Day in History 18 February – Michelangelo – John B. Stetson – Gustave Charpentier – J. Robert Oppenheimer – Harry Caray – Richard Bright – Mavis Gallant

Posted on 29 FebamSun, 18 Feb 2024 00:30:00 -06002024-02-18T00:30:00-06:0012 2011 by MacGregor

Michelango_Portrait_by_VolterraOn this day in 1564, Italian sculptor, painter, architect, poet, and engineer of the High Renaissance, Il Divino (“the divine one”), Michelangelo died in Rome at the age of 88.  Born Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni on 6 March 1475 in Caprese near Arezzo, Tuscany.  In my opinion, Michelangelo exerted an unparalleled influence on the development of Western art.  Despite making few forays beyond the arts, his versatility in the disciplines he took up was of such a high order that he is often considered a contender for the title of the archetypal Renaissance man, along with his fellow Italian Leonardo da Vinci.  Michelangelo was generally considered the greatest living artist in his lifetime, and ever since then, in my opinion, he has been held to be one of the greatest artists of all time.  A number of his works in painting, sculpture, and architecture rank among the most famous in existence.  His output in every field during his long life was prodigious; when the sheer volume of correspondence, sketches, and reminiscences that survive is also taken into account, he might be the best-documented artist of the 16th century.  Two of his best-known works, the Pietà and David, were sculpted before he turned thirty.  Despite his low opinion of painting, Michelangelo also created two of the most influential works in fresco in the history of Western art: the scenes from Genesis on the ceiling and The Last Judgment on the altar wall of the Sistine Chapel in Rome.  As an architect, Michelangelo pioneered the Mannerist style at the Laurentian Library.  At the age of 74 he succeeded Antonio da Sangallo the Younger as the architect of St. Peter’s Basilica.  Michelangelo transformed the plan, the western end being finished to Michelangelo’s design, the dome being completed after his death with some modification.  One of the qualities most admired by his contemporaries was his terribilità, a sense of awe-inspiring grandeur, and it was the attempts of subsequent artists to imitate Michelangelo’s impassioned and highly personal style that resulted in Mannerism, the next major movement in Western art after the High Renaissance.  Michelangelo never married.  Michelangelo_Tomb_Santa_Croce

The Final Footprint –  His body was taken from Rome for interment at the Basilica di Santa Croce, fulfilling the maestro’s last request to be buried in his beloved Florence.  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.  Other notable final footprints at Santa Croce include; Vittorio Alfieri, Ugo Foscolo, Machiavelli, Galileo Galilei, and Gioacchino Rossini.

Gallery

  • The Madonna of the Steps (1490–92)

  • The Taddei Tondo (1502)

  • Madonna and Child. Brügge, Belgium (1504)

  • The Doni Tondo (1504–06)

    • Angel by Michelangelo, early work (1494–95)

    • Bacchus by Michelangelo, early work (1496–97)

    • Dying slave Louvre (1513)

    • Bound slave, known a Atlas (1530–34)

      The Sistine Chapel Ceiling (1508–12)

      • The Drunkenness of Noah

      • The Deluge (detail)

      • The Creation of Adam (1510)

      • The First day of Creation

        • Ignudo (1511)

        • Studies for The Libyan Sibyl

        • The Libyan Sibyl (1511)

        • The Prophet Jeremiah (1511)

          • The Battle of the Centaurs (1492)

          • Copy of the lost Battle of Cascina by Bastiano da Sangallo

          • The Last Judgement, detail of the Redeemed. (see whole image above)

          • Crucifixion of St Peter

            • Statue of Victory (1534), Palazzo Vecchio, Florence

            • The Pieta of Vittoria Colonna (c. 1540)

            • Michelangelo and Tiberio Calcagni, Pieta Firenze (c. 1550-61)

            • The Rondanini Pieta (1552–64)

John_Batterson_Stetson_Cabinet_CardOn this day in 1906, U.S. hatter, hat manufacturer, the inventor of the cowboy hat, John B. Stetson died in DeLand, Florida at the age of 75.  Born John Batterson Stetson on 5 May 1830 in Orange, New Jersey.  He founded the John B. Stetson Company.  The company’s hats are now commonly referred to simply as Stetsons.  His father, Stephen Stetson, was a hatter.  As a youth, he worked with his father until he was diagnosed with tuberculosis and his doctor predicted he had only a short time to live.  Given this dire prognosis, he left the hat-making business to explore the American West, afraid this would be his only chance to see it.  There he met drovers, bullwhackers and cowboys.  The former hat-maker turned a critical eye to the flea-infested coonskin caps favored by many of the gold seekers, and wondered whether fur-felt would work for a lightweight, all-weather hat suitable for the West.  In 1865 Stetson moved to Philadelphia to enter the hat-making craft he had learned from his father and began manufacturing hats there suited to the needs of the Westerners.  Stetson made a western hat for each hat dealer in the Boss of the Plains style he hadjohnbstetson1800s_Boss_of_the_plains_5 invented, during a trek to Pike’s Peak in Colorado.  These lightweight hats were natural in color with four inch crowns and brims; a plain strap was used for the band.  Thanks to the time he had spent with cowboys and Western settlers, Stetson knew firsthand that the headwear they wore (such as coonskin caps, sea captain hats, straw hats, and wool derbies) was impractical.  Made from waterproof felt, the new hat was durable.  The wide brim provided protection from the hot sun.  Noted one observer, “It kept the sun out of your eyes and off your neck. It was an umbrella. It gave you a bucket (the crown) to water your horse and a cup (the brim) to water yourself. It made a hell of a fan, which you need sometimes for a fire but more often to shunt cows this direction or that.“   The hat achieved instant popularity; the first real cowboy hat.  Stetson went on to build the Carlsbad, easily identified by its main crease down the front.  His hat was called a Stetson, because he had his name John B. Stetson Company embossed in gold in every hatband.  The Stetson soon became the most well known hat in the West.  All the high-crowned, wide-brimmed, soft felt western hats that followed are intimately associated with the cowboy image created by Stetson.  The Stetson Cowboy hat was the symbol of the highest quality.  The company also made hats for law enforcement departments, such as the Texas Rangers.  Stetson’s Western-style hats were worn by employees of the National Park Service, U.S. Cavalry soldiers, and many U.S. Presidents.  The cowboy hat is truly an example of form following function.  Today’s cowboy hat has remained basically unchanged in construction and design.  I am the proud owner of a Stetson.

The Final Footprint – Stetson is entombed in the Stetson Family private mausoleum in West Laurel Hill Cemetery, Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania. Another notable final footprint at West Laurel Hill is that of Teddy Pendergrass.

#RIP #OTD in 1956 composer, perhaps best known for his opera Louise, Gustave Charpentier died in Paris aged 95. Cimetière du Père Lachaise

#RIP #OTD in 1967 theoretical physicist, noted as one of the fathers of the atomic bomb for his role in the Manhattan Project, J. Robert Oppenheimer died of throat cancer at his home in Princeton, New Jersey, aged 62. Cremated remains in the Caribbean off the coast of Saint John

On this day in 1998, sportscaster on radio and television Harry Caray died as a result of complications from a heart attack and a head injury, at the Eisenhower Medical Center in Rancho Mirage, California at the age of 83. Born Harry Christopher Carabina on March 1, 1914 in St. Louis, Missouri. He covered five Major League Baseball teams, beginning with 25 years of calling the games of the St. Louis Cardinals with two of these years also spent calling games for the St. Louis Browns. After a year working for the Oakland Athletics and eleven years with the Chicago White Sox, Caray spent the last sixteen years of his career as the voice of the Chicago Cubs.

The Final Footprint

Caray’s funeral was held on February 27, 1998 at Holy Name Cathedral in Chicago. The Chicago community came out to pay respect to the Hall of Fame announcer, including Chicago Cubs players Sammy Sosa, Mark Grace, manager Jim Riggleman, and ex-players Ryne Sandberg and Billy Williams. Illinois Governor Jim Edgar, Mayor Richard Daley, and Chicago Bears coach Mike Ditka were also in attendance. The organist of Holy Name Cathedral, Sal Soria, played “Take Me Out to the Ball Game”. Caray is buried at All Saints Cemetery in Des Plaines, Illinois.

