On this day in 1793 Archduchess of Austria, Queen of France and Navarre, Marie Antoinette was executed by guillotine at the Place de la Revolution in Paris at the age of 37. Born Maria Antonia Josepha Johanna on 2 November 1755 in Hofburg Palace in Vienna, Austria. Her father was Francis I, Holy Roman Emperor. At the age of 14 she was married to the grandson of King Louis XV, Louis-Auguste, Dauphin of France. At the king’s death in 1774, the dauphin became King Louis XVI. In my opinion, she did not say “Qu’ils mangent de la brioche” (“Let them eat cake”), as has been reported, in response to the wide spread famine in France. During the French Revolution, Louis was executed on 21 January 1793 and Marie was executed on this day in 1793. Her last words were reportedly an apology to the executioner for accidentally stepping on his foot.
The Final Footprint – Initially, Marie’s body, as well as Louis’, was thrown into an unmarked grave in Madeleine cemetery, rue d’Anjou. Their bodies were exhumed on 18 January 1815 and entombed in the necropolis of French kings in Saint Denis Basilique in Saint-Denis, France. There are funerary sculpture monuments inside the basilique of the former king and queen.
Marie Antoinette has become a part of popular culture and a significant historical figure, being the subject of several books, films and other forms of media. Some academics and scholars have deemed her frivolous and superficial, and have attributed the start of the French Revolution to her; however, others have claimed that she was treated unjustly and that views of her should be more sympathetic. Perhaps the most famous historical fiction which features Marie Antoinette is the Alexandre Dumas, père novel Le Chevalier de Maison-Rouge (The Knight of the Red House,) which centers on the Carnation Plot. It is actually the first of a series of six books written by Dumas with Marie Antoinette featured, called the “Marie Antoinette novels”, in which the queen is shown in a sympathetic light, particularly during the “Diamond Necklace Affair”. Some novels that have portrayed Marie Antoinette in more recent years include Carrolly Erickson‘s 2005 novel The Hidden Diary of Marie Antoinette, as well as Elena Maria Vidal‘s 1998 book Trianon. Perhaps the two best-known movie portrayals of Marie Antoinette have been in the 1938 film directed by W. S. Van Dyke, in which the Norma Shearer played the queen, and the 2006 film directed by Sofia Coppola and starring Kirsten Dunst. The Affair of the Necklace was a 2001 film in which Hilary Swank played Jeanne de Valois-Saint-Rémy and Joely Richardson played Marie Antoinette. Marie Antoinette features prominently in The Ghosts of Versailles, partially an operatic adaptation of Beaumarchais‘ La Mère coupable with score by John Corigliano and libretto by William M. Hoffman. In the film Amadeus she is mentioned twice by her brother, Emperor Joseph II as “Antoinette”, and her eventual downfall is foreshadowed when the emperor tells Mozart why he has banned the play Figaro. Marie Antoinette is referenced in the lyrics of the song ‘Killer Queen’ by the rock band Queen.
On this day in 1997, author and philanthropist James Michener died in Austin, Texas at the age of 90. Born James Albert Michener on February 3, 1907 in Doylestown, Bucks County, Pennsylvania. Michener wrote more than 40 books, most of which were fictional, lengthy family sagas covering the lives of many generations in particular geographic locales and incorporating solid history. He was known for his meticulous research behind the books.
Michener’s novels include Tales of the South Pacific for which he won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1948, Hawaii, The Drifters, Centennial, The Source, The Fires of Spring, Chesapeake, Caribbean, Caravans, Alaska, Texas, Space, and Poland. His non-fiction works include Iberia, about his travels in Spain and Portugal; his memoir titled The World Is My Home; and Sports in America. Return to Paradise combines fictional short stories with Michener’s factual descriptions of the Pacific areas where they take place.
His first book was adapted as the popular Broadway musical South Pacific by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein, and later as eponymous feature films in 1958 and 2001, adding to his financial success. He also wrote an analysis of the United States’ Electoral College system in a book which condemned it, entitled Presidential Lottery: The Reckless Gamble in Our Electoral System. It was published in 1969, and republished in 2014 and 2016.
