, biographer, and literary critic, Jean-Paul Sartre died from pulmonary edema in Paris at the age of 74.  Born Jean-Paul Charles Aymard Sartre on 21 June 1905 in Paris.  In my opinion, Sartre was one of the key figures in the philosophy of existentialism and phenomenology, and one of the leading figures in 20th-century French philosophy and Marxism.  His work has also influenced sociology, critical theory, post-colonial theory, and literary studies, and continues to influence these disciplines.  Sartre has also been noted for his open relationship with the prominent feminist theorist Simone de Beauvoir.  He was awarded the 1964 Nobel Prize in Literature but refused it, saying that he always declined official honors and that “a writer should not allow himself to be turned into an institution”.  In 1929 at the École Normale, he met de Beauvoir, who studied at the Sorbonne.  The two became inseparable and lifelong companions, initiating a romantic relationship, though apparently, they were not monogamous.  Together, Sartre and de Beauvoir challenged the cultural and social assumptions and expectations of their upbringings, which they considered bourgeois, in both lifestyle and thought.  The conflict between oppressive, spiritually destructive conformity (mauvaise foi, literally, “bad faith”) and an “authentic” way of “being” became the dominant theme of Sartre’s early work, a theme embodied in his principal philosophical work L’Être et le Néant (Being and Nothingness) (1943).  Sartre’s introduction to his philosophy is his work Existentialism and Humanism (1946), originally presented as a lecture.

jeanpaulSartre_and_Simone_de_Beauvoir_grave,_Montparnasse,_Paris,_France-16June2009The Final Footprint – Sartre is entombed in Cimetière de Montparnasse in Paris.  Evidently, his funeral was well attended, with estimates of the number of mourners along the two hour march ranging from 15,000 to over 50,000.

In 1975, when asked how he would like to be remembered, Sartre replied:

“I would like [people] to remember [my novel] Nausea, [my plays] No Exit and The Devil and the Good Lord, and then my two philosophical works, more particularly the second one, Critique of Dialectical Reason. Then my essay on Genet, Saint Genet…. If these are remembered, that would be quite an achievement, and I don’t ask for more. As a man, if a certain Jean-Paul Sartre is remembered, I would like people to remember the milieu or historical situation in which I lived,… how I lived in it, in terms of all the aspirations which I tried to gather up within myself.”

De Beauvoir was entombed next to him upon her death in 1986.  Other notable Final Footprints at Montparnasse include; Charles Baudelaire, Samuel Beckett, Emmanuel Chabrier, Guy de Maupassant, Adah Isaac Menken, Camille Saint-Saëns, Jean Seberg, and Susan Sontag.

#RIP #OTD in 1986 novelist (Journal du voleur, Notre-Dame-des-Fleurs), playwright (Le Balcon, Les Bonnes, Les Paravents), poet, essayist, political activist, Jean Genet died at Jack’s Hotel in Paris aged 75. Larache Christian Cemetery in Larache, Morocco

Greta Garbo

Greta Garbo - 1935.jpg

in Anna Karenina (1935)

On this day in 1990, film actress Greta Garbo died in New York City at the age of 84 from pneumonia and renal failure. Born Greta Lovisa Gustafsson on 18 September 1905 in Stockholm. Garbo was nominated three times for the Academy Award for Best Actress and received an Academy Honorary Award in 1954 for her “luminous and unforgettable screen performances.”

Garbo launched her career with a secondary role in the 1924 Swedish film The Saga of Gosta Berling. Her performance caught the attention of Louis B. Mayer, chief executive of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), who brought her to Hollywood in 1925. She immediately stirred interest with her first silent film, Torrent, released in 1926; a year later, her performance in Flesh and the Devil, her third movie, made her an international star.

Garbo’s first talking film was Anna Christie (1930). MGM marketers enticed the public with the catch-phrase “Garbo talks!” That same year she starred in Romance. For her performances in these films she received the first of three Academy Award nominations for Best Actress. (Academy rules at the time allowed for a performer to receive a single nomination for their work in more than one film). In 1932, her popularity allowed her to dictate the terms of her contract and she became increasingly selective about her roles. Her success continued in films such as Mata Hari (1931) and Grand Hotel (1932). Many critics and film historians consider her performance as the doomed courtesan Marguerite Gautier in Camille (1936) to be her finest. It is certainly my personal favorite. The role gained her a second Academy Award nomination. For her role in Ninotchka (1939), she earned her third Academy Award nomination. She retired from the screen, at the age of 35, after acting in twenty-eight films.

From then on, Garbo declined all opportunities to return to the screen. Shunning publicity, she began a private life. Garbo also became an art collector in her later life; her collection, included works from painters such as Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Pierre Bonnard, and Kees van Dongen.   

Monument on the building which now stands where Greta Garbo was born on Södermalm.

in her first leading role in the Swedish film The Saga of Gösta Berling (1924) with Lars Hanson

Portrait photograph, 1925

in Flesh and the Devil (1926) with John Gilbert

with John Gilbert in A Woman of Affairs (1928).

“Garbo talks!” in Anna Christie (1930).

with Fredric March in Anna Karenina (1935).

with Robert Taylor in Camille (1936).

with Charles Boyer in Conquest (1937)

with Melvyn Douglas in a scene from Ninotchka (1939).

with Melvyn Douglas in “Two-Faced Woman” (1941)

From the early days of her career, Garbo avoided industry social functions, preferring to spend her time alone or with friends. She never signed autographs or answered fan mail, and rarely gave interviews. Nor did she ever appear at Oscar ceremonies, even when she was nominated. Her aversion to publicity and the press was genuine, and exasperating to the studio at first. In an interview in 1928, she explained that her desire for privacy began when she was a child, stating “as early as I can remember, I have wanted to be alone. I detest crowds, don’t like many people.”

She is closely associated with a line from Grand Hotel, “I want to be alone; I just want to be alone.”

signing her US citizenship papers in 1950

On 9 February 1951, she became a naturalized citizen of the United States and, in 1953, bought a seven-room apartment at 450 East 52nd Street in Manhattan, New York City, where she lived for the rest of her life.

Garbo never married, had no children. Her most famous romance was with her frequent co-star, John Gilbert, with whom she lived intermittently in 1926 and 1927. Gilbert allegedly proposed to her numerous times, with Garbo agreeing but backing out at the last minute. “I was in love with him,” she said. “But I froze. I was afraid he would tell me what to do and boss me. I always wanted to be the boss.”

In 1937, she met conductor Leopold Stokowski, with whom she had a highly publicized friendship or romance while traveling throughout Europe the following year. In his diary, Erich Maria Remarque discusses a liaison with Garbo in 1941. In his memoir, Cecil Beaton described an affair with her in 1947 and 1948. In 1941 she met the Russian-born millionaire, George Schlee, who was introduced to her by his wife, fashion designer Valentina. Nicholas Turner, Garbo’s close friend for 33 years, said that, after she bought an apartment in the same building, “Garbo moved in and took Schlee right away from Valentina.” Schlee would split his time between the two, becoming Garbo’s close companion and advisor until his death in 1964.

In 1927, Garbo was introduced to stage and screen actress Lilyan Tashman and they may have had an affair. Silent film star Louise Brooks stated that she and Garbo had a brief liaison.

In 1931, Garbo befriended the writer Mercedes de Acostaintroduced to her by her close friend, Salka Viertel, and, according to Garbo’s and de Acosta’s biographers, began a sporadic and volatile romance. The two remained friends for almost 30 years, during which time Garbo wrote de Acosta 181 letters, cards, and telegrams, now at the Rosenbach Museum & Library in Philadelphia. 

Of Mimi Pollak, Garbo wrote “We cannot help our nature, as God has created it. But I have always thought you and I belonged together”. In 1975, she wrote a poem about not being able to touch the hand of her friend with whom she might have been walking through life.

The Final Footprint

Garbo was cremated in Manhattan, and her ashes were interred in 1999 at Skogskyrkogården Cemetery just south of her native Stockholm.

in Inspiration (1931) publicity still

In Camille (1936)

On this day in 2001, musician, singer-songwriter, and lead vocalist of the punk rock band the Ramones, Joey Ramone died at the age of 49 following a seven-year battle with lymphoma at New York-Presbyterian Hospital. Born Jeffrey Ross Hyman on May 19, 1951 in Queens. His image, voice, and tenure as frontman of the Ramones made him a countercultural icon.

In 1974, Hyman co-founded the punk rock band the Ramones with friends John Cummings and Douglas Colvin. Colvin was already using the pseudonym “Dee Dee Ramone” and the others also adopted stage names using “Ramone” as their surname: Cummings became Johnny Ramone and Hyman became Joey Ramone. Joey initially served as the group’s drummer while Dee Dee was the original vocalist. However, when Dee Dee’s vocal cords proved unable to sustain the demands of consistent live performances, Ramones manager Thomas Erdelyi suggested Joey switch to vocals. After a series of unsuccessful auditions in search of a new drummer, Erdelyi took over on drums, assuming the name Tommy Ramone.

The Ramones were a major influence on the punk rock movement in the United States. Recognition of the band’s importance built over the years, and they are now regularly represented in many assessments of all-time great rock music–. In 1996, after a tour with the Lollapalooza music festival, the band played their final show and then disbanded.

The Final Footprint

He was reportedly listening to the song “In a Little While” by U2 when he died. His solo album Don’t Worry About Me was released posthumously in 2002, and features the single “What a Wonderful World”, a cover of the Louis Armstrong standard. MTV News claimed: “With his trademark rose-colored shades, black leather jacket, shoulder-length hair, ripped jeans and alternately snarling and crooning vocals, Joey was the iconic godfather of punk.”

On November 30, 2003, a block of East 2nd Street in New York City was officially renamed Joey Ramone Place. It is the block where Hyman once lived with bandmate Dee Dee and is near the former site of the music club CBGB, where the Ramones began their career. Hyman’s birthday is celebrated annually by rock ‘n’ roll nightclubs, hosted in New York City by his brother and, until 2007, his mother, Charlotte. He is interred at Hillside Cemetery in Lyndhurst, New Jersey. Another notable final footprint at Hillside is that of William Carlos Williams.

The Ramones were named as inductees to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as part of the class of 2002.

Several songs have been written in tribute to Joey Ramone. Tommy, CJ and Marky Ramone and Daniel Rey came together in 2002 to record Jed Davis’ Joey Ramone tribute album, The Bowery Electric. Other tributes include “Hello Joe” by Blondie from the album The Curse of Blondie, “Don’t Take Me For Granted” by Social Distortion, “You Can’t Kill Joey Ramone” by Sloppy Seconds, Joey by Raimundos, “I Wanna Be Your Joey Ramone” by Sleater-Kinney, “Red and White Stripes” by Moler and “Joey” by the Corin Tucker Band, “I Heard Ramona Sing” by Frank Black, and Amy Rigby’s “Dancin’ With Joey Ramone”. Rammstein ended several shows of their Mutter tour in 2001 with a cover of “Pet Sematary” in honor of the passing of Joey Ramone. “The Miracle (of Joey Ramone)” by U2.

In September 2010, the Associated Press reported that “Joey Ramone Place,” a sign at the corner of Bowery and East Second Street, was New York City’s most stolen sign. Later, the sign was moved to 20 ft (6.1 m) above ground level. Drummer Marky Ramone thought Joey would appreciate that his sign would be the most stolen, adding “Now you have to be an NBA player to see it.”

