Notable Passings

[Connery]

This thread is to note those who have recently passed and have had an influenced society or just influenced your view toward the world. It could be an entertainer, scholar, statesman, politician or anyone you feel has added to your journey on this planet.

I will start...

Ozzie Sweet, Who Helped Define New Era of Photography, Dies at 94

"At the end of World War II, Ozzie Sweet’s picture of a friend posed as a German soldier surrendering appeared on the cover of Newsweek — “the magazine of news significance,” as it billed itself then. Not a stratagem that would pass muster in contemporary journalism, but Mr. Sweet, who had apprenticed to the Mount Rushmore sculptor Gutzon Borglum, appeared in a Cecil B. DeMille film and helped create promotional ads for the United States Army, found the art in photography to be in creating an image, not capturing one.

Mr. Sweet, who was 94 when he died Wednesday at his home in York Harbor, Me., took photographs that appeared on an estimated 1,800 magazine covers. He shot, it seemed, for everyone, from top-flight general-interest publications like Look and Collier’s, to men’s magazines like Argosy, to women’s books like Family Circle, to myriad hunting and fishing publications (for which his deer and ducks were sometimes borrowed from a taxidermist), to photography magazines, recreation magazines (he shot a lot of young women on ski slopes and in bikinis on beaches) and health magazines.

Much of his best-known work was portraiture. For Newsweek, he produced images of Albert Einstein in his office, smiling at a joke about his shoes; Ingrid Bergman in a suit of armor, her costume for a Broadway play; and Bob Feller simulating his windup. He photographed Dwight D. Eisenhower as the president of Columbia University, Jimmy Durante with a butterfly perched on his famous schnozz (it was glued there), Jack Nicklaus in fake follow-through for Golf. He photographed Ernest Hemingway’s house in Key West, Fla., full of cats, for Cat Fancy.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/24/s...otography-dies-at-94.html?ref=obituaries&_r=0

Ozzie Sweet, right, directs Jackie Robinson during a shoot for the October 1951 cover of Sport magazine.


Please note this thread is not for debate. It is solely to post and appreciate those who have touched or enriched our lives, individually or as a society.

 

[Connery]

C. Everett Koop, ex-surgeon general

"C. Everett Koop, who raised the profile of the surgeon general by riveting America's attention on the then-emerging disease known as AIDS and by railing against smoking, has died in New Hampshire at age 96.

An assistant at Koop's Dartmouth institute, Susan Wills, said he died Monday in Hanover, where he had a home. She didn't disclose his cause of death. Koop wielded the previously low-profile post of surgeon general as a bully pulpit for seven years during the Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush administrations."

C. Everett Koop, ex-surgeon general, dies at 96 - latimes.com

 

[Connery]

Kevin Ayers, a Psychedelic Rocker

Kevin Ayers, a wayward, witty British rocker who helped shape early psychedelia and was admired throughout his hard-lived life as a musician’s musician with little appetite for stardom, died on Monday at his home in the town of Montolieu, in the South of France. He was 68.

Authorities on British rock regarded Soft Machine and Mr. Ayers as crucial influences on the avant-garde music that developed in the late 1960s, including the psychedelia of Jimi Hendrix (who gave Mr. Ayers a guitar) and Pink Floyd. Mr. Ayers recorded at least one session with Pink Floyd’s early leader, Syd Barrett.

Soft Machine toured the United States as an opening act for Hendrix in 1968, but Mr. Ayers left the band soon afterward to live on an island off the coast of Spain.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/22/arts/music/kevin-ayers-rocker-in-soft-machine-dies-at-68.html?_r=0


Love Makes Sweet Music - Soft Machine

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VpE8dkUHuz4]Love Makes Sweet Music - Soft Machine - YouTube[/ame]

 

[Book of Jeremiah]

This wasn't a recent death but she is noteworthy.

A good friend of mine did a brilliant study on Queen Salome Alexandra. She sent me this today. Very well written and quite an appropriate subject per your inquiry. - Jeremiah

So. The one person who has contributed to western civilization and the perpetuation of Judaism and therefore ensuring the initiation of Christianity, and as a result, its spred among the literate, is hardly ever mentioned in any historic volume. A good reason being that SHE! is a woman.

