On this day in 1911, distiller and the founder of Jack Daniel’s Tennessee whiskey distillery, Jack Daniel died from blood poisoning in Lynchburg, Tennessee at the age of 62. The infection allegedly set up originally in a toe, which Daniel injured in kicking his safe in anger when he could not get it open early one morning at work (he apparently had trouble remembering the combination). This incident was the subject of a marketing poster used on the London Underground in January 2006, with the line “Moral: Never go to work early.” A common joke that is told during the tour of the distillery is that all Jack had to do to cure his infection was to dip his toe in a glass of his own whiskey to clean it. Born Jasper Newton Daniel on 5 September 1850 in Lynchburg. Daniel never married. Prior to his death he gave the distillery to his nephew and bookkeeper, Lem Motlow.
The Final Footprint – Daniel is interred in the Lynchburg City Cemetery. Jack Daniel’s is a brand of sour mash Tennessee whiskey that is one of the highest selling American whiskeys in the world. It is known for its square bottles and black label. It is produced in Lynchburg, by the Jack Daniel Distillery, which has been owned by the Brown-Forman Corporation since 1956. Despite being the location of a major operational distillery, Jack Daniel’s home county of Moore is a dry county, so the product is not available for consumption at stores or restaurants within the county. Although the product generally meets the regulatory criteria for classification as a straight bourbon, the company disavows this classification and markets it simply as Tennessee whiskey rather than as Tennessee bourbon. Frank Sinatra was widely known as a Jack Daniel’s drinker. He was famously buried with a bottle of Jack Daniel’s Old Number 7 in 1998. A line from Dean Martin‘s song I Love Vegas states “I love Vegas, like Sinatra loves Jack Daniels.” The George Jones‘ song “A whole lotta trouble for you” mentions “Jack Daniel’s makes a good whiskey”. The George Thorogood song “I Drink Alone” mentions “So I called up my pal Jack Daniel’s and his partner Jimmy Beam”. In the movie Animal House, the character John “Bluto” Blutarsky can be seen chugging an entire bottle of Old No. 7. In the movie Scent of a Woman, Al Pacino‘s character refers to filling a hotel room with John Daniels. “When you’ve known him as long as I have…” In the movie National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, Clark asks his father how he got through the holidays, and he replies “I had a lot of help from Jack Daniel’s”. In the film The Shining, Jack Torrance, played by Jack Nicholson, is seen drinking Jack Daniel’s in the hotel bar, served by the ghostly bartender Lloyd. The French singer Orelsan in “Ils sont cools” includes the line “Passe la tise que je me Jack Danise” (which can be translated as “Give me the alcohol so I can be Jack Danieled”). The cover of the book The Dirt: Confessions of the World’s Most Notorious Rock Band, an autobiography collectively written by the members of the rock band Mötley Crüe, includes a bottle design based on that of Jack Daniel’s whiskey. Hank Williams Jr. mentions Jack Daniels in his song “Dixie On My Mind” singing “The people here don’t sip Jack Daniel’s whiskey, the way they do in that Tennessee mountain land.” The 1979 David Allen Coe song “Jack Daniels if you please” contains the line “Jack Daniels if you please, knock me to my knees”. The Drive-By Truckers song “Dead, Drunk, And Naked” has the lyric “Me and old Jack Daniel’s, become the best of friends. We got all them Baptists to die for our sins. I know the lord is coming. The South will rise again!” The Liane Edwards Band, popular country band from France, directly refers to the brand name in their song “Jack”, ( My Best Friend’s Name is) “Jack” . ” He was born down in Lynchburg… My best friend’s name is Jack, he may be your best friend too, when you drain him to his last drop, I’ll be glad to share my friend with you…” The Charlie Daniels Band album Way Down Yonder depicts bottles of Jack Daniel’s on its cover art. The character Barnes in Oliver Stone‘s 1986 film Platoon is drinking from a Jack Daniel’s bottle when he drunkenly berates Taylor and his group.
On his day in 1967, Marxist revolutionary, physician, author, guerrilla leader, diplomat and military theorist Che Guevara was executed by gunfire in La Higuera, Vallegrande, Bolivia, at the age of 39. Born Ernesto Guevara on June 14, 1928 in in Rosario, Argentina. A major figure of the Cuban Revolution, his stylized visage has become a ubiquitous countercultural symbol of rebellion and global insignia in popular culture.
As a young medical student, Guevara traveled throughout South America and was radicalized by the poverty, hunger and disease he witnessed. His burgeoning desire to help overturn what he saw as the capitalist exploitation of Latin America by the United States prompted his involvement in Guatemala’s social reforms under President Jacobo Árbenz, whose eventual CIA-assisted overthrow at the behest of the United Fruit Company solidified Guevara’s political ideology. Later in Mexico City, Guevara met Raúl and Fidel Castro, joined their 26th of July Movement and sailed to Cuba aboard the yacht Granma with the intention of overthrowing U.S.-backed Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista. Guevara soon rose to prominence among the insurgents, was promoted to second in command and played a pivotal role in the victorious two-year guerrilla campaign that deposed the Batista regime.
