On this day in 1990, author Walker Percy died from prostate cancer in Covington, Louisiana, at the age of 73. Born on May 28, 1916 in Birmingham, Alabama. interests included philosophy and semiotics. Percy is known for his philosophical novels set in and around New Orleans, the first of which, The Moviegoer, won the U.S. National Book Award for Fiction. He devoted his literary life to the exploration of “the dislocation of man in the modern age.” His work displays a combination of existential questioning, Southern sensibility, and deep Catholic faith.
Percy married Mary Bernice Townsend, a medical technician, on November 7, 1946. They settled in the suburb of Covington, Louisiana across Lake Pontchartrain from New Orleans. Percy’s wife and one of their daughters later had a bookstore, where the writer often worked in an office on the second floor.
The Final Footprint
He is buried on the grounds of St. Joseph Benedictine Abbey in St. Benedict, Louisiana. He had become a secular oblate of the Abbey’s monastic community, making his final oblation on February 16, 1990, less than three months before his death.
On this day in 1977, Academy Award winning actress, Joan Crawford died at her New York apartment from a heart attack at the age of 72. Born Lucille Fay LeSueur on 23 March 1905 in San Antonio, Texas. Crawford became one of Hollywood’s most prominent movie stars and one of the highest paid women in the United States. In 1931, she starred opposite Clark Gable in Possessed. They began an affair during the production, that lasted for many years. Crawford won her Oscar for the title role in Mildred Pierce (1945). She was married four times; Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. (1929-1933 divorce), Franchot Tone (1935-1939 divorce), Phillip Terry (1942-1946 divorce) and Alfred Steele (1955-1959 his death).
The Final Footprint – Crawford was cremated. Her cremains were entombed in a crypt next to her husband, Alfred Steele, in the Ferncliff Mausoleum, Ferncliff Cemetery in Hartsdale, New York. A funeral service was held at Frank E. Campbell Funeral Chapel (a Dignity Memorial property) in Manhattan. Crawford’s hand and footprints are immortalized in the forecourt of Grauman’s Chinese Theater on Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood. She also has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1750 Vine Street. In NovembeRrer 1978, a year and a half after Crawford’s death, her adopted daughter, Christina published Mommie Dearest, which contained allegations that Crawford was emotionally and physically abusive to Christina and her brother Christopher. The book was made into a movie of the same name in 1981 with Faye Dunaway as Crawford. Other notable funerals at Frank E. Campbell include; Aaliyah, Jean-Michael Basquiat, Irving Berlin, Lord Buckley, James Cagney, Oleg Cassini, Montgomery Clift, Frank Costello, Malcolm Forbes, Greta Garbo, Judy Garland, George Gershwin, Jim Henson, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Peter Jennings, Madeline Kahn, Bat Masterson, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, Heath Ledger, John Lennon, Norman Mailer, Mary Tyler Moore, Notorious B.I.G., Les Paul, Ayn Rand, Igor Stravinsky, Ed Sullivan, Arturo Toscanini, Rudolf Valentino, Luther Vandross, Mae West, and Tennessee Williams. Other notable Final Footprints at Ferncliff include: Aaliyah, James Baldwin, Béla Bartók, Cab Calloway, Ossie Davis, Ruby Dee, Oscar Hammerstein II, Jerome Kern, Malcolm X, Thelonious Monk, and Ed Sullivan.
On this day in 1999, poet, singer-songwriter, cartoonist, screenwriter, and author of children’s books, Shel Silverstein died from a heart attack in Key West at the age of 68. Born Sheldon Allan Silverstein on 25
September 1932 in Chicago. I remember him best for the songs he wrote including; “A Boy Named Sue”, “Put Another Log on the Fire”, “One’s on the Way”, “25 Minutes to Go“, “The Cover of ‘Rolling Stone'”, “Freakin’ at the Freakers’ Ball,” “Sylvia’s Mother”, “The Things I Didn’t Say”, “Rosalie’s Good Eats Café”, “The Mermaid”, “The Winner”, “Warm and Free” and “Tequila Sheila”, he co-wrote with Baxter Taylor “Marie Laveau”, “The Ballad of Lucy Jordan“, and “Queen of the Silver Dollar”.
The Final Footprint – Silverstein is interred in Westlawn Cemetery in Norridge, Illinois. Other notable final footprints at Westlawn include Jack Ruby and Gene Siskel.
have you planned yours yet?