After several years in development, Ramone’s second posthumous album was released on May 22, 2012. Titled …Ya Know?, it was preceded on Record Store Day by a 7″ single re-release of “Blitzkrieg Bop”/”Havana Affair”.

And on this day in 2018, actor, drill instructor, staff sergeant, honorary gunnery sergeant, Marine R. Lee Ermey died in Santa Monica, California, from complications related to pneumonia, at the age of 73. Born Ronald Lee Ermey on March 24, 1944 in Emporia, Kansas. Perhaps best known for his role as Gunnery Sergeant Hartman in the 1987 film Full Metal Jacket, which earned him a Golden Globe Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor.

Ermey was often typecast in authority figure roles, such as Mayor Tilman in the film Mississippi Burning, Bill Bowerman in Prefontaine, Sheriff Hoyt in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre remake, Jimmy Lee Farnsworth in Fletch Lives, a police captain in Se7en, plastic army men leader Sarge in the Toy Story films, Lt. “Tice” Ryan in Rocket Power, a prison warden in an episode of SpongeBob SquarePants, and John House in House.

  The Final Footprint

His funeral was held in Arlington National Cemetery on Friday, January 18, 2019, where his cremated remains are interred. Other notable Final Footprints at Arlington include; Space Shuttle Challenger, Space Shuttle Columbia, Medgar Evers, JFK, Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis, RFK, Edward Kennedy, Malcolm Kilduff, Jr., Lee Marvin, and Audie Murphy.

#RIP #OTD in 2020 actor (First Blood, Gorky Park, Silverado, Cocoon, F/X, Presumed Innocent, Tommy Boy, Romeo + Juliet, Knight of Cups), Brian Dennehy died of cardiac arrest due to sepsis in New Haven, Connecticut aged 81. Cremation

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On this day 14 April death of George Frideric Handel – John Singer Sargent – Simone de Beauvoir – Burl Ives – Jonathan Frid – Percy Sledge

On this day in 1759, Baroque composer George Frideric (or FrederickHandel died at his home in Brook Street, London, at age 74. Born on 5 March in  Halle-upon-Saale, Duchy of Magdeburg (then part of Brandenburg-Prussia). He spent the bulk of his career in London, becoming well-known for his operas, oratorios, anthems, and organ concertos. Handel received important training in Halle-upon-Saale and worked as a composer in Hamburg and Italy before settling in London in 1712. He became a naturalised British subject in 1727. He was strongly influenced both by the great composers of the Italian Baroque and by the middle-German polyphonic choral tradition.

Within fifteen years, Handel had started three commercial opera companies to supply the English nobility with Italian opera. As Alexander’s Feast (1736) was well received, Handel made a transition to English choral works. After his success with Messiah (1742) he never composed an Italian opera again. His funeral was given full state honours, and he was buried in Westminster Abbey in London.

Born the same year as Johann Sebastian Bach and Domenico Scarlatti, in my opinion, Handel is one of the greatest composers of the Baroque era. His works, MessiahWater Music, and Music for the Royal Fireworks remain steadfastly popular. One of his four coronation anthems, Zadok the Priest(1727), composed for the coronation of George II, has been performed at every subsequent British coronation, traditionally during the sovereign’s anointing. Another of his English oratorios, Solomon (1748), has also remained popular, with the Sinfonia that opens act 3 (known more commonly as “The Arrival of the Queen of Sheba”) featuring at the 2012 London Olympics opening ceremony. Handel composed more than forty operas in over thirty years, and since the late 1960s, with the revival of baroque music and historically informed musical performance, interest in Handel’s operas has grown.

Handel never married, and kept his personal life private.

Monument to George Frederic Handel in the south transept of Westminster Abbey. His grave is below.

The Final Footprint

The last performance he attended was of Messiah. Handel was entombed in Westminster Abbey. More than three thousand mourners attended his funeral, which was given full state honours.

His initial will bequeathed the bulk of his estate to his niece Johanna, however four codicils distributed much of his estate to other relations, servants, friends and charities. 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, 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, Isaac Newton, Laurence Olivier, Henry Purcell, Thomas Shadwell, Edmund Spenser, Lord Alfred Tennyson, Dylan Thomas, and William III.

#RIP #OTD in 1925 American expatriate artist, considered the “leading portrait painter of his generation”, John Singer Sargent died at his Chelsea home of heart disease, aged 69. Brookwood Cemetery near Woking, Surrey, England

On this day in 1986, existentialist philosopher, public intellectual, social theorist and author, Simone de Beauvoir died of pneumonia in Paris at the age of 78.  Born Simone-Ernestine-Lucie-Marie Bertrand de Beauvoir on 9 January 1908 in Paris.  Perhaps best known for her metaphysical novels, including She Came to Stay (1943) and The Mandarins (1954), and for her treatise The Second Sex (1949).  Also noted for her lifelong polyamorous relationship with Jean-Paul Sartre.  Scholarly discussions have analyzed the influences of Beauvoir and Sartre on one another.  She is seen as having influenced Sartre’s masterpiece, Being and Nothingness.  Yet she wrote much on philosophy that is independent of Sartrean existentialism.

 The Final Footprint – Beauvoir is interred with Sartre in the Cimetière du Montparnasse in Paris.  In 2006, the city of Paris commissioned architect Dietmar Feichtinger to design a footbridge solely for pedestrians and cyclists across the Seine River.  The bridge was named the Passerelle Simone-de-Beauvoir in her honor.  It leads to the new Bibliothèque nationale de France.  Other notable Final Footprints at Montparnasse include; Charles Baudelaire,  Samuel Beckett, Emmanuel Chabrier, Henri Fantin-Latour, César Franck, Guy de Maupassant, Adah Isaac Menken, Man Ray, Camille Saint-Saëns, Jean-Paul Sartre, Jean Seberg, and Susan Sontag.

#RIP #OTD in 1995 singer (“A Little Bitty Tear”, “A Holly Jolly Christmas”) musician, actor (The Big Country, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof), author, Burl Ives died from oral cancer at his home in Anacortes, Washington, aged 85. Mound Cemetery, Hunt City Township, Jasper County, Illinois

#RIP #OTD in 2012 actor, perhaps best known for his role as vampire Barnabas Collins on the gothic television soap opera Dark Shadows, Jonathan Frid died at Juravinski Hospital in Hamilton, Ontario, of pneumonia and complications after a fall aged 87. Cremation

On this day in 2015, R&B, soul and gospel singer Percy Sledge died of liver cancer at his home in Baton Rouge, at the age of 73. Born Percy Tyrone Sledge on November 25, 1941 in Leighton, Alabama. Perhaps best known for the song “When a Man Loves a Woman”, a No. 1 hit on both the Billboard Hot 100 and R&B singles charts in 1966. It was awarded a million-selling, Gold-certified disc from the RIAA.

Having previously worked as a hospital orderly in the early 1960s, Sledge achieved his strongest success in the late 1960s and early 1970s with a series of emotional soul songs. In later years, Sledge received the Rhythm and Blues Foundation’s Career Achievement Award. He was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2005.

Sledge married twice and was survived by his second wife, Rosa Sledge, whom he married in 1980.

The Final Footprint

Baton Rouge’s Heavenly Gates Cemetery.

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On this day 13 April death of Annie Jump Cannon – Beverly Kenney – Wallace Stegner – Muriel Spark – Harry Kalas – Günter Grass – Miloš Forman – Faith Ringgold

#RIP #OTD 1941 astronomer whose cataloging work was instrumental in the development of contemporary stellar classification, Annie Jump Cannon died in Cambridge, Massachusetts, at the age of 77. Lakeside Cemetery, Dover, Delaware

#RIP #OTD in 1960 jazz singer (It’s a Most Unusual Day, Born to be Blue), songwriter (I Hate Rock n’ Roll), Beverly Kenney died from an intentional overdose of alcohol and Seconal in her apartment in the University Residence Hotel in Greenwich Village aged 28

On this day in 1993, novelist, short story writer, environmentalist, and historian, “The Dean of Western Writers”, Wallace Stegner died in Santa Fe, New Mexico as the result of a car accident at the age of 84.  Born Wallace Earle Stegner on 18 February 1909 in Lake Mills, Iowa.  He and grew up in Great Falls, Montana; Salt Lake City, Utah; and the village of Eastend, Saskatchewan.  Stegner won the Pulitzer Prize in 1972 for Angle of Repose, and the U.S. National Book Award in 1977 for The Spectator Bird.  He taught at the University of Wisconsin and Harvard University. Eventually he settled at Stanford University, where he founded the creative writing program.  His students included Wendell Berry, Sandra Day O’Connor, Thomas McGuane, Ken Kesey, and Larry McMurtry.  Stegner married once; Mary Stuart Page (1934 – 1993 his death).

The Final Footprint – Stegner is interred in Lincoln-Noyes Cemetery, Greensboro, Vermont.

On this day in 2006 novelist, short story writer, poet and essayist Muriel Spark died in Florence, Tuscany, Italy at the age of 88. Born Muriel Sarah Spark on 1 February 1918 in Edinburgh. In 2008, The Times named Spark as No. 8 in its list of “the 50 greatest British writers since 1945”. Perhaps best know for her novel, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1961). 

On 3 September 1937 she married Sidney Oswald Spark, and soon followed him to Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe). Within months she discovered that her husband was manic depressive and prone to violent outbursts. In 1940 Muriel left Sidney and returned to Britain in early 1944, taking residence at the Helena Club in London.

After living in New York City for some years, she moved to Rome, where she met artist and sculptor Penelope Jardine in 1968. In the early 1970s they settled in Tuscany, in the village of Oliveto, of which in 2005 Spark was made an honorary citizen.


The Final Footprint

Spark is buried in the cemetery of Sant’Andrea Apostolo in Oliveto. 

On this day in 2009, sportscaster, Ford C. Frick Award-winning lead play-by-play announcer for Major League Baseball’s Philadelphia Phillies, Harry Kalas, died from a heart attack in the press box at Nationals Park, several hours before the Washington Nationals’ home opener against the Phillies.  Born Harry Norbert Kalas on 26 March 1936 in Naperville, Illinois.  He graduated for the University of Iowa and served two years in the U. S. Army.  Kalas made his major league debut with the Houston Astros in 1965 and  was hired by the Phillies in 1971.  He called the first game at The Astrodome, six no-hit games, six National League Championship Series, three World Series (1983, 1993, and 2008), the first game at Veterans Stadium (10 April 1971), the last game at Veterans Stadium (28 September 2003), and the first game at Citizens Bank Park (12 April 2004).  Kalas worked in the booth alongside Richie Ashburn for 27 seasons.  The two became best friends and beloved figures in Philadelphia.  Kalas’ signature home run call was “Swing … and a long drive, this ball is … outta here!”  He was known for his love of Frank Sinatra’s version of the song, “High Hopes” (written by Jimmy Van Heusen and Sammy Cahn), a song he sang at numerous events, including the Phillies’ championship celebrations in his later years.  On 29 October 2008, Kalas was finally able to call a Phillies’ championship-winning moment in the World Series when Brad Lidge struck out Eric Hinske to win the 104th Fall Classic:  “One strike away; nothing-and-two, the count to Hinske. Fans on their feet; rally towels are being waved. Brad Lidge stretches. The 0-2 pitch — swing and a miss, struck him out! The Philadelphia Phillies are 2008 World Champions of baseball! Brad Lidge does it again, and stays perfect for the 2008 season! 48-for-48 in save opportunities, and let the city celebrate! Don’t let the 48-hour wait diminish the euphoria of this moment, and the celebration. And it has been 28 years since the Phillies have enjoyed a World Championship; 25 years in this city that a team that has enjoyed a World Championship, and the fans are ready to celebrate. What a night!”

