Day in History 10 March – Harriet Tubman – Zelda Fitzgerald – Ray Milland – Andy Gibb – LaVern Baker

On this day in 1913, abolitionist and political activist Harriet Tubman died in Auburn, New York surrounded by friends and family members of pneumonia, aged 90-91. Born Araminta Ross, c.  January 29, 1822 in Dorchester County, Maryland. Born a slave, Tubman was beaten and whipped by her various masters as a child. Early in life, she suffered a traumatic head wound when an irate slave owner threw a heavy metal weight intending to hit another slave but hit her instead. The injury caused dizziness, pain, and spells of hypersomnia, which occurred throughout her life. She was a devout Christian and experienced strange visions and vivid dreams, which she ascribed to premonitions from God.

In 1849, Tubman escaped to Philadelphia, then immediately returned to Maryland to rescue her family. Slowly, one group at a time, she brought relatives with her out of the state, and eventually guided dozens of other slaves to freedom. Traveling by night and in extreme secrecy, Tubman (or “Moses”, as she was called) “never lost a passenger”. After the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 was passed, she helped guide fugitives farther north into British North America, and helped newly freed slaves find work. Tubman met the abolitionist John Brown in 1858, and helped him plan and recruit supporters for the raid on Harpers Ferry.

When the Civil War began, Tubman worked for the Union Army, first as a cook and nurse, and then as an armed scout and spy. The first woman to lead an armed expedition in the war, she guided the raid at Combahee Ferry, which liberated more than 700 slaves. After the war, she retired to the family home on property she had purchased in 1859 in Auburn, New York, where she cared for her aging parents. She was active in the women’s suffrage movement until illness overtook her and she had to be admitted to a home for elderly African Americans that she had helped to establish years earlier. After she died in 1913, she became an icon of courage and freedom.

Tubman, 1911

The Final Footprint

Just before she died, she told those in the room: “I go to prepare a place for you.” Tubman was buried with semi-military honors at Fort Hill Cemetery in Auburn.

On this day in 1948, novelist and wife of F. Scott Fitzgerald, Zelda Fitzgerald, died in a fire at the Highland Hospital in Asheville, North Carolina at the age of 47.  Born Zelda Sayre on 24 July 1900 in Montgomery, Alabama.  The Fitzgeralds were icons of the 1920s; she was dubbed by her husband “the first American Flapper”.  After the success of his first novel, This Side of Paradise (1920), the Fitzgeralds became celebrities and were seen as embodiments of the Jazz Age and the Roaring Twenties: young, seemingly wealthy, beautiful, and energetic.  The couple has been the subject of popular books, movies and scholarly attention.  They were married 3 April 1920 in St. Patrick’s Cathedral.  They had one daughter Frances Scott “Scottie” Fitzgerald (26 October 1921 – 16 June 1986).  Zelda wrote a semi-autobiographical novel, Save Me the Waltz (1932) and worked on another novel, Caesar’s Things, which she never finished.

The Final Footprint

Zelda was interred next to Scott, who died 21 December 1940, in Rockville, Maryland—originally in the Rockville Union Cemetery, away from his family plot.  In 1975, however, Scottie successfully campaigned for them to be buried with the other Fitzgeralds at Saint Mary’s Catholic Cemetery in Rockville.  Engraved on their tombstone is the final sentence of The Great Gatsby: “SO WE BEAT ON, BOATS AGAINST THE CURRENT, BORNE BACK CEASELESSLY INTO THE PAST”.

#RIP #OTD in 1986 actor (The Lost Weekend, Reap the Wild Wind, Dial M for Murder, Love Story), film director Ray Milland died of lung cancer; Torrance Memorial Medical Center, Torrance, California, aged 79. Cremated remains scattered in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Redondo Beach CA 

On this day in 1988, singer, songwriter Andy Gibb died from myocarditis, an inflammation of the heart muscle caused by a viral infection in John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford, at the age of 30. Born Andrew Roy Gibb on 5 March 1958 in Manchester, England. He was the younger brother of the Bee Gees: Barry, Robin, and Maurice Gibb.

Gibb came to international prominence in the late 1970s with six singles that reached the Top 10 in the United States, starting with “I Just Want to Be Your Everything” (1977), followed by three other top 20 singles. 

The Final Footprint

On this day in 1997, rhythm-and-blues singer LaVern Baker died of cardiovascular disease, at the age of 67. Born Delores Evans on November 11, 1929 in Chicago. She had several hit records on the pop chart in the 1950s and early 1960s. Her most successful records were “Tweedle Dee” (1955), “Jim Dandy” (1956), and “I Cried a Tear” (1958). In 1990 Baker was among the first eight recipients of the Pioneer Award from the Rhythm and Blues Foundation. In 1991, she became the second female solo artist inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, following Aretha Franklin in 1987. “Jim Dandy” was named one of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s 500 Songs That Shaped Rock and Roll.

The Final Footprint

She was interred in an unmarked plot in Maple Grove Cemetery, in Kew Gardens, New York. Local historians raised funds for a headstone, which was installed on May 4, 2008. Maple Grove is a historic cemetery at 127-15 Kew Gardens Road in Briarwood/Kew Gardens, Queens, New York City, New York. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2004.

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