My god, is he still alive!

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My god, is he still alive!

24 Apr 07 - 12:44 PM (#2034462)
Subject: My god, is he still alive!
From: GUEST,Tunesmith

I was amazed to find that the great cellist Pablo Casals had given a recital for Queen Victoria and, much, much later, for John F Kennedy. I was also amazed that Percy Grainger lived until 1961! Now, I know the dates add up, but I'm still surprised. Has anybody else out there got similar examples of "My god, is he still alve!".

24 Apr 07 - 12:58 PM (#2034471)
Subject: RE: My god, is he still alive!
From: Midchuck

Well, Segovia only made it to 94 - but he was picking from age 4 until the end.

Peter.

24 Apr 07 - 01:09 PM (#2034486)
Subject: RE: My god, is he still alive!
From: Georgiansilver

Mugabe!

24 Apr 07 - 01:10 PM (#2034488)
Subject: RE: My god, is he still alive!
From: Georgiansilver

Sorry, I know that was a bit flippant but there ya go.

24 Apr 07 - 01:16 PM (#2034493)
Subject: RE: My god, is he still alive!
From: Blowzabella

Completely unrelated but I was astonished when I learnt that Wyatt Earp, who I associate very much with the 'Wild West' lived until 1927 - by which time my parents were 7 years old .... Time, eh - it means not a lot really ....

24 Apr 07 - 01:19 PM (#2034499)
Subject: RE: My god, is he still alive!
From: Amos

Dick Cheney...and his boss.

A

24 Apr 07 - 01:23 PM (#2034509)
Subject: RE: My god, is he still alive!
From: Midchuck

I was astonished when I learnt that Wyatt Earp, who I associate very much with the 'Wild West' lived until 1927

I understand he was a consultant in Hollywood for studios making western movies, in his later years.

Peter

24 Apr 07 - 01:41 PM (#2034527)
Subject: RE: My god, is he still alive!
From: treewind

My earliest remembered experience of that sort of time-shock was hearing a lady on the radio describing how she'd had tea with Brahms.

The most recent was a few months ago hearing that someone had died who I had no idea was still alive until then. B***ered if I can remember who it was.

I went to hear Stéphane Grappelli in about 1976, on advice that "you should really grab the chance while he's still alive" and he kept going for another 22 years after that.

We like telling people we live in a house that was built while Mozart was still alive.

Anahata

24 Apr 07 - 01:43 PM (#2034530)
Subject: RE: My god, is he still alive!
From: Wesley S

There is a highly fictionalized account of Wyatt Earp in Hollywood called "Sunset". It stars James Garner as Earp and Bruce Willis as Tom Mix.

24 Apr 07 - 01:47 PM (#2034533)
Subject: RE: My god, is he still alive!
From: Ebbie

I remember how astonished and thrilled I was when I learnt that my grandfather was born in 1868- "just three years after Lincoln died", my brothers and I kept marveling to each other.

But it happens often. A friend of mine who had learned many songs from Burl Ives' recordings came to music one night and suggested that we sing some of the songs because "Burl Ives died today". And so we did. Afterward I confessed to my friend that I had thought that Ives had died long since, that I had no idea he was still alive.

My friend said, Actually, I didn't know either.

24 Apr 07 - 01:52 PM (#2034541)
Subject: RE: My god, is he still alive!
From: MMario

I keep being astonished that William Shatner is still alive - but that is primarily wishful thinking.

24 Apr 07 - 01:54 PM (#2034545)
Subject: RE: My god, is he still alive!
From: beardedbruce

MM,

Can you prove that WShatner IS still alive?

24 Apr 07 - 01:56 PM (#2034548)
Subject: RE: My god, is he still alive!
From: MMario

good point

24 Apr 07 - 02:47 PM (#2034596)
Subject: RE: My god, is he still alive!
From: JohnInKansas

Doc Watson made his "last and final appearance" at the WVA Festival for about 5 years in a row some while back. Although he hasn't been back there since the final last and final final last show about 10 years ago, so far as I've heard he's still pickin'.

(And still sounds purty good.)

John

24 Apr 07 - 02:52 PM (#2034598)
Subject: RE: My god, is he still alive!
From: Bill D

Cheetah, the chimp from Tarzan movies just had a birthday party...72 or 75...

24 Apr 07 - 02:58 PM (#2034608)
Subject: RE: My god, is he still alive!
From: Shaneo

Our accordion player ,considering the amount of whiskey he drinks.

24 Apr 07 - 03:11 PM (#2034627)
Subject: RE: My god, is he still alive!
From: JohnInKansas

We never thought he'd last this long when he looked like THIS!

John

24 Apr 07 - 03:39 PM (#2034654)
Subject: RE: My god, is he still alive!
From: Georgiansilver

Shatner is definitely still alive..its all the English cereals he eats and advertises.

24 Apr 07 - 03:46 PM (#2034658)
Subject: RE: My god, is he still alive!
From: beardedbruce

But is that living?

24 Apr 07 - 03:47 PM (#2034662)
Subject: RE: My god, is he still alive!
From: WFDU - Ron Olesko

When I was a kid, I loved the movie "March of the Wooden Soldiers" with Laurel & Hardy. In my adult years, I was always shocked when I read an obit from one of the actors when they passed away during the 1980's and 90's. The actor who played Silas Barnaby died in 1990 - he was ony 22 years old when he filmed the role as the old man. The actor who played Tom-Tom passed away in 1998. Even when I watched the film in the 1960's, it had a feeling of the distant past and it was a shock to revist the film and put it in perspective.

24 Apr 07 - 04:19 PM (#2034687)
Subject: RE: My god, is he still alive!
From: GUEST,Frank Sellors

Some 20 odd years ago, I wrote an article on William Bolton, a ex-seaman, who gave us - via the Penguin Book of English Folksongs - "Rounding the Horn" ( among others). In researching the article ( which subsequentially appeared in a EFDSS publication), I interviewed William's son Reg, and it was amazing to think that I was talking to someone whose father had fought in the Crimean War.

24 Apr 07 - 07:28 PM (#2034845)
Subject: RE: My god, is he still alive!
From: GUEST,Arnie at work

As a kid, I befriended an old man who lived nearby named Willie Walton. He told me that as a kid he'd watched Wild Bill Hickock ride into Halifax over North Bridge with a huge band of cowboys and indians (should that be Native Americans?). I thought he was having me on, but years later I learned that Wild Bill did indeed bring his wild west show to Yorkshire at the turn of the last century. As Wild Bill was born in 1837 (quick check on Google) this is the oldest link I can make with a historical character.

24 Apr 07 - 07:36 PM (#2034851)
Subject: RE: My god, is he still alive!
From: GUEST,Arnie at work

Whoops! On second thoughts that might just have been Buffalo Bill Cody who brought his Wild West show to Yorkshire, not Wild Bill Hickock.Not sure when Buffalo Bill was born but I'm sure it was a long time ago.....

24 Apr 07 - 07:46 PM (#2034854)
Subject: RE: My god, is he still alive!
From: Cobble

William F. Cody, Born in 1846.

