Gone but not forgotten
Vol. 2, Issue 42
“Absence is a house so vast that inside you will pass through its walls and hang pictures on the air.” --Pablo Neruda
NEWS & NOTES
Trump’s effort to erase Black history continues
Two displays promoting the contributions of Black American soldiers who served in World War II were recently removed from the only U.S. military cemetery in the Netherlands.
More than 1 million Black Americans served in the U.S. armed forces during the war, and 172 were buried in the Netherlands American Cemetery and Memorial in Margraten. The U.S. Army’s 960th Quartermaster Service Company, a mostly Black unit, dug many of those graves.
The displays were added to the visitor center in 2024 to recognize the experiences and contributions of Black troops. One plaque featured the story of George H. Pruitt, a soldier in the 43rd Signal Construction Battalion, who drowned while trying to save a comrade. The other plaque described the “horrors of war” that Black servicemembers faced, both at home and abroad.
The plaques were removed in March, just one month after President Donald Trump issued an executive order that terminated diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives across the federal government. The American Battle Monuments Commission, the U.S. government agency that oversees the cemetery, also placed its chief diversity officer on administrative leave. In a statement, the commission said the plaque featuring Pruitt was “off display, though not out of rotation,” and the other plaque was “rotated out” following an “internal review of interpretive content.”
Dutch politicians are now appealing to the commission and the U.S. ambassador to the Netherlands to restore the displays at the cemetery.
FMI: Click here.
What it’s like when Dad is on death row
Disenfranchised grief is a type of mourning that isn’t recognized or publicly supported. One example is the pain felt by the families of executed killers.
Regardless of whether one supports or opposes the death penalty, the families of these inmates are affected. Yet, there are few services available to them as they are not generally seen as victims. Even if they can afford access to counseling, who would understand what they’re going through?
Some of these family members experience depression and grief, as well as complicated feelings about the meaning of justice. Before the execution occurs, they may also feel anticipatory grief because they know the exact date when they will suffer a loss.
Here are the stories of three such children.
The extinction of the passenger pigeon
MY GIFT TO YOU
November is here. Late autumn. The deep breath before the start of the holiday season. And... my birthday!
While I’m keeping festivities on the small side this year, small does not mean any less wonderful. There will still be time spent with those I love, as well as hours devoted to reading books, watching movies and baking something delicious for dessert. What more could I want?
To celebrate my birthday with you!
That’s why for the entire month of November, I’m offering a 20% discount on all annual subscriptions. Paid subscribers will receive The End Files in their mailboxes — and have full access to the newsletter’s archive. They will also be entered into a monthly giveaway for prizes. To activate this special deal:
But hurry! This offer ends on November 30.
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NOTABLE OBITS
* Convicted mass murderer George Banks, 83, has died. In 1982, Banks went on a shooting spree in Wilkes-Barre, Pa., that claimed the lives of 13 people, including five of his own children. The former prison guard and Army veteran eventually surrendered after an hours-long standoff with police. (Alexandra E. Petri, The New York Times)
* Former college football coach John Beam died at 66. During his 20 years at Laney College in Oakland, Calif., Beam won two league titles and coached 20 players who later went on to the NFL. Beam also appeared in the Netflix docuseries, “Last Chance U” about athletes at junior colleges striving to turn their lives around. (Mike Catalini and Haven Daley, The Associated Press)
* Michèle Burke, who was the first woman to win an Academy Award for makeup, died. She was 75. Burke worked on more than 50 feature films and TV shows, including “Quest for Fire,” for which she won a Best Makeup Oscar alongside Sarah Monzani in 1983. A decade later, she shared a second Academy Award with Greg Cannom and Matthew W. Mungle for their work on “Bram Stoker’s Dracula.” (Melanie Goodfellow, Deadline)
* Cleto Escobedo III, a saxophonist and the bandleader on the TV program “Jimmy Kimmel Live!”, died. He was 59. Escobedo and his band, Cleto and the Cletones, have been part of the late-night talk show since its debut in 2003. He and Kimmel were also lifelong friends who served as best men in each other’s weddings. Before his TV gig, Escobedo toured with Paula Abdul, Philip Bailey and Marc Anthony. (Rick Porter, The Hollywood Reporter)
