#RIP #OTD in 1808 Lord Byron’s Landseer dog, Boatswain, died of rabies. Byron wrote “Epitaph to a Dog” and had it inscribed on Boatswain’s tomb, which is larger than Byron’s, at Newstead Abbey, Byron’s estate, in Nottinghamshire, England
On this day in 1909 poet (Cendres et Poussières, La Vénus des aveugles, A l’heure des mains jointes, Flambeaux éteints, Sillages, Poèmes en Prose, Dans un coin de violettes, Haillons), “Muse of the Violets”, who wrote in French, in the style of the Symbolistes and the Parnassiens, Renée Vivien died in Paris from pneumonia, aged 32. Born Pauline Mary Tarn in London on 11 June 1877.
A high-profile lesbian in the Paris of the Belle Époque, she is notable for her work, which has received more attention following revival of interest in Sapphic verse. Many of her poems are autobiographical, pertaining mostly to Baudelarian themes of extreme romanticism and frequent despair. Apart from poetry, she wrote several works of prose, including L’Etre Double (inspired by Coleridge’s Christabel), and an unfinished biography of Anne Boleyn, which was published posthumously. She has been the object of multiple biographies, most notably by Jean-Paul Goujon, André Germain, and Yves-Gerard Le Dantec.
The Final Footprint
Above all, Vivien romanticized death. While visiting London in 1908, deeply despondent, she tried to kill herself by drinking an excess of laudanum. She stretched out on her divan with a bouquet of violets held over her heart. The suicide failed, but while in England, she contracted pleurisy; later, upon her return to Paris, she grew considerably weaker. According to biographer Jean-Paul Goujon, Vivien suffered from chronic gastritis, due to years of chloral hydrate and alcohol abuse. She had also started to refuse to eat. By the summer of 1909, she walked with a cane.
The cause of death was reported at the time as “lung congestion”, but likely resulted from pneumonia complicated by alcoholism, drug abuse, and anorexia nervosa. She was interred at Passy Cemetery in the same exclusive Parisian neighbourhood where she had lived.
On this day in 1922, novelist Marcel Proust, died in Paris at the age of 51. Born Valentin Louis Georges Eugène Marcel Proust on 10 July 1871 in Auteuil, France. Author of the monumental À la recherche du temps perdu (In Search of Lost Time; earlier translated as Remembrance of Things Past). It was published in seven parts totaling about 3200 pages between 1913 and 1927. W. Somerset Maugham called the novel the “greatest fiction to date”. Graham Greene called Proust the “greatest novelist of the 20th century”.
The Final Footprint – Proust is entombed in an individual above ground crypt in the Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris. Père Lachaise is the largest cemetery in Paris and one of the most visited cemeteries in the world. Other notable Final Footprints at Père Lachaise include; Guillaume Apollinaire, Honoré de Balzac, Georges Bizet, Jean-Dominique Bauby, Maria Callas, Chopin, Colette, Auguste Comte, Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, Ma Ernst, Molière, Jim Morrison, Édith Piaf, Camille Pissarro, Sully Prudhomme, Gioachino Rossini, Georges-Pierre Seurat, Simone Signoret, Gertrude Stein, Dorothea Tanning, Alice B. Toklas, Oscar Wilde, and Richard Wright.
On this day in 1952 poet (Capitale de la douleur, L’Amour la Poésie, “Liberté”) a founder of the Surrealist movement Paul Éluard died from a heart attack at his home, in Charenton-le-Pont, Paris, aged 56. Born Eugène Émile Paul Grindel in Saint-Denis, Seine-Saint-Denis on 14 December 1895.
In 1916, he chose the name Paul Éluard, a matronymic borrowed from his maternal grandmother. He adhered to Dadaism and became one of the pillars of Surrealism by opening the way to artistic action politically committed to the Communist Party.
During World War II, he was the author of several poems against Nazism that circulated clandestinely. He became known worldwide as The Poet of Freedom and in my opinion, is the most gifted of French surrealist poets.
The Final Footprint
His funeral was held in the Père Lachaise Cemetery and organized by the French Communist Party. The French government refused to organise a national funeral for political reasons. A crowd of thousands spontaneously gathered in the streets of Paris to accompany Éluard’s casket to the cemetery. That day, Robert Sabatier wrote: “the whole world was mourning”.
