#RIP #OTD in 1964 poet (Façade), writer (I Live Under a Black Sun) and critic Edith Sitwell died at St Thomas’ Hospital, Lambeth, London, aged 77. Parish church of Saints Mary and Peter in Weedon Lois, Northamptonshire
On this day in 1965, baseball Hall of Fame General Manager, “The Mahātmā,” Branch Rickey, died in Columbia, Missouri at the age of 83. Born Wesley Branch Rickey on 20 December 1881 in Stockdale, Ohio. He was known for breaking Major League Baseball’s color barrier by signing African-American player Jackie Robinson, for drafting the first Hispanic/Black Hispanic superstar, Roberto Clemente, for creating the framework for the modern minor league farm system, and for introducing the batting helmet. He played for the St. Louis Browns and the New York Highlanders; managed the Browns and the St. Louis Cardinals; and was the General Manager for the Browns, Cardinals, Brooklyn Dodgers and the Pittsburgh Pirates. Rickey was a man of deep Christian faith. He is attributed with the famous quotation: “Luck is the residue of opportunity and design.”
The Final Footprint – Rickey is interred in Rushtown Cemetery, Rushtown, Ohio. His wife, Jane Moulton, is interred next to him. Their graves are marked by a large upright granite marker.
#RIP #OTD in 1991 photographer Berenice Abbott died in Monson, Maine, aged 93. New Blanchard Cemetery, Blanchard, Maine
On this day in 2002, husband of Anne Rice, painter and poet Stan Rice died of brain cancer at the age of 60 in New Orleans. Born on 7 November 1942 in Dallas. He met his future wife in a high school journalism class in Richardson, Texas, and they married in Denton, Texas on October 14, 1961. It was the death of his and Anne’s first child, daughter Michele (1966–1972), at age six of leukemia, which sparked Rice’s becoming a published author. His first book of poems, based on his daughter’s illness and death, was titled Some Lamb, and was published in 1975. Rice encouraged his wife to quit her work as a waitress, cook and theater usher in order to devote herself full-time to her writing. Rice, his wife and their son Christopher moved to Garden District, New Orleans in 1988, where he eventually opened the Stan Rice Gallery.
The Final Footprint – Rice is entombed in the Rice Family private mausoleum in Metairie Cemetery in New Orleans. Other notable final footprints at Metairie include; Jim Garrison, Pete Fountain, Al Hirt, and Louis Prima.
#RIP #OTD in 2012 singer (Parrandera, Rebelde y Atrevida; Jenni), songwriter, actress (Filly Brown), television producer, spokesperson, philanthropist and entrepreneur Jenni Rivera died in a plane crash near Monterrey, aged 43. All Souls Cemetery in Long Beach, California
#RIP #OTD in 2013 actress (Caged, Detective Story, Interrupted Melody, Of Human Bondage, Scaramouche, The Naked Jungle, The Man with the Golden Arm) Eleanor Parker died in Palm Springs, California from complications of pneumonia aged 91. Cremated remains Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Hollywood Hills
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