#RIP #OTD in 1970 poet (Body of This Death, Dark Summer, The Blue Estuaries, “Medusa”), the first woman appointed as the fourth Poet Laureate to the Library of Congress, Louise Bogan died in New York City, aged 72. Cremation
On this day in 1983, drummer, singer and songwriter, Karen Carpenter, died at her parents’s home in Downey, California at the age of 32 from complications related to anorexia nervosa. Born Karen Anne Carpenter on 2 March 1950 in New Haven, Connecticut. Along with her brother Richard, they formed the duo The Carpenters. Best known for their album, 1970’s Close to You, featuring two big hit singles: “(They Long to Be) Close to You” and “We’ve Only Just Begun.” The songwriter Tom Bahler wrote the song “She’s Out of My Life” after she broke up with him. The song would eventually became a hit single for Michael Jackson. Carpenter married Thomas James Burris (1980 – 1983 her death). 
The Final Footprint – Carpenter’s funeral service took place on 8 February 1983, at the Downey United Methodist Church. Dressed in a rose-colored suit, Carpenter lay in an open white casket. Over 1,000 mourners passed through to say goodbye, among them her friends Dorothy Hamill, Olivia Newton-John, Petula Clark, and Dionne Warwick. Carpenter’s estranged husband Tom attended her funeral, where he took off his wedding ring and placed it inside the casket. Carpenter was initially entombed in a private crypt in the Ascension Mausoleum, Sanctuary of Compassion, Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Cypress, California. In 2003, Richard had Karen and their parents moved to the Carpenter Family Private Mausoleum at Pierce Brothers Valley Oaks Memorial Park, Westlake Village, California. Karen’s crypt front features the inscription; A STAR ON EARTH – A STAR IN HEAVEN. Another notable final footprint at Valley Oaks is Artie Shaw.
On this day in 1987, pianist, singer and actor, Mr. Showmanship, Liberace died of pneumonia as a result of AIDS at Palm Springs county hospital, age 67. Born Władziu Valentino Liberace on May 16, 1919 in West Allis, Wisconsin. A child prodigy born to parents of Italian and Polish origin, Liberace enjoyed a career spanning four decades of concerts, recordings, television, motion pictures, and endorsements. At the height of his fame, from the 1950s to the 1970s, Liberace was the highest-paid entertainer in the world, with established concert residencies in Las Vegas, and an international touring schedule. Liberace embraced a lifestyle of flamboyant excess both on and off stage.
The Final Footprint
A devout Roman Catholic to the end, he had a priest administer the last rites to him the day before his death. His death was initially attributed variously to anemia (due to a diet of watermelon), emphysema, and heart disease. However, the Riverside County coroner performed an autopsy and later stated that “a deliberate attempt” had been made to hide the actual cause of Liberace’s death by his doctors, his manager, and Liberace’s entire immediate family. The post mortem discovered that Liberace had emphysema and coronary artery disease from years of chain smoking, but the real cause was pneumonia due to complications from AIDS.
Liberace’s body is entombed with those of his mother and brother, at Forest Lawn, Hollywood Hills Cemetery in Los Angeles. In 1994, the Palm Springs Walk of Stars dedicated a Golden Palm Star to him. Other notable final footprints at Hollywood Hills include; Gene Autry, Albert “Cubby” Broccoli, David Carradine, Scatman Crothers, Bette Davis, Sandra Dee, Ronnie James Dio, Michael Clarke Duncan, Carrie Fisher, Bobby Fuller, Andy Gibb, Michael Hutchence, Jill Ireland, Al Jarreau, Buster Keaton, Lemmy Kilmister, Jack LaLanne, Nicolette Larson, Liberace, Strother Martin, Jayne Meadows, Brittany Murphy, Ricky Nelson, Bill Paxton, Brock Peters, Freddie Prinze, Lou Rawls, Debbie Reynolds, Telly Savalas, Lee Van Cleef, and Paul Walker.
On this day in 1995, novelist and short story writer Patricia Highsmith died from lung cancer at Carita hospital in Locarno, Switzerland, at the age of 74. Born Mary Patricia Plangman on January 19, 1921 in Ft. Worth, Texas. Perhaps best known for her psychological thrillers, including her series of five novels featuring the character Tom Ripley. She wrote 22 novels and numerous short stories throughout her career spanning nearly five decades. Her writing derived influence from existentialist literature, and questioned notions of identity and popular morality. She was dubbed “the poet of apprehension” by novelist Graham Greene.
Her first novel, Strangers on a Train, has been adapted for stage and screen numerous times, notably by Alfred Hitchcock in 1951. Her 1955 novel The Talented Mr. Ripley has been adapted numerous times for film, theatre, and radio. Writing under the pseudonym “Claire Morgan,” Highsmith published the first lesbian novel with a happy ending, The Price of Salt, in 1952, republished 38 years later as Carol under her own name and later adapted into a 2015 film.
She famously preferred the company of animals to that of people and stated in a 1991 interview, “I choose to live alone because my imagination functions better when I don’t have to speak with people.” She never married.
The Final Footprint
She was cremated at the cemetery in Bellinzona; a memorial service was conducted in the Chiesa di Tegna in Tegna, Ticino, Switzerland; and her cremains were inurned in its columbarium.
#RIP #OTD in 2006 feminist writer and activist Betty Friedan died of congestive heart failure at her home in Washington, D.C. on her 85th birthday. Sag Harbor Jewish Cemetery, Sag Harbor, New York
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