#RIP #OTD in 2006 actor (Al Neri in The Godfather, The Getaway, Once Upon a Time in America, Rancho Deluxe, Marathon Man, Looking for Mr. Goodbar), Richard Bright died after being run over by a tour bus in Manhattan aged 68. Cremation

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Day in History 17 February – Molière – Geronimo – Dorothy Gibson – Nita Naldi – Thelonious Monk – Lee Strasberg – Kathryn Grayson – Mindy McCready – Stella Stevens

Posted on 29 FebamSat, 17 Feb 2024 00:39:00 -06002024-02-17T00:39:00-06:0012 2011 by MacGregor

Molière_Mignard_ChantillyOn this day in 1673, playwright and actor Molière (portrait by Pierre Mignard) died at his home in Paris from tuberculosis at the age of 51.  Born Jean-Baptiste Poquelin on 15 January 1622 in Paris.  In my opinion, one of the greatest masters of comedy in Western literature.  Among Molière’s best-known works are The Misanthrope, The School for Wives, Tartuffe, The Miser, The Imaginary Invalid, and The Bourgeois Gentleman.  Though he received the adulation of the court and Parisians, Molière’s satires attracted criticism from moralists and the Catholic Church.  Tartuffe and its attack on perceived religious hypocrisy roundly received condemnations from the Church, while Don Juan was banned from performance.  Molière’s hard work in so many theatrical capacities took its toll on his health and, by 1667, he was forced to take a break from the stage. Molière married Armande Béjart, a famous stage actor at the time.  Her mother, Madeleine, had a relationship with Molière which perhaps continued after her marriage to him.

During a production of his final play, The Imaginary Invalid, Molière was seized by a coughing fit and a haemorrhage while playing the hypochondriac Argan.  Molière insisted on completing his performance.  Afterwards he collapsed again with another, larger haemorrhage before being taken home, where he died a few hours later, without receiving the last rites because two priests refused to visit him while a third arrived too late.  The superstition that green brings bad luck to actors is said to originate from the colour of the clothing he was wearing at the time of his death.

molieregraveThe Final Footprint – Under French law at the time, actors were not allowed to be buried in the sacred ground of a cemetery.  However, Armande, asked the King if her spouse could be granted a “normal” funeral at night.  The King agreed and Molière’s body was buried in the part of the cemetery reserved for unbaptised infants.  In 1792 his remains were brought to the museum of French monuments and in 1817 transferred to Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris, close to those of La Fontaine.  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, Max Ernst, Amedeo Modigliani, Jim Morrison, Édith Piaf, Camille Pissarro, Marcel Proust, Sully Prudhomme, Gioachino Rossini, Georges-Pierre Seurat, Simone Signoret, Gertrude Stein, Dorothea Tanning, Alice B. Toklas, Oscar Wilde, and Richard Wright.

geronimoEdward_S__Curtis_Geronimo_Apache_cp01002vOn this day in 1909 prominent leader of the Bedonkohe Apache, Geronimo died of pneumonia as a prisoner of the United States at Fort Sill, Oklahoma at the age of 79.  Born June 1829, near Turkey Creek, a tributary of the Gila River in the modern-day state of Arizona, then part of Mexico, though the Apache disputed Mexico’s claim.  His grandfather (Mahko) had been chief of the Bedonkohe Apache.  Geronimo fought against Mexico and Texas for their expansion into Apache tribal lands for several decades during the Apache Wars.  “Geronimo” was the name given to him during a battle with Mexican soldiers.  Geronimo’s Chiricahua name is often rendered as Goyathlay or Goyahkla in English.  After a Mexican attack on his tribe, where soldiers killed his mother, wife, and his three children in 1858, Geronimo joined a number of revenge attacks against the Mexicans.  In 1886, after a lengthy pursuit, Geronimo surrendered to Texan faux-gubernatorial authorities as a prisoner of war.  At an old age, he became a celebrity, appearing at fairs, but he was never allowed to return to the land of his birth. 

The Final Footprint – On his deathbed, he reportedly confessed to his nephew that he regretted his decision to surrender:  “I should have never surrendered.  I should have fought until I was the last man alive.”  He was buried at Fort Sill in the Apache Indian Prisoner of War Cemetery.  Other notable final footprints at Fort Sill include; Kiowa Chief Satanta, and Comanche Chief Quanah Parker.

#RIP #OTD in 1946 Titanic survivor, actress (Saved from the Titanic, A Lucky Holdup), socialite, artist’s model Dorothy Gibson died of a stroke in her apartment at the Hôtel Ritz Paris at the age of 56. Saint Germain-en-Laye Old Communal Cemetery, France

#RIP #OTD in 1961 silent film actress (Dr Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Blood and Sand, Cobra, The Ten Commandments) Nita Naldi died of a heart attack in her room at the Wentworth Hotel in Manhattan aged 66. Calvary Cemetery, Woodside, Queens County, New York

Thelonious_Monk_Mintons_Playhouse_New_York_N_Y__ca__Sept__1947_William_P__Gottlieb_061911On this day in 1982, jazz pianist, composer, Thelonious Monk died in Englewood, New Jersey at the age of 64 from a stroke.  Born Thelonious Sphere Monk on 10 October 1917 in Rocky Mount, North Carolina.  In my opinion, one of the giants of American music.  Known for his distinctive style in suits, hats and sunglasses.  Monk made numerous contributions to the standard jazz repertoire, including “Epistrophy”, “‘Round Midnight”, “Blue Monk”, “Straight, No Chaser” and “Well, You Needn’t”.  

The Final Footprint – Monk is interred in Ferncliff Cemetery and Mausoleum, Hartsdale, New York.  His daughter Barbara “Booboo” and his wife Francis “Nellie” were later interred with him.  Their graves are marked by a flat bronze marker.  Other notable Final Footprints at Ferncliff include: Aaliyah, James Baldwin, Joan Crawford, Oscar Hammerstein II, Jerome Kern, Malcolm X, and Ed Sullivan.  In addition, John Lennon and Nelson Rockefeller were cremated at Ferncliff.

On this day in 1982, actor, director, and theatre practitioner Lee Strasberg died from a heart attack in New York City, aged 80. Born Israel Lee Strassberg on November 17, 1901 in Budzanów, Austrian Poland (part of Austria-Hungary, now in Ukraine). He co-founded, with directors Harold Clurman and Cheryl Crawford, the Group Theatre in 1931. In 1951 he became director of the nonprofit Actors Studio in New York City and in 1966 he was involved in the creation of Actors Studio West in Los Angeles.

Although other highly regarded teachers also developed “the Method,” Strasberg is often considered the “father of method acting in America,”. From his base in New York, he trained several generations of theatre and film notables, including Anne Bancroft, Dustin Hoffman, Montgomery Clift, James Dean, Marilyn Monroe, Jane Fonda, Julie Harris, Paul Newman, Ellen Burstyn, Al Pacino, Geraldine Page, Eli Wallach, and directors Frank Perry and Elia Kazan.

By 1970 Strasberg had become less involved with the Actors Studio and, with his third wife, Anna, opened the Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute with branches in New York City and in Hollywood, to continue teaching for contemporary actors.

Former student Elia Kazan directed James Dean in East of Eden (1955), for which Kazan and Dean were nominated for Academy Awards. As a student, Dean wrote that Actors Studio was “the greatest school of the theater [and] the best thing that can happen to an actor.” Playwright Tennessee Williams, writer of A Streetcar Named Desire, said of Strasberg’s actors, “They act from the inside out. They communicate emotions they really feel. They give you a sense of life.” Directors such as Sidney Lumet, a former student, have intentionally used actors skilled in Strasberg’s “method.”

As an actor, Strasberg is perhaps best known for his supporting role as Hyman Roth alongside his former student Pacino in The Godfather Part II (1974), a role he took at Pacino’s suggestion after Kazan turned down the role, and which earned him a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. He also appeared in …And Justice for All (1979).

His first marriage was to Nora Krecaum on October 29, 1926, until her death three years later in 1929. In 1934 he married actress and drama coach Paula Miller (1909–66) until her death from cancer in 1966. His third wife was the former Anna Mizrahi from 1967 till his death.

The Final Footprint

Strasberg is interred at Westchester Hills Cemetery in Hastings-on-Hudson, New York. His personal papers, including photos, are archived at the Library of Congress. Other notable final footprints at Westchester Hills include; George and Ira Gershwin and Roberta Peters.

