RIP The Final Impression

On this day 24 June death of Lucrezia Borgia – Sarah Orne Jewett – Sissieretta Jones – Carlos Gardel – Jackie Gleason – Eli Wallach

Posted on 29 JunamWed, 24 Jun 2026 00:12:00 -05002026-06-24T00:12:00-05:0012 2011 by MacGregor

On this day in 1519, daughter of Pope Alexander VI, Lady of Pesaro and Gradara, Duchess of Bisceglie and Princess of Salerno, Duchess of Ferrara, Modena and Reggio, Lucrezia Borgia died in Ferrara, Italy at the age of 39 from complications after giving birth to her eighth child, having had a lifelong history of complicated pregnancies and miscarriages. Born in Subiaco, near Rome on 18 April 1480. Her mother was Vannozza dei Cattanei, one of the mistresses of Lucrezia’s father, Rodrigo Borgia (Pope Alexander VI). Her brothers included Cesare Borgia, Giovanni Borgia, and Gioffre Borgia. Lucrezia’s family later came to epitomize the ruthless Machiavellian politics and sexual corruption characteristic of the Renaissance Papacy. Lucrezia was cast as a femme fatale, a role she has been portrayed as in many artworks, novels, films and an opera. Very little is known of Lucrezia, and the extent of her complicity in the political machinations of her father and brothers is unclear. They certainly arranged several marriages for her to important or powerful men in order to advance their own political ambitions. Lucrezia was married to Giovanni Sforza (Lord of Pesaro), Alfonso of Aragon (Duke of Bisceglie), and Alfonso I d’Este (Duke of Ferrara). Tradition has it that Alfonso of Aragon was an illegitimate son of the King of Naples and that Lucrezia’s brother Cesare may have had him murdered after his political value waned.

The Final Footprint – Lucrezia was entombed in the convent of Corpus Domini. On 15 October 1816, the Romantic poet Lord Byron visited the Ambrosian Library of Milan. He was delighted by the letters between Borgia and her one-time lover, poet Pietro Bembo (“The prettiest love letters in the world”) and claimed to have managed to steal a lock of her hair (“the prettiest and fairest imaginable”) held on display. Victor Hugo’s 1833 stage play Lucrèce Borgia, loosely based on the stories of Lucrezia, was transformed into a libretto by Felice Romani for Donizetti’s opera, Lucrezia Borgia (1834), first performed at La Scala, Milan, 26 December 1834.

#RIP #OTD in 1909 novelist, short story writer (The Country of the Pointed Firs), poet, Sarah Orne Jewett died in her South Berwick, Maine from a stroke aged 59. Portland Street Cemetery, South Berwick, Maine

#RIP #OTD in 1933 soprano, called “The Black Patti” in reference to Italian opera singer Adelina Patti, Sissieretta
Jones died from cancer at the Rhode Island Hospital in Providence, Rhode Island aged 64-65. Grace Church Cemetery, Providence

#OTD #RIP in 1935 French-born Argentine singer, songwriter, composer and actor, the most prominent figure in the history of tango, «El Zorzal”, “The King of Tango” Carlos Gardel died in an airplane crash in Medellín, Columbia, aged 44. La Chacarita Cemetery in Buenos Aires

On this day in 1987 comedian, actor and musician Jackie Gleason died at his home in Lauderhill, Florida at the age of 71. Born Herbert Walton Gleason, Jr. on 26 February 1916 in either Bushwick or Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn. Perhaps best known for his role on television as Ralph Kramden in The Honeymooners and for The Jackie Gleason Show (1952-1970). His most noted film roles were as Minnesota Fats in the drama film The Hustler (1961) starring Paul Newman, and as Buford T. Justice in the Smokey and the Bandit movie series. Gleason married three times; Genevieve Halford (1936-1970 divorce), Beverly McKittrick (1970-1975 divorce) and Marilyn Taylor (1975-1987 his death). His trademark phrases were “And away we go!” and “How sweet it is!”. In my opinion, The Honymooners is, without question, the “Bang, Zoom” funniest show that ever aired on television. And I will stand on Jerry Seinfeld’s coffee table in my cowboy boots and say that. I remember watching The Jackie Gleason Show as a kid. Gleason was hilarious in Smokey and the Bandit.

The Final Footprint – Gleason is entombed in a private mausoleum in Our Lady of Mercy Catholic Cemetery in Miami, Florida. Engraved at the base of the mausoleum is his epitaph; “AND AWAY WE GO”. A life-size statue of Gleason, in full uniform as bus driver Ralph Kramden, stands outside the Port Authority Bus Terminal in New York City. Another statue stands at the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Hall of Fame in North Hollywood, California, showing Gleason in his famous “And away we go!” pose. Local signs on the Brooklyn Bridge, which indicate to drivers that they are entering Brooklyn, have the Gleason phrase “How Sweet It Is!” as part of the sign.

On this day in 2014, actor, graduate of the University of Texas, Eli Wallach died of natural causes at the age of 98 in Manhattan. Born Eli Herschel Wallach on 7 December 1915 in Red Hook, Brooklyn. Wallach’s career spanned more than six decades, beginning in the late 1940s. On stage, he often co-starred with his wife, Anne Jackson, becoming one of the best-known acting couples in the American theater. Wallach initially studied method acting under Sanford Meisner, and later became a founding member of the Actors Studio, where he studied under Lee Strasberg. His versatility gave him the ability to play a wide variety of different roles throughout his career, primarily as a supporting actor.

For his debut screen performance in Baby Doll, he won a BAFTA Award for Best Newcomer and a Golden Globe Award nomination. Among his other most famous roles are; Calvera in The Magnificent Seven (1960), Guido in The Misfits (1961), and Tuco in The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966), Don Altobello in The Godfather Part III, Cotton Weinberger in The Two Jakes (both 1990), and Arthur Abbott in The Holiday (2006). One of America’s most prolific screen actors, Wallach remained active well into his nineties, with roles as recently as 2010 in Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps and The Ghost Writer.

Wallach received BAFTA Awards, Tony Awards and Emmy Awards for his work, and received an Academy Honorary Award at the second annual Governors Awards, presented on November 13, 2010. Wallach and Jackson were married from 1948 until his death.

The Final Footprint – Wallach was cremated.

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Posted in Day in History, Extravagant Footprints, Film Footprints | Tagged and away we go, brooklyn, buford t justice, Carlos Gardel, Cemetery, Crypts, donizetti, eli wallach, Entomb, epitaph, Grace Church Cemetery, History, how sweet it is, Inscription, jackie gleason, La Chacarita Cemetery, Lucrezia Borgia, minnesota fats, our lady of mercy catholic cemetery, Paul Newman, pope alexander VI, Portland Street Cemetery, Private Mausoleum, ralph kramden, riptff, Sarah Orne Jewett, Sissieretta Jones, Smokey and the Bandit, tff, the final footprint, the honeymooners, The Hustler, Victor Hugo | Leave a comment

On this day 25 July deaths of Maria Szymanowska – André Chénier – Samuel Taylor Coleridge – Frank O’Hara – Big Mama Thornton – Vincente Minnelli – Charlie Rich – Ben Hogan – John Schlesinger – Carl Brashear – Bernadette Lafont – Paul Sorvino

Posted on 29 JulamSat, 25 Jul 2026 00:24:00 -05002026-07-25T00:24:00-05:0012 2011 by MacGregor

RIP #OTD in 1831, Polish composer (Etudes, Preludes, Nocturne in B flat), one of the first professional virtuoso pianists of the 19th century, Maria Szymanowska died of cholera during the summer 1831 epidemic in Saint Petersburg, aged 41. Holy Trinity Alexander Nevsky Lavra, Saint Petersburg

#RIP #OTD in 1794 poet, subject of Umberto Giordano’s opera Andrea Chénier, André Chénier was guillotined for conspiracy at what is now the Place de la Nation, Paris, three days before the end of the Reign of Terror, aged 31. Cimetière de Picpus, Paris

On this day in 1834, English poet, Romantic, literary critic and philosopher who, with his friend William Wordsworth, was a founder of the Romantic Movement in England and a member of the Lake Poets, Samuel Taylor Coleridge died at the home of the Gillman family, where he lived, in Highgate, London at the age of 61 as a result of heart failure compounded by an unknown lung disorder, possibly linked to his use of opium. Born 21 October 1772 in in the country town of Ottery St Mary, Devon, England. Perhaps best known for his poems The Rime of the Ancient Mariner and Kubla Khan, as well as his “Conversation poems”. His critical work, especially on Shakespeare, was highly influential, and he helped introduce German idealist philosophy to English-speaking culture. He coined many familiar words and phrases, including the celebrated “suspension of disbelief”. Throughout his adult life, Coleridge suffered from crippling bouts of anxiety and depression; it has been speculated by some that he suffered from bipolar disorder, a condition not identified during his lifetime. Coleridge suffered from poor health that may have stemmed from a bout of rheumatic fever and other childhood illnesses. He was treated for these concerns with laudanum, which fostered a lifelong opium addiction.

The Final Footprint – He is entombed in Saint Michael Churchyard in Highgate.

#RIP #OTD in 1966 writer, poet (Lunch Poems), art critic, curator at the Museum of Modern Art, Frank O’Hara died from injuries after being hit by a jeep on Fire Island beach, New York, at Bayview Hospital in Mastic Beach, Long Island, aged 40. Green River Cemetery, Springs NY

On this day in 1984, singer and songwriter Big Mama Thornton died of a heart attack in Los Angeles at age 57. Born Willie Mae Thornton on 11 December 1926 in Ariton, Alabama. She was the first to record Leiber and Stoller’s “Hound Dog” in 1952, which became her biggest hit. It spent seven weeks at number one on the Billboard R&B charts in 1953 and sold almost two million copies. However, her success was overshadowed three years later, when Elvis recorded his more popular rendition. Similarly, Thornton’s “Ball ‘n’ Chain”, had a bigger impact when performed and recorded by Janis Joplin in the late 1960’s.

The Final Footprint – Thornton is interred in Inglewood Park Cemetery in Inglewood, California. Other notable Final Footprints at Inglewood Park include; Ray Charles, Ella Fitzgerald, Curt Flood, Betty Grable, Etta James, Robert Kardashian (father of Kim, Kourtney and Khloé), Billy Preston, Cesar Romero, Billie Buckwheat Thomas, Big Mama Thornton, T-Bone Walker, and Syreeta Wright.

#RIP #OTD in 1986 stage director, film director (Meet Me in St. Louis, An American in Paris, The Band Wagon, Gigi), former husband of Judy Garland, Vincente Minnelli died in his Beverly Hills home of emphysema/pneumonia, aged 83. Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California

On this day in 1995, singer, songwriter, and musician, the Silver Fox, Charlie Rich died in his sleep in a Hammond, Louisiana, motel from a pulmonary embolism at the age of 62. Born Charles Allan Rich on December 14, 1932 in Colt, Arkansas. His eclectic style of music was often difficult to classify, encompassing the rockabilly, jazz, blues, country, soul, and gospel genres.

Perhaps best remembered for a pair of 1973 hits, “Behind Closed Doors” (written by Kenny O’Dell) and “The Most Beautiful Girl” (written by Billy Sherrill, Norro Wilson, and Rory Bourke). “The Most Beautiful Girl” topped the U.S. country singles charts, as well as the Billboard Hot 100 pop singles charts and earned him two Grammy Awards. Rich was inducted into the Memphis Music Hall of Fame in 2015.

