Day in History 21 February – James I King of Scots – Gustave Caillebotte – Malcolm X – Charles Beaumont – Tim Horton – Peter Tork

On this day in 1437, James I, King of Scots, was assassinated in a failed coup by his kinsman and former ally Walter Stewart, Earl of Atholl, at the Blackfriars monastery on the outskirts of Perth, Scotland.  Born in Dunfermline Palace about July 1394; the son of Robert III of Scotland and Annabella Drummond.  On 4 April 1406 Robert III died and the 12 year old prince became the uncrowned king of Scots.  James was crowned on 21 May 1424.  He ruled with a firm hand, achieving numerous legal and financial reforms, including remodeling the Scottish parliament after its English counterpart, and renewing the Auld Alliance with France.  His actions, although very effective, upset many, namely the descendents of his grandfather, Robert II‘s second marriage (James was descended from the first marriage). Conflict arose between the two factions over who should be on the throne.  The main conspirators in the regicide, Walter of Atholl, his grandson Robert Stewart and Robert Graham were executed.  James was married to Joan Beaufort.  James was succeeded on the throne by his son James II.  A king named James would rule Scotland for 136 years through James I’s descendents; James II through James V.  James V was succeeded by his only surviving legitimate child, Mary, Queen of Scots.  Mary would be succeeded by the final James, her son James I of England, James VI, King of Scots.  In My Defens, God Me Defend!

Royal Standard

Seal of Perth Charterhouse

The Final Footprint – James is interred in the ruins at Perth Charterhouse or Perth Priory, known in Latin as Domus Vallis Virtutis (“House of the Valley of Virtue”), a monastic house of Carthusian monks based at Perth.

#RIP #OTD in 1894 painter who was a member and patron of the Impressionists, Gustave Caillebotte died of pulmonary congestion while working in his garden at Petit-Gennevilliers in 1894 at age 45. Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris

Malcolm X

Malcolm X in March 1964

Malcolm X in March 1964

On this day in 1965, African-American Muslim minister and human rights activist Malcolm X was assassinated by gunshots in Manhattan’s Audubon Ballroom at the age of 39. Born Malcolm Little on 19 May 1925 in Omaha, Nebraska. To his admirers he was a courageous advocate for the rights of blacks, a man who indicted white America in the harshest terms for its crimes against black Americans; detractors accused him of preaching racism and violence. In my opinion, one of the greatest and most influential African Americans in history.

His father was killed when he was six and his mother was placed in a mental hospital when he was thirteen, after which he lived in a series of foster homes. In 1946, at age twenty, he went to prison for larceny and breaking and entering. While in prison, he became a member of the Nation of Islam (NOI), changing his birth name to Malcolm X. After his parole in 1952 he quickly rose to become one of the organization’s most influential leaders, serving as the public face of the controversial group for a dozen years. In his autobiography, Malcolm X wrote proudly of some of the social achievements the Nation made while he was a member, particularly its free drug rehabilitation program. The Nation promoted black supremacy, advocated the separation of black and white Americans, and rejected the civil rights movement for its emphasis on integration.

By March 1964, Malcolm X had grown disillusioned with the Nation of Islam and its leader Elijah Muhammad. Expressing many regrets about his time with them, which he had come to regard as largely wasted, he embraced Sunni Islam. After a period of travel in Africa and the Middle East, which included completing the Hajj, he also became known as el-Hajj Malik el-ShabazzHe repudiated the Nation of Islam, disavowed racism and founded Muslim Mosque, Inc. and the Organization of Afro-American Unity. He continued to emphasize Pan-Africanism, black self-determination, and black self-defense.

In 1955, Betty Sanders met Malcolm X after one of his lectures, then again at a dinner party; soon she was regularly attending his lectures. In 1956 she joined the Nation of Islam, changing her name to Betty X. One-on-one dates were contrary to the Nation’s teachings, so the couple courted at social events with dozens or hundreds of others, and Malcolm X made a point of inviting her on the frequent group visits he led to New York City’s museums and libraries.

