On this day in 1847 Romantic composer, pianist, organist, conductor Felix Mendelssohn died in Leipzig after a series of strokes, age 38. Born on 3 February 1809, in Hamburg.
Mendelssohn’s compositions include symphonies, concertos, piano music, organ music and chamber music. His best-known works include the overture and incidental music for A Midsummer Night’s Dream, the Italian Symphony, the Scottish Symphony, the oratorio St. Paul, the oratorio Elijah, the overture The Hebrides, the mature Violin Concerto and the String Octet. The melody for the Christmas carol “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing” is also his. Mendelssohn’s Songs Without Words are his most famous solo piano compositions.
Mendelssohn’s grandfather was the renowned Jewish philosopher Moses Mendelssohn, but Felix was initially raised without religion. He was baptised at the age of seven, becoming a Reformed Christian. He was recognised early as a musical prodigy, but his parents were cautious and did not seek to capitalise on his talent. His sister Fanny Mendelssohn received a similar musical education and was a talented composer and pianist in her own right; some of her early songs were published under her brother’s name and her Easter Sonata was for a time mistakenly attributed to him after being lost and rediscovered in the 1970s.
Mendelssohn enjoyed early success in Germany, and revived interest in the music of Johann Sebastian Bach, notably with his performance of the St Matthew Passion in 1829. He became well received in his travels throughout Europe as a composer, conductor and soloist; his ten visits to Britain – during which many of his major works were premiered – form an important part of his adult career. His essentially conservative musical tastes set him apart from more adventurous musical contemporaries such as Franz Liszt, Richard Wagner, Charles-Valentin Alkan and Hector Berlioz. The Leipzig Conservatory, which he founded, became a bastion of this anti-radical outlook. After a long period of relative denigration due to changing musical tastes and antisemitism in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, his creative originality has been re-evaluated. He is now among the most popular composers of the Romantic era.
The Final Footprint – Mendelssohn suffered from poor health in the final years of his life, probably aggravated by nervous problems and overwork. A final tour of England left him exhausted and ill, and the death of his sister, Fanny, on 14 May 1847, caused him further distress. Less than six months later, on 4 November, aged 38, Mendelssohn died in Leipzig after a series of strokes. His grandfather Moses, Fanny, and both his parents had all died from similar apoplexies. Although he had been generally meticulous in the management of his affairs, he died intestate.
Mendelssohn’s funeral was held at the Paulinerkirche, Leipzig, and he was buried at the Dreifaltigkeitsfriedhof I in Berlin-Kreuzberg. The pallbearers included Moscheles, Schumann and Niels Gade. Mendelssohn had once described death, in a letter to a stranger, as a place “where it is to be hoped there is still music, but no more sorrow or partings.”
On this day in 1918, English poet and soldier Wilfred Owen was killed in World War I action, at the age of 25, during the crossing of the Sambre–Oise Canal, exactly one week (almost to the hour) before the signing of the Armistice. Born Wilfred Edward Salter Owen on 18 March 1893 at Plas Wilmot, a house in Weston Lane, near Oswestry in Shropshire. One of the leading poets of the First World War, his shocking, realistic war poetry on the horrors of trenches and gas warfare was heavily influenced by his friend and mentor Siegfried Sassoon, and stood in stark contrast both to the public perception of war at the time and to the confidently patriotic verse written by earlier war poets such as Rupert Brooke. Among his best-known works – most of which were published posthumously – are “Dulce et Decorum est”, “Insensibility”, “Anthem for Doomed Youth”, “Futility” and “Strange Meeting”.
The Final Footprint – His mother received the telegram informing her of his death on Armistice Day, as the church bells were ringing out in celebration. He is interred at the Communal Cemetery in Ors, France.
On this day in 1924 composer, organist, pianist and teacher Gabriel Fauré died in Paris from pneumonia at the age of 79. Born Gabriel Urbain Fauré in Pamiers, Ariège, France on 12 May 1845. He was given a state funeral at the Église de la Madeleine and is buried in the Passy Cemetery in Paris. He was one of the foremost French composers of his generation, and his musical style influenced many 20th-century composers. Among his best-known works are his Pavane, Requiem, Sicilienne, nocturnes for piano and the songs “Après un rêve” and “Clair de lune”.
