Post Mortem: April 5, 2009 - April 11, 2009
The Mayor Abstains
Honoring the dead takes many forms in many different cultures, although I'm not sure I've ever heard of a community honoring a dear, departed friend by electing him to public office. That's what the good people of Winfield, Mo., did April 7 when they re-elected Mayor Harry Stonebreaker to a...
By
Joe Holley
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April 11, 2009; 11:26 AM ET |
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Washington Post Obituaries
It's come to our attention that some of our valued readers don't see the actual stories we write everyday, perhaps because they only follow this blog. Just so you know, you can bookmark the Washington Post obituaries web page to see these daily. So this one's for you: Headlines and...
By
Patricia Sullivan
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April 10, 2009; 12:15 PM ET |
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Practitioner of a Lost Art
Here's why we love reading out-of-town obits: How else would we know about the death of Alouette LeBlanc, America's Greatest Tassel Dancer? The story provides a bit of social history, too: Long before stripper poles cropped up on every corner, Bourbon Street in the 1940s and '50s was a swanky...
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Patricia Sullivan
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April 10, 2009; 11:05 AM ET |
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"Mr. Sandman," "Lollipop" Singer Dies
The Newark Star-Ledger reports the death of Nancy Overton, who as one of the singing Chordettes in the 1950s helped popularize songs including "Mr. Sandman" and "Lollipop."...
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Adam Bernstein
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April 8, 2009; 6:31 PM ET |
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Shroud-eating Vampires!
So here's a death-related story you don't read every day, courtesy of the Associated Press. (Caution: Don't read this while you're having a meal.) A well-preserved skeleton of a woman found during an archaeological dig near Venice had a brick stuck between her jaws -- evidence, according to the experts,...
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Joe Holley
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April 8, 2009; 2:49 PM ET |
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Social Media for the Fictional Dead
Since we deal with real people here, it's kind of bizarre to see that Fox television network (the entertainment division) has created an online memorial site and a Facebook memorial for a *character* who died on the series "House." (Thanks to Baltimore Sun critic David Zurawick, on whose blog I...
By
Patricia Sullivan
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April 7, 2009; 5:26 PM ET |
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A Most Dangerous Age
If you're a rock-and-roller, watch out once you hit the age of 27. Thirty-four musicians have left this mortal coil at that age, as Eric Segalstad and Josh Hunter say in their newly published book, "The 27s: The Greatest Myth of Rock & Roll." The 27s include Rolling Stones founder...
By
Patricia Sullivan
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April 6, 2009; 5:08 PM ET |
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No Dignity for the Dead
Here's a story that needs exposure and reaction: National Funeral Home in Falls Church, which acts as a regional clearinghouse that embalms and stores bodies for four other Washington area funeral homes, treated the dead with at best disregard. A witness who worked there said as many as 200 corpses...
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Patricia Sullivan
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April 6, 2009; 11:37 AM ET |
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California Dreamin'
The great jazz musician Bud Shank has died at the age of 82. He had one of the most unlikely backgrounds for any jazz musician, growing up not in the urban welter of cultural ferment or in the musically rich backwaters of the South -- but on a farm in...
By
Matt Schudel
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April 5, 2009; 6:41 AM ET |
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A Survivor's Tale
Today's Local Life feature is about Flora Singer, a Potomac woman who as a young girl survived the Holocaust with the help of Benedictine nuns, a priest and a Belgian businessman. She was just a teenager when she left Belgium in 1946 and came to America but she was savvy...
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Patricia Sullivan
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April 5, 2009; 6:00 AM ET |
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