Malcolm X proposed during a telephone call from Detroit in January 1958, and they married two days later. 

Elijah Muhammad is speaking at a podium and people are listening intently

Cassius Clay (in dark suit) watches Elijah Muhammad speak, 1964

Malcolm X before a 1964 press conference

Malcolm X before a 1964 press conference

Malcolm X and Martin Luther King speak to each other thoughtfully as others look on

Malcolm X’s only meeting with Martin Luther King Jr., March 26, 1964

 
Malcolm X in 1964

Malcolm X, after his 1964 pilgrimage to Mecca

Malcolm X, carrying a rifle, peers out the window

Malcolm X guards his family in an iconic Ebony photo.

An overturned chair in front of a mural, on which several chalk circles have been drawn around bullet-holes

The Audubon Ballroom stage after the murder. Circles on backdrop mark bullet holes.

The Final Footprint

The public viewing, February 23–26 at Unity Funeral Home in Harlem, was attended by some 14,000 to 30,000 mourners. For the funeral on February 27, loudspeakers were set up for the overflow crowd outside Harlem’s thousand-seat Faith Temple of the Church of God in Christ, and a local television station carried the service live.

Actor and activist Ossie Davis delivered the eulogy, describing Malcolm X as “our shining black prince … who didn’t hesitate to die, because he loved us so”:

There are those who will consider it their duty, as friends of the Negro people, to tell us to revile him, to flee, even from the presence of his memory, to save ourselves by writing him out of the history of our turbulent times. Many will ask what Harlem finds to honor in this stormy, controversial and bold young captain‍—‌and we will smile. Many will say turn away‍—‌away from this man, for he is not a man but a demon, a monster, a subverter and an enemy of the black man‍—‌and we will smile. They will say that he is of hate‍—‌a fanatic, a racist‍—‌who can only bring evil to the cause for which you struggle! And we will answer and say to them: Did you ever talk to Brother Malcolm? Did you ever touch him, or have him smile at you? Did you ever really listen to him? Did he ever do a mean thing? Was he ever himself associated with violence or any public disturbance? For if you did you would know him. And if you knew him you would know why we must honor him … And, in honoring him, we honor the best in ourselves.

Malcolm X was buried at Ferncliff Cemetery in Hartsdale, New York. Friends took up the gravediggers’ shovels to complete the burial themselves. Other notable Final Footprints at Ferncliff include: Aaliyah, Harold Arlen, James Baldwin, Béla Bartók, Cab Calloway, Joan Crawford, Ossie Davis, Oscar Hammerstein II, Jerome Kern, Thelonious Monk, Toots ShorEd Sullivan, and Nikola Tesla.

Malcolm X is surrounded by reporters with microphones, while a television camera captures the scene

Malcolm X at a 1964 press conference

Portrait of Malcolm X by the artist Robert Templeton

Portrait of Malcolm X by Robert Templeton, from the collection Lest We Forget: Images of the Black Civil Rights Movement

Denzel Washington played the title role in the 1992 motion picture Malcolm X.

#RIP #OTD in 1967, writer of short stories and Twilight Zone episodes (The Howling Man, Static, Miniature, Printer’s Devil, Number Twelve Looks Just Like You), Charles Beaumont died from a degenerative brain disorder at Motion Picture Country Home, Los Angeles aged 38. San Fernando Mission Cemetery, Mission Hills, California

#RIP #OTD in 1974 Canadian professional ice hockey defenceman, co-founder of Tim Hortons restaurant chain, Tim Horton died in a car crash on the Queen Elizabeth Way in St. Catharines, Ontario, aged 44. York Cemetery, Toronto

#RIP #OTD in 2019 musician, composer, and actor who was perhaps best known as the keyboardist and bass guitarist of the Monkees, Peter Tork died from cancer at his home in Mansfield, Connecticut, aged 77. Cremated remains scattered at sea

