Day in History 6 January – Louis Braille – Teddy Roosevelt – Ida Tarbell – Victor Fleming – Dizzy Gillespie – Rudolf Nureyev – Lou Rawls – Peter Bogdanovich – Sidney Poitier

Posted on 29 JanamSat, 06 Jan 2024 00:45:00 -06002024-01-06T00:45:00-06:0012 2011 by MacGregor

#RIP #OTD in 1852 educator and inventor of the braille reading and writing system, Louis Braille died from tuberculosis in the infirmary at the Royal Institution, Paris, aged 43. His hands buried in Coupvray, remainer of his body in the Panthéon, Paris

On this day in 1919, author, politician, soldier, Colonel in the U.S. Army, 33rd Governor of New York, 25th Vice President of the United States, 26th President of the United States, Nobel Peace Prize and Medal of Honor recipient, Teddy Roosevelt, died in his sleep at his home, Sagamore Hill in Oyster Bay, New York from a pulmonary embolism at the age of 60.  Born Theodore Roosevelt on 27 October 1858, in a four-story brownstone at 28 East 20th Street, in the modern-day Gramercy section of New York City.  The Roosevelt family is of Dutch origin.  His brother Elliott would be the father of future First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt.  He and Franklin D. Roosevelt, the 32nd POTUS were cousins.  Their grandfather was Nicholas Roosevelt.  Roosevelt graduated from Harvard.  He was an avid reader and a firm believer in physical fitness.  The argument can be made that Roosevelt changed the nation’s political system by permanently placing the presidency at center stage and making character as important as the issues.  History and legend have been kind to him.  His friend, historian Henry Adams, proclaimed, “Roosevelt, more than any other living man ….showed the singular primitive quality that belongs to ultimate matter – the quality that mediaeval theology assigned to God – he was pure act.”  Historians typically rank Roosevelt among the top presidents.  Roosevelt was married twice; Alice Hathaway Lee (1880 – 1884 her death) and Edith Kermit Carow (1886 – 1919 his death).  My favorite TR quote is; “Speak softly and carry a big stick.”  Those that know me recognize that as one of my defining traits. 

The Final Footprint – Upon receiving word of his death, his son Archie telegraphed his siblings simply, “The old lion is dead.”  Woodrow Wilson‘s vice president, Thomas R. Marshall, said that “Death had to take Roosevelt sleeping, for if he had been awake, there would have been a fight.”  In addition to sisters Corinne and Bamie and his wife Edith, Roosevelt was survived by five children and eight grandchildren at the time of his death.  He is interred in the Roosevelt Private Estate in Youngs Memorial Cemetery, Oyster Bay with his second wife Edith.  The estate is marked by a large upright granite marker inscribed with their names and birth and death dates.  His grave is marked by a bronze on granite foot marker inscribed with his name and birth and death dates and; MEDAL OF HONOR LIEUT COLONEL US ARMY SPANISH AMERICAN WAR.  Roosevelt was included with George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln at the Mount Rushmore Memorial near Keystone, North Dakota, designed in 1927 with the approval of Republican President Calvin Coolidge.  Roosevelt’s legacy includes several other important commemorations. The United States Navy named two ships for Roosevelt: the USS Theodore Roosevelt (SSBN-600), a submarine that was in commission from 1961 to 1982; and the USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN-71), an aircraft carrier that has been on active duty in the Atlantic Fleet since 1986.  Hundreds of schools and streets have been named in Roosevelt’s honor.  The Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel in Los Angeles is named after him, as is the Roosevelt Hotel in New York City.  Perhaps Roosevelt’s most lasting popular legacy, however, is the stuffed toy bears—teddy bears—named after him following an incident on a hunting trip in Mississippi in 1902.  Roosevelt famously ordered the mercy killing of a wounded black bear.  After a national cartoonist illustrated the President with a bear, a toy maker heard the story and asked Roosevelt if he could use his name on a toy bear.  Roosevelt approved and the teddy bear was born.  Bears and later bear cubs became closely associated with Roosevelt in political cartoons thereafter.