Michener was married three times. In 1935, he married Patti Koon. In 1948, they divorced, and the same year Michener married his second wife, Vange Nord.
Michener met his third wife, Mari Yoriko Sabusawa, at a luncheon in Chicago. An American, she and her Japanese parents had suffered internment in western camps that the U.S. government set up during the early years of World War II to hold ethnic Japanese from West Coast/Pacific communities. Michener divorced Nord in 1955 and married Sabusawa the same year. Sabusawa died in 1994.
Michener became a major philanthropist, donating more than $100 million to educational, cultural, and writing institutions, including his alma mater, Swarthmore College, the Iowa Writers Workshop, and the James A. Michener Art Museum, and more than $37 million to University of Texas at Austin. By 1992, his gifts made him UT Austin’s largest single donor to that time. In the Micheners’ final years, he and his wife lived in Austin, Texas, and they endowed the Michener Center for Writers at the University of Texas at Austin. The Center provides three-year Michener Fellowships in fiction, poetry, playwriting and screenwriting to a small number of students.
The Final Footprint
Michener was cremated, and his ashes were placed next to those of his wife at Austin Memorial Park Cemetery in Austin, Texas.
#RIP #OTD in 2007 (The King and I, Black Narcissus, From Here to Eternity, The Arrangement, Tea and Sympathy, An Affair to Remember, Bonjour Tristesse, Separate Tables, The Innocents, The Night of the Iguana), Deborah Kerr died Botesdale, England, from Parkinson’s aged 86.
Alfold Cemetery, Alfold, England.
Have you planned yours yet?
Follow TFF on twitter @RIPTFF
On this day 1838 poet and novelist, better known by her initials L.E.L., Letitia Elizabeth Landon died from an overdose of prussic acid in Cape Coast Castle on the Gold Coast of West Africa (now Ghana), aged 36. Born on 14 August 1802 in Chelsea, London.
The Final Footprint – Landon was found dead, a bottle of prussic acid in her hand. This was a prescription labelled ‘Acid Hydrocianicum Delatum, Pharm. London 1836. Medium Dose Five Minims, being about one third the strength of that in former use, prepared by Scheele’s proof’. That she was poisoned thereby was an assumption. There is evidence that she showed symptoms of Stokes–Adams syndrome (for one, Mrs Elwood writes that she was subject to spasms, hysterical affections, and deep and instantaneous fainting fits) for which the dilute acid was the standard remedy and, as she told her husband it was so necessary for the preservation of her life, it would appear she had been told that her life was in danger. William Cobbald, the surgeon who attended, reported that ‘she was insensible with the pupils of both eyes much dilated’, an almost certain indication that a seizure had occurred. No autopsy was carried out (there being no qualified pathologist available) but from the eye-witness accounts it has been argued that Landon suffered a fatal convulsion. On the evening of her death she was buried in the courtyard of Cape Coast Castle.
On this day in 1917, exotic dancer and courtesan Mata Hari died by firing squad after being convicted of being a spy for Germany in World War I, Vincennes, Paris, at the age of 41. Born Margaretha Geertruida Zelle on 7 August 1876 in Leeuwarden, Netherlands.
On this day in 1964 composer and songwriter Cole Porter died of kidney failure in Santa Monica, California at the age of 73. Born Cole Albert Porter on 9 June 1891 in Peru, Indiana. In my opinion, one of the greatest contributors to the Great American Songbook. He wrote both the lyrics and the music for his songs. My favorite Porter songs are: “Let’s do it, let’s Fall in Love”, “I Get a Kick out of You”, “You’re the Top”, “Don’t Fence Me In”, “It’s De-Lovely”, “I’ve got You under My Skin”, “You’d be so Nice to Come Home To”, “Too Darn Hot”. Porter met Linda Lee Thomas on 30 January 1918 at a wedding at the Hotel Ritz Paris. They were married on 18 December 1919 in Paris. They were married until her death in 1954.