The Final Footprint

He was buried in the Memorial Park Cemetery in Memphis, Tennessee. Other notable final footprints at Memorial Park include; Isaac Hayes, Sam Phillips, Bob Welch, and Bobby Bland.

On this day in 1997, professional golfer, 9x major champion, winner of all four major championships (the Masters Tournament, the Open Championship, the U.S. Open, and the PGA Championship), The Hawk, Bantam Ben, The Wee Iceman, Ben Hogan died in Fort Worth, Texas at the age of 84. Born William Ben Hogan on 13 August 1912 in Stephenville, Texas. In my opinion, one of the greatest players in the history of the game. Born within six months of two other acknowledged golf greats of the twentieth century, Sam Snead and Byron Nelson, Hogan is notable for his profound influence on the golf swing theory and his legendary ball-striking ability, for which he remains renowned among players and fans.

The Final Footprint – Hogan is entombed in the mausoleum at Greenwood Memorial Park in Fort Worth.

#RIP #OTD in 2003 actor, director (Far From the Madding Crowd, Midnight Cowboy, Sunday Bloody Sunday, The Day of the Locust, Marathon Man), John Schlesinger died at Desert Regional Medical Center in Palm Springs at the age of 77. Willesden United Synagogue Cemetery, Willesden, England

Cuba Gooding, Jr., Carl Brashear and Defense Secretary William Cohen October 2000

On this day in 2006, U. S. Navy Master Diver Carl Brashear died of respiratory and heart failure at the Portsmouth Naval Medical Center, Portsmouth, Virginia at the age of 75. Born Carl Maxie Brashear on 19 January 1931 in Tonieville, Kentucky. Brashear was the first African-American to attend and graduate from the Diving & Salvage School, the first African-American U.S. Navy Diver and the first African-American U.S. Navy Master Diver. After an accident aboard the U.S.S. Hoist, which resulted in the eventual amputation of his lower left leg, he became the first amputee diver to be certified or re-certified as a U.S. Navy diver. Cuba Gooding, Jr. portrayed Brashear in the film based on his story, Men of Honor (2000) featuring Robert De Niro, Charlize Theron, Hal Holbrook, Powers Boothe and David Keith. Brashear married three times; Junetta Wilcoxson (1952-1978 divorce), Hattie R. Elam (1980-1983 divorce) and Jeanette A. Brundage (1985-1987 divorce).

The Final Footprint – Brashear is interred in Woodlawn Memorial Gardens in Norfolk, Virginia. His grave is marked by an individual VA, bronze on granite marker. His epitaph; I AIN’T GONNA LET NOBODY STEAL MY DREAM.

#RIP #OTD in 2013, actress (Les Mistons, L’Effrontée, Masques, Paulette), muse of François Truffaut, Bernadette Lafont died from a heart attack in Nîmes, France aged 74. Lafont Family Estate, Saint-Andre-de-Valborgne, France

#RIP #OTD in 2022 actor (Bloodbrothers, Goodfellas, The Firm, The Cooler) Paul Sorvino died at Mayo Clinic Florida in Jacksonville aged 83. Hollywood Forever Cemetery

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Posted in Athletic Footprints, Day in History, Literary Footprints, Military Footprints, Musical Footprints | Tagged amputee, André Chénier, ball n chain, ben hogan, Bernadette Lafont, big mama thornton, Buried, carl brashear, Cemetery, charlie rich, charlize theron, Cimetière de Picpus, cuba gooding jr, david keith, Elvis Presley, epitaph, forest lawn glendale, frank ohara, green river cemetery, greenwood memorial park, Ground Burial, History, hollywood forever cemetery, Holy Trinity Alexander Nevsky Lavra, hound dog, inglewood park cemetery, janis joplin, John Schlesinger, lake poets, leiber and stroller, Maria Szymanowska, memorial park cemetery, men of honor, Paul Sorvino, powers boothe, riptff, robert de niro, saint michael churchyard, samuel taylor coleridge, tff, the final footprint, us navy master diver, uss hoist, Vincente Minnelli, Willesden United Synagogue Cemetery, woodlawn memorial gardens | Leave a comment

On this day 24 July deaths of Constance Bennett – Peter Sellers – G. D. Spradlin – Marni Nixon – Regis Philbin

Posted on 29 JulamFri, 24 Jul 2026 00:21:00 -05002026-07-24T00:21:00-05:0012 2011 by MacGregor

#RIP #OTD in 1965 stage, film (What Price Hollywood?, Bed of Roses, Topper, Topper Takes a Trip, Two-Faced Woman), radio, television actress, producer, Constance Bennett died from a cerebral hemorrhage in Fort Dix, New Jersey aged 60. Arlington National @ArlingtonNatl

On this day in 1980 Royal Air Force veteran, comedian and Academy Award-nominated actor, Peter Sellers died in London from a heart attack at the age of 54. Born Richard Henry Sellers on 8 September 1925 in Southsea, Hampshire, England, United Kingdom. Perhaps best remembered for his role as Chief Inspector Clouseau in The Pink Panther film series. My favorite role played by Sellers is the man-child and TV-addicted Chance the gardener in the film, Being There (1979). Sellers married four times; Anne Hayes (1951-1961 divorce), Britt Ekland (1964-1968 divorce), Miranda Quarry (1970-1974 divorce) and Lynne Frederick (1977-1980 his death).

The Final Footprint – Sellers was cremated and his cremated remains are interred at Golders Green Crematorium in London under a rose bush at the far end of the complex next to the Chapel of Memory columbarium. His memorial plaque has the epitaph; “Life is a state of mind” and the term of endearment; WITH EVERLOVING MEMORIES. Other notable Final Footprints at Golders Green include; Kingsley Amis, Marc Bolan, Sigmund Freud, Doris Lessing, Keith Moon, Anna Pavlova, and Bram Stoker. In addition, among those who were cremated here, but whose cremated remains are elsewhere; Neville Chamberlain, T. S. Eliot, Henry James, Rudyard Kipling, Vivien Leigh, H. G. Wells, and Amy Winehouse.

On this day in 2011, lawyer, Oklahoma Sooner, the actor who portrayed Senator Pat Geary in Francis Ford Coppola’s The Godfather Part II, G. D. Spradlin died of natural causes at his cattle ranch in San Luis Obispo, California at the age of 90. Born Gervase Duan Spradlin on 31 August 1920 in Pauls Valley, Oklahoma.

Known for his distinctive accent and voice, he often played devious authority figures. He is credited in over 70 television and film productions.

The Final Footprint – Cremains scattered at his ranch.

#RIP #OTD 2016 soprano, ghost singer (for; Deborah Kerr in The King and I, Natalie Wood in West Side Story, Audrey Hepburn in My Fair Lady), mother of Andrew Gold, Marni Nixon died from breast cancer in New York City, aged 86. Cremated

#RIP #OTD 2020 television presenter, talk show host, game show host, actor, singer, “the hardest working man in show business” Regis Philbin died from a heart attack in Greenwich, Connecticut, age 88. Cedar Grove Cemetery on the campus of the University of Notre Dame

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Posted in Day in History, Film Footprints | Tagged Arlington National Cemetery, being there, Cedar grove cemetery, chance, Constance Bennett, cremains, Cremation, epitaph, g d spradlin, Golders Green Crematorium, inspector clouseau, Marni Nixon, pat geary, peter sellers, Regis Philbin, riptff, term of endearment, tff, the final footprint, The Godfather, the pink panther | Leave a comment

On this day 23 July deaths of Marceline Desbordes-Valmore – Conrad Kohrs – Montgomery Clift – Vic Morrow – Eudora Welty – Amy Winehouse – Sally Ride – Bob Rafelson

Posted on 29 JulamThu, 23 Jul 2026 00:27:00 -05002026-07-23T00:27:00-05:0012 2011 by MacGregor

RIP #OTD in 1859 actress, poet (Élégies et romances) and novelist, a founder of French Romantic poetry, Marceline Desbordes-Valmore died in Paris aged 73. Montmartre Cemetery, Paris

On this day in 1920, Montana cattle rancher, Montana’s Cattle King, Conrad Kohrs died at his ranch near Dear Lodge, Montana. Born Carsten Conrad Kohrs on 5 August 1835 in Holstein, a province that was ethnically and culturally German and part of the German Confederation but ruled at the time in personal union by Denmark. The home ranch near Deer Lodge, Montana, was held by the family until 1972, when his grandson sold it to the National Park Service. It is now the Grant-Kohrs Ranch National Historic Site.

The Final Footprint – Hillcrest Cemetery, Deer Lodge, Montana.

On this day in 1966, film and stage actor, 4x Academy Award nominee, Montgomery Clift died at his home in New York City from a heart attack at the age of 45. Born Edward Montgomery Clift on 17 October 1920 in Omaha, Nebraska. His New York Times obituary said he was known for his portrayal of “moody, sensitive young men”. Perhaps best remembered for his roles in Red River (1948), The Heiress (1949), A Place in the Sun (1951), Alfred Hitchcock’s I Confess (1953), From Here to Eternity (1953), The Young Lions (1958), Judgment at Nuremberg (1961), and The Misfits (1961). Clift was one of the original method actors in Hollywood and one of the first actors to be invited to study in the Actors Studio with Lee Strasberg and Elia Kazan. He received four Oscar nominations during his career: three for Best Actor and one for Best Supporting Actor.

Elizabeth Taylor was a significant figure in his life. He met her when she was supposed to be his date at the premiere for The Heiress. They appeared together in A Place in the Sun, where, in their romantic scenes, they received acclaim for their naturalness and their appearance. Clift and Taylor appeared together again in Raintree County and Suddenly, Last Summer. Clift and Taylor remained good friends until his death. Clift never married.

My favorite Clift roles include: Robert E. Lee Prewitt in From Here to Eternity (1953), Perce Howland in John Huston‘s The Misfits (1961), and Matt Garth in Howard Hawk‘s Red River (1948).

The Final Footprint – Following a 15-minute ceremony at St. James Church attended by 150 guests including Lauren Bacall, Frank Sinatra and Nancy Walker, Clift was buried in the Quaker Cemetery, Prospect Park, Brooklyn. Elizabeth Taylor, who was in Paris, sent flowers, as did Roddy McDowall, Myrna Loy, and Lew Wasserman.

#RIP #OTD in 1982 actor (Blackboard Jungle; King Creole; God’s Little Acre; Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry;The Bad News Bears; Twilight Zone: The Movie), father of Jennifer Jason Leigh, Vic Morrow died; helicopter crashed on him while filming Twilight Zone in Indian Dunes, California aged 53. in Hillside Memorial Park Cemetery in Culver City, California

On this day in 2001, author of short stories and novels about the South, photographer, Pulitzer Prize recipient, Eudora Welty died at her home in Jackson, Mississippi at the age of 92. Born Eudora Alice Welty on 13 April 1909 in Jackson. One of my favorite writers. Every year on her birthday I read some of her short stories. Her work attracted the attention of author Katherine Anne Porter, who became a mentor to Welty and wrote the foreword to Welty’s first short story collection, A Curtain of Green (1941). I highly recommend The Collected Stories of Eudora Welty (1982) and her novels; The Robber Bridegroom (novella) (1942), Delta Wedding (1946), The Ponder Heart (1954), Losing Battles (1970) and The Optimist’s Daughter (1972). Welty never married.