Her name is Salome Alexandra, of the royal house of the Hashmonaim, who established the kingdom of the Maccabees following their defeat of the Greeks; she was the last reigning monarch, and only female monarch in Israelite history, of an independent Israel until 1948, and one of the most outstanding Jewish women in our history, and possibly the most outstanding woman of any society in history in general considering her early appearance upon the stage of history.

You can look her up if you like, but briefly I will give you a bit of information that no one knows, primarily because SHE is almost totally unknown as an historical figure at all, simply because she was female, and as we know, history is generally written by, for and about men, not women.

Queen Salome Alexandra of the Hashmonean, or Queen Salome Alexandra of Jerusalem, was the only reigning Queen of Israel, and of the line and House of Hasmoneans, (the Maccabbees who defeated the Greeks and drove them from the Land of Israel), and she reigned from 75 B.C.E. until her death in 67 B.C.E.

She was, as you may imagine, a brilliant woman and deeply concerned with the perpetuation of Judaism as the tiny Kingdom of Israel was surrounded by somewhat less than friendly neighbors. So (in modern teminology) she "analyzed" the nature of Judaism and came to the conclusion that Judaism is NOT merely a national or "genetic" theology, it is, and must be, a learned one. Therefore, the only way it can survive and perpetuate itself for future generaitons is if the populace as a whole were educated.

Following this conclusion, Queen Salome Alexandra commanded, for the first time in history, the establishment and institutinalizing of a program of universal, compulsory, and state funded, educational system for all children in Israel including both sexes. This at the time was an extremely radical idea as it was put in place at a time when females had a of value of possibly less than a donkey, were theoretically subordinate to the males, had little or no actual property rights (and in fact were generally themselves considered to be property of the males in the fanily) so the idea of a literate female population was shocking and totally unheard of.

The idea that all young girls and women MUST be educated, based upon Queen Salome's belief that the first and most important person a child will come into contact with in his or her life is, of course, the mother. Therefore, if you have an ignorant or superstitious mother the child will probably be reared to also be both ignorant and superstitous. Therefore to remedy that, female education was, in her opinion, at least as important if not moreso, than education of men. As the child learns first from the mother, mothers must be capable of teaching their children the basics of Judaism, and that being the case, in order to do so, the mothers themselves must have knowledge. Therefore universal compulsory and state funded education of the entire populace, including the female members of that populace, must be educated and it is the function of the state to see to it that they are.

Based upon this command, Jewish children of both sexes became literate and therefore capable of passing their knowledge on to subsequent generations ensuring the continuation of the Jewish culture and religion.

As proof that the child has been properly taught and is able to read and write the basics, and understand and appreciate the Torah and its importance to subsequent generations thereafter, at the end of a child's 12th year, i.e., at the age of 13 (usually for boys) the child must stand before the congregation and read the Torah. That was deemed the best way to prove that the parents have done their duty and the child, usually eventually the boys, have enough knowledge to render the continuation of the religion as being secured. Girls were tested as well, although not on the grand scale as boys but they also had to prove that they were literate. For girls that was usually at the age of 12 when most girls reached puberty and became marriagable.

Eventually this came to be known as the custom of a Bar Mitzvah for a boy at the age of 13 and a girl usually at a year younger, at the age of puberty.

So, now if you know the story of Jesus and his family going to Jerusalem to the Temple when Jesus had "completed his 12th year", which means he was now 13 years of age, it wasn't an accident, they went there because it was his Bar Mitzvah, and he was discussing the Torah with the wise men (or sages) because that's what he was SUPPOSED TO DO! He was proving to them that he had been properly educated and was aware of the teachings of the Torah.

Granted Jesus might have been a very bright and precocious child but the journey to Jerusalem with his parents was not merely a family outing, it was for his Bar Mitvzah according to Jewish law which continues to this day. PURSUANT TO THE COMMAND OF QUEEN SALOME ALEXANDRA OF JERUSALEM. LAST REIGNING QUEEN OF ISRAEL.

