Friday, December 16, 2011

Amazing Lives, 2011 Deaths

It is always enlightening to look back over the changes this year...including the talented, fascinating people who've left us. Besides people like Elizabeth Taylor, James Arness and Cliff Robertson, they also included:


Arch West, inventor of Doritos. (His family planned, after he died in September, to spread his grave with a layer of the crunchy chips.)


Fred Shuttlesworth. One of Martin Luther King's colleagues, an effective civil rights activist.

Sidney Lumet. One of the finest directors never to win an Oscar.

Betty Ford, First Lady and wife of Jerry Ford, a past U.S. president. Ford was our congressman for decades in Michigan, with a reputation for honesty and upright dealings. He endured decades of ridicule, based on great part on his decision to pardon Richard Nixon. I am glad the pendulum is now swinging back to respect for this thoughtful, intelligent man. His wife was just as interesting.


Frank Buckles. What, this name isn't familiar? He was the last documented survivor of the WWI soldiers, buried, fittingly enough, in Arlington. Aged 110.

Geraldine Ferraro. The first woman to run for Vice President on a major ticket -- in 1984, with Walter Mondale.

And, of course, Moammar Gadaffi and Osama Bin Laden.

Memorable, all.

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