On this day 13 June death of Benny Goodman – Geraldine Page – Deke Slayton – Tim Russert – Jimmy Dean – Anita Pallenberg – Ned Beatty – Cormac McCarthy

Posted on 29 JunamThu, 13 Jun 2024 00:15:00 -05002024-06-13T00:15:00-05:0012 2011 by MacGregor

BennyGoodmanStageDoorCanteenOn this day in 1986, American jazz and swing musician, clarinetist and bandleader; widely known as the “King of Swing”, Benny Goodman died from a heart attack in New York City at the age of 77, in his home at Manhattan House, 200 East 66th Street. Born Benjamin David Goodman on 30 May 1909 in Chicago.

In the mid-1930s, Goodman led one of the most popular musical groups in the United States. His concert at Carnegie Hall in New York City on January 16, 1938 is described by critic Bruce Eder as “the single most important jazz or popular music concert in history: jazz’s ‘coming out’ party to the world of ‘respectable’ music.”

Goodman’s bands started the careers of many jazz musicians. During an era of racial segregation, he led one of the first integrated jazz groups. He performed nearly to the end of his life while exploring an interest in classical music.

The Final Footprint – Goodman is interred in the Long Ridge Cemetery, Stamford, Connecticut.

#RIP #OTD in 1987 actress (Hondo, Sweet Bird of Youth, What Ever Happened to Aunt Alice?, The Beguiled, The Pope of Greenwich Village, The Trip to Bountiful) Geraldine Page died from a heart attack at her home in Manhattan, aged 62. Cremation

dekeSlaytonOn this day in 1993, American World War II pilot and later, one of the original NASA Mercury Seven astronauts, Deke Slayton died of a brain tumor in League City, Texas at the age of 69.  Born Donald Kent Slayton on 1 March 1924 in Sparta, Wisconsin.  He was portrayed in the movie The Right Stuff (1983) by Scott Paulin.  The original seven Mercury astronauts included Alan Shepard,  Virgil Ivan “Gus” Grissom, John Herschel Glenn, Jr., Malcolm Scott Carpenter, Walter Marty “Wally” Schirra, Jr., and Leroy Gordon Cooper, Jr.  The film is based on the book by Tom Wolfe, and also featured; Sam Shepard as Chuck Yeager, Ed Harris as John Glenn, Dennis Quaid as Gordon Cooper, Fred Ward as Gus Grissom, Charles Frank as Scott Carpenter and Lance Henriksen as Wally Shirra.  The Final Footprint – Slayton was cremated and his cremains were scattered over the Slayton family farm in Wisconsin.

Tim_RussertOn this day in 2008,  American television journalist and lawyer who appeared for more than 16 years as the longest-serving moderator of NBC’s Meet the Press, Tim Russert died from a heart attack in Washington D.C. at the age of 58.  Born Timothy John Russert on 7 May 1950 in Buffalo, New York.

The Final Footprint – Russert is buried at Rock Creek Cemetery, next to the historic Soldiers’ Home, in Washington’s Petworth neighborhood. Other notable final footprints at Rock Creek include; Upton Sinclair and Gore Vidal.

Jimmy_Dean_1966On this day in 2010, American country music singer, television host, actor and businessman, Jimmy Dean died at the age of 81 of natural causes at his home in Varina, Virginia.  Born Jimmy Ray Dean on 10 August 1928 in Olton, Texas.

He was the creator of the Jimmy Dean sausage brand as well as the spokesman for its TV commercials. He became a national television personality starting on CBS in 1957. He rose to fame for his 1961 country music crossover hit into rock and roll with “Big Bad John” and his 1963 television series The Jimmy Dean Show, which gave puppeteer Jim Henson his first national media exposure. His acting career included appearing in the early seasons in the Daniel Boone TV series as the sidekick of the famous frontiersman played by star Fess Parker. Later he was on the big screen in a supporting role as billionaire Willard Whyte in the James Bond movie Diamonds Are Forever (1971).

The Final Footprint – He was entombed in a 9-foot-tall (2.7 m) piano-shaped mausoleum overlooking the James River on the grounds of his estate.  His epitaph reads “Here Lies One Hell of a Man”, a quote from a lyric from his uncensored version of the Dean and Roy Acuff song, “Big Bad John”.

