Day in History 3 December – Robert Louis Stevenson – Pierre-Auguste Renoir – Madeline Kahn – Gwendolyn Brooks – Scott Weiland

Posted on 29 DecamSun, 03 Dec 2023 00:39:00 -06002023-12-03T00:39:00-06:0012 2011 by MacGregor

On this day in 1894, Scottish novelist, poet, essayist, and travel writer Robert Louis Stevenson died, probably of a cerebral hemorrhage at the age of 44 in Vailima, Samoa.  Born Robert Lewis Balfour Stevenson at 8 Howard Place, Edinburgh, on 13 November 1850.   Perhaps best know for his novels; Treasure Island (1883), Kidnapped (1886), and Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (1886).  Stevenson married once, Frances (Fanny) Matilda Van de Grift (1880 – 1894 his death).  For more on their love story visit our sister site, The Lovers’ Chronicle search Robert Louis Stevenson.

The Final Footprint – Upon his death, the Samoans insisted on surrounding his body with a watch-guard during the night and on bearing their Tusitala (his Somoan name which translates as Teller of Tales) upon their shoulders to nearby Mount Vaea, where they buried him on a spot overlooking the sea.  Stevenson had always wanted his ‘Requiem’ inscribed on his tomb:

Under the wide and starry sky,
Dig the grave and let me lie.
Glad did I live and gladly die,
And I laid me down with a will.
This be the verse you grave for me:
Here he lies where he longed to be;
Home is the sailor, home from sea,
And the hunter home from the hill.

Stevenson was loved by the Samoans, and his tombstone epigraph was translated to a Samoan song of grief  which is well-known and still sung in Samoa.

On this day in 1919, the artist who was a leading painter in the development of the Impressionist style, a celebrator of beauty and feminine sensuality, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, died in the village of Cagnes-sur-Mer, Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur, France, at the age of 78.  Born on 25 February 1841 in Limoges, Haute-Vienne, France.  In 1890, he married Aline Victorine Charigot, who had already served as a model for him and would continue to do so.  In Paris, he meet and befriended Claude Monet.  In Palermo, Sicily, he met the composer Richard Wagner and painted his portrait.

The Final Footprint – Renoir is interred in Cimetière du Essoyes, Essoyes, Aube, Champagne-Ardenne Region, France.

Gallery

La Grenouillère, 1868, National Museum, Stockholm, Sweden

Portrait of Alfred Sisley, 1868

Claude Monet Painting in His Garden at Argenteuil, 1873, Wadsworth Athenaeum, Hartford, Connecticut

Portrait of Claude Monet, 1875, Musée d’Orsay, Paris, France

Jeanne Durand-Ruel, 1876, Barnes Foundation Merion, Pennsylvania

A Girl with a Watering Can, 1876, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

Mme. Charpentier and her children, 1878, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

By the Water, 1880, Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois

Luncheon of the Boating Party, 1880–1881, The Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C.

Portrait of Charles and Georges Durand-Ruel, 1882

Dance in the City, 1882–1883, Musée d’Orsay, Paris, France

Dance in the Country (Aline Charigot and Paul Lhote), 1883, Musée d’Orsay, Paris

Pencil study for Dance in the Country 1883, Honolulu Academy of Arts

Children at the Beach at Guernsey, 1883, Barnes Foundation Merion, Pennsylvania

In the Garden, 1885, Hermitage St. Petersburg

Girl With a Hoop, 1885, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

Portrait of Berthe Morisot and daughter Julie Manet, 1894

Gabrielle Renard and infant son Jean Renoir, 1895

The Artist’s Family, 1896, The Barnes Foundation, Merion, Pennsylvania

Graziella, 1896,The Detroit Institute of Arts

Portrait of Ambroise Vollard, 1908

Portrait of Paul Durand-Ruel, 1910

Self-portraits

Self-portrait, (1875)

Self-portrait, (1876)

Self-portrait, 1910

Self-portrait, (1910)

Nudes

Diana the Huntress, 1867, The National Gallery of Art Washington, DC

Nude In The Sun, 1875, Musée d’Orsay, Paris, France

Seating Girl, 1883

The Large Bathers, 1887, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, Pa.

After The Bath, 1888

 

Woman on a Couch (Gabrielle), 1906–1907

After The Bath, 1910, Barnes Foundation, Merion Pennsylvania

Woman At The Well, 1910

Seated Bather Drying Her Leg, 1914, Musée de l’Orangerie, Paris, France

Women Bathers, 1916, National Museum, Stockholm, Sweden

Bathers, 1918, Barnes Foundation, Merion Pennsylvania

On this day in 1999, actress, comedian, and singer Madeline Kahn died from ovarian cancer in New York City, at the age of 57. Born Madeline Gail Wolfson on September 29, 1942 in Boston. Perhaps best known for comedic roles in films directed by Peter Bogdanovich and Mel Brooks, including What’s Up, Doc? (1972), Young Frankenstein (1974), High Anxiety(1977), History of the World, Part I (1981), and her Academy Award-nominated roles in Paper Moon (1973) and Blazing Saddles (1974).

Kahn made her Broadway debut in Leonard Sillman’s New Faces of 1968, and received Tony Award nominations for the play In the Boom Boom Room in 1974 and for the original production of the musical On the Twentieth Century in 1978. She starred as Madeline Wayne on the short-lived ABC sitcom Oh Madeline (1983–84) and won a Daytime Emmy Award in 1987 for ABC Afterschool Special. She received a third Tony Award nomination for the revival of the play Born Yesterday in 1989, before winning the 1993 Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play for the comedy The Sisters Rosensweig. Her other film appearances included The Cheap Detective (1978), City Heat (1984), Clue (1985), and Nixon (1995).

The Final Footprint

Kahn was cremated. A bench dedicated to her memory was erected in Central Park by her husband, John Hansbury, and her brother, Jeffrey Kahn. The bench is located near the reservoir on West 87th St.

#RIP #OTD in 2000 poet, author, teacher, the first African American to receive a Pulitzer Prize for her book Annie Allen, Gwendolyn Brooks died at her Chicago home, aged 83. Lincoln Cemetery, Blue Island, Illinois

On this day in 2015, musician, singer and songwriter Scott Weiland died of an accidental drug overdose on his tour bus in Bloomington, Minnesota at the age of 48. Born Scott Richard Weiland né Kline, on October 27, 1967 in San Jose, California. During a career spanning three decades, Weiland was best known as the lead singer of the band Stone Temple Pilots from 1989 to 2002 and 2008 to 2013. He was also a member of supergroup Velvet Revolver from 2003 to 2008 and recorded one album with another supergroup, Art of Anarchy. He also established himself as a solo artist, releasing three studio albums, two cover albums, and collaborations with several other musicians throughout his career.

Weiland was known for his flamboyant onstage persona, for changing his appearance and vocal style, and for his battles with substance abuse. Widely viewed as a talented and versatile vocalist.

The Final Footprint

A funeral service for Weiland was held at Hollywood Forever Cemetery on December 11, 2015, in Los Angeles. He was cremated.

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Day in History 2 December – Piero di Cosimo de’ Medici – Marquis de Sade – Edmond Rostand – Marty Feldman – Desi Arnaz – Aaron Copland – Mariska Veres – Odetta

Posted on 29 DecamSat, 02 Dec 2023 00:21:00 -06002023-12-02T00:21:00-06:0012 2011 by MacGregor

Piero_di_Cosimo_de'_MediciOn this day in 1469, banker, de facto ruler of Florence from 1464 to 1469, during the Italian Renaissance, Piero di Cosimo de’ Medici died from gout and lung disease in Florence at the age of 53.  Born in Florence on 19 September 1416, the son of Cosimo de’ Medici the Elder and Contessina de’ Bardi.

The Final Footprint – Medici is entombed in the Basilica di San Lorenzo in Florence, next to his brother Giovanni.  The tomb, created by Andrea del Verrocchio, was commissioned by his sons Lorenzo and Giuliano.  Other notable final footprints at San Lorenzo include; Donatello, Cosimo de’ Medici, Cosimo I de’ Medici, Cosimo II de’ Medici, Cosimo III de’ Medici, Ferdinando I de’ Medici, Ferdinando II de’ Medici, Ferdinando III de’ Medici, Francesco I de’ Medici, Giovanni di Bicci de’ Medici, Giovanni di Cosimo de’ Medici, Giuliano di Lorenzo de’ Medici, Giuliano di Piero de’ Medici, Lorenzo I de’ Medici, and Lorenzo II de’ Medici.

Marquis_de_Sade_portrait-150x150On this day in 1740, French aristocrat, revolutionary politician, philosopher and writer, famous for his libertine sexuality, Marquis de Sade died at the age of 74 in Charenton, Val-de-Marne, Paris.  Born Donatien Alphonse François, Marquis de Sade on 2 June 1740 in the Hôtel de Condé, Paris.  His works include novels, short stories, plays, dialogues and political tracts; in his lifetime some were published under his own name, while others appeared anonymously and de Sade denied being their author.  Perhaps best known for his erotic works, which combined philosophical discourse with pornography, depicting sexual fantasies with an emphasis on violence, criminality and blasphemy against the Catholic Church.  He was a proponent of extreme freedom, unrestrained by morality, religion or law.  The words “sadism” and “sadist” are derived from his name.  De Sade was incarcerated in various prisons and in an insane asylum for about 32 years of his life; 11 years in Paris (10 of which were spent in the Bastille), a month in the Conciergerie, two years in a fortress, a year in Madelonnettes, three years in Bicêtre, a year in Sainte-Pélagie and 13 years in the Charenton asylum.  During the French Revolution he was an elected delegate to the National Convention.  Many of his works were written in prison.