Baseball is my favorite sport and I enjoy listening to games on the radio.  The Phillies were one of my favorite teams, in part, due to Kalas’ voice.  I was listening to the game he would have called they day he died.  He is missed.

The Final Footprint – Kalas is interred in Laurel Hill Cemetery in Philadelphia.  His grave is marked by an individual upright granite marker with a replica of a microphone on top.  The terms of endearment; LOVING HUSBAND LOVING FATHER FRIEND TO ALL, are engraved on the monument.  On either side of the monument are four seats from Veteran’s Stadium.  Kalas became the fourth person to be given the honor of having their body lie in repose inside a major-league baseball stadium, after Babe Ruth, Jack Buck, and Miller Huggins, when his casket was displayed behind home plate and fans were encouraged to pay their respects at Citizens Bank Park.  Friends, broadcast partners, and every player on the Phillies team roster, passed by his casket to pay respects before it was placed in a hearse which carried him out of Citizens Bank Park one final time.  His grave was resurfaced with sod that originally came from Citizens Bank Park.  On 17 April 2009, at the first home game after Kalas’ death, fans sang along with a video of Harry singing “High Hopes” during the seventh-inning stretch, instead of the traditional “Take Me Out to the Ball Game”.

#RIP #OTD in 2015 novelist (The Tin Drum, Cat and Mouse, Dog Years, Crabwalk), poet, playwright, artist, recipient of the 1999 Nobel Prize in Literature, Günter Grass died of a lung infection in a hospital in Lübeck, Germany aged 87. Friedhof Behlendorf, Germany

#RIP #OTD in 2018 film director (One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Amadeus, Man on the Moon, Goya’s Ghosts), actor, professor Miloš Forman died died at Danbury Hospital in Warren, Connecticut at age 86. New Warren Cemetery in Warren

#RIP #OTD in 2024 painter, author, mixed media sculptor, performance artist, intersectionalactivist, perhaps best known for her narrative quilts, Faith Ringgold died at her home in Englewood, New Jersey aged 93. Cremated

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On this day 12 April death of Clara Barton – FDR – Josephine Baker – Abbie Hoffman

#RIP #OTD in 1912 nurse who founded the American Red Cross, Clara Barton died at her home in Glen Echo, Maryland from pneumonia, aged 90. North Cemetery in Oxford, Massachusetts

On this day in 1945, the 44th Governor of New York, 32nd President of the United States, FDR, Franklin Delano Roosevelt died from a stroke at his home, The Little White House, in Warm Springs, Georgia at the age of 63.  Born on 30 January 1882 in Hyde Park, New York.  His parents were each from wealthy old New York families of Dutch and French ancestry.  He graduated from Harvard.  FDR married Eleanor Roosevelt, the niece of Theodore Roosevelt, who was also FDR’s fifth cousin.  In 1921, Roosevelt contracted an illness which was diagnosed as polio but may have actually been Guillain–Barré syndrome, which left him permanently paralyzed from the waste down.  The only POTUS elected to more than two terms, he served as president from the depths of the Great Depression to the verge of victory in World War II.  He died less than a month before Germany’s unconditional surrender in May and four months before Japan’s unconditional surrender in August.

The Final Footprint – Roosevelt is interred in the Rose Garden at his home in Hyde Park which is now a National Historic Site and home to his Presidential Library.  Eleanor was interred next to him upon her death in 1962.  Their graves are marked by a large white marble monument engraved with their names and birth and death years.

josephineBaker_BananaOn this day in 1975, dancer, singer, actress, Civil Rights activist, spy, “Black Pearl,” “Bronze Venus”, “The Creole Goddess”, Josephine Baker died from a cerebral hemorrhage at Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital in Paris at the age of 68.  Born Freda Josephine McDonald in St. Louis, Missouri on 3 June 1906.  Baker was the first black woman to star in a major motion picture, Zouzou (1934) or to become a world-famous entertainer.  Baker, who refused to perform for segregated audiences in America, is also noted for her contributions to the Civil Rights Movement.  She was offered unofficial leadership in the movement in the United States by Coretta Scott King in 1968, following Martin Luther King, Jr.’s assassination.  Baker, however, turned down the offer.  She was also known for assisting the French Resistance during World War II, and received the French military honor, the Croix de guerre and was made a Chevalier of the Légion d’honneur by General Charles de Gaulle.  Baker became a citizen of France in 1937.  She first traveled to Paris for a new venture, and opened in “La Revue Nègre” on 2 October 1925, at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées.  Baker became an instant success for her erotic dancing and for appearing practically nude on stage.  After a successful tour of Europe, she returned to France to star at the Folies Bergère, setting the standard for her future acts.  Baker was married four times; Willie Wells, Willie Baker, Jean Lion, and composer Jo Bouillon.

The Final Footprint – Baker received a full Roman Catholic funeral which was held at L’Église de la Madeleine.  The only American-born woman to receive full French military honors at her funeral, Baker locked up the streets of Paris one last time.  After a family service at Saint-Charles Church in Monte Carlo, she was interred at Monaco’s Cimetière de Monaco.  In 1991, The Josephine Baker Story, was broadcast on HBO.  Lynn Whitfield portrayed Baker, and won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Miniseries or a Special—becoming the first Black actress to win the award in this category.

In May 2021, an online petition was set up by writer Laurent Kupferman asking that Joséphine Baker be honoured by being reburied at the Panthéon in Paris or being granted Panthéon honours, which would make her only the sixth woman at the mausoleum alongside Simone Veil, Geneviève de Gaulle-Anthonioz, Marie Curie, Germaine Tillion, and Sophie Berthelot.  In August 2021 the French President, Emmanuel Macron, announced that Baker’s remains would be reburied at the Panthéon in November 2021, following the petition and continued requests from Baker’s family since 2013.  Her son Claude Bouillon-Baker, however, told Agence France-Presse that her body would remain in Monaco and only a plaque would be installed at the Panthéon.  It was later announced that a symbolic casket containing soil from various locations where Baker had lived, including St. Louis, Paris, the South of France and Monaco, would be carried by the French Air and Space Force in a parade in Paris before a ceremony at the Panthéon where the casket was interred.  The ceremony took place on Tuesday, November 30, 2021, and Baker thus became the first black woman to be honored in the secular temple to the “great men” of the French Republic.

Other notable final footprints at Cimetière de Monaco include Roger Moore.

#RIP #OTD in 1989 political and social activist who co-founded the Youth International Party (“Yippies”) and was a member of the Chicago Seven, Abbie Hoffman died from an overdose of barbiturates and alcohol in his apartment in Solebury Township, Pennsylvania, age 52. Cremation

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On this day 11 April death of Joseph Merrick – John O’Hara – Jacques Prévert – Dolores del Río – Erskine Caldwell – Primo Levi – Kurt Vonnegut – Maria Tallchief – Jonathan Winters

On this day in 1890, the man with severe deformities who was exhibited as a human curiosity and known as The Elephant Man, Joseph Carey Merrick died in The London Hospital (now known as the Royal London Hospital) at the age of 27.  The exact cause of Merrick’s deformities is unclear.  It is thought that Merrick suffered from either neurofibromatosis type I or Proteus syndrome or perhaps both.  He was befriended by Dr. Frederick Treves who tried to diagnose and treat Merrick’s condition and saw to it that Merrick could stay at The London Hospital.

The Final Footprint – Merrick donated his body to science.  His skeleton was mounted and remains in the pathology collection at the Royal London Hospital.  Merrick’s life story became the basis of a Tony Award-winning play and an Oscar nominated movie.  The play, The Elephant Man (1979), by playwright Bernard Pomerance, featured Philip Anglim, and later David Bowie as Merrick.  The film, The Elephant Man (1980), directed by David Lynch, featured John Hurt as Merrick and Anthony Hopkins as Frederick Treves.

#RIP #OTD in 1970 writer of short stories, novelist (Appointment in Samarra, BUtterfield 8) John O’Hara died from cardiovascular disease in Princeton, New Jersey, aged 65. Princeton Cemetery

#RIP #OTD in 1977 poet (“Les feuilles mortes”, “La grasse matinée”, “Les bruits de la nuit”, “Chasse à l’enfant”), screenwriter (Les Enfants du Paradis) Jacques Prévert died of lung cancer in Omonville-la-Petite, France aged 77. Cimetiere d’Omonville la Petite

#RIP #OTD in 1983 actress (Flying Down to Rio, Madame Du Barry,  María Candelaria), dancer and singer Dolores del Río died from liver failure at the age of 78, in Newport Beach, California. Cremated remains interred Rotonda de las Personas Ilustres, at the Panteón de Dolores, Mexico City

#RIP #OTD in 1987 novelist (Tobacco Road, God’s Little Acre), short story writer, Erskine Caldwell died of emphysema and lung cancer in Paradise Valley, Arizona, aged 83. Scenic Hills Memorial Park, Ashland, Oregon

#RIP #OTD in 1987 chemist, partisan, writer (If This Is a Man, The Periodic Table), Jewish Holocaust survivor, Primo Levi died from injuries sustained in a fall from his third-story apartment landing in Turin, aged 67. Cimitero Monumentale di Torino, Turin

#RIP #OTD in 2007 writer (Slaughterhouse-Five) Kurt Vonnegut died in Manhattan as a result of brain injuries incurred from a fall at his brownstone home, aged 84.  Cremated

On this day in 2013, Native American and America’s first major prima ballerina Maria Tallchief died in Chicago at the age of 88. Born Elizabeth Marie “Betty” Tall Chief (Osage family name: Ki He Kah Stah Tsa) on January 24, 1925 in Fairfax, Oklahoma.

Almost from birth, Tall Chief was involved in dance, starting formal lessons at age three. When she was eight, her family relocated from Fairfax to Los Angeles, California, to advance the careers of her and her younger sister, Marjorie.

At age 17, she moved to New York City in search of a spot with a major ballet company, and, at the urging of her superiors, took the name Maria Tallchief. She spent the next five years with the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo, where she met legendary choreographer George Balanchine. When Balanchine co-founded what would become the New York City Ballet in 1946, Tallchief became the company’s first star.

The combination of Balanchine’s difficult choreography and Tallchief’s passionate dancing revolutionized the ballet. Her 1949 role in The Firebird catapulted Tallchief to the top of the ballet world, establishing her as a prima ballerina. Her role as the Sugarplum Fairy in The Nutcracker transformed the ballet from obscure to America’s most popular.

She traveled the world, becoming the first American to perform in Moscow’s Bolshoi Theater. She made regular appearances on American TV before she retired in 1966. After retiring from dance, Tallchief was active in promoting ballet in Chicago. She served as director of ballet for the Lyric Opera of Chicago for most of the 1970s, and debuted the Chicago City Ballet in 1981.

Tall Chief was honored by the people of Oklahoma with multiple statues and an honorific day. She was inducted in the National Women’s Hall of Fame and received a National Medal of Arts. In 1996, Tallchief received a Kennedy Center Honor for lifetime achievements. Her life has been the subject of multiple documentaries and biographies.

with Erik Bruhn in 1961.

as the Sugar Plum Fairy and Nicholas Magallanes as her cavalier The Nutcracker (1954).

in a 1955 promotion for the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo

on the front cover of Dance Magazine in 1954.