On this day in 1969, American businessman, investor, and government official, patriarch of the Kennedy Family, Joseph Kennedy died in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts at the age of 81. Born Joseph Patrick Kennedy on 6 September 1888 in Boston. He was the father of U.S. President John F. Kennedy, United States Attorney General and Senator Robert F. Kennedy, United States Senator Edward M. Kennedy, naval officer Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr., Special Olympics co-founder Eunice Kennedy Shriver, and former U.S. Ambassador to Ireland Jean Kennedy Smith. He was a leading member of the Democratic Party and of the Irish Catholic community. Kennedy was the inaugural Chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), appointed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt (FDR), and later directed the Maritime Commission. Kennedy served as the United States Ambassador to the United Kingdom from 1938 until late 1940, including the early part of World War II. Kennedy was educated at Harvard University, and embarked on a career in finance, making a large fortune as a stock market and commodity investor and by investing in real estate and a wide range of industries. During World War I, he was an assistant general manager of a Boston area Bethlehem Steel shipyard, through which he developed a friendship with FDR, then Assistant Secretary of the Navy. In the 1920s Kennedy made huge profits from reorganizing and refinancing several Hollywood studios, ultimately merging several acquisitions into Radio-Keith-Orpheum (RKO) studios. After Prohibition ended in 1933, Kennedy consolidated an even larger fortune when he traveled to Scotland with FDR’s son, James Roosevelt, to buy distribution rights for Scotch whisky. His company, Somerset Importers, became the exclusive American agent for Gordon’s Gin and Dewar’s Scotch. He owned the largest office building in the country at that time, Chicago’s Merchandise Mart, giving his family an important base in that city and an alliance with the Irish-American political leadership there. His term as ambassador and his political ambitions ended abruptly during the Battle of Britain in November 1940, with the publishing of his controversial remarks suggesting that “Democracy is finished in England. It may be here, [in the US].” Kennedy resigned under pressure shortly afterwards. In later years, Kennedy worked behind the scenes to continue building the financial and political fortunes of the Kennedy family. Kennedy married Rose Elizabeth Fitzgerald, the eldest daughter of Boston Mayor John Francis “Honey Fitz” Fitzgerald (political rival of his father P. J. Kennedy) and Mary Josephine “Josie” Hannon. The marriage joined two of the city’s most prominent Irish-American political families. The couple had nine children, four boys and five girls. Kennedy survived all but one of his sons and one of his daughters.
The Final Footprint – Kennedy is interred in the Kennedy private family estate in Holyhood Cemetery in Brookline, Massachusetts.
On this day in 1976, visual artist, Man Ray died in Paris from a lung infection at the age of 86. Born Emmanuel Radnitzky on August 27, 1890 in Philadelphia. He spent most of his career in Paris. He was a significant contributor to the Dada and Surrealist movements. He produced major works in a variety of media but considered himself a painter above all. Perhaps best known for his fashion and portrait photography. Man Ray is also noted for his work with photograms, which he called “rayographs” in reference to himself.
In 1913, Man Ray met his first wife, the Belgian poet Adon Lacroix (Donna Lecoeur) (1887–1975), in New York. They married in 1914, separated in 1919, and formally divorced in 1937.
In July 1921, Man Ray went to live and work in Paris, France. He soon settled in the Montparnasse quarter favored by many artists. Shortly after arriving in Paris, he met and fell in love with Kiki de Montparnasse (Alice Prin), an artists’ model and celebrated character in Paris bohemian circles. Kiki was Man Ray’s companion for most of the 1920s. She became the subject of some of his most famous photographic images and starred in his experimental films, Le Retour à la Raison and L’Étoile de mer. In 1929, he began a love affair with the Surrealist photographer Lee Miller. Miller left him in 1932.
Man Ray was in a relationship with the model Adrienne Fidelin during some time between 1936 and 1940, the two parting ways after Ray fled the Nazi occupation in France, while Adrienne chose to stay behind to care for her family.
Man Ray was forced to return from Paris to the United States due to the Second World War. He lived in Los Angeles from 1940 to 1951 where he focused his creative energy on painting. A few days after arriving in Los Angeles, Man Ray met Juliet Browner, a first-generation American of Romanian-Jewish lineage. She was a trained dancer, who studied dance with Martha Graham, and an experienced artists’ model. The two married in 1946 in a double wedding with their friends Max Ernst and Dorothea Tanning.
Man Ray returned to Paris in 1951, and settled with Juliet into a studio at 2 bis rue Ferou near the Luxembourg Gardens in St. Germain des Pres, where he continued his creative practice across mediums.
In 1963, he published his autobiography, Self-Portrait, which was republished in 1999.
1919, Seguidilla, airbrushed gouache, pen & ink, pencil, and colored pencil on paperboard, 55.8 × 70.6 cm, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.
1920, Three Heads (Joseph Stella and Marcel Duchamp, painting bust portrait of Man Ray above Duchamp), gelatin silver print, 20.7 x 15.7 cm, Museum of Modern Art, New York
1920, The Coat-Stand (Porte manteau), reproduced in New York dada (magazine), Marcel Duchamp and Man Ray, April 1921
Lampshade, reproduced in 391, n. 13, July 1920
1922, Untitled Rayograph, gelatin silver photogram, 23.5 x 17.8 cm
with Salvador Dalí in Paris, on June 16, 1934 making “wild eyes” for photographer Carl Van Vechten
portrayed by Lothar Wolleh, Paris, 1975
Paris 2011
The Final Footprint
He was interred in the Cimetière du Montparnasse in Paris. Ray’s epitaph reads “unconcerned, but not indifferent”. When Juliet Browner died in 1991, she was interred in the same tomb. Her epitaph reads “together again”. Juliet organized a trust for his work and donated much of his work to museums. Her plans to restore the studio as a public museum proved too expensive; such was the structure’s disrepair. Most of the contents were stored at the Pompidou Center. Other notable Final Footprints at Montparnasse include; Charles Baudelaire, Samuel Beckett, Simone de Beauvoir, Emmanuel Chabrier, César Franck, Guy de Maupassant, Adah Isaacs Menken, Man Ray, Camille Saint-Saëns, Jean-Paul Sartre, Jean Seberg, and Susan Sontag.
On this day in 1986 supermodel Gia Carangi died of AIDS-related complications at Hahnemann University Hospital, Philadelphia, aged 26. Born Gia Marie Carangi in January 29, 1960 in Philadelphia.