The Final Footprint – De Sade left instructions in his will forbidding that his body be opened for any reason whatsoever, and that it remain untouched for 48 hours in the chamber in which he died, and then placed in a coffin and buried on his property located in Malmaison near Épernon.  His skull was later removed from the grave for phrenological examination.

#RIP #OTD in 1918 poet and dramatist (Cyrano de Bergerac, Les Romanesques) Edmond Rostand died from the 1918 flu pandemic in Paris, aged 50. Cimetière Saint-Pierre, Marseille, Departement des Bouches-du-Rhône, Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur, France

On this day in 1982 actor, comedian and writer Marty Feldman died of a heart attack, in a hotel room in Mexico City, aged 48.

The Final Footprint

Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Los Angeles

#RIP #OTD in 1986 actor (I Love Lucy), musician, bandleader, comedian and film and television producer Desi Arnaz died from lung cancer in Solana Beach, California, aged 69. Cremated remains scattered in the Sea of Cortés at Rancho Las Cruces, near La Paz, B.C.S., Mexico.

On this day in 1990, Academy Award-winning and Pulitzer Prize-winning composer, teacher, lecturer, critic, writer and conductor, the dean of American composers, Aaron Copland, died in North Tarryton, New York, at the age of 90.  Born on 14 November 1900 in Brooklyn.  Best known for Billy the Kid (1938) (ballet), Fanfare for the Common Man (1942), Rodeo (1942) (ballet) and Appalachian Spring (1944) (ballet).

The Final Footprint –  Copland was cremated and his cremated remains were scattered in a bower at the Tanglewood Music Center in Lenox, Massachusetts.   A marker was placed there to mark where he was scattered.

#RIP #OTD in 2006 lead singer of the rock group Shocking Blue (“Send Me a Postcard” and “Venus”) Mariska Veres died of gallbladder cancer in The Hague at age 59. Cremation

On this day in 2008, singer, actress, guitarist, lyricist, and civil and human rights activist, “The Voice of the Civil Rights Movement” Odetta died of heart disease in New York City at the age of 77. Born Odetta Holmes on December 31, 1930 in Birmingham, Alabama. Her musical repertoire consisted largely of American folk music, blues, jazz, and spirituals. An important figure in the American folk music revival of the 1950s and 1960s, she influenced many of the key figures of the folk-revival of that time, including Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Mavis Staples, and Janis Joplin. Time magazine included her recording of “Take This Hammer” on its list of the 100 Greatest Popular Songs, stating that “Rosa Parks was her No. 1 fan, and Martin Luther King Jr. called her the queen of American folk music.”

The Final Footprint

At a memorial service for her in February 2009 at Riverside Church in New York City, participants included Maya Angelou, Pete Seeger, Harry Belafonte, Geoffrey Holder, Steve Earle, Sweet Honey in the Rock, Peter Yarrow, Maria Muldaur, Tom Chapin, Josh White Jr., Emory Joseph, Rattlesnake Annie, the Brooklyn Technical High School Chamber Chorus, and videotaped tributes from Tavis Smiley and Joan Baez.

Odetta was cremated and her cremated remains were scattered in the Harlem Meer.

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Day in History 1 December – Pope Leo X – Aleister Crowley – Fred Rose – Bobby Layne – James Baldwin – Alvin Ailey – Janet Lewis

Posted on 29 DecamFri, 01 Dec 2023 00:51:00 -06002023-12-01T00:51:00-06:0012 2011 by MacGregor

PopeLeo_XOn this day in 1521, Pope Leo X died in Rome, Papal States at the age of 45.  Born Giovanni di Lorenzo de’ Medici on 11 December 1475 in the Republic of Florence, the second son of Lorenzo the Magnificent, who was head of the Florentine Republic.  Leo was Pope from 9 March 1513 to his death in 1521.  He was elevated to the cardinalate in 1489.  Following the death of Pope Julius II, Giovanni was elected pope after securing the backing of the younger members of the Sacred College.  Early on in his rule he oversaw the closing sessions of the Fifth Council of the Lateran, but failed sufficiently to implement the reforms agreed.  In 1517 he led a costly war that succeeded in securing his nephew as duke of Urbino, but which damaged the papal finances.  He later only narrowly escaped a plot by some cardinals to poison him.  Perhaps best remembered for granting indulgences for those who donated to reconstruct St. Peter’s Basilica, which practice was challenged by Martin Luther‘s 95 Theses.  He seems not to have taken seriously the array of demands for church reform that would quickly grow into the Protestant Reformation.  His Papal Bull of 1520, Exsurge Domine, simply condemned Luther on a number of areas and made ongoing engagement difficult.  He did, however, grant establishment to the Oratory of Divine Love.  Leo borrowed and spent heavily.  A significant patron of the arts, upon election Leo is alleged to have said, “Since God has given us the papacy, let us enjoy it”.  Under his reign, progress was made on the rebuilding of Saint Peter’s Basilica and artists such as Raphael decorated the Vatican rooms.  Leo also reorganised the Roman University, and promoted the study of literature, poetry and antiquities.

The Final Footprint –  Leo is entombed in Santa Maria sopra Minerva, Rome.  Other notable final footprints at Santa Maria include; Saint Catherine of Siena, Fra Angelico, Popes Urban VII, Paul IV and the other Medici pope Clement VII.

#RIP #OTD in 1947 occultist, ceremonial magician, poet, painter, novelist, mountaineer Aleister Crowley died at Netherwood boarding house in Hastings, England of COPD, aged 72. Cremated remains buried in the garden of a house in Lebanon Township, New Jersey

On this day in 1954 musician, songwriter (“Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain”), record producer (Hank Wliiliams) music publisher (Acuff-Rose Music), Fred Rose died in Nashville from a heart attack, aged 56. Mount Olivet Cemetery, Nashville.  Born Knowles Fred Rose on August 24, 1898.

bobbyLayne1-242x300On this day in 1986, Texas Longhorn, quarterback, Hall of Famer, Bobby Layne, died in Lubbock, Texas.  Born Robert Lawrence Layne on 19 December 1926 in Santa Anna, Texas.  Layne attended Highland Park High School in Dallas and attended the University of Texas at Austin.

Hook ’em Horns!

One of the greatest quarterbacks ever to play for Texas, Layne was selected to four straight All-Southwest Conference teams from 1944-1947.  He was one of the first inductees into the Cotton Bowl Hall of Fame.  In the 1946 Cotton Bowl Classic, where Texas beat Missouri 40-27, Layne accounted for every point, scoring four touchdowns, kicking four extra points and throwing for two other scores.  Voted the Outstanding Back in the 1948 Sugar Bowl victory over #6 Alabama.  Layne finished his Texas career with a school record 3,145 passing yards on 210 completions and 400 attempts.  Layne played baseball as a pitcher for Texas as well.  In his career as a pitcher he threw two no hitters.  Layne was drafted in the first round, number three overall by the Chicago Bears.  Layne was traded to the New York Bulldogs and then to the Detroit Lions.  In 1952, Layne led the Lions to their first NFL Championship in 12 years.  He would repeat this in 1953 for back to back NFL Championships, but fell short of a three-peat when the Lions lost to the Cleveland Browns in the 1954 NFL Championship Game.  Layne finished his career with the Pittsburgh Steelers.  After retiring from 15 seasons in the NFL, Layne held the career records for both passes attempted (3,700) and completed(1,814), as well as yards gained passing (26,768) and passing touchdowns (196).  He was not the most gifted or talented quarterback in the NFL at the time but his drive, leadership, and clutch play (he is credited with creating the two-minute offense) made him great.  Layne was one of the last players to play in the NFL without a facemask.  According to Doak Walker, “Layne never lost a game…time just ran out on him.” Layne was voted into the Texas Longhorn Hall of Honor in 1963 and the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1967.  In a special issue in 1995, Sports Illustrated called him “The Toughest Quarterback Who Ever Lived.”  In 1999, he was ranked number 52 on the Sporting News’ list of Football’s 100 Greatest Players.  His number 22 has been retired by both the Longhorns and the Lions.

The Final Footprint – Layne is interred in City of Lubbock Cemetery in Lubbock, Texas.

On this day in 1987, novelist and social critic James Baldwin died from stomach cancer at his home in Saint-Paul-de-Vence, France, at the age of 63. Born James Arthur Baldwin on August 2, 1924 in Harlem. His essays, as collected in Notes of a Native Son (1955), explore intricacies of racial, sexual, and class distinctions in Western societie. Some of Baldwin’s essays are book-length, including The Fire Next Time (1963), No Name in the Street (1972), and The Devil Finds Work (1976). An unfinished manuscript, Remember This House, was expanded and adapted for cinema as the Academy Award–nominated documentary film I Am Not Your Negro.

Baldwin’s novels and plays fictionalize fundamental personal questions and dilemmas amid complex social and psychological pressures thwarting the equitable integration of not only African Americans, but also gay and bisexual men. Such dynamics are prominent in Baldwin’s second novel, Giovanni’s Room, written in 1956, well before the gay liberation movement.

The Final Footprint

He was interred next to his mother Berdis at the Ferncliff Cemetery in Hartsdale, near New York City. Other notable Final Footprints at Ferncliff include: Aaliyah, Bela Bartok, Cab Calloway, Joan Crawford, Ossie Davis, Ruby Dee, Jerome Kern, Malcolm X, Thelonious Monk, Oscar Hammerstein II, Toots Shor, and Ed Sullivan.