Following the Cuban Revolution, Guevara performed a number of key roles in the new government. These included reviewing the appeals and firing squads for those convicted as war criminals during the revolutionary tribunals, instituting agrarian land reform as minister of industries, helping spearhead a successful nationwide literacy campaign, serving as both national bank president and instructional director for Cuba’s armed forces, and traversing the globe as a diplomat on behalf of Cuban socialism. He played a central role in training the militia forces who repelled the Bay of Pigs Invasion and bringing the Soviet nuclear-armed ballistic missiles to Cuba which precipitated the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis. Additionally, Guevara was a prolific writer and diarist, composing a seminal manual on guerrilla warfare, along with a best-selling memoir about his youthful continental motorcycle journey. His experiences and studying of Marxism–Leninism led him to posit that the Third World’s underdevelopment and dependence was an intrinsic result of imperialism, neocolonialism and monopoly capitalism, with the only remedy being proletarian internationalism and world revolution. Guevara left Cuba in 1965 to foment revolution abroad, first unsuccessfully in Congo-Kinshasa and later in Bolivia, where he was captured by CIA-assisted Bolivian forces and summarily executed.
Guevara remains both a revered and reviled historical figure, polarized in the collective imagination in a multitude of biographies, memoirs, essays, documentaries, songs and films. As a result of his perceived martyrdom, poetic invocations for class struggle and desire to create the consciousness of a “new man” driven by moral rather than material incentives, Guevara has evolved into a quintessential icon of various leftist movements. The Alberto Korda photograph of him, titled Guerrillero Heroico (shown), was cited by the Maryland Institute College of Art as “the most famous photograph in the world”.
Guevara married Hilda Gadea in Mexico in September 1955, before embarking on his plan to assist in the liberation of Cuba.
Guevara with Gadea at Chichén Itzá on their honeymoon trip
Smoking a pipe at his guerrilla base in the Escambray Mountains
After the Battle of Santa Clara, January 1, 1959
(Right to left) rebel leader Camilo Cienfuegos, Cuban President Manuel Urrutia, and Guevara (January 1959)
in his trademark olive-green military fatigues and beret
speaking with Tito during a visit to Yugoslavia
visiting the Gaza Strip in 1959
in 1960, walking through the streets of Havana with his wife Aleida March (right)
meeting with French existentialist philosophers Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir at his office in Havana, March 1960. Sartre later wrote that Che was “the most complete human being of our time”. In addition to Spanish, Guevara was fluent in French.
fishing off the coast of Havana, on May 15, 1960. Along with Castro, Guevara competed with expatriate author Ernest Hemingway at what was known as the “Hemingway Fishing Contest”.
with Fidel Castro, photographed by Alberto Korda in 1961
Walking through Red Square in Moscow, November 1964
37-year-old Guevara, holding a Congolese baby and standing with a fellow Afro-Cuban soldier in the Congo Crisis, 1965
in rural Bolivia, shortly before his death (1967)
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Monument to Guevara in La Higuera
The day after his execution on October 10, 1967, Guevara’s corpse was displayed to the world press in the laundry house of the Vallegrande hospital. (photo by Freddy Alborta)
After his execution, Guevara’s body was lashed to the landing skids of a helicopter and flown to nearby Vallegrande, where photographs were taken of him lying on a concrete slab in the laundry room of the Nuestra Señora de Malta. Put on display, as hundreds of local residents filed past the body, Guevara’s corpse was considered by many to represent a “Christ-like” visage, with some even surreptitiously clipping locks of his hair as divine relics. Such comparisons were further extended when English art critic John Berger, two weeks later upon seeing the post-mortem photographs, observed that they resembled two famous paintings:
Rembrandt The Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Nicolaes Tulp
Rembrandt’s The Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Nicolaes Tulp and Andrea Mantegna’s Lamentation over the Dead Christ. After a military doctor amputated his hands, Bolivian army officers transferred Guevara’s body to an undisclosed location and refused to reveal whether his remains had been buried or cremated. The hands were sent to Buenos Aires for fingerprint identification. They were later sent to Cuba.
Plaza de la Revolución, in Havana, Cuba. Aside the Ministry of the Interior building where Guevara once worked is a 5-story steel outline of his face. Under the image is Guevara’s motto, the Spanish phrase: “Hasta la Victoria Siempre” (English: Until Victory, always).
On October 15 in Havana, Castro publicly acknowledged that Guevara was dead and proclaimed three days of public mourning throughout Cuba. On October 18, Castro addressed a crowd of one million mourners in Havana’s Plaza de la Revolución and spoke about Guevara’s character as a revolutionary. Castro closed his impassioned eulogy thus:
If we wish to express what we want the men of future generations to be, we must say: Let them be like Che! If we wish to say how we want our children to be educated, we must say without hesitation: We want them to be educated in Che’s spirit! If we want the model of a man, who does not belong to our times but to the future, I say from the depths of my heart that such a model, without a single stain on his conduct, without a single stain on his action, is Che!