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Day in History 20 February – Frederick Douglass – Max Schreck – Ferruccio Lamborghini – Audrey Munson – Hunter S. Thompson – Sandra Dee

On this day in 1895, social reformer, abolitionist, orator, writer, and statesman Frederick Douglass died from a heart attack in his home in Washington D. C., at the age of 77. Born Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey; c. February 1818 in . After escaping from slavery in Maryland, he became a national leader of the abolitionist movement in Massachusetts and New York, gaining note for his oratory and incisive antislavery writings. In his time, he was described by abolitionists as a living counter-example to slaveholders’ arguments that slaves lacked the intellectual capacity to function as independent American citizens. Northerners at the time found it hard to believe that such a great orator had once been a slave.

Douglass wrote several autobiographies. He described his experiences as a slave in his 1845 autobiography, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, which became a bestseller, and was influential in promoting the cause of abolition, as was his second book, My Bondage and My Freedom (1855). After the Civil War, Douglass remained an active campaigner against slavery and wrote his last autobiography, Life and Times of Frederick Douglass. First published in 1881 and revised in 1892, three years before his death, it covered events during and after the Civil War. Douglass also actively supported women’s suffrage, and held several public offices. Without his approval, Douglass became the first African American nominated for Vice President of the United States as the running mate and Vice Presidential nominee of Victoria Woodhull, on the Equal Rights Party ticket.

Douglass was a firm believer in the equality of all peoples, whether black, female, Native American, or recent immigrant. He was also a believer in dialogue and in making alliances across racial and ideological divides, and in the liberal values of the U.S. Constitution. When radical abolitionists, under the motto “No Union with Slaveholders”, criticized Douglass’ willingness to engage in dialogue with slave owners, he famously replied: “I would unite with anybody to do right and with nobody to do wrong.”

Douglass was married to Anna Murray on September 15, 1838, by a black Presbyterian minister, just eleven days after Douglass had reached New York. After Anna died in 1882, Douglass married again, to Helen Pitts, a white suffragist and abolitionist from Honeoye, New York, in 1884. A graduate of Mount Holyoke College (then called Mount Holyoke Female Seminary), Pitts worked on a radical feminist publication named Alpha while living in Washington, D.C. She later worked as Douglass’s secretary.

Their marriage provoked a storm of controversy, since Pitts was both white and nearly 20 years younger than Douglass. Her family stopped speaking to her; his children considered the marriage a repudiation of their mother. But feminist Elizabeth Cady Stanton congratulated the couple. Douglass responded to the criticisms by saying that his first marriage had been to someone the color of his mother, and his second to someone the color of his father.

The Final Footprint

His funeral was held at the Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal Church. Thousands of people passed by his coffin to show their respect. Although Douglass had attended several churches in the nation’s capital, he had a pew here and donated two standing candelabras when this church had moved to a new building in 1886. He also gave many lectures there, including his last major speech, “The Lesson of the Hour.”

Douglass’ coffin was transported back to Rochester, New York, where he had lived for 25 years, longer than anywhere else in his life. He was buried next to Anna in the Douglass family plot of Mount Hope Cemetery, and Helen joined them in 1903. Another notable final footprint at Mount Hope is Susan B. Anthony.

On this day in 1936, actor Max Schreck died from a heart attack in Munich at the age of 56. Born Friedrich Gustav Maximilian Schreck on 6 September 1879 in Berlin. Perhaps best known for his lead role as the vampire Count Orlok in the film Nosferatu (1922).

Schreck was married to actress Fanny Normann, who appeared in a few films, often credited as Fanny Schreck.

On 19 February 1936, Schreck had just played The Grand Inquisitor in the play Don Carlos. That evening he felt unwell and the doctor sent him to the hospital where he died early the next morning.


The Final Footprint

His obituary especially praised his role as The Miser in Molière’s comedy play. He was buried on 14 March 1936 at Wilmersdorfer Waldfriedhof Stahnsdorf in Brandenburg.

