[Dixielandjazz] : Headstones-- Bob Knack

[Norman Vickers]

To: DJML
From: Norman Vickers, Jazz Society of Pensacola

I am posting this on DJML at the request of Bob Ringwald. It is part of a
discussion about headstones.
It was originally posted on a list entitled Musicians and serious jazzfans
which I moderate.  If you can tolerate another list, you're invited to send
me a note and I'll send you background information so you can evaluate
whether you want to spend the time and energy.  As I frequently say-- it's
easy to get on or off the list, just ask!


Subject: : Headstones-- Bob Knack
> 
> 
> Chicago resident Bob Knack-editor of The Great Escape Newsletter and a
> member of the Browsers-sends this wonderful article. Thanks Bob.  We're
> grateful for this article.
> 
> From: BOB KNACK [mailto:bobknack at hotmail.com] 
> 
> 
> If you're going to have a discussion of headstones, you may or may not be
> interested in the article/compilation I did in a past issue of our
> newsletter The Great Escape from www.dixieswing.com
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Let Every Man Read My Epitaph 
> 
> by Bob Knack 
> 
> 
> 
>          I read where jazz trumpeter Adolphus "Doc" Cheatham was so much
> identified with the song "I Guess I'll Get the Papers and Go Home" that it
> is etched on his tombstone. He died June 2, 1997, after playing a set at
> Washington's Blues Alley jazz club, a week before his 92nd birthday. Try
as
> I might, I couldn't find any proof of this in my research, but I did find
> out a lot about epitaphs, eulogies and last words of others while
searching.
> 
> 
>          The epitaph on Frank Sinatra's headstone reads "The Best Is Yet
To
> Come". It was reported that at his funeral, friends and family members
> placed the following and other items in his coffin: a pack of Camels with
a
> Zippo lighter, ten dimes, Tootsie Roll candies, Black Jack chewing gum, a
> roll of wild cherry Life Savers, and a mini bottle of Jack Daniel's. There
> was a provision in Frank's will that if anyone contested it, they
> automatically were disinherited. 
> 
>          Many of you are aware of the epitaph "And The Angels Sing"
> appearing on Johnny Mercer's gravestone. His wife Ginger has an equally
> loving inscribed tribute, "You Must Have Been A Beautiful Baby." Mercer's
> first song, written when he was only fifteen years old was "Sister Susie
> Strut Your Stuff". It was the first of well over 1,000 songs he
contributed
> to the Great American Song Book. 
> 
>          Before they wheeled Buddy Rich into the operating room for some
> serious surgery, a nurse asked him if he was allergic to anything. "Yes",
> replied Rich, "Country and Western music." "The World's Greatest
Drummer's"
> stone in Westwood Memorial in Los Angeles reads; "One Of A Kind". 
> 
>          As he was just about to lead a radio remote from the Hollywood
> Palladium in 1944, Les Brown realized that his trombone man, Sy Zentner
was
> nowhere to be found. The staff announcer was filling time on the air while
> Sy was finally located. The announcer was given a "thumbs up", and in the
> intro he slipped in "Now, here's that band of renown".and the moniker
stuck.
> Les died in 2001, after leading his big band well into the 1990's, longer
> than any one else in big band music. His stone reads, "A Man Of Renown". 
> 
>          There is no inscription on the tombstone of Nat "King" Cole aside
> from "Nat Cole, 1919-1965. He was eulogized beautifully, however, after
his
> passing on February 15, 1965. At the funeral, Jack Benny offered this
> remembrance: "Sometimes death is not as tragic as not knowing how to live.
> This man knew how to live -- and how to make others glad they were
living."