While pictures of the dead Guevara were being circulated and the circumstances of his death were being debated, Che’s legend began to spread. Demonstrations in protest against his “assassination” occurred throughout the world, and articles, tributes, and poems were written about his life and death. Rallies in support of Guevara were held from “Mexico to Santiago, Algiers to Angola, and Cairo to Calcutta”. The population of Budapest and Prague lit candles to honor Guevara’s passing; and the picture of a smiling Che appeared in London and Paris. When a few months later riots broke out in Berlin, France, and Chicago, and the unrest spread to the American college campuses, young men and women wore Che Guevara T-shirts and carried his pictures during their protest marches. In the view of military historian Erik Durschmied: “In those heady months of 1968, Che Guevara was not dead. He was very much alive.”
Monument and Mausoleum in Santa Clara, Cuba
In late 1995, the retired Bolivian General Mario Vargas revealed to Jon Lee Anderson, author of Che Guevara: A Revolutionary Life, that Guevara’s corpse lay near a Vallegrande airstrip. The result was a multi-national search for the remains, which lasted more than a year. In July 1997 a team of Cuban geologists and Argentine forensic anthropologists discovered the remnants of seven bodies in two mass graves, including one man with amputated hands (like Guevara). Bolivian government officials with the Ministry of Interior later identified the body as Guevara when the excavated teeth “perfectly matched” a plaster mold of Che’s teeth made in Cuba prior to his Congolese expedition. On October 17, 1997, Guevara’s remains, with those of six of his fellow combatants, were laid to rest with military honors in a specially built mausoleum in the Cuban city of Santa Clara, where he had commanded over the decisive military victory of the Cuban Revolution.
#RIP #OTD in 1973 singer, songwriter, guitarist (Down by the Riverside, Strange Things Happening Every Day), the Godmother of Rock and Roll, Sister Rosetta Tharpe died in Philadelphia as a result of a stroke aged 58. Northwood Cemetery in Philadelphia
#RIP #OTD 1974 industrialist, humanitarian, member of the Nazi Party who saved the lives of 1,200 Jews during the Holocaust by employing them in his factories, Oskar Schindler died of liver failure in Hildesheim, Germany, aged 66. Mount Zion in Jerusalem
On this day in 1978 singer and actor Jacques Brel died of a pulmonary embolism at hospital Avicenne in Bobigny near Paris at the age of 49. Born Jacques Romain Georges Brel on 8 April 1929 in Schaerbeek, Brussels, Belgium. He composed and performed literate, thoughtful, and theatrical songs that generated a large, devoted following—initially in Belgium and France, later throughout the world. He is considered a master of the modern chanson.
Although he recorded most of his songs in French and occasionally in Dutch, he became an influence on English-speaking songwriters and performers, such as Scott Walker, David Bowie, Alex Harvey, Marc Almond, Neil Hannon, and Rod McKuen. English translations of his songs were recorded by many performers, including Bowie, Walker, Ray Charles, Judy Collins, John Denver, The Kingston Trio, Nina Simone, Shirley Bassey, James Dean Bradfield, Frank Sinatra, and Andy Williams.
Brel was a successful actor, appearing in 10 films. He directed two films, one of which, Le Far West, was nominated for the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival in 1973. Having sold over 25 million records worldwide, Brel is the third-best-selling Belgian recording artist of all time. Brel married Thérèse “Miche” Michielsen in 1950, and the couple had three children. He also had a romantic relationship with actress and dancer Maddly Bamy from 1972 until his death in 1978.
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On 12 October, his body was flown back to the Marquesas Islands, where he was buried in Calvary Cemetery in Atuona on the southern side of Hiva Oa island in the Marquesas, French Polynesia—a few yards away from the grave of artist Paul Gauguin.
On this day in 1995, University of Texas Ex, political activist, historian, professor, rancher, cowboy J. Evetts Haley died in Midland, Texas at the age of 94. Born James Evetts Haley on 5 July, 1901 in Belton, Texas.
I met Mr. Haley and his son Evetts. I have autographed copies of his books, The XIT Ranch of Texas and the Early Days of the Llano Estacado and Charles Goodnight: Cowman and Plainsman.
My heroes have always been Cowboys.
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Haley is buried in Moffatt Cemetery in Moffat, Texas. His grave is marked by a large engraved rock.
And on this day in 2014, actress and comedienne Jan Hooks died from throat cancer at her home in Woodstock, New York, at the age of 57. Born Janet Vivian Hooks on April 23, 1957 in Decatur, Georgia. Perhaps best known for her work on Saturday Night Live, where she was a repertory player from 1986 to 1991, and continued making cameo appearances until 1994. Her subsequent work included a regular role on the final two seasons of Designing Women, a recurring role on 3rd Rock from the Sun and a number of other roles in film and television including on Tina Fey’s NBC show 30 Rock and The Simpsons.
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Her remains were interred in Northview Cemetery in Cedartown, Georgia.
The Simpsons episode “Super Franchise Me” memorialized her on October 12, 2014, with her longtime character Manjula Nahasapeemapetilon honored during the credits.