#RIP #OTD in 2017 Italian actress, artist, model, style icon and “It Girl” of the 1960s and 1970s, muse of The Rolling Stones, Anita Pallenberg died, aged 75, due to complications from hepatitis C. Cremation

#RIP #OTD in 2021 actor (Deliverance, All the President’s Men, Network, Superman) Ned Beatty died at his home in Los Angeles, aged of 83. Cremation

#RIP #OTD in 2023 Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist (The Road; All the Pretty Horses; No Country for Old Men) Cormac McCarthy died at his home in Santa Fe at the age of 89

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On this day 12 June death of William Cullen Bryant – Medgar Evers – Norma Shearer – Nicole Brown Simpson – Ron Goldman – Gregory Peck – Sylvia Miles – Buster Welch – Treat Williams

Posted on 29 JunamWed, 12 Jun 2024 00:18:00 -05002024-06-12T00:18:00-05:0012 2011 by MacGregor

William_Cullen_Bryant_Cabinet_Card_by_Mora-cropOn this day in 1878, American romantic poet, journalist, and long-time editor of the New York Evening Post, William Cullen Bryant died at the age of 83 of complications from an accidental fall suffered after participating in a Central Park ceremony honoring Italian patriot Giuseppe Mazzini.  Born 3 November 1794 in a log cabin near Cummington, Massachusetts.  Perhaps best known for his poem “Thanatopsis”.  The title is from the Greek thanatos (“death”) and opsis (“sight”); it has often been translated as “Meditation upon Death”.


The Final Footprint – Bryant is buried at Roslyn Cemetery in Roslyn, Long Island, New York.

Medgar_EversOn this day in 1963, African American civil rights activist from Mississippi involved in efforts to overturn segregation at the University of Mississippi, Medgar Evers was assassinated by gunshot in front of his home in Jackson, Mississippi.  He was 37 years old.  Born Medgar Wiley Evers on 2 July 1925 in Decatur, Mississippi.

MedgarEvers_headstoneThe Final Footprint – Mourned nationally, Evers was buried on June 19 in Arlington National Cemetery where he received full military honors before a crowd of more than 3,000.  Other notable Final Footprints at Arlington include; the Space Shuttle Columbia, the Space Shuttle Challenger, Dashiell Hammett, John F. Kennedy, Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis, Edward Kennedy, Robert F. Kennedy, Lee Marvin, Audie Murphy and Malcolm Kilduff, Jr.

#RIP #OTD in 1983 actress (The Flapper, Wolf Man, The Actress, The Divorcee, Their Own Desire) Norma Shearer died of bronchial pneumonia at the Motion Picture Country Home, Woodland Hills, California, aged 80. Great Mausoleum at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California

Nicole_brown_simpsonOn this day in 1994, Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ron Goldman were stabbed to death in front of her home 875 South Bundy Drive, Brentwood, Los Angeles, at the ages of 35 and 25 respectively.  Nicole Brown was born 19 May 1959 in Frankfurt, West Germany.  Ronald Lyle Goldman was born 2 July 1968 in Cook County, Illinois.

The Final Footprint – Nicole Brown is interred in Ascension Cemetery, Lake Forest, California.  Goldman is interred in Pierce Brothers Valley Oaks Memorial Park in Westlake Village, California.  O. J. Simpson was tried for the murders of both his ex-wife and Goldman.  In October 1995, after a public trial that lasted nearly nine months, Simpson was acquitted of both murders.  In a 1997 civil trial, a jury found Simpson liable for the wrongful death of Goldman and awarded $33 million (USD) in damages to the Goldman family.  The rights to O. J. Simpson’s book, If I Did It, a first-person account of how he would have committed the murders, had he committed them, were awarded to the Goldman family in August 2007.  The family was granted the proceeds from the book in 2007 as part of the civil jury award against the ex-football star they had been trying to collect for over a decade.  The Goldmans own the copyright, media rights and movie rights.  They also acquired Simpson’s name, likeness, life story and right of publicity in connection with the book, according to court documents, ensuring Simpson would not be able to profit from the book.  After renaming the book If I Did It: Confessions of the Killer, the Goldmans published it in September 2007 through Beaufort Books.  The Goldman family contributed a portion of proceeds from the book sale to the newly founded Ron Goldman Foundation for Justice.  The foundation provides grants for multiple organizations and programs that provide resources to victims and survivors of violent crimes.  In 1994, Nicole Brown’s sister Denise established The Nicole Brown Charitable Foundation to help victims of domestic violence.