#RIP #OTD in 1944 writer (The History of the Standard Oil Company), investigative journalist, biographer and lecturer, Ida Tarbell died of pneumonia at Bridgeport Hospital in Bridgeport, Connecticut, aged 86. Woodlawn Cemetery, Titusville, Pennsylvania

#RIP #OTD in 1949 film director (Gone with the Winde, The Wizard of Oz), cinematographer, and producer, Victor Fleming died from a heart attack in Cottonwood, Arizona, aged 59. Hollywood Forever Cemetery

Dizzy_Gillespie01On this day in 1993, jazz trumpeter, bandleader, composer, Dizzy Gillespie died from pancreatic cancer in Englewood, New Jersey at the age of 75.  Born John Birks Gillespie on 21 October 1917 in Cheraw, South Carolina.  In my opinon Gillespie’s had an important influence on jazz and was one of the greatest jazz trumpeters of all time.  Gillespie was a trumpet virtuoso and improviser and added layers of harmonic complexity previously unknown in jazz.  His beret and horn-rimmed spectacles, his scat singing, his bent horn, pouched cheeks and his light-hearted personality were essential in popularizing bebop.  In the 1940s Gillespie, together with Charlie Parker, became a major figure in the development of bebop and modern jazz.  Gillespie was married to Lorraine Willis (1940 – 1993 his death). 

The Final Footprint – Gillespie is interred in an unmarked grave next to his mother in the Flushing Cemetery, Queens, New York.  Gillespie had two funerals.  One was a Bahá’í funeral at his request, at which his closest friends and colleagues attended.  The second was at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York open to the public.  Fellow jazz legend, Louis Armstrong is also interred at Flushing Cemetery.

On this day in 1993, ballet and contemporary dancer and choreographer, Lord of the Dance, Rudolf Nureyev died from AIDS complications at the hospital Notre Dame du Perpétuel Secours in Levallois-Perret, at the age of 54. Born Rudolf Khametovich Nureyev on 17 March 1938 on a Trans-Siberian train near Irkutsk, Siberia, Soviet Union. He was director of the Paris Opera Ballet from 1983 to 1989 and its chief choreographer until October 1992. In my opinion, Nureyev is the greatest male ballet dancer of his generation.

In addition, Nureyev was an accomplished choreographer. He produced his own interpretations of numerous classical works, including Swan Lake, Giselle, and La Bayadère.

Nureyev had his early career with the Mariinsky Ballet in St. Petersburg. He defected from the Soviet Union to the West in 1961, despite KGB efforts to stop him. This was the first defection of a Soviet artist during the Cold War and it created an international sensation.

He went on to dance with The Royal Ballet in London and from 1983 to 1989 served as director of the Paris Opera Ballet.

The Final Footprint

His funeral was held in the marble foyer of the Paris Garnier Opera House. Many paid tributes to his brilliance as a dancer. One such tribute came from Oleg Vinogradov of the Mariinsky Ballet in Saint Petersburg, Russia, stating: “What Nureyev did in the west, he could never have done here.”

Nureyev’s grave, at a Russian cemetery in Sainte-Geneviève-des-Bois near Paris, features a tomb draped in a mosaic of an oriental carpet. Nureyev was an avid collector of beautiful carpets and antique textiles. As his coffin was lowered into the ground, music from the last act of Giselle was played and his ballet shoes were cast into the grave along with white lilies.

On this day in 2006, singer, songwriter, actor, voice actor, and record producer Lou Rawls died from lung cancer at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, California, at the age of 72. Born Louis Allen Rawls on December 1, 1933 in Rawls released more than 60 albums, sold more than 40 million records, and had numerous charting singles, most notably his song “You’ll Never Find Another Love Like Mine”. He worked as a film, television, and voice actor. He was also a three-time Grammy-winner, all for Best Male R&B Vocal Performance.

Rawls’s first marriage was in the spring of 1968, in Princeton, New Jersey. Sidney Poitier was his best man, and the reception was held at Westminster Choir College. In 2003 Rawls married Nina Inman.

The Final Footprint

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

#RIP #OTD in 2022 director (The Last Picture Show,  What’s Up, Doc?, Paper Moon, Saint Jack, They All Laughed, Mask), writer, actor, Peter Bogdanovich died from complications of Parkinson’s disease at his home in Los Angeles, aged 82. Westwood Memorial Park, Westwood, California

#RIP #OTD in 2022 Bahamian and American actor (The Defiant Ones, Lilies of the Field, To Sir, with Love, Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner, In the Heat of the Night), film director, diplomat Sidney Poitier died at his home in Beverly Hills, California, aged 94. Cremation

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Day in History 5 January – Edward the Confessor – Catherine de’ Medici – Tina Modotti – Mistinguett – Charles Mingus – Sonny Bono

Posted on 29 JanamFri, 05 Jan 2024 00:54:00 -06002024-01-05T00:54:00-06:0012 2011 by MacGregor

