On this day in 1941, Bengali poet, novelist, musician, painter and playwright, Nobel Prize recipient, The Shakespeare of India, The Bard of Bengal, Rabindranath Tagore died in an upstairs room of the Jorasanko mansion in which he was raised in Calcutta, at the age of 80. Born on 7 May 1861. He wrote one of my favorite poems, Unending Love, which Gregory Peck read on camera after Audrey Hepburn’s death.
Unending Love
I seem to have loved you in numberless forms, numberless times… In life after life, in age after age, forever. My spellbound heart has made and remade the necklace of songs, That you take as a gift, wear round your neck in your many forms, In life after life, in age after age, forever. Whenever I hear old chronicles of love, it’s age old pain, It’s ancient tale of being apart or together. As I stare on and on into the past, in the end you emerge, Clad in the light of a pole-star, piercing the darkness of time. You become an image of what is remembered forever. You and I have floated here on the stream that brings from the fount. At the heart of time, love of one for another. We have played along side millions of lovers, Shared in the same shy sweetness of meeting, the distressful tears of farewell, Old love but in shapes that renew and renew forever. Today it is heaped at your feet, it has found its end in you The love of all man’s days both past and forever: Universal joy, universal sorrow, universal life. The memories of all loves merging with this one love of ours – And the songs of every poet past and forever. ~Rabindranath Tagore From Selected Poems, Translated by William RadiceThe Final Footprint – Tagore was cremated and his cremains were scattered in the Ganges River.
#RIP #OTD in 1957 comic actor and one half of Laurel and Hardy double act, Oliver Hardy died from cerebral thrombosis at age 65. Cremated remains at the Masonic Garden of Valhalla Memorial Park Cemetery in North Hollywood
#RIP #OTD in 1972 pin-up model, actress (Touch of Evil, Marriage on the Rocks, The Beverly Hillbillies), nightclub singer Joi Lansing died from breast cancer at St. John’s Hospital, Santa Monica, California, aged 49. Pierce Brothers Santa Paula Cemetery, Santa Paula CA
On this day in 1974, poet and author Rosario Castellanos died from an electrical accident in Tel Aviv, at the age of 49. Born Rosario Castellanos Figueroa on 25 May 1925 in Mexico City. In my opinion, she was one of Mexico’s most important literary voices in the last century. Throughout her life, she wrote about issues of cultural and gender oppression, and her work has influenced Mexican feminist theory and cultural studies. Though she died young, she opened the door of Mexican literature to women, and left a legacy that still resonates today.
She joined a group of Mexican and Central American intellectuals, read extensively, and began to write. She studied philosophy and literature at UNAM (the National Autonomous University of Mexico), where she would later teach, and joined the National Indigenous Institute, writing scripts for puppet shows that were staged in impoverished regions to promote literacy. She also wrote a weekly column for the newspaper Excélsior.
She married Ricardo Guerra Tejada, a professor of philosophy, in 1958. However, she and Guerra divorced after thirteen years of marriage, Guerra having been unfaithful to Castellanos. Her own personal life was marked by her difficult marriage and continuous depression, but she dedicated a large part of her work and energy to defending women’s rights, for which she is remembered as a symbol of Latin American feminism.
The Final Footprint
Rotonda de las Personas Ilustres, Panteón Civil de Dolores, located on Constituyentes Avenue in the Miguel Hidalgo borough of Mexico City.
#RIP #OTD in 1985 television, film and stage actress (Dark Shadows, The Night of the Iguana) Grayson Hall died from lung cancer at New York Hospital in Manhattan at the age of 62. Saint John the Evangelist Church Cemetery, Barrytown, New York
#RIP #OTD in 2022 actor (Magnum, P. I.; McQ; Semi-Tough; Unlawful Entry), director, writer, Roger E. Mosley died of injuries from a car crash, at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center at the age of 83. Cremated remains scattered at sea.
#RIP #OTD in 2023 film, television, opera director, producer, screenwriter (The French Connection, The Exorcist, The Boys in the Band, Bug, To Live and Die in L.A.) William Friedkin died; heart failure and pneumonia at his home in Bel Air, Los Angeles aged 87. Cremation
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On this day in 1660, artist Diego Velázquez died in Madrid at the age of 61. Baptized Diego Rodríguez de Silva y Velázquez on June 6, 1599 in Seville. He was the leading artist in the court of King Philip IV, and in my opinion, one of the most important painters of the Spanish Golden Age. He was an individualistic artist of the contemporary Baroque period. In addition to numerous renditions of scenes of historical and cultural significance, he painted portraits of the Spanish royal family, other notable European figures, and commoners, culminating in the production of his masterpiece Las Meninas (1656)..jpg)
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On this day in 2004, singer, songwriter, musician and record producer, Rick James died at the age of 56 in his Los Angeles home at the Oakwood apartment complex on Barham Boulevard from pulmonary failure and cardiac failure. Born James Ambrose Johnson, Jr. on 19 February 1948 in Buffalo, New York. Perhaps best known for being a major popularizer of funk music in the late 1970s and early 1980s thanks to million-selling hits such as “You and I” (1978), “Give It to Me Baby” (1981) and “Super Freak” (1981), the latter song crossing him over to pop audiences and selling over three million copies. It later contributed to the success of rapper MC Hammer’s “U Can’t Touch This” (1990), for which James sued him, in order to be credited. James won a Grammy Award for Best R&B Song with Hammer for the song, his only Grammy win.