On this day in 1976 mafioso, boss of the Gambino crime family, Don Carlo, Capo di tutti capi (Boss of Bosses), The Godfather, Carlo Gambino died of a heart attack at his home (watching the New York Yankees) in Massapequa, New York at the age of 74. Born 24 August 1902 in Caccamo, Palermo, Sicily, Italy. In 1931, Charles “Lucky” Luciano created The Commission to avoid mafia warfare. The Five Families were formed at this time with Luciano head of the Luciano family, Joseph Bonnano head of the Bonnano family, Joseph Profaci head of the Profaci family, Gaetano Gagliano head of the Gagliano family and Vincent Mangano head of the Mangano family. In the Mangano family, Albert Anastasia served as underboss and Gambino served as caporegime. On 19 April 1951 Mangano’s brother was found murdered and Mangano vanished and was never found. Anastasia became boss of the Mangano family with Gambino as his underboss. Anastasia was murdered on 25 October 1957 and Gambino became head of the Mangano family which was then renamed the Gambino family. He would later become head of the Commission and thus the Boss of Bosses.

The Final Footprint – Flynn is interred in Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California. His grave is marked by a single flat bronze marker. Other notable Final Footprints at Forest Lawn Glendale include; L. Frank Baum, 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 1977, singer and actor Bing Crosby died of a heart attack at the age of 74 on a golf course in La Moraleja, Spain, near Madrid. Born Harry Lillis Crosby, Jr. on 3 May 1903 in Tacoma, Washington. Crosby’s trademark bass-baritone voice made him one of the best-selling recording artists of the 20th century. A multimedia star, from 1934 to 1954 in records, radio, and motion pictures. Yank magazine recognized Crosby as the person who had done the most for American G.I. morale during World War II. Along with Frank Sinatra, Crosby was one of the principal backers behind the famous United Western Recorders recording studio complex in Los Angeles. Crosby won an Academy Award for Best Actor for his role as Father Chuck O’Malley in the 1944 motion picture Going My Way, and was nominated for his reprise of the role in The Bells of St. Mary’s opposite Ingrid Bergman the next year, becoming the first of four actors to be nominated twice for playing the same character. Crosby starred with Bob Hope and actress Dorothy Lamour in seven Road to musical comedies between 1940 and 1962, cementing the two entertainers as an on-and-off duo. In 1963, Crosby received the first Grammy Global Achievement Award. Crosby is one of the 22 people to have three stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame (a star for motion pictures, radio, and audio recording). Crosby was married twice; singer Dixie Lee (1930 – 1952 her death) and Kathryn Grant (1957 – 1977 his death).
The Final Footprint – Reportedly his last words were “That was a great game of golf, fellas.” Crosby is interred at Holy Cross Cemetery, Culver City, California. Note the incorrect birth year on the marker. Other notable final footprints at Holy Cross include; John Candy, Jimmy Durante, John Ford, Rita Hayworth, Chick Hearn, Conrad Hilton, Jr., Mario Lanza, Bela Lugosi, Al Martino, Audrey Meadows, Ricardo Montalbán, Chris Penn, Jo Stafford, and Sharon Tate.
On this day in 1990, composer, conductor, author, music lecturer, and pianist Leonard Bernstein died from a heart attack at his apartment The Dakota in Manhattan at the age of 72. Born Louis Bernstein on August 25, 1918 in 
On this day in 2006, singer, musician Freddy Fender died from



On this day in 2009, United States Navy veteran, singer and actor Al Martino died at his childhood home in Springfield, Pennsylvania, six days after his 82nd birthday. Born Jasper Cini in Philadelphia on 7 October 1927. The name Jasper was an anglicisation of his father’s name, Gasparino. His parents were immigrants from Abruzzo, Italy. He had his greatest success as a singer between the early 1950s and mid-1970s, being described as “one of the great Italian American pop crooners”. He became well known as an actor, particularly for his role as singer Johnny Fontane in Francis Ford Coppola’s film versions of Mario Puzo’s The Godfather.
The Final Footprint – Holy Cross Cemetery in Culver City, California. Other notable final footprints at Holy Cross include; John Candy, Bing Crosby, Jimmy Durante, John Ford, Chick Hearn, Rita Hayworth, Mario Lanza, Bela Lugosi, Audrey Meadows, Ricardo Montalbán, Chris Penn, Jo Stafford, and Sharon Tate.