Gregory_Peck_in_Gentlemans_Agreement_trailer_closeupOn this day in 2003, Academy Award winning actor Gregory Peck died at his home in Los Angeles from bronchopneumonia at the age of 87.  Born Eldred Gregory Peck on 5 April 1916 in La Jolla, California.  My favorite Peck movie roles include: as John Ballantyne in Alfred Hitchcock’s Spellbound (1945) with Ingrid Bergman; as Harry Street in The Snows of Kilimanjaro (1952) based on the Ernest Hemingway short story of the same title, with Ava Gardner; as Joe Bradley in William Wyler’s Roman Holiday (1953) with Audrey Hepburn; as James McKay in Wyler’s The Big Country (1958) with Jean Simmons and Charlton Heston; as Sam Bowden in Cape Fear (1962) based on John D. McDonald’s novel The Executioners, with Robert Mitchum; as Atticus Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird (1962) based on the Harper Lee novel of the same name, with Robert Duvall.  Peck was married twice; Greta Kukkonen (1942-1955 divorce) and Veronique Passani (1955-2003 his death).


The Final Footprint – Peck is entombed in the mausoleum of the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels, the mother church of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles.

#RIP #OTD in 2019 actress (Midnight Cowboy; Heat; Farewell, My Lovely; The Sentinel; Wall Street) Sylvia Miles died in Manhattan, aged 94. Cremation 

#RIP #OTD in 2022 American cutting horse trainer, inductee into the NCHA Members Hall of Fame, American Quarter Horse Hall of Fame, NCHA Rider Hall of Fame, Texas Cowboy Hall of Fame, Buster Welch died at his home in Abilene, Texas aged 94. Cottonwood Flat Cemetery, Scurry County, Texas

#RIP #OTD in 2023 actor (Hair, 1941, including The Eagle Has Landed, Prince of the City, Once Upon a Time in America, Flashpoint, Smooth Talk, The Men’s Club, Dead Heat, The Phantom, The Devil’s Own, Deep Rising, The Deep End of the Ocean, 127 Hours), Treat Williams was involved in a motorcycle crash on Vermont Route 30, in Dorset. According to the Vermont State Police, a 2008 Honda Element in the southbound lane turned into the path of Williams’s motorcycle in the northbound lane, and Williams was unable to avoid colliding with it.  He was airlifted to Albany Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead at the age of 71.  The cause of death was “severe trauma and blood loss,” according to medical examiner. Williams was wearing a helmet at the time of the accident.

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On this day 11 June death of John Wayne – Karen Ann Quinlan – DeForest Kelley – Ruby Dee

Posted on 29 JunamTue, 11 Jun 2024 00:54:00 -05002024-06-11T00:54:00-05:0012 2011 by MacGregor

On this day in 1979, legendary actor, producer, director, Academy Award winner, recipient of the Congressional Gold Medal and the Presidential Medal of Freedom, American icon, Duke, John Wayne, died of stomach cancer at the UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles at the age of 72.  Born Marion Robert Morrison on 26 May 1907 in Winterset, Iowa.  Wayne’s family moved to Palmdale, California, and then in 1911 to Glendale, California.  A local fireman at the station on his route to school in Glendale started calling him “Little Duke” because he never went anywhere without his huge Airedale Terrier, Duke.  He preferred “Duke” to “Marion” and the name stuck.  For his screen name, director Raoul Walsh suggested “Anthony Wayne”, after Revolutionary War general “Mad Anthony” Wayne.  Fox Studios chief Winfield Sheehan rejected it as sounding “too Italian.”  Walsh then suggested “John Wayne.”  Sheehan agreed, and the name was set.  Wayne himself was not even present for the discussion.  Wayne attended the University of Southern California on a football scholarship.  My list of favorite Wayne movies includes:  Howard Hawk’s Red River (1948); John Ford’s The Quiet Man (1952) with Maureen O’Hara; Ford’s The Searchers (1956) with Vera Miles, Jeffrey Hunter, Ward Bond, Ken Curtis and Natalie Wood, perhaps my favorite movie ever; Hawk’s Rio Bravo (1959) with Angie Dickinson, Dean Martin, Ricky Nelson, and Bond; North to Alaska (1960) with Capucine, Stewart Granger and Fabian; Ford’s The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962) with Miles, James Stewart, and Lee Marvin; McLintock! (1963) with O’Hara, his son Patrick, Stephanie Powers, Chill Wills and Yvonne De Carlo, The Sons of Katie Elder (1965) with Martin and Dennis Hopper; Hawk’s El Dorado (1966) with Robert Mitchum, and James Caan; The War Wagon (1967) with Kirk Douglas; Hellfighters (1968), with Katherine Ross and Miles and based on the real-life hellfighter Red Adair; as Rooster Cogburn in True Grit (1969) with Kim Darby, Glen Campbell, Robert Duvall, Strother Martin and Hopper; The Undefeated (1969) with Rock Hudson and Roman Gabriel; Chisum (1970); Hawk’s Rio Lobo (1970); Big Jake (1970); The Cowboys (1972); Cahill, United States Marshall (1973); Don Siegel’s The Shootist (1976) with Lauren Bacall, Ron Howard, and Stewart.  His memorable movie quotes include;