Fauré was born into a cultured but not especially musical family. His talent became clear when he was a young boy. At the age of nine, he was sent to the Ecole Niedermeyer music college in Paris, where he was trained to be a church organist and choirmaster. Among his teachers was Camille Saint-Saëns, who became a lifelong friend. After graduating from the college in 1865, Fauré earned a modest living as an organist and teacher, leaving him little time for composition. When he became successful in his middle age, holding the important posts of organist of the Église de la Madeleine and director of the Paris Conservatoire, he still lacked time for composing; he retreated to the countryside in the summer holidays to concentrate on composition. By his last years, he was recognised in France as the leading French composer of his day. An unprecedented national musical tribute was held for him in Paris in 1922, headed by the president of the French Republic. Outside France, Fauré’s music took decades to become widely accepted, except in Britain, where he had many admirers during his lifetime.
Fauré’s music has been described as linking the end of Romanticism with the modernism of the second quarter of the 20th century. When he was born, Chopin was still composing, and by the time of Fauré’s death, jazz and the atonal music of the Second Viennese School were being heard. The Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, which describes him as the most advanced composer of his generation in France, notes that his harmonic and melodic innovations influenced the teaching of harmony for later generations. During the last twenty years of his life, he suffered from increasing deafness. In contrast with the charm of his earlier music, his works from this period are sometimes elusive and withdrawn in character, and at other times turbulent and impassioned.
The Final Footprint – He was given a state funeral at the Église de la Madeleine and is buried in the Passy Cemetery in Paris.
#RIP #OTD in 1931 cornetist regarded as a key figure in the development of New Orleans style ragtime music, or “jass” (jazz), Charles “Buddy” Bolden died from cerebral arteriosclerosis at the Louisiana State Insane Asylum, Jackson, Louisiana aged 54. Holt Cemetery, New Orleans
On this day in 1955 baseball Hall of Famer, Cy Young, died on his farm near Newcomerstown, Ohio at the age of 88. Born Denton True Young on 29 March 1867 in Gilmore, Ohio. During his 22-year career he pitched for five different teams; Cleveland Spiders, St. Louis Perfectos, Boston Americans/Red Sox, Cleveland Naps and the Boston Rustlers. He pitched three no hitters and one perfect game, earned one world series ring and still holds five MLB records.
The Final Footprint – Young is interred in Peoli Cemetery in Peoli, Ohio alongside his wife Roba Miller Young. 
Their graves are marked by a large upright granite marker inscribed as follows: FROM 1890 TO 1911 “CY YOUNG” PITCHED 874 MAJOR LEAGUE BASE BALL GAMES. HE WON 511 GAMES, THREE NO HIT, AND ONE PERFECT GAME IN WHICH NO MAN REACHED FIRST BASE. One year after Young’s death, the Cy Young Award was created to honor the previous season’s best pitcher. The first award was given to Brooklyn’s Don Newcombe. Originally, it was a single award covering the whole of baseball. The honor was divided into two Cy Young Awards in 1967, one for each league. In 1957, Warren Spahn became the first left-handed pitcher to win the award. In 1963, Sandy Koufax became the first pitcher to win the award in a unanimous vote; two years later he became the first multiple winner. In 1974, Mike Marshall won the award, becoming the first relief pitcher to win the award. Roger Clemens currently holds the record for the most awards won, with seven won the most.
On this day in 2008, author, screenwriter, film director and producer Michael Crichton died from lymphoma in Los Angeles at the age of 66. Born John Michael Crichton October 23, 1942 in Chicago. Perhaps best known for his work in the science fiction, thriller, and medical fiction genres.
His novels epitomize the techno-thriller genre of literature, often exploring technology and failures of human interaction with it, especially resulting in catastrophes with biotechnology. Many of his novels have medical or scientific underpinnings, reflecting his medical training and scientific background. He wrote, among other works, The Andromeda Strain (1969); Congo(1980); Sphere (1987); Jurassic Park (1990); Rising Sun (1992); Disclosure (1994); The Lost World (1995); Airframe (1996); Timeline (1999); Prey (2002); State of Fear (2004); and Next (2006). Films he wrote and directed included Westworld (1973), Coma (1978), The Great Train Robbery (1979), Looker(1981), and Runaway (1984).
