#RIP #OTD in 1957 writer (Little House on the Prairie) Laura Ingalls Wilder died at her Rocky Ridge Farm home in Mansfield, Missouri, in her sleep, aged 90. Mansfield Cemetery in Mansfield
#RIP #OTD in 1966 impresario, theatrical showman, columnist, lyricist, husband of Fanny Brice, Billy Rose died of lobar pneumonia at his vacation home in Montego Bay, Jamaica aged 66. Westchester Hills Cemetery Hastings-on-Hudson, New York.
On this day in 1992, writer Alex Haley died in Seattle, Washington, of a heart attack at the age of 70. Born Alexander Murray Palmer Haley on August 11, 1921 in Ithaca, New York. He was the author of the 1976 book Roots: The Saga of an American Family. ABC adapted the book as a television miniseries of the same name and aired it in 1977 to a record-breaking audience of 130 million viewers. In the United States, the book and miniseries raised the public awareness of African American history and inspired a broad interest in genealogy and family history.
Haley’s first book was The Autobiography of Malcolm X, published in 1965, a collaboration through numerous lengthy interviews with the subject, a major African-American leader.
The Final Footprint
He is interred beside his childhood home in Henning, Tennessee.
On this day in 2005, playwright and essayist, Tony Award winner, recipient of the Nobel Prize for Drama, Arthur Miller, died at his home in Roxbury, Connecticut at the age of 89. Born Arthur Asher Miller on 17 October 1915 in Harlem, New York City. His notable plays include; All My Sons (1947), Death of a Salesman (1949), The Crucible (1953), and A View from the Bridge (one-act, 1955; revised two-act, 1956). Death of a Saleman was commercially successful and critically acclaimed, winning a Tony Award for Best Author, the New York Drama Circle Critics’ Award, and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama; the first play to win all three of these major awards. Miller received a BA in English from the University of Michigan. Miller married three times; Mary Slattery (1940 – 1956 divorce), Marilyn Monroe (1956 – 1961 divorce) and Inge Morath (1962 – 2002 her death). Miller also wrote the screenplay for the movie The Misfits (1961) starring Monroe, Clark Gable, Montgomery Clift and Eli Wallach. Miller and Monroe would divorce shortly before the movie’s premier. The film marked the final movie for both Monroe and Gable. Miller’s papers are housed at the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center at The University of Texas at Austin. 
The Final Footprint – Miller is interred with his wife Inge in Roxbury Center Cemetery, Roxbury, Connecticut. Their grave is marked by an irregular granite upright marker and they each have flat granite foot markers. Her foot marker is inscribed; BEAUTE MON BEAU DESIR, which translates as, Beauty My Beautiful Desire.
On this day in 2008, amateur boxer, U.S. Air Force veteran, and actor Roy Scheider died from multiple myeloma in Little Rock, Arkansas, at the University of Arkansas Medical Sciences Hospital, at the age of 75. Born Roy Richard Scheider on November 10, 1932 in Orange, New Jersey. Perhaps best known for his role as Martin Brody in the film Jaws (1975), reprising the role in its sequel Jaws 2 (1978).
Scheider gained fame for his leading and supporting roles in celebrated films in addition to the Jaws films, from the 1970s through to the early to mid-1980s. These roles included NYPD Detective Buddy “Cloudy” Russo in The French Connection (1971); NYPD Detective Buddy Manucci in The Seven Ups (1973); Doc in Marathon Man (1976); choreographer and film director Joe Gideon (whose character was based on Bob Fosse) in All That Jazz (which was co-written and directed by Fosse) (1979); and Dr. Heywood R. Floyd in the 1984 film 2010, the sequel to 2001: A Space Odyssey.
Scheider was also known for playing Captain Nathan Bridger in the science-fiction television series seaQuest DSV (1993–1996). He was nominated for two Academy Awards, a Golden Globe Award, and a BAFTA Award.
Scheider married Cynthia Bebout on November 8, 1962. The couple divorced in 1986. On February 11, 1989, he married actress Brenda Siemer. They remained married until his death.
The Final Footprint
Scheider was cremated.
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