#RIP #OTD in 2010 actress and coloratura soprano (Thousands Cheer, Anchors Aweigh, Show Boat, Kiss Me Kate, Camelot, La bohème, Madama Butterfly, Orpheus in the Underworld, La traviata) Kathryn Grayson died at her home in Los Angeles, aged 88. Cremation

#RIP #OTD in 2013 country music singer, (“Guys Do It All the Time”, “Ten Thousand Angels”, “A Girl’s Gotta Do (What a Girl’s Gotta Do)”), Mindy McCready died from a gunshot wound at her home in Herber Springs, Arkansas, aged 37. Alva Cemetery in Alva, Florida

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On this day 16 February – Octave Mirbeau – Texas John Slaughter – Doris Troy – Lesley Gore

Posted on 29 FebamFri, 16 Feb 2024 00:39:00 -06002024-02-16T00:39:00-06:0012 2011 by MacGregor

#RIP #OTD in 1917, novelist (Le Jardin des supplices, Le Journal d’une femme de chambre, Les Vingt et un Jours d’un neurasthénique), art critic, travel writer, journalist, and playwright, Octave Mirbeau died in Paris, age 69. Passy Cemetery, in the 16th arrondissement of Paris.

On this day in 1922, rancher, gambler, Texas Ranger, Texas John Slaughter, died in Douglas, Arizona at the age of 80.  Born John Horton Slaughter on 2 October 1841 in Sabine Parish, Arizona.  Noted for carrying a pearl handled .44 pistol.  The Wonderful World of Disney television series, Texas John Slaughter ran from 1958 to 1961 and starred Tom Tryon in the title role.  The beginning theme song for the series included the lines: “Texas John Slaughter made ’em do what they oughta, and if they didn’t, they died.”  Slaughter married two times; Eliza Adeline Harris (1871 – 1877 her death) and Cora Viola Howell, a great-granddaughter of Daniel Boone (1878 – 1922 his death).

The Final Footprint – Slaughter is interred in Calvary Cemetery, Douglas, Arizona.  His wife Cora was interred next to him following her death in 1941.  Their graves are marked by a large upright granite monument.

#RIP #OTD in 2004 R&B singer, songwriter, (“Just One Look”), “Mama Soul”, Doris Troy died from emphysema at her home in Las Vegas, Nevada, aged 67. Bunkers Memory Gardens Cemetery, Las Vegas

Lesley Gore

Leslie Gore Batman 1967.JPG

Gore as a Batman guest star, 1967

On this day in 2015, singer, songwriter, actress, and activist Lesley Gore died from lung cancer in at the NYU Langone Medical Center in Manhattan at the age of 68. Born Lesley Sue Goldstein on May 2, 1946 in Brooklyn. At the age of 16 she recorded the pop hit “It’s My Party”, and followed it up with other hits including “Judy’s Turn to Cry”, “She’s a Fool”, “You Don’t Own Me”, “Maybe I Know” and “California Nights”.

Gore also worked as an actress and composed songs with her brother, Michael Gore, for the 1980 film Fame, for which she was nominated for an Academy Award. She hosted an LGBT-oriented public television show, In the Life, on American TV in the 2000s, and was active until 2014.

In a 2005 interview with After Ellen, she stated she had been in a relationship with luxury jewelry designer Lois Sasson since 1982. She stated that although the music business was “totally homophobic,” she never felt she had to pretend she was straight. “I just kind of lived my life naturally and did what I wanted to do,” she said. “I didn’t avoid anything, I didn’t put it in anybody’s face.”

The Final Footprint 

Gore had been working on a memoir and a Broadway show based on her life at the time of her death. At the time of her death, Gore and Sasson had been together for 33 years.

Her New York Times obituary stated that with her songs, all recorded before she was 18, such as “the indelibly defiant” 1964 hit “You Don’t Own Me,” Lesley Gore made herself “the voice of teenage girls aggrieved by fickle boyfriends, moving quickly from tearful self-pity to fierce self-assertion.”

Her funeral was held on February 19, 2015, in Manhattan and she was cremated.

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Day in History 15 February – Minnie Maddern Fiske – Nat King Cole – Ethel Merman – Martha Gellhorn – Vanity – Raquel Welch

Posted on 29 FebamThu, 15 Feb 2024 00:57:00 -06002024-02-15T00:57:00-06:0012 2011 by MacGregor

#RIP #OTD in 1932 stage/film actress (Tess of the d’Urbervilles, Vanity Fair, A Doll’s House, Hedda Gabler), activist against the Theatrical Syndicate, animal rights advocate, Minnie Maddern Fiske died; congestive heart failure; Queens, aged 66. Cremation

On this day in 1965, musician, jazz pianist, singer, song writer, Nat King Cole, died at St, John’s Hospital in Santa Monica, California at the age of 45 from lung cancer.  Born Nathaniel Adams Cole on 17 March, St. Patrick’s Day, 1919 in Montgomery, Alabama.  Cole’s first hit was “Straighten Up and Fly Right”, a song he co-wrote with Irving Mills.  Johnny Mercer invited him to record the song for Capitol Records.  Cole married two times; Nadine Robinson, Maria Hawkins Ellington (1948 – 1965 his death).  If you have not listened to Cole sing Irving Gordon‘s “Unforgettable” with a beautiful woman by your side, you have not lived.  One of my very favorite singers. 

The Final Footprint – Cole is entombed in the Freedom Mausoleum, Sanctuary of Heritage, Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Glendale, California.  Other notable Final Footprints at Forest Lawn Glendale include; L. Frank Baum, Humphrey Bogart, Lon Chaney, Dorothy Dandridge, Elizabeth Taylor, Jean Harlow, Sam Cooke, Walt Disney, Errol Flynn, Clark Gable, Michael Jackson, Carole Lombard, Tom Mix, Casey Stengel, Jimmy Stewart, and Spencer Tracy.

On this day in 1984, actress and singer Ethel Merman died from brain cancer at her home in Manhattan at the age of 76. Born Ethel Agnes Zimmermann on January 16, 1908 in Astoria, Queens. Perhaps best known for her distinctive, powerful voice and leading roles in musical theatre, she has been called “the undisputed First Lady of the musical comedy stage”.

Among the many standards introduced by Merman in Broadway musicals are “I Got Rhythm” (from Girl Crazy); “Everything’s Coming Up Roses”, “Some People”, and “Rose’s Turn” (from Gypsy—Merman starred as Rose in the original 1959 Broadway production); and the Cole Porter songs “It’s De-Lovely” (from Red, Hot and Blue), “Friendship” (from DuBarry Was a Lady), and “I Get a Kick Out of You”, “You’re the Top”, and “Anything Goes” (from Anything Goes). The Irving Berlinsong “There’s No Business Like Show Business”, written for the musical Annie Get Your Gun, became Merman’s signature song.

Merman was married and divorced four times. Her first marriage, in 1940, was to theatrical agent William Smith. They were divorced in 1941. Later that same year, Merman married newspaper executive Robert Levitt. Merman and Levitt were divorced in 1952. In March 1953, Merman married Robert Six, the president of Continental Airlines. They separated in December 1959 and were divorced in 1960.

Merman’s fourth and final marriage was to actor Ernest Borgnine. They were married in Beverly Hills on June 27, 1964. They separated on August 7 and divorced on November 18, 1964. In a radio interview, she said of her many marriages: “We all make mistakes. That’s why they put rubbers on pencils, and that’s what I did. I made a few lulus!”

The Final Footprint

On the evening of Merman’s death, all 36 theatres on Broadway dimmed their lights at 9 pm in her honor. A private funeral service for Merman was held in a chapel at St. Bartholomew’s Episcopal Church on February 27, after which Merman was cremated at the Frank E. Campbell Funeral Chapel in Manhattan. Her cremains are inurned in the Shrine of Remembrance Mausoleum in Colorado Springs, Colorado, next to her daughter Ethel.

#RIP #OTD in 1998 novelist, travel writer, journalist, one of the great war correspondents, third wife of Ernest Hemingway, Martha Gellhorn died from cyanide poisoning in London, aged 89. Cremated remains scattered in the Thames

#RIP #OTD in 2016, singer (“Nasty Girl”, “Pretty Mess”, “Mechanical Emotion”, “Under the Influence”, “Undress”) songwriter, model, actress (The Last Dragon, 52 Pick-Up, Action Jackson), Vanity died due to kidney failure, aged 57. Cremated remains scattered off the coast of Hawaii

#RIP #OTD in 2023 actress (One Million Years B.C., Bedazzled, Bandolero!, 100 Rifles, Myra Breckinridge, Hannie Caulder, Kansas City Bomber, The Last of Sheila, The Three Musketeers, The Wild Party, Mother, Jugs & Speed) Raquel Welch died from cardiac arrest at her home in Bel Air, Los Angeles aged 82

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Day in History 14 February – Saint Valentine – Vito Genovese – Frederick Loewe – James Bond

Posted on 29 FebamWed, 14 Feb 2024 00:09:00 -06002024-02-14T00:09:00-06:0012 2011 by MacGregor

On this day ca. 269, Roman saint, Saint Valentine was martyred.  Saint Valentine has been associated since the High Middle Ages with a tradition of courtly love.  All that is reliably known about Saint Valentine is his name and that he was martyred on this day.  It is uncertain whether St. Valentine is to be identified as one saint or the conflation of two saints of the same name.  Several different martyrologies have been added to later hagiographies that are unreliable.