On this day in 1924, French poet, journalist, and novelist Anatole France died in Saint-Cyr-sur-Loire, France at the age of 80. Born François-Anatole Thibault on 16 April 1844 in Paris. He was a successful novelist, with several best-sellers. Ironic and skeptical, he was considered in his day the ideal French man of letters. France was a member of the Académie française, and won the Nobel Prize for Literaturein recognition of his literary achievements. He is also believed to be the model for narrator Marcel’s literary idol Bergotte in Marcel Proust’s In Search of Lost Time. In 1877, Anatole France married Valérie Guérin de Sauville (1877 – 1893 divorce). France’s relations with women were always turbulent, and in 1888 he began a relationship with Madame Arman de Caillavet, who conducted a celebrated literary salon of the Third Republic. The affair lasted until shortly before her death in 1910. After his divorce, he had many liaisons, notably with Mme. Gagey, who committed suicide in 1911. France married again, Emma Laprévotte in 1920.
The Final Footprint – France is buried in the Neuilly-sur-Seine community cemetery. The Neuilly-sur-Seine community cemeteries in the Hauts-de-Seine département of France are in the western suburbs of Paris, between Paris and La Défense. The first is called cimetière ancien (Old Cemetery) and is to be found in Neuilly; the second (New Cemetery) is to be found in Nanterre, near La Défense, but belongs to Neuilly. It is called cimetière nouveau.
On this day in 1940, The King of the Cowboys, actor Tom Mix died in a car accident near Florence, Arizona at the age of 60. Born Thomas Hezikiah Mix on January 6, 1880 in Mix Run Pennsylvania. The star of many early Western movies between 1909 and 1935, Mix appeared in 291 films, all but nine of which were silent movies. He was Hollywood’s first Western star and helped define the genre as it emerged in the early days of the cinema.
His funeral took place at the Little Church of the Flowers in Glendale, California, on October 16, 1940, and was attended by thousands of fans and Hollywood personalities. He was interred in the Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery Glendale. Other notable Final Footprints at Forest Lawn Glendale include; L. Frank Baum, Humphrey Bogart, Lon Chaney, Nat King Cole, Sam Cooke, Dorothy Dandridge, Sammy Davis, Jr., Walt Disney, Errol Flynn, Clark Gable, Jean Harlow, Michael Jackson, Carole Lombard, Casey Stengel, Jimmy Stewart, Elizabeth Taylor, and Spencer Tracy
On this day in 1997, singer/songwriter, actor, activist, poet John Denver died at the age of 53 when his experimental Rutan Long-EZ plane crashed into the Pacific Ocean near Pacific Grove, California, while making a series of touch-and-go landings at the nearby Monterey Peninsula Airport. Born Henry John Deutschendorf, Jr. on 31 December 1943 in Roswell, New Mexico. My all time favorite John Denver song is Wild Montana Skies. Oh, to be there now astride a fine, stout horse.
The Final Footprint – Upon announcement of Denver’s death, Colorado governor Roy Romer ordered all state flags to be lowered to half staff in his honor. Funeral services were held at Faith Presbyterian Church in Aurora, Colorado, on 17 October 1997, being officiated by Pastor Les Felker, a retired Air Force chaplain. Later, Denver’s ashes were scattered in the Rocky Mountains. Further tributes were made at the following Grammys and Country Music Association Awards. On 23 September 2007, nearly ten years after his death, his brother Ron witnessed the dedication of a plaque placed near the crash-site in Pacific Grove, California, commemorating the singer.
On this day in 1963, French poet, novelist, dramatist, designer, playwright, artist and filmmaker Jean Cocteau died of a heart attack at his chateau in Milly-la-Forêt, Essonne, France, at the age of 74. It is said that upon hearing of the death of his friend, the French singer Édith Piaf the previous day, Cocteau choked so badly that his heart failed. Born Jean Maurice Eugène Clément Cocteau on 5 July 1889 in Maisons-Laffitte, Yvelines, a village near Paris. Perhaps best known for his novel Les Enfants terribles (1929), and the films Blood of a Poet (1930), Les Parents terribles (1948), Beauty and the Beast (1946), and Orpheus (1949). His circle of associates, friends and lovers included Pablo Picasso, Jean Marais, Yul Brynner, Marlene Dietrich, and Coco Chanel. Marais was his muse and lover for over 25 years.