He married five times. Four of the marriages ended in divorce: with Joan Radam (1965–1970), Kathleen St. Johns (1978–1980), Suzanna Childs (1981–1983), and actress Anne-Marie Martin (1987–2003). At the time of his death, Crichton was married to Sherri Alexander (2005–2008).
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Crichton was cremated.
#RIP #OTD in 2008 ballerina, member of the Choctaw Nation, one of the The Five Moons, five Native American ballerinas from Oklahoma, Rosella Hightower died in her home in Cannes, aged 88. Cimetière Locmaria-Belle Ile, France. Five Moons sculpture, Tulsa OK
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On this day in 1793, playwright, abolitionist, and feminist Olympe de Gouges mounted a Paris scaffold to the guillotine, at the age of 45. Born Marie Gouze on 7 May 1748 in Montauban, Quercy (in the present-day department of Tarn-et-Garonne), in southwestern France. She began her career as a playwright in the early 1780s. As political tension rose in France, de Gouges began writing political pamphlets. She became an outspoken advocate for improving the condition of slaves in the colonies of 1788. Perhaps best known as an early feminist who demanded that French women be given the same rights as French men. In her Declaration of the Rights of Woman and the Female Citizen (1791), she challenged the practice of male authority and the notion of male–female inequality. She wrote; “
The Final Footprint – De Gouges was interred in a communal grave in the Madeleine Cemetery, a former cemetery in the 8th arrondissement of Paris, one of the four cemeteries (the others being Errancis Cemetery, Picpus Cemetery and the Cemetery of Saint Margaret) used to dispose of the corpses of guillotine victims during the French Revolution. In 1844, the cemetery was cleared and the skeletal remains were transferred to the l’Ossuaire de l’Ouest (West Ossuary). When the ossuary was closed, the contents were transferred to the Paris catacombs (Catacombes de Paris), an underground ossuary in Paris which hold the remains of more than six million people located in a part of a tunnel network built to consolidate Paris’ ancient stone mines. Extending south from the Barrière d’Enfer (“Gate of Hell”) former city gate, this ossuary was created as part of the effort to eliminate the city’s overflowing cemeteries. Preparation work began not long after a series of basement wall collapses at Saint Innocents cemetery. Beginning in 1786, nightly processions of covered wagons transferred remains from most of Paris’ cemeteries to a mine shaft opened near the Rue de la Tombe-Issoire.
On this day in 1926 sharpshooter who starred in Buffalo Bill’s Wild West show Annie Oakley died of pernicious anemia in Greenville, Ohio, at the age of 66. Born Phoebe Ann (Annie) Mosey on August 13, 1860, in a log cabin less than two miles (3.2 km) northwest of Woodland, now Willowdell, in Darke County, Ohio.
The Final Footprint – Cremated remains interred at Brock Cemetery, near Greenville. A collection of Oakley’s personal possessions, performance memorabilia, and firearms are on permanent exhibit in the Garst Museum and the National Annie Oakley Center in Greenville, Ohio. She has been inducted into the Trapshooting Hall of Fame, the National Cowgirl Museum and Hall of Fame in Fort Worth, Texas, the National Women’s Hall of Fame, the Ohio Women’s Hall of Fame, and the New Jersey Hall of Fame. Her story has been adapted for stage musicals and films, including Annie Get Your Gun, musical with lyrics and music by Irving Berlin and a book by Dorothy Fields and her brother Herbert Fields.
On this day in 1954, artist, painter, sculptor Henri Matisse died in Nice, Alpes-Maritimes, France at the age of 84. Born Henri-Émile-Benoît Matisse on 13 December 1869 in Le Cateau-Cambrésis, Nord, France. In my opinion, along with with Picasso and Marcel Duchamp, Matisse is one of the leading figures of modern art.
The Final Footprint – Matisse is interred with his wife Noellie Matisse-Parayre in the cemetery of the Monastère Notre Dame de Cimiez, near Nice. Their graves are marked by a large marble upright monument.
On this day in 1990, actress and singer, Mary Martin died of cancer four weeks before her 77th birthday at her home in Rancho Mirage, California. Born Mary Virginia Martin in Weatherford, Texas on 1 December 1913.
