Bernini, self portrait
On this day in 1680, artist, Gian Lorenzo Bernini, died in Rome at the age of 81. Born 7 December 1598 in Naples. Bernini was a student of Classical sculpture and is considered the successor of Michelangelo. Bernini was also a leading figure in the emergence of Roman Baroque architecture. At the age of only twenty three, he was knighted by Pope Gregory XV. Among Bernin’s many sculptures in marble is David, 
which shows the young David about to slay the giant Goliath with a stone from his slingshot. The original is in the Galleria Borghese in Rome. A replica in white Carrara marble resides at Sharon Memorial Park in Charlotte, North Carolina in Section 19, David.
The Final Footprint – Bernini is entombed in the Basilica Papale di Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome.
On this day in 1859, short story writer, essayist, biographer, historian, and diplomat Washington Irving died of a heart attack in his bedroom at Sunnyside at the age of 76. Born on April 3, 1783 in Manhattan. Perhaps best known for his short stories “Rip Van Winkle” (1819) and “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” (1820), both of which appear in his collection, The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent. His historical works include biographies of Oliver Goldsmith, Muhammad, and George Washington, as well as several histories of 15th-century Spain dealing with subjects such as Alhambra, Christopher Columbus, and the Moors. Irving served as the U.S. ambassador to Spain from 1842 to 1846.
The Final Footprint
Legend has it that his last words were: “Well, I must arrange my pillows for another night. When will this end?” He was buried under a simple headstone at Sleepy Hollow cemetery on December 1, 1859.
Irving and his grave were commemorated by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow in his 1876 poem “In The Churchyard at Tarrytown”, which concludes with:
How sweet a life was his; how sweet a death!
Living, to wing with mirth the weary hours,
Or with romantic tales the heart to cheer;
Dying, to leave a memory like the breath
Of summers full of sunshine and of showers,
A grief and gladness in the atmosphere.
#RIP #OTD in 1954 physicist, the creator of the world’s first nuclear reactor, the Chicago Pile-1, member of the Manhattan Project, “architect of the nuclear age”, Enrico Fermi died of stomach cancer in his home in Chicago aged 53. Oak Woods Cemetery, Chicago
On this day in 1960, author of novels, short stories, poems, and non-fiction, Richard Wright died in Paris from a heart attack at the age of 52. Born Richard Nathaniel Wright on 4 September 1908 near Roxie, Mississippi. Perhaps best known for his novel Native Son (1940). Wright married twice; Valencia Barnes Meadman (1939 – 1940 divorce) and Ellen Poplar (1941 – 1960 his death).
The Final Footprint – Wright was cremated and his cremains are inurned in a columbarium in Cimetière du Père Lachaise in Paris. Père Lachaise is the largest cemetery in Paris and one of the most visited cemeteries in the world. Other notable Final Footprints at Père Lachaise include; Guillaume Apollinaire, Honoré de Balzac, Georges Bizet, Jean-Dominique Bauby, Maria Callas, Chopin, Colette, Auguste Comte, Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, Max Ernst, Molière, Jim Morrison, Édith Piaf, Camille Pissarro, Marcel Proust, Sully Prudhomme, Gioachino Rossini, Georges-Pierre Seurat, Simone Signoret, Gertrude Stein, Dorothea Tanning, Alice B. Toklas, and Oscar Wilde.
#RIP #OTD in 1976 actress (His Girl Friday, Auntie Mame, Gypsy, Mourning Becomes Electra), screenwriter, singer Rosalind Russell died of breast cancer in Beverly Hills aged 69. Holy Cross Cemetery in Culver City, California
#RIP #OTD bodybuilder, weightlifter and actor (A Clockwork Orange, Darth Vader in Star Wars) David Prowse died in London, aged 85. Cremation
Have you planned yours yet?
Follow TFF on twitter @RIPTFF