The Final Footprint – James is interred in Forest Lawn Cemetery in Buffalo.
On this day in 2009, film director, producer and screenwriter, John Hughes died at the age of 59 of a heart attack while walking in Manhattan where he was visiting his family. Born John Wilden Hughes, Jr. on 18 February 1950 in Lansing, Michigan. He directed or scripted some of the most successful films of the 1980s and 1990s, including National Lampoon’s Vacation, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Weird Science, The Breakfast Club, Some Kind of Wonderful, Sixteen Candles, Pretty in Pink, Planes, Trains and Automobiles, Uncle Buck, Home Alone, and Home Alone 2: Lost in New York.
The Final Footprint – Hughes is interred in Lake Forest Cemetery in Lake Forest, Illinois.
On this day in 2012, composer, conductor, an EGOT (those who have been awarded an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony), Pulitzer Prize recipient, Marvin Hamlisch died in Los Angeles, California at age 68, following a short illness, primarily due to respiratory arrest caused by a combination of anoxic brain encephalopathy and hypertension. Born Marvin Frederick Hamlisch on 2 June 1944 in Manhattan. Hamlisch married Terre Blair (1989 – 2012 his death. His prior relationship with lyricist Carole Bayer Sager inspired the musical They’re Playing Our Song.
On this day in 2016, jazz clarinetist Pete Fountain died from heart failure in New Orleans at the age of 86. Born Pierre Dewey LaFontaine, Jr. on July 3, 1930 in New Orleans. He played in traditional and contemporary genres of jazz, such as Dixieland, pop jazz, honky-tonk jazz, as well as pop, and Creole music.
The Final Footprint
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The Final Footprint – Burton is interred in Vieux Cemetery, Celigny, Switzerland, in a red suit, a tribute to his Welsh roots, and with a copy of Dylan Thomas’ poems. He and Taylor had discussed being buried together. His widow Sally purchased the plot next to Burton’s to ensure she would be buried next to him. 
On this day in 2019, 
On this day in 1924 novelist Joseph Conrad died of a heart attack in Bishopsbourne, England at the age of 66. Born Józef Teodor Konrad Korzeniowski on 3 December 1857 in Berdichev (Polish: Berdyczów), Kiev Governorate (now Berdychiv, Ukraine). In my opionion, one of the great novelists in English. His stories and novels feature predominantly nautical or seaboard settings and depict trials of the human spirit that plumb the depths of the human soul. I like that some of his works have a strain of romanticism. Perhaps his best known works are Lord Jim (1899-1900) and Heart of Darkness (1902). Conrad married Jessie George (1896-1924 his death).
The Final Footprint – Conrad is interred in Canterbury City Cemetery in Canterbury, Kent, England. Jessie was interred next to him after her death on 3 December 1936. Their graves are marked with a large upright companion granite marker with the epitaph by the English poet Edmund Spenser; SLEEP AFTER TOYLE, PORT AFTER STORMIE SEAS, EASE AFTER WARRE, DEATH AFTER LIFE, DOES GREATLY PLEASE. SPENSER
On this day in 1954, French novelist and performer, Colette died in Paris at the age of 81. Born Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette on 28 January 1873 in Saint-Sauveur-en-Puisaye, Yonne, in the Burgundy Region of France. Perhpaps best known for her novel Gigi, upon which Lerner and Loewe based the stage and film musical comedies of the same title. Colette is directly credited with the discovery of a young, nascent Audrey Hepburn, who she chose on sight to play the eponymous Broadway lead in Gigi. She was the first woman given a state funeral in France, although she was refused Roman Catholic rites because of her divorces.
The Final Footprint – Colette is interred in Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris. Other notable Final Footprints at Père Lachaise include; Guillaume Apollinaire, Georges Bizet, Honoré de Balzac, Jean-Dominique Bauby, Maria Callas, Frédéric Chopin, Auguste Comte, Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, Max Ernst, Molière, Jim Morrison, Édith Piaf, Camille Pissarro, Marcel Proust, Sully Prudhomme, Gioachino Rossini, Georges-Pierre Seurat, Gertrude Stein, Dorothea Tanning, Alice B. Toklas, Oscar Wilde, and Richard Wright.
On this day in 1964, writer and important voice in American literature, Flannery O’Connor died at the age of 39, of complications from lupus, at Baldwin County Hospital in Milledgeville, Georgia. Born Mary Flannery O’Connor on 25 March 1925 in Savannah, Georgia. Her two novels were Wise Blood (1952) and The Violent Bear It Away (1960). She also published two books of short stories: A Good Man Is Hard to Find (1955) and Everything That Rises Must Converge (published posthumously in 1965). She was a Southern writer who often wrote in a Southern Gothic style and relied heavily on regional settings and grotesque characters. O’Connor’s writing also reflected her own Roman Catholic faith, and frequently examined questions of morality and ethics. One of my very favorite writers. Each year on her birthday I read one of her short stories.