Considered by many to be the first supermodel. She was featured on the cover of many magazines, including multiple editions of Vogue and Cosmopolitan, and appeared in advertising campaigns for luxury fashion houses such as Armani, Dior, Versace and Yves Saint Laurent.
After Carangi became addicted to heroin, her career rapidly declined. As she had spent most of her modeling earnings on drugs, Carangi spent the final three years of her life with various lovers, friends, and family members in Philadelphia and Atlantic City. She was admitted to an intense drug treatment program at Eagleville Hospital in December 1984. After treatment, she got a job in a clothing store, which she eventually quit. She later found employment as a checkout clerk and then worked in the cafeteria of a nursing home. By late 1985, she had begun using drugs again and was engaging in sex work in Atlantic City. Her life was dramatized in the 1998 HBO television film, Gia directed by Michael Cristofer and starring Angelina Jolie as Carangi.
The Final Footprint
In December 1985, Carangi was admitted to Warminster General Hospital in Warminster, Pennsylvania, with bilateral pneumonia. A few days later, she was diagnosed with AIDS-related complex. In the fall of 1986, Carangi was hospitalized again after being found on the street badly beaten and raped. On October 18, she was admitted to Hahnemann University Hospital. Carangi died becoming one of the first famous women to die of the disease. Her funeral was held on November 23 at a small funeral home in Philadelphia. No one from the fashion world attended. However, weeks later, Francesco Scavullo, Carangi’s friend and confidant, sent a Mass card when he heard the news. Sunset Memorial Park, Feasterville, Pennsylvania.
Carangi is often considered to be the first supermodel, although that title has been applied to others, including Margaux Hemingway, Audrey Munson, Lisa Fonssagrives, Dorian Leigh, Twiggy, Jean Shrimpton, and Janice Dickinson. Model Cindy Crawford, who rose to prominence the year Carangi died, was referred to as “Baby Gia” because of her resemblance to Carangi. Crawford later recalled, “My agents took me to all the photographers who liked Gia: Albert Watson, Francesco Scavullo, Bill King. Everyone loved her look so much that they gladly saw me.” Additionally, Carangi, whose sexual orientation has been reported as either lesbian or bisexual, is considered a lesbian icon and is said to have “epitomized lesbian chic more than a decade before the term was coined.” Argentine model Mica Argañaraz has often been compared to Carangi, whom she considers a beauty icon.
Carangi’s life has been the subject of several works. A biography of Carangi by Stephen Fried titled Thing of Beauty—taken from the first line of John Keats’ famous poem Endymion—was published in 1993. Gia, a biographical television film starring Angelina Jolie, debuted on HBO in 1998. Jolie won a Golden Globe Award and a Screen Actors Guild Award for her performance, among other accolades. A documentary titled The Self-Destruction of Gia, released in 2003, showcased footage of Carangi, contemporary interviews with Carangi’s family and former colleagues, including Sandy Linter, and footage of actress-screenwriter Zoë Lund, herself a heroin addict, who had been commissioned to write a screenplay based upon Carangi’s life at the time of her own death of drug-related causes in 1999.
A biography of Carangi by Sacha Lanvin Baumann titled Born This Way: Friends, Colleagues, and Coworkers Recall Gia Carangi, the Supermodel Who Defined an Era, was published in 2015. Sondra Scerca, who brought Carangi to Wilhelmina, is currently writing a memoir titled GIA, WILLY and ME, which will be released in 2022. The AIDS Memorial Quilt contains one panel with Carangi’s full name on it that only commemorates her, one panel that refers to her as Gia that only commemorates her, and one panel that refers to her as Gia and commemorates other people as well as her.
On this day in 1994, jazz singer, dancer, bandleader and actor Cab Calloway died from pneumonia in a nursing home in Hockessin, Delaware, at the age of 86. Born Cabell Calloway III on December 25, 1907 in Rochester, New York. He was associated with the Cotton Club in Harlem, New York City, where he was a regular performer and became a popular vocalist of the swing era. His niche of mixing jazz and vaudeville won him acclaim during a career that spanned over 65 years.
Calloway was a master of energetic scat singing and led one of the United States’ most popular big bands from the early 1930s to the late 1940s. His band included trumpeters Dizzy Gillespie, Jonah Jones, and Adolphus “Doc” Cheatham, saxophonists Ben Webster and Leon “Chu” Berry, guitarist Danny Barker, bassist Milt Hinton, and drummer Cozy Cole.
Calloway had several hit records in the 1930s and 1940s, becoming known as the “Hi-de-ho” man of jazz for his most recognized song, “Minnie the Moocher”, originally recorded in 1931. He reached the Billboard charts in five consecutive decades (1930s–1970s). Calloway also made several stage, film, and television appearances until his death in 1994 at the age of 86. He had roles in Stormy Weather (1943), Porgy and Bess (1953), The Cincinnati Kid (1965), and Hello Dolly! (1967). His career saw renewed interest in 1980 when he appeared in The Blues Brothers.
Calloway was the first African-American musician to sell a million records from a single song and to have a nationally syndicated radio show. In 1993, Calloway received the National Medal of Arts from the United States Congress.
Calloway married his first wife Wenonah “Betty” Conacher in July 1928. They divorced in 1949. Calloway married Zulme “Nuffie” MacNeal on October 7, 1949.