As a result, all Jewish children, both male and female, have been educated ever since, eventually boys because of societies surrounding them, Jewish boys being educated was considered more preferable than to educate girls, but girls were educated as well, regardless of social status within the community whether peasant, noble or royal. It is because of this that Judiasm has endured throughout the centuries. It is also because of this that Jews have maintained scholarly reputations throughout history whereas others have viewed scholarship to be not nearly as valuable as militaristic endeavors and swordplay. Because of Queen Salome Alexandra, the mind became the most important tool to be cherished, not the sword.

It is also why Jews who number only 15 million at this time in history, after centuries of enduring unbelievable and violent discrimination, have still managed to have been awarded close to 170 Nobel Prizes since the institution of that prize over a century ago, while the Islamic world which considers women as property, and nowhere near the value of a man, and violence to achieve growth and perpetuation of the flock, has, in the past 100+ years, has managed to eke out 3 Nobel Prizes in total!

THIS is the result of the genius and greatness of Queen Salome Alexandra, Queen of Jerusalem, and last reigning Queen of an Independent Israel. And my favorite person in all of world history.

Without a doubt, Queen Salome Alexandra, although nearly totally unknowned and certainly unsung, has influenced the flow of history more than any other single person. She is perhaps the most important single person in history whose command has influenced the world over the past two millenium. In fact it took the rest of the world 2,000 years to come up with the concept of universal compulsory and state sponsored education, something which has been a mainstay of Judaism because the action of one lone WOMAN!

This lady was decidedly ahead of her time! The rest of the world is now slowly catching up.

* NOTE * As you can see by the details my friend is quite a historian! A brilliant writer as well. She did a remarkable job with this one.

 

[Connery]

Van Cliburn, Cold War Musical Envoy (July 12, 1934 – February 27, 2013)

"Van Cliburn, the American pianist whose first-place award at the 1958 International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow made him an overnight sensation and propelled him to a phenomenally successful and lucrative career, though a short-lived one, died at his home in Fort Worth.

Mr. Cliburn was a tall, lanky 23-year-old, hailing from Texas, when he clinched the gold medal in the inaugural year of the Tchaikovsky competition. The feat, in Moscow, was viewed as an American triumph over the Soviet Union at the height of the cold war. He became a cultural celebrity of pop-star dimensions and brought overdue attention to the musical assets of his native land.

When Mr. Cliburn returned to New York he received a ticker-tape parade in Lower Manhattan, the first musician to be so honored, cheered by 100,000 people lining Broadway. In a ceremony at City Hall, Mayor Robert F. Wagner proclaimed that “with his two hands, Van Cliburn struck a chord which has resounded around the world, raising our prestige with artists and music lovers everywhere.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/28/arts/music/van-cliburn-pianist-dies-at-78.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

Van Cliburn wins first Tchaikovsky Competition

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zPRNx9GaplY]Van Cliburn wins first Tchaikovsky Competition - YouTube[/ame]

Van CLIBURN plays RACHMANINOV 3d Concerto VIDEO Moscow 1958 (5-5)

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lV9bmcE7d5Y]Van CLIBURN plays RACHMANINOV 3d Concerto VIDEO Moscow 1958 (5-5) - YouTube[/ame]

 

[Connery]

Dale Robertson, a Horse-Savvy Actor in Westerns(July 14, 1923 – February 27, 2013)

"Dale Robertson, who parlayed his Oklahoma drawl and a way with horses into a long career as a popular, strong-minded star of westerns on television and in the movies, died in San Diego. He was 89.

Mr. Robertson was a skilled rider at 10 and training polo ponies by the time he was a teenager. He often said that the only reason he acted professionally was to save money to start his own horse farm in Oklahoma, which he eventually did.

In between, he appeared in more than 60 films and 430 television episodes. In the movies he was a ruggedly handsome counterpart to leading ladies like Betty Grable, Mitzi Gaynor and Jeanne Crain. On television he had starring roles in popular westerns like “Tales of Wells Fargo,” which appeared from 1957 to 1961; “Iron Horse,” from 1966 to 1968; and “Death Valley Days,” which he hosted from 1968 to 1972.