  • “I won’t be wronged, I won’t be insulted, I won’t be laid a hand on. I don’t do these things to other people, I require the same from them.” (The Shootist)
  • “Fill your hand, you son of a bitch!” (True Grit)
  • “That’ll be the day!” (The Searchers – Spoken four times; inspired Buddy Holly to write a song with that title.)
  • “Pilgrim.” (The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance and McLintock!.)
  • “I haven’t lost my temper in 40 years; but, Pilgrim, you caused a lot of trouble this morning; might have got somebody killed; and somebody oughta belt you in the mouth. But I won’t. I won’t. The hell I won’t!” (He belts him in the mouth). (To Leo Gordon in McLintock!)
  • “Not hardly!” (Big Jake – used several times throughout the movie when told by others “Jacob McCandles?! I thought you were dead!”)
  • “It’s a hard life!” (The Cowboys – in response to “The ‘long-haired man'” played by Bruce Dern saying “You’re a hard man!”)
  • “We’re burnin’ daylight!” (“The Cowboys”)
  • “Wrong word. Fact!” (When Laurence Murphy accuses Chisum of a threat.)

Wayne was married three times Josephine Alicia Saenz (1933-1945 divorce), Esperanza Baur (1946-1954 divorce), and Pilar Pallete (1954-1979 his death).

The Final Footprint – Wayne is interred in Pacific View Memorial Park, a Dignity Memorial property, in Corona del Mar, California.  His grave is marked by an individual flat bronze marker with the epitaph;

“Tomorrow is the most Important thing in life. Comes into us at midnight very clean. It’s perfect when it arrives and it puts itself in our hands. It hopes we’ve learned something from yesterday.”

Reportedly, Wayne wanted his epitaph to be; “Feo, Fuerte y Formal”, a Mexican epitaph Wayne described as meaning “ugly, strong and dignified”.  There are many memorials, celebrations and landmarks dedicated to him.

#RIP #OTD in 1985 woman who became an important figure in the history of the right to die controversy in the US, Karen Ann Quinlan died from respiratory failure as a result of pneumonia in Morris Plains, New Jersey aged 31. Gate of Heaven Cemetery in East Hanover, New Jersey.

DEFOREST_KELLEYOn this day in 1999, United States Army Air Forces veteran, actor, screenwriter, poet and singer, DeForest Kelley died of stomach cancer in Wooodland Hills, California at the age of 79.  Born Jackson DeForest Kelley on 20 January 1920 in Toccoa, Georgia.  Known for his iconic roles in Westerns and as Dr. Leonard “Bones” McCoy of the USS Enterprise in the television and film series Star Trek.  “He’s dead, Jim.”

The Final Footprint – Kelley was cremated and the ashes were scattered in the Pacific Ocean.

On this day in 2014, actress, poet, playwright, screenwriter, journalist, and civil rights activist Ruby Dee died at her home in New Rochelle, New York, from natural causes at the age of 91. Born Rudy Ann Wallace on October 27, 1922 in Cleveland, Ohio. Perhaps best known for originating the role of “Ruth Younger” in the stage and film versions of A Raisin in the Sun (1961). Her other notable film roles include The Jackie Robinson Story (1950) and Do the Right Thing (1989).

Dee was married to Ossie Davis, with whom she frequently performed until his death in 2005.

For her performance as Mahalee Lucas in American Gangster (2007), Dee was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress and won the Screen Actors Guild Award for Female Actor in a Supporting Role. Dee was a Grammy, Emmy, Obie and Drama Desk winner. She was also a National Medal of Arts, Kennedy Center Honors and Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award recipient.

Ruby Wallace married blues singer Frankie Dee Brown in 1941, and began using his middle name as her stage name. The couple divorced in 1945. Three years later she married actor Ossie Davis, whom she met while costarring in Robert Ardrey’s 1946 Broadway play Jeb.

The Final Footprint

In a statement, Gil Robertson IV of the African American Film Critics Association said, “the members of the African American Film Critics Association are deeply saddened at the loss of actress and humanitarian Ruby Dee. Throughout her seven-decade career, Dee embraced different creative platforms with her various interpretations of black womanhood and also used her gifts to champion for Human Rights. Her strength, courage, and beauty will be greatly missed.”

