#RIP #OTD in 1932 stage/film actress (Tess of the d’Urbervilles, Vanity Fair, A Doll’s House, Hedda Gabler), activist against the Theatrical Syndicate, animal rights advocate, Minnie Maddern Fiske died; congestive heart failure; Queens, aged 66. Cremation
On this day in 1965, musician, jazz pianist, singer, song writer, Nat King Cole, died at St, John’s Hospital in Santa Monica, California at the age of 45 from lung cancer. Born Nathaniel Adams Cole on 17 March, St. Patrick’s Day, 1919 in Montgomery, Alabama. Cole’s first hit was “Straighten Up and Fly Right”, a song he co-wrote with Irving Mills. Johnny Mercer invited him to record the song for Capitol Records. Cole married two times; Nadine Robinson, Maria Hawkins Ellington (1948 – 1965 his death). If you have not listened to Cole sing Irving Gordon‘s “Unforgettable” with a beautiful woman by your side, you have not lived. One of my very favorite singers. 
The Final Footprint – Cole is entombed in the Freedom Mausoleum, Sanctuary of Heritage, Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Glendale, California. Other notable Final Footprints at Forest Lawn Glendale include; L. Frank Baum, Humphrey Bogart, Lon Chaney, Dorothy Dandridge, Elizabeth Taylor, Jean Harlow, Sam Cooke, Walt Disney, Errol Flynn, Clark Gable, Michael Jackson, Carole Lombard, Tom Mix, Casey Stengel, Jimmy Stewart, and Spencer Tracy.
On this day in 1984, actress and singer Ethel Merman died from brain cancer at her home in Manhattan at the age of 76. Born Ethel Agnes Zimmermann on January 16, 1908 in Astoria, Queens. Perhaps best known for her distinctive, powerful voice and leading roles in musical theatre, she has been called “the undisputed First Lady of the musical comedy stage”.
Among the many standards introduced by Merman in Broadway musicals are “I Got Rhythm” (from Girl Crazy); “Everything’s Coming Up Roses”, “Some People”, and “Rose’s Turn” (from Gypsy—Merman starred as Rose in the original 1959 Broadway production); and the Cole Porter songs “It’s De-Lovely” (from Red, Hot and Blue), “Friendship” (from DuBarry Was a Lady), and “I Get a Kick Out of You”, “You’re the Top”, and “Anything Goes” (from Anything Goes). The Irving Berlinsong “There’s No Business Like Show Business”, written for the musical Annie Get Your Gun, became Merman’s signature song.
Merman was married and divorced four times. Her first marriage, in 1940, was to theatrical agent William Smith. They were divorced in 1941. Later that same year, Merman married newspaper executive Robert Levitt. Merman and Levitt were divorced in 1952. In March 1953, Merman married Robert Six, the president of Continental Airlines. They separated in December 1959 and were divorced in 1960.
Merman’s fourth and final marriage was to actor Ernest Borgnine. They were married in Beverly Hills on June 27, 1964. They separated on August 7 and divorced on November 18, 1964. In a radio interview, she said of her many marriages: “We all make mistakes. That’s why they put rubbers on pencils, and that’s what I did. I made a few lulus!”
The Final Footprint
On the evening of Merman’s death, all 36 theatres on Broadway dimmed their lights at 9 pm in her honor. A private funeral service for Merman was held in a chapel at St. Bartholomew’s Episcopal Church on February 27, after which Merman was cremated at the Frank E. Campbell Funeral Chapel in Manhattan. Her cremains are inurned in the Shrine of Remembrance Mausoleum in Colorado Springs, Colorado, next to her daughter Ethel.
#RIP #OTD in 1998 novelist, travel writer, journalist, one of the great war correspondents, third wife of Ernest Hemingway, Martha Gellhorn died from cyanide poisoning in London, aged 89. Cremated remains scattered in the Thames
#RIP #OTD in 2016, singer (“Nasty Girl”, “Pretty Mess”, “Mechanical Emotion”, “Under the Influence”, “Undress”) songwriter, model, actress (The Last Dragon, 52 Pick-Up, Action Jackson), Vanity died due to kidney failure, aged 57. Cremated remains scattered off the coast of Hawaii
#RIP #OTD in 2023 actress (One Million Years B.C., Bedazzled, Bandolero!, 100 Rifles, Myra Breckinridge, Hannie Caulder, Kansas City Bomber, The Last of Sheila, The Three Musketeers, The Wild Party, Mother, Jugs & Speed) Raquel Welch died from cardiac arrest at her home in Bel Air, Los Angeles aged 82
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