On this day in 1066, Anglo-Saxon king of England and saint, Edward the Confessor, died in London at the apporoximate age of 62.  Born c. 1003 in Islip, Oxfordshire, England, the son of Æthelred the Unready and Emma of Normandy.  Edward’s reign began in 1042 on the death of his half brother Harthacanut; the king of Denmark and England was the son of Cnut the Great and Emma of Normandy, Edward’s mother.  His reign restored the rule of the House of Wessex after the period of Danish rule since Cnut had conquered England in 1016 but marked the continuing disintegration of royal power in England and the advancing power of the earls.  Edward married Edith of Wessex but the union was childless.  When Edward died in 1066 he had no son to take over the throne and conflict arose as three men claimed the throne of England.  His nearest heir would have been his great nephew Edgar Ætheling who was 14 at the time.  Edward made a deathbed bestowal of the crown on Harold Godwinson, the brother of Queen Edith.  The Viking king, Harald III of Norway based a claim to the throne of England on an agreement supposedly made by Magnus and Harthacnut, which stated that if either died, the other would inherit the deceased’s throne and lands.  When Harthacnut died, Magnus assumed the crown of Denmark, but did not press his claim on England, allowing Edward to take the throne.  William, Duke of Normandy (William the Conqueror), whose great aunt Emma was Edward’s mother, claimed that Edward promised him the throne upon Edward’s death.  The resulting conflict led to the Norman Conquest and the subsequent influence of Norman-French culture on England.  Osbert de Clare, a monk of Westminster, represented Edward as a holy man, reported to have performed several miracles and to have healed people by his touch.  Edward had a stone abbey built at Westminster Abbey which became the traditional place for English and British royalty coronations and burials. 

The Final Footprint – Edward is entombed in the Chapel of St. Edward the Confessor located behind the sanctuary in Westminster Abbey. Osbert went to Rome to advocate the cause for Edward to be declared a saint, successfully securing his canonization by Pope Alexander III in 1161.  Edward is commemorated on 13 October by the Roman Catholic Church, the Church of England and other Anglican Churches.  He is regarded as the patron saint of kings, difficult marriages, and separated spouses.  From the reign of Henry II of England to 1348, he was considered the patron saint of England.  During the reign of Edward III of England he was replaced in this role by Saint George, though Edward has remained the patron saint of the British Royal Family.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, 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, Thomas Shadwell, Lord Alfred Tennyson, Dylan Thomas, and William III. 

Catherine-de-mediciOn this day in 1589, Italian noblewoman, as the wife of King Henry II, the Queen of France from 1547 until 1559, Catherine de’ Medici died at the age of sixty-nine, probably from pleurisy the Royal Château of Blois, Loir-et-Cher department, Loire Valley, France.  Born in Florence, Republic of Florence, as Caterina Maria Romula di Lorenzo de’ Medici.  The Medici family were at the time the de facto rulers of Florence: originally bankers, they came to great wealth and power by bankrolling the monarchies of Europe.  The Medici produced four Popes of the Catholic Church, Pope Leo X (1513–1521), Pope Clement VII (1523–1534), Pope Pius IV (1559–1565), and Pope Leo XI (1605); two regent queens of France, Catherine and Marie (1600–1610); and, in 1531, the family became hereditary Dukes of Florence. Catherine’s father, Lorenzo II de’ Medici, was made Duke of Urbino by his uncle Pope Leo X.  Her mother, Madeleine de la Tour d’Auvergne, the Countess of Boulogne, was from one of the most prominent and ancient French noble families; this prestigious maternal heritage was of benefit to her future marriage to a fils de France.  As the mother of three sons who became kings of France during her lifetime she had extensive influence in the political life of France.  For a time she ruled France as its regent.  In 1533, at the age of fourteen, Caterina married Henry, second son of King Francis I and Queen Claude of France.  Throughout his reign, Henry excluded Catherine from participating in state affairs and instead showered favours on his chief mistress, Diane de Poitiers, who wielded much influence over him.  Henry’s death thrust Catherine into the political arena as mother of the frail fifteen-year-old King Francis II.  When he died in 1560, she became regent on behalf of her ten-year-old son King Charles IX and was granted sweeping powers.  After Charles died in 1574, Catherine played a key role in the reign of her third son, Henry III.  Catherine’s three sons reigned in an age of almost constant civil and religious war in France.  The problems facing the monarchy were complex and daunting.  At first, Catherine compromised and made concessions to the rebelling Protestants, or Huguenots, as they became known.  She failed, however, to grasp the theological issues that drove their movement.  Later, she resorted in frustration and anger to hard-line policies against them.  In return, she came to be blamed for the excessive persecutions carried out under her sons’ rule, in particular for the St. Bartholomew’s Day massacre of 1572, in which thousands of Huguenots were killed in Paris and throughout France.  Some historians have excused Catherine from blame for the worst decisions of the crown, though evidence for her ruthlessness can be found in her letters.  In practice, her authority was always limited by the effects of the civil wars.  Her policies, therefore, may be seen as desperate measures to keep the Valois monarchy on the throne at all costs, and her patronage of the arts as an attempt to glorify a monarchy whose prestige was in steep decline.  Without Catherine, it is unlikely that her sons would have remained in power.  The years in which they reigned have been called “the age of Catherine de’ Medici”.  According to one of her biographers Mark Strage, Catherine was the most powerful woman in sixteenth-century Europe.  Catherine_de_Medicis_Henri_II_gisants_basilique-Saint-Denis