Cobble

24 Apr 07 - 09:45 PM (#2034932)
Subject: RE: My god, is he still alive!
From: Beer

Richard Widmark 92
Les Paul 91
Eli Wallach 91
Vera Lynn 90
Phyllis Diller 89
Eddy Arnold 88
Kitty Wells 87
Ravi Shankar 87
Mickey Rooney 86

To name a few.
www.deadoralive.com

24 Apr 07 - 09:50 PM (#2034935)
Subject: RE: My god, is he still alive!
From: Stilly River Sage

Joaquín Rodrigo kept going for a long long time, carrying along traditions from composers like Dukas and de Falla. His Concierto de Aranjuez was the first one of his I became familiar with, but he was quite prolific.

1901 - 1999.

SRS

24 Apr 07 - 09:51 PM (#2034936)
Subject: RE: My god, is he still alive!
From: Stilly River Sage

We lost Kitty Carlisle Hart over the weekend. She was 97, I think.

24 Apr 07 - 11:58 PM (#2035013)
Subject: RE: My god, is he still alive!
From: Sandra in Sydney

a bit of thread drift here.

25 years ago I had an friend who was born before the first World War, and whose Grandfather was one of the first free settlers to arrive in Australia. He came in the early 1790's, around the time my earliest ancestor was born was born here.

Both her grandfather & father started their families much later than was the norm, which is why she was the second generation of her family born in Oz & I am the 5th generation in mine, and we were both linked to the first British settlement in Oz.

sandra

25 Apr 07 - 12:01 AM (#2035016)
Subject: RE: My god, is he still alive!
From: katlaughing

Anna Russell made it to 95, dying in 2006 and Victor Borge made it to 91, passing away in 2000. Both were masters of classical music and turned it into a best-selling comedy show. Incredible people.

"Marshal Dillon" (James Arness) is still alive as is his brother Peter Graves from Mission Impossible! Oh, just found out Arness is only 84 and still going strong! Brother Peter is two years younger.

25 Apr 07 - 12:05 AM (#2035019)
Subject: RE: My god, is he still alive!
From: Howard Kaplan

He's been dead over half a century, but I find it interesting that George Bernard Shaw was born before the U.S. Civil War started and died five years after the atomic bomb ended World War Two (1856 to 1950).

25 Apr 07 - 01:43 AM (#2035038)
Subject: RE: My god, is he still alive!
From: Amergin

I'm still amazed keith richards is still alive

25 Apr 07 - 02:01 AM (#2035043)
Subject: RE: My god, is he still alive!
From: Hillheader

Amergin

So is he.....

25 Apr 07 - 02:14 AM (#2035049)
Subject: RE: My god, is he still alive!
From: Georgiansilver

One of my great-great uncles, missed the Titanic as his Hotel had failed to call him in time to get there. He lived to be 103 and died only 15 or so years ago having been for his morning constitutional, a two mile walk! He came in after his walk, sat down, put his head on his chairback and passed away peacefully. His name had been published on the Titanic death list as his body was not found...but of course he was still alive and working to get enough money to go to Canada where he was supposed to have joined his family. They all thought he was dead of course, so, communication not being too good in them days, he arrived some months later in person and they thought it was a ghost.....

25 Apr 07 - 04:42 AM (#2035111)
Subject: RE: My god, is he still alive!
From: GUEST,The black belt caterpillar

Well I remember my great-grandmother and she remembered people who had been to the Napoleonic wars, ie. lived before all these songs like "The plains of Waterloo", "Claudy banks" and "Bonny light horseman" were written.

25 Apr 07 - 07:13 AM (#2035187)
Subject: RE: My god, is he still alive!
From: fat B****rd

Kirk Douglas.

25 Apr 07 - 07:43 AM (#2035205)
Subject: RE: My god, is he still alive!
From: GUEST

I believe the last American Civil War veteran died in 1959. Amazing !!!

Also, in the 1970's in UK there was a TV series about the Brontë sisters. Charlotte Brontë died in the 1840's, but her husband lived on to the 1900's. There were still people alive in the 1970's who remembered him.

25 Apr 07 - 07:57 AM (#2035211)
Subject: RE: My god, is he still alive!
From: GUEST,BobL

Ursula Vaughan Williams (b.1911), widow of the composer Ralph V-W (1872-1958)

25 Apr 07 - 08:09 AM (#2035216)
Subject: RE: My god, is he still alive!
From: GUEST,padgett

William Shatner appears on a series called Boston Legal which is unbelievable currently

Ray

25 Apr 07 - 08:36 AM (#2035234)
Subject: RE: My god, is he still alive!
From: mmm1a

After seeing that James Arness is still alive, (I thought He died yaers ago). I looked up on google to see who else is still alive.
I was surprised to see that Fess Parker (Daniel Boone) was still alive and doing quite well.
mmm

25 Apr 07 - 09:07 AM (#2035250)
Subject: RE: My god, is he still alive!
From: Mike Miller

Along with several friends, I made the pilgramage to see Les Paul's trio at the Iridium in NYC (He plays there every Monday). It was the week before his 87th birthday and, although he was slowed by arthritis, the show was brilliant and the room was packed, mostly, with guitarists.
The great classical banjoist, Paul Cadwell, played into his 90's. He threw a big party, every year and we, all, went because who knew if we would see him again. After a few years, we figured out that he was going to bury us, all.
Speaking of folk legends, George Britton, who began his concert and recording career in the 1940's, recently, retired as did his wife, folk agent, Charlotte Britton, who is much, much younger. (MUCH, MUCH
YOUNGER!)

25 Apr 07 - 09:23 AM (#2035264)
Subject: RE: My god, is he still alive!
From: GUEST,Tunesmith

Hey, Mr Dillon! Is it true that when James Arness dies, he's goung to be buried in Boot Hill, Dodge City?

25 Apr 07 - 09:28 AM (#2035270)
Subject: RE: My god, is he still alive!
From: Cool Beans

J.D. Salinger, 88

25 Apr 07 - 09:45 AM (#2035283)
Subject: RE: My god, is he still alive!
From: Stu

Shane McGowan.

25 Apr 07 - 11:11 AM (#2035375)
Subject: RE: My god, is he still alive!
From: GUEST,ME

Boris Yeltsin

Oh - hang on a minute . . .

25 Apr 07 - 11:30 AM (#2035396)
Subject: RE: My god, is he still alive!
From: open mike

Charlie Louvin, one of the Louvin Brothers is 80 and is still touring...
The term "living legend" applies to Country Music Hall of Famer Charlie Louvin....http://www.charlielouvinbros.com/

as is Ralph Stanley, also 80.http://drralphstanley.com/index.shtml

and Utah Phillips---http://www.utahphillips.org/

25 Apr 07 - 11:30 AM (#2035397)
Subject: RE: My god, is he still alive!
From: GUEST

Mitch Miller, 95

25 Apr 07 - 12:55 PM (#2035485)
Subject: RE: My god, is he still alive!
From: RangerSteve

Fess Parker was mentioned above. He owns a winery in Callifornia. I bought a bottle of his wine a while back, it wasn't bad. The label has his his picture in his Davey Crockett outfit.