> The mausoleum where Cole rests in Forest Lawn Memorial Park also contains
> the graves of Marie McDonald, Gene Raymond, Alan Ladd, Clara Bow, George
> Burns & Gracie Allen, and Jeanette McDonald. 
> 
>          It is rumored that an inscription on Louis Armstrong's stone
> reads, "Louis was born poor, died rich and never hurt anybody". There is
no
> such passage on Armstrong's headstone, however. Those lines about him were
> written by Duke Ellington and appear in his book, "Music is My Mistress".
> Louis resting place in Queens' Flushing Cemetery has a stone that simply
> reads "Satchmo". 
> 
>          Occasionally, someone's last words are as interesting as any
> eulogy that follows. Bing Crosby died doing one of the things he loved
best.
> After a day on the links, Crosby collapsed right after telling his
buddies,
> "That was a great round of golf, fellas". Actor Humphrey Bogart, who went
on
> to his "big sleep" 
> 
> In 1957, reportedly said in his final breath, "I should never have
switched
> from scotch to martinis". 
> 
> Another prominent thespian, George Sanders, made certain his last words
were
> remembered. In his suicide note of 1972 Sanders bid us this farewell:
"Dear
> World, I am leaving you because I am bored. I am leaving you with your
> worries. Good luck." 
> 
>          Finally, "On the Whole, I'd Rather Be in Philadelphia" is not
> written on the headstone of comedian W. C. Fields as is popularly thought.
> Fields' stone at Forest Lawn in Glendale, California simply reads "W.C.
> Fields/1880-1946." Shortly before his death, a friend was startled to find
> the non-religious W.C. sitting on his front porch reading a bible. When
> questioned about it, Fields explained that he was merely "looking for
> loopholes". He died on Christmas day. 
> 
> 
> 
> Here Is A List Of Famous Headstone Epitaphs Worth A Mention: 
> 
> Frank Sinatra: "The Best Is Yet To Come" 
> 
> Sammy Davis Jr: "The Entertainer, "He Did It All" 
> 
> Dean Martin: "Everybody Loves Somebody Sometime" 
> 
> Johnny Mercer: "And The Angels Sing" 
> 
> Ginger Mercer: "You Must Have Been A Beautiful Baby" 
> 
> Harry James: "He's Gone On The Road For One-Nighters With Gabriel" 
> 
> Les Brown: "A Man Of Renown" 
> 
> Jackie Gleason: "And Away We Go" 
> 
> Edward Kennedy Ellington: "Duke" 
> 
> Thomas F. Dorsey Jr. "Tommy": "The Sentimental Gentleman" 
> 
> Harry Lillis "Bing" Crosby: "Beloved By All" 
> 
> Ray Coniff: "Somewhere My Love" 
> 
> Nick Ceroli, (drummer for the Tijuana Brass): "The Music Comes First" 
> 
> Rodney Dangerfield: "There Goes The Neighborhood" 
> 
> Sammy Cahn: "Sleep With A Smile" 
> 
> Burns & Allen: "Together Again" 
> 
> Buddy Rich: "One Of A Kind" 
> 
> Mel Blanc: "That's All Folks" 
> 
> Ernie Kovacs: "Nothing in Moderation" 
> 
> Merv Griffin: "I Will Not Be Right Back After This Message" 
> 
> 
> 
> Norman Vickers wrote:  American writer, critic and iconoclast H. L.
Mencken
> 1880-1956 wrote:
> 
> 
> 
> EPITAPH: If, after I depart this vale, you ever remember me and have
thought
> to please my ghost, forgive some sinner and wink your eye at some homely
> girl.
> 
> 
> 
> From:  Smart Set December 1921.  This was not inscribed on Mencken's grave
marker.  Note it was published 35 years before his death.  
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> fnv
> 
>  _____  
> 
> 
> 
> 
> __________ Information from ESET NOD32 Antivirus, version of virus
signature database 4482 (20091005) __________
> 
> The message was checked by ESET NOD32 Antivirus.
> 
> http://www.eset.com
> 
>

__________ Information from ESET NOD32 Antivirus, version of virus signature
database 4485 (20091006) __________

The message was checked by ESET NOD32 Antivirus.

http://www.eset.com