The Final Footprint – Because Paris was held by enemies of the crown, Catherine had to be buried at Blois.  Diane, daughter of Henry II and Philippa Duci, later had her body moved to Saint-Denis basilica.  In 1793, a revolutionary mob tossed her bones into a mass grave with those of the other kings and queens.  Eight months after Catherine’s burial, Jacques Clément stabbed Henry III to death.  At the time, Henry was besieging Paris with the King of Navarre, who would succeed him as Henry IV of France.  Henry III’s assassination ended nearly three centuries of Valois rule and brought the Bourbon dynasty into power.  The Cathedral Basilica of Saint Denis is a large medieval abbey church in the city of Saint-Denis, now a northern suburb of Paris.  The building is of unique importance historically and architecturally, as its choir completed in 1144 is considered to be the first Gothic church ever built.  The abbey is where the kings of France and their families were buried for centuries and is therefore often referred to as the “royal necropolis of France”.  All but three of the monarchs of France from the 10th century until 1789 have their remains here.  Other notable final footprints at St. Denis include: Clovis I (465–511), Childebert I (496–558), Arégonde (c.515–c.573), Fredegonde (Wife of Chilperic I of Neustria) (?–597), Dagobert I (603–639), Clovis II (635–657), Charles Martel (686–741), Pippin the Younger (714–768) and his wife Bertrada of Laon (726–783), Carloman I King of the Franks (c.751–771), Charles the Bald (823–877) (his brass monument was melted down during the Revolution) and his wife, Ermentrude of Orléans (823–869), Carloman (866–884), Robert II the Pious (972–1031) and Constance of Arles (c. 986–1032), Henry I (1008–1060), Louis VI (1081–1137), Louis VII (1120–1180) and Constance of Castile (1141–1160), Philip II Augustus (1180–1223), Louis IX (1214-1270), Charles I of Naples (1226–1285), king of the Two Sicilies (1266–85), Philip III the Bold (1245–1285), Philip IV the Fair (1268–1314) and his mother Isabella of Aragon (1247–1271), Leo V of Armenia (1342–1393), Louis XII of France (1462–1515), Francis I (1494–1547), Henry II (1519–1559), Francis II (1544–1560), Charles IX (1550–1574) (no monument), Henry III (1551–1589), also King of Poland (heart burial monument), Henry IV (1553–1610) and Marie de’ Medici, Louis XIII (1601–1643), Louis XIV (1638–1715), Louis XV (1710–1774), Louis XVI (1754–1793) and Marie Antoinette (1755–1793), Louis XVII (1785–1795) (only his heart; his body was dumped into a mass grave), and Louis XVIII (1755–1824).

#RIP #OTD in 1942 photographer, model (for Edward Weston, Diego Rivera), actor, and revolutionary political activist, Tina Modotti died from congestive heart failure in Mexico City, aged 45. Panteón de Dolores in Mexico City

#RIP #OTD in 1956 actress and singer (“Mon Homme”), at one time the highest-paid female entertainer in the world, Mistinguett died in Bougival, France, aged 82. Cimetière Enghien-les-Bains, Île-de-France, France

On this day in 1979,  jazz double bassist, pianist, composer and bandleader, The Angry Man of Jazz, Charles Mingus died from ALS in Cuernavaca, Mexico, at the age of 56. Born Charles Mingus Jr. on April 22, 1922 on the US Army base in Nogales, Arizona. A major proponent of collective improvisation, in my opinion, he is one of the greatest jazz musicians and composers in history. His career spanned three decades.

Mingus’ compositions continue to be played by contemporary musicians ranging from the repertory bands Mingus Big Band, Mingus Dynasty, and Mingus Orchestra, to the high school students who play the charts and compete in the Charles Mingus High School Competition. In 1993, The Library of Congress acquired Mingus’s collected papers—including scores, sound recordings, correspondence and photos—in what they described as “the most important acquisition of a manuscript collection relating to jazz in the Library’s history”.