#RIP #OTD in 1993 automobile designer, inventor, mechanic, engineer, winemaker, industrialist, founder of Automobili Lamborghini, Ferruccio Lamborghini died at Silvestrini Hospital in Perugia after suffering a heart attack, aged 76. Cimitero di Renazzo, Italy

#RIP #OTD in 1996 artist’s model (more than 12 statues in New York City), actress (Inspiration), America’s first supermodel, Audrey Munson died at St. Lawrence State Hospital for the Insane in Ogdensburg, New York aged 104. New Haven Cemetery in New Haven, New York

On this day in 2005, journalist and author Hunter S. Thompson died from a self-inflicted gunshot at his home, Owl Farm near Woody Creek, Colorado, at the age of 67.  Born Hunter Stockton Thompson on 18 July 1937 in Louisville, Kentucky.  Thompson traveled frequently, including stints in California, Puerto Rico and Brazil, before settling in Aspen, Colorado, in the early 1960s.  He became internationally known with the publication of Hell’s Angels: The Strange and Terrible Saga of the Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs (1967).  Thompson had spent a year living and riding with the Angels, experiencing their lives and hearing their stories first hand.  With the publication in 1970 of “The Kentucky Derby Is Decadent and Depraved” he became a counter cultural figure, with his own brand of New Journalism he termed “Gonzo”, an experimental style of journalism where reporters involve themselves in the action to such a degree that they become central figures of their stories.  The work he perhaps remains best known for is Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream (1972), a rumination on the failure of the 1960s counterculture movement.  It was first serialized in Rolling Stone, a magazine with which Thompson would be long associated, and was released as a film starring Johnny Depp and directed by Terry Gilliam in 1998.  Politically minded, Thompson ran unsuccessfully for sheriff of Pitkin County, Colorado, in 1970, on the Freak Power ticket.  He was well known for his inveterate hatred of Richard Nixon, whom he claimed represented “that dark, venal, and incurably violent side of the American character” and whom he characterized in what might be his greatest contribution to American Literature, Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail ’72.  Thompson’s output notably declined from the mid-1970s, as he struggled with the consequences of fame, and he complained that he could no longer merely report on events as he was too easily recognized. He was also known for his lifelong use of alcohol and illegal drugs; his love of firearms, and his iconoclastic contempt for authoritarianism, and remarked that, “I hate to advocate drugs, alcohol, violence, or insanity to anyone, but they’ve always worked for me.” 

The Final Footprint – On 20 August 2005, in a private ceremony, Thompson’s cremated remains were fired from a cannon.  This was accompanied by red, white, blue and green fireworks-all to the tune of Norman Greenbaum’s “Spirit in the Sky” and Bob Dylan’s “Mr. Tambourine Man.”  The cannon was placed atop a 153-foot (47 m) tower which had the shape of a double-thumbed fist clutching a peyote button, a symbol originally used in his 1970 campaign for Sheriff of Pitkin County, Colorado.  Apparently, the funeral was funded by Depp.  He told the Associated Press, “All I’m doing is trying to make sure his last wish comes true.  I just want to send my pal out the way he wants to go out.”  Other notable attendees included U.S. Senator John Kerry, former U.S. Senator George McGovern, 60 Minutes correspondents Ed Bradley and Charlie Rose, Jack Nicholson, John Cusack, Bill Murray, Benicio del Toro, Sean Penn, Josh Hartnett, Lyle Lovett, and John Oates.

Sandra Dee

Sandra Dee 1961.png

Dee in 1961

On this day in 2005, actress Sandra Dee died at age 62 of complications from kidney disease, brought on by a lifelong struggle with anorexia nervosa at the Los Robles Hospital & Medical Center in Thousand Oaks, California. Born Alexandra Zuck on April 23, 1942 in Bayonne, New Jersey.  Dee began her career as a child model, working in commercials before transitioning to film in her teenage years. Best known for her portrayal of ingénues, Dee earned a Golden Globe Award as one of the year’s most promising newcomers for her performance in Robert Wise’s Until They Sail (1958). She became a teenage star for her subsequent performances in Imitation of Life and Gidget (both 1959), which made her a household name.