* Agnes Gund, 87, a champion of contemporary art, died. An art collector and philanthropist, Gund joined the Museum of Modern Art’s international council in 1967. She would eventually serve as MoMA’s president for 11 years and oversee an $858 million expansion of the museum. In 1997, she received the National Medal of Arts from President Bill Clinton. (William Grimes, The New York Times)
* William Rataczak, one of the pilots of the passenger jet that was hijacked by D.B. Cooper in 1971, died at 86. Rataczak and Captain William Scott were flying a Northwest Orient Airlines plane from Portland, Ore., to Seattle when a passenger handed a note to a flight attendant that said he had a bomb. The passenger then requested four parachutes and $200,000 in cash. Rataczak and Scott landed in Seattle, and the parachutes and money were brought aboard. After demanding that they fly him to Mexico, Cooper lowered the rear stairwell of the plane and jumped. The notorious hijacker has never been arrested. (Michael S. Rosenwald, The New York Times)
* Bob Shumway, the last known survivor of the deadly Cocoanut Grove nightclub fire, died. He was 101. Shumway and his friend Dick Moulton were among the 1,000 patrons inside the nightclub on Nov. 28, 1942, when a fire broke out. As the flames spread, people rushed to the club’s main entrance, which quickly became a bottleneck as they piled up against the jammed revolving door. Although Shumway and Moulton helped some of the fleeing patrons, by the end of the night, 492 people had perished. It was one of the deadliest fires in U.S. history. (Bryan Marquarad, Boston Globe)
* Paul Tagliabue, 84, who served as the commissioner of the NFL for 17 years, died. During his tenure from 1989 to 2006, Tagliabue oversaw the construction of several new stadiums and implemented a strict policy against substance abuse. He also established the “Rooney Rule,” which required all teams with coaching vacancies to interview minority candidates. (Barry Wilner and Rob Maaddi, The Associated Press)
* Disability rights activist and author Alice Wong died. She was 51. Wong was the founder of the Disability Visibility Project, which encouraged people with disabilities to share their stories in an oral history project and on social media. She co-founded #CripTheVote in 2016, a nonpartisan online movement that facilitated discussions about disability issues between voters and politicians. The MacArthur “Genius” Award-winner also wrote about disability in a column for Teen Vogue and in her 2022 memoir, “Year of the Tiger: An Activist’s Life.” (Chloe Veltman, NPR)
FAMOUS DEATHS IN HISTORY
On November 17, English pirate captain Calico Jack (37), French sculptor Auguste Rodin (77) and gossip columnist Sheilah Graham (84)
On November 18, novelist Paul Bowles (88), soul singer Sharon Jones (60) and Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Ned Rorem (99)
On November 19, Austrian composer Franz Schubert (31), cult leader Charles Manson (83) and first lady Rosalynn Carter (96)
On November 20, German painter Paula Modersohn-Becker (31), Australian Prime Minister Sir John McEwen (80) and Japanese sumo wrestler Kitanoumi Toshimitsu (62)
On November 21, first lady Florence Harding (64), fantasy novelist Anne McCaffrey (85) and singer/actor David Cassidy (67)
On November 22, the first Black mayor of a U.S. city (Hartford, Conn.) Carrie Saxon Perry (87), Indian sitar and surbahar player/composer Imrat Khan (83) and science fiction author Greg Bear (71)
On November 23, English statesman/founder of the Royal Geographic Society John Barrow (84), Army physician Walter Reed (51) and lyricist/playwright Betty Comden (89)
On November 24, the founder of Mother’s Day Anna Jarvis (84), assassin Lee Harvey Oswald (24), and Tanzanian and English singer/songwriter Freddie Mercury (45) of Queen
RECOMMENDED SUBSTACK
FAMOUS LAST WORDS
“Build me a hut to die in. I am going home.” --David Livingstone
MOMENT OF GRATITUDE
Thanks to Rianne Gerrits, Unsplash, the American Battle Monuments Commission, The Washington Post, The National WWII Museum/New Orleans, CNN, YouTube, Military Times, Dutch News, The Marshall Project, Bizarre Beasts, Stephen Wheeler, The Moonlight Reader Society, The New York Times, The Associated Press, Deadline, Jimmy Kimmel Live, The Hollywood Reporter, the Boston Globe, the MacArthur Foundation, NPR, Bruno Neurath-Wilson, On This Day, Playback.FM, Britannica: This Day in History, Time and Date, Wikipedia, The Written Word, Man Down by Jason MacKenzie, Canva and Deposit Photos for art and story suggestions.
KEEP IN TOUCH
Have you discovered some interesting death-related news? Read a great obituary? Or do you know of someone we should interview? Reach out:
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