The Final Footprint – He is buried beneath the floor of the Chapelle Saint Blaise Des Simples in Milly-la-Forêt. The epitaph on his gravestone set in the floor of the chapel reads: “I stay with you” (“Je reste avec vous”).
On this day in 1991, stand-up comedian and actor, Redd Foxx died from a heart attack in Queen Of Angels Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center, Los Angeles at the age of 68. Born John Elroy Sanford on December 9, 1922 in St. Louis, Missouri. Perhaps best remembered for his explicit comedy records and his starring role on the 1970s sitcom Sanford and Son. Foxx gained notoriety with his raunchy nightclub acts during the 1950s and 1960s. Known as the “King of the Party Records”, he performed on more than 50 records in his lifetime. He also starred in Sanford, The Redd Foxx Show and The Royal Family. His film projects included All the Fine Young Cannibals (1960), Cotton Comes to Harlem (1970), Norman… Is That You?(1976) and Harlem Nights (1989).
The Final Footprint
On this day in 1963, French singer and cultural icon Édith Piaf died of liver cancer at age 47 at her villa in Plascassier (Grasse), on the French Riviera, the day before filmmaker and friend Jean Cocteau died. Born Édith Giovanna Gassion on 19 December 1915 in Belleville, Paris. Widely regarded as France’s national diva, as well as being one of France’s greatest international stars. Her singing reflected her life, with her specialty being ballads. Among her songs are “La Vie en rose” (1946), “Non, je ne regrette rien” (1960), “Hymne à l’amour” (1949), “Milord” (1959), “La Foule” (1957), “l’Accordéoniste” (1955), and “Padam… Padam…” (1951). Reportedly, the love of Piaf’s life, the married boxer Marcel Cerdan, died in a plane crash in October 1949, while flying from Paris to New York City to meet Piaf. Cerdan’s Air France flight, flown on a Lockheed Constellation, crashed in the Azores, killing everyone on board, including noted violinist Ginette Neveu. Piaf and Cerdan’s affair made international headlines, as Cerdan was the former middleweight world champion and a legend in France in his own right. Piaf married Jacques Pills (1952 – 1957 divorce) and Théo Sarapo (1962 – 1963 her death).
The Final Footprint – Apparently, her last words were “Every damn fool thing you do in this life, you pay for.” It is said that her body was driven back to Paris secretly so that fans would think she had died in her hometown. She is buried in Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris next to her daughter Marcelle, where her grave is among the most visited. Although she was denied a funeral mass by the Roman Catholic archbishop of Paris because of her lifestyle, her funeral procession drew tens of thousands of mourners onto the streets of Paris and the ceremony at the cemetery was attended by more than 100,000 fans. Charles Aznavour recalled that Piaf’s funeral procession was the only time since the end of World War II that he saw Parisian traffic come to a complete stop. In Paris, a two-room museum is dedicated to her, the Musée Édith Piaf (5, Rue Crespin du Gast). La Vie en Rose (2007), a film about her life directed by Olivier Dahan, debuted at the Berlin Film Festival in February 2007. Titled La Môme in France, the film stars Marion Cotillard in the role that won her the Academy Award for Best Actress (Oscar), as Piaf. David Bret’s 1988 biography, Piaf, A Passionate Life, was re-released by JR Books to coincide with the film’s release. Piaf’s song “Non, je ne regrette rien” appears recurringly throughout the film Inception (2010), and Hans Zimmer reworked pieces of the song into cues of the score. Inception featured Leonardo DiCaprio as Cobb and Cotillard as Mal. Other notable Final Footprints at Père Lachaise include; Guillaume Apollinaire, Honoré de Balzac, Georges Bizet, Jean-Dominique Bauby, Maria Callas, Frédéric Chopin, Colette, Auguste Comte, Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, Max Ernst, Molière, Jim Morrison, Camille Pissarro, Marcel Proust, Sully Prudhomme, Gioachino Rossini, Georges-Pierre Seurat, Simone Signoret, Gertrude Stein, Dorothea Tanning, Alice B. Toklas, Oscar Wilde, and Richard Wright.
