Book Nook Cafe discussion

Daryl Dragon, the 'Captain' of '70s duo Captain & Tennille, dies at 76

Daryl Dragon, the hat-wearing musician familiar to 1970s music fans as half of the bestselling duo the Captain & Tennille, died Tuesday in Prescott, Arizona at age 76.

Dragon’s ex-wife, Toni Tennille, “was with him as he took his last breath,” said Harlon Boll, a spokesperson for the singer. In a statement, Tennille said, “He was a brilliant musician with many friends who loved him greatly. I was at my most creative in my life when I was with him.”

Dragon died of renal failure, according to Boll.

“Love Will Keep Us Together,” the title track from the duo’s 1975 debut album, reached No. 1 in July of 1975 and won the top Record of the Year prize at the following year’s Grammy Awards. “Do That to Me One More Time,” the last of their big hits, also reached the top of the chart, in 1979. In the interval, the Captain & Tennille reached the top 10 with “Muskrat Love,” “The Way I Want to Touch You,” “Lonely Night (Angel Face)” and “Shop Around.”

His stage moniker was said to have been coined by Mike Love during the late ’60s and early ’70s period when Dragon was a keyboard player for the Beach Boys; the perennial captain’s hat followed to cement the persona.

The duo’s variety show ran for one season on ABC and was followed by a series of annual specials. Dragon, who was virtually a silent partner in the duo, was said to be uncomfortable being on television, which contributed to the demise of their well-viewed series in 1977.

Dragon and Tennille divorced in 2014, after being married for 39 years. Tennille released her memoir in 2016, and in an interview with People magazine about his medical condition in 2017, Dragon said he was working on an autobiography and “I am hoping I will have as much success with my own.”

Tennille’s spokesperson said “they remained in constant contact and were dear friends to the end… Toni has asked that all of Daryl’s many fans remember him as she does, with love and a grateful heart for the music they created together.”

Dragon is survived by a brother, Doug Dragon, and two nieces, Kelly Arbout and Renee Henn. Per Tennille’s spokesperson, Dragon had asked that there be no services.

https://www.aol.com/article/entertain...

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YouTube

CAPTAIN & TENNILLE ❖ love will keep us together
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_QNEf...

Captain & Tennille - Do that to me one more time
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ZSyH...

Ray Sawyer, ‘Cover of Rolling Stone’ Singer, Dies at 81

Ray Sawyer, who cut a distinctive figure as a member of the band Dr. Hook and the Medicine Show thanks to his flamboyant style and attention-drawing eye patch, and who sang lead on one of the group’s best-known songs, “The Cover of Rolling Stone,” died on Monday in Daytona, Fla. He was 81.

His wife, Linda Lombardi Sawyer, announced his death on Facebook. She did not give a cause but said in a post a week earlier that he had been hospitalized.

Mr. Sawyer and the band rose to prominence in the early 1970s with a country-rock sound that later became more lush and occasionally even displayed a disco influence. Dennis Locorriere usually sang lead, but Mr. Sawyer was the most recognizable band member. His eye patch gave the group its name, a sort of skewing of the Captain Hook character from “Peter Pan.”

“I’ve had the eye patch since I was 27,” Mr. Sawyer told The St. Petersburg Times in 2010. “I was in a car accident. Some people still ask if it is a gimmick, something to draw attention, but it’s real.”

He sang the lead vocal on “Rolling Stone.” (The label of the original single gave the title as “The Cover of Rolling Stone,” though the lyrics he sings use a “the” before the magazine’s name.) The song, a parody about rock ’n’ roll fame, reached the Top 10 of the Billboard pop chart in March 1973.

That same month, the magazine did in fact put the band, or at least a caricature of it, on its cover.

Full article
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/02/ob...

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video

Cover Of The Rolling Stone-Dr.Hook

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Ux3-...

Nancy Roman, ‘Mother of the Hubble’ Telescope, Dies at 93


When Nancy Grace Roman was 11 years old, her family was living in Reno. She was enthralled by the stars in the clear night skies and joined with friends in forming an astronomy club.

It was the beginning of a lifelong fascination with the cosmos.

When she died on Wednesday in Germantown, Md., at 93, Dr. Roman was remembered as “the mother of the Hubble.”

As NASA’s first chief of astronomy and the first woman in a leadership position at the space agency, Dr. Roman oversaw the early planning for the Hubble Space Telescope, which began orbiting Earth above its atmosphere in April 1990 to capture an unobstructed view of the universe.