The Final Footprint

His cremains were scattered in the Ganges River.

On this day in 1998, singer-songwriter, producer, actor, and politician Sonny Bono died in a skiing accident at Heavenly Mountain Resort near South Lake Tahoe, California, at the age of 62. Born Salvatore Phillip Bono on February 16, 1935 in Detroit. He came to fame in partnership with his second wife Cher, as the popular singing duo Sonny & Cher. He was mayor of Palm Springs, California from 1988 to 1992, and the Republican congressman for California’s 44th district from 1995 until his death in 1998.

The United States Copyright Term Extension Act of 1998, which extended the term of copyright by 20 years, was named in honor of Bono when it was passed by Congress nine months after his death. Mary Bono (Sonny’s last wife) had been one of the original sponsors of the legislation, commonly known as the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act.

Bono married his first wife, Donna Rankin, on November 3, 1954. They divorced in 1962. In 1964, Bono married Cher. In 1975 they divorced. Bono then married Susie Coelho in 1983, but divorced her within a year in 1984. He wed Mary Whitaker in 1986.

In 1996, a Golden Palm Star on the Palm Springs, California, Walk of Stars was dedicated to him.

 

The Final Footprint

At Mary’s request Cher gave a eulogy at Sonny’s funeral. He was buried at Desert Memorial Park in Cathedral City, California. The epitaph on Bono’s headstone reads AND THE BEAT GOES ON. Other notable final footprints at Desert Memorial include; Frederick Loewe, Frank Sinatra, and Jimmy Van Heusen.

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Day in History 4 January – Albert Camus – T. S. Eliot – Christopher Isherwood – Phil Lynott – Mae Questal – Gerry Rafferty – Pino Daniele – Tanya Roberts

Posted on 29 JanamThu, 04 Jan 2024 00:39:00 -06002024-01-04T00:39:00-06:0012 2011 by MacGregor

albertCamus-150x150On this day in 1960, author, journalist, and philosopher, Nobel Prize laureate, Albert Camus died at the age of 46, in a car accident near Sens, in Le Grand Fossard in the small town of Villeblevin.  Born 7 November 1913 in Dréan (then known as Mondovi) in French Algeria to a Pied-Noir family.  His views contributed to the rise of the philosophy known as absurdism.  Camus wrote in his essay “The Rebel” that his whole life was devoted to opposing the philosophy of nihilism while still delving deeply into individual freedom.  Although often cited as a proponent of existentialism, the philosophy with which Camus was associated during his own lifetime, he rejected this particular label.  In an interview in 1945, Camus rejected any ideological associations: “No, I am not an existentialist. Sartre and I are always surprised to see our names linked…”  Though Sartre later accepted the association to existentialism.  In 1949, Camus founded the Group for International Liaisons within the Revolutionary Union Movement after his split with Garry Davis’s Citizens of the World movement.  The formation of this group, according to Camus, was intended to “denounce two ideologies found in both the USSR and the USA” regarding their idolatry of technology.  Camus was awarded the 1957 Nobel Prize for Literature “for his important literary production, which with clear-sighted earnestness illuminates the problems of the human conscience in our times”.  Albert_Camus

The Final Footprint – He had spent the New Year’s holiday of 1960 at his house in Lourmarin, Vaucluse with his family, and his publisher Michel Gallimard of Éditions Gallimard, along with Gallimard’s wife, Janine, and daughter. Camus’s wife and children went back to Paris by train on 2 January, but Camus decided to return in Gallimard’s luxurious Facel Vega FV2. The car crashed into a plane tree on a long straight stretch of the Route nationale 5 (now the RN 6 or D606). Camus, who was in the passenger seat, died instantly.  Gallimard died five days later, although his wife and daughter were unharmed.Camus was buried in the Lourmarin Cemetery, Lourmarin, Vaucluse, France.

On this day in 1965, Nobel Prize winning poet and playwright, T. S. Eliot, died from emphysema in London at the age of 76.  Born Thomas Stearns Eliot on 26 September 1888 in St. Louis, Missouri.  In my opinion, one of the most important English-language poets of the 20th century.  The poem that made his name, The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock is quite possibly a masterpiece of the modernist movement.  Eliot’s other well known poems include; Gerontion (1920), The Waste Land (1922), The Hollow Men (1925), Ash Wednesday (1930), and Four Quartets (1945).  He is also known for his seven plays, particularly Murder in the Cathedral (1935).  The musical Cats, composed by Andrew Lloyd Webber, is based on Eliot’s collection of whimsical poems, Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats.  Eliot graduated from Harvard.  Eliot married twice; Vivienne Haigh-Wood (1915 – 1947 her death) and Esmé Valerie Fletcher (1957 – 1965 his death). 