When I was in elementary school, in the mid '50's, our school janitor was a Spanish-American war veteren. He led the Memorial Day parade every year. In 1960, someone asked him if he wouldn't rather lead the parade in a car and he said, "Heck, no, I can walk the pants off the rest of those guys". He died around 1964.

Wade Mainer is still alive. He started his recording career in the late 1920's.

25 Apr 07 - 02:03 PM (#2035558)
Subject: RE: My god, is he still alive!
From: GUEST,Ravenheart

I saw two men presented as the last surviving American Civil War veterans on a popular network TV interview show sometime in the 50s. One Union soldier, and one Confederate. Does anyone else remember, who could fill in any details?

25 Apr 07 - 02:09 PM (#2035565)
Subject: RE: My god, is he still alive!
From: beardedbruce

Last Living Veterans of America's Wars
American Revolution (1775–1783)
Last veteran, Daniel F. Bakeman, died 4/5/1869, age 109
Last widow, Catherine S. Damon, died 11/11/1906, age 92
Last dependent, Phoebe M. Palmeter, died 4/25/1911, age 90
War of 1812 (1812–1815)
Last veteran, Hiram Cronk, died 5/13/1905, age 105
Last widow, Carolina King, died 6/28/1936, age unknown
Last dependent, Esther A. H. Morgan, died 3/12/1946, age 89
Indian Wars (c. 1861–1898)
Last veteran, Fredrak Fraske, died 6/18/1973, age 101
Mexican War (1846–1848)
Last veteran, Owen Thomas Edgar, died 9/3/1929, age 98
Last widow, Lena James Theobald, died 6/20/1963, age 89
Last dependent, Jesse G. Bivens, died 11/1/1962, age 94
Civil War (1861–1865)
Last Union veteran, Albert Woolson, died 8/2/1956, age 109
Last Confederate veteran, John Salling*, died 3/16/1958, age 112
Spanish-American War (1898)
Last veteran, Nathan E. Cook, died 9/10/1992, age 106

http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0778679.html

25 Apr 07 - 02:16 PM (#2035573)
Subject: RE: My god, is he still alive!
From: open mike

in 2005 there were very few WW1 vets alive
WW1 veteran still alive at 104.

I read the news paper a few days ago and I found an article about Lloyd Brown, a veteran that served in WW1 and as of Novemeber 12th, was still alive. He served on the battleship USS New Hampshire during WW1.

It is estimated that living WW1 veterans in the US can only number up to 50 and can be as low as 30. In France the article said, there are only 6 remaining veterans of WW1, as one of 7 died two weeks before Novemeber 12th. The last Australian to serve in a war zone, died a week before that.

I was wondering recently, if any WW1 veterans were still alive, which made this article all the more interesting to me. So I thought I would share this with the rest of you guys.

I happened to find the article on CNN and it happens to be exactly what I read.
http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/11/11/vanishing.vets.ap/

We owe it to them to preserve and honor their generation, as they aren't going to be around much longer.

25 Apr 07 - 02:21 PM (#2035576)
Subject: RE: My god, is he still alive!
From: open mike

in 2006 there were 14 WW1 vets alive in U.S.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6468566

WW1 veteran still alive at 104.

I read the news paper a few days ago and I found an article about Lloyd Brown, a veteran that served in WW1 and as of Novemeber 12th, was still alive. He served on the battleship USS New Hampshire during WW1.

It is estimated that living WW1 veterans in the US can only number up to 50 and can be as low as 30. In France the article said, there are only 6 remaining veterans of WW1, as one of 7 died two weeks before Novemeber 12th. The last Australian to serve in a war zone, died a week before that.

I was wondering recently, if any WW1 veterans were still alive, which made this article all the more interesting to me. So I thought I would share this with the rest of you guys.

I happened to find the article on CNN and it happens to be exactly what I read.
http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/11/11/vanishing.vets.ap/

We owe it to them to preserve and honor their generation, as they aren't going to be around much longer.

25 Apr 07 - 02:33 PM (#2035586)
Subject: RE: My god, is he still alive!
From: GUEST

Herbert Hamrol, San Francisco, age 103 or 104. Still works as shelver in the family grocery store. Remembers being carried down steps by his mother at age 2 during the San Francisco earthquake, April 1906.

25 Apr 07 - 02:43 PM (#2035597)
Subject: RE: My god, is he still alive!
From: Amos

I notice also that I, myself, am still alive!! Is that kewl, or what?

A

25 Apr 07 - 02:49 PM (#2035605)
Subject: RE: My god, is he still alive!
From: beardedbruce

Are you sure?

Could you have died and just not realized it yet?

25 Apr 07 - 03:07 PM (#2035640)
Subject: RE: My god, is he still alive!
From: GUEST

Some years ago I was doing a show in Williamsburg VA and decided to play tourist the day before. It was off season, so I wet to visit the 'James River Plantations' to have a look see. The first I came to was called "Sherwood Forest", and the tour guide was very nice since I was the only one there; she answered lots of questions and we were chatting away in the parlor when the owner of the house comes in. He was showing off an antique hat he had just acquired and he was thrilled that it came from the same time period as when his grandfather died: 1862. HUH? Grampy was John Tyler, the 10th President of the US (1841-1845). TENTH. Tippecanoe and Tyler too! I was absolutely floored. This man's grandfather knew John Quincy Adams. His father was one of 15 children, born when TYler was in his 80s. His father too, had many children, and his last son was also born to him while in his 80s. To my knowledge this man is still alive. Must be the grits.
Come to think of it, my great-grandmother who died when I was in high school, used to go to lunch with Mark Twain. But that is another story...

Robert

25 Apr 07 - 03:51 PM (#2035682)
Subject: RE: My god, is he still alive!
From: fat B****rd

Ernest Borgnine

25 Apr 07 - 03:57 PM (#2035690)
Subject: RE: My god, is he still alive!
From: Herga Kitty

I hadn't realised until today that Frank Purslow was still alive, but now, sadly, he isn't! His books of songs from the Hammond and Gardiner collection inspired many singers in the UK.

Kitty

25 Apr 07 - 04:08 PM (#2035702)
Subject: RE: My god, is he still alive!
From: McGrath of Harlow

Last US Civil War widow, Alberta Martin, died in 2004, at the age of 97. After he died back in 1931, she went on to marry his grandson...

25 Apr 07 - 04:09 PM (#2035703)
Subject: RE: My god, is he still alive!
From: Georgiansilver

Amos..did you ever see the film "Sixth Sense"....well........
I read dead people!....That should keep Bearded Bruce on key.

25 Apr 07 - 06:49 PM (#2035851)
Subject: RE: My god, is he still alive!
From: RangerSteve

Ravenheart - that film of the civil war vets was from a TV show called "You Asked For It". Viewers could send in requests on any subject, (in this case, someone asked if there were any Civil War vets still alive), and if possible, you got to see your answer on TV. It was a pretty entertaining show.

25 Apr 07 - 07:07 PM (#2035861)
Subject: RE: My god, is he still alive!
From: GUEST,Jim

Zeke Mazurek, the Ontario fiddle player, former member of String Band, Great Speckled Bird and Prairie Oyster, who also played on records/CDs by Willie P. Bennett, Denis Lepage, Sneezy Waters... released his first solo CD a few years back titlied I Ain't Dead...Yet. He recently released another called I Ain't Dead Yet II.