During her first year at the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo Tallchief dated Alexander “Sasha” Goudevitch, the darling of the company. “For both of us it was our first love,” Tallchief recalled. “We saw each other every day and I was convinced it was true love.” Goudevitch moonlighted for extra money, and bought Tallchief an engagement ring. However, in the spring of 1944 he had a sudden change of heart when another girl began to pursue him. “My heart was broken,” she recalled.

After George Balanchine was hired by the Ballet Russe, he was attracted to Tallchief professionally and personally. She, however, was unaware of his attraction: “It never occurred to me that there was anything more than dancing on his mind… It would have been preposterous to think there was anything personal.” Although their relationship became more personal, it was a shock to Tallchief when Balanchine asked her to marry him. During the summer of 1945, he asked her to meet him after a Los Angeles performance. Balanchine opened the car door for her; when she got in he sat in silence for a moment before saying, “Maria, I would like you to become my wife”. “I almost fell out of my seat and was unable to respond,” she recalled. She eventually replied, “But, George, I’m not sure I love you. I feel that I hardly know you.” He answered that it did not matter, and if the marriage only lasted a few years that was all right with him. After a day to think it over, Tallchief accepted his proposal.

While they were engaged, Balanchine made extravagant romantic gestures and treated Tallchief with great affection. “He was obviously trying to convince me [that our marriage] was inevitable,” she wrote. “I didn’t need convincing. I was falling in love.”

Tallchief and Balanchine were married on August 16, 1946, when she was 21 years old and he was 42. Her parents opposed the marriage, and did not attend the ceremony. The couple did not have a traditional honeymoon: “For both of us, work was more important.”

According to Tallchief, “Passion and romance didn’t play a big part in our married life. We saved our emotions for the classroom.” However, she described Balanchine as “a warm, affectionate, loving husband.” Their marriage was annulled in 1952, when both parties were attracted to other people.

In 1952, Tallchief married Elmourza Natirboff, a pilot for a private charter airline. The couple divorced two years later. In 1955, she met Chicago businessman Henry D. (“Buzz”) Paschen Jr. “He was very happy, outgoing, and knew nothing about ballet — very refreshing,” she recalled. The couple married the following June, and honeymooned with a ballet tour of Europe.The couple remained together, through Paschen’s brief imprisonment for tax evasion, until his 2004 death.

The Final Footprint

Tallchief is interred in Fairfax Cemetery in Fairfax.

#RIP #OTD in 2013 comedian, actor (It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World), author, television host, artist, Jonathan Winters died of natural causes in Montecito, California, at the age of 87. Cremation

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On this day 10 April death of Algernon Charles Swinburne – Kahlil Gibran – Auguste Lumière – La Belle Otero – Evelyn Waugh – Nino Rota – Sam Kinison – Little Eva

220px-Algernon_Charles_Swinburne_by_William_Bell_ScottOn this day in 1909, English poet, playwright, novelist, and critic Algernon Charles Swinburne died at The Pines, 11 Putney Hill, Putney, London at the age of 72.  Born at 7 Chester Street, Grosvenor Place, London, on 5 April 1837.  He devised the poetic form called the roundel, a variation of the French Rondeau form.  In addition, he wrote several novels, and contributed to the famous Eleventh Edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica.  He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature in every year from 1903 to 1907 and again in 1909.  Author H. P. Lovecraft considered that Swinburne was “the only real poet in either England or America after the death of Mr. Edgar Allan Poe.”

The Final Footprint – Swinburne was buried at St. Boniface Church, Bonchurch on the Isle of Wight.

#RIP #OTD in 1931 writer, poet (The Prophet), visual artist, philosopher, Kahlil Gibran died at St. Vincent’s Hospital, Manhattan from cirrhosis of the liver, aged 48. The Gibran Museum in Bsharri, Lebanon

#RIP #OTD in 1954, along with brother Louis, manufacturer of photography equipment & the Cinématographe motion picture system, filmmaker, Auguste Lumière died in Lyon, France, aged 91. Family tomb, New Guillotière Cemetery, Lyon

On this day in 1965, dancer, actress and courtesan Carolina “La Belle” Otero died in her apartment at the Hotel Novelty in Nice, France.  Born Agustina Otero Iglesias on 4 November 1868 in Valga, Pontevedra, Galicia (Spain).  She reportedly married an Italian nobleman, Count Guglielmo 1882, but found a sponsor in 1888  who moved with her to Marseille in order to promote her dancing career in France.  She soon left him and created the character of La Belle Otero and became the star of Les Folies Bèrgere productions in Paris.  Soon she was one of the most sought after women in Europe, serving as a courtesan to wealthy and powerful men.  Apparently her lovers included; Prince Albert I of Monaco, King Edward VII of the United Kingdom, Kings of Serbia, and Kings of Spain as well as Russian Grand Dukes Peter and Nicholas, the Duke of Westminster and writer Gabriele D’Annunzio.  Allegedly, duels were fought over her and some of her lovers committed suicide after the affairs ended.  It was once said that her extraordinarily dark black eyes were so captivating that they were “of such intensity that it was impossible not to be detained before them.”  Otero said, “Women have one mission in life: to be beautiful. When one gets old, one must learn how to break mirrors.”

The Final FootprintOtero is interred in Cimetiére du Château in Nice.  Gaston Leroux is interred there as well.

#RIP #OTD in 1966 writer (Decline and Fall, A Handful of Dust, Brideshead Revisited, Sword of Honour) Evelyn Waugh died of heart failure at his home in Combe Florey, Somerset, England, aged 62. The Anglican churchyard of the Church of St Peter & St Paul, Combe Florey.

nino_rotaOn this day in 1979, Italian composer, pianist, conductor and academic Nino Rota died from a coronary thrombosis at the age of 67 in Rome.  Born Giovanni Rota Rinaldi on 3 December 1911 in Milan, Italy.  Perhaps best known for his film scores, notably for the films of Federico Fellini, Luchino Visconti and Franco Zeffirelli.  He will forever be remembered for his film scores for the first two films of Francis Ford Coppola‘s Godfather trilogy, receiving the Academy Award for Best Original Score for The Godfather Part II (1974).

The Final Footprint – Rota shares a simple gravesite with his mother Ernesta, his brother Luigi, and his cousins Maria and Titina.  The gravesite is at Cimitero Verano in Rome.  The entrance near the gravesite is Portonaccio.  There is a marble grave marker which lists the names of those interred.  Special thanks to Nina Rota, Mr. Rota’s daughter, for her assistance.  For more on Nino Rota visit his website – http://www.ninorota.com/.

Sam Kinison

Sam Kinison & Rodney Dangerfield.jpg

with Rodney Dangerfield

On this day in 1992, comedian and actor Sam Kinison died at the age of 38 after his white 1989 Pontiac Trans Am was struck head-on on U.S. Route 95, 4 miles (6.4 km) north of Interstate 40 and around 15 miles (24 km) northwest of Needles, California, by a pickup truck driven by someone who had been drinking alcohol. The pickup truck crossed the center line of the roadway and went into Kinison’s lane.

Born Samuel Burl Kinison on December 8, 1953 in Yakima, Washington. He was known for his intense, harsh and politically incorrect humor. A former Pentecostal preacher, he performed stand-up routines that were most often characterized by an intense style, similar to charismatic preachers, and punctuated by his trademark scream.

Kinison was married to Patricia Adkins (1975–1980) and Terry Marze (1981–1989). He began a relationship with dancer Malika Souiri toward the end of his marriage with Marze. On April 4, 1992, six days before his death, Kinison married Souiri at the Candlelight Chapel in Las Vegas. They honeymooned in Hawaii for five days before returning home to Los Angeles on April 10 to prepare for a show that night at the Riverside Resort Hotel and Casino in Laughlin, Nevada.

Kinison was found lying between the seats of his car at the scene of the collision. His brother and the others told him to lie down and he did with his best friend, Carl LaBove, who had been in the following van, holding his head in his hands. Initially, Kinison appeared to have suffered no serious injuries, but within minutes he suddenly said to no one in particular, “I don’t want to die. I don’t want to die.” LaBove later said, “it was as if he was having a conversation, talking to someone else, some unseen person.” Then there was a pause as if Kinison was listening to the other person speak. Then he asked “But why?” and after another pause LaBove heard him clearly say: “Okay, okay, okay.’ LaBove said, “The last ‘okay’ was so soft and at peace … Whatever voice was talking to him gave him the right answer and he just relaxed with it. He said it so sweet, like he was talking to someone he loved.” Kinison then lost consciousness. Efforts to resuscitate him failed. Kinison died at the scene from internal injuries. An autopsy found that he had suffered numerous traumatic injuries, including a dislocated neck, a torn aorta, and torn blood vessels in his abdominal cavity, which caused his death within minutes of the collision. Malika Souiri was rendered unconscious by the collision, but survived the accident with a mild concussion.


The Final Footprint

Kinison is interred with family members at the Memorial Park Cemetery in Tulsa, Oklahoma. His grave marker includes the unattributed quote: “In another time and place he would have been called prophet.”

On this day in 2003, singer (“The Loco-Motion”) Little Eva died from cervical cancer in Kinston, North Carolina, at the age of 59. Born Eva Narcissus Boyd on June 29, 1943 in Belhaven, North Carolina. At the age of fifteen she moved to the Brighton Beach section of Brooklyn, New York. As a teenager, she worked as a maid and earned extra money as a babysitter for songwriters Carole King and Gerry Goffin. Boyd’s other single recordings were “Keep Your Hands Off My Baby,” “Let’s Turkey Trot,” and a remake of the Bing Crosby standard “Swinging on a Star,” recorded with Big Dee Irwin (though Boyd was not credited on the label). Boyd also recorded the song “Makin’ With the Magilla” for an episode of the 1964 Hanna-Barbera cartoon series The Magilla Gorilla Show.

In 1963, American Bandstand signed her with Dick Clark’s Caravan of Stars national U.S. tour and she was set to perform for the tour’s 15th show scheduled for the night of November 22, 1963 at the Memorial Auditorium in Dallas, Texas when suddenly the Friday evening event was cancelled moments after U.S. President John F. Kennedy was assassinated while touring Dallas in an open car caravan.

She continued to tour and record throughout the sixties, but her commercial potential plummeted after 1964. She retired from the music industry in 1971. She never owned the rights to her recordings. Although the prevailing rumor in the 1970s was that she had received only $50 for “The Loco-Motion,” it seems $50 was actually her weekly salary at the time she made her records (an increase of $15 from what Goffin and King had been paying her as nanny). Penniless, she returned with her three young children to North Carolina, where they lived in obscurity.

Interviewed in 1988 after the success of the Kylie Minogue recording of “The Loco-Motion”, Boyd stated that she did not like the new version; however, its then-current popularity allowed her to make a comeback in show business.

She returned to live performing with other artists of her era on the cabaret and oldies circuits. She also occasionally recorded new songs.

The only existing footage of Little Eva performing “Loco-Motion” is a small clip from the ABC 1960s live show Shindig! wherein she sang a short version of the clip along with the famous dance steps. She also sang “Let’s Turkey Trot” and the Exciters’ song “I Want You to Be My Boy” in the same episode. This TV show was one of her final performances until 1988, when she began performing in concerts with Bobby Vee and other singers. In a 1991 Richard Nader concert, she performed “Loco-Motion” and “Keep Your Hands Off My Baby”. The concert was partially documented on videotape.