The Final Footprint – Eliot was cremated at Golders Green Crematorium in London and his cremains interred at St Michael’s Church in East Coker, Somerset, England.  A commemorative plaque on the church wall bears his chosen epitaph–lines from his poem “East Coker” the second of the four poems that comprise his Four Quartets:

“in my beginning is my end”
“in my end is my beginning”

and the following inscription; “OF YOUR CHARITY PRAY FOR THE REPOSE OF THE SOUL OF THOMAS STEARNS ELIOT POET”.

In 1967, on the second anniversary of his death, Eliot was commemorated by the placement of a large stone in the floor of Poets’ Corner in London’s Westminster Abbey. The stone, cut by designer Reynolds Stone, is inscribed with his life dates, his Order of Merit, and a quotation from his poem Little Gidding;

‘the communication
of the dead is tongued with fire beyond
the language of the living’

Other notable cremations at GGC include; Kingsley Amis, Neville Chamberlain, T. S. Eliot, Sigmund Freud, Henry James, Rudyard Kipling, Vivien Leigh, Keith Moon, Peter Sellers, Bram Stoker, H. G. Wells and Amy Winehouse.

#RIP #OTD in 1986 novelist (Goodbye to Berlin, A Single Man) playwright, screenwriter, autobiographer, and diarist, Christopher Isherwood died of prostate cancer at his Santa Monica home, aged 81. Body donated to medical science at UCLA, and his cremated remains were later scattered at sea

220px-Thin_lizzy_22041980_01_400On this day in 1986, Irish singer and musician who is best known for being the founding member, principal songwriter, lead vocalist and bassist of the Irish rock band Thin Lizzy, Phil Lynott died of pneumonia and heart failure due to sepsis in Salisbury District Hospital’s intensive care unit, at the age of 36.  Born Philip Parris Lynott on 20 August 1949 in Hallam Hospital (now Sandwell General Hospital) in West Bromwich (then in Staffordshire), England.  Lynott married Caroline Crowther (1980 – 1986 his death).  Of course my favorite Thin Lizzy song is “Cowboy Song”.  Resting_place_Philip_Lynott

The Final Footprint – Lynott’s funeral was held at St Elizabeth’s Church, Richmond on 9 January 1986, with most of Thin Lizzy’s ex members in attendence, followed by a second service at Howth Parish Church on 11th.  He was buried in St Fintan’s Cemetery, Dublin.

#RIP #OTD in 1998 actress (voice of Betty Boop and Olive Oyl, Aunt Bethany in National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation) Mae Questel died from complications related to Alzheimer’s disease in her Manhattan apartment, aged 89. New Montefiore Cemetery, West Babylon, New York

#RIP #OTD in 2015 Italian singer-songwriter, guitarist, whose influences covered pop, blues, jazz, Italian, and Middle Eastern music, Pino Daniele died from a heart attack at Sant’Eugenio Hospital in Rome, aged 59. Cimitero Comunale di Magliano in Toscana, Italy

#RIP #OTD in 2021 actress (Charlie’s Angels, James Bond film A View to a Kill, Sheena, Beastmaster) Tanya Roberts died from multi-organ failure at Cedars-Sinai Hospital, Los Angeles, aged 65. Cremated remains scattered on a hiking trail near her home in Laurel Canyon, California

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Day in History 3 January – Jack Ruby – Joy Adamson – Pat Hingle – Phil Everly

Posted on 29 JanamWed, 03 Jan 2024 00:03:00 -06002024-01-03T00:03:00-06:0012 2011 by MacGregor

jackrubyOn this day in 1967, the man who shot and killed Lee Harvey Oswald, Jack Ruby died of a pulmonary embolism, secondary to bronchogenic carcinoma (lung cancer), at the age of 55 at Parkland Hospital in Dallas, where Oswald had died and where President John F. Kennedy had been pronounced dead after his assassination.  Exactly what Ruby’s motive was for killing Oswald is a matter of conjecture.  Some view him as a key player in a conspiracy plot while others view him merely as a publicity-seeker.  Born Jacob Leon Rubenstein on 25 March 1911 in Chicago.

The Final Footprint – He was buried beside his parents in the Westlawn Cemetery in Norridge, Illinois.