The ancient Romans had a fertility festival celebrated at mid-February of every year, called Lupercalia in honor of Lupa, the wolf who was said to have suckled Romulus and Remus, who went on to found the city of Rome.  Lupercalia was a pagan fertility festival celebrated with sacrifices of goats and dogs, with milk and wool and blood.  Young men would cut strips from the skins of the goats then strip naked and run through the city in groups, where young women would line up to be spanked with the switches, believing it would improve their fertility.  Lupercalia was still wildly popular long after the Roman Empire was officially Christian, and it’s not difficult to see why the Church would have wished to have a different sort of holiday take its place.

The Final Footprint

He was buried at a cemetery on the Via Flaminia close to the Milvian bridge to the north of Rome. The flower-crowned alleged skull of St. Valentine is exhibited in the Basilica of Santa Maria in Cosmedin, Rome. Other relics were brought to Whitefriar Street Carmelite Church in Dublin, Ireland

Because so little is known of Saint Valentine, in 1969 the Roman Catholic Church removed his name from the General Roman Calendar, leaving his liturgical celebration to local calendars.  The Roman Catholic Church continues to recognize him as a saint, listing him as such in the February 14 entry in the Roman Martyrology, and authorizing liturgical veneration of him on February 14 in any place where that day is not devoted to some other obligatory celebration in accordance with the rule that on such a day the Mass may be that of any saint listed in the Martyrology for that day.  Use of the pre-1970 liturgical calendar is also authorized under the conditions indicated in the motu proprio Summorum Pontificum of 2007.  Saint Valentine’s Church in Rome, built in 1960 for the needs of the Olympic Village, continues as a modern, well-visited parish church.  Saint Valentine’s Day, the Feast of Saint Valentine, is an official feast day in the Anglican Communion, as well as in the Lutheran Church.

Chaucer wrote in The Parlement of Foules of a spring landscape “on seynt Valentynes day” where the goddess Nature watched as every kind of bird came before her to choose and seduce their mates.

In the early 15th century, the Duke of Orleans wrote a Valentine’s poem to his faraway wife while held captive in the Tower of London.  Shakespeare mentioned the sending of Valentines in Ophelia’s lament in Hamlet.  The tradition of sending lacy love notes on Valentine’s Day was enormously popular with the Victorians.

Vito_Genovese_NYWTSOn this day in 1969, Italian mafioso, Vito Genovese, died in federal prison in Springfield, Missouri at the age of 71.  Born 27 November 1897 in Rosiglino, Tufino, Province of Naples, Italy.  Genovese rose to power in America during the Castellammarese War to later become leader of the Genovese crime family.  Genovese served as mentor to many future mob bosses including Vincent “The Chin” Gigante, and Michael “Mike the Pipe” Genovese.  In the 1920’s, New York’s two leading mobsters were Joe “The Boss” Masseria and Salvatore Maranzano.  They were engaged in what would be known as the infamous Castellammarese War.  Lucky Luciano worked his way up to be Masseria’s top aide, but Luciano made a deal with Maranzano whereby Luciano would set up the death of Masseria in return for Maranzano’s support of Luciano becoming the head of the Masseria family and thus ending the destructive war.  Masseria was assassinated in a Coney Island restaurant by Bugsy Siegel, Genovese, and Joe Adonis.  Maranzano then declared Luciano his number two man, and set up the Five Families of New York (Luciano/Genovese, Gambino, Lucchese, Colombo, and Bonanno).  When Luciano was sent to prison in 1936, Genovese became the acting boss of the Lucianao family.  However in 1937, Genovese was indicted on a murder charge and he fled to Italy.  When he returned to the U. S. he regained power over the Luciano family and renamed the family Genovese.  In 1959, Genovese was convicted of selling heroin and sentenced to 15 years in prison. 

The Final Footprint – Genovese is interred in Saint John Cemetery, Middle Village, New York.  St. John is an official Roman Catholic burial ground located in Middle Village in Queens a borough of New York City.  It is one of nine official Roman Catholic burial grounds to service the New York Metropolitan Area.  St. John is one of the largest cemeteries in New York.  Since its opening, St. John has been the resting place of various famous and infamous people in New York society, most famously being John F. Hylan (1868-1936), mayor of the city of New York from 1918-1925.  The most notorious being Genovese and John J. Gotti (1940-2002), the head of the New York based Gambino crime family from 1985-2002.  Genovese’s grave is marked by a large upright marble monument.

On this day in 1988, composer Frederick Loewe died from a heart attack in Palm Springs, California at the age of 86. Born June 10, 1901 in Berlin. He collaborated with lyricist Alan Jay Lerner on a series of Broadway musicals, including My Fair Lady (1956) and Camelot (1960), both of which were made into films.

After Camelot, Loewe retired to Palm Springs, not writing anything until he was approached by Lerner to augment the Gigi film score with additional tunes for a 1973 stage adaptation, which won him his second Tony, this time for Best Original Score.

In 1974 they collaborated on a musical film version of The Little Prince, based on the classic children’s tale by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. 

Loewe was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1972 and the American Theater Hall of Fame in 1979.

The Final Footprint

He had a Golden Palm Star on the Palm Springs Walk of Stars dedicated to him in 1995. He was buried in the Desert Memorial Park in Cathedral City, California. Other notable final footprints at Desert Memorial include; Jimmy Van Heusen and Frank Sinatra.

#RIP #OTD 1989 ornithologist and expert on the birds of the Caribbean, author (Birds of the West Indies), the man whose name became 007’s, James Bond died from cancer in the Chestnut Hill Hospital in Philadelphia aged 89. Church of the Messiah in Gwynedd Valley, Pennsylvania

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Day in History 13 February – Lily Pons – Waylon Jennings

Posted on 29 FebamTue, 13 Feb 2024 00:36:00 -06002024-02-13T00:36:00-06:0012 2011 by MacGregor

#RIP #OTD in 1976 operatic coloratura soprano and actress (Lakmé, Lucia di Lammermoor) Lily Pons died of pancreatic cancer in Dallas, Texas, aged 77. Cimetière du Grand Jas in Cannes

On this day in 2002, singer and songwriter, Waylon Jennings, died of diabetic complications in Chandler, Arizona at the age of 64.  Born Waylon Arnold Jennings on 15 June 1937 in Littlefield, Texas.  Jennings played bass for Buddy Holly following the break-up of The Crickets.  Jennings escaped death in the 3 February 1959, plane crash that took the lives of Holly, Ritchie Valens, and J.P. “The Big Bopper” Richardson, when he gave up his seat on the plane to Richardson.  One of the founding members of the outlaw movement in country music.  Jennings was a member of the supergroup The Highwaymen along with Johnny Cash and fellow Texans Willie Nelson and Kris Kristofferson.  Jennings married four times, the last to Jessi Colter (1969 – 2002 his death).  One of my songwriting heroes.  My list of favorite Waylon songs would be lengthy. 

The Final Footprint – Jennings is interred in City of Mesa Cemetery, Mesa, Arizona.  His grave is marked by a individual flat granite marker featuring his picture and the following inscriptions; I am My Beloved’s, My Beloved is Mine.  Loving Son, Husband, Father, and Grandfather.  A Vagabond Dreamer, A Rhymer of Songs.  A Revolutionary in Country Music Beloved by the World.