25 Apr 07 - 07:13 PM (#2035867)
Subject: RE: My god, is he still alive!
From: Ythanside

NOT the most reassuring comment to hear whilst awakening in my hospital bed!

25 Apr 07 - 11:04 PM (#2035982)
Subject: RE: My god, is he still alive!
From: GUEST,Art Thieme

I've talked about Paul Durst in many threads of this forum. Do a forum search on his name.

Here's some of it:

His parents settled in Wisconsin in 1848.

Paul was born in 1868.

I tape recorded him in 1960---when he was 93.

He was a Wobbly who remembered the IWW splitting from the Socialist Labor Party in 1905.

He'd worked in the lumber camps and Was a member of Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show. He told me they had introduced hoof and mouth disease to Europe (Germany). Bill's cattle all had to be destroyed. He came back penniless from that trip and had to be re-financed by his old pal P.T. Barnum.

Paul was asleep under a boardwalk in Chicago when the bomb went off at the Haymarket. The Haymarket Riot. It woke him up.

He was involved in the strike in Ludlow, Colorado that culminated with the Ludlow massacre.

Was a hobo fiddler--a singer of IWW songs--and many other things.

Meeting Paul Durst was an extremely important happening in my life! Utah Phillips used my tapes of Paul (what remained of them) as the centerpiece of one of his Loafer's Glory radio shows. (Show number 77, if I'm remembering right.) It's available from Utah at his website.

I sure do wish he was still with us. What a link he was.

Art Thieme

26 Apr 07 - 12:42 AM (#2036006)
Subject: RE: My god, is he still alive!
From: Wordsmith

Speaking of William Shatner and his show, Boston Legal, this past week's episode had him mentally-concentrating on getting Raquel Welch to come to his office (ala some new fad?) and wound up with Phyllis Diller instead. As Jack Paar used to say, I kid you not!

26 Apr 07 - 02:36 AM (#2036042)
Subject: RE: My god, is he still alive!
From: GUEST,Ravenheart

beardedbruce and RangerSteve, thanks.

Yes, I remember that the faces in the peanut butter jars were a familiar icon to me then. After an online search, I see that a couple of sources put the date of the show at 1955 and say that three or four veterans appeared (and they were mostly drummer boys). But somehow I can only recall seeing two.

26 Apr 07 - 12:46 PM (#2036395)
Subject: RE: My god, is he still alive!
From: Wolfgang

Singer/actor Johannes Heesters is still touring Germany at the age of 103 singing the songs he became popular with in the 1920s.

Wolfgang

26 Apr 07 - 07:35 PM (#2036688)
Subject: RE: My god, is he still alive!
From: GUEST,Art Thieme

...Paul Durst also shipped out with Joe Hill.

26 Apr 07 - 09:08 PM (#2036736)
Subject: RE: My god, is he still alive!
From: Joe_F

When you see an obituary & say "Was that old bastard still alive?", it is a sign you have reached a certain age.

When H. L. Mencken, who lived well into my lifetime, was a little boy in Baltimore (1880s), there was still an annual parade of veterans of the War of 1812.

27 Apr 07 - 01:14 AM (#2036833)
Subject: RE: My god, is he still alive!
From: Stilly River Sage

Jack LaLanne is 92, will turn 93 on Sept. 26. Probably getting ready to pull another destroyer out to sea single-handed, with the rope in his teeth.

SRS

27 Apr 07 - 04:08 AM (#2036893)
Subject: RE: My god, is he still alive!
From: GUEST,Dáithí

I was at a dinner in Manchester (UK)a few years ago (er..1995?)and the elderly gentleman sitting next to me turned out to be a retired Scottish doctor in his eighties called David Livingstone. I made the usual crack (how witty and original)and he said actually David Livingstone the explorer was his grandfather! Sheesh!

My grandfather was born in 1887 and remembered clearly the newspapers trimmed in black at the death of Queen Victoria..he also watched the first man walk on the moon.
The changes folk have lived through continues to amaze me!

D

27 Apr 07 - 08:27 PM (#2037624)
Subject: RE: My god, is he still alive!
From: GUEST,Mike B.

I once saw a movie on TV about an African American woman born into slavery who lived long enough to participate in Dr. King's civil rights movement during the 1960s ("Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman" or something like that) - but I think it was a fictional story.

28 Apr 07 - 11:10 AM (#2037955)
Subject: RE: My god, is he still alive!
From: katlaughing

Art, thanks for the reminders about Paul Durst. I've always loved your stories about him.

Not musical, but I was amazed to find that Sandy Kolfax/Koufax is still around and not even as old as I thought he was:

Forty-one years after he retired from baseball, Hall of Fame pitcher Sandy Koufax was the final player chosen in the draft to stock the six teams for the inaugural season of the Israel Baseball League.

Koufax, 71, was picked by the Modi'in Miracle in the draft conducted by former major league general manager Dan Duquette, who heads baseball operations for the league.

28 Apr 07 - 11:44 AM (#2037980)
Subject: RE: My god, is he still alive!
From: Stilly River Sage

Jane Pittman was fiction, but it was a good story.

28 Apr 07 - 12:15 PM (#2037998)
Subject: RE: My god, is he still alive!
From: Lonesome EJ

My Dad told a story about a time when he was dating my Mom, and was at her house for dinner when her Grandfather had come up from Brodhead Kentucky. This was probably around 1938. The old gent was missing the top of an ear, and my Dad was bold enough to ask about it. He had lost it in the Battle of Perryville in 1862. My Dad commented "they almost missed you" and the old man responded "almost took my head off, too!"
I remember Summer evenings on Grandpa's front porch with various family members assembled and singing "Tenting on the Old Camp Ground" and "My Granfather's Clock", both songs popular during the Civil War and familiar to all of the old folks.

28 Apr 07 - 11:22 PM (#2038415)
Subject: RE: My god, is he still alive!
From: Cool Beans

Patty Andrews, 89, last of the Andrews Sisters.

28 Apr 07 - 11:43 PM (#2038423)
Subject: RE: My god, is he still alive!
From: frogprince

My father in law worked for years for a gent who married an ex Zigfield girl. She lied about her age to join the Follies very young, and continued a theatrical career for years. She is now 102 years old, and I believe the last living Zigfield girl. She still dances, and is so sharp that to hear her speaking you would think she was a healthy 70 or so. Years before Gene Kelly, she was the first person to sing "Singing in the Rain" on stage.

28 Apr 07 - 11:51 PM (#2038424)
Subject: RE: My god, is he still alive!
From: frogprince

By the way, if anyone thinks I'm spinning that, google "Doris Eaton Travis".

29 Apr 07 - 01:00 AM (#2038448)
Subject: RE: My god, is he still alive!
From: katlaughing

Very kewl, frogprince! Wiki on Doris Eaton Travis.

29 Apr 07 - 07:11 AM (#2038555)
Subject: RE: My god, is he still alive!
From: Stephen L. Rich

"Doc Watson made his "last and final appearance" at the WVA Festival for about 5 years in a row some while back. Although he hasn't been back there since the final last and final final last show about 10 years ago, so far as I've heard he's still pickin'."