Placed into orbit from a manned Discovery shuttle and named for the pioneering American astronomer Edwin Hubble, it became the first large optical telescope in space. It has enhanced knowledge of distant galaxies as well as planets in our own solar system by transmitting images that would have been distorted if it were operating from within the Earth’s atmosphere.

---- Full article
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/30/ob...

I loved that show.

June Whitfield, a Star of ‘Absolutely Fabulous,’ Dies at 93



June Whitfield, the diminutive British actress whose seven-decade career reached its peak as Edina Monsoon’s dotty, acerbic mother in the hit comedy series “Absolutely Fabulous,” died on Friday in London. She was 93.

Her death was confirmed by her agent, according to the BBC.

Mother — that was the official name of Ms. Whitfield’s character — looked the part of the kind, proper, white-haired London granny in sweater sets and pearls, but she had a gift for the cutting remark. In one classic scene, Edina (Jennifer Saunders) fretted about her weight, declaring, “Inside of me, there’s a thin person just screaming to get out.” Mother, sipping tea at the kitchen table, replied calmly, “Just the one, dear?”

In the series, which ran from 1992 to 1996 and returned in various forms in the 21st century, Mother also turned out to be a practicing kleptomaniac who was not above climbing in and out of windows when necessary. “Oh, Mother is fabulous,” Ms. Whitfield told The Telegraph years later. “She appears more grounded, but she’s as mad as the rest of them.”

Ms. Whitfield may not have been a familiar face to American audiences when “Ab Fab,” as the show was nicknamed, had its United States premiere on Comedy Central in 1994. She was, however, a household name in her home country, thanks in part to “Happy Ever After” and “Terry and June,” the sitcoms in which she played Terry Scott’s suburban wife. Together the two series ran from 1974 to 1987.

Modesty seemed to come naturally to Ms. Whitfield.

“I’ve always said one of the reasons I’ve worked for so long is that I’m no trouble,” she told The Guardian in 2011. The title of her autobiography was “And June Whitfield,” a comment on a lifetime of supporting roles. On an ITV talk show when she was 91, asked about her dream role for the future, she suggested something “sitting in a chair, not having to go very far.”

June Rosemary Whitfield was born in London on Nov. 11, 1925, the daughter of John Whitfield, the managing director of a telephone and telegraph company, and Bertha (Flett) Whitfield, an amateur actress who enrolled her daughter in singing, dancing and music classes at the age of 3. June received a diploma from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in 1944 and began her career on radio and the stage.

Her first big breaks included “Take It From Here,” a postwar radio series in which she was cast as Eth, a young woman who had been engaged forever, and Noël Coward’s 1950 musical “Ace of Clubs.”

The BBC estimated that Ms. Whitfield had made some 1,300 screen appearances. She played Miss Marple, Agatha Christie’s fictional detective, on BBC Radio 4 from 1993 to 2001 and was a cast member of the satirical radio series “The News Huddlines” for decades. Although film was not her favorite medium (“TV is much cozier and warmer”), she did appear in more than a few, including the “Carry On” comedy series, beginning with “Carry On Nurse” (1959) and ending with “Carry On Columbus” (1992), in which she played Queen Isabella.

American television audiences had the occasional opportunity to see her other work. In the late 1990s, when Ross (David Schwimmer) was preparing to marry an Englishwoman on the NBC sitcom “Friends,” Ms. Whitfield made a cameo appearance as the bridal family’s housekeeper, taking a telephone call from the very American Phoebe (Lisa Kudrow). Ms. Whitfield also appeared in David Tennant’s last episode of “Doctor Who” (2009), as an enthusiastic admirer who in a brief scene managed to pinch Mr., Tennant’s cheeks and pat his bottom.

Ms. Whitfield moved into a retirement home in her 80s — happy, she told reporters, to have a weekly massage appointment and no further worries about plumbing or roofing — but she continued to work.

In 2015, she played God, appearing to a grieving woman in the ladies’ room of a pub, on the mini-series “You, Me and the Apocalypse” and a nun with a secret on the soap “EastEnders.” The 2016 film version of “Absolutely Fabulous,” in which her character partied in the South of France, was her last screen role.

Ms. Whitfield was made a dame last year by Prince Charles almost two decades after she was named a Commander of the British Empire.