#RIP #OTD in 1980 naturalist, artist and author (Born Free), Joy Adamson was murdered in Shaba National Reserve in Kenya, aged 69. Cremated remains interred in Elsa the Lioness’s grave in Meru National Park in Meru, Kenya

On this day in 2009, U.S. Navy veteran, Texas Longhorn and actor, Pat Hingle, died at his home in Carolina Beach, North Carolina at the age of 84.  Born Martin Patterson Hingle on 19 July 1924 in Miami, Florida.  Hingle enlisted in the U.S. Navy in December 1941, dropping out of the University of Texas.  He served on the destroyer USS Marshall during World War II.  He returned to the University of Texas after the war and earned a degree in radio broadcasting.  In my opinion, his finest performances were in two movies starring Clint Eastwood; Hang ’em High (1968) and Sudden Impact (1983).  Hingle is also well know for his role as Commissioner Gordon in the Batman movies.  He was married twice; Alyce Faye Dorsey (1947 – 1972 divorced) and Julia Wright (1979 – 2009 his death).

Carolina Beach Pier

The Final Footprint – Hingle was cremated and his cremains were scattered in the Atlantic Ocean.

#RIP #OTD in 2014 singer, The Everly Brothers (“Bye Bye Love”, “Wake Up Little Susie”, “All I Have to Do Is Dream”, “Problems”, “Cathy’s Clown”) Phil Everly died at Providence Saint Joseph Medical Center in Burbank, California, of lung disease, aged 74. Rose Hill Cemetery, Central City KY

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Day in History 2 January – Guccio Gucci – Tex Ritter – Anne Francis

Posted on 29 JanamTue, 02 Jan 2024 00:30:00 -06002024-01-02T00:30:00-06:0012 2011 by MacGregor

#RIP #OTD in 1953 businessman and fashion designer, founder of the fashion house of Gucci, Guccio Gucci died in Milan, aged 71. Cimitero Soffiano, Florence

On this day in 1974, singer, actor, father of actor John Ritter, Tex Ritter, died of a heart attack at the age of 68 in Nashville, Tennessee.  Born Woodward Maurice Ritter on 12 January 1905 in Murvaul, Texas.  He attended high school in Beaumont and attended the University of Texas at Austin.  He is a member of the Country Music Hall of Fame.  Ritter was married to Dorothy Fay (1941 – 1974 his death).  Ritter has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6631 Hollywood Boulevard; he and John were the first father-and-son pair to be so honored in different categories.  In 1980, he was inducted into the Western Performers Hall of Fame at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.  My heroes have always been Cowboys. 

The Final Footprint – Ritter is interred in Oak Bluff Memorial Park, Port Neches, Texas.  His grave is marked by an individual flat bronze on granite marker engrave with his name, birth and death dates, and a cowboy hat and boots.

#RIP #OTD in 2011 actress (Forbidden Planet, Twilight Zone, Honey West) Anne Francis died from pancreatic cancer at a retirement home in Santa Barbara, verse aged 80. Cremated remains scattered in the Pacific

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Kensal Green Cemetery

Posted on 29 NovpmSun, 23 Nov 2014 16:48:03 -06002014-11-23T16:48:03-06:0004 2011 by MacGregor

Kensal_Green_Cemetery_view_December_2005Kensal Green Cemetery is a cemetery in Kensal Green, in the west of London, England, in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea.  Inspired by the Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris and founded by the barrister George Frederick Carden, Kensal Green Cemetery was opened in 1833 and comprises 72 acres of grounds, including two conservation areas, adjoining a canal.  Kensal Green Cemetery is home to at least 33 species of bird and other wildlife.  This distinctive cemetery has a host of different memorials ranging from large mausoleums housing the rich and famous to many distinctive smaller graves and even includes special areas dedicated to the very young.  With three chapels catering for people of all faiths and social standing, the General Cemetery Company has provided a haven in the heart of London for over 180 years for its inhabitants to remember their loved one in a tranquil and dignified environment.

The area was immortalised in the lines of G. K. Chesterton‘s poem “The Rolling English Road” from his book The Flying Inn: “For there is good news yet to hear and fine things to be seen; Before we go to Paradise by way of Kensal Green.”

Despite its Grecian-style buildings the cemetery is primarily Gothic in character, due to the high number of private Gothic monuments. Due to this atmosphere, the cemetery was the chosen location of several scenes in movies, notably in Theatre of Blood (1973).

Notable cremations at Kensal Green include; Ingrid Bergman and Freddie Mercury.