He's touring again. I'll miss his performance here, in Madison,WI, because I'll be touring myself.

Stephen Lee

01 May 07 - 04:46 PM (#2040623)
Subject: RE: My god, is he still alive!
From: Uncle_DaveO

Dave Oesterreich is 76! My God, is HE still alive?

Dave Oesterreich

01 May 07 - 06:27 PM (#2040717)
Subject: RE: My god, is he still alive!
From: Johnhenry'shammer

I was talking to Dick Greenhaus the other day and he casually mentioned that he had seen Lead Belly play and had met Woody Guthrie!

01 May 07 - 06:40 PM (#2040728)
Subject: RE: My god, is he still alive!
From: Dave'sWife

Arnie, Wild Bill Hickok (correct spelling) died in 1876. Is that late enough for your friend's friend to have seen him? He may be recalling William Frederick "Buffalo Bill" Cody who died in 1917 and in whose Wild West Show, Hickok once rode. Buffalo Bill continued the Wild West show long after Hickok's death. it is common for people to confuse them

William Frederick "Buffalo Bill" Cody on wikipedia

and

Wild Bill Hickok on wikipedia

Apropos of nothing, a great great nephew of Hickok's by the name of Rex Hickok became a porn star and porn director under the name Rex Cabo. He went a bit nuts a few years ago and tossed himself out a window in Long Beach. I wrote an Obit for him. it was a sad story. He was clinically depressed, had gotten deeply involved in the Church of Satan but ticked off his fellow satanists with his weird stalker-type behavior. In the end, he holed hismelf up in some down and out hotel, called his shrink threatening to jump and hit the ground just as cops arrived.

01 May 07 - 08:57 PM (#2040799)
Subject: RE: My god, is he still alive!
From: GUEST

Quote:

My grandfather was born in 1887 and remembered clearly the newspapers trimmed in black at the death of Queen Victoria..he also watched the first man walk on the moon.

End quote

It's getting to where you can remember when men walked on the moon is a sign of at least middle age. :)

02 May 07 - 04:59 PM (#2041639)
Subject: RE: My god, is he still alive!
From: Kim C

I was shocked to find out that Don Ho died recently, as I thought he had already died some years back.

03 May 07 - 12:47 PM (#2042395)
Subject: RE: My god, is he still alive!
From: dick greenhaus

Back in the late 1940s, when I became interested in old country music recordings, one of my earliest "discoveries" was Wade Mainer. Some 40 years later, I attended a festival in Brandywine, PA, and spent a happy hour or so picking with a group of old-timers. When we stopped, we introduced ourselves, and I found that I'd been playing with Wade Mainer.

He just celebrated his 100th birthday. A friendly gentleman, a fine banjo picker, with a style all his own.

22 Aug 07 - 09:13 AM (#2131041)
Subject: RE: My god, is he still alive!
From: Wesley S

According to NPR this morning the great Ray Bradbury is 87 today. Salute!! Here's Ray's website

22 Aug 07 - 10:46 AM (#2131108)
Subject: RE: My god, is he still alive!
From: Big Jim from Jackson

Lonesom EJ, I think that "Grandfather's Clock" was written in the 1870's. (I read once that it was one of Abraham Lincoln's favorite songs, but that obviously can't have been true.)

22 Aug 07 - 12:43 PM (#2131195)
Subject: RE: My god, is he still alive!
From: kendall

Open Mike, Utah Phillips is one year younger than I and I can assure you I'M very much alive.

Funny no one mentioned Phil Rizutto the other day. He died at 89.

22 Aug 07 - 01:13 PM (#2131224)
Subject: RE: My god, is he still alive!
From: GUEST,TJ in San Diego

22 Aug 07 - 01:30 PM (#2131235)
Subject: RE: My god, is he still alive!
From: GUEST,TJ in San Diego

Excuse the less than enlightening void left by my last entry - I hit enter instead of tab. In my travels, I have had the chance to meet Fess Parker, for whom I once distributed wine, The Smothers Brothers, ditto, Pat Paulsen (who gave me a batch of Presidential campaign material which I still have), Fred MacMurray, Gordon, Sheila, Meredith, Heather and Gar MacRae, Sinatra, Martha Raye, Bob Newhart, Ray Milland (aka Reginald Truscott-Jones, from Wales), Bob Hope, Pedro Gonzales Gonzales, Andy Williams, Slim Pickens, Casey Tibbs, Ben Johnson (the latter three when they were performing in rodeos in my home town), General Eisenhower (before he was President), Haile Salasse of Ethiopia and many others I can't recall at the moment. The thing that resonates, the longer you live, is the number of people who populated your life; people you often took for granted as part of the fabric of your existence, who are now gone. Celebrate the ones we still have, including yourself!

22 Aug 07 - 01:33 PM (#2131240)
Subject: RE: My god, is he still alive!
From: Rog Peek

Henry Allingham celebrated his 111th birthday on 6th June 2007.
Mr Allingham joined the Royal Naval Air Service in September 1915 before transferring to the RAF in April 1918.

http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30100-1269251,00.html

22 Aug 07 - 01:38 PM (#2131246)
Subject: RE: My god, is he still alive!
From: Rog Peek

Sorry, I didn't realise this was a music thread. What about Sis Cunningham, she was 95 when she died in 2004.

22 Aug 07 - 03:10 PM (#2131359)
Subject: RE: My god, is he still alive!
From: Cluin

My Dad, who just turned 70 last September went to his godmother's funeral last week. She was 98 when she died and was playing piano at the old folks home for a singalong two weeks before. When she was complimented on her playing afterwards, she replied that it would be the last time she ever played.

22 Aug 07 - 05:49 PM (#2131451)
Subject: RE: My god, is he still alive!
From: GUEST,Renee Bee

I saw Doc Watson this summer!

Laura Ingalls Wilder, who was not a musician but sang, lived 1867-1957. Think about it... she saw Indians leaving the territories on horseback and World War II and atomic bomb, television, etc.

thanks Georgian for your grandfather's story. How interesting!

22 Aug 07 - 11:56 PM (#2131699)
Subject: RE: My god, is he still alive!
From: Uncle Phil

Slightly off topic. My grandmother was old enough to read about the Wright Brothers' flight in the newspaper. The last long visit I had with her was on her 98th birthday. She was changing planes at DFW airport and had a long layover.

Airplanes were still quite a novelty when Mom was a kid; she says everyone would run out of the house to look if one flew over. I'm not sure what year that was. I'll call her tomorrow and ask.

Then there was my grandmother's sister Goldie -- retired around 65, sat aroud for 15 years, got bored, dyed her hair jet black, and got a job. She lied about her age to the Baptists and worked as their church secretary into her 90's. I've often wondered if the Baptists every figured it out.

Back on topic. I never got to see Woody Guthrie, but I've had a number of pleasant chats with his sister Mary Jo over the years, and got to say howdy to her a couple weeks ago.
- Phil

23 Aug 07 - 12:15 AM (#2131706)
Subject: RE: My god, is he still alive!
From: astro

William Shatner is alive, I used to take his parking spot at his offices, my ex works for Lily Tomlin, with offices next to his, it's labeled with Tekwar.

