Obituaries for 2023

[Gefn]

This thread needs an occasional pick me up.   

 I think the only kitty on this thread was Grumpy Cat’s obit.

A kitten is a perfect reminder, (or any baby animal ) that life goes on….

[Polly Ticks]

Dr. Charles Stanley, influential Atlanta faith leader and author, dies at 90

ATLANTA - Dr. Charles Frazier Stanley, the senior pastor at First Baptist Church Atlanta and the founder of In Touch Ministries has died.

FOX 5's Buck Lanford has confirmed First Baptist Atlanta Senior Pastor Anthony Georgia that the influential Atlanta faith leader passed away peacefully at his home Tuesday morning.




https://www.fox5atlanta.com/news/charles-stanley-intouch-ministries-dead-obituary

[jmyrlefuller]

Barry Humphries, creator and portrayer of Dame Edna, dies at 89.

https://www.reuters.com/lifestyle/barry-humphries-creator-dame-edna-dies-89-sydney-morning-herald-2023-04-22/

[Gefn]

Barry Humphries, creator and portrayer of Dame Edna, dies at 89.

https://www.reuters.com/lifestyle/barry-humphries-creator-dame-edna-dies-89-sydney-morning-herald-2023-04-22/

Dame Edna gone? Rest in peace sir

(Is it me or does he look like Mrs. Slocumb from Are You Being Served? )

[mountaineer]

Dame Edna was a hoot.

[Kamaji]

Ken Potts, one of last 2 USS Arizona survivors, dies at 102

By Associated Press   
April 23, 2023

Ken Potts, one of the last two remaining survivors of the USS Arizona battleship, which sank during the 1941 Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, has died.

He was 102.

Howard Kenton Potts died Friday at the home in Provo, Utah, that he shared with his wife of 66 years, according to Randy Stratton, whose late father, Donald Stratton, was Potts’ Arizona shipmate and close friend.

Stratton said Potts “had all his marbles” but lately was having a hard time getting out of bed. When Stratton spoke to Potts on his birthday, April 15, he was happy to have made it to 102.

“But he knew that his body was kind of shutting down on him, and he was just hoping that he could get better but (it) turned out not,” Stratton said.

*  *  *

Source:  https://nypost.com/2023/04/23/uss-arizona-survivors-ken-potts-dies-at-102/

[sneakypete]

Ken Potts, one of last 2 USS Arizona survivors, dies at 102

By Associated Press   
April 23, 2023

Ken Potts, one of the last two remaining survivors of the USS Arizona battleship, which sank during the 1941 Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, has died.

He was 102.

Howard Kenton Potts died Friday at the home in Provo, Utah, that he shared with his wife of 66 years, according to Randy Stratton, whose late father, Donald Stratton, was Potts’ Arizona shipmate and close friend.

Stratton said Potts “had all his marbles” but lately was having a hard time getting out of bed. When Stratton spoke to Potts on his birthday, April 15, he was happy to have made it to 102.

“But he knew that his body was kind of shutting down on him, and he was just hoping that he could get better but (it) turned out not,” Stratton said.

*  *  *

Source:  https://nypost.com/2023/04/23/uss-arizona-survivors-ken-potts-dies-at-102/

@Kamaji

I grew up living next door to one of my mother's cousins and her husband. He was awarded a Silver Star after the attack on Hawaii by the Japanese. He was 18 or 19 at the time,but man enough to run for a ships gun to shoot at the attackers. IIRC,he was credited with shooting a few down before his ship (the USS Arizona) started to go down and he had to abandon ship.

For those of you who don't know,an E-3 or E-4 aboard a Naval ship getting a Silver Star is damn  near akin to finding a chicken  with teeth. The Navy does NOT give them away,and when they DO award them,it is almost always officers that get them.

[jmyrlefuller]

Dame Edna was a hoot.

back when drag was humor and not a statement of indoctrination.

[catfish1957]

back when drag was humor and not a statement of indoctrination.

Jonathan Winters and Flip Wilson back in my childhood were hoots.  No one even gave thought to insidious nature of what is being thrown at us now.

[Cyber Liberty]

Jonathan Winters and Flip Wilson back in my childhood were hoots.  No one even gave thought to insidious nature of what is being thrown at us now.

They weren't coming to recruit our kids back then.

[Kamaji]

They weren't coming to recruit our kids back then.

Exactly

[sneakypete]

They weren't coming to recruit our kids back then.

@Cyber Liberty 

They were going for laughs,not indoctrination. Back then a man in a dress was funny,not a political statement.

[Gefn]

Harry Belafonte, 96, Dies; Barrier-Breaking Singer, Actor and Activist

Harry Belafonte, who stormed the pop charts and smashed racial barriers in the 1950s with his highly personal brand of folk music, and who went on to become a major force in the civil rights movement, died on Tuesday at his home on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. He was 96.

The cause was congestive heart failure, said Ken Sunshine, his longtime spokesman.

At a time when segregation was still widespread and Black faces were still a rarity on screens large and small, Mr. Belafonte’s ascent to the upper echelon of show business was historic. He was not the first Black entertainer to transcend racial boundaries; Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald and others had achieved stardom before him. But none had made as much of a splash as he did, and for a few years no one in music, Black or white, was bigger.

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/25/arts/music/harry-belafonte-dead.html

[Gefn]

Harry Belafonte, 96, Dies; Barrier-Breaking Singer, Actor and Activist


https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/25/arts/music/harry-belafonte-dead.html

When I was a child, my parents had one of his albums. We played it so often….thank you for the music, Sir.