The Final Footprint – Welty is interred in Greenwood Cemetery in Jackson. Her grave is marked by an individual upright granite marker. Her epitaph reads; FOR HER LIFE, ANY LIFE, SHE HAD TO BELIEVE WAS NOTHING BUT THE CONTINUITY OF IT’S LOVE. THE OPTIMIST’S DAUGHTER. Her house in Jackson is a National Historic Landmark and open to the public as a museum.

On this day in 2011, singer and songwriter, Amy Winehouse died at her home in Camden, London at the age of 27, thus becoming a member of the Forever 27 Club, which includes, bluesman Robert Johnson, Rolling Stone Brian Jones, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Kurt Cobain, and Jim Morrison. A coroner’s inquest reached a verdict of death by misadventure from alcohol poisoning. Born Amy Jade Winehouse on 14 September 1983 in Southgate, London. Known for her deep, expressive contralto vocals and her eclectic mix of musical genres, including soul (sometimes labelled as blue-eyed soul and neo soul), rhythm and blues, and jazz. Winehouse’s debut album, Frank (2003), was nominated for the Mercury Prize. Her follow-up album, Back to Black (2006), led to five 2008 Grammy Awards, tying the then record for the most wins by a female artist in a single night, and made her the first British woman to win five Grammys, including three of the General Field “Big Four” Grammy Awards: Best New Artist, Record of the Year and Song of the Year.

Winehouse won three Ivor Novello Awards from the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers, and Authors: in 2004, Best Contemporary Song for “Stronger Than Me”; in 2007, Best Contemporary Song again, this time for “Rehab”; and in 2008, Best Song Musically and Lyrically for “Love Is a Losing Game.” She also won the 2007 Brit Award for Best British Female Artist, having been nominated for Best British Album, with Back to Black.

The Final Footprint – Family and friends attended Winehouse’s funeral on 26 July 2011 at Edgwarebury Lane Cemetery in north London. Her mother and father, Janis and Mitch Winehouse, close friend Kelly Osbourne, producer Mark Ronson and her boyfriend Reg Traviss were among those in attendance at the private service led by Rabbi Frank Hellner. Her father delivered the eulogy, saying “Goodnight, my angel, sleep tight. Mummy and Daddy love you ever so much.” Carole King’s “So Far Away” closed the service. She was later cremated at Golders Green Crematorium. On 16 September 2012, Winehouse’s cremated remains were interred alongside her grandmother’s, Cynthia Levy at Edgwarebury Lane Cemetery in Edgware, London Borough of Barnet. Other notable cremations at GGC include; Kingsley Amis, Neville Chamberlain, T. S. Eliot, Sigmund Freud, Henry James, Rudyard Kipling, Vivien Leigh, Keith Moon, Peter Sellers, Bram Stoker, and H. G. Wells.

#RIP #OTD in 2012 astronaut, physicist, first American woman to fly in space, Sally Ride died from pancreatic cancer at her home in La Jolla, California aged 61. Cremated remains interred next to those of her father at Woodlawn Memorial Cemetery, Santa Monica CA

#RIP #OTD in 2022 film director (Five Easy Pieces, The King of Marvin Gardens, The Postman Always Rings Twice, Mountains of the Moon), writer and producer Bob Rafelson died from lung cancer at his home in Aspen, Colorado at the age of 89. Cremated

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Posted in Cowboy Footprints, Day in History, Film Footprints, Literary Footprints, Musical Footprints | Tagged amy winehouse, Bob Rafelson, brian jones, Buried, carole king, cattle rancher, Cemetery, Cimetière de Montmartre, cimitiere de montmartre, conrad kohrs, Cremation, death by misadventure, edgwarebury land cemetery, Elizabeth Taylor, epitaph, eudora welty, forever 27 club, Golders Green Crematorium, granite marker, greenwood cemetery, Ground Burial, Hillside Memorial Park Cemetery, History, jackson mississippi, janis joplin, jim morrison, jimi hendrix, Marceline Desbordes-Valmore, montana, montgomery clift, Pulitzer Prize, quaker cemetery, red river, riptff, Sally Ride, so far away, southern literature, tff, The Cavern Club, the final footprint, The Misfits, Vic Morrow, woodlawn memorial cemetery | Leave a comment

On this day 22 July deaths of Alan Shepard – Carl Sandburg – Estelle Getty – Linda Christian – Dennis Farina – Chuck Mangione – Ozzy Osbourne

Posted on 29 JulamWed, 22 Jul 2026 00:24:00 -05002026-07-22T00:24:00-05:0012 2011 by MacGregor

On this day in 1998, the 29th anniversary of the first moonwalk, United States Navy veteran, test pilot, flag officer, NASA astronaut, Alan Shepard died of leukemia near his home in Pebble Beach, California at the age of 74. Born Alan Bartlett Shepard, Jr. on 18 November 1923 in Derry, New Hampshire. The first American in space and the fifth person to walk on the moon. Shepard was one of the original seven Mercury astronauts along with Virgil Ivan “Gus” Grissom, John Herschel Glenn, Jr., Malcolm Scott Carpenter, Walter Marty “Wally” Schirra, Jr., Leroy Gordon Cooper, Jr. and Donald Kent “Deke” Slayton. Shepard married Louise Brewer (1945-1998 his death). In the film The Right Stuff (1983) based on the book by Tom Wolfe, Shepard was portrayed by Scott Glenn. The film also featured; Sam Shepard as Chuck Yeager, Ed Harris as John Glenn, Dennis Quaid as Gordon Cooper, Fred Ward as Gus Grissom, Scott Paulin as Deke Slayton, Charles Frank as Scott Carpenter and Lance Henriksen as Wally Shirra. Wonderful movie and book; I highly recommend both.

The Lone Cypress a symbol of Pebble Beach

The Final Footprint – Shepard was cremated and his cremated remains, and those of his wife’s who would die five weeks later, were scattered from a Navy helicopter over Stillwater Cove near their Pebble Beach home.

On this day in 1967, poet, writer, and editor, winner of three Pulitzer Prizes: two for his poetry and one for his biography of Abraham Lincoln, Carl Sandburg died of natural causes at the age of 89 in Flat Rock, North Carolina. Born Carl August Sandburg on January 6, 1878 in a three-room cottage at 313 East Third Street in Galesburg, Illinois. During his lifetime, Sandburg was widely regarded as “a major figure in contemporary literature”, especially for volumes of his collected verse, including Chicago Poems (1916), Cornhuskers (1918), and Smoke and Steel (1920). He enjoyed “unrivaled appeal as a poet in his day, perhaps because the breadth of his experiences connected him with so many strands of American life”, and at his death in 1967, President Lyndon B. Johnson observed that “Carl Sandburg was more than the voice of America, more than the poet of its strength and genius. He was America.” Sandburg met Lilian Steichen at the Social Democratic Party office in 1907, and they married the next year.

The Final Footprint – Sandburg was cremated and his cremains were interred under “Remembrance Rock”, a granite boulder located behind his birth house. His epitaph: FOR IT COULD BE A GOOD PLACE TO COME AND REMEMBER

#RIP #OTD in 2008 actress (The Golden Girls, Mask, Mannequin) Estelle Getty died at her home in Los Angeles from Lewy body dementia, aged 84. Hollywood Forever Cemetery

#RIP #OTD in 2011, actress, (Tarzan and the Mermaids, The Devil’s Hand, the first Bond woman, in the 1954 TV movie Casino Royale), wife of Tyrone Power, Linda Christian died in Palm Desert, California aged 87. Cremated

On this day in 2013, actor of film and television and former Chicago police officer Dennis Farina died in a hospital in Scottsdale, Arizona after suffering a blood clot in his lung, at the age of 69. Born in Chicago, Illinois, to Sicilian-American parents Iolanda, a homemaker, and Joseph Farina, a Sicilian immigrant doctor, on 29 February 1944. He was a character actor, often typecast as a mobster or police officer. Perhaps his most known film roles are those of mobster Jimmy Serrano in the comedy Midnight Run and Ray “Bones” Barboni in Get Shorty. He starred on television as Lieutenant Mike Torello on Crime Story and as Detective Joe Fontana on Law & Order. He also hosted and narrated a revived version of Unsolved Mysteries. His last major television role was in HBO’s Luck, which premiered on 29 January 2012.

The Final Footprint – Farina is interred in Mount Carmel Cemetery in Hillside, Illinois.

RIP #OTD in 2025, flugelhorn player, trumpeter, actor, composer (Feels So Good), Chuck Mangione died in his sleep at his Rochester, New York home, at age 84. Holy Sepulchre Cemetery, Rochester

RIP #OTD in 2025, singer, songwriter, (No More Tears, If I Close my Eyes Forever, Under the Graveyard), media personality, the “Prince of Darkness”, co-founder and frontman of Black Sabbath (War Pigs, Paranoid, NIB, Psycho Man, God is Dead?), Ozzy Osbourne died at his home in Buckinghamshire, aged 76, with his family, 17 days after the Back to the Beginning farewell concert, from a heart attack. On 30 July, his funeral cortege left Villa Park, passing Osbourne’s childhood home on Lodge Road, and proceeded to Broad Street, which was closed to traffic. It stopped at the Black Sabbath Bridge where Osbourne’s family viewed flowers and messages left by fans, and met with the Lord Mayor. The cortege then passed by the Black Sabbath mural on Navigation Street and The Crown where Black Sabbath played their first concert. Tens of thousands of people gathered along the route to observe. That same day, the Band of the Coldstream Guards performed Black Sabbath’s “Paranoid” during the Changing of the Guard ceremony at Buckingham Palace. A private funeral was held the following day, attended only by his family and a select gathering of close friends and rock stars, including Elton John, Marilyn Manson, Rob Zombie, Zakk Wylde, James Hetfield, and his Black Sabbath bandmates. In accordance with his wishes, Osbourne was interred on the grounds of his private family estate, Welders House, near a “beautiful” lake.

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Posted in Day in History, Military Footprints | Tagged alan shepard, astronaut, carl sandburg, Chuck Mangione, chuck yeager, cremains, Cremation, deke slayton, dennis farina, dennis quaid, ed harris, Estelle Getty, gordon cooper, gus grissom, hollywood forever cemetery, Holy Sepulchre Cemetery, john glenn, lance henriksen, Linda Christian, mercury seven, nasa, sam shepard, scattered, scattering, scott carpenter, scott glenn, the right stuff, tom wolfe, wally schirra | Leave a comment

On this day 21 July deaths of Robert Burns – Owen Wister – Ruth St. Denis – Lee Miller – E. L. Doctorow – Tony Bennett

Posted on 29 JulamTue, 21 Jul 2026 00:54:00 -05002026-07-21T00:54:00-05:0012 2011 by MacGregor

On this day in 1796, Scottish poet, lyricist and farmer, Rabbie Burns, Scotland’s favourite son, the Ploughman Poet, Robden of Solway Firth, the Bard of Ayrshire, The Bard, Robert Burns died in Dumfries, Scotland at the age of 37. Born Robert Burnes on 25 January 1759 near Ayr, in Alloway, South Ayrshire, Scotland. Widely regarded as the national poet of Scotland and celebrated worldwide, Burns is a cultural icon in Scotland. Burns collected folk songs from across Scotland, often revising or adapting them. His poem (and song) Auld Lang Syne is often sung at Hogmanay (the last day of the year), and Scots Wha Hae served for a long time as an unofficial national anthem of the country. Other poems and songs of Burns that remain well-known across the world today include; A Red, Red Rose; A Man’s A Man for A’ That; To a Louse; To a Mouse; The Battle of Sherramuir; Tam o’ Shanter, and Ae Fond Kiss. Burns was married to Jean Armour and romantically involved with Elizabeth Paton, Mary Campbell, Agnes Nancy McLehose and Jenny Clow.

