On this day in 1991, author, poet and illustrator, Dr. Seuss died of throat cancer at his home in La Jolla, California at the age of 87. Born Theodore Seuss Geisel in Springfield, Massachusetts on 2 March 1904. In my opinion, he was the best author and illustrator of children’s books. Geisel published 46 children’s books, often characterized by imaginative characters, rhyme, and frequent use of anapestic meter. His most celebrated books include the bestselling Green Eggs and Ham, The Cat in the Hat, The Lorax, One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish, Horton Hatches the Egg, Horton Hears a Who!, and How the Grinch Stole Christmas!. Numerous adaptations of his work have been created, including 11 television specials, four feature films, a Broadway musical and four television series. He won the Lewis Carroll Shelf Award in 1958 for Horton Hatches the Egg and again in 1961 for And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street. Geisel also worked as an illustrator for advertising campaigns, most notably for Flit and Standard Oil, and as a political cartoonist for PM, a New York City newspaper. During World War II, he worked in an animation department of the United States Army, where he wrote Design for Death, a film that later won the 1947 Academy Award for Documentary Feature. Christmas would not be Christmas without watching and reading How the Grinch Stole Christmas. Geisel married twice; children’s author Helen Palmer (1927 – 1967 her death) and Audrey Stone Dimond (1968 – 1991 his death).
The Final Footprint – Geisel was cremated and his ashes were scattered. The University Library Building at the University of California at San Diego was renamed the Geisel Library in his honor. The Dr. Seuss National Memorial Sculpture Garden in Springfield features bronze sculptures of Geisel and many of his characters. Geisel’s birthday, March 2, has been adopted as the annual date for National Read Across America Day, an initiative on reading created by the National Education Association.
#RIP #OTD in 2004 playwright, novelist (Bonjour Tristesse, Aimez-vous Brahms?, La chamade), and screenwriter Françoise Sagan died of a pulmonary embolism in Honfleur, Calvados at the age of 69. Seuzac Village Cemetery, Cajarc, Departement du Lot, Midi-Pyrénées, France
On this day in 2016,accordionist and zydeco musician Buckwheat Zydeco died of lung cancer at Our Lady of Lourdes Regional Medical Center in Lafayette, Louisiana, age 68. Born Stanley Dural Jr. on November 14, 1947 in Lafayette. He was one of the few zydeco artists to achieve mainstream success. His music group was formally billed as Buckwheat Zydeco and Ils Sont Partis Band (“Ils Sont Partis” being French for “They have left”).
The New York Times said: “Stanley ‘Buckwheat’ Dural leads one of the best bands in America. A down-home and high-powered celebration, meaty and muscular with a fine-tuned sense of dynamics…propulsive rhythms, incendiary performances.” USA Today called him “a zydeco trailblazer.” Buckwheat Zydeco performed with Eric Clapton (with whom he also recorded), U2 and the Boston Pops. The band performed at the closing ceremonies of the 1996 Summer Olympics to a worldwide audience of three billion people. Buckwheat performed for President Clinton twice, celebrating both of his inaugurations.
The Final Footprint
Dural is interred in Calvary Cemetery, Lafayette.
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