The power of numbers
"When I read obituaries, I always note the age of the deceased. Automatically I relate this figure to my own age. Four years to go, I think. Nine more years. Two years and I'm dead. The power of numbers is never more evident than when we use them to speculate on the time of our dying." --Don DeLillo
NEWS & NOTES
Forgotten no more
When Americans who are poor or unwanted die, their remains are held in mortuaries for a time period specified by local or state regulations. In general, if no one claims them, the remains are then buried in a pauper's grave or cremated and scattered in a garden.
In the U.K., hundreds of thousands of unclaimed remains are stored in funeral homes.
“Sometimes, in the aftermath of a funeral, people can be in denial and taking possession of the ashes can be a hard thing to do. In other instances, there is a breakdown in communication amongst a family as to who will collect them," Matthew Lymn Rose, managing director of A.W. Lymn The Family Funeral Service, said. "As ashes do not belong to anyone under British law, unless the person who made the funeral arrangements collects them, they go unclaimed.”
To combat this issue, Richard Martin, author of the Scattering Ashes blog, created the U.K.'s first uncollected ashes database. Known as The Ashes Register, the database gives funeral homes a place to list unclaimed remains. The register is searchable by name, date and place of birth as well as date and place of death. Once a loved one's listing is discovered, relatives may claim the listing and reach out to the appropriate funeral home for further instructions. The database also allows the public to register where remains have been scattered so others may pay their respects.
A.W. Lymn, based in the East Midlands, is the first funeral home to contribute to The Ashes Register. It has posted the details for 136 forgotten remains, the oldest of which dates back to 1952.
FMI: Click here.
Buried treasure
While excavating a 1,500-year-old burial site in southern Germany, archaeologists discovered a unique collection of accessories.
The site, which was located in Pförring, contained the grave of a young woman from the first half of the 5th century. Inside, the archaeologists found numerous rusted trinkets that they believe served as a form of costume jewelry, including two bronze keys, a bone box, several bronze rings, three Roman coins, a decorative disc with glass inlay, a snail shell and a bronze walnut pendant. Originally, the items would have been held in place with leather and strapped to the woman's thigh.
“The finds provide an interesting insight into the late antique culture on the Danube border of the Roman Empire and the use of jewelry and symbolism. The ensemble of the young woman from Pförring is exceptional in its compilation and allows exciting conclusions to be drawn about the social and cultural environment of the dead, Mathias Pfeil, general conservator of the Bavarian State Office for Monument Preservation, stated.
FMI: Click here.
Andrew Garfield and Elmo explain grief
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NOTABLE OBITS
* Renowned classical music producer Adam Abeshouse died at 63. Abeshouse began playing violin when he was in the third grade. As a young man, he studied at New York University and the Manhattan School of Music and performed for many years. In between gigs, Abeshouse started producing other artists from a small studio he built in his basement. He would eventually make hundreds of records with some of classical music’s biggest stars and win three Grammy Awards, including Classical Producer of the Year in 1999. Shortly before his death, many of his celebrity clients appeared at his home for a final performance in his honor. (Tom Vitale, NPR)
* David Burnham, a former investigative journalist for The New York Times who was best known for exposing corruption in the New York City Police Department, died at 91. Burnham's enterprising reporting caught the eye of Det. Frank Serpico, who had spent years trying to root out corruption at the NYPD from the inside. Serpico and Det. David Durk then became sources for Burnham, who wrote a three-part series in 1970 that revealed how officers had been extorting millions of dollars from businesses, drug dealers and gamblers and that the top brass and city officials covered it up. The series inspired public hearings which led to the indictments of several dozen officers, as well as the book "Serpico," and a 1973 movie of the same name starring Al Pacino. (Trip Gabriel, The New York Times)