When she was 29, she married Timothy Aitchison, a surveyor (who, she once said, found show business more weird than glamorous). He died in 2001. Her survivors include a daughter, the actress Suzy Aitchison.

Ms. Whitfield did some dramatic roles, including Aunt Drusilla in a 1996 film version of “Jude the Obscure,” but comedy was her choice from the beginning.

“It was entirely down to lack of confidence,” she recalled in a 2011 interview with The Telegraph. “Because I thought if I played anything straight, people would laugh at me, so I might as well do something where they were meant to laugh.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/30/ob...

The Captain and Tennille were so iconic. Great songs and no drama.
RIP Daryl Dragon

I LOVE 'Absolutely Fabulous.' Very hilarious.
RIP June Whitfield

Kudos to 'Mother of the Hubble' for all your accomplishments.
RIP Nancy Roman

Love the name "Dr. Hook and the Medicine Show."
RIP Ray Sawyer

Barbara wrote: "I LOVE 'Absolutely Fabulous.' Very hilarious.
RIP June Whitfield..."

They tried to make an american version but they made it too PC. Took the edge off it and it wasn't good. I don't know if it is still on or not.

Shirley Boone
1934-2019
Wife of Pat Boone and Philanthropist
She helped establish Mercy Corps.

https://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2019...

Kudos to Shirley Boone for her philanthropic work.

RIP Shirley Boone

Shirley Boone helped to establish Mercy Corps, which has become an international charitable organization dedicated to addressing economic, environmental, social and political problems.

That's nice to have that as your legacy.

Thanks for sharing, Julie.

Jo Andres
1954-2019
Filmmaker and choreographer, also wife to Steve Busemi
Won a award for her short film Black Kites
https://people.com/movies/who-is-jo-a...

Julie wrote: "Jo Andres
1954-2019
Filmmaker and choreographer, also wife to Steve Busemi
Won a award for her short film Black Kites
https://people.com/movies/who-is-jo-a..."

64 ....too young. :(

Navajo Code Talker Alfred K. Newman dies at 94 in New Mexico



WINDOW ROCK, Ariz. (AP) - A Navajo Code Talker who used his native language to outsmart the Japanese in World War II has died in New Mexico at age 94.

Navajo Nation officials say Alfred K. Newman died Sunday at a nursing home in Bloomfield.

Newman was among hundreds of Navajos who served in the Marine Corps, using a code based on their native language to outsmart the Japanese in World War II.

During World War II, Newman served from 1943-45 in the 1st Battalion, 21st Marine Regiment and 3rd Marine Division and saw duty at Bougainville Island, Guam, Iwo Jima, Kwajalein Atoll, Enewetak Atoll, New Georgia and New Caledonia.

Newman is survived by his wife of 69 years, Betsy. They had five children, 13 grandchildren and three great grandchildren.

Broadway legend Carol Channing has died at age 97

NEW YORK (AP) — Carol Channing, the lanky, ebullient musical comedy star who delighted American audiences over almost 5,000 performances as the scheming Dolly Levi in “Hello, Dolly” on Broadway and beyond, has died. She was 97.

Publicist B. Harlan Boll said Channing died of natural causes at 12:31 a.m. Tuesday in Rancho Mirage, California. Boll says she had twice suffered strokes in the last year.

Besides “Hello, Dolly,” Channing starred in other Broadway shows, but none with equal magnetism. She often appeared on television and in nightclubs, for a time partnering with George Burns in Las Vegas and a national tour.

Her outsized personality seemed too much for the screen, and she made only a few movies, notably “The First Traveling Saleslady” with Ginger Rogers and “Thoroughly Modern Millie” with Julie Andrews.

Over the years, Channing continued as Dolly in national tours, the last in 1996, when she was in her 70s. Tom Shales of The Washington Post called her “the ninth wonder of the world.”

Channing was not the immediate choice to play Dolly, a matchmaker who receives her toughest challenge yet when a rich grump seeks a suitable wife. The show, which features a rousing score by Jerry Herman that’s bursting with joy and tunes like “Put On Your Sunday Clothes,” ″Before the Parade Passes By” and “It Only Takes a Moment,” is a musical version of Thornton Wilder’s play “The Matchmaker.”

Theater producer David Merrick told her: “I don’t want that silly grin with all those teeth that go back to your ears.” Even though director Gower Champion had worked on her first Broadway hit, “Lend an Ear,” he had doubts about Channing’s casting.