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Day in History 12 February – Lady Jane Grey – Lord Guildford Dudley – Lillie Langtry – Sal Mineo – Jean Renoir – Muriel Rukeyser – Eubie Blake – Tom Landry – Sid Caesar – Al Jarreau – Ivan Reitman

Posted on 29 FebamMon, 12 Feb 2024 00:18:00 -06002024-02-12T00:18:00-06:0012 2011 by MacGregor

ladyjayneOn this day in 1554, English noblewoman, great-granddaughter of Henry VII, cousin of Edward VI, de facto monarch of England from 10 July until 19 July 1553, The Nine Days Queen, Lady Jane Grey and her husband Lord Guildford Dudley were executed by beheading at the Tower of London for high treason against Queen Mary I.  Lady Jane Grey was 16 or 17 years old.  Dudley was 18 or 19.  Lady Jane Grey was the eldest daughter of Henry Grey, 1st Duke of Suffolk, and his wife, Lady Frances Brandon.  The traditional view is that she was born at Bradgate Park in Leicestershire in October 1537, while more recent research indicates that she was born somewhat earlier, possibly in London, in late 1536 or in the spring of 1537.  Guildford Dudley was born c. 1535, the second youngest surviving son of John Dudley, 1st Duke of Northumberland and his wife Jane, daughter of Sir Edward Guildford.  Lady Jane Grey was the great-granddaughter of Henry VII through his younger daughter Mary, and a first cousin once removed of Edward VI.  When the 15-year-old King lay dying in June 1553, he nominated Jane as successor to the Crown in his will, thus subverting the claims of his half-sisters Mary and Elizabeth under the Third Succession Act.  Jane was imprisoned in the Tower of London when the Privy Council decided to change sides and proclaim Mary as queen on 19 July 1553.  Jane was convicted of high treason in November 1553, which carried a sentence of death, although her life was initially spared.  Wyatt’s rebellion of January and February 1554 against Queen Mary I’s plans for a Spanish match led to the executions.  Lady Jane Grey had an excellent humanist education and a reputation as one of the most learned young women of her day.  A committed Protestant, she was posthumously regarded as not only a political victim but also a martyr.  ladyjanegreyTower_ScaffoldSite01

The Final Footprint –  On the morning of 12 February 1554, the authorities took Dudley from his rooms at the Tower of London to the public execution place at Tower Hill, where he was beheaded.  A horse and cart brought his remains back to the Tower, past the rooms where Jane was staying.  Seeing her husband’s corpse return, Jane is reported to have exclaimed: “Oh, Guildford, Guildford.”  She was then taken out to Tower Green, inside the Tower, to be beheaded.  According to the account of her execution given in the anonymous Chronicle of Queen Jane and of Two Years of Queen Mary, which formed the basis for Raphael Holinshed‘s depiction, Jane gave a speech upon ascending the scaffold:

Good people, I am come hither to die, and by a law I am condemned to the same. The fact, indeed, against the Queen’s highness was unlawful, and the consenting thereunto by me: but touching the procurement and desire thereof by me or on my behalf, I do wash my hands thereof in innocency, before God, and the face of you, good Christian people, this day.

She then recited Psalm 51 (Have mercy upon me, O God) in English, and handed her gloves and handkerchief to her maid.  The executioner asked her forgiveness, which she granted him, pleading: “I pray you dispatch me quickly.”  Referring to her head, she asked, “Will you take it off before I lay me down?”, and the axeman answered: “No, madam.”  She then blindfolded herself.  With her head on the block, Jane spoke the last words of Jesus as recounted by Luke: “Lord, into thy hands I commend my spirit!”  Jane and Guildford are buried in the Chapel of St Peter ad Vincula on the north side of Tower Green.  Jane’s father, Duke of Suffolk, was executed 11 days after Jane, on 23 February 1554.  Jane could be called the traitor-heroine of the Reformation.  During and in the aftermath of the Marian persecutions, Jane became viewed as a Protestant martyr for centuries, featuring prominently in the several editions of the Book of Martyrs by John Foxe.  The tale of Lady Jane grew to legendary proportions in popular culture, producing a flood of romantic biographies, novels, plays, paintings, and films, one of which was the 1986 production Lady Jane, starring Helena Bonham Carter.  Other notable final footprints at the Chapel include:  William Hastings, 1st Baron Hastings; Queen Anne Boleyn, second wife of King Henry VIII; Margaret, Countess of Salisbury, the last of the Plantagenet dynasty; Queen Catherine Howard, fifth wife of Henry VIII; Jane Boleyn, Viscountess Rochford; and Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex.

#RIP #OTD in 1929, British socialite, stage actress (She Stoops to Conquer, The Lady of Lyons, Shakespeare’s As You Like It), producer, thoroughbred race horse owner, “The Jersey Lily”, Lillie Langtry died in Monaco at dawn, aged 75. St. Saviour’s Church, the island of Jersey

#RIP #OTD in 1976 actor (Rebel Without a Cause), singer, and director Sal Mineo died after being stabbed in the heart by a mugger in front of his West Hollywood apartment, aged 37. Gate of Heaven Cemetery in Hawthorne, New York

#RIP #OTD in 1979 film director (La Grande Illusion, La règle du jeu, The Southerner, French Cancan), screenwriter, actor, producer, author, son of Renoir, Jean Renoir died in Beverly Hills of a heart attack, aged 84. Essoyes Cimetière, France

#RIP #OTD in 1980 poet (The Book of the Dead, “To be a Jew in the Twentieth Century” essayist, biographer, and political activist, Muriel Rukeyser died from a stroke in New York City aged 66. Salem Fields Cemetery, Brooklyn

#RIP #OTD in 1983 pianist, composer (broadway musical Shuffle Along, “Bandana Days”, “Charleston Rag”, “Love Will Find a Way”, “Memories of You”, “I’m Just Wild About Harry”), Eubie Blake died in Brooklyn aged 96. Cypress Hills Cemetery in Brooklyn

On this day in 2000, Texas Longhorn, U. S. Army Air Corp veteran, Hall of Fame coach, Tom Landry died in Dallas, Texas at the age of 75.  Born Thomas Wade Landry on 11 September 1924 in Mission, Texas.  Landry played fullback and defensive back for the Longhorns and was an all-pro defensive back for the New York Giants.  He began his coaching career with the Giants, serving as their defensive coordinator from 1954 to 1959.  The Giants offensive coordinator at that time was Vince Lombardi.  The Giants appeared in three NFL Championship games during Landry’s tenure.  Landry was the first coach to employ a 4-3 defensive formation.  In 1960 he became the head coach of the newly established Dallas Cowboys.  Landry served as head coach of the Cowboys until 1988 during which time the Cowboys won two Super Bowl titles (VI, XII), 5 NFC titles, 13 Divisional titles, and compiled a 270-178-6 record, the 3rd most wins of all time for an NFL coach.  His 20 career playoff victories are the most of any coach in NFL history.  Landry coached the Cowboys to 20 consecutive winning seasons (1966–1985), an NFL record that remains unbroken and unchallenged.  It remains one of the longest winning streaks in all of professional sports history.  Landry was married to Alicia Wiggs (1949 – 2000 his death).  My heroes have always been Cowboys. 

The Final Footprint – Landry is interred in the Landry Private Estate in Sparkman Hillcrest Cemetery, a Dignity Memorial property, in Dallas.  The estate is marked by a granite cap monument.  His grave is marked by a flat granite foot marker with the inscription; WELL DONE, GOOD AND FAITHFUL SERVANT ENTER INTO THE JOY OF THY LORD. MATTHEW 25:21.  An upright companion granite marker was placed in the official Texas State Cemetery in Austin in Landry’s honor.  One side of the monument features the Cowboy star and an image of a fedora, his tradmark hat.  The other side features the Cowboy star and a bronze image of Landry and a list of his accomplishments.  A bronze statue of Landry is outside Cowboys Stadium.  Other notable final footprints at Sparkman-Hillcrest include H. L. Hunt and Mickey Mantle. 

On this day in 2014, comic actor and writer Sid Caesar died at his home in Beverly Hills, California, at the age of 91, after a short illness. Born Isaac Sidney Caesar on September 8, 1922 in Yonkers. Perhaps best known for two pioneering 1950s live television series: Your Show of Shows, which was a 90-minute weekly show watched by 60 million people, and its successor, Caesar’s Hour. Your Show of Shows and its cast received seven Emmy nominations between the years 1953 and 1954 and tallied two wins. He also acted in movies; he played Coach Calhoun in Grease (1978) and its sequel Grease 2 (1982) and appeared in the films It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963), Silent Movie (1976), History of the World, Part I (1981), Cannonball Run II (1984), and “Vegas Vacation” (1997).

Caesar was considered a “sketch comic” and actor, as opposed to a stand-up comedian. He also relied more on body language, accents, and facial contortions than simply dialogue. Unlike the slapstick comedy which was standard on TV, his style was considered “avant garde” in the 1950s. He conjured up ideas and scene and used writers to flesh out the concept and create the dialogue. Among the writers who wrote for Caesar early in their careers were Mel Brooks, Neil Simon, Larry Gelbart, Carl Reiner, Michael Stewart, Mel Tolkin, Selma Diamond, and Woody Allen. “Sid’s was the show to which all comedy writers aspired. It was the place to be,” said Steve Allen.