On this day in 1989, choreographer and activist Alvin Ailey died from HIV/AIDS complications in Manhattan, at the age of 58. Born on January 5, 1931 in Rogers, Texas. Perhaps best know as the founder of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater and the Ailey School in New York City. He is credited with popularizing modern dance and revolutionizing African-American participation in 20th-century concert dance. His company gained the nickname “Cultural Ambassador to the World” because of its extensive international touring. Ailey’s choreographic masterpiece Revelations is believed to be the best known and most often seen modern dance performance. In 1977, Ailey was awarded the Spingarn Medal from the NAACP. He received the Kennedy Center Honors in 1988. In 2014, President Barack Obama selected Ailey to be a posthumous recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

The Final Footprint

Garden of Affection, Section 16, Lot 1782, Grave 4 at Rose Hills Memorial Park in Whittier, California.

#RIP #OTD 1998 novelist (The Wife of Martin Guerre, The Ghost of Monsieur Scarron), poet (Country Burial), and librettist, Janet Lewis died at her home in Los Altos, California at the age of 99

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Day in History 30 November – Oscar Wilde – Patrick Kavanagh – Tiny Tim – Evel Knievel – Paul Walker – Jim Nabors – Christine McVie

Posted on 29 NovamThu, 30 Nov 2023 00:24:00 -06002023-11-30T00:24:00-06:0012 2011 by MacGregor

On this day in 1900, writer, playwright, poet, aesthete, Oscar Wilde died in Paris at the age of 46.  Born Oscar Fingal O’Flahertie Wills Wilde on 16 October 1854 in Dublin, Ireland.  One of my favorite writers.  Notable works:  The Importance of being Earnest and The Picture of Dorian Gray. Wilde is also well known for his witty quotes.  For example:  “A little sincerity is a dangerous thing, and a great deal of it is absolutely fatal.”  “A man can be happy with any woman as long as he does not love her.”   “Anyone who lives within their means suffers from a lack of imagination.”  “Arguments are to be avoided; they are always vulgar and often convincing.”  “I always like to know everything about my new friends, and nothing about my old ones.”  “I am not young enough to know everything.”  “I think that God in creating Man somewhat overestimated his ability.”  “If you want to tell people the truth, make them laugh, otherwise they’ll kill you.”  “Illusion is the first of all pleasures.”  “A gentleman is one who never hurts anyone’s feelings unintentionally.”  “In married life three is company and two none.”  “Life is too important to be taken seriously.”  “One should always be in love. That is the reason one should never marry.”  “Women are made to be loved, not understood.”  “I’m not saying we should misbehave, but we ought to look as though we might.”  There are literally hundreds more.  Wilde was married to Constance Loyd (1898 her death).

The Final Footprint – Wilde was initially buried in the Cimetière de Bagneux outside Paris.  In 1909 his remains were disinterred and entombed in Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris.  His large rectangular granite tomb was designed by Sir Jacob Epstein, commissioned by Robert Ross, who asked for a small compartment to be made for his own ashes which were duly transferred in 1950.  The modernist angel depicted as a relief on the tomb was originally complete with male genitalia which have since been vandalised; their current whereabouts are unknown.  In 2000, Leon Johnson, a multimedia artist, installed a silver prosthesis to replace them.  The epitaph is a verse from The Ballad of Reading Gaol:

And alien tears will fill for him
Pity’s long-broken urn,
For his mourners will be outcast men,
And outcasts always mourn.

Père Lachaise is the largest cemetery in Paris and one of the most visited cemeteries in the world.  Other notable Final Footprints at Père Lachaise include; Guillaume Apollinaire, Honoré de Balzac, Georges Bizet, Jean-Dominique Bauby, Maria Callas, Chopin, Colette, Auguste Comte, Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, Max Ernst, Molière, Jim Morrison, Édith Piaf, Camille Pissarro, Marcel Proust, Sully Prudhomme, Gioachino Rossini, Georges-Pierre Seurat, Simone Signoret, Gertrude Stein, Dorothea Tanning, Alice B. Toklas, and Richard Wright.

Patrick_Kavanagh_by_Patrick_SwiftOn this day in 1967, Irish poet and novelist Patrick Kavanagh died at the age of 63 in a Dublin nursing home.  In my opinion, one of the foremost poets of the 20th century.  Perhaps his best known works include the novel Tarry Flynn and the poems Raglan Road and The Great Hunger.  Born in rural Inniskeen, County Monaghan on 21 October 1904.

The Final Footprint – His grave is in Inniskeen adjoining the Patrick Kavanagh Centre.  His wife Katherine died in 1989; she is also buried there. His epitaph…

AND PRAY FOR
HIM
WHO WALKED APART
ON THE HILLS
LOVING LIFE’S
MIRACLES

On this day in 1996 singer (“Tiptoe Through the Tulips”; “Livin’ in the Sunlight, Lovin’ in the Moonlight”), ukulele player, musical archivist, Tiny Tim died from a heart attack at Hennepin County Medical Center, Minneapolis, age 64. Entombed ay Lakewood Cemetery in Minneapolis

Evel_KnievelOn this day in 2007, stunt performer Evel Knievel died from idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis in Clearwater, Florida at the age of 69.  Born Robert Craig Knievel on 17 October 1938 in Butte, Montana.  In his career, he attempted more than 75 ramp-to-ramp motorcycle jumps between 1965 and 1980.  In 1974, he attempted and failed a jump across Snake River Canyon in the Skycycle X-2, a steam-powered rocket.  He suffered more than 433 bone fractures in his career, thereby earning an entry in the Guinness Book of World Records as the survivor of “most bones broken in a lifetime”.  Knievel was inducted into the Motorcycle Hall of Fame in 1999.  Knievel said; “You can’t ask a guy like me why I performed. I really wanted to fly through the air. I was a daredevil, a performer. I loved the thrill, the money, the whole macho thing. All those things made me Evel Knievel. Sure, I was scared. You gotta be an ass not to be scared. But I beat the hell out of death.”  Fanfare Films produced Evel Knievel, a 1971 movie starring George Hamilton as Knievel.  Knievel married twice; Linda Joan Bork (1959–97 divorce) and Krystal Kennedy (1999–2001 divorce).

The Final Footprint – Knievel was buried at Mountain View Cemetery in his hometown of Butte on December 10, 2007, following a funeral at the 7,500-seat Butte Civic Center presided over by Pastor Dr. Robert H. Schuller with actor Matthew McConaughey giving the eulogy.  Prior to the Monday service, fireworks exploded in the Butte night sky as pallbearers carried Knievel’s casket into the center.

On this day in 2013, actor Paul Walker died from injuries sustained as a passenger in a single-car crash alongside friend and driver Roger Rodas, on Hercules Street near Kelly Johnson Parkway in Valencia, Santa Clarita, California, at the age of 40. Born Paul William Walker IV on September 12, 1973 in Glendale, California. Perhaps best known for his role as Brian O’Conner in The Fast and the Furious franchise. Walker first gained prominence in 1999 with roles in the teen films She’s All That and Varsity Blues. In 2001, he gained international fame for his role in the street racing action film The Fast and the Furious (2001), a role he reprised in five of the next six installments.

Walker began his career guest-starring on TV shows such as The Young and the Restless and Touched by an Angel. He later starred in films such as Joy Ride(2001), Timeline (2003), Into the Blue (2005), Eight Below (2006), and Running Scared (2006). He also appeared in the National Geographic series Expedition Great White (2010 and in ads for Davidoff Cool Water cologne. He founded the disaster-relief charity Reach Out Worldwide (ROWW) in response to the 2010 Haiti earthquake.

The Final Footprint

His body was cremated and his cremated remains were buried in a non-denominational ceremony at Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Hollywood Hills. His life was later chronicled in the documentary I Am Paul Walker, which was released on August 11, 2018. Other notable final footprints at Hollywood Hills include; Gene Autry, Bette Davis, Sandra Dee, Lee Van Cleef, Ronnie James Dio, Carrie Fisher, Bobby Fuller, Al Jarreau, Lemmy Kilmister, Strother Martin, Ricky Nelson, Bill Paxton, and Debbie Reynolds.

Walker was working on three films at the time of his death which were released posthumously: Hours (2013), Brick Mansions (2014), and Furious 7 (2015). The Wiz Khalifa song “See You Again”, featuring Charlie Puth, was commissioned for the Furious 7 soundtrack as a tribute to Walker. It was nominated for the Golden Globe for Best Original Song in 2015 and was the number-one song in the United States for 12 weeks.

Site of Walker’s death on Hercules Street in Santa Clarita (photo taken 2015)

On this day in 2017, actor, singer, comedian Jim Nabors died at his home in Honolulu, at the age of 87. Born James Thurston Nabors on June 12, 1930 in Sylacauga, Alabama. Perhaps best known for his signature character Gomer Pyle.

Nabors was discovered by Andy Griffith while working at a Santa Monica nightclub, and he later joined The Andy Griffith Show, where he played the good-natured, unsophisticated Gomer Pyle. The character proved so popular that Nabors was given his own successful spin-off show, Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C.

Nabors also became a popular guest on variety shows that showcased his rich baritone singing voice in the 1960s and 1970s, including frequent appearances on the Carol Burnett Show and two specials of his own in 1969 and 1974. He signed a recording contract with Columbia Records in 1965 and subsequently recorded numerous albums and singles, most of them containing romantic ballads. He recorded for Ranwood Records during the late 1970s.