Dee married Bobby Darin in 1960. They met while filming Come September, which was released in 1961. She and Darin divorced in 1967. Bobby Darin died at age 37 in 1973. She never remarried.

Pop culture references:

  • One of the popular songs of the Broadway musical and movie Grease (1978) is “Look at Me, I’m Sandra Dee”, in which the rebellious Rizzo satirizes new girl Sandra Dumbrowski (Sandra Dee Olson in the film) and her clean-cut image, likened to Sandra Dee’s (the character’s name is thus a play on the real-life actress). According to a family friend, Dee “always had a big laugh about it.”
  • Dee’s life with Bobby Darin was dramatized in the film Beyond the Sea (2004), in which Kevin Spacey played Darin and Dee was played by Kate Bosworth.
  • She is referenced in the Rodney Crowell song “I Ain’t Living Long Like This” (“I live with Angel she’s a roadhouse queen, makes Texas Ruby look like Sandra Dee”)
  • She is also referenced in the Badly Drawn Boy song “One Last Dance” (“To this day I’m lovin’ you, we know what we wanna do. I am your Troy Donahue and you are my Sandra Dee”)
  • In the movie Kissing Jessica Stein, a character mentions her by saying: “I took out an ad for Christ’s sake. And I ended up with the Jewish Sandra Dee.”
  • The Mötley Crüe song Come On And Dance (1981) references her: “Electric love/Like Sandra Dee.”

In Imitation of Life trailer (1959)

The Final Footprint

 She is entombed at Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Hollywood Hills. Other notable final footprints at Hollywood Hills include; Gene Autry, Albert “Cubby” Broccoli, David Carradine, Scatman Crothers, Bette Davis, 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, Lou Rawls, Debbie Reynolds, Telly Savalas, Lee Van Cleef, and Paul Walker.

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Day in History 19 February – Bon Scott – Charles Trenet – Johnny Paycheck – Harper Lee – Umberto Eco

bonscottOn this day in 1980, Scottish-born Australian rock musician, lead singer and lyricist of Australian heavy rock band AC/DC, Bon Scott, died in a parked car at 67 Overhill Road in East Dulwich, South London, at the age of 33.  The official cause of death was listed as acute alcohol poisoning.  Born Ronald Belford Scott on 9 July 1946 in Kirriemuir, Scotland.  His family moved to Melbourne, Australia when he was six.  Scott became the lead singer of AC/DC in 1974.  The band went on to release some of the best heavy rock albums, in my opinion, including; Let There Be Rock, Powerage, If You Want Blood You’ve Got It and Highway to Hell.  After Scott’s death, the remaining members of AC/DC, Angus Young, Malcolm Young, Cliff Williams and Phil Rudd briefly considered disbanding.  However, they decided that Scott would have wanted them to continue. With the blessings of Scott’s family, the band hired Brian Johnson as the new vocalist and lyricist.  Five months after Scott’s death, AC/DC finished the work they began with Scott and released Back in Black as a tribute to him with two tracks from the album, “Hells Bells” and “Back in Black”, dedicated to his memory.  One of my all-time favorite bands.  

The Final FootprintScott was cremated and his cremains were interred in Fremantle Cemetery in Fremantle, Australia.  The site of the interment is marked by a plaque inscribed; LOVED SON OF ISA AND CHICK BROTHER OF DEREK GRAEME AND VALARIE CLOSE TO OUR HEARTS HE WILL ALWAYS STAY LOVED AND REMEMBERED EVERY DAY.  A bronze statue of Scott by Greg James, was installed at Fisherman’s Wharf in Fremantle, Western Australia.  On 6 May 2006, the town of Kirriemuir in Scotland held a service and unveiled a Caithness stone slab commemorating Scott.  The memorial is inscribed; with his name and birth and death dates and LET THERE BE ROCK – SONG WRITER AND LEAD SINGER WITH AC/DC THE WORLD’S GREATEST ROCK ‘N’ ROLL LEGEND.