The Final Footprint
Calloway is entombed in Ferncliff Cemetery and Mausoleum in Hartsdale, New York. Other notable Final Footprints at Ferncliff include: Aaliyah, James Baldwin, Joan Crawford, Jerome Kern, Thelonious Monk, Oscar Hammerstein II, and Ed Sullivan.
He posthumously received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2008. His song “Minnie the Moocher” was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1999 and added to the Library of Congress’ National Recording Registry in 2019. He is also inducted into the Big Band and Jazz Hall of Fame and the International Jazz Hall of Fame.
On this day in 1999, musician, singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Doug Sahm died from a heart attack in Taos, New Mexico, aged 58. Born Douglas Wayne Sahm in San Antonio, Texas on 6 November 1949.
Sahm is regarded as one of the main figures of Tex-Mex music, and as an important performer of Texan Music. He gained fame along with his band, the Sir Douglas Quintet, with a top-twenty hit in the United States and the United Kingdom with “She’s About a Mover” (1965). Sahm was influenced by the San Antonio music scene that included conjunto and blues, and later by the hippie scene of San Francisco. With his blend of music, he found success performing in Austin, Texas, as the hippie counterculture soared in the 1970s.
Sahm began singing at age five and learned to play the steel guitar at age six. He was considered a child prodigy on the instrument. By the age of eight, he had appeared on the Louisiana Hayride. He made his recording debut as “Little Doug” in 1955, and was influenced by rock and roll during his teenage years. Sahm had local hit records, while he played clubs as a musician for other bands. In 1965, Huey P. Meaux produced Sahm and the Sir Douglas Quintet’s “She’s About a Mover”. The same year, Sahm moved to California. In 1971, he returned to San Antonio, and soon after he moved to Austin. Atlantic Records signed Sahm and released his debut solo album Doug Sahm and Band in 1973.
After a continuing decline in record sales, Sahm kept performing in clubs in Austin, and moved through different record labels. Meanwhile, he enjoyed success in Sweden and in Canada. In 1989, Sahm formed the supergroup the Texas Tornados with fellow Tex-Mex musicians Augie Meyers, Freddy Fender and Flaco Jiménez. The Texas Tornados toured successfully, and one of their releases earned a Grammy Award. In 1999, Sahm died during a vacation trip. A posthumous album, The Return of Wayne Douglas, was released in 2000. Sahm received multiple honors in the state of Texas, including hall of fame inductions and memorials in public places.
The Final Footprint
Sahm decided to take a vacation trip to New Mexico. He planned to visit a friend in Taos, then continue to a cabin in the Sangre de Cristo Range and finish the trip with a visit to Dan Healy in San Francisco. Sahm left for New Mexico after a brief visit with his son Shawn in Boerne, Texas. During the trip, Sahm called his son to inform him he had been feeling sick and that he often had to pull over to vomit. Sahm checked into the Kachina Lodge Hotel in Taos. His son continued calling him over the next few days. Sahm’s girlfriend, Debora Hanson, and Shawn offered to fly to New Mexico and drive him back to Texas. Sahm initially refused, but he agreed to drive himself to Albuquerque, New Mexico, to meet Hanson there for the drive back to Texas. As his condition worsened, he asked a clerk about local doctors. They advised him to visit the local emergency room, but he did not do so. Sahm was found dead in his hotel room. Local authorities determined it to be a death by natural causes, but an autopsy was ordered. The results of the autopsy determined that Sahm died of arteriosclerotic cardiovascular disease, described as a heart attack. The Austin Music Network aired a three-hour tribute to Sahm, while KUT dedicated an episode of one of its shows to his music. A memorial concert was announced to take place at Antone’s in December 1999.
On November 23, 1999, Sahm’s funeral took place at the Sunset Memorial Home in San Antonio. Loudspeakers were placed outside of the funeral home for the service to be heard by the estimated one thousand mourners in attendance. According to the Austin American Statesman, the crowd consisted of people “across all lines of age, race and social standing”. The viewing lasted an hour and a half, as the mourners passed Sahm’s casket and left keepsakes. Fender chose not to attend the funeral to avoid distracting the crowds with his presence. Sahm was buried in a private ceremony at Sunset Memorial Park in San Antonio, next to his mother and father.
In July 2000, the songs recorded at the Cherry Ridge Studios sessions the previous year were released on the posthumous album The Return of Wayne Douglas.
On this day in 2002, Academy Award winning actor James Coburn died of heart attack while listening to music in his Beverly Hills home at the age of 77. Born James Harrison Coburn III in Laurel, Nebraska on 31 August 1928. Coburn was featured in over 70 films and made 100 television appearances during his 45-year career, winning an Academy Award for his supporting role as Glen Whitehouse in Affliction. His rugged and “cool” persona made him a prpminent tough guy in numerous leading and supporting roles in westerns and action films, such as The Magnificent Seven (1960), The Great Escape (1963), Major Dundee (1965), Our Man Flint (1966), In Like Flint (1967), Duck, You Sucker! (1971), Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid (1973), Charade (1963) and Cross of Iron (1977). Coburn married twice; Beverly Kelly (1959 – 1979 divorce) and Paula Murad (1993 – 2002 his death).