Nabors was also known for singing “Back Home Again in Indiana” before the start of the Indianapolis 500, held annually on the Memorial Day weekend. He sang the unofficial Indiana anthem almost every year from 1972 to 2014, except for occasional absences due to illness or scheduling conflicts.

The Final Footprint

Nabors was cremated and his cremated remains were scattered in Honolulu.

The United States Marine Corps released a statement on Nabors: “Semper Fi, Gomer Pyle. Rest in peace Jim Nabors, one of the few to ever be named an Honorary Marine.”

In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Carol Burnett paid tribute to Nabors saying they were “close friends for 52 years. … My heart is heavy. I’m grateful he was a large part of my life. I miss him. I love him.

#RIP #OTD 2022 singer, keyboardist, songwriter of Fleetwood Mac (“Don’t Stop”, “Everywhere”, “Little Lies”) Christine McVie died of a stroke in London aged 79. Cremation

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Day in History 29 November – Claudio Monteverdi – Giacomo Puccini – Natalie Wood – Cary Grant – George Harrison

Posted on 29 NovamWed, 29 Nov 2023 00:15:00 -06002023-11-29T00:15:00-06:0012 2011 by MacGregor

On this day in 1643, composer, string player and choirmaster Claudio Monteverdi died in Venice at the age of 76. Baptized Claudio Giovanni Antonio Monteverdi on 15 May 1567 in the church of SS Nazaro e Celso, Cremona. A composer of both secular and sacred music, and a pioneer in the development of opera, he is considered an important transitional figure between the Renaissance and the Baroque periods of music history.

Monteverdi developed his career first at the court of Mantua (c. 1590–1613) and then until his death in the Republic of Venice where he was maestro di capella at the basilica of San Marco. His surviving letters give insight into the life of a professional musician in Italy of the period, including problems of income, patronage and politics.

Much of Monteverdi’s output, including many stage works, has been lost. His surviving music includes nine books of madrigals, large-scale sacred works such as his Vespro della Beata Vergine (Vespers) of 1610, and three complete operas. His opera L’Orfeo (1607) is the earliest of the genre still widely performed; towards the end of his life he wrote works for the commercial theatre in Venice, including Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria and L’incoronazione di Poppea.

Largely forgotten during the eighteenth and much of the nineteenth centuries, his works enjoyed a rediscovery around the beginning of the twentieth century. He is now established both as a significant influence in European musical history and as a composer whose works are regularly performed and recorded.

The Final Footprint

Monteverdi’s tomb in the church of Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari

On this day in 1924, composer, Giacomo Puccini, died in Brussels, Belgium at the age of 65 from complications of throat cancer.  Born Giacomo Antonio Domenico Michele Secondo Maria Puccini on 22 December 1858 in Lucca, Tuscany, Italy.  Puccini’s operas, including La bohème, Tosca, Madama Butterfly, and Turandot, are among the most frequently performed in the standard repertoire.  Some of his arias, such as “O mio babbino caro” from Gianni Schicchi, “Che gelida manina” from La bohème, and “Nessun dorma” from Turandot, have become part of popular culture.  I fell in love with a pretty woman during a performance of La bohème.  In the autumn of 1884, Puccini began a relationship with a married woman named Elvira Gemignani (née Bonturi) in Lucca.  Elvira became pregnant by Puccini, and their son, Antonio, was born in 1886.  Elvira, Antonio and Elvira’s daughter Fosca, began to live with Puccini shortly afterwards.  Elvira’s husband, Narisco, was killed by the husband of a woman that Narisco had an affair with.  Only then were Puccini and Elvira able to marry, and to legitimize Antonio.  The marriage between Puccini and Elvira was apparently troubled by infidelity, as Puccini had frequent affairs himself, including with well-known singers such as Maria Jeritza, Emmy Destinn, Cesira Ferrani, and Hariclea Darclée.

The Final Footprint –  News of his death reached Rome during a performance of La bohème.  The opera was immediately stopped, and the orchestra played Chopin’s Funeral March for the stunned audience.  Puccini was temporarily entombed in the Toscanini Private Mausoleum in the Cimitero Monumentale in Milan.  Puccini’s son arranged for the transfer of his father’s remains to a specially created chapel inside the Puccini villa at Torre del Lago, Toscana, Italy in 1926.

Natalie_Wood_publicity_1963On this day in 1981, actress Natalie Wood drowned under suspicious circumstances near Santa Catalina Island, California at the age of 43.  Born Natalia Nikolaevna Zacharenko in San Francisco on 20 July 1938.  Perhaps best known for her screen roles in Miracle on 34th Street, Splendor in the Grass, Rebel Without a Cause, and West Side Story.  After first working in films as a child, Wood became a successful Hollywood star as a young adult, receiving three Academy Award nominations before she was 25 years old.  Wood began acting in movies at the age of four and at age eight was given a co-starring role in the classic Christmas film Miracle on 34th Street.  As a teenager, her performance in Rebel Without a Cause (1955) earned her a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. She starred in the musical films West Side Story (1961) and Gypsy (1962), and received Academy Award for Best Actress nominations for her performances in Splendor in the Grass (1961) and Love with the Proper Stranger (1963).  She was married to actor Robert Wagner twice, and to producer Richard Gregson in between her marriages to Wagner.  She had one daughter by each: Natasha Gregson and Courtney Wagner.  Her younger sister, Lana Wood, is also an actress.

The Final Footprint – Wood died while on a weekend boat trip with her husband Wagner and actor Christopher Walken, and the boat’s captain, Dennis Davern.  Many facts surrounding her drowning are unknown, because no one has admitted seeing how she entered the water.  Wood’s body was discovered by authorities at 8 am on 29 November 1981, one mile away from the boat, with a small inflatable dinghy found beached nearby.  Following an investigation, the Los Angeles County coroner’s office ruled her death an accident by drowning and hypothermia.  The case was reopened in November 2011.  After nine months of further investigation, the Los Angeles County Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Lakshmanan Sathyavagiswaran amended Wood’s death certificate and changed the cause of her death from accidental drowning to “drowning and other undetermined factors”.  Natalie Wood was buried in at Pierce Brothers Westwood Village Memorial Park and Mortuary (a Dignity Memorial® provider) in Los Angeles, California.  Scores of representatives of international media, photographers, and members of the public tried to attend Wood’s funeral, but all were required to remain outside the cemetery walls. Among the celebrity attendees were Frank Sinatra, Elizabeth Taylor, Fred Astaire, Rock Hudson, David Niven, Gregory Peck, Gene Kelly, Elia Kazan, and Sir Laurence Olivier.    Other notable final footprints at Westwood include; Ray Bradbury,  Sammy Cahn, Truman Capote, James Coburn, Rodney Dangerfield, Janet Leigh, Farrah Fawcett, Hugh Hefner, Brian Keith, Don Knotts, Burt Lancaster, Peter Lawford, Peggy Lee, Jack Lemmon, Karl Malden, Dean Martin, Walter Mathau, Marilyn Monroe, Carroll O’Connor, Roy Orbison, George C. Scott, Dorothy Stratten, and Frank Zappa.

caryGrant,_Cary_(Suspicion)_01_Crisco_editOn this day in 1986, actor Cary Grant died in St. Luke’s Hospital in Davenport, Iowa from a cerebral hemorrhage at the age of 82.  Born Archibald Alexander Leach at 15 Hughenden Road, Horfield, Bristol, England on 18 January 1904.

Known for his transatlantic accent, debonair demeanor and “dashing good looks”, in my opinion, Grant is one of classic Hollywood’s definitive leading men.  He was known for both comedic and dramatic roles; perhaps his best-known films include The Awful Truth (1937), Bringing Up Baby (1938), Gunga Din (1939), The Philadelphia Story (1940), His Girl Friday (1940), Arsenic and Old Lace (1944), Notorious (1946), The Bishop’s Wife (1947), To Catch a Thief (1955), An Affair to Remember (1957), North by Northwest (1959), and Charade (1963).  Nominated twice for the Academy Award for Best Actor (Penny Serenade and None But the Lonely Heart) and five times for a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor, Grant was continually passed over.  In 1970, he was presented an Honorary Oscar at the 42nd Academy Awards by Frank Sinatra “for his unique mastery of the art of screen acting with the respect and affection of his colleagues”.  Any movie with Cary Grant is a good movie.

Grant was married five times: Virginia Cherrill (1934 – 1935 divorce); Barbara Hutton (1942 – 1945 divorce) (one of the wealthiest women in the world, the couple was derisively nicknamed “Cash and Cary”, although in an extensive prenuptial agreement Grant refused any financial settlement in the event of a divorce. Grant bristled at the accusation that he married for money: “I may not have married for very sound reasons, but money was never one of them”); actress Betsy Drake (1949 – 1962 divorce); singer Dyan Cannon (1965 – 1968 divorce); and Barbara Harris (1981 – 1986 his death).

The Final Footprint – Grant was cremated and his cremains were scattered somewhere in California.

George_Harrison_1974_edited-150x150On this day in 2001, musician, singer and songwriter, lead guitarist of the Beatles, member of the Traveling Wilburys, George Harrison died at the age of 58 at a Hollywood Hills mansion that was once leased by Paul McCartney and was previously owned by Courtney Love.  The cause of death is listed on his Los Angeles County death certificate as “metastatic non-small cell lung cancer”.  The second Beattle to pass away after John Lennon’s murder.  Born in Liverpool, Lancashire, England, on 25 February 1943.  Among the songs he wrote or co-wrote include; “While My Guitar Gently Weeps”, “Here Comes the Sun”, “It Don’t Come Easy”, and “All Those Years Ago.”  Harrison married twice, first to Pattie Boyd (1966 – 1977 divorce), and Olivia Trinidad Arias (1978 – 2001 his death).