The Final Footprint – O’Connor was interred in Milledgeville, at Memory Hill Cemetery.
On this day in 1886, 
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On this day in 1944 French writer and aviator Antoine de Saint-Exupéry disappeared on a reconnaissance flight over the Mediterranean off the coast of Marseille at the age of 44. Born Antoine Jean-Baptiste Marie Roger de Saint Exupéry on 29 June 1900 in Lyon, France. Perhaps best remembered for his novella The Little Prince (Le Petit Prince). He was a successful commercial pilot before World War II. He joined the Armée de l’Air (French Air Force) on the outbreak of war, flying reconnaissance missions until the armistice with Germany. Saint-Exupéry was married to Consuelo Suncín Sandoval Zeceña (1931-1944 his death).
The Final Footprint – An unidentifiable body wearing French colors was found several days after his disappearance east of the Frioul archipelago south of Marseille and buried in Carqueiranne, France. His memorial was established at Les Invalides in Paris. Les Invalides, or L’Hôtel national des Invalides (The National Residence of the Invalids), is a complex of buildings in the 7th arrondissement of Paris containing museums and monuments, all relating to the military history of France, as well as a hospital and a retirement home for war veterans, the building’s original purpose. The buildings house the Musée de l’Armée, the military museum of the Army of France, the Musée des Plans-Reliefs, and the Musée d’Histoire Contemporaine, as well as the burial site for some of France’s war heroes, notably Napoleon. A quote from The Little Prince is inscribed on the sculpture erected to honour James Dean in Cholame, California —”What is essential is invisible to the eye.”
On this day in 1964, singer-songwriter, Gentleman Jim, Jim Reeves died at the age of 40 in the crash of a private plane northeast of Brentwood, Tennessee approximately at the junction of Baxter Lane and Franklin Pike Circle, just east of Interstate 65, and southwest of Nashville International Airport. Born James Travis Reeves on 20 August 1923 in Galloway, Texas. With records charting from the 1950’s to the 1980’s, Reeves became well known as a practitioner of the Nashville sound (a mixture of older country-style music with elements of popular music). He is a member of both the Country Music and Texas Country Music Halls of Fame.
The Final Footprint – Thousands of people traveled to pay their last respects at his funeral two days later. The coffin, draped in flowers from fans, was driven through the streets of Nashville and then to Reeves’ final resting place near Carthage, Texas at what is now the Jim Reeves Memorial Park.
On this day in 2012, writer known for his essays, novels, screenplays, and Broadway plays, Gore Vidal died at his home in Hollywood Hills, California of complications from pneumonia at the age of 86. Born Eugene Louis Vidal in West Point, New York. As a well-known public intellectual, he was known for his patrician manner and witty aphorisms. Vidal was a lifelong Democrat; he ran for political office twice and was a longtime political commentator. As well known for his essays as his novels, Vidal wrote for The Nation, New Statesman, the New York Review of Books and Esquire. He was also known for his well-publicized spats with such figures as Norman Mailer, William F. Buckley, Jr., and Truman Capote. His most widely regarded social novel was Myra Breckinridge; his best known historical novels included Julian, Burr, and Lincoln. His third novel, The City and the Pillar (1948), outraged conservative critics as one of the first major American novels to feature unambiguous homosexuality. Vidal always rejected the terms of “homosexual” and “heterosexual” as inherently false, claiming that the vast majority of individuals had the potential to be pansexual. His screenwriting credits included the epic historical drama Ben-Hur (1959), which won the Academy Award for Best Picture. At the time of his death, he was the last of a generation of American writers who had served during World War II, including J. D. Salinger, Kurt Vonnegut, Mailer, and Joseph Heller. Perhaps best remembered for his caustic wit, he has been described as the 20th century’s answer to Oscar Wilde. Vidal had affairs with both men and women. The novelist Anaïs Nin claimed an involvement with Vidal in her memoir The Diary of Anaïs Nin but Vidal denied it in his memoir Palimpsest. Vidal also discussed having dalliances with people such as actress Diana Lynn, and alluded to the possibility that he may have a daughter. He was briefly engaged to Joanne Woodward, before she married Paul Newman; after eloping, the couple shared a house with Vidal in Los Angeles for a short time. In 1950, he met his long-term partner Howard Austen. Vidal once reported that the secret to his lengthy relationship with Austen was that they did not have sex with each other: “It’s easy to sustain a relationship when sex plays no part and impossible, I have observed, when it does.” He also said; “
The Final Footprint – Vidal was interred next to Austen in Rock Creek Cemetery in Washington, D.C. Other notable final footprints at Rock Creek include; Tim Russert and Upton Sinclair.
The Final Footprint
The Final Footprint – Phillips is entombed in the mausoleum Garden of Trees in Memorial Park Cemetery in Memphis. Another notable final footprints at Memorial Park include; Bobby Blue Bland, Isaac Hayes, Charlie Rich, and Bob Welch.
On this day in 1983, filmmaker Luis Buñuel died 