She wowed them in an audition and was hired on the spot. At opening night on Jan. 16, 1964, when Channing appeared at the top of the stairs in a red gown with feathers in her hair and walked down the red carpet to the Harmonia Gardens restaurant, the casehardened New York audience went crazy. The critics followed suit. “Hello, Dolly” collected 10 Tony Awards, including one for Channing as best actress in a musical.

She was born Jan. 31, 1921, in Seattle, where her father, George Channing, was a newspaper editor. When his only child was 3 months old, he moved to San Francisco and worked as a writer for the Christian Science Monitor and as a lecturer. He later became editor-in-chief of Christian Science publications.


At the age of 7, Channing decided she wanted to become an entertainer. She credited her father with encouraging her: “He told me you can dedicate your life at 7 or 97. And the people who do that are happier people.”

While majoring in drama and dance at Bennington College in Vermont, she was sent off to get experience in her chosen field. She found a job in a New York revue. The show lasted only two weeks, but a New Yorker magazine critic commented, “You will hear more about a satiric chanteuse named Carol Channing.” She said later: “That was it. I said goodbye to trigonometry, zoology and English literature.”

For several years she worked as an understudy, bit player and nightclub impressionist, taking jobs as a model, receptionist and sales clerk during lean times. Landing in Los Angeles, she auditioned for Marge Champion, wife and dance partner of Gower Champion who was putting together a revue, “Lend an Ear.” Marge Champion recalled: “She certainly was awkward and odd-looking, but her warmth and wholesomeness came through.”

Channing was the hit of “Lend an Ear” in a small Hollywood theater, and she captivated audiences and critics when the show moved to New York. As the innocent gold digger in the musical “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes,” her stardom was assured. One reviewer reported she “hurls across the footlights in broad strokes of pantomime and bold, certain, exquisitely comical gestures.” The show’s hit song, “Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend,” became her signature number.
Over and over again she returned to the surefire “Hello, Dolly,” which earned her $5 million on one tour. She considered Dolly Levi “a role as deep as Lady Macbeth,” but added that “the essence of her character was her unquenchable thirst for life.” That description fit Carol Channing, who attributed her sunny optimism to her lifelong faith in Christian Science.

Others who have played the role include Pearl Bailey, Phillis Diller, Betty Grable, Ethel Merman, Martha Raye, Ginger Rogers and Barbra Streisand, who played Dolly in a 1969 film version directed by Gene Kelly. Bette Midler won a Tony Award in the role in 2017.

Channing had two early marriages that ended in divorce — to novelist Theodore Naidish and pro footballer Alexander Carson, father of her only child, Channing. Her son became a successful political cartoonist.


In 1956 she married a television producer, Charles Lowe, who seemed like the perfect mate for a major star. He adopted Channing’s son and supervised every aspect of her business affairs and appearances. He reportedly viewed every one of her performances from out front, leading the applause.

After 41 years of marriage, she sued for divorce in 1998, alleging that he misappropriated her funds and humiliated her in public. She remarked that they only had sex twice in four decades.

“The only thing about control freak victims is that they don’t know who they are,” she told The Washington Post. “It’s taken me 77 years to figure that out. I was miserable. I was unhappy. And I didn’t realize it wasn’t my fault. But I’m going to survive. I’m going to live. I’m free.”

Lowe died after a stroke in 1999. Channing moved to Rancho Mirage near Palm Springs, California, in 2000 to write her memoirs. She called the book “Just Lucky, I Guess.”

Channing remarried in 2003 to Harry Kullijian, her childhood sweetheart from 70 years before. He died in 2011.

In her book, Channing recounted an early story from her childhood that showed a budding audience-pleasing performer. She wrote that she came home from kindergarten and noted that all the little girls hit the little boys.

Her parents asked: “Do you?”

She responded: “Oh no, I pet them.”

RIP Jo Andres.
Artists make the world a better place.

The Navajo 'Code Talkers' always fascinated me. A real secret weapon.
RIP Alfred K. Newman

Carol Channing was so funny and charming.
RIP Carol Channing

The poet Mary Oliver died today. She had beautiful images from nature in her poetry, connecting to the spiritual through nature.

RIP Mary Oliver.

As usual, i learned about a couple of unfamiliar names here, as well as some i've treasured much of my life. RIP to each one. I'll share a poem or two by Mary Oliver in the poetry thread.

