DEATHS ; Notable Passings; The Thread to Pay Last Respects

[Femme Fatale]

Did anyone read that sad story about the girl who died from Lou Gehrig's disease? I saw it in the news while opening up my webmail today. Sabrina Parker; an otherwise normal kid who passed away a couple weeks ago. Utterly depressing. Don't know why that story got to me so much. Hope this deserves a spot here, though, even though she wasn't famous.
God bless,

I saw that article as well. I am not one to get upset easily but I found myself in tears by the end of that article. Sabrina and her boyfriend's story was so bittersweet;truly gone too soon.

 

[Tomasso]

A tough, hard-boiled player, Cavaretta was a fixture at first base for the Chicago Cubs from 1934 to 1953

And he was born and raised in the shadow of Wrigley Field. In his first appearance at Wrigley, as an eighteen year old rookie, he hits the game winning home run in 1-0 victory over the Reds. Boy, he must have flyin' sky high that day. So long, Phil.

 

[DanielJones]

Veteran character actor Steve Landesberg gone at 65

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Steve Landesberg may have been best known for his role as the intellectual and sometimes annoying Detective Sgt. Arthur Dietrich on the long-running 1970s cop comedy "Barney Miller."

But younger audiences knew him too — for a slew of recent parts such as the doctor on the 2008 hit movie "Forgetting Sarah Marshall."

http://tv.msn.com/tv/article.aspx?news=618830&GT1=28103

Rather sad lately with all the passings. Especially that young girl recently. Way to young, a life not even started yet but full of a lifetime of love.
May they all rest peacefully and suffer no more.

Cheers.

Dan

 

[Tomasso]

I remember and liked him in Barney Miller but that was the last I ever saw of him. I figured he'd retired from show biz. Totally surprised that he'd been active and I'd missed him. So long, Det. Dietrich......

 

[Mario]

Don Van Vliet aka Captain Beefheart R.I.P.

Perhaps not quite to everyone's musical taste but he still looked good in a fedora.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2010/dec/18/captain-beefheart-died-provocative-unpredictable

I'm very sad that Don passed away. You're right that his music wasn't for everyone. I loved it. He was one of the most original musicians I ever came to hear. I loved his funny, witty lyrics just as I loved his music. A true original. And even though he's been long gone as a performing musican he'll still be dearly missed.

Oh, and lest I forget: he was one of the inspirations for Tom Waits'...

 

[Tomasso]

[video=youtube;nQs8dka52H4]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nQs8dka52H4[/video]

 

[LizzieMaine]

One of radio's most recognizable voices, announcer Fred Foy, has passed away at the age of 89. A longtime staff announcer with the ABC network, Foy is best known for his 1948-54 run as the narrator of "The Lone Ranger." His reading of the Ranger's opening epigraph -- "A fiery horse with the speed of light..." -- was so memorable that most radio enthusiasts don't realize how short his tenure with the program actually was, or that he was the last in a fairly long line of announcers to fill the role. Much later in his career, he would serve as announcer/straight man on the late-night Dick Cavett show, where he would occasionally work in bits of his Ranger intro, much to Cavett's delight. More recently he was a regular on the old-time-radio convention circuit, and frequently lent his voice to staged recreations of vintage programs.

 

[Widebrim]

^^He made that opening epigraph his own...

 

[gpsoldhat]

Former Chicago Cub Ron Santo passed about 2 weeks ago. Played for them in the 60s and 70s.

 

[Story]

RIP : Melvin Biddle, MoH

Melvin E. 'Bud' Biddle

Medal of Honor recipient

Melvin E. "Bud" Biddle, 87, a World War II infantryman who received the Medal of Honor for his actions during the Battle of the Bulge in December 1944, died Dec. 16 at Saint John's Medical Center in Anderson, Ind., where he lived. The cause was not given.

On Dec. 23, 1944, Pfc. Biddle was acting as the lead scout for his unit during an Allied attack in frigid conditions that liberated the town of Hotton, Belgium, from the Germans.

