Obituaries for 2024

[GrouchoTex]

In the Music world that is "Breaking Blues".  Didn't think he was 90.  Time is flying by.

His age surprised me too.

[Free Vulcan]

Erica Ash dead at 46: Scary Movie actress and Mad TV star passes away after a long battle with cancer

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-13685791/Erica-Ash-dead-46-Scary-Movie-actress-cancer.html

She was funny in Scary Movie.

[mystery-ak]

William Calley, the Only Man Convicted for the My Lai Massacre, Dead at 80
By streiff | 9:56 PM on July 30, 2024



William L. Calley, Jr., the only American officer convicted of war crimes in Vietnam, died April 28 in Gainesville, FL, where he was in hospice care. No public announcement was made of his death, which was first reported by the Washington Post (William Calley, Army officer and face of My Lai Massacre, is dead at 80).

William Laws Calley, Jr. was born in Miami, FL, on June 8, 1943. His father was a machine salesman. Calley was a poor student in high school and dropped out of Palm Beach Junior College after one semester. He worked as a bellhop, a dishwasher, and a switchman for the Florida East Coast Railroad. After some unpleasantness involving a train blocking five downtown Miami intersections during rush hour, he cleared out and headed west. He made it as far as Albuquerque, NM, where his car broke down, and he enlisted in the Army.

The war in Vietnam was heating up, and the Army needed officers. Calley had low aptitude scores and mediocre recommendations, but desperate times called for desperate measures, and that was enough to get him enrolled in the Army Officers' Candidate School. He graduated and was commissioned into the Infantry. He was assigned to C Company, 1st of the 20th Infantry, 23d (Americal) Division at Schofield Barracks, HI. There was a brief training period, and the battalion arrived in Vietnam in December 1967

more
https://redstate.com/streiff/2024/07/30/william-calley-the-only-man-convicted-for-the-my-lai-massacre-dead-at-80-n2177571

[PeteS in CA]

From what I've read, the Americal Division of the Vietnam War era was not America's smartest and best trained. That the massacre was murder is fact - under-trained unprepared men in intense combat - and Calley was not innocent, but he was also the lone scapegoat. Whatever the appropriate sentence, he should not have been alone.

[MeganC]

From what I've read, the Americal Division of the Vietnam War era was not America's smartest and best trained. That the massacre was murder is fact - under-trained unprepared men in intense combat - and Calley was not innocent, but he was also the lone scapegoat. Whatever the appropriate sentence, he should not have been alone.

From what I understand the leadership in charge of the Vietnam War was not America's smartest and best trained. From the outset they hamstrung the military with limitations that frustrated the troops and their officer corps.

What should have happened in Vietnam is that if we were to commit troops on the ground that nothing less than total victory should have been acceptable. Sending in American troops to maintain a status quo was criminally foolish and in the end this philosophy resulted in defeat.

[Cyber Liberty]

From what I understand the leadership in charge of the Vietnam War was not America's smartest and best trained. From the outset they hamstrung the military with limitations that frustrated the troops and their officer corps.

What should have happened in Vietnam is that if we were to commit troops on the ground that nothing less than total victory should have been acceptable. Sending in American troops to maintain a status quo was criminally foolish and in the end this philosophy resulted in defeat.

And we've been fighting wars the same way ever since VN.

[Bigun]

And we've been fighting wars the same way ever since VN Korea.

Fixed!

[Wingnut]

And we've been fighting wars the same way ever since VN.

Some say even since Korea.  But at least we stomped Granada's ass.

[Timber Rattler]

From what I've read, the Americal Division of the Vietnam War era was not America's smartest and best trained. That the massacre was murder is fact - under-trained unprepared men in intense combat - and Calley was not innocent, but he was also the lone scapegoat. Whatever the appropriate sentence, he should not have been alone.

I've interviewed a lot of Vietnam vets over the years, and it's more complicated than that.  It seems that there was in fact an unwritten "kill order" that had come down from on high, as confirmed by the Peers Commission, in which every citizen in VC-controlled villages were to be treated as the enemy.  Moreover, at that point in the war, at the tail-end of the Tet Offensive, the U.S. Army was strung out, exhausted, and coming apart.  For its part, Calley's company had come under repeated attack by the VC and lost several unit members, resulting in frustration and anger among the surviving men.  Consequently, perhaps it should be no surprise that they finally broke under those extremely difficult circumstances. 

Not justifying what the did at all, but there sure as heck is a lot more context to the massacre  and there were plenty of "superior" officers who were just as guilty as Calley for what happened, including Westmoreland himself.