In 1981 he played an oil wildcatter in early episodes of “Dynasty.” The next year he had a recurring role in another glitzy nighttime soap opera, “Dallas...”
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/28/arts/television/dale-robertson-actor-dies-at-89.html

 

[Connery]

Magic Slim, Chicago Bluesman

"Magic Slim, the singer and guitarist who was a staple of the Chicago blues scene, died on Thursday in Philadelphia at the age of 75.

He was born Morris Holt in Torrance, Miss., and given his stage name by his mentor, the Chicago-based guitarist Samuel "Magic Sam" Maghett. Holt began recording as Magic Slim in 1966. With his band, the Teardrops, he was known for his raw vocals and biting guitar playing.

Over the course of his career, Slim won six Blues Music Awards for Blues Band of the Year. He released his last record, Bad Boy, in 2012."
Magic Slim, Chicago Bluesman, Dies At 75 : The Record : NPR

Magic Slim & the Teardrops - I'm a Bluesman

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0dBrFpQ44-o&feature=player_embedded]Magic Slim & the Teardrops - I'm a Bluesman - - YouTube[/ame]

 

[Gracie]

Bumping because it's a cool thread.

 

[Connery]

Bonnie Franklin, Steadfast Mom on ‘One Day at a Time (January 6, 1944 – March 1, 2013)

"Bonnie Franklin, whose portrayal of a pert but determined Ann Romano on the television show “One Day at a Time” in the 1970s and ’80s spun laughter out of the tribulations of a divorced woman juggling parenting, career, love life and feminist convictions, died at her home in Los Angeles. She was 69.

Ms. Franklin also acted on the stage and in movies and for years sang and danced in a nightclub act. But she was most widely known in the role of Ann Romano, one of the first independent women to be portrayed on TV wrestling with issues like sexual harassment, rape and menopause. Ms. Franklin — green-eyed, red-haired, button-nosed and 5-foot-3 — brought a buoyant comic touch to the part.

Some saw the show as helping feminism enter the mainstream.

“I know it’s just a television show, and I don’t think that I am changing the way the world is structured,” Ms. Franklin told The Washington Post in 1980, but she allowed that “sometimes we strike chords that do make people think a bit.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/02/arts/television/bonnie-franklin-actress-dies-at-69.html?_r=0

 

[Trajan]

Van Cliburn, Cold War Musical Envoy (July 12, 1934 – February 27, 2013)

"Van Cliburn, the American pianist whose first-place award at the 1958 International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow made him an overnight sensation and propelled him to a phenomenally successful and lucrative career, though a short-lived one, died at his home in Fort Worth.

Mr. Cliburn was a tall, lanky 23-year-old, hailing from Texas, when he clinched the gold medal in the inaugural year of the Tchaikovsky competition. The feat, in Moscow, was viewed as an American triumph over the Soviet Union at the height of the cold war. He became a cultural celebrity of pop-star dimensions and brought overdue attention to the musical assets of his native land.

When Mr. Cliburn returned to New York he received a ticker-tape parade in Lower Manhattan, the first musician to be so honored, cheered by 100,000 people lining Broadway. In a ceremony at City Hall, Mayor Robert F. Wagner proclaimed that “with his two hands, Van Cliburn struck a chord which has resounded around the world, raising our prestige with artists and music lovers everywhere.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/28/arts/music/van-cliburn-pianist-dies-at-78.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

Van Cliburn wins first Tchaikovsky Competition

Van Cliburn wins first Tchaikovsky Competition - YouTube

Van CLIBURN plays RACHMANINOV 3d Concerto VIDEO Moscow 1958 (5-5)

Van CLIBURN plays RACHMANINOV 3d Concerto VIDEO Moscow 1958 (5-5) - YouTube

holy hell how could I have missed this? thx,hes on my ipad, 3rd Rach, not for the faint of heart.......hes da man.......... RIP.

 

[Trajan]

if I can dip my oar in...