On this day in 1985, Oscar winning actor Yul Brynner died in New York City at the age of 65 from lung cancer. Born Yuliy Borisovich Bryner on 11 July 1920 in Vladivostok, Russia. Perhaps best known for his portrayal of the King of Siam in the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical The King and I, for which he won two Tony Awards and an Academy Award for the film version; he played the role 4,625 times on stage. He is also remembered as Rameses II in the 1956 Cecil B. DeMille blockbuster The Ten Commandments, General Bounine in the 1956 film Anastasia and Chris Adams in The Magnificent Seven. Brynner was noted for his distinctive voice and for his shaved head, which he maintained as a personal trademark long after adopting it in 1951 for his role in The King and I. Of course, my favorite movie he starred in is The Magnificent Seven (1960).
The Final Footprint – Brynner is buried on the grounds of the Saint-Michel-de-Bois-Aubry Russian Orthodox monastery, not far from Luze, between Tours and Poitiers, Vienne, France.
On this day in 1985, actor, director, writer, and producer, Orson Welles died from a heart attack at his home in Hollywood at the age of 70. Born George Orson Welles on May 6, 1915 in Welles worked in theatre, radio, and film. He is remembered for his innovative work in all three: in theatre, most notably Caesar (1937), a Broadway adaptation of William Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar; in radio, the legendary 1938 broadcast “The War of the Worlds”; and in film, Citizen Kane (1941), consistently ranked as one of the greatest films ever made.
On this day in 2004, actor Christopher Reeved died from sepsis, a complication of paralysis, in
On this day in 2010,
The Final Footprint
On this day in 1911, distiller and the founder of Jack Daniel’s Tennessee whiskey distillery, Jack Daniel died from blood poisoning in Lynchburg, Tennessee at the age of 62. The infection allegedly set up originally in a toe, which Daniel injured in kicking his safe in anger when he could not get it open early one morning at work (he apparently had trouble remembering the combination). This incident was the subject of a marketing poster used on the London Underground in January 2006, with the line “Moral: Never go to work early.” A common joke that is told during the tour of the distillery is that all Jack had to do to cure his infection was to dip his toe in a glass of his own whiskey to clean it. Born Jasper Newton Daniel on 5 September 1850 in Lynchburg. Daniel never married. Prior to his death he gave the distillery to his nephew and bookkeeper, Lem Motlow.
The Final Footprint – Daniel is interred in the Lynchburg City Cemetery. Jack Daniel’s is a brand of sour mash Tennessee whiskey that is one of the highest selling American whiskeys in the world. It is known for its square bottles and black label. It is produced in Lynchburg, by the Jack Daniel Distillery, which has been owned by the Brown-Forman Corporation since 1956. Despite being the location of a major operational distillery, Jack Daniel’s home county of Moore is a dry county, so the product is not available for consumption at stores or restaurants within the county. Although the product generally meets the regulatory criteria for classification as a straight bourbon, the company disavows this classification and markets it simply as Tennessee whiskey rather than as Tennessee bourbon. Frank Sinatra was widely known as a Jack Daniel’s drinker. He was famously buried with a bottle of Jack Daniel’s Old Number 7 in 1998. A line from Dean Martin‘s song I Love Vegas states “I love Vegas, like Sinatra loves Jack Daniels.” The George Jones‘ song “A whole lotta trouble for you” mentions “Jack Daniel’s makes a good whiskey”. The George Thorogood song “I Drink Alone” mentions “So I called up my pal Jack Daniel’s and his partner Jimmy Beam”. In the movie Animal House, the character John “Bluto” Blutarsky can be seen chugging an entire bottle of Old No. 7. In the movie Scent of a Woman, Al Pacino‘s character refers to filling a hotel room with John Daniels. “When you’ve known him as long as I have…” In the movie National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, Clark asks his father how he got through the holidays, and he replies “I had a lot of help from Jack Daniel’s”. In the film The Shining, Jack Torrance, played by Jack Nicholson, is seen drinking Jack Daniel’s in the hotel bar, served by the ghostly bartender