“Love Is a Dream”
Saturday Night Live paid tribute to Hooks in the third episode of its 40th season on October 11, 2014 where guest host Bill Hader and Kristen Wiig introduced a tribute in which SNL re-aired a short she had filmed for SNL‘s 14th season in 1988 with Phil Hartman, titled Love Is a Dream. This short film had also been repeated as a tribute, following Hartman’s death in 1998. The short is described as “a sweet and melodramatic tribute to the 1948 film The Emperor Waltz“, which was directed by Billy Wilder starring Bing Crosby and Joan Fontaine. The scene casts Hooks as an aging woman who vanishes into her own imagination to sing and share a dance with a long-lost lover (Hartman). The singing voices appear to be dubbed by the actors in the original 1948 film, Crosby and Fontaine. Critics noted after the SNL tribute, that the “Jan Hooks tribute showed that Jan did not need to be funny in order to captivate the attention of her audience”.
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The Final Footprint– Hackett is entombed in the Sanctuary of Faith corridor in the Abbey of the Psalms mausoleum at Hollywood Forever Cemetery in Hollywood, California. Along with her name and birth and death years, her bronze crypt plate reads:
And on this day in 2015, chef Paul Prudhomme died in New Orleans at the age of 75. Born on July 13, 1940 in Opelousas, Louisiana. His specialties were Creole and Cajun cuisines, which he was also credited with popularizing. He was the chef proprietor of K-Paul’s Louisiana Kitchen in New Orleans, and had formerly owned and run several other restaurants. He developed several culinary products, including hot sauce and seasoning mixes, and wrote 11 cookbooks.
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There is an upright engraved granite monument marking his original grave. The inscription reads in part; “Quoth the Raven, Nevermore”. His current burial space is marked by a large upright marble monument. Poe and his works influenced literature in the United States and around the world, as well as in specialized fields, such as cosmology and cryptography. Poe and his work appear throughout popular culture in literature, music, films, and television. A number of his homes are dedicated museums today. The Mystery Writers of America present an annual award known as the Edgar Award for distinguished work in the mystery genre. Every year on the anniversary of his birth from about 1949 until 2009, “The Poe Toaster” would appear at his grave and drink a cognac toast and leave three roses.
On this day in 1892, 1st Baron Tennyson, FRS and poet laureate, Alfred, Lord Tennyson died in Haslemere, Surrey at the age of 83. Born Alfred Tennyson in Somersby, Lincolnshire on 6 August 1809. Tennyson was Poet Laureate of Great Britain and Ireland during much of Queen Victoria’s reign and probably remains one of the most popular British poets. Tennyson excelled at penning short lyrics, such as “Break, Break, Break”, “The Charge of the Light Brigade”, “Tears, Idle Tears” and “Crossing the Bar”. Much of his verse was based on classical mythological themes, such as Ulysses, although In Memoriam A.H.H. was written to commemorate his best friend Arthur Hallam, a fellow poet and fellow student at Trinity College, Cambridge, who was engaged to Tennyson’s sister, but died from a brain haemorrhage before they could marry. Tennyson also wrote some notable blank verse including Idylls of the King, “Ulysses”, and “Tithonus”. A number of phrases from Tennyson’s work have become commonplaces of the English language, including “Nature, red in tooth and claw“, “‘Tis better to have loved and lost / Than never to have loved at all“, “Theirs not to reason why, / Theirs but to do and die“, “My strength is as the strength of ten, / Because my heart is pure“, “To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield“, “Knowledge comes, but Wisdom lingers“, and “The old order changeth, yielding place to new“. Tennyson is one of the most frequently quoted writers in The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations. Tennyson married Emily Sarah Sellwood (1850 – 1892 his death). One of my favorite poets. An excerpt from his poem In Memoriam A.H.H.: I hold it true, whate’er befall;/I feel it when I sorrow most;/’Tis better to have loved and lost/Than never to have loved at all.
The Final Footprint – Tennyson was entombed in Poet’s Corner in Westminster Abbey in Westminster. A memorial was erected in All Saints’ Church, Freshwater. His last words were; “Oh that press will have me now!” A statue of Tennyson was erected in Trinity College, Cambridge. Other notable Final Footprints at Westminster include; Robert Browning, Lord Byron, Geoffrey Chaucer, Oliver Cromwell, Charles Darwin, Charles Dickens, Edward The Confessor, Elizabeth I, George II, George Friederic Handel, Steven Hawking, James I (James VI of Scotland), Samuel Johnson, Ben Jonson, Charles II, Edward III, Edward VI, Henry III, Henry V, Henry VII, Richard II, Rudyard Kipling, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, John Milton, Sir Isaac Newton, Laurence Olivier, Henry Purcell, Mary I, Mary II, Mary Queen of Scots, Lord Alfred Tennyson, Dylan Thomas, and William III.
On this day in 1989, Academy Award winning actress Bette Davis died at the American Hospital in Neuilly-sur-Seine, France from breast cancer at the age of 81. Born Ruth Elizabeth Davis in Lowell, Massachusetts on April 5, 1908. In my opinion, one of the greatest actresses in Hollywood history. Davis was known for her willingness to play unsympathetic, sardonic characters and was reputed for her performances in a range of film genres, from contemporary crime melodramas to historical and period films and occasional comedies, although her greatest successes were her roles in romantic dramas.