23 Aug 07 - 12:19 AM (#2131707)
Subject: RE: My god, is he still alive!
From: Desert Dancer

"He's not dead, Jim!"

23 Aug 07 - 12:21 AM (#2131708)
Subject: RE: My god, is he still alive!
From: astro

Though, I believe his wife is....

23 Aug 07 - 01:47 AM (#2131728)
Subject: RE: My god, is he still alive!
From: Genie

I hear rumors that Dick Cheney is still alive. (But some say he's mostly cyborg by now - if not zombie.)

23 Aug 07 - 06:34 AM (#2131826)
Subject: RE: My god, is he still alive!
From: kendall

Where I come from, people live a very long time. My Uncle Curt said they had to shoot his grandmother to start a graveyard.

23 Aug 07 - 01:55 PM (#2132128)
Subject: RE: My god, is he still alive!
From: Rog Peek

Sliabh Luachra a cultural area in the South West of Ireland has a reputation for longevity in its inhabitants. One day, I was enquiring of an elderly resident the validity of this reputation.
"Is it true" I said "that people in these parts live a long life"
"It is" he replied, "the men live to a great age, and the women live forever!"

23 Aug 07 - 02:44 PM (#2132163)
Subject: RE: My god, is he still alive!
From: GUEST,Neil

Back when he was still alive Robert Johnson used to take his stepson into Clarksdale Mississippi with him where they would each take one side of the river and play for tips. Some say that the boy was so good you could close your eyes and not know which side of the river you were on.
   In the forties that boy teamed up with Sonny Boy Williamson II to broadcast the first all blues radio show (sponsored by The King Biscuit Flour Co).During his career he also played with Willie Dixon, Otis Spahn, Little Walter and Muddy Waters to name a few. He was an early influence of B.B> King who he played with in Memphis.
   His name was Robert Lockwood Jr. (aka Robert Junior Lockwood) and he was brilliant, flawless and oh so smooth. Robert died last November at the age of 91. He was still playing regular Wednsday night gigs in downtown Cleveland, Oh.
   I never regretted standing for hours in a cold rain with my long-suffering wife to see him play in 2005. Nor will I ever forget it.
   Good bye Robert. You will be missed.

23 Aug 07 - 07:40 PM (#2132327)
Subject: RE: My god, is he still alive!
From: Uncle_DaveO

Wesley S told us:

There is a highly fictionalized account of Wyatt Earp in Hollywood called "Sunset". It stars James Garner as Earp and Bruce Willis as Tom Mix.

That sort of movie will never let you know that Wyatt Earp and his brothers were real bad-asses--bullies, gunmen, abusers of office, hated and feared by most of the populace--everything you wouldn't really want in a lawman. Sort of the fox twisting the rooster's tail to force his appointment as Marshal of Chickencoop City.

Dave Oesterreich

23 Aug 07 - 07:57 PM (#2132338)
Subject: RE: My god, is he still alive!
From: GUEST,TJ in San Diego

Wyatt and Mattie Earp emigrated from Tombstone after the famous shoot-out or gun-down - opinions are still all over the map. The eventuallyl arrived in San Diego in the mid to late 1880's, where he invested in real estate and gambling venues (probably including prostition)and refereed prize fights. A couple of the buildings he occupied are still in existence in our "Gaslamp Quarter," in the old part of downtown. They then went to Alaska, where he did the same things to take advantage of the Klondike Gold Rush. It's odd that he "died with his boots on" in Los Angeles, surrounded by movie pals he'd made - all of whom probably bought into the legend and cared little for the real story. And, he didn't look anything like either Kurt Russell or Hugh O'Brien. Kevin Costner probably came closest visually, but made him too sympathetic a figure, as most did.

23 Aug 07 - 07:58 PM (#2132339)
Subject: RE: My god, is he still alive!
From: GUEST,TJ in San Diego

23 Aug 07 - 11:33 PM (#2132477)
Subject: RE: My god, is he still alive!
From: GUEST,Mike in DC

Leopold Stokowski signed a ten year record deal when he was 92 or 93. I don't believe he made it all the way through though.

Mike

14 Apr 09 - 04:50 PM (#2611210)
Subject: RE: My god, is he still alive!
From: GUEST,TJ in San Diego

My mother just passed away at the age of 100. She once played a piano.

14 Apr 09 - 05:03 PM (#2611221)
Subject: RE: My god, is he still alive!
From: catspaw49

Sorry TJ......But she certainly had a long run and I hope it was a great one.

Best,

Spaw

14 Apr 09 - 05:22 PM (#2611243)
Subject: RE: My god, is he still alive!
From: frogprince

Pardon me for this, but who all hear remember when Saturday Night Live spent all season announcing on the "Weekend Update" that General Franco of Spain was "still dead".

14 Apr 09 - 05:25 PM (#2611247)
Subject: RE: My god, is he still alive!
From: catspaw49

Me.....and he still is.....as far as you know........

Spaw

14 Apr 09 - 08:10 PM (#2611338)
Subject: RE: My god, is he still alive!
From: Joe_F

When I was little, there were people who it seemed had *already* lived forever. One of them was Bertrand Russell, and another was George Bernard Shaw.

15 Apr 09 - 10:36 AM (#2611677)
Subject: RE: My god, is he still alive!
From: GUEST,Elmore

Dave "honeyboy" Edwards who knew, and worked with Robert Johnson is still alive, and touring.He's 93 and has a distinctive guitar style. I saw him a few months ago.

15 Apr 09 - 11:50 AM (#2611738)
Subject: RE: My god, is he still alive!
From: Rog Peek

Les Paul, 93 and still gigging.

Eli Wallach, 93

Kirk Douglas, 92

and Karl Malden was 97 on March 22nd

Rog

15 Apr 09 - 03:55 PM (#2611901)
Subject: RE: My god, is he still alive!
From: GUEST,TJ in San Diego

For some reason, an old Dorothy Parker quote comes to mind. When someone told her Calvin Coolidge had passed away, she asked, "How do they know?"

My favorite was an old family friend, a retired Navy doctor and flight surgeon who had a family practice for many years. His wife passed away when he was in his early 90's and we invited him to join us for Christmas dinner at our home. He was delighted to come and spent time after dinner talking of his early life. He grew up in Danville, Va., as he told me. I remembered a verse from the song, "The Wreck of the Old 97," in which the town is mentioneds. "Oh," he remarked, "they got a lot of the details wrong in that song." When I asked how he knew, he explained that his father had been the town doctor in Danville at the time of the train wreck. He, as a 13-year-old boy, had hitched his father's team and driven him to the wreck, where he administered morphine to those that survived and administered to all who could be helped. I'd never met anyone who had been at the actual site of something which had been celebrated in folk song.

The doctor, a very kind Virginia gentleman of the old school, passed away at the age of 99 while watering his lawn.

15 Apr 09 - 04:41 PM (#2611924)
Subject: RE: My god, is he still alive!
From: Amos

I am happy to report that Sam Hinton is still alive, although he has retired to a senior place in the Northwest.