[jmyrlefuller]

"I go to places where enormous upheaval and pain and anguish exist. And a lot of it exists based upon American policy. Whom we support, whom we support as heads of state, what countries we've helped to overthrow, what leaders we've helped to diminish because they did not fit the mold we think they should fit, no matter how ill advised that thought may be."

" I have met some glorious human beings: Eleanor Roosevelt, Fanny Lou Hamer, Ella Baker, and Dr. King, Malcolm X, Nelson Mandela and Che Guevara, and Cesar Chavez and others not quite so famous—they are the ones who really make the journey rewarding."

The recently deceased Harry Belafonte.

[sneakypete]

Harry Belafonte, 96, Dies; Barrier-Breaking Singer, Actor and Activist


https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/25/arts/music/harry-belafonte-dead.html

@Gefn

There can be no question about the man having an amazing voice. He also appeared to be very personable. I know I enjoyed watching and hearing him on shows like the old Ed Sullivan show,and I am glad he managed to live so long and enjoy  his life for most of those years. He provided a lot of people with a lot of smiles.

[sneakypete]

"I go to places where enormous upheaval and pain and anguish exist. And a lot of it exists based upon American policy. Whom we support, whom we support as heads of state, what countries we've helped to overthrow, what leaders we've helped to diminish because they did not fit the mold we think they should fit, no matter how ill advised that thought may be."

" I have met some glorious human beings: Eleanor Roosevelt, Fanny Lou Hamer, Ella Baker, and Dr. King, Malcolm X, Nelson Mandela and Che Guevara, and Cesar Chavez and others not quite so famous—they are the ones who really make the journey rewarding."

The recently deceased Harry Belafonte.

@jmyrlefuller

None of which means he was a communist. I have no doubt that damn near everybody he met,regardless of their politics,was pleasant with  him.

[Smokin Joe]

@Cyber Liberty 

They were going for laughs,not indoctrination. Back then a man in a dress was funny,not a political statement.

Some Like it Hot was in the same vein at the end, poking fun at the 'escape in drag' gambit that has been used throughout history...Tony Curtis and Jack Lemon getting away from the mob...Let Marylin Monroe know they were guys, and she came back with "Well, nobody's perfect."

[AllThatJazzZ]

"I go to places where enormous upheaval and pain and anguish exist. And a lot of it exists based upon American policy. Whom we support, whom we support as heads of state, what countries we've helped to overthrow, what leaders we've helped to diminish because they did not fit the mold we think they should fit, no matter how ill advised that thought may be."

" I have met some glorious human beings: Eleanor Roosevelt, Fanny Lou Hamer, Ella Baker, and Dr. King, Malcolm X, Nelson Mandela and Che Guevara, and Cesar Chavez and others not quite so famous—they are the ones who really make the journey rewarding."

The recently deceased Harry Belafonte.

I used to love HB. He was musically gifted and a drop-dead gorgeous man. I bought his albums as well as front-row concert tickets. In more recent years, I saw him in a different light -- a bitter racist who always assumed the very worst about whites. After I saw his once-handsome face grossly contorted into a nasty snarl, I was done with him.

Prayers for his family and loved ones.

[Smokin Joe]

I used to love HB. He was musically gifted and a drop-dead gorgeous man. I bought his albums as well as front-row concert tickets. In more recent years, I saw him in a different light -- a bitter racist who always assumed the very worst about whites. After I saw his once-handsome face grossly contorted into a nasty snarl, I was done with him.

Prayers for his family and loved ones.

Yeah, that part is sad. As a little tyke I didn't have a 'teddy bear', I had a stuffed toy elephant I called "Harry Elafonte". (after the singer). I hope he is in a better place.

[rangerrebew]

Harry Belafonte: Singer, activist, humanitarian, Navy veteran, legend, dead at 96
By
Joslin Joseph
Updated on
Apr 25, 2023
 
Harry Belafonte was among the greatest of the Greatest Generation. While he was known around the world for his singing, activism and humanitarian work, he also served the United States…
Harry Belafonte was among the greatest of the Greatest Generation. While he was known around the world for his singing, activism and humanitarian work, he also served the United States as a sailor in the Navy during World War II. With his passing today, we wanted to look back on his extraordinary life, including his service to our country.


Known as the “King of Calypso,” Harry Belafonte introduced America to the sounds of the Caribbean, singing songs from Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago, among other countries. After achieving stardom, Belafonte could have rested on his laurels as an entertainer and lived a comfortable life. But from his time living in Jamaica to going to school in New York to touring the United States, he saw what things weren’t right and used his stardom, voice and stature to speak out for Civil Rights well before it was fashionable – right up until his passing.

Belafonte was in high school when he decided to drop out and enlist so he could contribute to the war effort.  He was only 17 when he signed up and was assigned to Port Chicago, located in San Francisco.

https://www.wearethemighty.com/history/harry-belafonte/

[rangerrebew]

 

[Weird Tolkienish Figure]

Jerry Springer RIP!

Jerry Jerry Jerry!

[Kamaji]

Jerry Springer RIP!

Jerry Jerry Jerry!

Yup.  NY Post article:  https://pagesix.com/2023/04/27/jerry-springer-dead-at-79-after-cancer-battle/

[Wingnut]

Yup.  NY Post article:  https://pagesix.com/2023/04/27/jerry-springer-dead-at-79-after-cancer-battle/

Pancreatic cancer.  That one is a whole bunch of no good.