The Final Footprint – Harrison was cremated at Hollywood Forever Cemetery and his ashes were scattered at Varanasi, India, in the Ganges, Saraswati and Yamuna Rivers by his close family in a private ceremony according to Hindu tradition.

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Day in History 28 November – Gian Lorenzo Bernini – Washington Irving – Richard Wright – Rosalind Russell – David Prowse

Posted on 29 NovamTue, 28 Nov 2023 00:36:00 -06002023-11-28T00:36:00-06:0012 2011 by MacGregor

Bernini, self portrait

On this day in 1680, artist, Gian Lorenzo Bernini, died in Rome at the age of 81.  Born 7 December 1598 in Naples.  Bernini was a student of Classical sculpture and is considered the successor of Michelangelo.  Bernini was also a leading figure in the emergence of Roman Baroque architecture.  At the age of only twenty three, he was knighted by Pope Gregory XV.  Among Bernin’s many sculptures in marble is David, which shows the young David about to slay the giant Goliath with a stone from his slingshot.  The original is in the Galleria Borghese in Rome.  A replica in white Carrara marble resides at Sharon Memorial Park in Charlotte, North Carolina in Section 19, David. 

The Final Footprint – Bernini is entombed in the Basilica Papale di Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome.

On this day in 1859, short story writer, essayist, biographer, historian, and diplomat Washington Irving died of a heart attack in his bedroom at Sunnyside at the age of 76. Born on April 3, 1783 in Manhattan. Perhaps best known for his short stories “Rip Van Winkle” (1819) and “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” (1820), both of which appear in his collection, The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent. His historical works include biographies of Oliver Goldsmith, Muhammad, and George Washington, as well as several histories of 15th-century Spain dealing with subjects such as Alhambra, Christopher Columbus, and the Moors. Irving served as the U.S. ambassador to Spain from 1842 to 1846.

The Final Footprint

Legend has it that his last words were: “Well, I must arrange my pillows for another night. When will this end?” He was buried under a simple headstone at Sleepy Hollow cemetery on December 1, 1859. 

Irving and his grave were commemorated by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow in his 1876 poem “In The Churchyard at Tarrytown”, which concludes with:

How sweet a life was his; how sweet a death!
Living, to wing with mirth the weary hours,
Or with romantic tales the heart to cheer;
Dying, to leave a memory like the breath
Of summers full of sunshine and of showers,
A grief and gladness in the atmosphere.

#RIP #OTD in 1954 physicist, the creator of the world’s first nuclear reactor, the Chicago Pile-1, member of the Manhattan Project, “architect of the nuclear age”, Enrico Fermi died of stomach cancer in his home in Chicago aged 53. Oak Woods Cemetery, Chicago 

Richard_Wright-150x150On this day in 1960, author of novels, short stories, poems, and non-fiction, Richard Wright died in Paris from a heart attack at the age of 52.  Born Richard Nathaniel Wright on 4 September 1908 near Roxie, Mississippi.  Perhaps best known for his novel Native Son (1940).  Wright married twice; Valencia Barnes Meadman (1939 – 1940 divorce) and Ellen Poplar (1941 – 1960 his death).

The Final Footprint – Wright was cremated and his cremains are inurned in a columbarium in Cimetière du Père Lachaise in Paris.  Père Lachaise is the largest cemetery in Paris and one of the most visited cemeteries in the world.  Other notable Final Footprints at Père Lachaise include; Guillaume Apollinaire, Honoré de Balzac, Georges Bizet, Jean-Dominique Bauby, Maria Callas, Chopin, Colette, Auguste Comte, Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, Max Ernst, Molière, Jim Morrison, Édith Piaf, Camille Pissarro, Marcel Proust, Sully Prudhomme, Gioachino Rossini, Georges-Pierre Seurat, Simone Signoret, Gertrude Stein, Dorothea Tanning, Alice B. Toklas, and Oscar Wilde.

#RIP #OTD in 1976 actress (His Girl Friday, Auntie Mame, Gypsy, Mourning Becomes Electra), screenwriter, singer Rosalind Russell died of breast cancer in Beverly Hills aged 69. Holy Cross Cemetery in Culver City, California 

#RIP #OTD bodybuilder, weightlifter and actor (A Clockwork Orange, Darth Vader in Star Wars) David Prowse died in London, aged 85. Cremation

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Day in History 27 November – Horace – Alexandre Dumas, fils – Eugene O’Neill – Lotte Lenya

Posted on 29 NovamMon, 27 Nov 2023 00:42:00 -06002023-11-27T00:42:00-06:0012 2011 by MacGregor

On this day in 8 BC, Roman lyric poet, Horace died in Rome at the age of 56.  Born Quintus Horatius Flaccus on 8 December 65 BC in the Samnite south of Italy.  The rhetorician Quintillian regarded his Odes as just about the only Latin lyrics worth reading: “He can be lofty sometimes, yet he is also full of charm and grace, versatile in his figures, and felicitously daring in his choice of words.”  Horace also crafted hexameter verses (Sermones and Epistles) and iambic poetry (Epodes).  The satirist Persius commented: “as his friend laughs, Horace slyly puts his finger on his every fault; once let in, he plays about the heartstrings”.  His career coincided with Rome’s momentous change from Republic to Empire.  An officer in the republican army defeated at the Battle of Philippi in 42 BC, he was befriended by Octavian’s right-hand man in civil affairs, Maecenas, and became a spokesman for the new regime.  For some commentators, his association with the regime was a balance in which he maintained a strong measure of independence (he was “a master of the graceful sidestep”) but for others he was, in John Dryden‘s phrase, “a well-mannered court slave”.  (Drawing of Horace, as imagined by Anton von Werner.)

The Final Footprint – Horace is entombed near his friend Maecenas in Rome.

On this day in 1895, French author and dramatist, the son of Alexandre Dumas, père, Alexandre Dumas, fils died at Marly-le-Roi, Yvelines, at the age of 71.  Born 27 July 1824 in Paris.  When he was 20 years old, Dumas moved to Saint-Germain-en-Laye to live with his father.  There, he met Marie Duplessis, a young courtesan who would be the inspiration for his romantic novel The Lady of the Camellias (La Dame aux camélias), wherein Duplessis was named Marguerite Gauthier.  Adapted into a play, it was titled Camille in English and became the basis for Verdi’s 1853 opera, La Traviata, Duplessis undergoing yet another name change, this time to Violetta Valery.  Dumas married Nadjeschda von Knorring (1867 – 1895 her death) and Henriette Régnier de La Brière (1895–1895 his death).

The Final Footprint –  Dumas was interred in the Cimetière de Montmartre in Paris.  His grave is only some 100 metres away from that of Duplessis.  The film Pretty Woman (1990), starring Richard Gere as Edward Lewis and Julia Roberts as Vivian Ward, has a similar plot as La Traviata and Lewis takes Ward to see the opera, her first.  Other notable final footprints at Montmartre include; Hector Berlioz, Dalida, Edgar Degas, Marie Duplessis, Théophile Gautier, Gustave Moreau, Henri Murger, Jacques Offenbach, Stendhal, François Truffaut, Horace Vernet, and Alfred de Vigny.

On this day in 1953, playwright and Nobel laureate in literature, Eugene O’Neill, died in room 401 of the Sheraton Hotel on Bay State Road in Boston, Massachusetts, at the age of 65.  Born Eugene Gladstone O’Neill on 16 October 1888 in The Barrett Hotel in Times Square.  Perhaps best known for his masterpiece Long Day’s Journey Into Night (1957), which waqs published posthumously and won the Pulizer Prize in 1957.  In addition to that play I like Mourning Becomes Electra (1931) and The Iceman Cometh (1946).  O’Neill married three times; Kathleen Jenkins (divorce), Agnes Boulton (divorce) and Carlotta Monterey (his death).  His sons, Eugene Jr. and Shane, both died by suicide.  His daughter Oona married actor, director, producer Charlie Chaplin.

The Final Footprint – O’Neill’s reported last words were; “I knew it.  I knew it.  Born in a hotel room, and Goddamnit, died in a hotel room.”  O’Neill  is interred in the Forest Hills Cemetery in Boston’s Jamaica Plain neighborhood.  The Barrett hotel where O’Neill was born is now a Starbucks, surprise, and there is a commemorarive birth plaque on the outside wall.  A statue of the young O’Neill was installed on the waterfront in Boston.