The Final Footprint – She is buried in City Greenwood Cemetery in Weatherford, Texas.
And on this day in 2018, actress and director, Sondra Locke died at her Los Angeles home from cardiac arrest related to breast and bone cancer at the age of 74. Born Sandra Louise Smith on May 28, 1944 in Shelbyville, Tennessee.
On this day in 1887 opera singer, the “Swedish Nightingale”, Jenny Lind died at Wynd’s Point, Herefordshire, on the Malvern Hills near the British Camp, at the age of 67. Born Johanna Maria Lind on 6 October 1820 in Klara in central Stockholm. One of the most highly regarded singers of the 19th century, she performed in soprano roles in opera in Sweden and across Europe, and undertook an extraordinarily popular concert tour of America beginning in 1850. She was a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Music from 1840.
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On this day in 1950, playwright, Nobel Prize winner and Academy Award winner, George Bernard Shaw died at his home, Shaw’s Corner, in Hertfordshire, England at the age of 94. Born 26 July 1856 in Dublin, Ireland. Shaw is the only person to have been awarded both a Nobel and an Oscar. His play Pygmalion was adapted by Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe into the musical My Fair Lady. In 1898, Shaw married Charlotte Payne-Townshend, whom he survived. Reportedly, the marriage was never consummated, at Charlotte’s insistence. Shaw reportedly had a number of affairs with married women.
On this day in 1975 poet, filmmaker, writer, journalist, novelist, playwright, artist, actor Pier Paolo Pasolini was murdered, run over by his car, on the beach at Ostia, Italy. Born in Bologna on 5 March 1922.
And on this day in 1996 singer and guitarist Eva Cassidy died from melanoma at her family’s home in Bowie, Maryland, at the age of 33. Born Eva Marie Cassidy on February 2, 1963, at the Washington Hospital Center in Washington, D.C.
On this day in 1972, poet Ezra Pound died in the Civil Hospital of Venice at the age of 87 with his long-time mistress Olga Rudge at his side. Born Ezra Weston Loomis Pound on 30 October 1885 in Hailey, Idaho Territory. His contribution to poetry began with his promotion of Imagism, a movement that called for a return to more Classical values, stressing clarity, precision and economy of language. Perhaps his best-known works include Ripostes (1912), Hugh Selwyn Mauberley (1920) and his unfinished 120-section epic, The Cantos (1917–1969). Working in London and Paris in the early 20th century as foreign editor of several American literary magazines, Pound helped to discover and shape the work of contemporaries such as T. S. Eliot, James Joyce, Robert Frost and Ernest Hemingway. He was responsible for the publication in 1915 of Eliot’s “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” and for the serialization from 1918 of Joyce’s Ulysses. Hemingway wrote of him in 1925: “He defends [his friends] when they are attacked, he gets them into magazines and out of jail. … He writes articles about them. He introduces them to wealthy women. He gets publishers to take their books. He sits up all night with them when they claim to be dying … he advances them hospital expenses and dissuades them from suicide”. Outraged by the loss of life during the First World War, he lost faith in England, blaming the war on usury and international capitalism. He moved to Italy in 1924, where throughout the 1930s and 1940s he wrote for publications owned by Oswald Mosley. The Italian government paid him to make hundreds of radio broadcasts criticizing the United States, as a result of which he was arrested for treason by American forces in Italy in 1945. He spent months in detention in a U.S. military camp in Pisa. Deemed unfit to stand trial, he was incarcerated in St. Elizabeths psychiatric hospital in Washington, D.C., for over 12 years. While in custody in Italy, he had begun work on sections of The Cantos that became known as The Pisan Cantos (1948), for which he was awarded the Bollingen Prize in 1949 by the Library of Congress, triggering enormous controversy. He was released from St. Elizabeths in 1958 and returned to live in Italy until his death. His political views ensure that his work remains controversial; in 1933 Time magazine called him “a cat that walks by himself, tenaciously unhousebroken and very unsafe for children.” Hemingway nevertheless wrote: “The best of Pound’s writing – and it is in the Cantos – will last as long as there is any literature.”