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Fictional Footprint – Gerald and Ellen O’Hara

Posted on 29 JanpmMon, 03 Jan 2011 21:52:43 -06002011-01-03T21:52:43-06:0009 2011 by MacGregor

In Margaret Mitchell’s Gone with the Wind, Gerald O’Hara founded the plantation Tara, located near Jonesboro, Georgia, after he won 640 acres of land from its absentee owner during an all-night poker game.  O’Hara and his brothers emigrated from Ireland to Savannah, Georgia.  O’Hara relished the thought of becoming a planter and gave his mostly wilderness and uncultivated new lands the grandiose name of Tara after the hill of Tara, once the capital of the High King of ancient Ireland.  He borrowed money from his brothers and bankers to buy slaves and turned the farm into a very successful cotton plantation.  At the age of 43, O’Hara married the 15-year-old Ellen Robillard, an aristocratic, Savannah-born girl of French descent, receiving as dowry twenty slaves (including Mammy, Ellen’s nurse, who became nurse to Ellen’s daughters and grandchildren as well).  His young bride took a very real interest in the management of the plantation, being in some ways a more hands-on manager than her husband.  With the injection of her dowry money and the rise of cotton prices, Tara grew to a plantation of more than 1,000 acres and more than 100 slaves by the dawn of the Civil War.  Unlike the homes of most of the O’Haras’ neighbors, Tara is spared the torch during the Sherman’s Scorched Earth march.  Upon the army’s withdrawal, the family and their loyal remaining slaves are left with a looted and dilapidated house, a ruined farm with no stock, work animals, or farm equipment, no food and no means to produce food. They are indigent and soon starving.  Ellen O’Hara dies soon after the Union evacuation, and her widowed oldest daughter Scarlett returns a day later.  The loss of his wife, combined with hopelessness, poverty, age, and an increasing reliance on whiskey (when it is available) is destroying Gerald O’Hara’s sanity, leaving him a demented echo of his former self.  Peace returns after the war, but not prosperity.  Scarlett manages to save Tara from being seized and the family from dispossession only by deceitfully marrying her sister Suellen’s fiance, Frank Kennedy, and using his savings to pay the $300 in taxes levied on the place.  Though Scarlett returns to Atlanta where her fortunes rise as she takes over and expands her second husband Frank’s business interests, she shares her new wealth with Tara.  Tara never achieves anything like its antebellum grandeur, but it does become self supporting as a “two horse” farm.  While far from rich, the O’Haras are at least in better condition than most of their neighbors.  O’Hara dies when he falls off his horse while chasing a carpetbagger off the property.  In the movie version, O’Hara is portrayed by Thomas Mitchell.  The Final Footprint – Gerald and Ellen are buried in the O’Hara Family Cemetery at their beloved Tara.

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Veteran’s Day Observance – Sharon Memorial Park

Posted on 29 NovpmThu, 04 Nov 2010 14:06:59 -05002010-11-04T14:06:59-05:0002 2011 by Tamela

Veteran's Day ObservanceCome join us for a Veteran’s Day Observance on Tuesday 11 November 2010, 10:00 am.  The location will be at the Garden of Honor in Sharon Memorial Park.  The Garden of Honor is dedicated to those who have bravely served our country and features a granite monument and a flag pole from which flies the Killed in Action Memorial Flag and the POW/MIA flag.

The program will include bagpipe music courtesy of Dave McKenzie, the Pledge of Allegiance and the placing of a memorial wreath.  VFW Post 9458 will provide Color Guard and Honor Guard and a 21-Gun Salute and Taps.  The featured speaker will be Mr. John Hodge U.S. Army World War II veteran.  Contact us for a free comprehensive Veteran’s personal planning guide>>>>>>Click Here!

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Fictional Footprint

Posted on 29 SeppmTue, 21 Sep 2010 14:39:59 -05002010-09-21T14:39:59-05:0002 2011 by MacGregor

Today we pay tribute to a great romantic literary character, Francesca Johnson from the Robert James Waller novel, The Bridges of Madison County.  Francesca was born in 1920 near Naples, Italy .  Forever remembered as the woman who loved Robert Kincaid.  She died in January 1989 at home on her farm in Madison County, Iowa.  The Final Footprint – Francesca was cremated and her ashes were scattered from the Roseman Bridge in Madison County, Iowa.  She could not have Robert in life, so she gave herself to him in death.

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Fictional Footprints

Posted on 29 SeppmTue, 21 Sep 2010 13:44:44 -05002010-09-21T13:44:44-05:0001 2011 by MacGregor

Today we pay tribute to a great romantic literary character, Robert L. Kincaid from the Robert James Waller novel, The Bridges of Madison County.  Kincaid was born in 1913 in a small town in Ohio.  Forever remembered as the man who loved Francesca Johnson.  He died in January 1982 near Seattle, Washington.  The Final Footprint – Kincaid was cremated and his ashes were scattered from the Roseman Bridge in Madison County, Iowa.



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