#RIP #OTD in 1981 singer, diseuse (songs of first husband Kurt Weill), actress, (The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone, Rosa Klebb in the James Bond movie From Russia with Love) Lotte Lenya died in Manhattan of cancer in 1981, aged 83. Mount Repose Cemetery, Haverstraw, New York aged 83

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Day in History 26 November – Isabella I of Castile – Sojourner Truth – Tommy Dorsey – Stephen Sondheim

Posted on 29 NovamSun, 26 Nov 2023 00:42:00 -06002023-11-26T00:42:00-06:0012 2011 by MacGregor

Isabel_la_Católica-2On this day in 1504, Isabella the Catholic, queen of Castile and León (Crown of Castile), Isabella I died in Medina del Campo at the age of 53.  Born in Madrigal de las Altas Torres, Ávila, to John II of Castile and Isabella of Portugal on 22 April 1451.  She and her husband, Ferdinand II of Aragon, brought stability to the kingdoms that became the basis for the political unification of Spain under their grandson, Holy Roman Emperor Charles V.  After a struggle to claim her right to the throne, she reorganised the governmental system, brought the crime rate to the lowest it had been in years, and unburdened the kingdom of enormous debt.  Isabella’s reforms and those she made with her husband had an influence that extended well beyond the borders of their united kingdoms.  Isabella and Ferdinand are known for completing the Reconquista, ordering conversion or exile of their Muslim and Jewish subjects in the Spanish Inquisition, and for supporting and financing Christopher Columbus’s 1492 voyage that led to the opening of the New World.  Isabella was granted the title Servant of God by the Catholic Church in 1974.

isabellaCatholic_Monarchs-CoffinsThe Final Footprint – Isabella is entombed in Granada in the Capilla Real, which was built by her grandson, Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor (Carlos I of Spain), alongside her husband Ferdinand, her daughter Joanna and Joanna’s husband Philip; and Isabella’s 2-year-old grandson, Miguel (the son of Isabella’s daughter, also named Isabella, and King Manuel I of Portugal).  The museum next to the Capilla Real holds her crown and scepter.

On this day in 1883, abolitionist and women’s rights activist Sojourner Truth died at her Battle Creek, Michigan home, at the approximate age of 86. Born Isabella (Belle) Baumfree; c. 1797 into slavery in Swartekill, Ulster County, New York. She and her infant daughter escaped to freedom in 1826. After going to court to recover her son, in 1828 she became the first black woman to win such a case against a white man.

She gave herself the name Sojourner Truth in 1843 after she became convinced that God had called her to leave the city and go into the countryside “testifying the hope that was in her”. Perhaps her best-known speech was delivered extemporaneously, in 1851, at the Ohio Women’s Rights Convention in Akron, Ohio. The speech became widely known during the Civil War by the title “Ain’t I a Woman?,” a variation of the original speech re-written by someone else using a stereotypical Southern dialect; whereas Sojourner Truth was from New York and grew up speaking Dutch as her first language. During the Civil War, Truth helped recruit black troops for the Union Army. After the war, she tried unsuccessfully to secure land grants from the federal government for former slaves.

The Final Footprint

On November 28 her funeral was held at the Congregational-Presbyterian Church officiated by its pastor, the Reverend Reed Stuart. Some of the prominent citizens of Battle Creek acted as pall-bearers. Truth was buried in the city’s Oak Hill Cemetery.

The calendar of saints of the Episcopal Church remembers Sojourner Truth annually, together with Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Amelia Bloomer and Harriet Ross Tubman on July 20. The calendar of saints of the Lutheran Church remembers Sojourner Truth together with Harriet Tubman on March 10.

A larger-than-life sculpture of Sojourner Truth by artist Tina Allen, was dedicated in 1999, which is the estimated bicentennial of Sojourner’s birth. The 12-foot tall Sojourner monument is cast bronze.

The U.S. Treasury Department announced in 2016 that an image of Sojourner Truth will appear on the back of a newly designed $10 bill along with Lucretia Mott, Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Alice Paul and the 1913 Woman Suffrage Procession. Designs for new $5, $10 and $20 bills will be unveiled in 2020 in conjunction with the 100th anniversary of American women winning the right to vote via the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution.

Tommy_dorsey_playing_tromboneOn this day in 1956,  jazz trombonist, trumpeter, composer, bandleader of the Big Band era, younger brother of Jimmy, “The Sentimental Gentleman of Swing”, Tommy Dorsey, died at his Greenwich, Connecticut home at the age of 51.  Born Thomas Francis Dorsey, Jr. on 19 November 1905 near Shenandoah, Pennsylvania.  Dorsey married three times, Mildred Kraft (divorce), Pat Dane (divorce), Jane Carl New (his death).

The Final Footprint – Dorsey is interred in the Dorsey Private Hedge Estate in Kensico Cemetery in Valhalla, New York.  The estate is marked by a large upright granite marker.  His grave is marked by a full ledger granite marker inscribed with a picture of sheet music and a trombone and his nickname, The Sentimental Gentleman.

On this day in 2021 composer and lyricist Stephen Sondheim died of cardiovascular disease at his home in Roxbury, Connecticut, at the age of 91.  Born Stephen Joshua Sondheim on March 22, 1930, in New York City

One of the most important figures in twentieth-century musical theater, Sondheim is credited for having “reinvented the American musical” with shows that tackle “unexpected themes that range far beyond the [genre’s] traditional subjects” with “music and lyrics of unprecedented complexity and sophistication.”  His shows address “darker, more harrowing elements of the human experience,” with songs often tinged with “ambivalence” about various aspects of life.  He was known for his frequent collaborations with Hal Prince and James Lapine on the Broadway stage.

Sondheim’s interest in musical theater began at a young age, and he was mentored by Oscar Hammerstein II. He began his career by writing the lyrics for West Side Story (1957) and Gypsy (1959). He transitioned to writing both music and lyrics for the theater, with his best-known works including A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (1962), Company (1970), Follies (1971), A Little Night Music (1973), Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (1979), Merrily We Roll Along (1981), Sunday in the Park with George (1984), and Into the Woods (1987).

Sondheim’s numerous accolades include eight Tony Awards (including a Lifetime Achievement Tony in 2008), an Academy Award, eight Grammy Awards, a Laurence Olivier Award, a Pulitzer Prize, a Kennedy Center Honor, and a Presidential Medal of Freedom.  He has a theater named after him both on Broadway and in the West End of London. Film adaptations of his works include West Side Story (1961), A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (1966), Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007), Into the Woods (2014), and West Side Story (2021).

The Final Footprint

Collaborator and friend Jeremy Sams said Sondheim “died in the arms of his husband Jeff”.  On December 8, 2021, Broadway theaters dimmed their marquee lights for one minute as a tribute.  A trust managing Sondheim’s estate included the Smithsonian Institution, the Library of Congress, and the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts as beneficiaries.

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On this day 25 November – Malcolm II King of Scots – Abbé Prévost – Bill “Bojangles” Robinson – Upton Sinclair – Laurence Harvey – Flip Wilson – Fidel Castro – Diego Maradona

Posted on 29 NovamSat, 25 Nov 2023 00:36:00 -06002023-11-25T00:36:00-06:0012 2011 by MacGregor

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Flag of Scotland

 

17th Century depiction of Malcolm II

On this day in 1034, King of Scots from 1005 to 1034, Máel Coluim mac Cináeda (Modern Gaelic: Maol Chaluim mac Choinnich), Malcolm II, died at Glamis, a small village in Angus, Scotland (the location of Glamis Castle, the childhood home of Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother).  The son of Kenneth II King of Scots.  He was succeeded by his grandson Donnchad mac Crínáin, Duncan I.

19th Century engraving of King Malcolm II’s grave stone

The Final Footprint – Malcolm II is interred in what is now the ancient burial ground, the Rèilig Odhrain (Oran’s burial place or cemetery) of Iona Abbey.  None of the graves are now identifiable; their inscriptions reportedly had worn away by the end of the 17th century.  Iona rose to prominence in Scotland following the establishment of the Kingdom of Alba, Gaelic for Scotland, in the later 9th century.  The ruling dynasty of Alba traced its origin to Iona, and the island thus became an important spiritual centre of the new kingdom, with many of its early kings buried there.  Tradition knew the Pictish stone now called “Glamis 2” as “King Malcolm’s grave stone”.  The stone is a Class II stone, apparently formed by re-using a Bronze Age standing stone.  Its dating is uncertain, with dates from the 8th century onwards having been proposed. While an earlier date is favoured, an association with accounts of Máel Coluim’s has been proposed on the basis of the iconography of the carvings.

On this day in 1763, author Abbé Prévost died at the age of 66 in Chantilly, France.  Born Antoine François Prévost d’Exiles on 1 April 1697 at Hesdin, Artois.  While living in the Hague, he engaged on a translation of De Thou’s Historia, and, relying on the popularity of his first book, published at Amsterdam a Suite in three volumes, forming volumes v, vi, and vii of the original Mémoires et aventures d’un homme de qualité.  The seventh volume contained the famous Manon Lescaut, separately published in Paris in 1731 as Histoire du Chevalier des Grieux et de Manon Lescaut.  The book was eagerly read, chiefly in pirated copies, being forbidden in France.  Puccini‘s opera, Manon Lescaut is based on the novel.

The Final Footprint – unknown

On this day in 1949 tap dancer, actor, and singer, the best known and the most highly paid African-American entertainer in the United States during the first half of the 20th century, “Bojangles” Bill Robinson died from heart failure in New York City, aged 71. Cemetery of the Evergreens, Brooklyn.  His long career mirrored changes in American entertainment tastes and technology. His career began in the age of minstrel shows and moved to vaudeville, Broadway theatre, the recording industry, Hollywood films, radio, and television.

Cemetery of the Evergreens, Brooklyn

On this day in 1968, writer Upton Sinclair died in a nursing home in Bound Brook, New Jersey at the age of 90. Born Upton Beall Sinclair Jr. on September 20, 1878 in Baltimore, Maryland. Sinclair’s work was well known and popular in the first half of the 20th century, and he won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1943.

In 1906, Sinclair acquired notoriety for his classic muck-raking novel The Jungle, which exposed labor and sanitary conditions in the U.S. meatpacking industry, causing a public uproar that contributed in part to the passage a few months later of the 1906 Pure Food and Drug Act and the Meat Inspection Act. In 1919, he published The Brass Check, a muck-raking exposé of American journalism that publicized the issue of yellow journalism and the limitations of the “free press” in the United States. Four years after publication of The Brass Check, the first code of ethics for journalists was created. Time magazine called him “a man with every gift except humor and silence”. He is also well remembered for the line: “It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends upon his not understanding it.” He used this line in speeches and the book about his campaign for governor as a way to explain why the editors and publishers of the major newspapers in California would not treat seriously his proposals for old age pensions and other progressive reforms.