“She very peacefully surrendered”, said her daughter Nora Day. “We hugged her, we kissed her, we gave her our permission to go. She opened her eyes. She looked at us. She closed her eyes, and she set sail.” Following her death, the marquee on the Apollo Theater read: “A TRUE APOLLO LEGEND RUBY DEE 1922-2014”.

Dee was cremated, and her ashes are held in the same urn as that of Davis, with the inscription “In this thing together”. A public memorial celebration honoring Dee was held on September 20, 2014, at the Riverside Church in Upper Manhattan. Their shared urn was buried at Ferncliff Cemetery in Hartsdale, New York. Other notable final footprints at Ferncliff include; Aaliyah, James Baldwin, Béla Bartók, Cab Calloway, Joan Crawford, Oscar Hammerstein II, Jerome Kern, Malcolm X, Thelonious Monk, and Ed Sullivan.

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On this day 10 June death of Pierre Loti – Spencer Tracy – Elizabeth Hartman – Louis L’Amour – Ray Charles

Posted on 29 JunamMon, 10 Jun 2024 00:03:00 -05002024-06-10T00:03:00-05:0012 2011 by MacGregor

#RIP #OTD in 1923 naval officer and writer, known for his exotic novels (Le Mariage de Loti, basis of the opera Lakmé; Madame Chrysanthème, basis of the opera Madama Butterfly), short stories, Pierre Loti died in Hendaye, France, aged 73, and was interred on the island of Oléron, France with a state funeral

On this day in 1967, actor, one of the major stars of Hollywood’s Golden Age, 9x Academy Award nominee, 2x Academy Award winner, Spencer Tracy died in his apartment in Beverly Hills, California from a heart attack at the age of 67.  Born Spencer Bonaventure Tracy on 5 April 1900 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

One of the major stars of Hollywood’s Golden Age, Tracy won his two Academy Awards for Best Actor from nine nominations.

Tracy first discovered his talent for acting while attending Ripon College, and he later received a scholarship for the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. He spent seven years in the theatre, working in a succession of stock companies and intermittently on Broadway. Tracy’s breakthrough came in 1930, when his lead performance in The Last Mile caught the attention of Hollywood. After a successful film debut in John Ford’s Up the River starring Tracy (and also featuring Humphrey Bogart), he was signed to a contract with Fox Film Corporation. He was in 25 films, almost all of them starring Tracy as the leading man. None of them were hits although his performance in The Power and the Glory (1933) was praised at the time.

In 1935, Tracy joined Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, then Hollywood’s most prestigious studio. His career flourished from Fury (1936) onwards, and in 1937 and 1938 he won consecutive Oscars for Captains Courageous and Boys Town. He made three box-office successes supporting Clark Gable, the studio’s most prominent leading man so that by the early 1940s, Tracy was one of the studio’s top stars. In 1942, he appeared with Katharine Hepburn in Woman of the Year, beginning another partnership leading to nine movies over 25 years.

Tracy left MGM in 1955, and continued to work regularly as a freelance star, despite an increasing weariness as he aged. His personal life was troubled, with a lifelong struggle against alcoholism. Towards the end of his life, Tracy worked almost exclusively for director Stanley Kramer. It was for Kramer that he made his last film, Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner (1967), completed just 17 days before he died.

During his career, Tracy appeared in 75 films and developed a reputation among his peers as one of the screen’s greatest actors.

Tracy was married to Louise Treadwell (1923 – 1967 his death). He became estranged from his wife in the 1930s, and conducted a long-term relationship with Katharine Hepburn in private until his death. 

stracyForestlawn_TracyThe Final Footprint –  A Requiem Mass was held for Tracy on June 12 at the Immaculate Heart of Mary Catholic Church in East Hollywood. Active pallbearers included George Cukor, Stanley Kramer, Frank Sinatra, James Stewart and John Ford.  Out of consideration for Tracy’s family, Hepburn did not attend the funeral.  Tracy was interred in Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California.  Other notable Final Footprints at Forest Lawn Glendale include; L. Frank Baum, Humphrey Bogart, Lon Chaney, Nat King Cole, Dorothy Dandridge, Sammy Davis, Jr., Jean Harlow, Sam Cooke, Walt Disney, Errol Flynn, Clark Gable, Michael Jackson, Louis L’Amour, Carole Lombard, Tom Mix, Casey Stengel, Jimmy Stewart, and Elizabeth Taylor.