The Final Footprint – Coburn was cremated and his cremains were inurned in Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery (a Dignity Memorial® provider) in Los Angeles, California, and marked by a stone bench inscribed with his name. Other notable final footprints at Westwood include; Ray Bradbury, Sammy Cahn, Truman Capote, Rodney Dangerfield, Farrah Fawcett, Brian Keith, Don Knotts, Hugh Hefner, Burt Lancaster, Peter Lawford, Peggy Lee, Janet Leigh, Jack Lemmon, Karl Malden, Dean Martin, Walter Matthau, Marilyn Monroe, Carroll O’Connor, Roy Orbison, George C. Scott, Dorothy Stratten, Natalie Wood, and Frank Zappa.
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On this day in 1917, sculptor Auguste Rodin, died at his villa in Meudon, Île-de-France, on the outskirts of Paris at the age of 77. Born François-Auguste-René Rodin on 12 November 1840 in Paris. Among his best known works: Le Penseur, La Porte de L’enfer, Monument à Balzac, Monument à Victor Hugo, Monument aux Bourgeois de Calais, L’homme qui Marche, L’age D’airain, and Le Baiser. Clearly, Le Baiser (The Kiss) is my personal favorite. 
The sculpture was originally titled Francesca da Rimini, as it depicts the 13th-century Italian noblewoman immortalised in Dante’s Inferno (Circle 2, Canto 5) who falls in love with her husband Giovanni Malatesta’s younger brother Paolo. They fall in love while reading the story of Lancelot and Guinevere, but the couple are discovered and killed by Giovanni. In the sculpture, the book can be seen in Paolo’s hand. The lovers lips do not actually touch in the sculpture to suggest that they were interrupted and met their demise without their lips ever having touched. In 1864 Rodin began living with Rose Beuret, with whom he would have a son. In 1883, at the age of 43, Rodin met the 18 year-old artist Camille Claudel. The two commenced a passionate but stormy relationship and they influenced each other artistically. She inspired him as a model for many of his female figures. His muse if you will. Rodin parted with Claudel in 1898.
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On this day in 2006 singer, songwriter, actress, the “Queen of R&B”, Ruth Brown died in Henderson, Nevada from a heart attack and stroke, aged 78. Born Ruth Alston Weston in Portsmouth, Virginia on 12 January 1928. She was noted for bringing a pop music style to R&B music in a series of hit songs for Atlantic Records in the 1950s, such as “So Long”, “Teardrops from My Eyes” and “(Mama) He Treats Your Daughter Mean”. For these contributions, Atlantic became known as “the house that Ruth built” (alluding to the popular nickname for the old Yankee Stadium). Brown was a 1993 inductee into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
The Final Footprint
And on this day in 2013 novelist Doris Lessing died at her home in London, aged 94. Born Doris May Tayler in Kermanshah, Iran, on 22 October 1919. She lived in Iran until 1925. Her family then moved to Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), where she remained until moving in 1949 to London, England. Her novels include The Grass Is Singing (1950), the sequence of five novels collectively called Children of Violence (1952–1969), The Golden Notebook (1962), The Good Terrorist (1985), and five novels collectively known as Canopus in Argos: Archives (1979–1983).
The Final Footprint – Gable is entombed next to Lombard in the Great Mausoleum, Sanctuary of Trust, Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Glendale, California. Other notable Final Footprints at Forest Lawn Glendale include; L. Frank Baum, Humphrey Bogart, Lon Chaney, Nat King Cole, Sam Cooke, Dorothy Dandridge, Sammy Davis, Jr., Walt Disney, Errol Flynn, Jean Harlow, Michael Jackson, Carole Lombard, Tom Mix, Casey Stengel, Jimmy Stewart, Elizabeth Taylor, and Spencer Tracy.
On this day in 1951, impressionist painter, Frank Weston Benson, died in Salem, Massachusetts at the age of 89. Born 24 March 1862 in Salem.
The Final Footprint – Benson is interred in Harmony Grove Cemetery in Salem alongside his wife Ellen Perry Benson. Their graves are marked by a large upright marble marker.
On this day in 1958, US Marine Corp veteran, actor Tyrone Power died from a heart attack in Madrid, aged 44. Born Tyrone Edmund Power III in Cincinnati, Ohio on 5 May 1914.
On this day in 1959, farmer Herbert Clutter (48), his wife Bonnie (45), their daughter Nancy (16), and their son Kenyon (15), were found bound and shot to death in various rooms of their home, on the family’s River Valley Farm on the outskirts of Holcomb, Kansas.
n this day in 1990, chesnut colt and American thoroughbred race horse, Alydar, died at the age of 15. Foaled 23 March 1975 at Calumet Farms in Lexington, Kentucky; sire Raise a Native, dam Sweet Tooth, damsire On-And-On. Trained by John M. Veitch and ridden by jockey Jorge Velasquez, Alydar finished second to archrival Affirmed in all three Triple Crown Races in 1978. A feat never accomplished, before or since. In my opinion, their matchup in the Belmont Stakes ranks as the most exciting race in the history of the sport. Affirmed won by a head to claim racing’s 11th Triple Crown Winner. I watched all three races on television. Both horses were beautiful chestnuts and I was a fan of both, but I was hoping that Affirmed would win. Alydar was a major success as a stallion. His offspring include; Easy Goer, Alysheba and Strike the Gold.