The Final Footprint – Burns is entombed in the Burns Private Mausoleum at St. Michael’s Churchyard in Dumfries. His birthplace, Burns Cottage, is now a museum. Bronze statues in honour of Burns have been erected around the world including: Dorchester Square in Montreal, Quebec; Bernard Street in Leith, Scotland by David Watson Stevenson; Central Park, New York by Sir John Steell; in Dundee, Scotland; Thames Embankment Gardens in London; Dunedin, New Zealand; Union Terrace Gardens in Aberdeen by Henry Bain Smith; Allan Gardens, Toronto by Emanual Hahns; Stanley Park in Vancouver; Eglinton Country Park, North Ayrshire by Clement Wilson; Dumfries town centre. John Steinbeck apparently took the title of his novel Of Mice and Men (1937) from a line contained in the second-to-last stanza of To a Mouse: “The best laid schemes o’ mice an’ men / Gang aft agley“. When asked for the source of his greatest creative inspiration, singer songwriter Bob Dylan selected Burns’s 1794 song A Red, Red Rose, as the lyric that had the biggest effect on his life.The author J. D. Salinger used protagonist Holden Caulfield’s misinterpretation of Burns’ poem Comin’ Through the Rye as his title and a main interpretation of Holden’s grasping to his childhood in his 1951 novel The Catcher in the Rye. The poem, actually about a rendezvous, is thought by Holden to be about saving people from falling out of childhood. Burns became the “people’s poet” of Russia and became a symbol for the ordinary Russian people. Burns Night, effectively a second national day, is celebrated on 25 January with Burns suppers around the world, and is still more widely observed than the official national day, St. Andrew’s Day. The first Burns supper in The Mother Club in Greenock was held in 1802 and the format of Burns suppers has not changed since. The basic format starts with a general welcome and announcements, followed with the Selkirk Grace – Scots: “Some hae meat and canna eat, And some wad eat that want it, But we hae meat and we can eat, Sae let the Lord be thankit.” English: “Some have food and cannot eat, And some would eat that lack it, But we have food and we can eat, So let God be thanked.” After the grace, comes the piping and cutting of the haggis, where Burns’ famous Address To a Haggis is read and the haggis is cut open. The event usually allows for people to start eating just after the haggis is presented. This is when the reading called the “immortal memory”, an overview of Burns’ life and work, is given. The event usually concludes with the singing of Auld Lang Syne. From the last verse of Auld Lang Syne; “And there’s a hand my trusty friend ! And give us a hand o’ thine ! And we’ll take a right good-will draught, for auld lang syne!” and for Robert Burns!

On this day in 1938, writer, “Father of Western Fiction”, Owen Wister died at his home in Saunderstown, Rhode Island at the age of 78. Born on 14 July 1860, in Germantown, a neighborhood in the northwestern part of Philadelphia.

Perhaps best remembered for writing The Virginian (1902), a pioneering novel set in the Wild West describing the life of a cowboy on a cattle ranch in Wyoming. It was the first true western written, aside from short stories and pulp dime novels. In 1898, Wister married Mary Channing, his cousin. The couple had six children.

The Final Footprint – Wister is interred in Laurel Hill Cemetery in Philadelphia. Just within the western boundary of the Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming, there is an 11,490-foot mountain named Mount Wister named in his honour. The Virginian has been made into four feature films, a television movie and a television series starring James Drury and Doug McClure.

#RIP #OTD in 1968 pioneer of modern dance, introducing eastern ideas into the art and paving the way for other women in dance, Ruth St. Denis died in Los Angeles aged 89. Forest Lawn Memorial Park Hollywood Hills

#RIP #OTD in 1977, photographer and photojournalist Lee Miller died of cancer at Farley Farm House in Chiddingly, East Sussex aged 70. She was cremated, and her cremated remains were spread through her herb garden at Farley.

#RIP #OTD 2015 novelist (Ragtime, Billy Bathgate, The March), editor, professor, E. L. Doctorow died of lung cancer in Manhattan, aged 84, in Manhattan. Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx

#RIP #OTD in 2023 iconic singer (‘’I Left My Heart in San Francisco”, ‘’Moonglow’’, Body and Soul’’, ‘’I Gat a Kick Out of You’’) Tony Bennett died from Alzheimer’s complications in Manhattan aged 96. Calvary Cemetery, Woodside, New York

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Posted in Day in History, Extravagant Footprints, Literary Footprints, Musical Footprints | Tagged auld lang syne, burns cottage, burns night, burns supper, Calvary Cemetery, Cemetery, cremated remains, Cremation, Crypts, E. L. Doctorow, Entomb, forest lawn hollywood hills, hogmanay, Lee Miller, owen wister, ploughman poet, rabbie burns, riptff, robden of solway firth, robert burns, Ruth St. Denis, scotlands favourite son, st michaels churchyard, tff, the bard, the bard of ayrshire, the final footprint, The Virginian, Tony bennett, Vault, Woodlawn Cemetery | Leave a comment

On this day 20 July deaths of Pancho Villa – Paul Valéry – Bruce Lee – James Doohan – Chester Bennington

Posted on 29 JulamMon, 20 Jul 2026 00:36:00 -05002026-07-20T00:36:00-05:0012 2011 by MacGregor

On this day in 1923, prominent Mexican Revolutionary general, Pancho Villa was killed when a fusillade of over 40 gunshots hit the automobile he was riding in, in Parral, Mexico. Villa was 45. Born José Doroteo Arango Arámbula on 5 June 1878 in La Coyotada, San Juan del Río, Durango, Mexico.

As commander of the División del Norte, ‘(Division of the North)’ in the Constitutionalist Army, he was a military-landowner (caudillo) of the northern Mexican state of Chihuahua. Given the area’s size and mineral wealth, it provided him with extensive resources. Villa was also provisional Governor of Chihuahua in 1913 and 1914. Villa can be credited with decisive military victories leading to the ousting of Victoriano Huerta from the presidency in July 1914. Villa then fought his erstwhile leader in the coalition against Huerta, “First Chief” of the Constitutionalists Venustiano Carranza. Villa was in alliance with southern revolutionary Emiliano Zapata, who remained fighting in his own region of Morelos. The two revolutionary generals briefly came together to take Mexico City after Carranza’s forces retreated from it. Later, Villa’s heretofore undefeated División del Norte engaged the military forces of Carranza under Carrancista general Álvaro Obregón and was defeated in the 1915 Battle of Celaya. Villa was again defeated by Carranza, 1 November 1915, at the Second Battle of Agua Prieta, after which Villa’s army collapsed as a significant military force.

Villa subsequently led a raid against a small U.S.–Mexican border town resulting in the Battle of Columbus on 9 March 1916, and then retreated to escape U.S. retaliation. The U.S. government sent U.S. Army General John J. Pershing on an expedition to capture Villa, but Villa continued to evade his attackers with guerrilla tactics during the unsuccessful, nine-month incursion into Mexican sovereign territory. The mission ended when the United States entered World War I and Pershing was recalled to other duties.

In 1920, Villa made an agreement with the Mexican government to retire from hostilities, following the ouster and death of Carranza, and was given a hacienda near Parral, Chihuahua, which he turned into a “military colony” for his former soldiers. In 1923, as presidential elections approached, he re-involved himself in Mexican politics. Shortly thereafter he was assassinated, most likely on the orders of Obregón.

In life, Villa helped fashion his own image as an internationally known revolutionary hero, starring as himself in Hollywood films and giving interviews to foreign journalists, most notably John Reed.

The Final Footprint – The day after his death, Villa’s funeral was held and thousands of his grieving supporters in Parral followed his casket to his burial site. Shortly after his death, two theories emerged about why he was killed. One was that he was killed as an act of family revenge by Jesus Herrera, the last surviving son of Villa’s former general Jose de la Luz Herrera. The other theory that emerged was that Villa was killed for political reasons. At the time of his death, Villa had taken an interest in running for President of Mexico and would have presented a significant challenge to his rival potential candidate Plutarco Elias Calles. While it has never been completely proven who was responsible for the assassination, most historians attribute Villa’s death to a well planned conspiracy, most likely initiated by Plutarco Elías Calles and Joaquin Amaro with at least tacit approval of the then president of Mexico, Obregon. At the time, a state legislator from Durango, Jesus Salas Barraza, whom Villa once whipped during a quarrel over a woman, claimed sole responsibility for the plot. Barraza admitted that he told his friend Gabriel Chavez, who worked as a dealer for General Motors, that he would kill Villa if he were paid 50,000 pesos. Chavez, who wasn’t wealthy and didn’t have 50,000 pesos on hand, then collected money from enemies of Villa and managed to collect a total of 100,000 pesos for Barraza and his other co-conspirators. Barraza also admitted that he and his co-conspirators watched Villa’s daily car-rides and paid the pumpkinseed vendor at the scene of Villa’s assassination to shout “Viva Villa!” either once if Villa was sitting in the front part of the car or twice if he was sitting in the back. It was reported that before Barraza died of a stroke in his Mexico City home in 1951, his last words were “I’m not a murderer. I rid humanity of a monster.” Villa’s purported death mask was hidden at the Radford School in El Paso, Texas, until the 1970s, when it was sent to the Historical Museum of the Mexican Revolution in Chihuahua; other museums have ceramic and bronze representations that do not match this mask. Villa was buried in the city cemetery of Parral, Chihuahua. Villa’s skull was stolen from his grave in 1926. His remains were reburied in the Monument to the Revolution in Mexico City in 1976.

After his death, he was excluded from the pantheon of revolutionary heroes until the Sonoran generals Obregón and Calles, whom he battled during the Revolution, were gone from the political stage. Villa’s exclusion from the official narrative of the Revolution might have contributed to his continued posthumous popular acclaim. He was celebrated during the Revolution and long afterward by corridos, films about his life, and novels by prominent writers.

#RIP #OTD in 1945 poet (“Le Cimetière marin”, “La Jeune Parque”, “L’Ébauche d’un serpent”), essayist, philosopher Paul Valéry died in Paris, aged 73. Cimetière Marin, Sète, France.

On this day in 1973, actor, martial arts instructor, philosopher, film director, film producer, screenwriter, founder of Jeet Kune Do, and the son of Cantonese opera actor Lee Hoi-Chuen, Bruce Lee died in Hong Kong at the age of 32. After complaining of a headache, Lee took a painkiller, Equagesic, which contained both aspirin and the muscle relaxant meprobamate. Lee took a nap and later could not be woken up. A doctor was summoned, who spent ten minutes attempting to revive him before sending him by ambulance to Queen Elizabeth Hospital. Lee was dead by the time he reached the hospital. There was no visible external injury; however, according to autopsy reports, his brain had swollen considerably. The only substance found during the autopsy was Equagesic. When the doctors announced Lee’s death officially, it was ruled a “death by misadventure”. Donald Teare, a forensic scientist recommended by Scotland Yard who had overseen over 1,000 autopsies, was assigned to the Lee case. His conclusion was “death by misadventure” caused by an acute cerebral edema due to a reaction to compounds present in the combination medication Equagesic.