The My Lai Massacre and its cover-up: beyond the reach of law?: The Peers Commission report

https://archive.org/details/mylaimassacreits0000unit

The Untold Story of My Lai: How and Why the Official Investigation Covered Up General Westmoreland’s Responsibility

https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/the-untold-story-of-my-lai-how-and-why-the-official-investigation-covered-up-general-westmorelands-responsibility/

(Yeah, it's The Nation but this is a good article.)

[Bigun]

From what I understand the leadership in charge of the Vietnam War was not America's smartest and best trained. From the outset they hamstrung the military with limitations that frustrated the troops and their officer corps.

What should have happened in Vietnam is that if we were to commit troops on the ground that nothing less than total victory should have been acceptable. Sending in American troops to maintain a status quo was criminally foolish and in the end this philosophy resulted in defeat.

Most honest history of the Vietnam war ever written and writing it very nearly cost the author his career. (I was there so I know a tad bit about the subject.)

[Bigun]

I've interviewed a lot of Vietnam vets over the years, and it's more complicated than that.  It seems that there was in fact an unwritten "kill order" that had come down from on high, as confirmed by the Peers Commission, in which every citizen in VC-controlled villages were to be treated as the enemy.  Moreover, at that point in the war, at the tail-end of the Tet Offensive, the U.S. Army was strung out, exhausted, and coming apart.  For its part, Calley's company had come under repeated attack by the VC and lost several unit members, resulting in frustration and anger among the surviving men.  Consequently, perhaps it should be no surprise that they finally broke under those extremely difficult circumstances. 

Not justifying what the did at all, but there sure as heck is a lot more context to the massacre  and there were plenty of "superior" officers who were just as guilty as Calley for what happened, including Westmoreland himself.


The My Lai Massacre and its cover-up: beyond the reach of law?: The Peers Commission report

https://archive.org/details/mylaimassacreits0000unit

The Untold Story of My Lai: How and Why the Official Investigation Covered Up General Westmoreland’s Responsibility

https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/the-untold-story-of-my-lai-how-and-why-the-official-investigation-covered-up-general-westmorelands-responsibility/

(Yeah, it's The Nation but this is a good article.)

Had to keep the REMFs busy somehow!

[MeganC]

Some say even since Korea.  But at least we stomped Granada's ass.

Granada was about stopping the Cubans and Russians from building an airbase there. Russia made a mistake when they insisted that Russia had nothing to do with it and then the uniformed Russian troops who were there were arrested as civilians. Most of them disappeared after that. No idea what happened to them.

[Cyber Liberty]

Fixed!

I accept that....

[PeteS in CA]

Author of best-selling 'Sweet Valley High' book series, Francine Pascal, dies at 92

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/author-of-best-selling-sweet-valley-high-book-series-francine-pascal-dies-at-92/ar-BB1qYpXh

Francine Pascal, author of the famed best-selling "Sweet Valley High" book series died Sunday in Manhattan, according to reports in New York Times and Associated Press.

Pascal's daughter Laurie Wenk-Pascal told the Times that her mother, a life-long New Yorker, died of lymphoma at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital Sunday. She was 92.

Pascal was born Francine Paula Rubin, on May 13, 1932, in Manhattan. She grew up in Jamaica, Queens, per NYT and studied journalism at New York University. She started her career as a freelancer for gossip outlets such as "True Confessions" and "Modern Screen," and later for magazines such as "Cosmopolitan" and "Ladies’ Home Journal." In the 60s, she and her second husband John Pascal wrote for the soap opera “The Young Marrieds,” giving it up when the producers asked them to relocate to Los Angeles. The two also collaborated with Pascal's brother, the Tony-winning playwright Michael Stewart, on the book for “George M!” a musical about the Broadway impresario George M. Cohan.

[PeteS in CA]

Producer David Selznick, the Last Direct Link to Legendary Hollywood Family, Dies at 88

https://www.msn.com/en-sg/movies/news/producer-david-selznick-the-last-direct-link-to-legendary-hollywood-family-dies-at-88/ar-AA1o9VA1

Producer Daniel Selznick, the last direct link to one of Hollywood’s founding families, died Aug. 1 at the Motion Picture & Television Fund’s Country Home campus in the Woodland Hills area of Los Angeles.