The Final Footprint – Four gondoliers dressed in black rowed Pound’s body to the island cemetery, Isola di San Michele, where he was buried near Sergei Diaghilev and Igor Stravinsky. Dorothy died in England the following year. Olga died in 1996 and was buried next to Pound.
On this day in 1918, painter Egon Schiele died from the Spanish Flu in Vienna, three days after his wife Edith, at the age of 28. Born on 12 June 1890 in Tulln, Lower Austria. A protégé of Gustav Klimt, Schiele was a major figurative painter of the early 20th century. His work is noted for its intensity and its raw sexuality, and the many self-portraits the artist produced, including naked self-portraits. The twisted body shapes and the expressive line that characterize Schiele’s paintings and drawings mark the artist as an early exponent of Expressionism.
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On this day in 1926, magician and escapologist, Harry Houdini died at Grace Hospital in Detroit, Michigan at the age of 52. Born Erik Weisz on 24 March 1874 in Budapest, Austria-Hungary.
Every year on the anniversary of his death, Bess conducted a seance and tried to contact her husband’s spirit. After the tenth year she stopped, allegedly saying that ten years was long enough to wait for any man. Bess wished to be interred next to him but when she died her Catholic family refused to bury her in a Jewish cemetery.
On this day in 1993, film director and screenwriter, Federico Fellini died from complications of a stroke in Rome at the age of 73, a day after his fiftieth wedding anniversary. Born 20 January 1920 in 
The Final Footprint – A memorial service was held in Studio 5 at Cinecittà. At the request of Masina, trumpeter Mauro Maur played the “Improvviso dell’Angelo” by Nino Rota during the funeral ceremony. Five months later on 23 March 1994, Masina died of lung cancer. Fellini, Masina and their son Pierfederico are entombed in a bronze sepulchre sculpted by Arnaldo Pomodoro. Designed as a ship’s prow, the tomb is located at the main entrance to the Cemetery of Rimini. The Federico Fellini Airport in Rimini is named in his honour.
On this day in 1993 actor, musician, activist River Phoenix died from a drug overdose on the sidewalk outside the West Hollywood nightclub The Viper Room at the age of 23. Born River Jude Phoenix (né Bottom) on August 23, 1970 in Madras, Oregon. He was the older brother of Rain Phoenix, Joaquin Phoenix, Liberty Phoenix, and Summer Phoenix.
And on this day in 2020 actor Sean Connery died in his sleep at his home in Lyford Cay, Nassau in The Bahamas. Born Thomas Connery at the Royal Maternity Hospital in Edinburgh, Scotland, on 25 August 1930.
On this day in 1919 author, poet Ella Wheeler Wilcox died of cancer in Short Beach CT, aged 68. Born Ella Wheeler on 5 November 1850 on a farm in Johnstown, Wisconsin.
The Final Footprint – Wilcox Estate Burial Site, Short Beach, Connecticut.
On this day in 1991, the last recorded position of the commercial fishing vessel Andrea Gail was reported. The Andrea Gail began her final voyage on 20 September 1991, departing from Gloucester, Massachusetts.
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On this day in 2007, singer and actor Robert Goulet died from pulmonary fibrosis at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles at the age of 73. Born Robert Gérard Goulet on November 26, 1933 in Lawrence, Massachusetts. Cast as Sir Lancelot and originating the role in the 1960 Broadway musical Camelot starring opposite stars Richard Burton and Julie Andrews, he achieved instant recognition with his performance and interpretation of the song “If Ever I Would Leave You”, which became his signature song. His debut in Camelot marked the beginning of a stage, screen, and recording career. A Grammy Award and Tony Award winner, his career spanned almost six decades.
On this day in 1618, aristocrat, writer, poet, soldier, courtier, spy, and explorer, Sir Walter Raleigh was beheaded at Whitehall in London at the age of 66. Born about 1552 in Devon, England. He rose rapidly in Queen Elizabeth I‘s favour and was knighted in 1585. Colonizer of Roanoke Island, he is credited with introducing potatoes and tobacco to England. In 1591, he secretly married Elizabeth Throckmorton, one of the Queen’s ladies-in-waiting. When the Queen discovered the deception, she had him imprisoned in the Tower of London. He would be released and would eventually regain favour with the Queen. Elizabeth died in 1603 and Raleigh was arrested and again imprisoned in the Tower of London for allegedly plotting against King James. Raleigh was found guilty but James spared his life and he was kept in the tower, legally dead. In 1616, Raleigh was released to conduct a second exploration of Venezuela, where his men attacked a Spanish outpost. The outraged Spanish ambassador demanded that James reinstate the death sentence and it was carried out on this date.