On his approach through a dense forest, he encountered three German snipers and quickly shot and killed all three. He continued his advance and lobbed hand grenades into several machine gun nests, killing the soldiers manning them.

Biddle's Medal of Honor citation described his "conspicuous gallantry … intrepid courage and superb daring" during the 20-hour siege of the town, which ended when the enemy fled as the U.S. Army closed in.

A native of Daleville, Ind., Biddle was drafted into the Army at age 19.

When he received the nation's highest military award on Oct. 12, 1945, President Truman reportedly told him: "People don't believe me when I tell them I'd rather have one of these than be president."

Friends said Biddle was a humble man who rarely talked about his wartime experiences.

He had been married to his wife, Leona, for 64 years.

http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-me-passings-20101223,0,2712315.story


Proof of what one determined soldier with an M1 can do.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/12/21/AR2010122105119.html

As recounted in the 2003 book "Medal of Honor: Portraits of Valor Beyond the Call of Duty" by Peter Collier, Mr. Biddle was advancing toward an open field when he saw 13 enemy soldiers. Mr. Biddle emptied two clips from his M-1 rifle at the Germans. He killed them all.

 

[Widebrim]

Fred Hargesheimer, a WWII USAAC, P-38 pilot "whose rescue by Pacific islanders led to a life of giving back as a builder of schools and teacher of children..."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101223/ap_on_re_us/us_obit_hargesheimer

 

[Widebrim]

Melvin E. 'Bud' Biddle
Medal of Honor recipient

A man whose hand you would be honored to shake...

 

[CharlieB]

A man whose hand you would be honored to shake...

Well said, Widebrim.

 

[Tomasso]

Bud is gone

http://www.charlierose.com/view/interview/6096



We spent many an evening at the Old Town......

 

[Story]

CHICAGO – A Michigan factory worker used as the unwitting model for the wartime Rosie the Riveter poster whose inspirational "We Can Do It!" message became an icon of the feminist movement has died.

Geraldine Doyle died Sunday, a spokesman for the Hospice House of Mid Michigan told AFP. She was 86.

Doyle didn't realize she had a famous face until she was flipping through a magazine in 1982 and spotted a reproduction of the poster, her daughter told The New York Times.

But while Doyle recognized her face under the red bandana, the strong arm held up in a fist wasn't hers.

"She didn't have big, muscular arms," Mrs. Gregg said. "She was 5-foot-10 and very slender. She was a glamour girl. The arched eyebrows, the beautiful lips, the shape of the face -- that's her."

Doyle was just 17 when she took at job at a metal pressing plant near Ann Arbor, Michigan in 1942.


http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20101230/ts_alt_afp/ushistorywwiifeminism

 

[Doctor Strange]

Dr. Billy Taylor

Masterful jazz pianist and educator...

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/30/arts/music/30taylor.html

 

[skyvue]

The lovely and talented Hideko Takamine has passed at the age of 86. She worked with such renown directors as Kurosawa and Ozu, but she is best remembered for the work she did with another of my favorite directors, Mikio Naruse.

I'm saddened by her passing. I had always intended to send her a fan letter (though a response would not likely have been forthcomng), and I regret not having done so.

If you're not familiar with her work, some of it is available on DVD. Criterion has two of her pictures in their catalog -- WHEN A WOMAN ASCENDS THE STAIR (directed by the aforementioned Naruse) and TWENTY-FOUR EYES, directed by Keisuke Kinoshita.

Also, TCM is showing a Ozu silent, TOKYO CHORUS, tonight at midnight eastern, which features a then-seven-year-old Takamine.

The Brits in the room will have access to more of her work, as more of Naruse's films have been released on DVD in England than here in the States.

http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118029575?refCatId=19

 

[Miss Golightly]

Pete Postlethwaite - RIP:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-12106753

 

[BinkieBaumont]

Much too young


[video=youtube;lKx3MUqzCcQ]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lKx3MUqzCcQ[/video]

 

[Mario]

That's very sad. What a great actor he was! I love him for those quiet, restrained characters he played in British films like Brassed Off or In The Name Of The Father. He'll be sorely missed.