His TV shows’ subjects included satires of real life events and people—and parodies of popular film genres, theater, television shows, and opera. But unlike other comedy shows at the time, the dialogue was considered sharper, funnier, and more adult-oriented. He was “…best known as one of the most intelligent and provocative innovators of television comedy,” who some critics called television’s Charlie Chaplin and The New York Times refers to as the “…comedian of comedians from TV’s early days.”

Honored in numerous ways over 60 years, he was nominated for 11 Emmy Awards, winning twice. He was also a saxophonist and author of several books, including two autobiographies in which he described his career and later struggle to overcome years of alcoholism and addiction to barbiturates.

The Final Footprint

He was predeceased by his wife, Florence (2010). His interment was at Mount Sinai Memorial Park Cemetery, Hollywood Hills. Another notable final footprint at Mount Sinai is Don Rickles.

1996: Jarreau performing at the Molde International Jazz Festival.

On this day in 2017, singer and musician Al Jarreau died of respiratory failure, at the age of 76, in Los Angeles. Born Alwin Lopez Jarreau on March 12, 1940 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He received a total of seven Grammy Awards and was nominated for over a dozen more. Perhaps best known for his 1981 album Breakin’ Away. He also sang the theme song of the late-1980s television series Moonlighting, and was among the performers on the 1985 charity song “We Are the World.”

1986: Jarreau in concert in Berlin.

 2006: Jarreau in Wrocław.

2008: Jarreau in Kiev.

Jarreau was married twice. Jarreau and Phyllis Hall were married from 1964 until their divorce in 1968. Jarreau’s second wife was model Susan Elaine Player, who was fourteen years his junior. They were married from 1977 until his death in 2017.

The Final Footprint

He is interred in the Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Hollywood Hills). Other notable final footprints at Hollywood Hills include; Gene Autry, Albert “Cubby” Broccoli, David Carradine, Scatman Crothers, Bette Davis, Sandra Dee, Ronnie James Dio, Michael Clarke Duncan, Carrie Fisher, Bobby Fuller, Andy Gibb, Michael Hutchence, Jill Ireland, Buster Keaton, Lemmy Kilmister, Jack LaLanne, Nicolette Larson, Liberace, Strother Martin, Jayne Meadows, Brittany Murphy, Ricky Nelson, Bill Paxton, Brock Peters, Freddie Prinze, Lou Rawls, Debbie Reynolds, Telly Savalas, Lee Van Cleef, and Paul Walker.

#RIP #OTD in 2022 film director (Meatballs, Stripes, Ghostbusters, Twins, Kindergarten Cop, Dave), Ivan Reitman died in his sleep at his home in Montecito, California, aged 75. Santa Barbara Cemetery, Santa Barbara, California

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On this day 11 February – Rene Descartes – Elizabeth Siddal – Ellen Day Hale – Sylvia Plath – Frank Herbert – Roger Vadim – Whitney Houston – Vic Damone

Posted on 29 FebamSun, 11 Feb 2024 00:30:00 -06002024-02-11T00:30:00-06:0012 2011 by MacGregor

Descartes portrait after Frans Hals 1648

On this day in 1650, philosopher, mathematician, scientist and writer, “The Father of Modern Philosophy”, René Descartes, died in Stockholm, Sweden at the age of 53.  Born in La Haye en Touraine (now Descartes), Indre-et-Loire, France on 31 March 1596.  He is perhaps best known for the philosophical statement “Cogito ergo sum” (French: Je pense, donc je suis; English: I think, therefore I am; or I am thinking, therefore I exist or I do think, therefore I do exist), found in part IV of Discourse on the Method (1637 – written in French but with inclusion of “Cogito ergo sum”) and §7 of part I of Principles of Philosophy (1644 – written in Latin). 

The Final Footprint – As a Catholic in a Protestant nation, he was interred in a graveyard used mainly for orphans in Adolf Fredriks kyrka in Stockholm. In 1666 his remains were taken to France and buried in the Saint-Étienne-du-Mont. Although the National Convention in 1792 had planned to transfer his remains to the Panthéon in Paris, he was entombed in the Abbey of Saint-Germain-des-Prés in 1819, missing a finger and skull. His skull is on display in the Musée de l’Homme in Paris.  The inscription on his tomb, in Latin, reads in part; MEMORIAE RENATI DESCARTES RECONDITIORIS DOCTRINAE LAVDE ET INGENII SVBTILITATE PRAECELLENTISSIMI QVI PRIMVS A RENOVATIS IN EVROPA BONARVM LITTERARVM STVDIIS RATIONIS HVMANAE IVRA SALVA

elizabethSiddal-photoOn this day in 1862, wife of Dante Gabriel Rossetti, artists’ model, muse, poet and artist Elizabeth ‘Lizzie’ Siddal died at the age of 32, from complications related to an overdose of laudanum, at her home at 14 Chatham Place, London, now demolished and covered by Blackfriars Station.  Born Elizabeth Eleanor Siddall, on 25 July 1829, at the family’s home at 7 Charles Street, Hatton Garden, London.  Siddal was painted and drawn extensively by artists of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, including Walter Deverell, William Holman Hunt, John Everett Millais (including his notable 1852 painting Ophelia) and her husband.  She featured prominently in Rossetti’s early paintings of women.  Rossetti’s relationship with Siddal is explored by Christina Rossetti (Dante’s sister) in her poem “In an Artist’s Studio”:

One face looks out from all his canvases,
One selfsame figure sits or walks or leans:
We found her hidden just behind those screens,
That mirror gave back all her loveliness.
A queen in opal or in ruby dress,
A nameless girl in freshest summer-greens,
A saint, an angel – every canvas means
The same one meaning, neither more nor less.
He feeds upon her face by day and night,
And she with true kind eyes looks back on him,
Fair as the moon and joyful as the light:
Not wan with waiting, not with sorrow dim;
Not as she is, but was when hope shone bright;
Not as she is, but as she fills his dream.

 

The Final Footprint – Siddal was interred at Highgate Cemetery in London.  Rossetti enclosed in his wife’s coffin a journal containing the only copy he had of his many poems.  He reportedly slid the book into Siddal’s red hair.  By 1869, before publishing any newer poems, he became obsessed with retrieving the poems he had slipped into his wife’s coffin.  Rossetti and his agent, Charles Augustus Howell, applied to the Home Secretary for an order to have her exhumed.  It was done at night to avoid public curiosity and attention.  Rossetti was not present.  Howell reported that her corpse was remarkably well preserved and her delicate beauty intact, probably as a result of the laudanum.  Her hair was said to have continued to grow after death so that the coffin was filled with her flowing coppery hair.  Rossetti published the old poems with his newer ones.  They were not well received by some critics because of their eroticism, and he was reportedly haunted by the exhumation through the rest of his life.

Seven years after his wife’s death, Rossetti published a collection of sonnets entitled The House of Life; contained within it was the poem, “Without Her”. It is a reflection on life once love has departed:

What of her glass without her? The blank grey
There where the pool is blind of the moon’s face.
Her dress without her? The tossed empty space
Of cloud-rack whence the moon has passed away.
Her paths without her? Day’s appointed sway
Usurped by desolate night. Her pillowed place
Without her? Tears, ah me! For love’s good grace,
And cold forgetfulness of night or day.

What of the heart without her? Nay, poor heart,
Of thee what word remains ere speech be still?
A wayfarer by barren ways and chill,
Steep ways and weary, without her thou art,
Where the long cloud, the long wood’s counterpart,
Sheds doubled up darkness up the labouring hill.
— From Without Her

Other notable final footprints and Highgate include: George Eliot, George Michael, Christina Rossetti, and Jean Simmons.

#RIP #OTD in 1940 Impressionist painter, printmaker, author (History of Art: A Study of the Lives of Leonardo, Michelangelo, Raphael…), mentor to female artists, Ellen Day Hale died in Brookline, Massachusetts, on her 85th birthday. Forest Hills Cemetery, Jamaica Plain, Mass.

Sylvia_plathOn this day in 1963 poet, novelist, short story writer, Pulitzer Prize recipient, Sylvia Plath committed suicide by carbon monoxide poisoning in the kitchen of her flat at 23 Fitzroy Road near Primrose Hill, London, at the age of 30.  Born on 27 October 1932, in Massachusetts Memorial Hospital, in Boston’s Jamaica Plain neighborhood.  Plath studied at Smith College and Newnham College, Cambridge, before receiving acclaim as a professional poet and writer.  She married fellow poet Ted Hughes in 1956 and they lived together first in the United States and then England, having two children together, Frieda and Nicholas.  Plath suffered from depression for much of her adult life.  Controversy continues to surround the events of her life and death, as well as her writing and legacy.  Plath is generally credited with advancing the genre of confessional poetry with her two published collections, The Colossus and Other Poems and Ariel.  In 1982, she won a posthumous Pulitzer Prize for The Collected Poems.  She also wrote The Bell Jar, a semi-autobiographical novel published shortly before her death. 