Dr. John Mendelsohn, 82, Researcher Who Led Top Cancer Center, Dies



Dr. John Mendelsohn, who led the prestigious University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center through an era of substantial growth, and who, as a scientist, helped pioneer a new type of cancer therapy, died on Jan. 7 at his home in Houston. He was 82.

His death was confirmed by MD Anderson, which said the cause was glioblastoma, an aggressive form of brain cancer.

Dr. Mendelsohn was the cancer center’s third president, serving from 1996 to 2011, a period in which MD Anderson rose in prominence to be considered the nation’s top cancer hospital. At the same time, its annual revenues quadrupled, to $3.1 billion.

“He was an extraordinary scientist, he was a compassionate individual, he was a strategic thinker, and he was able to bring all of those capabilities to bear as an exceptional leader of MD Anderson,” Dr. Peter Pisters, the center’s president, said in a telephone interview.


https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/18/ob...

Walter Chandoha, Photographer Whose Specialty Was Cats, Dies at 98

On a winter’s evening in 1949, Walter Chandoha was walking to his three-room apartment in Astoria, Queens, when he spotted an abandoned gray kitten shivering in the snow. He put it in a pocket of his Army coat and brought it home to his wife, Maria.

The kitten’s antics — racing through the apartment each night as if possessed, shadowboxing with his image in a mirror — inspired the couple to name him Loco. Mr. Chandoha (pronounced shan-DOE-uh) was moved to photograph Loco and quickly sold the pictures to newspapers and magazines around the world.

Taking pictures of cats soon began to look like a more fulfilling career path than the one in advertising that Mr. Chandoha had planned while attending New York University, after serving in World War II. So, after graduating, he turned to freelance photography for a living — and, by the mid-1950s, he had begun a long period as the dominant commercial cat photographer of his era.

“Walter Chandoha’s cat models, shown on this page, must be alert, graceful and beautiful,” read a newspaper ad in 1956 for a cat food brand that featured his photos. “To keep them that way, Mr. Chandoha feeds them Puss ‘n Boots because Puss ‘n Boots is good nutrition.”

See link for photos and the full article
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/18/ob...

These two obituaries illustrate why this thread is informative and calls to me. I've never heard of either man but their lives and work are influencial. Thanks, Alias.

RIP Mendelsohn

RIP Chandoha

This cat picture taken by Walter Chandoha is adorable.

RIP Walter Chandoha

How sad that the man who helped develop cancer therapies died of the disease.

RIP John Mendelsohn

Funny woman Kaye Ballard died this week. I'm not going to lie to you, i thought she died over a decade ago. Her appearances on sitcoms were such a pleasure to watch.

https://variety.com/2019/legit/news/k...

RIP Ballard

RIP Kaye Ballard.

Her face is so familiar from seeing her on TV.

madrano wrote: "Funny woman Kaye Ballard died this week. I'm not going to lie to you, i thought she died over a decade ago. Her appearances on sitcoms were such a pleasure to watch.

https://variety.com/2019/legit..."

You can see The Mother's -in - Law on YouTube.
Here is one
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ONClh...

Oh my gosh. Youtube continues to surprise me. It was this series which introduced Ballard to me. Of course my folks knew her but i didn't have a clue. Fun link.

madrano wrote: "Funny woman Kaye Ballard died this week. I'm not going to lie to you, i thought she died over a decade ago. Her appearances on sitcoms were such a pleasure to watch.

https://variety.com/2019/legit..."

I saw that Kaye Ballard died-I remember watching her on TV. I thought she was married but she never did.

Funny considering her fame for "Mothers-in-Law".

When we were in the UK in '17 i was introduced to editor and author Diana Athill's memoir, Somewhere Towards the End, written when she was in her late 80s. This week, at age 101, she died. Initially she was better known as an editor due to her work on Jean Rhys' Wide Sargasso Sea and working with Phillip Roth and Margaret Atwood, among others.

https://www.bbc.com/news/amp/entertai...

For those wanted details of her personal life/loves, try https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diana_A...

RIP Athill

madrano wrote: "When we were in the UK in '17 i was introduced to editor and author Diana Athill's memoir, Somewhere Towards the End, written when she was in her late 80s. This week, ..."

101 Wow.

I guess she wasn't as close to the end as she thought in '08 when the book was published.

RIP Diana Athill. I imagine it was interesting working with Atwood and Roth.

Me too. In the book i read she didn't talk much about that more than in passing. My guess is that she covered it fuller in an earlier (or later) book. Still, even without that it was a compelling book due to the way she expressed her attraction to her partners.

