First on our list is playwright William Congreve. No clue if he's an ancestor of the Rocket Man (wonder how many people will get that!), but he clearly knew how to be an ancestor, since he is believed to have had a kid with the daughter of The Duke of Marlborough. At any rate, while he retired young, he gave us a few lines you might recognize. "Music has charms to soothe a savage breast" (If you're thinking it should be "hath" and "beast", you're actually wrong); "Heaven has no rage like love to hatred turned, nor Hell a fury like a woman scorned"; and finally "O fie, miss, you must not kiss and tell." So that's not a bad legacy. He died in 1729, as a result of injuries sustained in a carriage accident.
Charles Bent died on this date in 1847. Probably because he'd been shot and scalped alive. He was the governor of New Mexico Territory, and his wife had a sister who was married to Kit Carson. Bent lived in Taos, even while he was governor in Santa Fe, and when the Pueblo Indians went on the rampage in the Taos Revolt, they got him. He settled in NM after setting up a trading route to the US some years before, and his wife was a local.
Whew. Just when I thought that we were gonna be devoid of truly interesting people, I see that the one and only Carl Perkins died on this date in 1998. He was quite protective of his blue suede shoes, you know. And deservedly so! In the 1980s, he and some of his old friends (like Jerry Lee Lewis) recorded an album together, sorta mirroring some recordings they made in the 50s at Sun Records. For the latter stuff, there was no Elvis, since he was either dead or couldn't get out of work at the Burger King, depending on who you ask. Or the aliens had him. That's possible too. At any rate, in the latter recordings, he did an awesome tune called "Birth of Rock and Roll".
In 2000, we lost Hedy Lamarr- that's HEDY, not HEDLEY, for any Mel Brooks fans. She was not just an actress, but she also invented some cool stuff that was the forerunner of things like frequency hopping, which we use all the time for our wireless communications. It was originally intended to help defend against radio guided torpedoes, which might have been useful in 1941 when she and her cohort thought it up, but the US didn't put it to use until 1962, when the patent she'd earned was expired. She was married at one point to an Austrian Arms Dealer, who tried to keep her penned up in their castle, consorting with his friends and business partners (visitors included both Hitler and Mussolini), so she apparently had to escape to Paris, either by drugging him, or by disguising herself as the maid and fleeing. Still, an interesting story for an Austrian not named "von Trapp". She was the lead temptress in "Samson and Delilah" after she got to America. After that her career kinda tanked, and she died at the age of 86.
In 2006, Soul Singer Wilson Pickett died. I presume he decided to wait till the midnight hour, otherwise he would have died on January 19th. And that would have been a disaster! On the other hand, if he had waited till the midnight hour again, we'd be doing this tomorrow. (There's a train of thought that could cause headaches). He did some really cool stuff, like "In the midnight hour", "land of 1,000 dances", and "Mustang Sally". He was born in Alabama, but when he was a teenager left his mother, who was apparently a bit on the mean side, and moved to Detroit to live with his Dad. So that makes Pickett COOL! Not that he wouldn't have been cool anyway, mind you. Sadly, in his later years he had drug and alcohol problems, which might have helped him along the road to a heart attack.
Not long ago, we talked about Denny Doherty of the Mamas & the Papas. He was the Papa who wasn't John Philips. He was also the love of Cass Elliot's life, but rejected her, if you recall. Anyhow, he died on this date in 2007, in Canada. Which isn't as bad as it sounds- he was a native of Canada.
2008 lost us Emily Hartley herself, Suzanne Pleshette. All together now, "Hi Bob!". Yeah, that's for old time sakes. Awesome as she was in The Bob Newhart Show, she was even better in the final scene of Newhart, where she reprised her Emily role. I remember laughing out loud at how that one played out. Comedy genius!
And on that, note, goodbye.
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