The Final Footprint

She is interred in Black Bottom Cemetery in Belhaven. Her gravesite was sparsely marked until July 2008, when a report by WRAL-TV of Raleigh, North Carolina highlighted deteriorating conditions at the cemetery and efforts by the city of Belhaven to have it restored. A simple white cross had marked the site until a new gravestone was unveiled in November of that year. Her new grey gravestone has the image of a steam locomotive prominently engraved on the front and the epitaph reads: “Singing with the Angels”.

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On this day 9 April death of Dante Gabriel Rossetti – Frank Lloyd Wright – Phil Ochs – Brook Benton – Richard Condon – Willie Stargell – Sidney Lumet

On this day in 1882, English poet, illustrator, painter and translator Dante Gabriel Rossetti died on Easter Sunday at the country house of a friend in Birchington-on-Sea, England, of Brights Disease at the age of 53.  Born Gabriel Charles Dante Rossetti on 12 May 1828 in London.  He founded the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood in 1848 with William Holman Hunt and John Everett Millais, and was later to be the main inspiration for a second generation of artists and writers influenced by the movement, most notably William Morris and Edward Burne-Jones.  His work also influenced the European Symbolists and was a major precursor of the Aesthetic movement.

Rossetti’s art was characterised by its sensuality and its medieval revivalism.  His early poetry was influenced by John Keats.  His later poetry was characterised by the complex interlinking of thought and feeling, especially in his sonnet sequence The House of Life. Poetry and image are closely entwined in Rossetti’s work; he frequently wrote sonnets to accompany his pictures, spanning from The Girlhood of Mary Virgin (1849) and Astarte Syriaca (1877), while also creating art to illustrate poems such as Goblin Market by the celebrated poet Christina Rossetti, his sister.  Rossetti’s personal life was closely linked to his work, especially his relationships with his models and muses Elizabeth Siddal, Fanny Cornforth, and Jane Morris.  Rossetti married Siddal on Wednesday 23 May 1860 at St Clement’s Church in the seaside town of Hastings.  She died of a laudanum overdose on 11 February 1862, and Rossetti buried many of his poems with her.  Later, his friends persuaded him to exhume the poetry, which he published in 1870.  They were sensual and erotic, and caused a scandal.

The Final Footprint – Rossetti is interred in the churchyard of All Saints in Birchington-on-Sea, under a tombstone designed by fellow artist, Ford Madox Brown.

Gallery

  • Ecce Ancilla Domini (1850), Tate Britain, London

  • The Tune of the Seven Towers (1857), watercolour, Tate Britain

  • Found (1865–1869, unfinished), Delaware Art Museum

  • The Blessed Damozel (model: Alexa Wilding)

  • Lady Lilith (1867), Metropolitan Museum of Art (model: Fanny Cornforth)

  • Lady Lilith (1868), Delaware Art Museum (Fanny Cornforth, overpainted at Kelsmcott 1872–73 with the face of Alexa Wilding)

  • Beata Beatrix (1864–1870), Tate Britain (model: Elizabeth Siddal)

  • Pia de’ Tolomei (1868–1880), Spencer Museum of Art, University of Kansas, Lawrence (model: Jane Morris)

  • Proserpine (1874) (model: Jane Morris)

  • A Vision of Fiammetta (1878), one of Rossetti’s last paintings, now in the collection of Andrew Lloyd Webber (model: Marie Spartali Stillman)

  • La Belle Dame sans Merci (1848), pen and sepia with some pencil

  • Drawing of Elizabeth Siddal reading (1854)

  • Hamlet and Ophelia (1858), pen and ink drawing

  • Drawing of Annie Miller (1860)

  • Drawing of Fanny Cornforth, graphite on paper (1869)

  • The Roseleaf (Portrait of Jane Morris) (1870), graphite on wove paper

  • King Arthur and the Weeping Queens, one of two illustrations by Rossetti for Edward Moxon’s illustrated edition of Tennyson’s Poems (1857)

  • Golden Head by Golden Head, illustration for Christina Rossetti’s Goblin Market and Other Poems (1862)

  • Sir Tristram and la Belle Ysoude drink the potion, stained glass panel by Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Co., design by Rossetti (1862–63)

  • Death of a Wombat (1869)

  • William Morris reading to Jane Morris while she takes the waters at Bad Ems (1869)

  • Mrs. Morris and the Wombat (1869)

Frank Lloyd Wright

Frank Lloyd Wright portrait.jpg

in 1954

On this day in 1959, architect and interior designer Frank Lloyd Wright died in Phoenix, Arizona at the age of 91. Born Frank Lincoln Wright on June 8, 1867 in Richland Center, Wisconsin. Wright designed more than 1,000 structures, 532 of which were completed. Wright believed in designing structures that were in harmony with humanity and its environment, a philosophy he called organic architecture. This philosophy was best exemplified by Fallingwater (1935), which is in my opinion, the best all-time work of American architecture”. His creative period spanned more than 70 years.

Wright was the pioneer of what came to be called the Prairie School movement of architecture and he also developed the concept of the Usonian home in Broadacre City, his unique vision for urban planning in the United States. In addition to his houses, Wright designed original and innovative offices, churches, schools, skyscrapers, hotels, museums and other structures. He often designed interior elements for these buildings as well, including furniture and stained glass. Wright wrote 20 books and many articles and was a popular lecturer in the United States and in Europe. Wright was recognized in 1991 by the American Institute of Architects as “the greatest American architect of all time”.

Wright’s home in Oak Park, Illinois

On June 1, 1889, Wright married his first wife, Catherine Lee “Kitty” Tobin (1871–1959). The two had met around a year earlier.

The Walter Gale House (1893) is Queen Anne in style yet features window bands and a cantilevered porch roof which hint at Wright’s developing aesthetics

William H. Winslow House (1893) in River Forest, Illinois

Nathan G. Moore House (1895), Oak Park, Illinois

Wright’s studio (1898) viewed from Chicago Avenue

Arthur Heurtley House (1902), Oak Park, IL

Darwin D. Martin House (1904), Buffalo, New York

Hillside Home School, 1902, Taliesin, Spring Green, Wisconsin

in 1926

Aerial photo of Taliesin, Spring Green, Wisconsin

Wright developed a reputation in Oak Park as a man-about-town. His family had grown to six children, but Wright was not parental and he relied on his wife Catherine to care for them. In 1903, Wright designed a house for Edwin Cheney, a neighbor in Oak Park, and immediately took a liking to Cheney’s wife, Mamah. Mamah Cheney was a modern woman with interests outside the home. She was an early feminist and Wright viewed her as his intellectual equal. The two fell in love, and they became the talk of the town, as they often could be seen taking rides in Wright’s automobile through Oak Park. Wright’s wife, Kitty, sure that this attachment would fade as others had, refused to grant him a divorce. Mamah had to live in Europe for two years in order to obtain a divorce from Edwin on the grounds of desertion.

In 1909, even before the Robie House was completed, Wright and Mamah Cheney met up in Europe, leaving their spouses and children behind.

Wright published a portfolio of his work with Berlin publisher Ernst Wasmuth. The resulting two volumes, titled Studies and Executed Buildings of Frank Lloyd Wright, were published in 1911 in two editions, creating the first major exposure of Wright’s work in Europe. The work contained more than 100 lithographs of Wright’s designs and was commonly known as the Wasmuth Portfolio.

Wright remained in Europe for almost a year and set up home first in Florence, Italy — where he lived with his eldest son Lloyd — and later in Fiesole, Italy, where he lived with Mamah. During this time, Edwin Cheney granted Mamah a divorce, though Kitty still refused to grant one to her husband. After Wright returned to the United States in October 1910, he persuaded his mother to buy land for him in Spring Green, Wisconsin. The land, bought on April 10, 1911, was adjacent to land held by his mother’s family, the Lloyd-Joneses. Wright began to build himself a new home, which he called Taliesin. The recurring theme of Taliesin also came from his mother’s side: Taliesin in Welsh mythology was a poet, magician, and priest. The family motto, “Y Gwir yn Erbyn y Byd” (“The Truth Against the World”), was taken from the Welsh poet Iolo Morganwg, who also had a son named Taliesin. The motto is still used today as the cry of the druids and chief bard of the Eisteddfod in Wales.

On August 15, 1914, while Wright was working in Chicago, Julian Carlton, a male servant from Barbados who had been hired several months earlier, set fire to the living quarters of Taliesin and murdered seven people with an axe as the fire burned. The dead included Mamah; her two children, John and Martha Cheney; a gardener (David Lindblom); a draftsman (Emil Brodelle); a workman (Thomas Brunker); and another workman’s son (Ernest Weston). Two people survived the mayhem, one of whom, William Weston, helped to put out the fire that almost completely consumed the residential wing of the house. Carlton swallowed hydrochloric acid immediately following the attack in an attempt to kill himself. He was nearly lynched on the spot, but was taken to the Dodgeville jail. Carlton died from starvation seven weeks after the attack, despite medical attention.

In 1922, Kitty Wright finally granted Wright a divorce. Under the terms of the divorce, Wright was required to wait one year before he could marry his then-mistress, Maude “Miriam” Noel. Wright wed Miriam in November 1923, but her addiction to morphine led to the failure of the marriage in less than one year. In 1924, after the separation but while still married, Wright met Olga (Olgivanna) Lazovich Hinzenburg at a Petrograd Ballet performance in Chicago. They moved in together at Taliesin in 1925, and soon Olgivanna was pregnant with their daughter, Iovanna, born on December 2, 1925.

On April 20, 1925, another fire destroyed the bungalow at Taliesin. Crossed wires from a newly installed telephone system were deemed to be responsible for the blaze, which destroyed a collection of Japanese prints that Wright estimated to be worth $250,000 to $500,000. Wright rebuilt the living quarters, naming the home “Taliesin III”.

In 1926, Olga’s ex-husband, Vlademar Hinzenburg, sought custody of his daughter, Svetlana. In October 1926, Wright and Olgivanna were accused of violating the Mann Act and arrested in Tonka Bay, Minnesota. The charges were later dropped.

Wright and Miriam Noel’s divorce was finalized in 1927, and once again, Wright was required to wait for one year before remarrying. Wright and Olgivanna married in 1928.

Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York City (1959)

Fallingwater, Mill Run, Pennsylvania (1937)

Taliesin West, Wright’s winter home and studio complex in Scottsdale, Arizona, was a laboratory for Wright from 1937 to his death in 1959. Now the home of the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation and archives, it continues today as the site of the Frank Lloyd Wright School of Architecture.

Wright’s Price Tower in Bartlesville, Oklahoma

An open office area in Wright’s Johnson Wax headquarters complex, Racine,Wisconsin, (1939)

Charles Weltzheimer Residence(1948) in Oberlin, Ohio Main article: Usonia

Wright-designed window in Robie House, Chicago (1906)

The Final Footprint

On April 4, 1959, Wright was hospitalized for abdominal pains and was operated on April 6. He seemed to be recovering but he died quietly on April 9. Olgivanna’s dying wish had been that Wright, she, and her daughter by her first marriage all be cremated and interred together in a memorial garden being built at Taliesin West. According to his own wishes, Wright’s body had lain in the Lloyd-Jones cemetery, next to the Unity Chapel, near Taliesin in Wisconsin. Although Olgivanna had taken no legal steps to move Wright’s remains and against the wishes of other family members as well as the Wisconsin legislature, in 1985 Wright’s remains were removed from his grave by members of the Taliesin Fellowship, cremated and sent to Scottsdale where they were later interred in the memorial garden. The original grave site in Wisconsin, now empty, is still marked with Wright’s name.