Selznick grew up in Beverly Hills as showbiz royalty. He was the younger of two sons of “Gone With the Wind” producer David O. Selznick and stage producer Irene Mayer Selznick. His grandfather was Louis B. Mayer, the gregarious Canadian immigrant who led Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer to the pinnacle of art and commerce during Hollywood’s 1930s and ’40s Golden Age. By the time Daniel Selznick was a young teenager, his parents had divorced and his father was remarried to Oscar-winning actress Jennifer Jones.
...
As a producer, Daniel Selznick’s credits include the 1983 TV miniseries “Blood Feud,” directed by Mike Newell and starring Robert Blake as Jimmy Hoffa and Cotter Smith as Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy. He also produced the 1987 miniseries “Hoover vs. the Kennedys,” the 1977 TV movie thriller “Night Drive,” starring Valerie Harper, and the 1981 docu-drama “Reagan’s Way: Pathway to the Presidency.”

[jmyrlefuller]

Songwriter-producer Jerry Fuller (not me) dies at 85

Among the hits Fuller wrote in the late 1950s into the mid-1960s that became hits were "Travelin' Man" (among others) for Ricky Nelson, "Young Girl" for Gary Puckett and the Union Gap, "Lies" for the Knickerbockers, "Arizona" by Mark Lindsay, and "Show and Tell," which became a hit for Al Wilson in the 1970s.

https://variety.com/2024/music/obituaries-people-news/jerry-fuller-dead-songwriter-young-girl-travelin-man-1236079249/

Speaking of deceased songwriters...

Mark James, famed songwriter for Elvis and others, dies at 83

https://lost45.com/2024/06/12/6-12-24-mark-james-passes-see-what-he-wrote/

Among James's famed hits were "Hooked on a Feeling" (a huge hit for BJ Thomas and Blue Swede), and several that Elvis Presley made famous: "Suspicious Minds," "Moody Blue," and "Always on My Mind" (the last of which was also a hit for Willie Nelson).


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n1YKv_Pl8PU


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WrMGGouem3c

[jmyrlefuller]

Billy Bean, major league baseball player and executive, dies at 60

https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/40753711/bean-openly-gay-ex-player-worked-mlb-dies-60

[Wingnut]

Billy Bean, major league baseball player and executive, dies at 60

https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/40753711/bean-openly-gay-ex-player-worked-mlb-dies-60

Moneyball!  Enjoyed the move. 

I guess the need to write the lead in the ESPN obit, that he was gay, was necessary to appease the woke and the alphabet people.

[Polly Ticks]

Moneyball!  Enjoyed the move. 

I guess the need to write the lead in the ESPN obit, that he was gay, was necessary to appease the woke and the alphabet people.

Wrong one... kind of.  Billy Beane, former manager of the Oakland Athletics and the subject of the Moneyball movie, is still alive.

Billy Bean, the 'inclusion ambassador', is the one who passed away.

[Wingnut]

Wrong one... kind of.  Billy Beane, former manager of the Oakland Athletics and the subject of the Moneyball movie, is still alive.

Billy Bean, the 'inclusion ambassador', is the one who passed away.

Ah.  My bad.  Thanks for the correction.

[Polly Ticks]

Ah.  My bad.  Thanks for the correction.

No worries - there is a lot of it going around.  You'd think those guys would've planned better than to have names that sound exactly the same.  Homophones, as it were. 

[PeteS in CA]

I'm not in the golf world (though I grew up across a field and an irrigation canal from a golf course), but even I remember this golfer's name:

Juan ‘Chi Chi’ Rodriguez, popular Hall of Fame golfer, dead at 88

Juan ‘Chi Chi’ Rodriguez, popular Hall of Fame golfer, dead at 88

Juan “Chi Chi” Rodriguez, a Hall of Fame golfer whose antics on the greens and inspiring life story made him among the sport’s most popular players during a long professional career, died Thursday.

He was 88.

Rodriguez’s death was announced by Carmelo Javier Ríos, a senator in Rodriguez’ native Puerto Rico.

He didn’t provide a cause of death.

“Chi Chi Rodriguez’s passion for charity and outreach was surpassed only by his incredible talent with a golf club in his hand,” PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan said in a statement. “A vibrant, colorful personality both on and off the golf course, he will be missed dearly by the PGA Tour and those whose lives he touched in his mission to give back. The PGA Tour sends its deepest condolences to the entire Rodriguez family during this difficult time.”

[mountaineer]

Chi Chi was very entertaining, a real crowd favorite. Just a few years older than Jack Nicklaus, but certainly of that generation of golfers.

[Bigun]

Chi Chi was very entertaining, a real crowd favorite. Just a few years older than Jack Nicklaus, but certainly of that generation of golfers.

He was one of a kind. I always loved how he would take his hankie and wipe off his putters shaft before sheathing it after he sank a long putt.

[mountaineer]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G8ejjx17-aI