The Final Footprint – Hughes appears to have been devastated by Plath’s death, despite the fact that the couple had had been separated five months.  In a letter to an old friend of Plath’s from Smith College, he wrote, “That’s the end of my life. The rest is posthumous.”  Plath is interred in the Heptonstall’s parish churchyard of St Thomas the Apostle.  Plath’s gravestone bears the inscription that Hughes chose for her:  “Even amidst fierce flames the golden lotus can be planted.”  The quote has been variously attributed to the 16th-century Buddhist novel Journey to the West written by Wu Cheng’en or to the Hindu text, the Bhagavad Gita.  The gravestone has been repeatedly vandalized by those aggrieved that “Hughes” is written on the stone; they have attempted to chisel it off, leaving only the name “Sylvia Plath.”  When Hughes’ partner Assia Wevill killed herself and their four-year-old daughter Shura in 1969, this practice intensified.  After each defacement, Hughes had the damaged stone removed and replaced.  Plath mourners accused Hughes in the media of dishonoring her name by removing the stone.  Wevill’s death led to claims that Hughes had been abusive to both Plath and Wevill.  In 1970, poet Robin Morgan published the poem “Arraignment”, in which she accused Hughes of the battery and murder of Plath.  Reportedly some threatened to kill him in Plath’s name.  In 1989, with Hughes under public attack, a battle raged in the letters pages of The Guardian and The Independent.  In The Guardian on 20 April 1989, Hughes wrote the article “The Place Where Sylvia Plath Should Rest in Peace”: “In the years soon after [Plath’s] death, when scholars approached me, I tried to take their apparently serious concern for the truth about Sylvia Plath seriously. But I learned my lesson early. […] If I tried too hard to tell them exactly how something happened, in the hope of correcting some fantasy, I was quite likely to be accused of trying to suppress Free Speech. In general, my refusal to have anything to do with the Plath Fantasia has been regarded as an attempt to suppress Free Speech […] The Fantasia about Sylvia Plath is more needed than the facts. Where that leaves respect for the truth of her life (and of mine), or for her memory, or for the literary tradition, I do not know.”  Plath was portrayed by Gwyneth Paltrow and Hughes was portrayed by Daniel Craig in the 2003 film Sylvia.

#RIP #OTD in 2000 French screenwriter, film director and producer (And God Created Woman, Barbarella, Pretty Maids All in a Row), author, artist, actor, Roger Vadim died of cancer in Paris, aged 72. Cimetière marin de Saint Tropez, France

On this day in 2012, singer, actor, model Whitney Houston died of accidental drowning in her hotel room at the Beverly Hilton, in Beverly Hills, at the age of 48. Born Whitney Elizabeth Houston on August 9, 1963 in Newark, New Jersey. Houston is one of the best-selling music artists of all-time. She released seven studio albums and two soundtrack albums, all of which have diamond, multi-platinum, platinum, or gold certification. Houston’s crossover appeal on the popular music charts, as well as her prominence on MTV, starting with her video for “How Will I Know”, influenced several artists who follow in her footsteps.

Houston’s self-titled debut album (1985) was named by Rolling Stone as the best album of 1986. Her second studio album, Whitney (1987), became the first album by a woman to debut at number one on the Billboard 200 albums chart.

Houston made her screen acting debut as Rachel Marron in the romantic thriller film The Bodyguard (1992). She performed the lead single from the film’s original soundtrack, “I Will Always Love You”, which received the Grammy Award for Record of the Year. Houston made other high-profile film appearances and contributed to their soundtracks, including Waiting to Exhale (1995) and The Preacher’s Wife (1996). The latter’s soundtrack became the best-selling gospel album in history.

Houston performing “Saving All My Love for You” on the Welcome Home Heroes concert in 1991

Throughout the 1980s, Houston was romantically linked to American football star Randall Cunningham and actor Eddie Murphy. She then met R&B singer Bobby Brown at the 1989 Soul Train Music Awards. After a three-year courtship, the two were married on July 18, 1992. On March 4, 1993, Houston gave birth to their daughter Bobbi Kristina Brown (March 4, 1993 – July 26, 2015), the couple’s only child. 

Houston performing “My Love Is Your Love” with her daughter Bobbi Kristina Brown on Good Morning America, September 1, 2009

Whitney Houston at the O2 Arena, April 28, 2010, as part of her Nothing but Love World Tour

The Final Footprint

“We miss you” message at the Los Angeles Theatre

Flowers near the Beverly Hilton Hotel

On February 11, Houston was found unconscious in Suite 434 at the Beverly Hilton Hotel, submerged in the bathtub. Beverly Hills paramedics arrived at approximately 3:30 p.m. and found the singer unresponsive and performed CPR. Houston was pronounced dead at 3:55 p.m. PST. On March 22, 2012, the Los Angeles County coroner’s office reported the cause of Houston’s death was drowning and the “effects of atherosclerotic heart disease and cocaine use”. The manner of death was listed as an “accident”.

An invitation-only memorial service was held for Houston on Saturday, February 18, 2012, at the New Hope Baptist Church in Newark, New Jersey. The service was scheduled for two hours, but lasted four. Among those who performed at the funeral were Stevie Wonder(rewritten version of “Ribbon in the Sky”, and “Love’s in Need of Love Today”), CeCe Winans (“Don’t Cry”, and “Jesus Loves Me”), Alicia Keys (“Send Me an Angel”), Kim Burrell (rewritten version of “A Change Is Gonna Come”), and R. Kelly (“I Look to You”). The performances were interspersed with hymns by the church choir and remarks by Clive Davis, Houston’s record producer; Kevin Costner; Rickey Minor, her music director; her cousin, Dionne Warwick; and Ray Watson, her security guard for the past 11 years. Houston was buried on February 19, 2012, in Fairview Cemetery, in Westfield, New Jersey, next to her father, John Russell Houston, who died in 2003.

#RIP #OTD in 2018, singer (“You’re Breaking My Heart”, “On the Street Where You Live”, “I Have But One Heart”), actor, radio and television presenter, and entertainer Vic Damone died in Miami Beach, Florida, age 89. Our Lady Queen of Peace Cemetery, Royal Palm Beach, Florida.

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Day in History 10 February – Laura Ingalls Wilder – Billy Rose – Alex Haley – Arthur Miller – Roy Scheider

Posted on 29 FebamSat, 10 Feb 2024 00:03:00 -06002024-02-10T00:03:00-06:0012 2011 by MacGregor

#RIP #OTD in 1957 writer (Little House on the Prairie) Laura Ingalls Wilder died at her Rocky Ridge Farm home in Mansfield, Missouri, in her sleep, aged 90. Mansfield Cemetery in Mansfield

#RIP #OTD in 1966 impresario, theatrical showman, columnist, lyricist, husband of Fanny Brice, Billy Rose died of lobar pneumonia at his vacation home in Montego Bay, Jamaica aged 66. Westchester Hills Cemetery Hastings-on-Hudson, New York.

On this day in 1992, writer Alex Haley died in Seattle, Washington, of a heart attack at the age of 70. Born Alexander Murray Palmer Haley on August 11, 1921 in Ithaca, New York. He was the author of the 1976 book Roots: The Saga of an American Family. ABC adapted the book as a television miniseries of the same name and aired it in 1977 to a record-breaking audience of 130 million viewers. In the United States, the book and miniseries raised the public awareness of African American history and inspired a broad interest in genealogy and family history.

Haley’s first book was The Autobiography of Malcolm X, published in 1965, a collaboration through numerous lengthy interviews with the subject, a major African-American leader.


The Final Footprint

He is interred beside his childhood home in Henning, Tennessee.