Imperial Hotel, Tokyo (1923)

The Robie House on the University of Chicago campus

Frank W. Thomas House (1901), 210 Forest Avenue, Oak Park, IL

Taliesin West Panorama from the “prow” looking at the “ship”

Gammage Auditorium viewed from one of the pedestrian ramps

#RIP #OTD in 1976 singer/songwriter (“I Ain’t Marching Anymore”, “Love Me, I’m a Liberal”, “Outside of a Small Circle of Friends”, “There but for Fortune”) Phil Ochs died by hanging in his sister’s home in Far Rockaway, New York, age 35. Cremated remains scattered in Scotland

#RIP #OTD in 1988 singer (“Rainy Night in Georgia”), songwriter (“It’s Just a Matter of Time”, “Endlessly”) Brook Benton died from complications of spinal meningitis in Queens, aged 56. Unity Family Life Center Cemetery, Lugoff, South Carolina

#RIP #OTD in 1996 novelist (The Manchurian Candidate, Winter Kills, Prizzi’s Honor) Richard Condon died in Dallas, Texas aged 81. Cremation

On this day in 2001, Pittsburgh Pirate, 7-time all-star, 2-time World Series Champion, baseball Hall of Famer, Pops, Willie Stargell died of complications related to a stroke in Wilmington, North Carolina at the age of 61.  Born Wilver Dornel Stargell on 6 March 1940 in Earlsboro, Oklahoma.  Known for his towering home runs.  Only four home runs have ever been hit out of Dodger Stadium; two were by Stargell.  Dodger starting pitcher Don Sutton said of Stargell, “I never saw anything like it. He doesn’t just hit pitchers, he takes away their dignity.”  The Pirates won the World Series with Stargell in 1971 and 1979, both times defeating the Baltimore Orioles.  The Pirates ’79 team adopted the Sister Sledge hit song “We Are Family” as the team anthem.  Stargell earned the NLCS and World Series MVP awards and was named the co-MVP of the 1979 season (along with St. Louis’ Keith Hernandez).  Stargell is the only player to have won all three trophies in a single year.  I remember the ’79 World Series well.  That Pirates team is one of my favorite teams and Stargell is one of my favorite players.  The Pirates retired his number 8 in 1982.

 The Final Footprint – Stargell is entombed in a garden mausoleum in Oleander Memorial Gardens in Wilmington.  The Willie Stargell statue, a 12-foot bronze statue, at PNC Park in Pittsburgh was unveiled in April 2001.

#RIP #OTD in 2011 film director (12 Angry Men, Dog Day Afternoon, Network, The Verdict, Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead), screenwriter Sidney Lumet died in his residence in Manhattan from lymphoma, aged 86. Beth David Cemetery, Elmont, New York

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On this day 8 April death of Gaetano Donizetti – Pablo Picasso – Ryan White – Marian Anderson – Ben Johnson – Annette Funicello – Sara Montiel – Margaret Thatcher

Gaetano_Donizetti_(portrait_by_Giuseppe_Rillosi)On this day in 1848, composer Gaetano Donizetti died in the house of a noble family, the Scotti, in Bergamo, Lombardy, Italy at the age of 49.  Born Domenico Gaetano Maria Donizetti in Bergamo’s Borgo Canale quarter located just outside the city walls on 29 November 1797.  Altogether Donizetti wrote about 70 operas.  An offer in 1822 from Domenico Barbaja, the impresario of the Teatro San Carlo in Naples, which followed the composer’s ninth opera, led to his move to that city and the composition of 28 operas which were given their premieres at that house or in one of the city’s smaller houses including the Teatro Nuovo or the Teatro del Fondo.  This continued until the production of Caterina Cornaro in January 1844.  In all, Naples presented 51 of Donizetti’s operas.  During this period, success came primarily with the comic operas, the serious ones failing to attract significant audiences.  However, the situation changed with the appearance in 1830 of the serious opera, Anna Bolena which was the first to make a major impact on the Italian and international opera scene.  After 1830, his best-known works included comedies such as L’elisir d’amore (1832) and Don Pasquale (1843) and historical dramas such as Lucia di Lammermoor (the first to be written by librettist Salvadore Cammarano) in 1835, as well as Roberto Devereux in 1837.  Up to that point, all of his operas had been written to Italian librettos.  After moving to Paris in 1838, Donizetti set his operas to French texts; these include La favorite and La fille du régiment and were first performed in that city from 1840 onward.  It appears that much of the attraction of moving to Paris was not just for larger fees and prestige, but his chafing against the censorial limitations which existed in Italy, thus giving him a much greater freedom to choose subject matter.  Along with Gioachino Rossini and Vincenzo Bellini, he was a leading composer of bel canto opera during the first fifty years of the Nineteenth Century.  Donizetti married Virginia Vasselli.

The Final Footprint – Donizetti was entombed in the cemetery of Valtesse but in the late 19th century his body was transferred to Bergamo’s Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore.  His tomb is located to the left of the entrance, past the sepulchre of Cardinal Guglielmo Longhi, on the rear wall near the tomb of his master Simone Mayr (1852).

On this day in 1973, painter, draughtsman, and sculptor, Pablo Picasso died at his home in Mougins, France at the age of 91.  Born on 25 October 1881 in the city of Málaga in the Andalusian region of Spain and baptized Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Ruiz y Picasso.  A prolific artist, he is perhaps best known as a pioneer, along with Georges Braque, of the avant-garde art movement Cubism which revolutionized European painting and sculpture.  Among his most famous works are the proto-Cubist Les Demoiselles d’Avignon (1907)

Les Demoiselles d’Avignon

and Guernica (1937), a portrayal of the German bombing of Guernica during the Spanish Civil War.  His revolutionary artistic accomplishments in a variety of styles that he helped develop and worked in brought him universal renown making him one of the best-known figures in 20th century art.  By 1905 Picasso became a favorite of the American art collectors Leo and Gertrude Stein and through her he met Henri Matisse, who would become a lifelong friend and rival.  Picasso married twice; Olga Khokhlova (1918-1955 her death) and Jacqueline Roque (1961-1973 his death).  Throughout his life Picasso maintained a number of mistresses and muses in addition to his wife or primary partner, including; Fernande Olivier who appears in many of his Rose period paintings; Marcelle Humbert, whom he called Eva Gouel and to whom he included declarations of his love in many of his Cubist works; Marie-Thérèse Walter, the model for his Le Rêve (The Dream) (1932); Dora Maar, the model for Dora Maar au Chat (1941) and Weeping Woman; Françoise Gilot; Geneviève Laporte.  Picasso said; “Art is a lie that makes us realize the truth.”

The Final Footprint – Picasso is interred at the Chateau of Vauvenargues near Aix-en-Provence, a property he had acquired in 1958 and occupied with Jacqueline.  His grave is decorated with his own sculpture “Woman with the Vase” (1933), which was shown during the World exhibition of 1937 in Paris.

On this day in 1990, national poster child for HIV/AIDS Ryan White died at Riley Hospital for Children in Indianapolis, at the age of 18. Born Ryan Wayne White on December 6, 1971 in Kokomo, Indiana. As a hemophiliac, he became infected with HIV from a contaminated factor VIII blood treatment and, when diagnosed in December 1984, was given six months to live. Doctors said he posed no risk to other students, as AIDS is not an airborne disease and spreads solely through body fluids, but AIDS was poorly understood by the general public at the time. When White tried to return to school, many parents and teachers in Howard County rallied against his attendance due to concerns of the disease spreading through bodily fluid transfer. A lengthy administrative appeal process ensued, and news of the conflict turned Ryan into a popular celebrity and advocate for AIDS research and public education. Surprising his doctors, Ryan White lived five years longer than predicted. He died one month before his high school graduation.

Before Ryan White, AIDS was a disease stigmatized as an illness impacting the gay community, because it was first diagnosed among gay men. That perception shifted as Ryan and other prominent straight HIV-infected people such as Magic Johnson, Arthur Ashe and the Ray brothers appeared in the media to advocate for more AIDS research and public education to address the epidemic. The U.S. Congress passed a major piece of AIDS legislation, the Ryan White CARE Act, shortly after White’s death. The Act has been reauthorized twice; Ryan White Programs are the largest provider of services for people living with HIV/AIDS in the United States.

The Final Footprint

“We owe it to Ryan to make sure that the fear and ignorance that chased him from his home and his school will be eliminated. We owe it to Ryan to open our hearts and our minds to those with AIDS. We owe it to Ryan to be compassionate, caring and tolerant toward those with AIDS, their families and friends. It’s the disease that’s frightening, not the people who have it.”

—Former US President Ronald Reagan, April 11, 1990

On March 29, 1990, White entered Riley Hospital for Children in Indianapolis with a respiratory tract infection. As his condition deteriorated, he was sedated and placed on a ventilator. He was visited by Elton John and the hospital was deluged with calls from well-wishers.

Over 1,500 people attended Ryan’s funeral on April 11, a standing-room only event held at the Second Presbyterian Church on Meridian Street in Indianapolis. White’s pallbearers included Elton John, football star Howie Long and Phil Donahue. Elton John performed “Skyline Pigeon” at the funeral. The funeral was also attended by Michael Jackson and Barbara Bush. On the day of the funeral, Ronald Reagan wrote a tribute to Ryan that appeared in The Washington Post. Reagan’s statement about AIDS and White’s funeral were seen as indicators of how greatly White had helped change perceptions of AIDS.

Ryan White is buried in Cicero, Indiana close to the former home of his mother. In the year following his death, his grave was vandalized on four occasions. As time passed, White’s grave became a shrine for his admirers.

#RIP #OTD 1993 contralto, first African-American singer to perform at the Metropolitan Opera, civil rights activist, Marian Anderson died in Portland, Oregon, of congestive heart failure, aged 96. Eden Cemetery, in Collingdale, Pennsylvania

#RIP #OTD in 1996 actor (Shane, The Undefeated, Chisum, The Last Picture Show, Junior Bonner, The Evening Star), Team Roping World Champion cowboy Ben Johnson died; heart attack; Leisure World in Mesa, Arizona, aged 77. Pawhuska City Cemetery, Oklahoma

#RIP #OTD in 2013 actress (Mickey Mouse Club, Beach Party films) and singer Annette Funicello died at Mercy Southwest Hospital in Bakersfield, California from complications attributed to multiple sclerosis, age 70. Cremation

#RIP #OTD in 2013 actress (Don Quixote, Locura de amor, Cárcel de mujeres, Furia roja, Vera Cruz, Serenade, Run of the Arrow, El último cuplé, La Violetera), singer Sara Montiel died at her home in Madrid from congestive heart failure, aged 85. Sacramental de San Justo, Madrid

#RIP #OTD in 2013 first female British prime minister and the longest-serving British prime minister of the 20th century, the Iron Lady, Margaret Thatcher died after suffering a stroke at her suite in the Ritz Hotel, London, aged 87. Cremated remains at the Royal Hospital Chelsea

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On this day 7 April death of Jesus Christ of Nazareth – El Greco – Suzanne Valadon – Theda Bara – Geoffrey Lewis – John Prine

On this day, possibly, in AD 30/33, Jewish leader and religious leader, Jesus Christ, Jesus of Nazareth, Jesus was crucified in Calvary at the age of 33/36. Born c. 4 BC in Judea, Roman Empire. He is the central figure of Christianity, and in my opinion is one of the most influential people in history. Most Christians believe he is the incarnation of God the Son and the awaited Messiah (Christ) prophesied in the Old Testament.