The Final Footprint – On November 13, 1990, Alydar appeared to have shattered his right hind leg in his stall at Calumet Farm in Lexington, Kentucky. Emergency surgery was performed the next day in an attempt to repair the injury, but the leg broke again. On November 15, Alydar was euthanized. At the time the owner of Calumet Farm was in dire trouble financially, but suspicions of foul play by the management were not raised until federal prosecutors investigated in the late 1990s. John Thomas (J.T.) Lundy was indicted and convicted in 2000 on separate but related fraud charges—bribing a bank executive for favorable loans—and served nearly four years in prison. The farm’s former attorney, Gary Matthews, was also convicted and received a 21-month prison sentence. The Texas Monthly described Alydar’s death as “a sweeping saga of greed, fraud, and almost unimaginable cruelty that could have been lifted straight from a best-selling Dick Francis horse-racing novel.”
On this day in 1556, Florentine poet, writer on etiquette and society, diplomat, and inquisitor, Giovanni della Casa died probably in the Farnese palace in Rome at the age of 53. Born 28 June 1503 in Florence or Borgo San Lorenzo. He is celebrated for his famous treatise on polite behavior, Il Galateo overo de’ costumi (1558). From the time of its publication, this courtesy book has enjoyed success and influence. In the eighteenth century, critic Giuseppe Baretti wrote in The Italian Library (1757), “The little treatise is looked upon by many Italians as the most elegant thing, as to stile, that we have in our language.”
The Final Footprint – Casa is entombed in the Church of Sant’Andrea della Valle, Rome. Sant’Andrea della Valle is a minor basilica in the rione of Sant’Eustachio. The basilica is the general seat for the religious order of the Theatines. It is located at Piazza Vidoni, 6 at the intersection of Corso Vittorio Emanuele (facing facade) and Corso Rinascimento.
On this day in 1915, educator, author, orator, and advisor to presidents of the United States, Booker T. Washington died in Tuskegee,
The Final Footprint
On this day in 1868, composer, The Italian Mozart, Gioachino Rossini, died at his country house at Passy, France at the age of 76. Born Gioachino Antonio Rossini on 29 February 1792 in Pesaro, Italy. Best known for his 39 operas which inlcude Il barbiere di Siviglia (The Barber of Seville), Guillaume Tell (William Tell) and La cenerentola (Cinderella). A 30-year-old Rossini met Ludwig van Beethoven, then aged 51, in 1822. Communicating in writing, Beethoven noted: “Ah, Rossini. So you’re the composer of The Barber of Seville. I congratulate you. It will be played as long as Italian opera exists. Never try to write anything else but opera buffa; any other style would do violence to your nature.” That same year Rossini married the renowned opera singer Isabella Colbran. She died in 1845 and on 16 August 1846, he married Olympe Pélissier. During his life Rossini was photographed by Félix Nadar and Etienne Carjat and had his portrait painted by Giorces, Vincenzo Camuccini and Francesco Hayez. I saw Houston Grand Opera’s production of La cenerentola in October of 1995 with Cecilia Bartoli in the role of Angelina (Cinderella). I fell in love with opera, and Miss Bartoli, that night.
The Final Footprint – Rossini was entombed in the Rossini Private Mausoleum in Cimetière du Père Lachaise, Paris, Ile-de-France Region, France. In 1887, his remains were moved and entombed in the Basilica di Santa Croce, in Florence, at the request of the Italian government. The Basilica di Santa Croce (Basilica of the Holy Cross) is the principal Franciscan church in Florence, and a minor basilica of the Roman Catholic Church. It is situated on the Piazza di Santa Croce. It is the burial place of some of the most famous Italians; Michelangelo, Galileo, Machiavelli, and is known also as the Temple of the Italian Glories (Tempio dell’Itale Glorie). His private mausoleum remains unoccupied at Père Lachaise. Père Lachaise is the largest cemetery in Paris and one of the most visited cemeteries in the world. Bravo Rossini!
On this day in 1903, Danish-French Impressionist and Neo-Impressionist painter Camille Pissarro died in Paris at the age of 73. Born 
The Final Footprint – Pissarro was entombed in the Cimetière du Père Lachaise, Paris, Ile-de-France Region, France, the largest cemetery in the city of Paris (44 hectares or 110 acres). Père Lachaise is in the 20th 
On this day in 1952 writer of children’s books, including Goodnight Moon and The Runaway Bunny, both illustrated by Clement Hurd, Margaret Wise Brown died in Nice, France at 42 of an embolism. She has been called “the laureate of the nursery” for her achievements. Born 23 May 1910 in Brooklyn.
The Final Footprint – While on a book tour in Nice, France, she died shortly after surgery for a ruptured appendix. Kicking up her leg to show her nurses how well she was feeling caused a blood clot that had formed in her leg to dislodge and travel to her heart. Her cremated remains were scattered at her island home, “The Only House,” in Vinalhaven, Maine.
On this day in 1974 chemical technician and labor union activist Karen Silkwood died in a car crash under unclear circumstances near Crescent, Oklahoma at the age of 28. Born Karen Gay Silkwood on February 19, 1946 in Longview, Texas. Primarily known for raising concerns about corporate practices related to health and safety of workers in a nuclear facility. Following her mysterious death her estate filed a lawsuit against chemical company Kerr-McGee, which was eventually settled for $1.38 million. Her story was chronicled in Mike Nichols‘s 1983 Academy Award-nominated film Silkwood in which she was portrayed by Meryl Streep.
