#RIP #OTD in 1936 teacher instructor and lifelong companion of Helen Keller, Anne Sullivan died from a coronary thrombosis, aged 70 in Forest Hills, Queens, New York, with Keller holding her hand. Cremated remains at the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C. She was the first woman to be recognized for her achievements in this way. When Keller died in 1968, she was cremated as well and her cremated remains were inurned alongside those of Sullivan.
On this day in 1977, lead vocalist, primary lyricist and founding member of Lynyrd Skynyrd, Ronnie Van Zant died in a plane crash near Gillsburg, Louisiana, at the age of 29. Also killed in the crash were Steve and Cassie Gaines, Dean Kilpatrick, Walter McCreary and William Gray. Born Ronald Wayne Van Zant on 15 January 1948 in Jacksonville, Florida. Older brother of Donnie Van Zant, founder and lead singer of the band 38 Special. Lynyrd Skynyrd is still one of my favorite bands. The inspiration for the name came from a high school gym teacher, Leonard Skinner. The surviving band members reunited in 1987 with Ronnie’s younger brother Johnny as lead singer and primary song writer. Ricky Medlocke, formerly with the band Blackfoot, later joined Lynyrd Skynyrd. I saw them play at the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo in 1998, give or take a year. In addition to Sweet Home Alabama and Freebird, my favorite Skynyrd songs include, Tuesday’s Gone, Simple Man and That Smell.
The Final Footprint– Van Zant was originally entombed in a private mausoleum in Jacksonville Memorial Gardens in Orange Park, Florida.
Van Zant’s Mausoleum Jacksonville Memorial Gardens
Unfortunately, his crypt and that of Steve Gaines were vandalized on 29 June 2000. Their mausoleums remain as memorials for fans to visit. Van Zant was subsequently interred in Riverside Memorial Park Cemetery in Jacksonville, Florida near his parents. His casket was reportedly enclosed in a massive underground concrete vault. A memorial park funded by fans and family of the band was built in honor of Van Zant. The Ronnie Van Zant Memorial Park is located on Sandridge Road in Lake Asbury, Florida, nearby his hometown of Jacksonville.
On this day in 1983 singer, songwriter, innovative guitarist, Merle Travis died of a heart attack at his Tahlequah, Oklahoma home, aged 65.
His songs’ lyrics often discussed both the lives and the economic exploitation of American coal miners. Among his many well-known songs and recordings are “Sixteen Tons”, “Re-Enlistment Blues”, “I am a Pilgrim” and “Dark as a Dungeon”. However, it is his unique guitar style, still called “Travis picking” by guitarists, as well as his interpretations of the rich musical traditions of his native Muhlenberg County, Kentucky, for which he is perhaps best known today. Travis picking is a syncopated style of guitar fingerpicking rooted in ragtime music in which alternating chords and bass notes are plucked by the thumb while melodies are simultaneously plucked by the index finger. He was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1970 and elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1977.
The Final Footprint – Cremated remains scattered Ebenezer Cemetery, Ebenezer, Kentucky.
On this day in 1994, actor Burt Lancaster died in his Century City apartment in Los Angeles from a third heart attack at the age of 80. Born Burton Stephen Lancaster on November 2, 1913 in Manhattan at his parents’ home at 209 East 106th Street, between Second and Third Avenues, today the site of Benjamin Franklin Plaza.
Initially known for playing “tough guys”, Lancaster went on to achieve success with more complex and challenging roles. He was nominated four times for Academy Awards and won once for his work in Elmer Gantry in 1960. He also won a Golden Globe for that performance and BAFTA Awards for The Birdman of Alcatraz (1962) and Atlantic City (1980). During the 1950s his production company Hecht-Hill-Lancaster was highly successful, making films such as Marty (1955), Trapeze (1956), Sweet Smell of Success (1957), Run Silent, Run Deep (1958), and Separate Tables (1958).
With Deborah Kerr in From Here to Eternity (1953)
With Ava Gardner in The Killers(1946)
With Audrey Hepburn in The Unforgiven (1960)
Lancaster guarded his private life. He was married three times. His first two marriages – to June Ernst from 1935 to 1946 and to Norma Anderson from 1946 to 1969 – ended in divorce. His third marriage, to Susan Martin, was from September 1990 until his death in 1994. All five of his children were with Norma Anderson. He claimed he was romantically involved with Deborah Kerr during the filming of From Here to Eternity in 1953. However, Kerr stated that while there was a spark of attraction, nothing ever happened. He reportedly had an affair with Joan Blondell. In her 1980 autobiography, Shelley Winters claimed to have had a long affair with him. Recent biographers and others believe that Lancaster was bisexual, and that he had intimate relationships with men as well as women. According to testimony in Kate Buford’s Burt Lancaster: An American Life, Lancaster was devotedly loyal to his friends and family. Old pals from his childhood in NYC’s East Harlem remained his friends for life.
The Final Footprint –
Lancaster was cremated and his cremated remains were buried under a large oak tree in Westwood Memorial Park located in Westwood Village, Los Angeles County, California. A small, square ground plaque inscribed only with “BURT LANCASTER 1913–1994” marks his final resting place. Upon his death, as he requested, he had no memorial or funeral service. Other notable final footprints at Westwood include; Ray Bradbury, Sammy Cahn, James Coburn, Rodney Dangerfield, Janet Leigh, Farrah Fawcett, Hugh Hefner, Brian Keith, Don Knotts, Peter Lawford, Peggy Lee, Jack Lemmon, Karl Malden, Dean Martin, Walter Mathau, Marilyn Monroe, Carroll O’Connor, Roy Orbison, George C. Scott, Dorothy Stratten, Natalie Wood and Frank Zappa.
And on this day in 2006 actress Jane Wyatt died at her home in Bel-Air, California, aged 96. She starred in a number of Hollywood films, such as Frank Capra’s Lost Horizon, but is perhaps best known for her role as the housewife and mother Margaret Anderson on the CBS and NBC television comedy series Father Knows Best, and as Amanda Grayson, the human mother of Spock on the science-fiction television series Star Trek. Wyatt was a three-time Emmy Award–winner.
Wyatt was married to investment broker Edgar Bethune Ward from November 9, 1935, until his death on November 8, 2000. The couple met in the late 1920s when both were weekend houseguests of Franklin D. Roosevelt at Hyde Park, New York.
The Final Footprint – San Fernando Mission Cemetery, Mission Hills, California.
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