Virtually all modern scholars of antiquity agree that Jesus existed historically, although the quest for the historical Jesus has produced little agreement on the historical reliability of the Gospels and on how closely the Jesus portrayed in the Bible reflects the historical Jesus. Jesus was a Galilean Jew who was baptized by John the Baptist and began his own ministry. He preached orally and was often referred to as “rabbi”. Jesus debated with fellow Jews on how to best follow God, engaged in healings, taught in parables and gathered followers. He was arrested and tried by the Jewish authorities, turned over to the Roman government, and crucified on the order of Pontius Pilate, the Roman prefect. After his death, his followers believed he rose from the dead, and the community they formed eventually became the early Church.

The birth of Jesus is celebrated annually on December 25th (or various dates in January by some eastern churches) as Christmas. His crucifixion is honored on Good Friday and his resurrection on Easter. The widely used calendar era “AD”, from the Latin anno Domini (“in the year of the Lord”), and the equivalent alternative “CE”, are based on the approximate birthdate of Jesus.

Christian doctrines include the beliefs that Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit, was born of a virgin named Mary, performed miracles, founded the Christian Church, died by crucifixion as a sacrifice to achieve atonement for sin, rose from the dead, and ascended into Heaven, from where he will return. Most Christians believe Jesus enables people to be reconciled to God. The Nicene Creed asserts that Jesus will judge the living and the dead either before or after their bodily resurrection, an event tied to the Second Coming of Jesus in Christian eschatology. The great majority of Christians worship Jesus as the incarnation of God the Son, the second of three persons of the Trinity. A minority of Christian denominations reject Trinitarianism, wholly or partly, as non-scriptural.

Jesus also figures in non-Christian religions and new religious movements. In Islam, Jesus (commonly transliterated as Isa) is considered one of God’s important prophets and the Messiah. Muslims believe Jesus was a bringer of scripture and was born of a virgin, but was not the son of God. The Quran states that Jesus never claimed divinity. Most Muslims do not believe that he was crucified, but that he was physically raised into Heaven by God. In contrast, Judaism rejects the belief that Jesus was the awaited Messiah, arguing that he did not fulfill Messianic prophecies, and was neither divine nor resurrected.

The Final Footprint

A depiction of Jesus on the cross

Pietro Perugino’s depiction of the Crucifixion as Stabat Mater, 1482

Jesus’ crucifixion is described in all four canonical gospels. After the trials, Jesus is led to Calvary carrying his cross; the route traditionally thought to have been taken is known as the Via Dolorosa. The three Synoptic Gospels indicate that Simon of Cyrene assists him, having been compelled by the Romans to do so. In Luke 23:27–28 Jesus tells the women in the multitude of people following him not to weep for him but for themselves and their children. At Calvary, Jesus is offered a sponge soaked in a concoction usually offered as a painkiller. According to Matthew and Mark, he refuses it.

Tomb of Jesus, Church of the Holy Sepulchre, venerated by some Christians as the place where Jesus was buried.

The soldiers then crucify Jesus and cast lots for his clothes. Above Jesus’ head on the cross is Pilate’s inscription, “Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews.” Soldiers and passersby mock him about it. Two convicted thieves are crucified along with Jesus. In Matthew and Mark, both thieves mock Jesus. In Luke, one of them rebukes Jesus, while the other defends him. Jesus tells the latter: “today you will be with me in Paradise” (Luke 23:43). In John, Mary, the mother of Jesus, and the beloved disciple were at the crucifixion. Jesus tells the beloved disciple to take care of his mother (John 19:26–27).

The Roman soldiers break the two thieves’ legs (a procedure designed to hasten death in a crucifixion), but they do not break those of Jesus, as he is already dead (John 19:33). In John 19:34, one soldier pierces Jesus’ side with a lance, and blood and water flow out. In the Synoptics, when Jesus dies, the heavy curtain at the Temple is torn. In Matthew 27:51–54, an earthquake breaks open tombs. In Matthew and Mark, terrified by the events, a Roman centurion states that Jesus was the Son of God.

On the same day, Joseph of Arimathea, with Pilate’s permission and with Nicodemus’ help, removes Jesus’ body from the cross, wraps him in a clean cloth, and buries him in his new rock-hewn tomb. In Matthew 27:62–66, on the following day the chief Jewish priests ask Pilate for the tomb to be secured, and with Pilate’s permission the priests place seals on the large stone covering the entrance.

On this day in 1614, painter, sculptor and architect of the Spanish Renaissance El Greco died in Toledo, Spain at the age of 72. Born Doménikos Theotokópoulos in October 1541 in either the village of Fodele or Candia (the Venetian name of Chandax, present day Heraklion) on Crete. El Greco was a nickname, a reference to his Greek origin, and the artist normally signed his paintings with his full birth name in Greek letters, Δομήνικος Θεοτοκόπουλος, Doménikos Theotokópoulos, often adding the word Κρής Krēs, Cretan.

He trained and became a master before traveling at age 26 to Venice, as other Greek artists had done. In 1570 he moved to Rome, where he opened a workshop and executed a series of works. During his stay in Italy, El Greco enriched his style with elements of Mannerism and of the Venetian Renaissance taken from a number of great artists of the time, notably Tintoretto. In 1577, he moved to Toledo, Spain, where he lived and worked until his death. In Toledo, El Greco received several major commissions and produced his best-known paintings.

El Greco’s dramatic and expressionistic style was met with puzzlement by his contemporaries but found appreciation in the 20th century. El Greco is regarded as a precursor of both Expressionism and Cubism, while his personality and works were a source of inspiration for poets and writers such as Rainer Maria Rilke and Nikos Kazantzakis. El Greco has been characterized by modern scholars as an artist so individual that he belongs to no conventional school. He is best known for tortuously elongated figures and often fantastic or phantasmagorical pigmentation, marrying Byzantine traditions with those of Western painting.

The Dormition of the Virgin (before 1567, tempera and gold on panel, 61.4 × 45 cm, Holy Cathedral of the Dormition of the Virgin, Hermoupolis, Syros) was probably created near the end of the artist’s Cretan period.

Byzantine chapel at Fodele, Crete, in Greece, where El Greco was born

The Adoration of the Magi (1565–1567, 56 × 62 cm, Benaki Museum, Athens). The icon, signed by El Greco (“Χείρ Δομήνιχου”, Created by the hand of Doménicos), was painted in Candia on part of an old chest.

Adoration of the Magi, 1568, Museo Soumaya, Mexico City

Portrait of Giorgio Giulio Clovio, the earliest surviving portrait from El Greco (c. 1570, oil on canvas, 58 × 86 cm, Museo di Capodimonte, Naples). In the portrait of Clovio, friend and supporter in Rome of the young Cretan artist, the first evidence of El Greco’s gifts as a portraitist are apparent.

The Assumption of the Virgin(1577–1579, oil on canvas, 401 × 228 cm, Art Institute of Chicago) was one of the nine paintings El Greco completed for the church of Santo Domingo el Antiguo in Toledo, his first commission in Spain.

The Burial of the Count of Orgaz(1586–1588, oil on canvas, 480 × 360 cm, Santo Tomé, Toledo), illustrates a popular local legend. An exceptionally large painting, it is clearly divided into two zones: the heavenly above and the terrestrial below, brought together compositionally.

The Disrobing of Christ (El Espolio) (1577–1579, oil on canvas, 285 × 173 cm, Sacristy of the Cathedral, Toledo). El Greco’s altarpieces are renowned for their dynamic compositions and startling innovations.

El Greco made Toledo his home. Surviving contracts mention him as the tenant from 1585 onwards of a complex consisting of three apartments and twenty-four rooms which belonged to the Marquis de Villena. It was in these apartments, which also served as his workshop, that he passed the rest of his life, painting and studying. He lived in considerable style, sometimes employing musicians to play whilst he dined. It is not confirmed whether he lived with his Spanish female companion, Jerónima de Las Cuevas, whom he probably never married. She was the mother of his only son, Jorge Manuel, born in 1578, who also became a painter, assisted his father, and continued to repeat his compositions for many years after he inherited the studio.

The Final Footprint

During the course of the execution of a commission for the Hospital de Tavera, El Greco fell seriously ill, and a month later, he died. A few days earlier, on 31 March, he had directed that his son should have the power to make his will. Two Greeks, friends of the painter, witnessed this last will and testament (El Greco never lost touch with his Greek origins). He was thought to be entombed in the Church of Santo Domingo el Antiguo but the exact location remains unknown.

Gallery

View of Toledo (c. 1596–1600, oil on canvas, 47.75 × 42.75 cm, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York) is one of the two surviving landscapes of Toledo painted by El Greco.

The Holy Trinity (1577–1579, 300 × 178 cm, oil on canvas, Museo del Prado, Madrid, Spain) was part of a group of works created for the church “Santo Domingo el Antiguo”.

The Opening of the Fifth Seal (1608–1614, oil, 225 × 193 cm., New York, Metropolitan Museum)
Portrait of Jorge Manuel Theotocopoulos (1600–1605, oil on canvas, 81 × 56 cm, Museo Provincial de Bellas Artes, Seville)
The Modena Triptych (1568, tempera on panel, 37 × 23.8 cm(central), 24 × 18 cm (side panels), Galleria Estense, Modena) is a small-scale composition attributed to El Greco.

Suzanne_Valadon_PhotoOn this day in 1938, French painter and artists’ model, Suzanne Valadon died of a stroke at age 72 in Paris.  Born Marie-Clémentine Valadon on 23 September 1865 at Bessines-sur-Gartempe, Haute-Vienne, France.  In 1894, Valadon became the first woman painter admitted to the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts.  She was also the mother of painter Maurice Utrillo.  The subjects of her drawings and paintings included mostly female nudes, female portraits, still lifes, and landscapes.  She never attended the academy and was never confined within a tradition.  Valadon debuted as a model in 1880 in Montmartre at age 15.  She modeled for over 10 years for many different artists including the following: Pierre-Cécile Puvis de Chavannes, Théophile Steinlen, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec.

The Final Footprint – Valadon is buried in the Cimetière de Saint-Ouen in Paris.  Saint-Ouen is located just north of Montmartre at Saint-Ouen, near Paris, France.  The cemetery consists of two parts.  The first, located on Rue Adrien Lesesne opened in 1860 and the second at 2 Avenue Michelet was opened on 1 September 1872.

Gallery

Dance at Bougival, by Renoir; the female dancer is Valadon.


Casting of the Net, 1914

 

Portraits of Valadon

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On this day 6 April death of Raphael – Igor Stravinsky – Isaac Asimov – Greer Garson – Tammy Wynette – Wilma Mankiller – Mickey Rooney – Merle Haggard – Don Rickles – James Drury

Self portrait

On this day in 1520, painter and architect of the High Renaissance, Raphael died in Rome, perhaps on his 37th birthday.  Born Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino either on 28 March or 6 April 1483 in the small Central Italian city of Urbino in the Marche region.  Raphael is celebrated for the perfection and grace of his paintings and drawings.  Together with Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci, he forms the traditional trinity of great masters of that period.  Raphael never married, but in 1514 became engaged to Maria Bibbiena, Cardinal Medici Bibbiena’s niece.  He is said to have had many affairs, but a permanent fixture in his life in Rome was “La Fornarina”, Margherita Luti, the daughter of a baker (fornaro) named Francesco Luti from Siena who lived at Via del Governo Vecchio.