The Final Footprint – Before his execution Raleigh reportedly told the crowd the ax “is sharp medicine, but it is a physician for all diseases”. As was the custom, Raleigh’s head was presented to his wife. She had it embalmed and kept it at home.
On this day in 1971, guitarist, co-founder of the The Allman Brothers Band, brother of Gregg Allman, Skydog, Duane Allman died from injuries sustained in a motorcycle accident in Macon, Georgia at the age of 24. Born Howard Duane Allman on 20 November 1946 in Nashville, Tennessee.
The Final Footprint – Allman’s remains were laid to rest in Rose Hill Cemetery in Macon. Shortly after Duane’s death, Ronnie Van Zant of Lynyrd Skynyrd began dedicating the song “Free Bird”, to the memory of Duane Allman in concert. In the “Free Bird” performance at Skynyrd’s famed 1976 appearance at Knebworth, England, Van Zant says to pianist Billy Powell, “Play it for Duane Allman.” In 1973, fans carved the very large letters “REMEMBER DUANE ALLMAN” in a dirt embankment along Interstate Highway 20 near Vicksburg, Mississippi. A photograph was published in Rolling Stone magazine and in the Rolling Stone Illustrated History of Rock & Roll; the carving itself lasted for over ten years. In 1998 the Georgia State Legislature passed a resolution designating a stretch of State Highway 19, US 41, within Macon as the “Duane Allman Boulevard” in his honor. Travis Tritt, in the song “Put Some Drive In Your Country” on his debut album, sings “Now I still love old country/I ain’t tryin’ to put it down/But damn I miss Duane Allman/I wish he was still around.”
And on this day in 1995, novelist (Candy, The Magic Christian), screenwriter (Dr. Strangelove, The Loved One, The Cincinnati Kid, Easy Rider), Terry Southern died of respiratory failure at St. Luke’s Hospital, New York City, age 71.
On this day in 1704 philosopher and physician, the Father of Classical Liberalism, John Locke died at the age of 72 in Essex, England. Born on 29 August 1632, in a small thatched cottage by the church in Wrington, Somerset, about twelve miles from Bristol. In my opinion, he is one of the most influential of Enlightenment thinkers. His contributions to classical republicanism and liberal theory are reflected in the United States Declaration of Independence. Locke’s theory of mind can be cited as the origin of modern conceptions of identity and the self. Locke may have been the first to define the self through a continuity of consciousness. He postulated that the mind was a blank slate or tabula rasa. Contrary to pre-existing Cartesian philosophy, he maintained that we are born without innate ideas, and that knowledge is instead determined only by experience derived from sense perception. Locke never married.
The Final Footprint – Locke is interred in the churchyard of the village of High Laver, east of Harlow in Essex.
On this day in 1993, heiress, art collector, philanthropist and socialite, Doris Duke died at her Falcon’s Lair home in Beverly Hills, California at the age of 80. Born on 22 November 1912 in New York City. Duke was the only child of tobacco and electric energy tycoon James Buchanan Duke and his second wife, Nanaline Holt Inman. She was not yet 13 when her father died in 1925. She married twice; James Henry Roberts Cromwell and Porfirio Rubirosa.
On this day in 1998, poet, husband of Sylvia Plath, British Poet Laureate, Ted Hughes died at the age of 68 from a myocardial infarction while undergoing hospital treatment for colon cancer in Southwark, London. Born Edward James Hughes on 17 August 1930 at 1 Aspinall Street, in Mytholmroyd, West Riding of Yorkshire. Hughes has been ranked as one of the best poets of his generation. He was British Poet Laureate from 1984 until his death. Hughes was married to American poet Sylvia Plath, from 1956 until her suicide in 1963 at the age of 30. His part in the relationship became controversial. His last poetic work, Birthday Letters (1998), explored their complex relationship. These poems make reference to Plath’s suicide, but none of them addresses directly the circumstances of her death. A poem discovered in October 2010, Last letter, describes what happened during the three days leading up to Plath’s suicide. In 2008 The Times ranked Hughes fourth on their list of the 50 greatest British writers since 1945. Hughes apparently had an affair with Assia Wevill, which began in 1962. Wevill died by suicide, and killed her four-year-old daughter, in a similar fashion to Plath, by use of a gas oven, just over six years after Plath’s death. Hughes later married Carol Orchard (1970 – 1998 his death).