#RIP #OTD in 1987 actress (A Patch of Blue, The Beguiled, You’re a Big Boy Now, Walking Tall) Elizabeth Hartman died jumping from the window of her fifth floor apartment in Pittsburgh, aged 43. Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Boardman Township, Ohio.

Louis L’Amour
Louis L'Amour.jpg

On this day in 1988, novelist and short-story writer Louis L’Amour died from lung cancer at his home in Los Angeles at the age of 80. Born Louis Dearborn LaMoore on March 22, 1908 in Jamestown, North Dakota. His books consisted primarily of Western novels, which he called “frontier stories”. He also wrote historical fiction (The Walking Drum), science fiction (The Haunted Mesa), non-fiction (Frontier), as well as poetry and short-story collections. Many of his stories were made into films. L’Amour’s books remain popular and most have gone through multiple printings. At the time of his death almost all of his 105 existing works (89 novels, 14 short-story collections, and two full-length works of nonfiction) were still in print.

The Final Footprint

L’Amour was buried in the Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery near the Great Mausoleum in the Mausoleum Slope, Distinguished Memorial, Space 59 in Glendale, California. His autobiography detailing his years as an itinerant worker in the west, Education of a Wandering Man, was published posthumously in 1989. Other notable Final Footprints at Forest Lawn Glendale include; L. Frank Baum, Humphrey Bogart, Lon Chaney, Nat King Cole, Dorothy Dandridge, Sammy Davis, Jr., Jean Harlow, Sam Cooke, Walt Disney, Errol Flynn, Clark Gable, Michael Jackson, Carole Lombard, Tom Mix, Casey Stengel, Jimmy Stewart, Elizabeth Taylor, and Spencer Tracy.

On this day in 2004, legendary Grammy award winning singer and musician, Ray Charles, died of liver cancer at his home in Beverly Hills, California at the age of 73.  Born Ray Charles Robinson on 23 September 1930 in Albany, Georgia.  His music defied boundaries, from soul,  rhythm and blues, gospel, and blues to country, rock and roll and pop.   Frank Sinatra called Charles “the only true genius in show business.”   Billy Joel noted: “This may sound like sacrilege, but I think Ray Charles was more important than Elvis Presley. I don’t know if Ray was the architect of rock & roll, but he was certainly the first guy to do a lot of things . . . Who the hell ever put so many styles together and made it work?”  Charles started to lose his sight at the age of five. He went completely blind by the age of seven, apparently due to glaucoma.  I believe the highest compliment that can be paid to a singer is to say that when they record a song, it instantly becomes the definitive version.  Charles has recorded the definitive version of many songs.  My partial list of favorite songs sung by Charles includes; “What’d I Say”, “Georgia on My Mind”, “Hit the Road Jack”, “Baby it’s Cold Outside”, “Unchain My Heart”, “I Can’t Stop Lovin’ You”.  I could go on!  Charles was married twice; Eileen Williams (1951-1952 divorce) and Della Beatrice Howard Robinson (1955-1977 divorce) and fathered 12 children with nine different women.  His long term girlfriend and partner at the time of his death was Norma Pinella.  The movie Ray (2004) is a biographical film focusing on 30 years of the life of Charles.  The film was directed by Taylor Hackford and starred Jamie Foxx in the title role; Foxx received an Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance.  Charles was set to attend the opening, but died before the premier.

The Final Footprint – Charles is entombed in the Mausoleum of the Golden West, Eternal Love Corridor in Inglewood Park Cemetery, Inglewood, California.  Other notable Final Footprints at Inglewood Park include; Ella Fitzgerald, Betty Grable, Etta James, Robert Kardashian, Gypsy Rose Lee, Billy Preston, Cesar Romero, Big Mama Thornton, T-Bone Walker, and Syreeta Wright..

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On this day 9 June death of Charles Dickens – Adam West – Julee Cruise

Posted on 29 JunamSun, 09 Jun 2024 00:12:00 -05002024-06-09T00:12:00-05:0012 2011 by MacGregor

On this day in 1870, novelist Charles Dickens died at his country home, Gads Hill Place, in Higham, Kent, England after a stroke at the age of 58.  Born Charles John Huffman Dickens on 7 February 1812 in Landport, Portsmouth, England.  Probably the most popular novelist of the Victorian era.  Dickens remains popular.  Some of the characters he created are among the most iconic characters in English literature.  In 1830, Dickens met his first love, Maria Beadnell, but her parents evidently disapproved of the relationship and sent her to school in Paris.  Dickens married Catherine Thomson Hogarth (1836-1870 his death) although they separated in 1858.  He possibly had a long affair with Ellen Ternan.  The iconic characters he created include;  Ebenezer Scrooge, Tiny Tim, Jacob Marley, Bob Cratchit, Oliver Twist, The Artful Dodger, Fagin, Bill Sikes, Pip, Miss Havisham, Charles Darnay, David Copperfield, Mr. Micawber, Abel Magwitch, Daniel Quilp, Samuel Pickwick, Wackford Squeers, Uriah Heep.  My favorite Dickens’s novels are;