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On this day in 2016, musician and songwriter Leon Russell died 
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On this day in 1094, King of Scots, Duncan II, died at the Battle of Mondoynes. Born Donnchad mac Maíl Coluim before c. 1060. Son of Malcolm III (Máel Coluim mac Donnchada) and his first wife Ingibiorg Finnsdottir, widow of Thorfinn Sigurdsson. About 1093–1094 Duncan married Uchtreda of Northumbria, daughter of Gospatric, Earl of Dunbar and Northumbria. Duncan deposed his uncle Donald III but reigned for only six months. He was succeeded by Donald III. 
I am very proud of my Scottish heritage. In My Defens, God Me Defend!
On this day in 1981 Academy Award winning actor William Holden bled to death from a head wound suffered in a fall in his apartment in Santa Monica, California at the age of 63. Born William Franklin Beedle, Jr. in O’Fallon, Illinois on 17 April 1918. In my opinion, one of the most popular movie stars of all time, Holden was one of the biggest box office draws of the 1950s. Holden won the Academy Award for Best Actor in 1953 for his role in Stalag 17, and a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor for his role in the 1973 television film The Blue Knight. Holden starred in some of Hollywood’s most popular and critically acclaimed films, including such blockbusters as Sunset Boulevard, The Bridge on the River Kwai, The Wild Bunch, Picnic, The Towering Inferno, and Network. He was named one of the “Top 10 Stars of the Year” six times (1954–1958, 1961). Holden married actress Ardis Ankerson (stage name Brenda Marshall) (1941 – 1971 divorce). They served as best man and matron of honor as the only guests at the wedding of Ronald Reagan and Nancy Davis. During the filming of Sabrina (1954), Audrey Hepburn and Holden became romantically involved. Holden met French actress Capucine in the early 1960s. The two starred in the films The Lion (1962) and The 7th Dawn (1964). They began a two-year affair. In 1972, Holden began a nine-year relationship with actress Stefanie Powers. My favorite Holden movies; Sabrina (1954), The Horse Soldiers (1959) and The Wild Bunch (1969).
On this day in 2003 actor Jonathan Brandis died at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles from injuries sustained in a hanging, aged 27. Born Jonathan Gregory Brandis in Danbury, Connecticut on 13 April 1976.
On this day in 2016, actress and centenarian Lupita Tovar died in Los Angeles at the age of 106. Born Guadalupe Natalia Tovar on 27 July 1910 Perhaps best known for her starring role in the 1931 Spanish language version of Drácula, filmed in Los Angeles by Universal Pictures at night using the same sets as the Bela Lugosi version, but with a different cast and director. She also starred in the 1932 film Santa, one of the first Mexican sound films, and one of the first commercial Spanish-language sound films.
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And on this day in 2018, United States Army veteran, 
On this day in 1831 African American slave Nat Turner was hanged after being convicted of leading a slave rebellion in Virginia. Born 2 October 1800 in Southampton County, Virginia. The rebellion resulted in 60 white deaths. Local residents responded with at least 200 black deaths. In the aftermath, the state executed 56 blacks accused of being part of Turner’s slave rebellion. Across Virginia and other southern states, state legislators passed new laws prohibiting education of slaves and free blacks, restricting rights of assembly and other civil rights for free blacks, and requiring white ministers to be present at black worship services.
On this day in 1855, Danish philosopher, theologian, poet, social critic, and religious author, the “Father of Existentialism”, Søren Kierkegaard died in Frederik’s Hospital in Copenhagen at the age of 42. Born Søren Aabye Kierkegaard on 5 May 1813 in Copenhagen. Kierkegaard wrote critical texts on organized religion, Christendom, morality, ethics, psychology and philosophy of religion, displaying a fondness for metaphor, irony and parables. Much of his philosophical work deals with the issues of how one lives as a “single individual”, giving priority to concrete human reality over abstract thinking, and highlighting the importance of personal choice and commitment. He was a fierce critic of idealist intellectuals and philosophers of his time, such as Swedenborg, Hegel, Goethe, Fichte, Schelling, Schlegel, and Hans Christian Andersen.
The Final Footprint – Kierkegaard is interred in the Assistens Kirkegård in the Nørrebro section of Copenhagen. At Kierkegaard’s funeral, his nephew Henrik Lund caused a disturbance by protesting Kierkegaard’s burial by the official church. Lund maintained that Kierkegaard would never have approved, had he been alive, as he had broken from and denounced the institution. Hans Christian Andersen is also interred at Assistens Kirkegård.
n this day in 1880 American Quaker, abolitionist, women’s rights activist, social reformer, Lucretia Mott died of pneumonia at her home, Roadside, in the district now known as La Mott, Cheltenham, Pennsylvania, aged 87. Born Lucretia Coffin on January 3, 1793 in Nantucket, Massachusetts.
On this day in 1945, Academy Award-winning composer, Jerome Kern, died from a cerebral hemorrhage while walking at the corner of Park Avenue and 57th Street in New York City at the age of 60, with fellow composer Oscar Hammerstein II at his side. Born Jerome David Kern on 27 January 1885 in New York City. In my opinion, one of the most important American theatre composers. He wrote over 700 songs including; “Ol’ Man River”, “Can’t Help Lovin’ Dat Man”, “A Fine Romance”, “Smoke Gets in Your Eyes”, “All the Things You Are”, “The Way You Look Tonight”, “Long Ago (and Far Away), “The Last Time I Saw Paris” and “Lovely to Look At”. Kern wrote the musical stage version of Edna Ferber’s Show Boat. Arguably his greatest score, it was a huge success. American musical theatre would never be the same. Kern named his yacht Show Boat.