The Final Footprint – Lee’s wife Linda returned to her hometown of Seattle, and had him buried at lot 276 of Lakeview Cemetery. Pallbearers at his funeral on 31 July 1973 included Taky Kimura, Steve McQueen, James Coburn, Chuck Norris, George Lazenby, Dan Inosanto, Peter Chin, and Lee’s brother Robert. Lee’s iconic status and untimely demise fed many theories about his death, including murder involving the triads and a supposed curse on him and his family. Black Belt magazine in 1985 carried the speculation that the death of Bruce Lee in 1973 may have been caused by “a delayed reaction to a Dim Mak strike he received several weeks prior to his collapse”. Born Lee Jun-fan on 27 November 1940 in San Francisco.

On this day in 2005, Royal Regiment of Canadian Artillery veteran, character and voice actor, James Doohan died at his home in Redmond, Washington from pneumonia and Alzheimer’s, at the age of 85. Born James Montgomery Doohan on 3 March 1920 in Vancouver, British Columbia. His parents emigrated to Canada from Bangor, County Down, Northern Ireland. Perhaps best known and loved for his portayal of Montgomery “Scotty” Scott in the television and film series Star Trek, created by Gene Roddenberry and also featuring William Shatner as James Tiberius Kirk, Leonard Nimoy as Spock, DeForest Kelley as Dr. Leonard H. “Bones” McCoy, Nichelle Nichols as Nyota Uhuru, George Takei as Hikaru Sulu and Walter Koenig as Pavel Andreievich Chekov. Yes, I am an unabashed Trekkie! Doohan married three times; Janet Young (divorced 1964), Anita Yagel (1967-1972 divorce) and Wende Braunberger (1974-2005 his death). Beam me up Scotty!

Gig Harbor Puget Sound with Mount Rainier in the background

The Final Footprint – Doohan was cremated. On 28 April 2007, a portion of his cremains, along with those of astronaut Gordon Cooper, were launched into suborbital flight and then parachuted back to Earth. This portion of Doohan’s cremains were subsequently launched again on 3 August 2008 on a Falcon I rocket which failed two minutes after launch. A portion of his cremains were scattered over Puget Sound in Washington. On May 22, 2012, a small urn containing some of Doohan’s cremains was flown into space aboard the Falcon 9 rocket as part of COTS Demo Flight 2.

Chester Bennington

On this day in 2017, singer, songwriter, musician, and actor Chester Bennington died as a result of hanging himself at his home in Palos Verdes Estates, California at the age of 41. Born Chester Charles Bennington on March 20, 1976 in Phoenix, Arizona. He served as lead singer for the bands Linkin Park, Dead by Sunrise, Grey Daze, and Stone Temple Pilots.

Bennington first gained prominence as a vocalist following the release of Linkin Park’s debut album, Hybrid Theory, in 2000, which became a commercial success. The album was certified Diamond by the Recording Industry Association of America in 2005, making it the best-selling debut album of the decade, as well as one of the few albums ever to hit that many sales. Linkin Park’s following studio albums, from Meteora (2003) to One More Light (2017), continued the band’s success. Linkin Park has sold over 100 million records worldwide.

Bennington formed his own band, Dead by Sunrise, as a side project in 2005. The band’s debut album, Out of Ashes, was released on October 13, 2009. He became the lead singer of Stone Temple Pilots in 2013 to release the extended play record High Rise on October 8, 2013, via their own record label, Play Pen, but left in 2015 to focus solely on Linkin Park. He also appeared in cameo roles in several films, including Crank, Crank: High Voltage and Saw 3D.

He married his first wife, Samantha Marie Olit, on October 31, 1996. Bennington’s relationship with his first wife declined during his early years with Linkin Park, and they divorced in 2005. In 2006, he married Talinda Ann Bentley, a former Playboy model.

The Final Footprint

Bennington’s funeral was held at South Coast Botanic Garden in Palos Verdes, California, on July 29. In addition to his family members and close friends, many musicians who toured or played with Linkin Park were also in attendance. The service also included a full stage for musical tributes. Bennington was cremated.

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Posted in Day in History, Extravagant Footprints, Film Footprints, Infamous Footprints, Musical Footprints | Tagged beam me up scotty, bones, bruce lee, chekov, chester bennington, cremains, Cremation, death by misadventure, DeForest Kelley, james doohan, james t kirk, lakeview cemetery, leonard nimoy, montgomery scott, pancho villa, Paul Valéry, riptff, scattered, scattering, scotty, spock, Star Trek, sulu, tff, the final footprint, uhuru, william shatner | Leave a comment

On this day 19 July deaths of Petrarch – Mary Jo Kopechne – Lefty Frizzell – James Garner – Rutger Hauer

Posted on 29 JulamSun, 19 Jul 2026 00:36:00 -05002026-07-19T00:36:00-05:0012 2011 by MacGregor

On this day in 1374, scholar, poet, humanist, “The Father of Humanism”, “The Father of the Renaissance”, Petrarch died at his home in Arquà Petrarca, Veneto, Italy one day before his 70th birthday. Born Francesco Petrarca on 20 July 1304 in Arezzo, Tuscany, Italy. He rediscovered many Ancient Greek and Roman writers and his belief that there was no real conflict between Classical and Christian thought anticipated the Renaissance spirit. He did not see a conflict between realizing humanity’s potential and having religious faith. Petrarch is perhaps best known for his Il Canzoniere (Song Book) a collection of 366 poems which address his lifelong unrequited love for a mysterious woman named Laura. In many of these he developed and perfected the sonnet form, and the “Petrarchan sonnet” still bears his name. Apparently, on 6 April 1327, Good Friday, the sight of a woman called “Laura” in the church of Sainte-Claire d’Avignon awoke in him a lasting passion. Laura may have been Laura de Noves, the wife of Count Hugues de Sade (an ancestor of the Marquis de Sade). According to his “Secretum”, she refused him for the very proper reason that she was already married to another man. Petrarch channeled his feelings into love poems. Upon her death in 1348, he found that his grief was as difficult to live with as was his former unrequited longing. Later in his “Letter to Posterity”, Petrarch wrote: “In my younger days I struggled constantly with an overwhelming but pure love affair – my only one, and I would have struggled with it longer had not premature death, bitter but salutary for me, extinguished the cooling flames. I certainly wish I could say that I have always been entirely free from desires of the flesh, but I would be lying if I did.” I have always been fascinated by poems and stories inspired by the exquisitely painful longing of unrequited love. Petrarch never married but possibly fathered two children, a son Giovanni and a daughter Francesca, with a woman or women who remain unknown to posterity.

The Final Footprint – Petrarch is entombed in the town square of Arquà Petrarca. There is a marble statue of Petrarch on the Uffizi Palace, in Florence. The Romantic composer Franz Liszt set three of Petrarch’s Sonnets (47, 104, and 123) to music for voice, Tre sonetti del Petrarca, which he later would transcribe for solo piano for inclusion in the suite Années de Pèlerinage.

RIP #OTD in 1850, journalist, editor, critic, translator, women’s rights advocate, the first American female war correspondent and full-time book reviewer in journalism, author (Woman in the Nineteenth Century), Margaret Fuller drowned in a shipwreck off the coast of Fire Island, New York aged 50. Body lost at sea. Cenotaph Mount auburn cemetery, Cambridge, Massachusetts

On this day in 1969, teacher, secretary, and political campaign specialist, Mary Jo Kopechne died at the age of 28 in a car accident in Chappaquiddick Island, Massachusetts while a passenger in a car being driven by U.S. Senator Edward M. “Ted” Kennedy. Born on 26 July 1940 in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. On 18 July 1969, Kopechne attended a party on Chappaquiddick Island, off the coast of Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts. The celebration was in honor of the dedicated work of the Boiler Room Girls, and was the fourth such reunion of the Robert F. Kennedy campaign workers. Kopechne reportedly left the party at 11:15 p.m. with Robert’s brother Ted, after he offered to drive her to catch the last ferry back to Edgartown, where she was staying. Kennedy drove the 1967 Oldsmobile Delmont 88 off a narrow, unlit bridge, which was without guardrails and was not on the route to Edgartown. The Oldsmobile landed in Poucha Pond and overturned in the water; Kennedy extricated himself from the vehicle and survived, but Kopechne did not. Kennedy failed to report the incident to the authorities until the car and Kopechne’s body were discovered the next morning.

The Final Footprint – A private funeral for Kopechne was held on 22 July 1969, at St. Vincent’s Roman Catholic Church in Plymouth, Pennsylvania, attended by Kennedy. She is buried in Saint Vincent DePaul Cemetery in Larksville, Pennsylvania.

Lefty_Frizzell_Columbia_publicity_-_cropped

On this day in 1975, singer and songwriter Lefty Frizzell died at age 47 after a massive stroke. Born William Orville Frizzell on 31 March 1928 in Corsicana, Texas. He gained prominence in 1950 after two major hits, and throughout the decade was a popular country performer.

Frizzell had four songs that reached No. 1 on the Billboard country chart in one year (1951). After the death of Hank Williams in 1953, Frizzell released many songs that charted in the Top 10 of the Hot Country Songs charts. A vocalist who set the style of singing “the country way” for the generations that followed, Frizzell became one of the most successful and influential artists of country music throughout his career. He smoothed out the rough edges of a honky tonk song by sounding out syllables longer and singing longer. Because of this, his music became more mainstream without losing its honky-tonk attitude and persona.

The Final Footprint – Frizzell was buried at Forest Lawn Memorial Gardens in Goodlettsville, Tennessee. In October 1982, Frizzell was posthumously inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame. Merle Haggard said “The impact Lefty had on country music is not even measurable. … No one could handle a song like Lefty. He would hold on to each word until he finally decided to drop it and pick up the next one. Most of us learned to sing listening to him.” George Strait recorded a Sanger D. Shafer song called “Lefty’s Gone” on the album Something Special. In addition, Willie Nelson’s 1977 album, To Lefty From Willie was a tribute to Frizzell and consisted entirely of cover versions of Frizzell songs. Frizzell has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. He is also in the Rockabilly Hall of Fame. Fellow Texan Roy Orbison was a devout fan of Frizzell’s sound, and in 1988, as a part of the Traveling Wilburys, he chose the name “Lefty Wilbury” to honor his musical hero.