#RIP #OTD in 2001 singer-songwriter (“Boum!”, “La Mer”, “Nationale 7″, “Y’a d’la joie”, “Que reste-t-il de nos amours?”, “Ménilmontant”, “Douce France”), Charles Trenet died from a stroke in Créteil, France aged 87. Cimetière de l’ouest Narbonne, France

#RIP #OTD in 2003 country music singer (“Take this Job and Shove It”) songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, Johnny Paycheck died from emphysema at Nashville’s Vanderbilt University Medical Center, aged 64. Woodlawn Memorial Park Cemetery, Nashville, in a plot donated by George Jones

On this day in 2016, novelist Harper Lee died in her sleep in Monroeville, Alabama at the age of 89. Born Nelle Harper Lee on April 28, 1926 in Monroeville, Alabama. Perhaps best known for To Kill a Mockingbird, published in 1960. Immediately successful, it won the 1961 Pulitzer Prize and has become a classic of modern American literature. In 2007 she was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom for her contribution to literature. She was also known for assisting her close friend Truman Capote in his research for the book In Cold Blood (1966). Capote was the basis for the character Dill in To Kill a Mockingbird.

The plot and characters of To Kill a Mockingbird are loosely based on Lee’s observations of her family and neighbors, as well as an event that occurred near her hometown in 1936, when she was 10 years old. The novel deals with the irrationality of adult attitudes towards race and class in the Deep South of the 1930s, as depicted through the eyes of two children, Scout and Dill.

Another novel, Go Set a Watchman, was written in the mid-1950s and published in July 2015 as a “sequel”, though it was later confirmed to be To Kill a Mockingbird‘s first draft.

A black and white photograph of Alan J. Pakula seated next to Harper Lee in director's chairs watching the filming of To Kill a Mockingbird

Film producer Alan J. Pakula with Lee, who spent three weeks watching the filming of To Kill a Mockingbird

Lee being awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, November 5, 2007

The Final Footprint

On February 20, her funeral was held at First United Methodist Church in Monroeville. The service was attended by close family and friends. She is interred in Hillcrest Cemetery in Monroeville. 

Lee was portrayed by Catherine Keener in the film Capote (2005), by Sandra Bullock in the film Infamous (2006), and by Tracey Hoyt in the TV movie Scandalous Me: The Jacqueline Susann Story (1998). In the adaptation of Truman Capote’s novel Other Voices, Other Rooms (1995), the character of Idabel Thompkins, who was inspired by Capote’s memories of Lee as a child, was played by Aubrey Dollar.

#RIP #OTD in 2016 medievalist, philosopher, semiotician, novelist (The Name of the Rose, Foucault’s Pendulum), cultural critic, political and social commentator, Umberto Eco died at his Milanese home of pancreatic cancer, aged 84. Cremated remains Cimitero Monumentale in Milano

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

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

The Final Footprint –  His body was taken from Rome for interment at the Basilica di Santa Croce, fulfilling the maestro’s last request to be buried in his beloved Florence.  The Basilica di Santa Croce (Basilica of the Holy Cross) is the principal Franciscan church in Florence, and a minor basilica of the Roman Catholic Church.  It is situated on the Piazza di Santa Croce.  Other notable final footprints at Santa Croce include; Vittorio Alfieri, Ugo Foscolo, Machiavelli, Galileo Galilei, and Gioacchino Rossini.