Writing during the Progressive Era, Sinclair describes the world of industrialized America from both the working man’s and the industrialist’s points of view. Novels such as King Coal (1917), The Coal War (published posthumously), Oil! (1927), and The Flivver King(1937) describe the working conditions of the coal, oil, and auto industries at the time.

The Flivver King describes the rise of Henry Ford, his “wage reform”, and the company’s Sociological Department to his decline into antisemitism as publisher of The Dearborn Independent. King Coal confronts John D. Rockefeller Jr., and his role in the 1913 Ludlow Massacre in the coal fields of Colorado.

Sinclair was an outspoken socialist and ran unsuccessfully for Congress as a nominee from the Socialist Party. He was also the Democratic Party candidate for Governor of California during the Great Depression, running under the banner of the End Poverty in California campaign, but was defeated in the 1934 elections.

In April 1900, Sinclair went to Lake Massawippi in Quebec to work on a novel. He had a small cabin rented for three months and then he moved to a farmhouse. Here, his future wife, Meta Fuller, and he became close. She was three years younger than him and had aspirations of being more than a housewife. Sinclair gave her direction as to what to read and learn. Meta had been a childhood friend whose family was one of the First Families of Virginia. Each had warned the other about themselves and would later bring that up in arguments. They married October 18, 1900. Meta and her family tried to get Sinclair to give up writing and get “a job that would support his family.” Around 1911, Meta left Sinclair for the poet Harry Kemp, later known as the “Dunes Poet” of Provincetown, Massachusetts.

In 1913, Sinclair married Mary Craig Kimbrough (1883–1961), a woman from an elite Greenwood, Mississippi, family. She had written articles and a book on Winnie Davis, the daughter of Confederate States of America President Jefferson Davis. He met her when she attended one of his lectures about The Jungle. In the 1920s, the Sinclair couple moved to California. They were married until her death in 1961. Sinclair married again, to Mary Elizabeth Willis (1882–1967).

Sinclair was opposed to sex outside of marriage and he viewed marital relations as necessary only for procreation. He told his first wife Meta that only the birth of a child gave marriage “dignity and meaning”. Despite his beliefs, he had an adulterous affair with Anna Noyes during his marriage to Meta. He wrote a novel about the affair called Love’s Progress, a sequel to Love’s Pilgrimage. It was never published. His wife next had an affair with John Armistead Collier, a theology student from Memphis.

Late in life Sinclair, with his third wife Mary Willis, moved to Buckeye, Arizona. They returned east to Bound Brook, New Jersey.

The Final Footprint

He is buried in Rock Creek Cemetery in Washington, DC, next to Willis. Other notable final footprints at Rock Creek include; Tim Russert and Gore Vidal.

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On this day in 1973, actor Laurence Harvey died from stomach cancer in Hampstead, London at the age of 45. Born Laruschka Mischa Skikne on 1 October 1928 in Joniškis, Lithuania. In a career that spanned a quarter of a century, Harvey appeared in stage, film and television productions primarily in the United Kingdom and the United States. His performance in Room at the Top (1959) resulted in an Academy Award nomination. That success was followed by the role of William Barret Travis in The Alamo (1960), and as the brainwashed Raymond Shaw in The Manchurian Candidate (1962).

Early in his career, Harvey reportedly had a live-in relationship with actress Hermione Baddeley (who appeared in a supporting role in Room at the Top, for which she was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress). He left Baddeley in 1951 for actress Margaret Leighton, who was then married to publisher Max Reinhardt. Leighton and Reinhardt divorced in 1955, and she married Harvey in 1957 off the Rock of Gibraltar. The couple divorced in 1961. In 1968 he married Joan Perry, the widow of film mogul Harry Cohn. Her marriage to Harvey lasted until 1972. His third marriage was to British fashion model Paulene Stone. She gave birth to Domino in 1969, while he was still married to Perry. Harvey and Stone married in 1972. The wedding took place at the home of Harold Robbins.

After working in two films with her, Harvey remained friends with Elizabeth Taylor for the rest of his life. She visited him three weeks before he died. Upon his death, Taylor issued the statement, “He was one of the people I really loved in this world. He was part of the sun. For everyone who loved him, the sun is a bit dimmer.”

The Final Footprint

Domino, who later became a bounty hunter, was only four years old at the time of his death. She died at the age of 35 in 2005 after overdosing on painkillers. They are buried together in Santa Barbara Cemetery in Santa Barbara, California. Taylor and Peter Lawford held a memorial service for Harvey.

#RIP #OTD in 1998 comedian (The Devil Made Me Buy This Dress) and actor (The Flip Wilson Show) Flip Wilson died from liver cancer in Malibu, aged 64. He was cremated at Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery and his cremated remains were scattered off Malibu Beach.

#RIP #OTD in 2016 revolutionary, lawyer, leader of Cuba from 1959 to 2008, Fidel Castro died in Havanna, aged 90. Cremation with cremated remains entombed in the Santa Ifigenia Cemetery in Santiago de Cuba.

#RIP #OTD in 2020 Argentine professional football player, manager, 3x World Cup Champion Diego Maradona died; cardiac arrest in his sleep at his home in Dique Luján, Buenos Aires Province, aged 60.

Jardín de Bella Vista cemetery, Bella Vista, Buenos Aires.

Have you planned yours yet?

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Day in History 24 November – John Knox – Diego Rivera – Freddie Mercury – Albert Collins – Barbara – Pat Morita

Posted on 29 NovamFri, 24 Nov 2023 00:51:00 -06002023-11-24T00:51:00-06:0012 2011 by MacGregor

Portrait of Knox from Theodore Beza’s Icones

On this day in 1572, Scottish clergyman, a leader of the Protestant Reformation and the founder of the Presbyterian denomination in Scotland, John Knox, died in Edinburgh at the approximate age of 62.  Born sometime between 1505 and 1515 in or near Haddington, the county town of East Lothian.  Believed to have been educated at the University of St Andrews.  Influenced by early church reformers he joined the movement to reform the Scottish church.  Knox was caught up in the ecclesiastical and political events surrounding the murder of Cardinal Beaton in 1546 and the intervention of the regent of Scotland, Mary of Guise.  He was taken prisoner by French forces the following year and exiled to England on his release in 1549.  While in exile, Knox was licensed to work in the Church of England, where he quickly rose in the ranks to serve King Edward VI of England as a royal chaplain.  In this position, he exerted a reforming influence on the text of the Book of Common Prayer.  When Mary Tudor ascended the throne and re-established Roman Catholicism, Knox was forced to resign his position and leave the country.  Knox first moved to Geneva and then to Frankfurt.  In Geneva, he met John Calvin, from whom he gained experience and knowledge of Reformed theology and Presbyterian polity.  He created a new order of service, which was eventually adopted by the reformed church in Scotland.  He left Geneva to head the English refugee church in Frankfurt but he was forced to leave over differences concerning the liturgy, thus ending his association with the Church of England.  On his return to Scotland, he led the Protestant Reformation in Scotland, in partnership with the Scottish Protestant nobility.  The movement may be seen as a revolution, since it led to the ousting of Mary of Guise, who governed the country in the name of her young daughter, Mary Queen of Scots.  Knox helped write the new confession of faith and the ecclesiastical order for the newly created reformed church, the Kirk.  He continued to serve as the religious leader of the Protestants throughout Mary’s reign.

Stained glass window, Knox admonishing Mary, Queen of Scots, Covenant Presbyterian Church Long Beach, California

In several interviews with the queen, Knox admonished her for supporting Catholic practices.  Eventually, she was imprisoned for her alleged role in the murder of her husband, Lord Darnley, and James VI enthroned in her stead.  Knox openly called for her execution.  He continued to preach until his final days.  Knox married twice, first to Marjorie then to Margaret Stewart, the daughter of an old friend, Andrew Stewart, a member of the Stuart family and a distant relative of the queen, Mary Stuart. The marriage was unusual because he was a widower of fifty, while the bride was only seventeen.  One of my great-great grandfathers was a Knox.  I was baptised as an infant in The First Presbyterian Church of Canadian, Texas.

St. Giles at night

The Final Footprint – Knox is interred in the churchyard of St. Giles Cathedral, or the High Kirk of Scotland, though no grave marker exists.  St. Giles was the patron saint of Edinburgh, cripples and lepers.  A statue of Knox was incorporated in the International Monument to the Reformation (French: Monument international de la Réformation, German: Internationales Reformationsdenkmal).  Usually known as the Reformation Wall, it is a monument in Geneva, Switzerland that honours many of the main individuals, events, and documents of the Protestant Reformation by depicting them in statues and bas-reliefs.  One of the bas-reliefs features Knox preaching at St. Giles before the court of Mary Stuart including, James Stewart, Lord Darnley and Matthew Stewart.

On this day in 1957, painter Diego Rivera died in Mexico City at the age of 70. Born Diego María de la Concepción Juan Nepomuceno Estanislao de la Rivera y Barrientos Acosta y Rodríguez on December 8, 1886 in Guanajuato, Mexico. His large frescoes helped establish the Mexican mural movement in Mexican art. Between 1922 and 1953, Rivera painted murals in, among other places, Mexico City, Chapingo, Cuernavaca, San Francisco, Detroit, and New York City. In 1931, a retrospective exhibition of his works was held at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Rivera had a volatile marriage with fellow Mexican artist Frida Kahlo.