  • The Adventures of Oliver Twist (Monthly serial in Bentley’s Miscellany, February 1837 to April 1839)
  • A Christmas Carol (1843)
  • David Copperfield (Monthly serial, May 1849 to November 1850)
  • A Tale of Two Cities (Weekly serial in All the Year Round, 30 April 1859, to 26 November 1859)
  • Great Expectations (Weekly serial in All the Year Round, 1 December 1860 to 3 August 1861)

The Final Footprint – Dickens is interred in a vault in Poet’s Corner in Westminster Abbey, despite the fact that his wish was to be buried at Rochester Cathedral in Rochester, Kent, “in an inexpensive, unostentatious, and strictly private manner”.  His last words, as reported in his obituary in The Times were alleged to have been: “Be natural my children. For the writer that is natural has fullfilled all the rules of art”.  His will stipulated that no memorial be erected to honour him.  The only life-size bronze statue of Dickens, cast in 1891 by Francis Edwin Elwell, is located in Clark Park in the Spruce Hill neighbourhood of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in the United States.  Other notable Final Footprints at Westminster include; Robert Browning, Lord Byron, Geoffrey Chaucer, Charles II, Oliver Cromwell, Charles Darwin, Edward III, Edward IV, Edward The Confessor, Elizabeth I, George II, George Friederic Handel, Stephen Hawking, Henry III, Henry V, Henry VII, James VI and I, Samuel Johnson, Ben Jonson, Rudyard Kipling, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Mary I, Mary II, Mary Queen of Scots, John Milton, Isaac Newton, Laurence Olivier, Henry Purcell, Richard II, Thomas Shadwell, Edmund Spenser, Lord Alfred Tennyson, Dylan Thomas, and William III.

Adam West

Adam West at WonderCon 2009 1.JPG

in 2009

On this day in 2017 actor Adam West died in Los Angeles from leukemia at the age of 88. Born William West Anderson on September 19, 1928 in Walla Walla, Washington. Known primarily for his role as Batman in the 1960s ABC series of the same name and its 1966 theatrical feature film.

West began acting in films in the 1950s. He played opposite Chuck Connors in Geronimo (1962) and The Three Stooges in The Outlaws Is Coming (1965). He also appeared in the science fiction film Robinson Crusoe on Mars (1964) and performed voice work on The Fairly OddParents (2003–2017), The Simpsons (1992, 2002), and Family Guy (2000–2018), playing fictional versions of himself in all three. Late in his career, West starred in two direct-to-DVD animated Batman films, Batman: Return of the Caped Crusaders, and Batman vs. Two-Face, the latter of which was released posthumously.

in The Detectives (1961)

Episode of The Big Valley, In Silent Battle with Barbara Stanwyck (1968)

in 1989 at the 41st Primetime Emmy Awards

at the 2011 San Diego Comic-Con

at the 2014 Phoenix Comicon, on a panel for Batman

West was married three times. His first marriage was to his college girlfriend Billie Lou Yeager in 1950. The couple divorced six years later. In 1957 he married Cook Island dancer Ngatokorua Frisbie Dawson, part of the Puka Puka Otea in Hawai’i. They had two children before their divorce in 1962. West then married Marcelle Tagand Lear in November 1970. They had two children and remained together for more than 46 years, until Adam’s death.

The Final Footprint

After his death, West’s former Batman co-star and longtime friend, Burt Ward, released a statement; “This is a terribly unexpected loss of my lifelong friend, I will forever miss him. There are several fine actors who have portrayed Batman in films. In my eyes, there was only one real Batman that is and always will be Adam West. He was truly the Bright Knight.”

On June 15, 2017, Los Angeles projected the Bat-Signal on City Hall as a tribute to West, and Walla Walla shone the bat-signal on the Whitman Tower. West was cremated and his cremains were scattered in the Pacific.