The Final Footprint – His funeral was held on 3 November 1998, at North Tawton church, and he was cremated in Exeter. His cremated remains scattered in Dartmoor, close to the source of the River Taw.
And on this day in 2007 singer (“A Satisfied Mind”, “Please Don’t Stop Loving Me” duet with Dolly Parton), Porter Wagoner died from lung cancer in Nashville with his family and Dolly at his side, aged 80. Born Porter Wayne Wagoner in West Plains, Missouri on 12 August 1927.
The Final Footprint – Wagoner’s funeral was held November 1, 2007, at the Grand Ole Opry House. He is buried at Woodlawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Nashville
On this day in 2013, musician, singer, songwriter Lou Reed died from liver disease at his home in Southampton, New York, at the age of 71. Born Lewis Allan Reed at Beth El Hospital (now Brookdale) in Brooklyn on 2 March 1942, and grew up in Freeport, Long Island. After serving as guitarist, vocalist, and principal songwriter of the Velvet Underground, his solo career spanned several decades. The Velvet Underground was not commercially popular in the late 1960s, but the group gained a considerable cult following in the years since its demise and has gone on to become one of the most widely cited and influential bands of the era. Brian Eno was quoted as saying that while the Velvet Underground’s debut album only sold 30,000 copies, “everyone who bought one of those 30,000 copies started a band.” After his departure from the group, Reed began a solo career in 1972. He had a hit the following year with “Walk on the Wild Side”. Reed was known for his distinctive deadpan voice, poetic lyrics and for pioneering and coining the term ostrich guitar tuning. In 2003, Rolling Stone magazine’s list of the 500 greatest albums of all time included two albums by Reed as a solo artist, Transformer and Berlin.
On this day in 1864, anti-Union guerilla leader, Bloody Bill Anderson died at the approximate age of 24 from a gunshot wound during a battle with Union forces near Richmond, Missouri. Born William T. Anderson in 1840 in Hopkins County, Kentucky. Historians have disparate opinions of Anderson; some see him as a sadistic, psychopathic killer, but for others, his actions cannot be separated from the general lawlessness of the time. At one time or another Anderson rode with William Quantrill, and Frank and Jesse James. Anderson married Bush Smith in Sherman, Texas.
On this day in 1902 writer and activist who was a leader of the women’s rights movement in the U.S. during the mid- to late-19th century, Elizabeth Cady Stanton died in New York City from heart failure, 18 years before women achieved the right to vote in the United States via the Nineteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Born 12 November 1815 in Johnstown, New York.
The Final Footprint – McDaniel is interred in Angelus Rosedale Cemetery in Los Angeles. Her grave is marked by a flat granite engraved marker. She planned her funeral in detail requesting a white casket with a white shroud, white gardenias for her hair, a white gardenia blanket and a pillow of red roses. She also requested to be buried at Hollywood Forever Cemetery, but the management refused because they did not take blacks. In 1999, new management at the cemetery tried to right the wrong and offered to have McDaniel moved but her family declined. Instead, Hollywood Forever built a large granite cenotaph memorial on the lawn overlooking the lake to honour McDaniel. The cenotaph includes a quote from her nephew; “Aunt Hattie, you are a credit to your craft, your race and to your family”. It is a popular site for visitors. She has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Other notable Final Footprints at Hollywood Forever include; Mel Blanc (yes, his epitaph is “That’s All Folks!”), Lana Clarkson, Iron Eyes Cody, Chris Cornell, Cecil B. DeMille, Victor Fleming, Judy Garland, Joan Hackett, John Huston, Jayne Mansfield’s cenotaph, Tyrone Power, Dee Dee Ramone, Johnny Ramone, Virginia Rappe, Nelson Riddle, Mickey Rooney, Ann Sheridan, Bugsy Siegel