#RIP #OTD in 2014 California Army National Guard veteran, actor (The Great Escape, The Americanization of Emily, Murphy’s Romance, Maverick, The Rockford Files, Space Cowboys) James Garner died; heart attack at his Brentwood, Los Angeles home, aged 86. Cremation

#RIP #OTD in 2019 actor (Turkish Delight, Blade Runner, The Osterman Weekend, Ladyhawke, The Hitcher, Batman Begins) Rutger Hauer died at his home in Beetsterzwaag, the Netherlands aged 75. Cremation

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Posted in Day in History, Extravagant Footprints, Literary Footprints, Musical Footprints | Tagged Cremation, Crypts, edward Kennedy, forest lawn memorial gardens, franz liszt, humanism, James Garner, laura, lefty frizzell, lefty wilbury, Margaret Fuller, mary jo kopechne, merle haggard, mount auburn cemetery, petrarch, poet, Private Mausoleum, Renaissance, riptff, Robert F Kennedy, roy orbison, Rutger Hauer, tff, the final footprint, traveling wilburys, unrequited love, Willie Nelson | 3 Comments

On this day 18 July deaths of Caravaggio – Jane Austen – Bobby Fuller – Alex Rocco – Bob Newhart

Posted on 29 JulamSat, 18 Jul 2026 00:03:00 -05002026-07-18T00:03:00-05:0012 2011 by MacGregor

On this day in 1610, Italian artist active in Rome, Naples, Malta, and Sicily between 1593 and 1610, Caravaggio died in Porto Ercole, Tuscany at the age of 38. Born Michelangelo Merisi on 29 September 1571 in Milan. His paintings, which combine a realistic observation of the human state, both physical and emotional, with a dramatic use of lighting, had a formative influence on the Baroque school of painting. Caravaggio trained as a painter in Milan under Simone Peterzano who had himself trained under Titian. Caravaggio’s novelty was a radical naturalism that combined close physical observation with a dramatic, even theatrical, use of chiaroscuro. This came to be known as Tenebrism, the shift from light to dark with little intermediate value. He burst upon the Rome art scene in 1600 with the success of his first public commissions, the Martyrdom of Saint Matthew and Calling of Saint Matthew. Thereafter he never lacked commissions or patrons, yet he handled his success poorly. Famous while he lived, Caravaggio was forgotten almost immediately after his death, and it was only in the 20th century that his importance to the development of Western art was rediscovered. His influence on the new Baroque style that eventually emerged from the ruins of Mannerism was profound. It can be seen directly or indirectly in the work of Rubens, Jusepe de Ribera, Bernini, and Rembrandt, and artists in the following generation heavily under his influence were called the “Caravaggisti” or “Caravagesques”, as well as Tenebrists or “Tenebrosi” (“shadowists”). It can be said that in what begins in the work of Caravaggio is modern painting.

The Final Footprint – His death is the subject of much confusion and conjecture. On 28 July an anonymous avviso (private newsletter) from Rome to the ducal court of Urbino reported that Caravaggio was dead. Three days later another avviso said that he had died of fever on his way from Naples to Rome. A poet friend of the artist later gave 18 July as the date of death, and a recent researcher claims to have discovered a death notice showing that the artist died on that day of a fever in Porto Ercole, near Grosseto in Tuscany. Human remains found in a church in Porto Ercole in 2010 are believed to almost certainly belong to Caravaggio. The findings come after a year-long investigation using DNA, carbon dating and other analyses. Some scholars argue that Caravaggio was murdered by enemies he may have made in Malta. Caravaggio might have died of lead poisoning. Bones with high lead levels were recently found in a grave likely to be Caravaggio’s. Paints used at the time contained high amounts of lead salts. Caravaggio is known to have indulged in violent behavior, which can be caused by lead poisoning. Caravaggio’s epitaph was composed by his friend Marzio Milesi. It reads: “Michelangelo Merisi, son of Fermo di Caravaggio – in painting not equal to a painter, but to Nature itself – died in Port’ Ercole – betaking himself hither from Naples – returning to Rome – 15th calend of August – In the year of our Lord 1610 – He lived thirty-six years nine months and twenty days – Marzio Milesi, Jurisconsult – Dedicated this to a friend of extraordinary genius.”

On this day in 1817, novelist Jane Austen died in Winchester, England at the age of 41. Born 16 December 1775 at Steventon Rectory in Steventon, Hampshire, England. In my opinion, one of the great English writers.

With the publications of Sense and Sensibility (1811), Pride and Prejudice (1813), Mansfield Park (1814) and Emma (1816), she achieved success as a published writer. She wrote two additional novels, Northanger Abbey and Persuasion, both published posthumously in 1818, and began another, eventually titled Sanditon, but died before its completion. She also left behind three volumes of juvenile writings in manuscript, a short epistolary novel Lady Susan, and another unfinished novel, The Watsons. Her six full-length novels have rarely been out of print, although they were published anonymously and brought her moderate success and little fame during her lifetime.

A significant transition in her posthumous reputation occurred in 1833, when her novels were republished in Richard Bentley’s Standard Novels series, illustrated by Ferdinand Pickering, and sold as a set. They gradually gained wider acclaim and popular readership. In 1869, fifty-two years after her death, her nephew’s publication of A Memoir of Jane Austen introduced a compelling version of her writing career and supposedly uneventful life to an eager audience.

Austen did not marry.

The Final Footprint

Austen is entombed in the north aisle of the nave of Winchester Cathedral. Her inscription reads; “In memory of JANE AUSTEN, youngest daughter of Rev GEORGE AUSTEN, formerly Rector of Steventon in this court. She departed this life on the 18th of July 1817, aged 41, after a long illness supported with the patience and the hopes of a Christian. The benevolence of her heart, the sweetness of her temper, and the extraordinary endowments of her mind obtained the regard of all who knew her and the warmest love of her intimate connections. Their grief is in proportion to their affection they know their loss to be irreparable but in their deepest affliction they are consoled by a firm though humble hope that her charity, devotion, faith and purity have rendered her soul acceptable in the sight of her REDEEMER.” The term Janeite has been embraced by devotees of the works of Austen.

On this day in 1966, rock singer, songwriter, and guitarist, Bobby Fuller died in Los Angeles at the age of 23. Fuller was found dead in an automobile parked outside his Hollywood apartment. The Los Angeles deputy medical examiner, Jerry Nelson, performed the autopsy. Reportedly the autopsy states; “The report states that Bobby’s face, chest, and side were covered in “petechial hemorrhages” probably caused by gasoline vapors and the heat. He found no bruises, no broken bones, no cuts. No evidence of beating.” The boxes for “accident” and “suicide” were ticked, but next to the boxes were question marks. Despite the official cause of death, some believe Fuller was murdered. Born Robert Gaston Fuller on 22 October 1942 in Baytown, Texas.

Perhaps best known for his singles “I Fought the Law” and “Love’s Made a Fool of You,” recorded with his mid-1960s group, the Bobby Fuller Four.

The Final Footprint – He is interred in Forest Lawn Memorial Park Hollywood Hills in Los Angeles. Other notable final footprints at Hollywood Hills include; Gene Autry, David Carradine, Scatman Crothers, Bette Davis, Sandra Dee, Ronnie James Dio, Michael Clarke Duncan, Andy Gibb, Carrie Fisher, Michael Hutchence, Jill Ireland, Al Jarreau, Lemmy Kilmister, Jack LaLanne, Nicolette Larsen, Liberace, Strother Martin, Ricky Nelson, Bill Paxton, Brock Peters, Freddie Prinze, Lou Rawls, John Ritter, Debbie Reynolds, Telly Savalas, Lee Van Cleef, Paul Walker, and Jack Webb.

#RIP #OTD in 2015 actor (Moe Greene in The Godfather) Alex Rocco died from pancreatic cancer in his Studio City home, at the age of 79. Cremation

RIP #OTD in 2024 Grammy Award-winning comedian and Emmy Award-winning actor (The Bob Newhart Show; Newhart; The Big Bang Theory), Bob Newhart died at his home in Los Angeles aged 94. Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Hollywood Hills)

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Posted in Artistic Footprints, Day in History, Extravagant Footprints, Literary Footprints, Musical Footprints | Tagged Alex Rocco, Bob Newhart, bobby fuller, caravaggio, Crypts, Entomb, forest lawn hollywood hills, Forest Lawn Memorial Park Hollywood Hills, History, i fought the law, Inscription, jane austen, novelist, pride and prejudice, riptff, sense and sensibility, tff, the final footprint, winchester cathedral | Leave a comment

On this day 17 July deaths of Charlotte Corday – Jim Bridger – The Romanov Family – Billie Holiday – John Coltrane – Mickey Spillane – Walter Cronkite – John Lewis – C. T. Vivian – Alan Bergman

Posted on 29 JulamFri, 17 Jul 2026 00:09:00 -05002026-07-17T00:09:00-05:0012 2011 by MacGregor

On this day in 1793, a figure of the French Revolution, the Angel of Assassination, Charlotte Corday was executed under the guillotine for the assassination of Jacobin leader Jean-Paul Marat, in Paris at the age of 24. Born Marie-Anne Charlotte de Corday d’Armont on 27 July 1768 in Saint-Saturnin-des-Ligneries, a hamlet in the commune of Écorches (Orne), in Normandy. Marat was in part responsible, through his role as a politician and journalist, for the more radical course the Revolution had taken. More specifically, he played a substantial role in the political purge of the Girondins, with whom Corday sympathized. His murder was memorialized in a celebrated painting by Jacques-Louis David which shows Marat after Corday had stabbed him to death in his bathtub. In 1847, writer Alphonse de Lamartine gave Corday the posthumous nickname l’ange de l’assassinat (the Angel of Assassination). At her trial, when Corday testified that she had carried out the assassination alone, saying “I killed one man to save 100,000,” she was likely alluding to Maximilien Robespierre’s words before the execution and of King Louis XVI.

The Final Footprint – Corday’s body was disposed of in the Madeleine Cemetery. The decapitated corpses of the guillotine victims were thrown in specially dug trenches and covered in quicklime to speed up the decomposition process. There were no markers. After her decapitation, a man named Legros apparently lifted her head from the basket and slapped it on the cheek. Charles-Henri Sanson, the executioner, indignantly rejected published reports that Legros was one of his assistants. However, Sanson stated in his diary that Legros was in fact a carpenter who had been hired to make repairs to the guillotine. Witnesses report an expression of “unequivocal indignation” on her face when her cheek was slapped. This slap was considered unacceptable and Legros was imprisoned for three months because of his outburst. Jacobin leaders had her body autopsied immediately after her death to see if she was a virgin. They believed there was a man sharing her bed and the assassination plans. To their dismay, she was found to be virgo intacta (a virgin), a condition that focused more attention on women throughout France, laundresses, housewives, domestic servants, who were also rising up against authority after having been controlled by men for so long. The assassination did not stop the Jacobins or the Terror: Marat became a martyr, and busts of him replaced crucifixes and religious statues that had been banished under the new regime. In 1844, Madeleine Cemetery was cleared and the skeletal remains were transferred to the l’Ossuaire de l’Ouest (West Ossuary). When the ossuary was closed, the contents were transferred to the Paris catacombs.

On this day in 1881, one of the foremost mountain men, trappers, scouts and guides who explored and trapped the Western United States during the decades of 1820-1850, Jim Bridger died on his farm near Kansas City, Missouri at the age of 77. Born James Felix Bridger on 17 March 1804 in Richmond, Virginia. Bridger had a strong constitution that allowed him to survive the extreme conditions he encountered walking the Rocky Mountains from what would become southern Colorado to the Canadian border. He had conversational knowledge of French, Spanish and several native languages. He would come to know many of the major figures of the early west, including Brigham Young, Kit Carson, George Armstrong Custer, John Fremont, Joseph Meek, and John Sutter.

The Final Footprint – For some 23 years, Bridger’s grave was located in a nondescript cemetery just a few hundred yards from his farm house, but his remains were re-interred in the more notable Mount Washington Cemetery in Independence, Missouri in 1904. Bridger is briefly mentioned in Sydney Pollack‘s 1972 film Jeremiah Johnson, starring Robert Redford in which Will Geer‘s character introduces himself as, “Bear Claw Chris Lapp, blood kin to the grizz that bit Jim Bridger’s ass”. In the 2009 Quentin Tarantino movie Inglourious Basterds, lead character Lt. Aldo Raine (portrayed by actor Brad Pitt) states: “Now, I am the direct descendant of the mountain man Jim Bridger. That means I got a little Injun in me. And our battle plan will be that of an Apache resistance.” Consequently, his nickname in the movie is “Aldo the Apache.”