Gallery

  • The Madonna of the Steps (1490–92)

  • The Taddei Tondo (1502)

  • Madonna and Child. Brügge, Belgium (1504)

  • The Doni Tondo (1504–06)

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

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

    • Dying slave Louvre (1513)

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

      The Sistine Chapel Ceiling (1508–12)
      • The Drunkenness of Noah

      • The Deluge (detail)

      • The Creation of Adam (1510)

      • The First day of Creation

        • Ignudo (1511)

        • Studies for The Libyan Sibyl

        • The Libyan Sibyl (1511)

        • The Prophet Jeremiah (1511)

          • The Battle of the Centaurs (1492)

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

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

          • Crucifixion of St Peter

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

            • The Pieta of Vittoria Colonna (c. 1540)

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

            • The Rondanini Pieta (1552–64)

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

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

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

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

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

The Final Footprint

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

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

#RIP #OTD in 2014, writer of novels, plays, essays, short stories (From the Fifteenth District, The Pegnitz Junction, Home Truths), Mavis Gallant died in Paris aged 91. Cimetière du Montparnasse, Paris

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Final Footprint

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

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

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

#RIP #OTD in 2023 actress (Say One for Me; Girls! Girls! Girls!; The Nutty Professor; How to Save a Marriage and Ruin Your Life; The Poseidon Adventure), Stella Stevens died of complications from Alzheimer’s disease in Los Angeles aged 84. Cremated remains in a columbarium niche at Hollywood Forever

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

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

On this day in 1922, rancher, gambler, Texas Ranger, Texas John Slaughter, died in Douglas, Arizona at the age of 80.  Born John Horton Slaughter on 2 October 1841 in Sabine Parish, Arizona.

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

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

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

Lesley Gore

Leslie Gore Batman 1967.JPG

Gore as a Batman guest star, 1967

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

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

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

The Final Footprint 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

#RIP #OTD in 1968 blues musician (harmonica, guitar), singer (Mean Old World, Juke, Blues With A Feeling, Key To The Highway, Take A Look At Yourself), songwriter, Little Walter (Walter Jacobs) died in his sleep at a girlfriend’s apartment in Chicago from a coronary thrombosis, aged 37. St. Mary’s Cemetery, in Evergreen Park, Illinois

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

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

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

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

The Final Footprint

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Final Footprint

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Final Footprint

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

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

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Day in History 13 February – Lily Pons – Waylon Jennings

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

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

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

Have you planned yours yet?

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Day in History 12 February – Lady Jane Grey – Lord Guildford Dudley – Lillie Langtry – Sal Mineo – Jean Renoir – Muriel Rukeyser – Eubie Blake – Screamin’ Jay Hawkins – Tom Landry – Charles M. Schulz – Sammi Smith – Sid Caesar – Al Jarreau – Ivan Reitman

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

#RIP #OTD in 2000 singer-songwriter (I Put a Spell on You), musician, actor, film producer, boxer, Screamin’ Jay Hawkins died after emergency surgery from an aneurysm in Neuilly-sur-Seine, France, aged 70. Cremated remains scattered in the Atlantic

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

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

#RIP #OTD in 2000, cartoonist, the creator of the comic strip Peanuts, Charles M. Schulz died in his sleep of a heart attack while battling colon cancer at his home in Santa Rosa, California, at the age of 77. Pleasant Hills Cemetery in Sebastopol, California

#RIP #OTD in 2005 singer (Help Me Make It Through the Night), songwriter, Sammi Smith died at her home in Oklahoma City of emphysema aged 61. Elmhurst Cemetery in Guymon, Oklahoma

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

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

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

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

  The Final Footprint

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

1996: Jarreau performing at the Molde International Jazz Festival.

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

1986: Jarreau in concert in Berlin

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

The Final Footprint

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

#RIP #OTD in 2022 film director (MeatballsStripesGhostbustersTwinsKindergarten CopDave), Ivan Reitman died in his sleep at his home in Montecito, California, aged 75. Santa Barbara Cemetery, Santa Barbara, California

Have you planned yours yet?

Follow TFF on twitter @RIPTFF

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