On this day in 2009, journalist, sportswriter, novelist, biographer and screenwriter, Bud Shrake died at St. David’s Hospital in Austin, of complications from lung cancer at the age of 77. Born Edwin A. Shrake, Jr. in Fort Worth on 6 September 1931. Shrake co-wrote a series of golfing advice books with legendary golf coach Harvey Penick, including Harvey Penick’s Little Red Book, a golf guide that became the best-selling sports book in publishing history. Called a “lion of Texas letters” by the Austin American-Statesman, Shrake was a member of the Texas Film Hall of Fame, and received the Lon Tinkle lifetime achievement award from the Texas Institute of Letters and the Texas Book Festival Bookend Award. Shrake married twice and was Texas Governor Ann Richards’ companion for 17 years, until her death in 2006. As the “first gentleman of Texas,” he escorted Richards to her inaugural ball and to other social events, and organized card games inside the Texas governor’s mansion. Shrake was raised in Fort Worth’s Travis Avenue Baptist Church, but that did not stop him from obtaining ordination by the Universal Life Church and officiating at the wedding of friends such as writer Gary Cartwright.
On this day in 1825, 
The Final Footprint
On this day in 2002 Thoroughbred race horse who won the United States Triple Crown of Thoroughbred Racing in 1977, Seattle Slew died in his sleep at Hill ‘N’ Dale Farm, Lexington, Kentucky, 25 years to the day he won the Kentucky Derby, at the age of 28. Foaled on 15 February 1974 at Ben Castleman’s White Horse Acres Farm near Lexington, Kentucky. A descendant of the great sire Nearco through his son, Nasrullah, Seattle Slew was sired by Bold Reasoning and out of My Charmer. He was named Champion 2-Year-Old of 1976. The big nearly-black colt swept through the Triple Crown races and was named Champion 3-Year-Old of 1977 and Eclipse Award American Horse of the Year. Seattle Slew is the only Belmont Stakes winner to sire a Belmont Stakes winner, A.P. Indy (whose damsire was the great Secretariat), who in turn sired Belmont Stakes winner, Rags to Riches.
The Final Footprint – Seattle Slew was buried whole, the highest honor for a race horse, in the courtyard at Hill ‘N’ Dale Farm with his favorite blanket and a bag of peppermints which he liked to eat. Three Chimneys Farm, Midway, Kentucky erected a statue of Seattle Slew near the stallion barn in his honor.
On this day in 1862, author, poet, philosopher, abolitionist, naturalist, tax resister, development critic, surveyor, historian, and leading transcendentalist, Henry David Thoreau died from complications of tuberculosis at his home in Concord, Massachusetts at the age of 44. Born David Henry Thoreau in Concord on 12 July 1817. Perhaps best known for his book Walden, a reflection upon simple living in natural surroundings, and his essay Resistance to Civil Government (also known as Civil Disobedience), an argument for disobedience to an unjust state. Thoreau’s books, articles, essays, journals, and poetry total over 20 volumes. His literary style interweaves close natural observation, personal experience, pointed rhetoric, symbolic meanings, and historical lore, while displaying a poetic sensibility, philosophical austerity, and “Yankee” love of practical detail. He was also deeply interested in the idea of survival in the face of hostile elements, historical change, and natural decay; at the same time he advocated abandoning waste and illusion in order to discover life’s true essential needs. He was a lifelong abolitionist, delivering lectures that attacked the Fugitive Slave Law while praising the writings of Wendell Phillips and defending abolitionist John Brown.
The Final Footprint – Bronson Alcott planned the funeral service and read selections from Thoreau’s works, and Ellery Channing presented a hymn. Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote the eulogy spoken at his funeral. Originally buried in the Dunbar family plot, he and members of his immediate family were eventually moved to Sleepy Hollow Cemetery in Concord. Other notable final footprints at Sleepy Hollow include; Louisa May Alcott, William Ellery Channing, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Nathaniel Hawthorne.