On this day in 1918, The Russian Imperial Romanov family (Tsar Nicholas II, his wife Tsarina Alexandra and their five children Olga, Tatiana, Maria, Anastasia, and Alexei) and all those who chose to accompany them into exile – notably Eugene Botkin, Anna Demidova, Alexei Trupp and Ivan Kharitonov, were shot in Yekaterinburg on 17 July 1918. The murder of the Tsar was carried out by the Ural Soviet which was led by Yakov Yurovsky. In the opinion of historians, the murder had been ordered in Moscow by Vladimir Lenin and Yakov Sverdlov to prevent the rescue of the Imperial Family by approaching White forces during the ongoing Russian Civil War.
The Final Footprint – Early next morning, when rumours spread in Yekaterinburg about the disposal site, Yurovsky removed the bodies and hid them elsewhere. When the vehicle carrying the bodies broke down on the way to the next chosen site, Yurovsky made new arrangements, and buried most of the acid-covered bodies in a pit sealed and concealed with rubble, covered over with railroad ties and then earth on Koptyaki Road, a cart track (subsequently abandoned) 12 miles (19 km) north of Yekaterinburg. In July 1991, the remains of all the family and their retainers (except two of the children, who were identified in 2008) were found by amateur enthusiasts and reburied by the Russian government following a state funeral. A ceremony of Christian burial took place in 1998. The bodies were laid to rest with state honors in the St. Catherine Chapel of the Peter and Paul Cathedral in Saint Petersburg, where most other Russian monarchs since Peter the Great lie. President Boris Yeltsin and his wife attended the funeral along with Romanov relations, including Prince Michael of Kent. On 15 August 2000, the Russian Orthodox Church announced the canonization of the family for their “humbleness, patience and meekness”. However, reflecting the intense debate preceding the issue, the bishops did not proclaim the Romanovs as martyrs, but passion bearers instead (see Romanov sainthood). On 1 October 2008, the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation ruled that Nicholas II and his family were victims of political repression and rehabilitated them.

On this day in 1959, jazz singer and songwriter, Lady Day, Billie Holiday died from cirrhosis of the liver at Metropolitan Hospital in New York at the age of 44. Born Eleanora Fagan on 7 April 1915 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. One of my very favorite singers. In my opinion, she had a seminal influence on jazz and pop singing. Holiday possibly took her professional name from Billie Dove, an actress she admired, and the musician Clarence Holiday, her probable father. She apparently worked as a prostitute in Harlem before she began singing in clubs. My favorite songs performed by Holiday include; “Embraceable You” written by George and Ira Gershwin, “God Bless the Child” written by Holiday and Arthur Herzog, Jr. and “Pennies from Heaven” written by Arthur Johnston and Johnny Burke. Frank Sinatra had this to say of Holiday; “With few exceptions, every major pop singer in the US during her generation has been touched in some way by her genius. It is Billie Holiday who was, and still remains, the greatest single musical influence on me. Lady Day is unquestionably the most important influence on American popular singing in the last twenty years.” Her autobiography, Lady Sings the Blues, was ghostwritten by William Dufty and published in 1956. Holiday married twice; Jimmy Monroe (1941-1947 divorce), Louis McKay (1957-1959 her death).

The Final Footprint – Holiday is interred next to her mother Sadie in Saint Raymonds Cemetery New in the Bronx. Their graves are marked by an upright companion granite marker. Holiday’s term of endearment says; BELOVED WIFE. Diana Ross portrayed Holiday in the film Lady Sings the Blues, which is loosely based on Holiday’s autobiography. The film earned Ross a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress. Holiday was posthumously awarded the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. In 1988 the group U2 released “Angel of Harlem” in her honor.

On this day in 1967, United States Navy veteran, jazz saxophonist and composer, Trane, John Coltrane died from liver cancer at Huntington Hospital on Long Island at the age of 40. Born John William Coltrane on 23 September 1926 in Hamlet, North Carolina. Working in the bebop and hard bop idioms early in his career, Coltrane helped pioneer the use of modes in jazz and later was at the forefront of free jazz. He organized at least fifty recording sessions as a leader during his recording career, and appeared as a sideman on many other albums, notably with trumpeter Miles Davis and pianist Thelonious Monk. As his career progressed, Coltrane and his music took on an increasingly spiritual dimension. Coltrane influenced innumerable musicians, and remains one of the most significant saxophonists in jazz history. He received many posthumous awards and recognitions, including canonization by the African Orthodox Church as Saint John William Coltrane. In 2007, Coltrane was awarded the Pulitzer Prize Special Citation for his “masterful improvisation, supreme musicianship and iconic centrality to the history of jazz. The Final Footprint – Coltrane’s funeral was held at St. Peters Lutheran Church in New York City. The Albert Ayler Quartet and The Ornette Coleman Quartet respectively opened and closed the service. He is buried alongside his wife Alice, at Pinelawn Cemetery in Farmingdale, N.Y.

#RIP #OTD in 2006 novelist (Mike Hammer series) the “king of pulp fiction” Mickey Spillane died at his home in Murrells Inlet, South Carolina, of pancreatic cancer aged 88. Cenotaph Murrells Inlet Marshwalk, Murrells Inlet

On this day in 2009, broadcast journalist, Texas Longhorn, Walter Cronkite died at his home in New York City, at the age of 92. He is believed to have died from cerebrovascular disease. Born Walter Leland Cronkite, Jr. on 4 November 1916 in Saint Joseph, Missouri. Best known as anchorman for the CBS Evening News for 19 years (1962–81), and for being the “the most trusted man in America”. He reported many events from 1937 to 1981, including bombings in World War II; the Nuremberg trials; combat in the Vietnam War; Watergate; the Iran Hostage Crisis; and the murders of President John F. Kennedy, civil rights pioneer Martin Luther King, Jr., and Beatles musician John Lennon. He was also known for his extensive coverage of the U.S. space program, from Project Mercury to the Moon landings to the Space Shuttle. He was the only non-NASA recipient of a Moon-rock award. Cronkite is well known for his departing catchphrase “And that’s the way it is,” followed by the date on which the appearance aired. Cronkite was married for nearly sixty-five years to Mary Elizabeth ‘Betsy’ Maxwell (25 January 1916 – 15 March 2005), from 30 March 1940 until her death from cancer. I watched his final broadcast with friends at a bar in Austin.

The Final Footprint – Cronkite’s funeral took place on 23 July 2009 at St. Bartholomew’s Church in midtown Manhattan, New York City. At his funeral, his friends noted his love of music, including, recently, drumming. He was cremated and his remains buried next to his wife, Betsy, in the family plot at Mount Moriah Cemetery in Kansas City, Missouri.

#RIP #OTD in 2020 politician, civil rights activist, United States House of Representatives member from Georgia (1987-2020), one of the Big Six, John Lewis died from pancreatic cancer in Atlanta, aged 80. South-View Cemetery, Atlanta

#RIP #OTD in 2020 minister, author, close friend and lieutenant of Martin Luther King Jr. during the civil rights movement, C. T. Vivian died from natural causes in Atlanta aged 95. Westview Cemetery, Atlanta

#RIP #OTD in 2025, lyricist with his wife Marilyn (The Windmills of Your Mind, The Way We Were, You Don’t Bring Me Flowers, In the Heat of the Night), Alan Bergman died at his home in Los Angeles aged 99. Cremation

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Posted in Cowboy Footprints, Day in History, Infamous Footprints, Musical Footprints, Political Footprints | Tagged Alan bergman, angel of harlem, billie holiday, brad pitt, Buried, C. T. Vivian, canongate kirkyard, cbs evening news, Cemetery, charlotte corday, companion marker, Cremation, diana ross, French Revolution, god bless the child, grammy lifetime achievement award, granite marker, Ground Burial, harlem, History, inglourious basterds, jazz, jean paul marat, jeremiah johnson, JFK, jim bridger, john coltrane, John Lennon, John Lewis, lady day, lady sings the blues, Marker, Mickey Spillane, Miles Davis, mlk, mount moriah cemetery, mount washington cemetery, mountain man, Pinelawn Cemetery, Quentin Tarantino, robert redford, romanov, saint raymonds cemetery new, scottish enlightemment, South-View cemetery, sydney pollack, term of endearment, the wealth of nations, Thelonious Monk, u2, University of Texas at Austin, Walter Cronkite, Westview cemetery | 2 Comments

On this day 16 July death of Harry Chapin – May Sarton – Stephen Spender – John F. Kennedy, Jr. – Carolyn Bessette Kennedy – Lauren Bessette – Celia Cruz – Jo Stafford – Kitty Wells – Johnny Winter – George A. Romero – Jane Birkin

Posted on 29 JulamThu, 16 Jul 2026 00:54:00 -05002026-07-16T00:54:00-05:0012 2011 by MacGregor

On this day in 1981, singer, songwriter Harry Chapin died from a heart attack either prior to, or as the result of an automobile accident on the Long Island Expressway in Jericho, New York, at the age of 38. Born Harry Foster Chapin on 7 December 1942 in Brooklyn. Perhaps best known for his folk rock songs including “Taxi,” “W*O*L*D,” “Flowers Are Red,” and the No. 1 hit “Cat’s in the Cradle.” Chapin was also a dedicated humanitarian who fought to end world hunger; he was a key participant in the creation of the Presidential Commission on World Hunger in 1977. In 1987, Chapin was posthumously awarded the Congressional Gold Medal for his humanitarian work. Chapin was married to Sandy Cashmore (née Gaston) (1968-1981 his death). They are the parents of singer Jen Chapin.

The Final Footprint – Chapin’s remains were interred in the Huntington Rural Cemetery, Huntington, New York. His epitaph is taken from his song “I Wonder What Would Happen to this World”:

Oh if a man tried / To take his time on Earth / And prove before he died / What one man’s life could be worth / I wonder what would happen / to this world

#RIP #OTD 1995 poet, novelist, memoirist (Journal of a Solitude, The House by the Sea, Recovering) whose work is known for being strongly personalised with erotic female imagery, May Sarton died of breast cancer in York, Maine, aged 83. Nelson Cemetery, Nelson, New Hampshire

I am not ready to die,
But I am learning to trust death
As I have trusted life.
I am moving
Toward a new freedom

― May Sarton

#RIP #OTD in 1995 poet, novelist (The Temple), essayist whose work concentrated on themes of social injustice and the class struggle, US Poet Laureate in 1965, Stephen Spender died of a heart attack in Westminster, London, aged 86. Graveyard of St Mary on Paddington Green Church, in London

But what we are? We are, we have
Six feet & seventy years, to see
The light, & then resign it for the grave.
Eye, gazelle, delicate wanderer,
Drinker of horizon’s fluid line;
Ear that suspends on a chord
The spirit drinking timelessness;
Touch, love, all senses

Paint here no draped despairs, no saddening clouds
Where the soul rests, proclaims eternity.
– Stephen Spender

John Kennedy Jr. with his wife Carolyn Bessette Kennedy arrive at the annual John F. Kennedy Library Foundation dinner in honor of the former President’s 82nd Birthday, Sunday, May 23, 1999 at the Kennedy Library in Boston, MA. Staff Photo Justin Ide SAVED PHOTO MONDAY

On this day in 1999, elder son of JFK and Jacqueline Lee Bouvier Kennedy Onassis, lawyer, magazine publisher, pilot, John F. Kennedy, Jr. died, along with his wife Carolyn Bessette and his sister-in-law Lauren Bessette, when the Piper Saratoga plane he was piloting crashed in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Martha’s Vineyard. JFK, Jr. was 38, Carolyn was 33 and Lauren was 35. He was born on 25 November 1960 in Washington, D.C. JFK was assassinated on 22 November 1963, three days before JFK, Jr.’s third birthday. The funeral was held on his birthday and in a moment that became an iconic image, he stepped forward and saluted his father’s flag-draped casket as it was carried out of St. Matthew’s Cathedral. JFK, Jr. graduated from Brown University and earned his JD degree from New York University School of Law. Caroline Jeanne was born 7 January 1966 in White Plains, New York. Lauren Gail was born 5 November 1964 also in White Plains.