Last Andrews Sister, Patty, dies at 94
Wed January 30, 2013


Los Angeles (CNN) -- Patty Andrews, the last surviving member of the Andrews Sisters, died at her Northridge, California, home Wednesday, her publicist Alan Eichler said. She was 94.

The Andrews Sisters began singing on Minnesota radio stations in the 1920s, but after several years on the Vaudeville circuit they began a recording career that made them one of the most successful female groups ever.

The sisters performed with "Patty always singing the lead, Maxene the high harmony and LaVerne the low harmony, inventing a unique blend that came from their hearts, since none of the girls could read music," according to the official biography released by Eichler.

One of their biggest hits was "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy," which became a World War II anthem. The Recording Industry of America Association and the National Endowment for the Arts placed it as the sixth on its "Songs of the Century" list in 2001.

Other major songs included "Bei Mir Bist Du Schon," "Don't Fence Me In," "Apple Blossom Time," "Rum and Coca Cola," and "I Can Dream, Can't I?"

Last Andrews Sister, Patty, dies at 94 - CNN.com

captured an era...RIP.

 

[Connery]

"Stanley Snadowsky, a founder of the Bottom Line, a landmark Greenwich Village nightclub that for 30 years presented artists like Bruce Springsteen, Miles Davis and Billy Joel in a setting often described as one of New York City’s great living rooms, died on Monday in Las Vegas. He was 70.

The opening-night concert became legendary, drawing a star-studded audience that included Mick Jagger, Carly Simon and Stevie Wonder, who took to the stage for a jam session with the night’s featured headliner, the New Orleans R&B artist Dr. John.

They were forced to close in 2004 after reaching an impasse in negotiating a new lease with their landlord, New York University. Until then, a cavalcade of folk, jazz, rock and roll, and country performers had crossed the club’s stage, among them Dolly Parton, Tito Puente, Joan Baez, Dizzy Gillespie, Lou Reed, Harry Chapin, the Roches, the Ramones, Prince, the Cars, the Police, Joan Armatrading, Janis Ian and Suzanne Vega."
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/03/n...nightclub-dies-at-70.html?ref=obituaries&_r=0

Mick Jagger, Jerry hall. Bottom Line club after Elvis Costello concert

 

[Mr. H.]

Individual's lives are entire worlds unto themselves. This is why I like people. They are my windows to other worlds.

 

[Connery]

Roy Brown Jr., Edsel Designer

"Roy Brown Jr., a car designer for Ford Motor whose signature creation, the supposedly futuristic but ultimately ill-fated Edsel, became a synonym for bold, bad ideas not long after it was introduced in 1957, died in Michigan. He was 96.

Even as the Edsel, his most notable work, fell far short of sales goals, lost hundreds of millions of dollars, became an enduring punch line and prompted an overseas transfer for its designer, Mr. Brown remained satisfied with it. “I’m proud of the car,” he told The Sun-Sentinel of Florida in 1985. “There is not a bad line on the car.”

“The Edsel will be radically different,” said an article in The New York Times previewing the new model in 1957. The difference in style is spectacular,” the article added. “The front end emphasizes a vertical grille that lends a distinctive continental flair. The rear-end assembly is also distinctive. Horizontal taillights sweep across the trunk lid to form a pattern like the graceful wingspread of a sea gull.”

But early praise and anticipation — Ford directors stood and applauded along with Henry Ford II when they were given a preview of the design — soon gave way to public mockery.

The vertical grille with the “continental flair” was compared to a toilet seat and later became known as the “horse collar.” (Mr. Brown’s initial grille design was far sleeker but was reworked out of concerns about getting enough air to the engine.) New features — the push-button shifter, the “floating” speedometer — had complications. (Making seat belts standard, however, was a trend that caught on)..."

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/06/business/roy-brown-jr-edsel-designer-dies-at-96.html?_r=0

 

[Connery]

Bobby Rogers, Sang in the Miracles

"Bobby Rogers, who was born on the same day in the same Detroit hospital as the Motown crooner Smokey Robinson, with whom he harmonized in high school and eventually in the Hall of Fame singing group the Miracles, died in Southfield, Mich. He was 73.