* Lily Ebert, a Hungarian-born Auschwitz survivor who was devoted to keeping the memory of the Holocaust alive, died. She was 100. Ebert was just 20 years old when the Nazis imprisoned her family in the death camp in occupied Poland. After her mother and two youngest siblings died in the gas chamber, Ebert promised herself that if she survived, she would “tell the world what had happened.” After her liberation, she emigrated to Britain, wed and raised a family. Once she had the strength to do so, Ebert followed through on her vow, speaking to students, historians and politicians about her experiences. She co-authored the best-selling memoir, "Lily's Promise," with her great-grandson Dov Forman, and even took to TikTok to show the tattoo branded on her arm and to discuss what life was like in the concentration camp. (Emily Langer, The Washington Post)
* Mitzi Gaynor, the vivacious movie-musical star of "South Pacific" and "Anything Goes," died. She was 93. Gaynor spent eight decades entertaining audiences in films, TV and on stages around the world. The actor, singer and dancer received 17 Emmy nominations for her television appearances and specials and won six. In 1960, she was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. (Nardine Saad and Malia Mendez, Los Angeles Times)
* U.S. District Judge Joyce Hens Green, who presided over many high-profile cases, including the detainees at Guantánamo Bay and the BCCI bank fraud scandal, died at 95. In 1951, Green was one of only six women to graduate from George Washington University’s law school. After working as an attorney and on the D.C. Superior Court, President Jimmy Carter nominated her to the federal bench in 1979; she would become only the third woman to serve on the U.S. District Court in Washington. Green was also the first woman named to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, where she ruled on classified intelligence requests, and was the president of the Women’s Bar Association of D.C. (Harrison Smith, The Washington Post)
* Akira Hirose, who helped to popularize Asian flavors through fusion cuisine in Los Angeles during the 1980s and 1990s, died at 70. Born in Japan, Hirose always wanted to be a chef, but his path became more focused when he ate a meal at a French restaurant in Kyoto. At 18, he moved to France to study the cuisine and find his place in the business. He would eventually don his chef whites and move to Southern California where he spent decades working in some of L.A.’s most influential restaurants. Five years ago, he opened a small cafe in Little Tokyo called Azay as a collaborative family effort. In the coming months, Azay will host tribute dinners in honor of Hirose and serve his signature dishes. (Stephanie Breijo, Los Angeles Times)
* Lawrence “Larry” Laughlin, a veteran journalist who spent two decades as the northern New England bureau chief for The Associated Press, died at 75. Laughlin supervised the news service’s operations in New Hampshire, Maine and Vermont from 1988 until his retirement in 2009. In that position, he oversaw coverage of five first-in-the-nation presidential primaries, New Hampshire's investigation of clergy sex abuse and the loss of the Old Man of the Mountain, just after the rock formation’s collapse. (Holly Ramer, The Associated Press)
* Lilly Ledbetter, 86, an accidental activist in the fight for equal pay for women, died. Ledbetter had worked at a Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. plant in Alabama for 19 years before she received an anonymous note informing her that she was earning less than her male counterparts. Ledbetter filed suit and the case went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled 5-4 against her, saying workers must file lawsuits within six months of first receiving a discriminatory paycheck. In 2009, President Barack Obama signed into law the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, which gave workers the right to sue within 180 days of receiving each discrimination paycheck, not just the first one. (William Thornton, The Birmingham News)
* Pulitzer Prize-winning Washington Post photographer Matthew Lewis died at 94. Although Lewis's grandfather and father were both photographers, he didn't enter the field until he was 33. When The Washington Post hired him in 1965, he was only the paper's second Black photographer. Lewis would take pictures of hard news events as well as create portraits of politicians and celebrities, but it was his feature work for Potomac, the Post's Sunday Magazine, that earned him journalism's highest honor in 1975. Two years later, he became The Post’s first Black assistant managing editor. (Adam Bernstein, The Washington Post)
* British singer and former One Direction member Liam Payne died at 31. The boy band formed in 2010 after each of its five would-be members failed to advance as solo artists in the British talent show "X Factor." The quintet quickly soared in popularity, becoming known for its hit songs ("What Makes You Beautiful," "Story of My Life") and world tours. One Direction would eventually win American Music Awards, Billboard Music Awards and Brit Awards. After the group disbanded in 2016, Payne released one solo album, "LP1." (Alexandra Del Rosario, Angie Orellana Hernandez, Malia Mendez and Karen Garcia, Los Angeles Times)
* Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, 61, who was widely credited with masterminding the deadly Oct. 7, 2023 terror attacks on Israel, died. Sinwar was born in a refugee camp and received a bachelor's degree in Arabic language from the Islamic University of Gaza. He joined Hamas after it was founded in 1987. Over the next four decades, Sinwar helped to form the militant group’s intelligence service, Munazzamat al Jihad w’al-Dawa, worked his way into a leadership position and earned the nickname “The Butcher of Khan Younis" for his brutality. (Raf Sanchez and Henry Austin, NBC News)
* Luis Tiant, who played for six major league baseball teams during his 19-year career, died. He was 83. A Cuban emigré, "El Tiante" was named after his father, who was a lefthander for the New York Cubans in the Negro Leagues. During Tiant’s 573 major league appearances, he posted a 229-172 record and was a three-time All-Star. But his glory days were the eight seasons he played for the Red Sox in Boston, where he became the city's first Latino sports superstar. (John Powers, Boston Globe)
* Ozzie Virgil Sr., 92, a pioneering baseball player who spent nine seasons in the major leagues, died. Virgil Sr. was the first Dominican native to play professional baseball when he became a third baseman for the New York Giants in 1956. Two years later, he made history again, this time as the Detroit Tigers’ first Black player. He would later work as a baseball coach and scout. His son, Ozzie Jr., would also play the game, becoming a two-time All-Star catcher. (Richard Goldstein, The New York Times)
* Thelma Mothershed Wair, 83, one of the nine Black students who integrated a high school in Little Rock, Arkansas while a mob of white segregationists threatened them, died. For three weeks in September 1957, Arkansas Gov. Orval Faubus used the National Guard to keep the students from enrolling in Central High, even though the U.S. Supreme Court had already declared segregated classrooms unconstitutional. It was only after President Dwight D. Eisenhower intervened and sent members of the Army’s 101st Airborne Division to escort "The Little Rock Nine" to school that they were able to attend classes. Mothershed Wair would go on to earn both bachelor's and master's degrees and dedicate the rest of her life to teaching others. (Bill Bowden, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette and Emily Wagster Pettus, The Associated Press)
* Hollywood stuntman Bob Yerkes has died. He was 92. Yerkes was just 15 when he ran away from home and joined the circus, where he performed as a trapeze aerialist and tightrope walker. After serving in the Korean War, Yerkes went to Hollywood and spent the next eight decades putting his body on the line for entertainment. He would eventually slide down a clock tower cable in "Back to the Future," fall from a helicopter through a roof in "Breakout," swing across the Sherman Oaks Galleria in "Commando" and fly as Boba Fett in "Return of the Jedi." Despite the dangers of his chosen profession, Yerkes suffered few injuries, though he did repeatedly break both of his legs. (Mike Barnes, The Hollywood Reporter)
FAMOUS DEATHS IN HISTORY
On October 21, author Jack Kerouac (47), journalist Ben Bradlee (93) and golfer Betsy Rawls (95)
On October 22, circus bearded lady Annie Jones (37), French painter Paul Cézanne (67) and actor Cleavon Little (53)
On October 23, Lithuanian-American singer/actor Al Jolson (64), French fashion designer Christian Dior (52) and journalist Jessica Savitch (36)
On October 24, singer/songwriter/pianist Fats Domino (89), civil rights activist Rosa Parks (92) and actor Robert Guillaume (89)
On October 25, English poet/author Geoffrey Chaucer (56), actor Vincent Price (82) and stuntman Hal Needham (82)
On October 26, woman's rights activist Elizabeth Cady Stanton (86), baseball player/manager/team owner Charles Comiskey (72) and actress Hattie McDaniel (59)
On October 27, German WWII resistance fighter Judith Auer (39), game show announcer Rod Roddy (66) and singer/songwriter/guitarist Lou Reed (71)
On October 28, basketball coach Red Auerbach (89), author Galway Kinnell (87) and Canadian-American actor Matthew Perry (54)
RECOMMENDED SUBSTACK
FAMOUS LAST WORDS
"A party! Let's have a party." --Margaret Sanger
MOMENT OF GRATITUDE
Thanks to Xiangkun ZHU, Unsplash, Richard Martin, LinkedIn, A.W. Lymn The Family Funeral Service, The Ashes Register, the Nottingham Post, BBC News, Bayerisches Landesamt Für Denkmal Pflege, Apple News, the Miami Herald, Google Translate, Sesame Workshop, YouTube, NPR, The New York Times, The Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, About to Eat, The Associated Press, The Birmingham News, Our State Magazine, NBC News, the Boston Globe, the Arkansas Democrat Gazette, The Hollywood Reporter, The Good Funeral Guide, On This Day, Playback.FM, Britannica: This Day in History, Time and Date, Wikipedia, The Written Word, A Grieving Heart, Mental Floss and Deposit Photos for art and story suggestions.
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