A

15 Apr 09 - 05:10 PM (#2611947)
Subject: RE: My god, is he still alive!
From: GUEST,TJ in San Diego

We sure miss Sam in San Diego, where he was active for many years with Scripps Institution of Oceanography and the local community of folk music lovers. It's good to know he's still with us. He's left quite a legacy behind already.

15 Apr 09 - 05:13 PM (#2611948)
Subject: RE: My god, is he still alive!
From: Genie

I just read (in another thread here) that George Beverly Shea is still alive at 100 y.o.

16 Apr 09 - 05:16 PM (#2612691)
Subject: RE: My god, is he still alive!
From: Rafflesbear

I always find it sad when I hear of the death of someone I thought was dead long ago - it's just that it's too late to celebrate the joy of finding out that they are still alive because they're not ...

but I can still celebrate Dave Swarbrick having read in the Daily Telegraph of his death in 1999 - and he IS still alive

17 Apr 09 - 03:47 AM (#2612926)
Subject: RE: My god, is he still alive!
From: Allen in Oz

I played recently in a nursing home in Sydney Australia where they were celebrating the birthday of resident TWINS who turned 100 that week

In the same nursing home last year was a lady who had nursed Lawrence of Arabia

They breed them tough out here in OZ

AD

30 Mar 10 - 06:27 PM (#2876005)
Subject: RE: My god, is he still alive!
From: GUEST,James in Cambridge

Pete Seeger is still alive, and last I heard still singing! My sister knows his daughter.

30 Mar 10 - 06:55 PM (#2876026)
Subject: RE: My god, is he still alive!
From: Amergin

A great of mine died not too long ago...she was 99. Her brothers were moonshiners and rum runners.

30 Mar 10 - 10:51 PM (#2876163)
Subject: RE: My god, is he still alive!
From: Effsee

Well, I'm always a bit surprised when I open my eyes of a morning...

30 Mar 10 - 11:16 PM (#2876171)
Subject: RE: My god, is he still alive!
From: Amos

And Sam has passed on since my last post here, I am sorry to say.

A

31 Mar 10 - 12:05 AM (#2876190)
Subject: RE: My god, is he still alive!
From: Beer

Amergin!
Were were they from. Just a State or Province would be fine. In my earlier days all my booze was purchased from honest folks.
Adrien

31 Mar 10 - 01:12 AM (#2876210)
Subject: RE: My god, is he still alive!
From: Ebbie

If you notice, quite a few of the people listed here in '07 have since died: Utah, Fess Parker, Salinger, Mitch Miller, Peter Graves, Les Paul, Ernest Borgnine, George Beverly Shea, Patty Andrews...

Suddenly, I'm not certain of some of them: Is Mitch Miller gone? Ernest Borgnine?

31 Mar 10 - 04:54 AM (#2876279)
Subject: RE: My god, is he still alive!
From: GUEST,Chris B (Born Again Scouser)

My grandfather emigrated to the US when he was 16 in the late 1880s. The story is that one of his jobs was as a labourer on the Brooklyn Bridge while they were still builiding it. I always point it out to my daughter when we see in on TV or on a movie - she always says 'is that the bridge my great-grandad built?' Indeed it is...

31 Mar 10 - 04:59 AM (#2876281)
Subject: RE: My god, is he still alive!
From: scouse

Heard this morning that Stirling Moss whom I thought had gone to the big "Racing Circuit." in the sky had recently walked into the "lift shaft." of his house a fell braking only his Ankles.Furthermore, he hopes to be back behind the wheel of a car by May.. As Aye,
Phil.

31 Mar 10 - 05:01 AM (#2876285)
Subject: RE: My god, is he still alive!
From: Amergin

Beer, they were up in Montana, north of Missoula.

Ebbie, Ernest Borgnine is still around...still working in fact.

31 Mar 10 - 06:57 AM (#2876346)
Subject: RE: My god, is he still alive!
From: GUEST,Ramsey Nickleback

The great London folk performer Tom Jenkinson, who records as Squarepusher wrote and recorded a marvellous tribute to Earnest Borgine, which can be heard here - http://www.youtube.com/watch#!v=2CHV44WpKw4

31 Mar 10 - 07:47 AM (#2876371)
Subject: RE: My god, is he still alive!
From: Mr Red

Jackie Toaduff
He was featured in the EDS magazine this issue. Doubt he is doing much clogging, but he is still inspiring the likes of the cloggers in the Demon Barber Roadshow.

31 Mar 10 - 10:20 AM (#2876484)
Subject: RE: My god, is he still alive!
From: Dave Hanson

Keith Richard will never live to be as old as he looks.

Dave H

14 May 10 - 01:30 PM (#2906946)
Subject: RE: My god, is he still alive!
From: frogprince

I mentioned Doris Eaton Travis on this thread a couple of years ago. My father-in-law managed a farm for her late husband, Paul Travis, for many years. The FIL attended her 106th birthday party a month or so ago. She died tuesday.

The last of the Ziegfield girls

14 May 10 - 01:50 PM (#2906958)
Subject: RE: My god, is he still alive!
From: glueman

My mother was born in a Zeppelin raid, yet I have a 3 year old son. My uncle is in his late 90s and his mother died at 100 as did her father, yet my uncle's father died very young in WW1 before he was born. He pre-deceased his wife by 70 years and she never re-married. Most of his family make 100.
I was once to my uncle's uncle's cottage as a youngster and he told me the furniture he sat on as a child was from Napoleon's time.

This sounds like a school arithmatic test, doesn't it. Life is weird.

14 May 10 - 05:21 PM (#2907075)
Subject: RE: My god, is he still alive!
From: GUEST,TJ in San Diego

As children, we often went down from California to visit my Dad's mother and father in Beaumont, Texas (mid-forties to mid-fifties). My cousins and I would often visit a closet under a staircase off the dining room where my grandfather kept his father's civil war uniform, bugle and a big Colt .44 Army model percussion revolver that weighed about 2 1/2 pounds. It makes you wonder if those fast-draw guys had one arm larger than the other. His father was the first white settler at Sabine Pass, circa 1825.

One cousin was a signer of the Texas declaration of independence from Mexico. Another two fought at San Jacinto under Houston. My Dad's grandmother, who lived until around 1924, remembered her father hosting Sam Houston in their home at Sabine Pass while a young girl. None of them appear to have been particularly musical, save one great-aunt, who was a piano teacher. My Dad tried, but sounded a lot like Harry Truman, who had trouble with minor chords too.

18 May 10 - 01:21 PM (#2909304)
Subject: RE: My god, is he still alive!
From: Tannywheeler

I go with "Thank you, God. He's still alive", whenever I think of Pete Seeger(& his wonderful Toshi). Not only still alive, but still teaching(by doing)how to live a free, just, healthy, happy life. Doesn't take much to remember Woody, Leadbelly. Friends of the family. If God is ever cruel enough to take her from us, I will be able to say I knew Jean Ritchie, too. Met Josh White(& his son while he was early teen). Roger Sprung is, I think, still with us, somewhere up there in the frozen wastelands(anywhere no. of Dallas). & always, Thank God for Doc Watson...Tw

18 May 10 - 02:00 PM (#2909334)
Subject: RE: My god, is he still alive!
From: Don Firth

Yes, I am.