Charles Kettles, Who Rescued Dozens of Troops in Vietnam, Dies at 89



Maj. Charles S. Kettles, an Army helicopter commander in the Vietnam War, led an extraordinary rescue operation that saved the lives of dozens of airborne troops who had been ambushed by North Vietnamese soldiers in May 1967. President Barack Obama would later describe the incident as “like a bad Rambo movie.”

Major Kettles was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross, the Army’s highest citation for valor after the Medal of Honor, in 1968.

But the story of his heroism and those of his fellow helicopter crewmen remained largely unknown beyond military circles for nearly half a century.

That changed on July 18, 2016, when President Obama presented Mr. Kettles, a retired lieutenant colonel, with the Medal of Honor at the White House.

Mr. Kettles, who died on Jan. 21 in Ypsilanti, Mich., at 89, had been the central figure in a harrowing episode.

“A soldier who was there said, ‘That day, Major Kettles became our John Wayne,’” Mr. Obama said. “With all due respect to John Wayne, he couldn’t do what Chuck Kettles did.”

On May 15, 1967, Major Kettles was a flight commander with a helicopter assault company that had flown soldiers from the 101st Airborne Division into the Song Tau Cau river valley in South Vietnam. Soon afterward, the unit radioed to the helicopter company, stationed nearby, that it was suffering casualties at the hands of enemy troops firing out of fortified bunkers and tunnels.

Major Kettles volunteered to lead a flight of six helicopters to evacuate the wounded. His helicopter and those flying alongside him were raked by fire while extricating many of the wounded on the first two rescue trips that day. Major Kettles made it back to his base after a second foray with fuel leaking from his craft and his gunner severely wounded.

When the airborne commander radioed that he still needed emergency evacuation of 40 remaining troops as well as four helicopter crewmen who had been stranded helping carry out the earlier rescues, Major Kettles led a third trip into the valley, flying a different helicopter.

Soon he was heading back to his base for the third time, believing that all the wounded had been evacuated, when he was told via radio that eight more soldiers still remained on the ground, having been unable to reach an evacuation helicopter.

Major Kettles swung back for a fourth rescue trip while his unit’s other helicopters continued back to their base with their wounded. The gunships, fighter jets and artillery that had supported the previous rescue efforts had departed by then, believing the action was over.

Major Kettles’s helicopter was severely damaged by enemy fire and his windshields were shot out when he landed for a fourth time, but he extricated the eight remaining soldiers and made a safe return to his base.

In 2006, Mr. Kettles told his story to William Vollano, a volunteer interviewer for the Library of Congress’s Veterans History Project. Mr. Vollano checked it out with fellow veterans from his mission, then passed the account along to members of Michigan’s congressional delegation. They sponsored legislation that made Mr. Kettles eligible for Medal of Honor consideration despite the long time lapse since his exploits.

The Defense Department conducted a subsequent inquiry and recommended Mr. Kettles for the medal.

Charles Seymour Kettles was born on Jan. 9, 1930, in Ypsilanti, a son of Grant and Cora Kettles.

He was studying engineering at Michigan State Normal College (now Eastern Michigan University) in Ypsilanti when he was drafted into the Army in 1951. He was commissioned as a lieutenant in 1953, then discharged in 1956 and opened an auto dealership.

He returned to active duty in 1963, when helicopter pilots were needed for the war in Vietnam, and served the first of his two tours there from February to November 1967.

He retired from military service in 1978 and received a bachelor’s degree in business management that year from Our Lady of the Lake University in San Antonio and a master’s degree in industrial technology from Eastern Michigan in 1979. He later developed an aviation program there.

Mr. Kettles’s death was confirmed by the Congressional Medal of Honor Society. He is survived by his second wife, Catherine, known as Ann; six children, Chris, Margaret Gupta, Michael, Marianne Kettles, Carolyn Kettles and Jeanna Banez, from his marriage to his first wife, Ann T. Kettles; three children, Catherine Nezwek, Patrick Heck and Maria Heck, from his second wife’s previous marriage; a brother, Joseph, and nine grandchildren.

Mr. Kettles did not seek accolades upon completing his four rescue missions.

“I just walked away from the helicopter believing that’s what war is,” he told USA Today shortly before receiving the Medal of Honor. “It probably matched some of the movies I’d seen as a youngster. So be it. Let’s go have dinner.”