On this day in 1981, actress and singer Gloria Grahame died from cancer at St. Vincent’s Hospital in Manhattan, New York City, at the age of 57. Born Gloria Grahame Hallward on November 28, 1923 in Los Angeles. She began her acting career in theatre, and in 1944 made her first film for MGM.
On this day in 2004, actor and comedian Rodney Dangerfield died in Los Angeles, California at the age of 82. Born Jacob Cohen in Babylon, New York on 22 November 1921. In my opinion, one of the funniest entertainers. I saw him in concert in Austin, Texas when I was a student at the University of Texas. It was non-stop laughter from beginning to end. He was so funny in Caddyshack. Upon entering the hospital prior to his death, he was asked how long he would be in the hospital. He reportedly replied, “If all goes well, about a week. If not, about and hour and a half.” Dangerfield married three times: Joyce Indig (1949–1962 divorce; 1963–1970 divorce) and Joan Child (1993–2004 his death).
The Final Footprint – Dangerfield was interred at Pierce Brothers Westwood Village Memorial Park and Mortuary (a 
On this day in 2011, American entrepreneur, marketer, and inventor, who was the co-founder, chairman, and CEO of Apple Inc., Steve Jobs died at his Palo Alto, California, home at the age of 56, due to complications from a relapse of his previously treated islet-cell neuroendocrine pancreatic cancer, resulting in respiratory arrest, with his wife, children, and sisters at his side. Born Steven Paul Jobs on 24 February 1955 in San Francisco and adopted at birth by Paul and Clara Jobs. Through Apple, he is widely recognized as a charismatic pioneer of the personal computer revolution and for his influential career in the computer and consumer electronics fields. Jobs also co-founded and served as chief executive of Pixar Animation Studios and became a member of the board of directors of The Walt Disney Company in 2006, when Disney acquired Pixar. Jobs oversaw the development of the iMac, iTunes, iPod, iPhone, and iPad, and on the services side, the company’s Apple Retail Stores, iTunes Store and the App Store.
The Final Footprint – Both Apple and Microsoft flew their flags at half-staff throughout their respective headquarters and campuses. Bob Iger ordered all Disney properties, including Walt Disney World and Disneyland, to fly their flags at half-staff, from October 6 to 12, 2011. His death was announced by Apple in a statement which read:
On this day in 1669, Dutch painter and etcher Rembrandt died in Amsterdam at the age of 63. Born Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn on 15 July 1606 in Leiden, in the Dutch Republic, nowadays the Netherlands. In my opinion, he is one of the greatest painters and printmakers in European art and the most important in Dutch history. His contributions to art came in a period of great wealth and cultural achievement that historians call the Dutch Golden Age. His etchings and paintings were popular throughout his lifetime and his reputation as an artist remained high. Rembrandt’s greatest creative triumphs are exemplified especially in his portraits of his contemporaries, self-portraits and illustrations of scenes from the Bible. Because of his empathy for the human condition, he has been called “one of the great prophets of civilization.” Rembrandt married Saskia van Uylenburgh (1634 – 1642 her death). During Saskia’s illness, Geertje Dircx was hired as his son’s caretaker and nurse and also became Rembrandt’s lover. In the late 1640s Rembrandt began a relationship with the much younger Hendrickje Stoffels, who had initially been his maid.
The Final Footprint – Rembrandt was buried in an unmarked grave in the Westerkerk, a Dutch Protestant church in central Amsterdam. It is next to Amsterdam’s Jordaan district, on the bank of the Prinsengracht canal.
On this day in 1970, singer, songwriter, painter, dancer and music arranger, The Queen of Psychedelic Soul, Pearl, Janis Joplin died from an overdose of heroin at the Landmark Motor Hotel in Los Angeles at the age of 27, thus becoming a member of Club 27 or the Forever 27 Club; a group of famous musicians who died when they were 27 years old. Other members of the Forever 27 Club include; Kurt Cobain, Jimi Hendrix, Rolling Stone Brian Jones, Robert Johnson, Jim Morrison, Alan Wilson, Amy Winehouse, and Anton Yelchin. Joplin died sixteen days after Hendrix. Born Janis Lyn Joplin on 19 January 1943 in Port Arthur, Texas. Joplin first rose to prominence in the late 1960s as the lead singer of the psychedelic-acid rock band Big Brother and the Holding Company, and later as a solo artist with her own backing groups, The Kozmic Blues Band and The Full Tilt Boogie Band. She was apparently one of the more popular acts at the Monterey Pop Festival and later became one of the major attractions to the Woodstock festival and the Festival Express train tour. Popular songs from her four-year solo career include “Down on Me”, “Summertime”, “Piece of My Heart”, “Ball ‘n’ Chain”, “Maybe”, “To Love Somebody”, “Kozmic Blues”, “Work Me, Lord”, “Cry Baby”, and “Mercedes Benz”. Her number one hit, “Me and Bobby McGee”, was written by Kris Kristofferson, reportedly her lover in the spring of 1970. Joplin was well known for her performing abilities, and her fans referred to her stage presence as “electric”. Joplin was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1995.
