Rest in Pease, 2016
Dear Friends (aka blog readers), 2016 is almost over.
Frankly, I wish it would hurry up. I want the clock and calendar to read 2017 with hope for peace and wisdom in a new year.
The reflections at the end of the year make me remember my mother (you know--the one the minister called “our own Bea Arthur” at her funeral) who, in her late 70s and 80s said her new hobby was attending funerals. In her 90s, she gave them up. “Just too tired of black,” she said.
I am thinking she was exactly right as I read the many lists of those who have died this year. No, I was not invited to any of these funerals, but the deaths of these famous folk leave both a legacy and a void in their chosen fields. In my mind, I’ve created my own funeral service.
Begin with the religious leader giving a greeting to those attending and giving words of grace. This is where I ask you to go to YouTube or Pandora or wherever you listen to music for free and pull up Leonard Cohen’s (1934-2016) “Hallelujah.”
I am thinking she was exactly right as I read the many lists of those who have died this year. No, I was not invited to any of these funerals, but the deaths of these famous folk leave both a legacy and a void in their chosen fields. In my mind, I’ve created my own funeral service.
Begin with the religious leader giving a greeting to those attending and giving words of grace. This is where I ask you to go to YouTube or Pandora or wherever you listen to music for free and pull up Leonard Cohen’s (1934-2016) “Hallelujah.”
This song is, to me, the nearest to a hymn written in modern times. Next think of familiar prayers and scripture. Each death will have its own eulogy. Then close with the last song Leonard Cohen, aged 82, produced just before his death this fall. The song is called “Treaty.” Look for the string reprise/treaty as a string quartet plays the music, ending with the singer-songwriter’s own gravely words. This is on his last CD titled “You Want It Darker.”
If you don’t know his music, please give a listen. Predicting goose bumps.
While you listen to the glorious and dark words and music from Cohen, here is a gathered list of those who died in 2016. The names and notes are gathered from all over the internet, popular and news magazines, and from the NYTimes (my daily read).
January
If you don’t know his music, please give a listen. Predicting goose bumps.
While you listen to the glorious and dark words and music from Cohen, here is a gathered list of those who died in 2016. The names and notes are gathered from all over the internet, popular and news magazines, and from the NYTimes (my daily read).
January
David Bowie, musician, 69; Alan Rickman, actor (Harry Potter), 69; Rene Angelil, music manager and Celine Dion’s husband,73; Dan Haggerty, actor (Grizzly Adams), 74; Abe Vigoda, character actor (Barney Miller, The Godfather), 94; Paul Kantner, musician (Jefferson Airplane), 74; Glenn Frey (Eagles co-founder- think “Hotel California”), 67; Georgia Davis Powers, first African-American woman in Kentucky’s state senate and served for over 20 years, 92; Bill Johnson, Olympic skier, 55.
February
February
Maurice White, musician (Earth, Wind, & Fire founder), 74; Edgar Mitchell, astronaut Apollo 14, 85; Antonin Scalia, U. S. Supreme Court, 79; Boutros Boutros-Ghali, Egyptian U.N. secretary-general, 93; Harper Lee , author (To Kill a Mockingbird), 89; George Kennedy, Academy Award actor, 91; Umberto Eco, author (The Name of the Rose).
March
Pat Conroy, Southern author (The Prince of Tides), 70; Nancy Reagan, first lady, 94; George Martin, music producer of the Beatles, 90; Frank Sinatra, Jr, singer, 72; Rob Ford, troubled Toronto mayor, 46; Joe Garagiola, baseball player and announcer, 90; Bud Collins, tennis commentator, 86; Garry Shandling, comic, 66; Earl Hamner, Jr., Virginia author (The Waltons), 92; Patty Duke, actor, 69.
April
Merle Haggard, country singer, 79; Doris Roberts, actor (mom on Everybody Loves Raymond), 90; Chyna, pro-wrestler and reality star, 46; Prince, singer, 57.
May
Morley Safer, 60 Minutes reporter, 84; Alan Young, actor (“Mr.Ed”), 90.
June
Muhammad Ali, boxing champion, 74; Gordie Howe, “Mr. Hockey," 88; Pat Summitt, women’s basketball coach at Tennessee, 64; Michael Herr, screenplays (Apocalypse Now), 76. Bill Cunningham, NYTimes photographer, 87; Buddy Ryan, NFL coach (Bears), 82; Alvin Toffler, author (Future Shock), 87.
July
Elie Wiesel, humanitarian and holocaust survivor, 87; Sydney Schanberg, NYTimes Pulitzer-winning reporter (Killing Fields), 82; Youree Harris, actress/psychic Miss Cleo, 53; Garry Marshall, tv writer/director (Happy Days, Odd Couple, etc.), 81.
August
Pete Fountain, jazz clarinetist, 86; Harry Briggs, Jr., center of the lawsuit that outlawed segregated public schools, 75; Lou Pearlman, boy band producer (NSync) and convicted Ponzi schemer, 62; Kenny Baker, actor, voice of R2-D2, 81; John McLaughlin, conservative tv show host, 89; Sonia Rykiel, French designer whose sweaters helped replace suits for working women, 86; Gene Wilder, actor/comedian, 83.
September
Hugh O’Brian, actor (Wyatt Earp), 91; Phyllis Schiafly, conservative commentator created with defeating the Equal Rights Amendment, 92; Lady Chablis, transgender performer (The Garden of Good and Evil), 59; Arnold Palmer, golf, 87; Shimon Peres, former Israeli president and prime minister, Nobel prize winner, 93; Edward Albee, Pulitzer-prize playwright (…Virginia Woolf), 88; Jose Fernandez, baseball, outstanding rookie pitcher Marlins, 24.
October
Dennis Byrd, NFL, 51; Tom Hayden, 1960s antiwar activist (ex-wife Jane Fonda), 76; Bobby Vee, pop singer of the 1960s, 73; King Bhumibol Adulyadej, Thailand (longest reigning monarch), 88.
November
Janet Reno, first woman U.S. attorney general, 78; Leonard Cohen, singer-songwriter, 82; Grant Tinker, TV/NBC chairman, 90; Robert Vaughn, actor, 83; Gwen Hill, co-anchor of PBS NewsHour, moderator of v-p debates, 61; Ralph Branca, Brooklyn Dodgers pitcher (look up baseball - “Shot Heard ‘Round the World” for a great story), 90; Florence Henderson, actor, 82; Fidel Castro, Cuban prime minister and president, 90.
AND FINALLY, December
AND FINALLY, December
Fulton Walker, NFL, 58; Joe McKnight, NFL, 28; Rashaan Salaam, NFL (Heisman winner), 42; Konrad Reuland, NFL, 29; Dennis Byrd, NFL, 50; Craig Sager, NBA reporter known for his flashy suits, 65; George Michael, singer, 53; Zsa Zsa Gabor, actor, 99; Henry Heimlich, surgeon, 96; Alan Thicke, actor, 69; John Glenn, astronaut and senator, 95; and Carrie Fisher, actor (Princess Leia) 60, and her mother, Debbie Reynolds, 84, the following day.
What a list, my friends! Farewell, 2016.
What a list, my friends! Farewell, 2016.
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