#RIP #OTD in 2022 singer (“Falling”, “Rockin’ Back Inside My Heart”), actress (Twin Peaks), Julee Cruise died in Pittsfield, Mass., aged 65. The The B-52’s song Roam played during her transition. Cremated remains scattered with those of her dogs in Arizona

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On this day February 29 – Pat Garrett – Ina Coolbrith – Davy Jones

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

220px-Pat_Garrett2On this day in 1908; American Old West lawman, bartender, sheriff of Lincoln County, New Mexico as well as Doña Ana County, New Mexico, rancher and customs agent, Pat Garrett was shot and killed near Las Cruces, New Mexico, at the age of 57.  His murder went unsolved.  Born Patrick Floyd Jarvis Garrett on June 5, 1850, in Chambers County, Alabama.  Perhaps best known as the man who shot and killed Billy the Kid.  He coauthored a book about Billy the Kid which, for a generation after the Kid’s death, was deemed authoritative; however, historians have since found many embellishments and inconsistencies with other accounts of the outlaw’s life.  Garrett also became one of President Theodore Roosevelt’s three “White House Gunfighters” (Bat Masterson and Ben Daniels were the others) when Roosevelt appointed him Collector of Customs in El Paso.  220px-Garrett_grave2

TheFinal Footprint – Garrett’s body was too tall (he was 6′ 5″) for any finished coffins available, so a special one had to be shipped in from El Paso.  His funeral service was held March 5, 1908, and he was laid to rest next to his daughter, Ida, who had died in 1896 at the age of fifteen, at the Masonic Cemetery in Las Cruces.

Memorial marking spot where Pat Garrett was killed

The site of Garrett’s death is now commemorated by a historical marker south of U.S. Route 70, between Las Cruces and the San Augustin Pass.  The actual spot where Garrett was shot was marked Pat’s son Jarvis Garrett in 1938-1940 with a monument consisting of concrete laid around a stone with a cross carved in it.  The cross is believed to be the work of Pat’s mother.  Scratched in the concrete is “P. Garrett” and the date of his killing.  Garrett has been portrayed in film many times including:

  • Thomas Mitchell in The Outlaw (United Artists, 1943)
  • Glenn Corbett in Chisum (Warner Bros., 1970)
  • James Coburn in Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid (MGM, 1973)
  • Patrick Wayne in Young Guns (Fox, 1988)
  • William Petersen in Young Guns II (Fox, 1990)

#RIP #OTD in 1928 poet, writer, librarian, first poet laureate of California, Ina Coolbrith died in Berkeley aged 86. Mountain View Cemetery in Oakland

On this day in 2012, singer-songwriter, musician, actor, and teen idol, Davy Jones died from a heart attack after riding one of his favourite horses, at Martin Memorial South Hospital in Stuart, Florida, age 66. Born David Thomas Jones on 30 December 1945 in Openshaw, Manchester, England. Perhaps best known as a member of the band the Monkees, and for starring in the TV series of the same name. His acting credits include a Tony-nominated performance as the Artful Dodger in the original London and Broadway productions of Oliver! as well as a guest star role in a hallmark episode of The Brady Bunch television show and later reprised parody film; Love, American Style; and My Two Dads.

Jones with Maureen McCormick in the 1971 The Brady Bunch episode “Getting Davy Jones”, in which he was a guest star.

Jones was married three times. In December 1968, he married Dixie Linda Haines, with whom he had been living. Their relationship had been kept out of the public eye until after the birth of their first child in October 1968. It caused a considerable backlash for Jones from his fans when it was finally made public. Jones later stated in Tiger Beat magazine, “I kept my marriage a secret because I believe stars should be allowed a private life.”  The marriage ended in 1975.

Jones married his second wife, Anita Pollinger, on 24 January 1981. They divorced in 1996 during the Monkees’ 30th-anniversary reunion tour. Jones married for a third time in 2009 to Jessica Pacheco. On 28 July 2011, Pacheco filed to divorce Jones in Miami-Dade County, Florida, but dropped the suit in October. They were still married when he died. .

The Final Footprint

Jones was cremated. On Wednesday, 7 March 2012, a private funeral service was held at Holy Cross Catholic parish in Indiantown. To avoid drawing attention to the grieving family, the three surviving Monkees did not attend. Instead, the group attended memorial services in New York City and organized their own private memorial in Los Angeles along with Jones’s family and close friends. A public memorial service was held on 10 March 2012 in Beavertown, Pennsylvania, near a church Jones had purchased for future renovation.

On Monday, 12 March, a private memorial service was held in Jones’s home town of Openshaw, Manchester at Lees Street Congregational Church, where Jones performed as a child in church plays. Jones’s wife and daughters travelled to England to join his relatives based there for the service, and placed his ashes on his parents’ graves for a time.

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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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