The Final Footprint – Raphael is entombed in a marble sarcophagus in the Pantheon in Rome.  The inscription is an elegiac distich written by Pietro Bembo,: “Ille hic est Raffael, timuit quo sospite vinci, rerum magna parens et moriente mori.” Meaning: “Here lies Raphael, by whom the mother of all things (Nature) feared to be overcome while he was living, and while he was dying, herself to die.”  The Pantheon was commissioned by Marcus Agrippa as a temple to all the gods of Ancient Rome, and was rebuilt by Emperor Hadrian in about 126 AD.  It has been in continuous use throughout its history, and since the 7th century, the Pantheon has been used as a Roman Catholic church dedicated to “St. Mary and the Martyrs” but informally known as “Santa Maria Rotonda.”

Gallery

The Ansidei Altarpiece, ca. 1505, beginning to move on from Perugino

  • The Madonna of the Meadow, ca. 1506, using Leonardo’s pyramidal composition for subjects of the Holy Family.

  • Saint Catherine of Alexandria, 1507, borrows from the pose of Leonardo’s Leda

  • Deposition of Christ, 1507, drawing from Roman sarcophagi.

On this day in 1971, composer, pianist and conductor Igor Stravinsky died in his 5th Avenue apartment in Manhattan from heart failure at the age of 88. Born Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky on 17 June [O.S. 5 June] 1882 in Oranienbaum, Russia. In my opinion, one of the most important and influential composers of the 20th century.

Stravinsky’s compositional career was notable for its stylistic diversity. He first achieved international fame with three ballets commissioned by the impresario Serge Diaghilev and first performed in Paris by Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes: The Firebird (1910), Petrushka (1911), and The Rite of Spring (1913). The latter transformed the way in which subsequent composers thought about rhythmic structure and was largely responsible for Stravinsky’s enduring reputation as a musical revolutionary who pushed the boundaries of musical design. His “Russian phase”, which continued with works such as Renard, L’Histoire du soldat and Les Noces, was followed in the 1920s by a period in which he turned to neoclassicism. The works from this period tended to make use of traditional musical forms (concerto grosso, fugue and symphony) and drew from earlier styles, especially those of the 18th century.

The Final Footprint

A funeral service was held on 9 April at Frank E. Campbell Funeral Chapel. As per his wishes, he was buried in the Russian corner of the cemetery island of San Michele in northern Italy, several yards from the tomb of Diaghilev. Another notable final footprint at San Michele is Ezra Pound.

#RIP #OTD in 1992 writer (Foundation series, Galactic Empire series, Robot series, “Nightfall”), professor of biochemistry at Boston University, Isaac Asimov died in Manhattan of heart and kidney failure, aged 72. Cremated remains scattered

#RIP #OTD in 1996 actress (Mrs. Miniver) Greer Garson died from heart failure in a penthouse suite at the Presbyterian Hospital of Dallas, aged 91. Sparkman-Hillcrest Memorial Park Cemetery in Dallas

On this day in 1998, singer and songwriter, Country music icon, Tammy Wynette died from a heart attack at her home in Nashville at the age of 55.  Born Virginia Wynette Pugh near Iuka, Mississippi on 5 May 1942.  One of country music’s best-known artists, Wynette was called the “First Lady of Country Music”.  Her best-known song was, “Stand by Your Man”.  Many of her hits dealt with classic themes of loneliness, divorce, and the difficulties of man-woman relationships.  During the late 1960s and early 1970s, Wynette charted 23 No. 1 songs.  Wynette married five times; Euple Byrd (married April 1960– divorced 1966); Don Chapel, born Lloyd Franklin Amburgey (m. 1967 – annulled 1968); George Jones (m. February 16, 1969 – d. March 21, 1975); Michael Tomlin (m. July 18, 1976 – a. September 1976) 44 days; and singer/songwriter George Richey (m. July 6, 1978 – her death April 6, 1998),  Wynette’s marriage to country music singer George Jones resulted in a sequence of albums and singles that hit the charts throughout the 1970s and early eighties.

The Final Footprint – A public memorial service was held at Nashville’s historic Ryman Auditorium on 9 April 1998.  A private grave-side service had been held earlier with a crypt entombment at Nashville’s Woodlawn Memorial Park Cemetery.  Other notable final footprints at Woodlawn include; Eddy Arnold, Little Jimmy Dickens, George Jones, Johnny Paycheck, Webb Pierce, Jerry Reed, Marty Robbins, Dan SealsRed Sovine, and Porter Wagoner.

#RIP #OTD in 2010 Native American (Cherokee Nation) activist, community developer, the first woman elected as Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation, Wilma Mankiller died from pancreatic cancer at her home in rural Adair County, Oklahoma, aged 64. Echota Cemetery, Stilwell OK

On this day in 2014, United States Army veteran, actor, vaudevillian, comedian, producer and radio personality Mickey Rooney died in Los Angeles at the age of 93. Born Joseph Yule Jr. on September 23, 1920 in Brooklyn. In a career spanning nine decades and continuing until shortly before his death, he appeared in more than 300 films and was one of the last surviving stars of the silent film era.

Rooney performed the role of Andy Hardy in a series of 15 films in the 1930s and 1940s that epitomized American family values. A versatile performer, he became a celebrated character actor later in his career.

Rooney first performed in vaudeville as a child and made his film debut at the age of six. At 14 he played Puck in the play and later the 1935 film adaptation of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. In 1938, he co-starred in Boys Town. At 19 he was the first teenager to be nominated for an Oscar for his leading role in Babes in Arms, and he was awarded a special Academy Juvenile Awardin 1939. At the peak of his career between the ages of 15 and 25, he made 43 films, which made him one of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer’s most consistently successful actors and a favorite of MGM studio head Louis B. Mayer.

Drafted into the Army during World War II, he served nearly two years entertaining over two million troops on stage and radio and was awarded a Bronze Star for performing in combat zones. Returning from the war in 1945, Rooney’s popularity was renewed with well-received supporting roles in films such as Breakfast at Tiffany’s (1961), Requiem for a Heavyweight (1962), It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963), and The Black Stallion (1979). In the early 1980s, he returned to Broadway in Sugar Babies. Rooney made hundreds of appearances on TV, including dramas, variety programs, and talk shows, and won an Emmy in 1982 plus a Golden Globe for his role in Bill (1981).

Rooney was married eight times, with six of the marriages ending in divorce. In 1942, he married his first wife, actress Ava Gardner, who at that time was still an obscure teenage starlet. They divorced the following year. While stationed in the military in Alabama in 1944, Rooney met and married Betty Jane Phillips, who later became a singer under the name B.J. Baker. This marriage ended in divorce after he returned from Europe at the end of World War II. His marriage to actress Martha Vickers in 1949 ended in divorce in 1951. He married actress Elaine Mahnken in 1952 and they divorced in 1958. In 1958, Rooney married Barbara Ann Thomason, but she was murdered by her secret lover in 1966. He then married Barbara’s best friend, Marge Lane. That marriage lasted 100 days. He was married to Carolyn Hockett from 1969 to 1975. In 1978, Rooney married his eighth and final wife, Jan Chamberlin. Their marriage lasted until his death, a total of 34 years (longer than his seven previous unions combined), although they separated in 2012.


The Final Footprint

A group of family members and friends, including Mickey Rourke, held a memorial service on April 18. A private funeral, organized by another set of family members, was held at Hollywood Forever Cemetery, where he was ultimately entombed, on April 19. Other notable Final Footprints at Hollywood Forever include voice actor Mel Blanc (yes, his epitaph is “That’s All Folks!”), Chris Cornell, Cecil B. DeMilleVictor FlemingJoan HackettJohn HustonJudy GarlandJayne Mansfield’s cenotaph, Hattie McDaniel‘s cenotaph, Bugsy Siegel, Rudolph Valentino, Fay Wray, and Anton Yelchin.

Merle Haggard

Merle Haggard in 1971.jpg

in 1971

On this day in 2016, singer, songwriter, guitarist, and fiddler, the Hag, Merle Haggard died at his ranch near Palo Cedro, California from pneumonia at the age of 79. Born Merle Ronald Haggard on April 6, 1937 in Oildale, California. Along with Buck Owens, Haggard and his band the Strangers helped create the Bakersfield sound, which is characterized by the twang of Fender Telecaster and the unique mix with the traditional country steel guitar sound, new vocal harmony styles in which the words are minimal, and a rough edge not heard on the more polished Nashville sound recordings of the same era.

Between the 1960s and the 1980s, he had 38 number-one hits on the US country charts, several of which also made the Billboard all-genre singles chart. Haggard continued to release successful albums into the 2000s.

Haggard’s last recording, a song called “Kern River Blues,” described his departure from Bakersfield in the late 1970s and his displeasure with politicians. The song was recorded February 9, 2016, and features his son Ben on guitar.

depicted on a publicity portrait for Tally Records (1961, age 24)

publicity portrait for Capitol Records (1975, age 38)

performing in June 2009 (age 72)

Haggard was married five times, first to Leona Hobbs from 1956-64. Shortly after divorcing Hobbs, in 1965, he married singer Bonnie Owens. Haggard and Owens divorced in 1978, but remained close friends as Owens continued as his backing vocalist until her death in 2006. In 1978, Haggard married Leona Williams. In 1983, they divorced. In 1985 Haggard married Debbie Parret; they divorced in 1991.

The Final Footprint

Haggard was buried in a private funeral at his ranch on April 9, 2016; longtime friend Marty Stuart officiated. Haggard hoped the world would remember him as “the greatest jazz guitar player in the world that loved to play country.”

at the White House for the 2010 Kennedy Center Honors

Don Rickles

Don Rickles 1973.JPG

in 1973

On this day in 2017, U. S. Navy veteran, comedian and actor, Mr. Warmth, Don Rickles died at his home in Beverly Hills from kidney failure at the age of 90. Born Donald Jay Rickles on May 8, 1926 in Queens, New York. He became well known as an insult comic. His prominent film roles included Run Silent, Run Deep (1958) with Clark Gable, Kelly’s Heroes (1970) with Clint Eastwood, and Martin Scorsese’s Casino (1995).

Rickles also earned the nickname “The Merchant of Venom” for his poking fun at people of all ethnicities and walks of life. When he was introduced to an audience or on a television talk show, Spanish matador music, “La Virgen de la Macarena”, would usually be played, subtly foreshadowing someone was about to be metaphorically gored. Rickles said, “I always pictured myself facing the audience as the matador.”

with Lorne Greene on The Don Rickles Show in 1968

with Louise Sorel in The Don Rickles Show

on stage at the Tropicana Hotel and Casino in Atlantic City on January 12, 2008

On March 14, 1965, Rickles married Barbara Sklar of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He admitted having a very difficult time romantically in his 20s and 30s, finally meeting Sklar through his agent when he was 38 years old and falling for her when she failed to get his sense of humor.

The Final Footprint 

He was interred at Mount Sinai Memorial Park Cemetery, Hollywood Hills, Los Angeles. Mount Sinai Memorial Parks and Mortuaries is the largest Jewish cemetery organization in California.

#RIP #OTD in 2020 actor (The Virginian), James Drury died from natural causes in Houston, aged 85. Elmwood Memorial Park, Abilene, Texas

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