The Final Footprint – After the crash, the bodies of Kennedy, his wife and his sister-in-law were finally located in the afternoon of July 21. They were recovered from the ocean floor by Navy divers and taken by motorcade to the county medical examiner’s office. During a public memorial service for Kennedy, his paternal uncle, U.S. Senator Edward M. “Ted” Kennedy, stated:

“

We dared to think, in that other Irish phrase, that this John Kennedy would live to comb gray hair, with his beloved Carolyn by his side. But, like his father, he had every gift but length of years.

”

U.S. President Bill Clinton attended the public memorial service and ordered that the flag at the White House and in public areas across the country to be lowered to half-staff to honor the passing of Kennedy. At President Clinton’s orders, warships of the U.S. Navy had assisted in the search for the crashed plane. Critics argued that this was a massive abuse of taxpayer dollars, as no ordinary citizen would receive similar treatment. On the evening of July 21, autopsies revealed that the crash victims had died upon impact. At the same time, the Kennedy and Bessette families announced their plans for memorial services. In the late hours of July 21, the three bodies were taken from Hyannis to Duxbury where they were cremated in the Mayflower Cemetery crematorium. On the morning of July 22, their ashes were scattered from the Navy ship USS Briscoe and into the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Martha’s Vineyard. The ship was used for the public memorial service with the permission of U.S. Secretary of Defense William Cohen.

#RIP #OTD in 2003, singer (“Bemba colorá”, “Quimbara”, “La vida es un carnaval”, “La negra tiene tumbao”) “La Guarachera de Cuba”, the “Queen of Salsa”, Celia Cruz died at her home in Fort Lee, New Jersey, from cancer, aged 77. Woodlawn Cemetery, The Bronx, with some Cuban soil

On this day in 2008, singer Jo Stafford died from congestive heart failure at the age of 90 in Century City, Los Angeles. Born Jo Elizabeth Stafford on 12 November 1917 in Coalinga, California. Her career spanned five decades from the late 1930s to the early 1980s. Admired for the purity of her voice, she was considered one of the most versatile vocalists of the era. Her 1952 version of the Pee Wee King, Chilton Price, and Redd Stewart song, “You Belong to Me” topped the charts in the United States and United Kingdom, and she became the first woman to reach number one on the UK Singles Chart.

Stafford made her first musical appearance at age 12. While still at high school, she joined her two older sisters to form a vocal trio named the Stafford Sisters, who found moderate success on radio and in film. In 1938, while the sisters were part of the cast of Twentieth Century Fox’s production of Alexander’s Ragtime Band, Stafford met the future members of the Pied Pipers and became the group’s lead singer. Bandleader Tommy Dorsey hired them in 1939 to perform back-up vocals for his orchestra.

In addition to her recordings with the Pied Pipers, Stafford featured in solo performances for Dorsey. After leaving the group in 1944, she recorded a series of pop standards for Capitol Records and Columbia Records. Many of her recordings were backed by the orchestra of Paul Weston. She also performed duets with Gordon MacRae and Frankie Laine. Her work with the United Service Organizations giving concerts for soldiers during World War II earned her the nickname “G.I. Jo”. Starting in 1945, Stafford was a regular host of the National Broadcasting Company (NBC) radio series The Chesterfield Supper Club and later appeared in television specials—including two series called The Jo Stafford Show, in 1954 in the U.S. and in 1961 in the U.K.

Stafford married twice, first in 1937 to musician John Huddleston (the couple divorced in 1943), then in 1952 to Weston, with whom she had two children. Weston and she developed a comedy routine in which they assumed the identity of an incompetent lounge act named Jonathan and Darlene Edwards, parodying well-known songs. The couple released an album as the Edwardses in 1957. In 1961, the album Jonathan and Darlene Edwards in Paris won Stafford her only Grammy Award for Best Comedy Album. Stafford largely retired as a performer in the mid-1960s, but continued in the music business. She had a brief resurgence in popularity in the late 1970s when she recorded a cover of the Bee Gees hit, “Stayin’ Alive” as Darlene Edwards. In the 1990s, she began re-releasing some of her material through Corinthian Records, a label founded by Weston. Her work in radio, television, and music is recognized by three stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

The Final Footprint – Stafford’s final resting place is with her husband, Paul Weston, at the Holy Cross Cemetery in Culver City, California. Other notable final footprints at Holy Cross include; John Candy, Bing Crosby, Jimmy Durante, John Ford, Rita Hayworth, Chick Hearn, Bela Lugosi, Al Martino, Audrey Meadows, Ricardo Montalbán, Evelyn Nesbit, Hermes Pan, Chris Penn, and Sharon Tate.

On this day in 2012, singer, songwriter, The Clock Stopper, The Queen of Country Music, Kitty Wells died in Madison, Tennessee, from complications of a stroke at the age of 92. Born Ellen Muriel Deason on 30 August 1919 in Nashville, Tennessee. Her 1952 hit recording version of the J. D. Miller song, “It Wasn’t God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels”, made her the first female country singer to top the U.S. country charts, and turned her into the first female country star. Her Top 10 hits continued until the mid-1960s, inspiring a long list of female country singers who came to prominence in the 1960’s. In 1976, she was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame. In 1991 she received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. Wells was married to singer, songwriter Johnnie Wright (1937-2011 his death).

The Final Footprint – Wells is interred with her husband in Spring Hill Cemetery in Nashville. Other notable final footprints at Spring Hill include; Roy Acuff, Earl Scruggs, Hank Snow, and Keith Whitley.

On this day in 2014, blues singer and guitarist Johnny Winter died in his hotel room near Zurich at the age of 70. Born John Dawson Winter III on February 23, 1944 in Beaumont, Texas. Perhaps best known for his high-energy blues-rock albums and live performances in the late 1960s and 1970s, Winter also produced three Grammy Award-winning albums for blues singer and guitarist Muddy Waters. After his time with Waters, Winter recorded several Grammy-nominated blues albums. In 1988, he was inducted into the Blues Foundation Hall of Fame.

Woodstock Reunion, Parr Meadows, Ridge, New York, 1979

The Final Footprint

Winter is interred in Union Cemetery, Easton, Connecticut.

On this day in 2017, filmmaker, writer and editor George A. Romero died from lung cancer in Toronto, at the age of 77. Born George Andrew Romero on February 4, 1940 in The Bronx. Perhaps best known for his series of gruesome and satirical horror films about an imagined zombie apocalypse, beginning with Night of the Living Dead (1968). This film is considered a progenitor of the fictional zombie of modern culture. Other films in the series include Dawn of the Dead (1978) and Day of the Dead (1985). Aside from this series, his works include The Crazies (1973), Martin (1978), Creepshow (1982), Monkey Shines (1988), The Dark Half (1993) and Bruiser (2000). He also created and executive-produced the 1983–88 television series Tales from the Darkside.

Romero was married three times. He married his first wife, Nancy, in 1971. They divorced in 1978. Romero met his second wife, actress Christine Forrest, on the set of Season of the Witch (1973), and they married in 1980. She had bit parts in most of his films. The couple divorced in 2010 after three decades of marriage. Romero met Suzanne Desrocher while filming Land of the Dead (2005), and they married in September 2011 at Martha’s Vineyard and lived in Toronto. He acquired Canadian citizenship in 2009, becoming a dual Canada-U.S. citizen.

The Final Footprint

Toronto Necropolis Cemetery and Crematorium, Toronto. His epitaph reads…

“Now cracks a noble heart.

Good-night, sweet prince; And

flights of angels sing thee to they rest.”

#RIP #OTD in 2023 singer (“Je t’aime… moi non plus’’), actress (Death on the Nile, Evil Under the Sun, A Soldier’s Daughter Never Cries), Jane Birkin died at home in Paris aged 76. Cremated remains Cimetière du Montparnasse, Paris

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Posted in Day in History, Musical Footprints, Political Footprints | Tagged carolyn bessette, cats in the cradle, Celia Cruz, cremains, Cremation, George romero, Graveyard of St Mary on Paddington Green Church, harry chapin, Holy Cross Cemetery, huntington rural cemetery, it wasnt god who made honky tonk angels, jackie O, Jacqueline Bouvier, Jacqueline Kennedy, JFK, jfk assassination, JFK Jr., jo stafford, john f kennedy jr, John Ford, johnny winter, kitty wells, lauren bessette, marthas vineyard, May sarton, Nelson Cemetery, riptff, scattered, scattering, sharon tate, spring hill cemetery, Stephen Spender, tff, the final footprint, Toronto Necropolis Cemetery, union cemetery, uss briscoe, Woodlawn Cemetery, you belong to me | Leave a comment

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On this day 24 June death of Lucrezia Borgia – Sarah Orne Jewett – Sissieretta Jones – Carlos Gardel – Jackie Gleason – Eli Wallach

On this day 25 July deaths of Maria Szymanowska – André Chénier – Samuel Taylor Coleridge – Frank O’Hara – Big Mama Thornton – Vincente Minnelli – Charlie Rich – Ben Hogan – John Schlesinger – Carl Brashear – Bernadette Lafont – Paul Sorvino

The Final Footprint

On this day 24 July deaths of Constance Bennett – Peter Sellers – G. D. Spradlin – Marni Nixon – Regis Philbin

On this day 23 July deaths of Marceline Desbordes-Valmore – Conrad Kohrs – Montgomery Clift – Vic Morrow – Eudora Welty – Amy Winehouse – Sally Ride – Bob Rafelson

On this day 22 July deaths of Alan Shepard – Carl Sandburg – Estelle Getty – Linda Christian – Dennis Farina – Chuck Mangione – Ozzy Osbourne

On this day 21 July deaths of Robert Burns – Owen Wister – Ruth St. Denis – Lee Miller – E. L. Doctorow – Tony Bennett

On this day 20 July deaths of Pancho Villa – Paul Valéry – Bruce Lee – James Doohan – Chester Bennington

The Final Footprint

On this day 19 July deaths of Petrarch – Mary Jo Kopechne – Lefty Frizzell – James Garner – Rutger Hauer

On this day 18 July deaths of Caravaggio – Jane Austen – Bobby Fuller – Alex Rocco – Bob Newhart

On this day 17 July deaths of Charlotte Corday – Jim Bridger – The Romanov Family – Billie Holiday – John Coltrane – Mickey Spillane – Walter Cronkite – John Lewis – C. T. Vivian – Alan Bergman

On this day 16 July death of Harry Chapin – May Sarton – Stephen Spender – John F. Kennedy, Jr. – Carolyn Bessette Kennedy – Lauren Bessette – Celia Cruz – Jo Stafford – Kitty Wells – Johnny Winter – George A. Romero – Jane Birkin

The Final Footprint

The Final Footprint

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