On this day in 2005, playwright and essayist, Tony Award winner, recipient of the Nobel Prize for Drama, Arthur Miller, died at his home in Roxbury, Connecticut at the age of 89.  Born Arthur Asher Miller on 17 October 1915 in Harlem, New York City.  His notable plays include; All My Sons (1947), Death of a Salesman (1949), The Crucible (1953), and A View from the Bridge (one-act, 1955; revised two-act, 1956).  Death of a Saleman was commercially successful and critically acclaimed, winning a Tony Award for Best Author, the New York Drama Circle Critics’ Award, and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama; the first play to win all three of these major awards.  Miller received a BA in English from the University of Michigan.  Miller married three times; Mary Slattery (1940 – 1956 divorce), Marilyn Monroe (1956 – 1961 divorce) and Inge Morath (1962 – 2002 her death).  Miller also wrote the screenplay for the movie The Misfits (1961) starring Monroe, Clark Gable, Montgomery Clift and Eli Wallach.  Miller and Monroe would divorce shortly before the movie’s premier.  The film marked the final movie for both Monroe and Gable.  Miller’s papers are housed at the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center at The University of Texas at Austin. 

The Final Footprint – Miller is interred with his wife Inge in Roxbury Center Cemetery, Roxbury, Connecticut.  Their grave is marked by an irregular granite upright marker and they each have flat granite foot markers.  Her foot marker is inscribed; BEAUTE MON BEAU DESIR, which translates as, Beauty My Beautiful Desire.

On this day in 2008, amateur boxer, U.S. Air Force veteran, and actor Roy Scheider died from multiple myeloma in Little Rock, Arkansas, at the University of Arkansas Medical Sciences Hospital, at the age of 75. Born Roy Richard Scheider on November 10, 1932 in Orange, New Jersey. Perhaps best known for his role as  Martin Brody in the film Jaws (1975), reprising the role in its sequel Jaws 2 (1978).

Scheider gained fame for his leading and supporting roles in celebrated films in addition to the Jaws films, from the 1970s through to the early to mid-1980s. These roles included NYPD Detective Buddy “Cloudy” Russo in The French Connection (1971); NYPD Detective Buddy Manucci in The Seven Ups (1973); Doc in Marathon Man (1976); choreographer and film director Joe Gideon (whose character was based on Bob Fosse) in All That Jazz (which was co-written and directed by Fosse) (1979); and Dr. Heywood R. Floyd in the 1984 film 2010, the sequel to 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Scheider was also known for playing Captain Nathan Bridger in the science-fiction television series seaQuest DSV (1993–1996). He was nominated for two Academy Awards, a Golden Globe Award, and a BAFTA Award.

Scheider married Cynthia Bebout on November 8, 1962. The couple divorced in 1986. On February 11, 1989, he married actress Brenda Siemer. They remained married until his death.

The Final Footprint

Scheider was cremated.

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Day in History 9 February – Fyodor Dostoevsky – Paul Laurence Dunbar – Sophie Tucker – Bill Haley – Chick Corea

Posted on 29 FebamFri, 09 Feb 2024 00:12:00 -06002024-02-09T00:12:00-06:0012 2011 by MacGregor

On this day in 1881, writer and essayist, Fyodor Dostoevsky, died in St. Petersburg, Russian Empire at the age of 59 from a  pulmonary haemorrhage.  Born Fyodor Mikhaylovich Dostoevsky on 11 November 1821 in Moscow, Russian Empire.  His notable novels include; Crime and Punishment (1866), The Idiot ( 1869) and The Brothers Karamazov (1880).  Dostoyevsky’s works explored human psychology in the troubled political, social and spiritual context of 19th-century Russian society.  Considered by many as a founder or precursor of 20th-century existentialism and acknowledged by critics as one of the greatest and most prominent psychologists in world literature.  In his posthumous collection of sketches A Moveable Feast, Ernest Hemingway cited Dostoyevsky as a major influence.  In a book of interviews with Arthur Power (Conversations with James Joyce), Joyce praised Dostoyevsky’s prose: …he is the man more than any other who has created modern prose, and intensified it to its present-day pitch.  It was his explosive power which shattered the Victorian novel with its simpering maidens and ordered commonplaces; books which were without imagination or violence. In her essay The Russian Point of View, Virginia Woolf said:  The novels of Dostoevsky are seething whirlpools, gyrating sandstorms, waterspouts which hiss and boil and suck us in. They are composed purely and wholly of the stuff of the soul. Against our wills we are drawn in, whirled round, blinded, suffocated, and at the same time filled with a giddy rapture. Out of Shakespeare there is no more exciting reading. Dostoyevsky married twice;  Mariya Dmitriyevna Isayeva (1857 – 1864 her death) and  Anna Grigoryevna Snitkina (1867 – 1918 his death). 

The Final Footprint – Reportedly, among Dostoyevsky’s last words was his quotation of Matthew 3:14–15: “But John forbad him, saying, I have need to be baptised of thee, and comest thou to me? And Jesus answering said unto him, Suffer it to be so now: for thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness“, and he finished with “Hear now—permit it. Do not restrain me!”  When he died, his body was placed on a table, following Russian custom.  Dostoyevsky is interred in Tikhvin Cemetery at the Alexander Nevsky Monastery in Saint Petersburg near his favourite poets, Karamsin and Zhukovsky.  His grave is marked by a large granite monument featuring his bust and the inscription; Verily, Verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit. (Excerpt from John 12:24, which is also the epigraph of his final novel, The Brothers Karamazov.)  A statue in his honor was installed in Omsk.  There is a Dostoyevsky monument outside the Russian State Library in Moscow.  The Dostoyevsky statue was erected outside the Mariinsky Hospital, his birthplace in Moscow. Other notable final footprints at Tikhvin include; Alexander Borodin, Modest Mussorgsky, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, and Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky.

On this day in 1906; poet, novelist, playwright Paul Laurence Dunbar died from tuberculosis in Dayton, Ohio at the age of 33. Born on June 27, 1872 in Dayton to parents who were enslaved in Kentucky before the American Civil War. Dunbar began writing stories and verse when he was a child. He published his first poems at the age of 16 in a Dayton newspaper, and served as president of his high school’s literary society.

Much of Dunbar’s more popular work in his lifetime was written in the “Negro dialect” associated with the antebellum South, though he also used the Midwestern regional dialect of James Whitcomb Riley. Dunbar’s work was praised by William Dean Howells, a leading editor associated with the Harper’s Weekly, and Dunbar was one of the first African-American writers to establish an international reputation. He wrote the lyrics for the musical comedy In Dahomey (1903), the first all-African-American musical produced on Broadway in New York. The musical later toured in the United States and the United Kingdom.

Dunbar also wrote in conventional English in other poetry and novels. Since the late 20th century, scholars have become more interested in these other works. Suffering from tuberculosis, which then had no cure, Dunbar died in Dayton, Ohio at the age of 33.

After returning from the United Kingdom, Dunbar married Alice Ruth Moore, on March 6, 1898. She was a teacher and poet from New Orleans whom he had met three years earlier. Dunbar called her “the sweetest, smartest little girl I ever saw”. A graduate of Straight University (now Dillard University), a historically black college, Moore is best known for her short story collection, Violets. She and her husband also wrote books of poetry as companion pieces. An account of their love, life and marriage was portrayed in Oak and Ivy, a 2001 play by Kathleen McGhee-Anderson. Dunbar and Moore separated in 1902, but they never divorced.

The Final Footprint

He was interred in the Woodland Cemetery in Dayton.

#RIP #OTD in 1966 singer, comedian, actress, and radio personality, “The Last of the Red-Hot Mamas”, Sophie Tucker died of lung cancer and kidney failure, aged 80, in her Park Avenue apartment. Emanuel Synagogue Cemetery in Wethersfield, Connecticut

Bill Haley

Haley smiling

in 1974

On this day in 1981, musician, singer and songwriter Bill Haley died possibly from a heart attack at his home in Harlingen, Texas at the age of 55. Born William John Clifton Haley on July 6, 1925 Highland Park, Michigan. One of  the first artists to popularize rock and roll in the early 1950s with his group Bill Haley & His Comets. They had  million-selling hits such as “Rock Around the Clock”, “See You Later, Alligator”, “Shake, Rattle and Roll”, “Rocket 88”, “Skinny Minnie”, and “Razzle Dazzle”.

Bill Haley was married three times:

  • Dorothy Crowe (11 December 1946 – 14 November 1952) (divorced) (2 children)
  • Barbara Joan Cupchak (18 November 1952 – 1960) (divorced) (5 children)
  • Martha Velaesco (1963 – 9 February 1981; his death) (3 children)

The Final Footprint 

After a small funeral service, Haley was cremated.

#RIP #OTD in 2021 jazz composer (“Spain”, “500 Miles High”, “La Fiesta”, “Armando’s Rhumba”, “Windows”), pianist, keyboardist, bandleader, percussionist, Chick Corea died from cancer at his home in the Tampa Bay area of Florida, aged 79

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