The Final Footprint – Joplin was cremated at the Pierce Brothers Westwood Village Mortuary in Los Angeles; her ashes were scattered from a plane into the Pacific Ocean and along Stinson Beach. Joplin’s will funded $2,500 to throw a wake party in the event of her demise. The party, took place 26 October 1970, at the Lion’s Share, located in San Anselmo, California.
On this day in 1974 poet Anne Sexton died at the age of 45 by carbon monoxide poisoning at her home in Weston, Massachusetts. Born Anne Gray Harvey in Newton, Massachusetts on 9 November 1928. She won the Pulitzer Prize for poetry in 1967. Themes of her poetry include her long battle against depression and mania, suicidal tendencies, and various intimate details from her private life, including her relationships with her husband and children.
The Final Footprint – She is interred at Forest Hills Cemetery and Crematory in Jamaica Plain, Boston. Other notable final footprints at Forest Hills include; E. E. Cummings and Eugene O’Neill
On this day in 1989, chestnut thoroughbred race horse, Triple Crown winner, two-time Horse of the Year, Big Red, Secretariat died at Claiborne Farm in Paris, Kentucky at the age of 19. Foaled 30 March 1970 at Meadow Farm in Caroline County, Virginia. Secretariat was sired by Bold Ruler out of Somethingroyal, by Princequillo. Owned by Penny Chenery, also known as Penny Tweedy, he was trained by Lucien Laurin and mainly ridden by Canadian jockey Ron Turcotte. He raced in Chenery’s Meadow Stable’s blue and white checkered colors. His groom was Eddie Sweat and exercise rider was Charlie Davis. Secretariat stood approximately 16.2 hands tall, and weighed 1,175 pounds (533 kg), with a 75-inch girth, in his racing prime. In my opinion, the greatest racehorse who ever raced. He set new race records in two of the three Triple Crown races, the Kentucky Derby and the Belmont, and his time in the Belmont is a world record for a 1.5 mile race on dirt. In the Derby he ran each quarter-mile segment faster than the one before it, which means he was still accelerating in the final quarter-mile of the race. He broke last in the Derby but gradually moved on the field and overtook Sham at the top of the stretch. He broke last in the Preakness but overtook the field on the first turn and was never challenged. He won the Belmont wire-to-wire by a record 31 lengths. My memories of his Derby and Preakness runs are not clear, but I will never forget watching his Belmont run from home with my Dad. My favorite racehorses have ever since been the chestnuts.
The Final Footprint – Secretariat was buried whole at Claiborne Farm. Usually winning racehorse’s bodies were cremated while the head, heart and hooves only were buried. His grave is marked by an upright granite marker. The necropsy revealed that his heart weighed 22 pounds, 2.5 times larger than that of an average horse. Bronze replica statues of Secretariat have been erected at Belmont Park in Elmont, New York and Kentucky Horse Park in Lexington, Kentucky. A Walt Disney Pictures film titled Secretariat, starring Diane Lane opened 8 October 2010.
On this day in 1226, Italian Catholic friar and preacher, St. Francis of Assisi died in a hut next to the Porziuncola, a small church located within the Basilica of Santa Maria degli Angeli in the frazione of Santa Maria degli Angeli, situated about 4 kilometres from Assisi, Umbria, singing Psalm 142(141) – “Voce mea ad Dominum”, at the approximate age of 44. Born Giovanni di Pietro di Bernardone, but nicknamed Francesco (“the Frenchman”) by his father, in 1181 or 1182 in Assisi. He founded the men’s Order of Friars Minor, the women’s Order of St. Clare, and the Third Order of Saint Francis for men and women not able to live the lives of itinerant preachers followed by the early members of the Order of Friars Minor or the monastic lives of the Poor Clares. Though he was never ordained to the Catholic priesthood, Francis is one of the most venerated religious figures in history. Francis’ father was Pietro di Bernardone, a prosperous silk merchant. Francis lived the high-spirited life typical of a wealthy young man, even fighting as a soldier for Assisi. While going off to war in 1204, Francis had a vision that directed him back to Assisi, where he lost his taste for his worldly life. On a pilgrimage to Rome, he joined the poor in begging at St. Peter’s Basilica. The experience moved him to live in poverty. Francis returned home, began preaching on the streets, and soon amassed a following. His Order was authorized by Pope Innocent III in 1210. He then founded the Order of Poor Clares, which became an enclosed religious order for women, as well as the Order of Brothers and Sisters of Penance (commonly called the Third Order). In 1219, he went to Egypt in an attempt to convert the Sultan to put an end to the conflict of the Crusades. By this point, the Franciscan Order had grown to such an extent that its primitive organizational structure was no longer sufficient. He returned to Italy to organize the Order. Once his community was authorized by the Pope, he withdrew increasingly from external affairs. In 1223, Francis arranged for what is thought to be the first Christmas manger scene. In 1224, he received the stigmata, making him the first recorded person to bear the wounds of Christ’s Passion. He is known as the patron saint of animals, the environment, and is one of the two patron saints of Italy (with Catherine of Siena). It is customary for Catholic and Anglican churches to hold ceremonies blessing animals on his feast day of October 4. He is also known for his love of the Eucharist, and his sorrow during the Stations of the Cross. Saint Francis is considered the first Italian poet by literary critics. He believed commoners should be able to pray to God in their own language, and he wrote often in the dialect of Umbria instead of Latin. His writings are considered to have great literary and religious value.