Mr. Rogers, tall, bespectacled and jovial, brought a smooth tenor to the Miracles, who were founded in the mid-1950s and became one of Motown’s longest-lived and most important ensembles. Known for their silky harmonies, snazzy threads and coolly coordinated dance steps onstage (early on, Mr. Rogers was the group’s choreographer), they recorded for Berry Gordy Jr.’s Tamla label and became a stanchion of the Motown sound and Mr. Gordy’s recording empire.

Their hit songs included “Shop Around,” “You’ve Really Got a Hold On Me,” “Mickey’s Monkey,” “Going to a Go-Go” and, after a name change — to capitalize on Mr. Robinson’s stardom they became Smokey Robinson and the Miracles in 1967 — “I Second That Emotion” and “Tears of a Clown.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/05/a...-at-73-sang-in-smokey-robinsons-miracles.html

Tears of a Clown - Smokey Robinson and The Miracles

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DPtK5V5wKz0]Tears of a Clown - Smokey Robinson and The Miracles - YouTube[/ame]

 

[Connery]

John Wilpers Dies at 93; Captured Tojo

"John Wilpers, the last known surviving member of a team of Army intelligence officers who captured the Japanese prime minister, Hideki Tojo, after World War II, foiling his attempted suicide so he could be brought to trial for his role in the attack on Pearl Harbor and other war crimes, died on Thursday in Silver Spring, Md. He was 93.

When Gen. Douglas MacArthur ordered Tojo’s arrest, nine days after Japan’s surrender, Mr. Wilpers, a lieutenant in charge of one of the first intelligence units stationed in Tokyo, the 308th Counter Intelligence Corps detachment, knew exactly where to find him. American journalists were camped outside Tojo’s house in the suburbs.

“The best way of finding Tojo was to find our own U.S. newspaper people, because they were there well ahead of us,” Mr. Wilpers recalled in a 2010 interview with The Associated Press."

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/05/us/john-wilpers-who-captured-a-prime-minister-dies.html

 

[Connery]

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez dies

"Hugo Chavez, the polarizing president of Venezuela who cast himself as a "21st century socialist" and foe of the United States, died Tuesday, said Vice President Nicolas Maduro.
Chavez, who had battled cancer, was 58. Chavez's democratic ascent to the presidency in 1999 ushered in a new era in Venezuelan politics and its international relations.

Once a foiled coup-plotter, the swashbuckling former paratrooper was known for lengthy speeches on everything from the evils of capitalism to the proper way to conserve water while showering. He was the first of a wave of leftist presidents to come to power in Latin America in the last dozen years."

Hugo Chavez, influential leader with mixed record, dies at 58 - CNN.com

 

[Connery]

Maj. Thomas C. Griffin, Doolittle Raider

"Maj. Thomas C. Griffin, who navigated a B-25 bomber in the daring air raid on Japan led by Lt. Col. James H. Doolittle in 1942, four months after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, died in Fort Thomas, Ky. He was 96.

He died in a veterans hospital, said Tom Casey, a friend and the manager of the Doolittle Raiders, as the airmen who flew on the raid came to be known. The raid, the first American attack on Japanese soil, followed a string of Japanese victories in the Pacific that had demoralized the American public.

“The Japanese had attacked us, and we were mad,” Major Griffin said in an interview in 2012. “We wanted to hit ’em back.”

The 80 men who volunteered for the raid were told only that they would be involved in a terribly dangerous mission. They were to fly 16 B-25s from the deck of the U.S.S. Hornet — the first time the land-based bombers had been launched at sea — to strike military and industrial targets in Tokyo, Yokohama, Kobe, Nagoya and Osaka. But a last-minute change in plans, resulting from an encounter with a Japanese vessel, meant the planes might not have enough fuel to reach designated landing areas in China."

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/05/us/maj-thomas-c-griffin-b-25-navigator-dies-at-96.html

 

[NoNukes]

Great thread, Connery, thank you.

 

[Connery]

if I can dip my oar in...

Of course, the more the merrier...in a macabre sort of way...