On this day in 1979 film composer and conductor Dimitri Tiomkin died in London two weeks after fracturing his pelvis in a fall, aged 85. Born Dimitri Zinovievich Tiomkin on May 10, 1894 in Kremenchug, Poltava Governorate, Russian Empire.
And on this day in 2016 stage, film and television actor, author, political activist and advertising spokesperson whose career spanned nearly six decades, Robert Vaughn died in a hospice in Danbury, Connecticut from leukemia, aged 83. Born Robert Francis Vaughn on November 22, 1932 at Charity Hospital in Manhattan.
On this day in 1891, poet, Arthur Rimbaud, died in Marseille, France at the age of 37 from bone cancer. Born Jean Nicolas Arthur Rimbaud on 20 October 1854 in Charleville, Ardennes, France. He produced his best known poems in his late teens. Victor Hugo called him the “enfant Shakespeare”. As part of the decadent movement, Rimbaud influenced modern literature, music and art. He had a short and torrid affair with fellow poet Paul Verlaine. Rimbaud never married. He traveled extensively over three continents. His poetry, as well as his life, are said to have influenced writers, musicians and artists including; Pablo Picasso, Dylan Thomas, Vladimir Nabokov, Bob Dylan, Patti Smith and Jim Morrison. My favorite poem of his is Une Saison en Enfer (A Season in Hell) (1873). The French painter Henri Fantin-Latour depicted Rimbaud and Verlaine in his 1872 painting Around the Table (Writers).
The Final Footprint – Rimbaud is entombed in Charleville-Mezieres Cimetière in Charleville-Mezieres, Champagne-Ardenne Region, France. His tomb is marked by a large upright marble marker. His inscription reads; Priez pour lui (Pray for him).
On this day in 1928 dancer, actress, writer, libertine, subject of Otto Dix paintings, Anita Berber died in a Kreuzberg, Berlin hospital, from tuberculosis, aged 29. Born 10 June 1899 in Leipzig.
Her dancer, friend and sometime lover Sebastian Droste, who performed in the film Algol (1920), was thin and had black hair with gelled up curls much like sideburns. Neither of them wore much more than lowslung loincloths and Anita occasionally a corsage, placed well below her breasts.
On this day in 2001, novelist, essayist, and countercultural figure Ken Kesey died from complications of liver cancer in Eugene, Oregon, at age 66. Born Kenneth Elton Kesey on September 17, 1935 in La Junta, Colorado. He considered himself a link between the Beat Generation of the 1950s and the hippies of the 1960s.
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On this day in 1854, socialite and philanthropist, wife of American Founding Father Alexander Hamilton, Elizabeth Hamilton died in Washington, D.C., at age 97. She was a defender of her husband’s works and co-founder and deputy director of Graham Windham, the first private orphanage in New York City. Hamilton is recognized as an early American philanthropist for her work with the Orphan Asylum Society.
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On this day in 1918, poet, playwright, short story writer, and novelist, Guillaume Apollinaire died in Paris during the Spanish flu pandemic at the age of 38. Born on 26 August 1880 in Rome.
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On this day in 1953, poet and writer, Dylan Thomas, died in St. Vincent’s Hospital in Greenwich Village from pneumonia at the age of 39. Born Dylan Marlais Thomas on 27 October 1914 in Swansea, South Wales. One of my favorite poets. I particularly like the villanelle for his dying father, “Do not go gentle into that good night” and the poem “And death shall have no dominion”. Thomas met the dancer Caitlin MacNamara in the Wheatsheaf pub in London’s West End. They were married on 11 July 1937 in Cornwall. Their marriage was a stormy affair, fuelled by alcohol and infidelity, though the couple remained together until Dylan’s death. I am certainly proud of my own Welsh heritage. Cymru am byth! Wales forever!
The Final Footprint – Following his death, Thomas’ body was brought back to Wales for burial. Thomas’ funeral took place at St Martin’s Church in Laugharne on 24 November. Thomas’ coffin was carried by six friends from the village. The procession to the church was filmed and the wake took place at Brown’s Hotel. Thomas is interred in Saint Martin’s Churchyard. His grave is marked by a white cross. There is a statue of Thomas in Swansea and a memorial. The memorial is a small rock in an enclosed garden in Cwmdonkin Park. The rock is inscribed with the closing lines from his poem Fern Hill; 
On this day in 2004, journalist and writer Stieg Larsson died from a heart attack after climbing the stairs to work in Stockholm, at the age of 50. Born Karl Stig-Erland Larsson on 15 August 1954 in Skelleftehamn, Västerbottens län, Sweden. Perhaps best known for writing the Millennium trilogy of crime novels, which were published posthumously, starting in 2005, after his sudden death. The trilogy was adapted as three motion pictures in Sweden, and one in the U.S. (for the first book only). The publisher commissioned David Lagercrantz to expand the trilogy into a longer series. For much of his life, Larsson lived and worked in Stockholm. His journalistic work covered socialist politics and he acted as an independent researcher of right-wing extremism.
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