But, as he told it at his Medal of Honor ceremony, he was thankful for the opportunity to save so many lives.

“We got the 44 out,” he said, recounting the third of his four rescue efforts. “None of those names appear on the wall in Washington. There’s nothing more important than that.”




https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/27/ob...

The last paragraph above says it all. Thanks, Alias. I didn't know about Kettles, nor did my husband, a Vietnam vet.

R.I.P. Kettles

Memorable legacy, to have rescued so many troops.

RIP Charles Kettles

madrano wrote: "The last paragraph above says it all. Thanks, Alias. I didn't know about Kettles, nor did my husband, a Vietnam vet.

R.I.P. Kettles"

When I read the obit I thought of Dan and him being a vet. That is why I posted it.

Thank you, Alias. This makes the story even sweeter.

Alias Reader wrote: "Charles Kettles, Who Rescued Dozens of Troops in Vietnam, Dies at 89



Maj. Charles S. Kettles, an Army helicopter commander in the Vietnam War, led an extraordinary rescue operation that saved th..."
This is why I love obits. Wonderful stories about people that we would never have heard of.

James Ingram, Grammy-winning R&B singer, dies at 66

James Ingram, the Grammy-winning R&B singer behind hits like “Yah Mo B There” and “I Don’t Have the Heart,” died at the age of 66, his friend and creative partner Debbie Allen confirmed through a post on Twitter.

Details on Ingram’s death are currently unknown. A rep for the singer did not immediately respond to EW’s request for comment.
https://ew.com

Linda Ronstadt & James Ingram - Somewhere Out There
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Smc5F...

RIP James Ingram

For some reason the second link, "Somewhere Out There" didn't play for me, i only got the article. In case this happens to others, here is another link.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Smc5F...

RIP Ingram

Thanks, deb. I corrected the post. I somehow linked to the EW article and not the YouTube video.

My pleasure.

Actor Clive Swift, known to millions as Hyacinth Bucket's hen-pecked husband Richard in BBC One's 90s sitcom Keeping Up Appearances, has died aged 82.

Swift, who spent 10 years at the RSC before breaking into television, also acted in such series as Peak Practice, Born and Bred and The Old Guys.

He spent six years playing Richard opposite Dame Patricia Routledge.

The role saw him patiently tolerate her ham-fisted and invariably thwarted attempts at social climbing.

Dame Patricia said she was "deeply saddened" to hear of her former co-star's death.

"Clive was a skilful and inventive actor with wide experience, as his successful career proved," she said.

"I so much admire what he brought to the barely sketched role of Hyacinth's husband and treasure the memories of our happy collaboration."

Off-screen he co-founded The Actors Centre, a meeting place for members of his profession in central London.

Born in Liverpool in 1936, he had three children with his ex-wife, the novelist Margaret Drabble.

Swift's many roles included a part in Alfred Hitchcock's 1972 film Frenzy and as King Arthur's adopted father in 1981 film Excalibur.

Many years later, he would play Hitchcock in a BBC radio play called Strangers on a Film.

Swift made a number of appearances in Doctor Who, most recently in the 2007 episode Voyage of the Damned.

According to his agent, the actor died at his home on Friday after a short illness, surrounded by his family.

Clive Swift was wonderful as Hyacinth's husband and was a great character actor in other shows as well.

RIP Clive Swift.

RIP Swift

Actress Julie Adams died yesterday. My husband & i fell in love with her on the short lived tv show, "The Jimmy Stewart Show", where she played his wife. We wanted to move into their home, so lovely were they together. However, today she is better known for the swimsuit clad maiden in Monster from the Black Lagoon. I share this obit link because it begins with a tweet from director Guillermo del Toro (The Shape of Water), which was special. We last saw her on Murder, She Wrote, where she was a semi-regular with the Cabot Cove crew.

https://www.chicagotribune.com/entert...

The article doesn't mention it but her first husband was Leonard Stern, who produced a number of tv shows in the '70s. Most were little remembered (I'm Dickens, He's Fenster and He and She) but McMillan and Wife and Get Smart were two hits.

R.I.P. Julie Adams

madrano wrote: "Actress Julie Adams died yesterday. My husband & i fell in love with her on the short lived tv show, "The Jimmy Stewart Show", where she played his wife. We wanted to move into their home, so lovel..."



She was quite beautiful. Sorry to say I am not familiar with her work.