Lloyd. The French singer Orelsan in “Ils sont cools” includes the line “Passe la tise que je me Jack Danise” (which can be translated as “Give me the alcohol so I can be Jack Danieled”). The cover of the book The Dirt: Confessions of the World’s Most Notorious Rock Band, an autobiography collectively written by the members of the rock band Mötley Crüe, includes a bottle design based on that of Jack Daniel’s whiskey. Hank Williams Jr. mentions Jack Daniels in his song “Dixie On My Mind” singing “The people here don’t sip Jack Daniel’s whiskey, the way they do in that Tennessee mountain land.” The 1979 David Allen Coe song “Jack Daniels if you please” contains the line “Jack Daniels if you please, knock me to my knees”. The Drive-By Truckers song “Dead, Drunk, And Naked” has the lyric “Me and old Jack Daniel’s, become the best of friends. We got all them Baptists to die for our sins. I know the lord is coming. The South will rise again!” The Liane Edwards Band, popular country band from France, directly refers to the brand name in their song “Jack”, ( My Best Friend’s Name is) “Jack” . ” He was born down in Lynchburg… My best friend’s name is Jack, he may be your best friend too, when you drain him to his last drop, I’ll be glad to share my friend with you…” The Charlie Daniels Band album Way Down Yonder depicts bottles of Jack Daniel’s on its cover art. The character Barnes in Oliver Stone‘s 1986 film Platoon is drinking from a Jack Daniel’s bottle when he drunkenly berates Taylor and his group.
On his day in 1967, Marxist revolutionary, physician, author, guerrilla leader, diplomat and military theorist Che Guevara was executed by gunfire in 
On this day in 1978 singer and actor Jacques Brel died of a pulmonary embolism at hospital Avicenne in Bobigny near Paris at the age of 49. Born Jacques Romain Georges Brel on 8 April 1929 in Schaerbeek, Brussels, Belgium. He composed and performed literate, thoughtful, and theatrical songs that generated a large, devoted following—initially in Belgium and France, later throughout the world. He is considered a master of the modern chanson.
he Final Footprint
On this day in 1995, University of Texas Ex, political activist, historian, professor, rancher, cowboy J. Evetts Haley died in Midland, Texas at the age of 94. Born James Evetts Haley on 5 July, 1901 in Belton, Texas.
And on this day in 2014, actress and comedienne Jan Hooks died from throat cancer at her home in Woodstock, New York, at the age of 57. Born Janet Vivian Hooks on April 23, 1957 in Decatur, Georgia. Perhaps best known for her work on Saturday Night Live, where she was a repertory player from 1986 to 1991, and continued making cameo appearances until 1994. Her subsequent work included a regular role on the final two seasons of Designing Women, a recurring role on 3rd Rock from the Sun and a number of other roles in film and television including on Tina Fey’s NBC show 30 Rock and The Simpsons.
The Final Footprint
The Final Footprint– Hackett is entombed in the Sanctuary of Faith corridor in the Abbey of the Psalms mausoleum at Hollywood Forever Cemetery in Hollywood, California. Along with her name and birth and death years, her bronze crypt plate reads:
And on this day in 2015, chef Paul Prudhomme died in New Orleans at the age of 75. Born on July 13, 1940 in Opelousas, Louisiana. His specialties were Creole and Cajun cuisines, which he was also credited with popularizing. He was the chef proprietor of K-Paul’s Louisiana Kitchen in New Orleans, and had formerly owned and run several other restaurants. He developed several culinary products, including hot sauce and seasoning mixes, and wrote 11 cookbooks.
The Final Footprint

There is an upright engraved granite monument marking his original grave. The inscription reads in part; “Quoth the Raven, Nevermore”. His current burial space is marked by a large upright marble monument. Poe and his works influenced literature in the United States and around the world, as well as in specialized fields, such as cosmology and cryptography. Poe and his work appear throughout popular culture in literature, music, films, and television. A number of his homes are dedicated museums today. The Mystery Writers of America present an annual award known as the Edgar Award for distinguished work in the mystery genre. Every year on the anniversary of his birth from about 1949 until 2009, “The Poe Toaster” would appear at his grave and drink a cognac toast and leave three roses.