The Final Footprint – On 16 July 1228, he was pronounced a saint by Pope Gregory IX (the former cardinal Ugolino di Conti, friend of St Francis and Cardinal Protector of the Order). The next day, the Pope laid the foundation stone for the Basilica of Saint Francis in Assisi. He was entombed on 25 May 1230, under the Lower Basilica, but his tomb was soon hidden on orders of Brother Elias to protect it from Saracen invaders. His burial place remained unknown until it was discovered in 1818. Pasquale Belli then constructed for his remains a crypt in neo-classical style in the Lower Basilica. It was refashioned between 1927 and 1930 into its present form by Ugo Tarchi, stripping the wall of its marble decorations. In 1978, the remains of St. Francis were examined and confirmed by a commission of scholars appointed by Pope Paul VI, and put in a glass urn in the ancient stone tomb.
On this day in 1967, singer, songwriter, musician Woody Guthrie died of complications of Huntington’s disease at Creedmoor Psychiatric Center in Queens, New York at the age of 55. Born Woodrow Wilson Guthrie on 14 July 1912 in Okemah, Oklahoma. His musical legacy includes hundreds of political, traditional and children’s songs, ballads and improvised works. He frequently performed with the slogan This Machine Kills Fascists displayed on his guitar. Perhaps his best-known song is “This Land Is Your Land.” Many of his recorded songs are archived in the Library of Congress. Many songwriters including Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, John Mellencamp, Pete Seeger, Billy Bragg, and Tom Paxton have acknowledged Guthrie as a major influence. Many of his songs are about his experiences in the Dust Bowl era during the Great Depression when Guthrie traveled with migrant workers from Oklahoma to California and learned their traditional folk and blues songs, earning him the nickname the “Dust Bowl Troubadour.” Guthrie was married three times and fathered eight children, including American folk musician Arlo Guthrie. During his later years Guthrie served as a figurehead in the folk movement, providing inspiration to a generation of new folk musicians, including mentor relationships with Ramblin’ Jack Elliott and Dylan.
The Final Footprint – Guthrie is interred in Highland Cemetery in Okemah.
On this day in 2004, Academy Award nominated actress, singer, dancer and author, former wife of Tony Curtis and mother of Jamie Lee Curtis, Janet Leigh died at her home in Los Angeles, California at the age of 77. Born Jeanette Helen Morrison on 6 July 1927 in Merced, California.
The Final Footprint – Leigh was cremated and her ashes were inurned in a niche at 
On this day in 1968, painter, sculptor, chess player, and writer Marcel Duchamp died in his home in 
On this day in 1985 Academy Award nominated actor Rock Hudson died from AIDS-related complications at his home The Castle in Beverly Hills, California at the age of 59. Born Roy Harold Scherer, Jr. on 17 November 1925 in Winnetka, Illinois. The 6 foot 5 inch tall actor was one of the most popular and well-known movie stars of his time. He completed nearly 70 films and starred in several television productions during a career that spanned over four decades. My favorite Rock Hudson movies include: Giant, A Farewell to Arms, and The Undefeated. Giant, perhaps my all-time favorite movie, is based on the novel by Edna Ferber. Along with Hudson the movie features Elizabeth Taylor, James Dean, Dennis Hopper, and Chill Wills.
The Final Footprint – Hudson was cremated and his cremains were scattered in the channel between Wilmington and Santa Catalina Island. A cenotaph was installed at Forest Lawn Cemetery in Cathedral City, California. He has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6104 Hollywood Boulevard. Taylor purchased a bronze plaque for Hudson on the West Hollywood Memorial Walk. Other notable final footprints at FLCCC include; Dinah Shore, Jerry Vale, and Jane Wyman.
On this day in 1998 singer, actor, The Singing Cowboy, Gene Autry died of lymphoma 3 days after his 91st birthday at his home in Studio City, California. Born Orvon Grover Autry on 29 September 1907 in Tioga, Texas. Autry gained fame as a singing cowboy on the radio, in movies, and on television for more than three decades beginning in the early 1930s. Autry was also owner of a television station, several radio stations in Southern California, and the Los Angeles/California/Anaheim Angels Major League Baseball team from 1961 to 1997. From 1934 to 1953, Autry appeared in 93 films and 91 episodes of The Gene Autry Show television series. During the 1930s and 1940s, he personified the straight-shooting hero—honest, brave, and true—and profoundly touched the lives of millions of Americans. Autry was also probably one of the most important figures in the history of country music. His singing cowboy movies were the first vehicle to carry country music to a national audience. In addition to his signature song, “Back in the Saddle Again”, Autry is still remembered for his Christmas holiday songs, “Here Comes Santa Claus”, which he wrote, “Frosty the Snowman”, and his biggest hit, “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer”. Autry is a member of both the Country Music Hall of Fame and Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame, and is the only person to be awarded stars in all five categories on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, for film, television, music, radio, and live performance. The town of Gene Autry, Oklahoma was named in his honor.