He married Angelina Beloff in 1911, and she gave birth to a son, Diego (1916–1918). Maria Vorobieff-Stebelska gave birth to a daughter named Marika in 1918 or 1919 when Rivera was married to Angelina. He married his second wife, Guadalupe Marín, in June 1922, with whom he had two daughters: Ruth and Guadalupe. He was still married when he met art student Frida Kahlo. They married on August 21, 1929 when he was 42 and she was 22. Their mutual infidelities and his violent temper led to divorce in 1939, but they remarried December 8, 1940 in San Francisco. Rivera later married Emma Hurtado, his agent since 1946, on July 29, 1955, one year after Kahlo’s death.

Maternidad, Angelina y el niño Diego (Motherhood, Angelina and the Child Diego), c. August 1916, oil on canvas, 134.5 x 88.5 cm, Museo de Arte Carrillo Gil. This work forms part of Rivera’s Crystal Cubist period.

Kahlo and Rivera in 1932, photo by: Carl Van Vechten

mural The History of Mexico at the National Palace in Mexico City

Amedeo Modigliani, Portrait of Diego Rivera, 1914

En el Arsenal detail, 1928

Recreation of Man at the Crossroads (renamed Man, Controller of the Universe), originally created in 1934 (detail)

Portrait March 19, 1932 by Carl Van Vechten

Detroit Industry, South Wall, 1932–33. Detroit Institute of Arts

The Final Footprint

Rivera is entombed in Rotonda de las Personas Ilustres inside the Panteón de Dolores in Mexico City.

Rivera was portrayed by Rubén Blades in Cradle Will Rock (1999), by Alfred Molina in Frida (2002), and (in a brief appearance) by José Montini in Eisenstein in Guanajuato (2015).

Literary portrayals

Rivera, Kahlo, and Leon Trotsky are principal characters in Barbara Kingsolver’s novel, The Lacuna.

Gallery

Paintings

    • Self-portrait with Broad-Brimmed Hat, 1907, 84.5 × 61.5 cm. Museo Dolores Olmedo

    • Avila Morning (The Ambles Valley), 1908, 97 × 123 cm. Museo Nacional de Arte

    • Street in Ávila (Ávila Landscape), 1908, 129 × 141 cm. Museo Nacional de Arte

    • El Picador, 1909, 177 × 113 cm. Museo Dolores Olmedo

    • The House on the Bridge, 1909, 147 × 121 cm. Museo Nacional de Arte

    • After the Storm (The Grounded Ship), 1910, 120.7 × 146.7 cm. Museo Nacional de Arte

    • Landscape, 1911. Frida Kahlo Museum.

    • Portrait of Adolfo Best Maugard, 1913, 227.5 × 161.5 cm. Museo Nacional de Arte

    • Adoration of the Virgin and Child, 1912–13, oil and encaustic on canvas, 150 x 120 cm, private collection

    • The Sun Breaking through the Mist, 1913, 83.5 × 59 cm. Museo Dolores Olmedo

    • The Woman at the Well, 1913, 145 × 125 cm. Museo Nacional de Arte

    • The Alarm Clock, 1914. Frida Kahlo Museum

    • Two Women (Dos Mujeres, Portrait of Angelina Beloff and Maria Dolores Bastian), 1914, 197.5 x 161.3 cm. Arkansas Arts Center

    • Portrait de Messieurs Kawashima et Foujita, 1914, oil and collage on canvas, 78.5 x 74 cm. Private collection

    • Young Man with a Fountain Pen, 1914, 79.5 × 63.5 cm. Museo Dolores Olmedo

    • El Rastro, 1915, 27.5 × 38.5 cm. Museo Dolores Olmedo

    • Zapata-style Landscape, 1915, 145 × 125 cm. Museo Nacional de Arte

    • Portrait of Marevna, c.1915, 145.7 x 112.7 cm. Art Institute of Chicago

    • Seated Woman (Women with the Body of a Guitar), 1915-16. Frida Kahlo Museum

    • Urban Landscape, 1916. Frida Kahlo Museum

    • Still Life with Tulips(Naturaleza Muerta con Tulipanes), 1916, oil on canvas, 67.8 x 53.7 cm

    • Knife and Fruit in Front of the Window, 1917, 91.8 × 92.4 cm. Museo Dolores Olmedo

    • Still Life with Utensils, 1917, 71 × 54 cm. Museo Dolores Olmedo

  • The Mathematician, 1919, 115.5 × 80.5 cm. Museo Dolores Olmedo

Murals

    • Mural of exploitation of Mexico by Spanish conquistadors, Palacio Nacional, Mexico City (1929–1945)

    • Mural of the Aztec city of Tenochtitlan, Palacio Nacional, Mexico City

    • Mural of the Aztec market of Tlatelolco, Palacio Nacional, Mexico City

    • Mural showing Aztec production of gold, Palacio Nacional, Mexico City

    • Mural showing Totonaca celebrations and ceremonies, Palacio Nacional, Mexico City

    • Detail of Man, Controller of the Universe, fresco at Palacio de Bellas Artes showing Leon Trotsky, Friedrich Engels, and Karl Marx

    • Detail of Man, Controller of the Universe, fresco at Palacio de Bellas Artes showing Vladimir Lenin

    • Mural Sueño de una Tarde Dominical en la Alameda Central in Mexico City, featuring Rivera and Frida Kahlo standing by La Calavera Catrina

    • Mural at Palacio de Gobierno, Mexico City

  • Detail of The History of Mexico showing betrayed revolution at Palacio Nacional, Mexico City

Sculptures and lithographs

    • Tlaloc Fountain in Cárcamo de Dolores, Mexico City (1951)

  • 3D mural of Quetzalcóatl in the Exekatlkalli (Casa de los Vientos) in Acapulco, Guerrero (1957)

Freddie_Mercury_performing_in_New_Haven,_CT,_November_1978On this day in 1991, singer, songwriter, lyricist, lead singer of Queen, Freddie Mercury died at the age of 45 surrounded by friends at his home in Kensington, London, from bronchial pneumonia resulting from AIDS.  Born Farrokh Bulsara in the British protectorate of Sultanate of Zanzibar, East Africa (now part of Tanzania) on 5 September 1946.  As a performer, he was known for his flamboyant stage persona and powerful vocals over a four-octave range.  As a songwriter, he composed many hits for Queen, including “Bohemian Rhapsody,” “Killer Queen,” “Somebody to Love,” “Don’t Stop Me Now,” “Crazy Little Thing Called Love,” and “We Are the Champions.”  In addition to his work with Queen, he led a solo career, and also occasionally served as a producer and guest musician (piano or vocals) for other artists.

The Final Footprint – On 27 November 1991, Mercury’s funeral service was conducted by a Zoroastrian priest.  An intensely private man, Mercury’s service was for 35 of his close friends and family, with the remaining members of Queen (Brian May, Roger Taylor, and John Deacon) and Elton John among those in attendance.  Mercury was cremated at Kensal Green Cemetery, West London.  In accordance with Mercury’s wishes, Mary Austin took possession of his ashes and buried them in an undisclosed location.  The whereabouts of his ashes are believed to be known only to Austin, who has stated that she will never reveal where she buried them.

The outer walls of Mercury’s home purchased with Austin, Garden Lodge in 1 Logan Place became a shrine to Mercury following his death, with mourners paying tribute by covering the walls in graffiti messages.  Three years after his death, Time Out magazine reported, “Since Freddie’s death, the wall outside the house has become London’s biggest rock ‘n’ roll shrine.”.  Today fans continue to visit to pay their respects with messages in letters appearing on the walls.

In 1992 he was awarded the Brit Award for Outstanding Contribution to British Music, and the Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert was held at Wembley Stadium, London.  As a member of Queen, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2001, the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2003, the UK Music Hall of Fame in 2004, and the band received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2002.

In my opinion, Mercury is one of the greatest singers in the history of popular music.

Another notable cremation at Kensal Green: Ingrid Bergman.

On this day in 1993, electric blues guitarist and singer, The Master of the Telecaster, The Ice Man, Albert Collins died from cancer at his home in Las Vegas at the age of 61. Born Albert Gene Drewery on October 1, 1932 in Leona, Texas. Known for his distinctive guitar style, using powerful playing and altered tunings and a capo.

Collins was an inspiration to a generation of Texas guitar players, including Stevie Ray Vaughan and Jimmie Vaughan. 

Collins is remembered for his informal and audience-engaging live performances. One story recounted in the documentary Antones: Austin’s Home of the Blues: Collins was playing a lengthy solo one night at Antone’s and left the building whilst still playing. He returned to the stage still playing the solo and resumed entertaining the audience in person. Shortly afterwards a man arrived at the club and gave Collins the pizza he had just ordered.

The Final Footprint

Collins is interred in Davis Memorial Park in Las Vegas.

#RIP #OTD in 1997 singer/songwriter (“Dis, quand reviendras-tu?”, “Ma plus belle histoire d’amour”, “L’Aigle noir”), Barbara (Monique Serf) died of respiratory problems in Neuilly-sur-Seine, aged 67. Cimetière parisien de Bagneux

#RIP #OTD in 2005 comedian, actor (Happy Days, The Karate Kid, M*A*S*H, Sanford and Son) Pat Morita died of kidney failure, at his home in Las Vegas, aged 73. Cremated at Palm Green Valley Mortuary and Cemetery in Las Vegas

Have you planned yours yet?

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