On this day in 1919, author L. Frank Baum died from a stroke in Hollywood at the age of 62. Born Lyman Frank Baum on 15 May 1856 in Chittenango, New York. Perhaps best known for writing The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. He wrote 55 novels in total including thirteen Oz sequels, and nine other fantasy novels. In his writings, he anticipated television, augmented reality, laptop computers (The Master Key), wireless telephones (Tik-Tok of Oz), women in high risk, action-heavy occupations (Mary Louise in the Country), and the ubiquity of advertising on clothing (Aunt Jane’s Nieces at Work). Baum married Maud Gage (1882 – 1919 his death). They had four children.
The Final Footprint – The day after his stroke, Baum slipped into a coma but briefly awoke and reportedly spoke his last words to his wife, “Now we can cross the Shifting Sands.” He was buried in Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Glendale, California. Following early film treatments in 1910 and 1925 and Baum’s own venture The Oz Film Manufacturing Company, Metro Goldwyn Mayer made the story into the now classic movie The Wizard of Oz (1939), starring Judy Garland as Dorothy Gale. The film was given an all-a-dream ending which differs from the book. A completely new Tony Award-winning Broadway musical with an African-American cast, The Wiz, was staged in 1975 with Stephanie Mills as Dorothy. It was the basis for a 1978 film by the same title starring Diana Ross as an adult Dorothy and Michael Jackson as the Scarecrow. The Wizard of Oz continues to inspire new versions, such as Disney’s Return to Oz (1985), The Muppets’ Wizard of Oz, Tin Man (a re-imagining of the story televised in late 2007 on the Sci Fi Channel), and a variety of animated productions. Today’s most successful Broadway show, Wicked, provides a backstory to the two Oz witches used in the classic MGM film. Gregory Maguire, author of the novel, Wicked, on which the musical is based, chose to honor Baum by naming his main character Elphaba, a phonetic take on Baum’s initials. The film Oz the Great and Powerful (2013) serves as an homage to MGM’s film, and stars James Franco, Mila Kunis, Rachel Weisz, and Michelle Williams. Other notable Final Footprints at Forest Lawn Glendale include; Humphrey Bogart, Lon Chaney, Nat King Cole, Dorothy Dandridge, Sammy Davis, Jr., Jean Harlow, Sam Cooke, Walt Disney, Errol Flynn, Clark Gable, Michael Jackson, Carole Lombard, Tom Mix, Casey Stengel, Jimmy Stewart, Elizabeth Taylor, and Spencer Tracy.
On this day in 1992, Oscar nominated actress and singer, Marlene Dietrich died of renal failure in Paris at the age of 90. Born Maria Magdalene Dietrich on 27 December 1901 in Schöneberg, a district of Berlin, Germany. She appeared in over 70 movies and was known for her glamour and her beauty. She became a U. S. citizen in 1939. Dietrich raised war bonds and performed in USO tours and was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by the US in 1947. She said that this was her proudest accomplishment. She was also awarded the Légion d’honneur by the French government as recognition for her wartime work. Dietrich married once to Rudolf Sieber (1897-1976 his death). Dietrich allegedly had affairs with writer Erich Maria Remarque, Gary Cooper, Yul Brynner, George Bernard Shaw, and John F. Kennedy.
The Final Footprint – Napoleon was initially entombed on St. Helena in the Valley of the Willows. In 1840, King of the French Louis Philippe I obtained permission from the British to return Napoleon’s remains to France. The remains were transported aboard the frigate Belle-Poule, which had been painted black for the occasion, and on 29 November she arrived in Cherbourg. The remains were transferred to the steamship Normandie, which transported them to Le Havre, up the Seine to Rouen and on to Paris. On 15 December, a state funeral was held. The hearse proceeded from the Arc de Triomphe down the Champs-Élysées, across the Place de la Concorde to the Esplanade des Invalides and then to the cupola in St Jérôme’s Chapel, where it stayed until the tomb designed by Louis Visconti was completed. In 1861, Napoleon’s remains were entombed in a porphyry sarcophagus in the crypt under the dome at Les Invalides, the burial sight for some of France’s war heroes including a memorial to Antoine de Saint-Exupéry.
The Final Footprint
The Final Footprint – Gioachino Rossini, who, not having heard the news, came to Meyerbeer’s apartment the day after his death, intending to meet him, was shocked to hear the news and fainted. He was reportedly moved to write on the spot a choral tribute (Pleure, pleure, muse sublime!). A special train bore Meyerbeer’s body from the Gare du Nord to Berlin on 6 May, where he was entombed in the family vault at the 