The Final Footprint – Autry is interred in the Forest Lawn Hollywood Hills Cemetery in Los Angeles, California. His grave is marked by a flat bronze individual marker and is engraved thusly; AMERICA’S FAVORITE COWBOY / AMERICAN HERO PHILANTHROPIST PATRIOT AND VETERAN MOVIE STAR SINGER COMPOSER BASEBALL FAN AND OWNER 33RD DEGREE MASON MEDIA ENTREPRENEUR LOVING HUSBAND GENTLEMAN A BELIEVER IN OUR WESTERN HERITAGE. Other notable final footprints at Hollywood Hills include; Albert “Cubby” Broccoli, David Carradine, Scatman Crothers, Bette Davis, Sandra Dee, Ronnie James Dio, Michael Clarke Duncan, Carrie Fisher, Bobby Fuller, Andy Gibb, Buck Henry, Michael Hutchence, Jill Ireland, Al Jarreau, Buster Keaton, Lemmy Kilmister, Jack LaLanne, Nicolette Larson, Liberace, Strother Martin, Jayne Meadows, Ricky Nelson
On this day in 2017, singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, record producer, actor, and member of the Traveling Wilburys, Tom Petty died from a heart attack caused by an accidental overdose at UCLA Medical Center in Santa Monica, California at the age of 66. Born Thomas Earl Petty on October 20, 1950 in Gainesville, Florida. He was the lead singer of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, formed in 1976. He previously led the band Mudcrutch.
On this day in 1940 lawman Joe LeFors, best known for the arrest of gunman Tom Horn in 1903 for the alleged murder of 14 year old sheepherder Willie Nickell, died in Buffalo, Wyoming at the age of 75. Born Joe Shelby LeFors on 20 February 1865 in Paris, Texas.
The Final Footprint – LeFors is interred in Willow Grove Cemetery in Buffalo, Wyoming. LeFors appears, or is mentioned, in at least two movies: Mr. Horn (1979) a made-for-TV movie starring David Carradine as Horn and John Durren as LeFors and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969), where LeFors is mentioned as a feared lawman giving chase to Butch and Sundance.
On this day in 1984, baseball Hall of Famer, Brooklyn and Los Angles Dodgers manager, Smokey, Walter Alston died in Oxford, Ohio at the age of 72. Born Walter Emmons Alston on 1 December 1911 in Venice, Ohio. Led the Dodgers to their first four World Series Championships, one in Brooklyn and three more after the team moved to Los Angeles.
The Final Footprint – Alston was buried in Darrtown Cemetery in Darrtown, Ohio. His grave his marked with a companion upright granite monument. His wife Lela is buried next to him. His number 24 was retired by the Dodgers.
And on this day in 2004, fashion and portrait photographer Ricard Avedon died in a San Antonio, Texas, hospital of complications from a cerebral hemorrhage, aged 81. He worked for Harper’s Bazaar, Vogue and Elle specializing in capturing movement in still pictures of fashion, theater and dance. An obituary published in The New York Times said that “his fashion and portrait photographs helped define America’s image of style, beauty and culture for the last half-century”. Born in New York City on 15 May 1923.
On this day in 1955, actor, cultural icon, James Dean died in Cholame, California at the age of 24 in an automobile accident. Born James Byron Dean on 8 February 1931 in Marion, Indiana. A cultural icon of teenage disillusionment, as expressed in the title of his most celebrated film, Rebel Without a Cause (1955), in which he starred as troubled Los Angeles teenager Jim Stark. The other two roles that defined his stardom were as loner Cal Trask in East of Eden (1955), and as the surly ranch hand, Jett Rink, in Edna Ferber’s Giant (1956) alongside Elizabeth Taylor and Rock Hudson. Perhaps my favorite book and movie. Dean was the first actor to receive a posthumous Academy Award nomination for Best Actor and remains the only actor to have had two posthumous acting nominations.
The Final Footprint– Dean was buried in Park Cemetery in Fairmont, Indiana, less than a mile from where he grew up on his aunt and uncle’s farm. His grave is marked with an upright granite monument. A sculpture made of concrete and stainless steel was erected in his honor in Cholame, California. A quote from Antoine de Saint Exupéry’s The Little Prince is inscribed on the sculpture: “What is essential is invisible to the eye.”
On this day in 1985 actress Simone Signoret died of pancreatic cancer in Auteuil-Anthouillet, France at the age of 64. Born Simone Henriette Charlotte Kaminker in Wiesbaden, Germany. In my opinion she is one of France’s greatest film stars. She became the first French person to win an Academy Award, for her role in Room at the Top (1959). In her lifetime she also received a César, three BAFTAs, an Emmy, Cannes Film Festival recognition, the Silver Bear for Best Actress awards and a Golden Globe nomination. Her memoirs, Nostalgia Isn’t What It Used To Be, were published in 1978. She also wrote a novel, Adieu Volodya (1985). She first married filmmaker Yves Allégret (1944–49 divorce). Her second marriage was to the Italian-born French actor Yves Montand (1951 – 1985 her death).