Deal with it!

Don Firth

18 May 10 - 08:37 PM (#2909579)
Subject: RE: My god, is he still alive!
From: Bugsy

I'm sure that George Bush jr is still alive. Unfortunately his brain died when he was a child.

CHeers

Bugsy

18 May 10 - 10:50 PM (#2909651)
Subject: RE: My god, is he still alive!
From: GUEST,PSzymeczek

George Beverly Shea is still alive, according to Wikipedia.

19 May 10 - 06:13 PM (#2910176)
Subject: RE: My god, is he still alive!
From: Stringsinger

Bertand Russell Lived to 98.

28 Jun 10 - 06:21 PM (#2936280)
Subject: Ray Whitley
From: GUEST,The Bistro, Atlanta, Ga.

Last I heard, Ray Whitley, composer of I've Been Hurt. Run, Run, Look and See, Be Young, Be Foolish, Be Happy is still living in NorthEast Atlanta near the Lowery Music Group headquarters on Clairmont Rd. What an interesting guy during the 60's and early 70's.
He played at The Bistro on West Peachtree St. Club is now gone, but they have a website at www.bistroatlanta.com

29 Jun 10 - 12:12 AM (#2936408)
Subject: RE: My god, is he still alive!
From: LadyJean

My cousin John Caldwell, who died in 2005, had known people who could remember John Morgan's Ohio raid. Talking to him was the next best thing to actual time travel. He told us about great great uncle Solomon Eversull, who had been one of the first settlers in the Ohio territory and lived to be more than 100. He told us about how his grandfather, my great grandfather, had played poker with Warren G. Harding, and kept the silver dollar he won. One night he produced the target great grandfather had hit, almost dead center, firing the openning shot of the Cincinnatti Gun Club's annual shooting match. I wonder if it was the one where Phoebe Anne Moses (who would be Annie Oakley) met her husband Frank Butler.

As a freshman in college I got to know an elderly lady who lived near my dorm. I was taking a womens' history course, and we were learning about the suffrage movement of the early twentieth century. I mentioned it to her, and she told me about going to the first meeting of the League of Women Voters and MEETING everyone I had been reading about.

But the best one I have, is something I found in a book about the Charge of the Light Brigade. The last survivor lived well into the 1920s. Either one of my parents could have spoken to him and would have remembered.

29 Jun 10 - 07:48 PM (#2936939)
Subject: RE: My god, is he still alive!
From: semiotic

My father used to tell me that when he was in school (1920s) he shook the hand of an old man who's father fought on the plains of Waterloo. But then I live in a house that was old when they discovered that van Dieman's Land is an island.
My Wife met both Ursula Vaughn-Williams and Maud Karpeles many times when she worked at Cecil Sharp House.
...and we're not drawing our pensions yet!

29 Jun 10 - 11:02 PM (#2937010)
Subject: RE: My god, is he still alive!
From: JohnInKansas

Apparently nobody recognized my nominee back at:

Date: 24 Apr 07 - 03:11 PM

We never thought he'd last this long when he looked like THIS!

Check the link, and see if you recognize him from ca. 1956. Then note:

Almost as amazing as that the link is still good, is that now he is still touring 200 days per year, at 77, and looks kinda like this.

John

30 Jun 10 - 12:27 AM (#2937021)
Subject: RE: My god, is he still alive!
From: LadyJean

My dad died on April 13, 1981 at one in the afternoon, having lunched, as he did every weekday, with Mr. Tolstoy Fabiani, the son of one of Garibaldi's veterans.

30 Jun 10 - 01:41 PM (#2937390)
Subject: RE: My god, is he still alive!
From: GUEST,Stuart Lutz

You all may enjoy my oral history book The Last Leaf (www.TheLastLeaf.com). I interview the last Civil War widows (the last died in 2008), the last US World War I soldier (still alive at 109), the final pitcher to surrender a home run to Babe Ruth, the last suffragette, Houdini's final stagehand (she's still alive), the last Pearl Harbor Day Medal of Honor winner, and dozens more.

30 Jun 10 - 02:12 PM (#2937417)
Subject: RE: My god, is he still alive!
From: GUEST,TJ in San Diego

We just lost John Finn, Medal of Honor winner of Pearl Harbor fame. He had lived and been active in our area for many years and was a revered attendee at many public events until very recently, especially those celebrating our armed forces. I had the privilege of meeting and speaking with him twice. That generation, of which Mr. Finn was a special member, is rapidly leaving us. Heroes, as he told me, are ordinary people placed in extraordinary circumstances. No one ever plans to be and successfully becomes one.

30 Jun 10 - 05:22 PM (#2937506)
Subject: RE: My god, is he still alive!
From: pdq

Thanks to a recent introduction to an Irish site thats love US bluegrass music...

Curly Sechler, 90

...his friend and leader of the Medicine Show, which once had Marty Stuart in it...

Tommy Scott, 93

...and member of Mainer's Mountaineers from the 1930s...

Wade Mainer, 103

30 Jun 10 - 05:35 PM (#2937513)
Subject: RE: My god, is he still alive!
From: GUEST,old techie

Chuck Berry, still rockin'

30 Jun 10 - 11:04 PM (#2937653)
Subject: RE: My god, is he still alive!
From: Effsee

Stuart Lutz..."I interview the last Civil War widows (the last died in 2008)"... the American Civil War finished in 1865, just how old was this lady?

01 Jul 10 - 07:28 AM (#2937805)
Subject: RE: My god, is he still alive!
From: GUEST,Stuart Lutz

All three final Civil War widows lived into their 90s. They were teenaged girls who married 80something Civil War vets in the 1920s or 1930s. The last Union pension was paid until 2003.

02 Jul 10 - 12:35 AM (#2938292)
Subject: RE: My god, is he still alive!
From: LadyJean

Mentioning my dad again, when he began his law practice in the 1930s, he spent a lot of time arranging for pensions for civil war widows. These ladies had all married veterans LONG after their military service ended.
Civil war veterans had a certain appeal as husbands, because they would get a pension and so would their widows.

02 Jul 10 - 08:39 PM (#2938872)
Subject: RE: My god, is he still alive!
From: GUEST,Ken Brock

Herbert Hamrol was a survivor of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and died in the Spring of 2009 at the age of 106. He was working as a stock clerk at Andronico's market in San Francisco up until a couple of weeks before his passing. He remembered being carried down stairs by his mother at the time of the earthquake.

Zachariah Blackistone taught my maternal grandfather to be a florist in Washington DC circa 1910, and was still running the business in the 1970s. When my grandfather died in 1955, Mr. Blackistone took the Greyhound or Trailways bus at age 85 from DC to Norfolk, VA for my grandfather's funeral. In the early 1970's, my uncle accompanied Mr. Blackistone at the age of 100 or 101 to a florist convention in Seattle, WA. Mr. Blackistone passed at the age of 111 in a nursing home - I don't know how long he had been there. He is at about #65 among men on longevity lists.

03 Jul 10 - 03:26 PM (#2939262)
Subject: RE: My god, is he still alive!
From: lefthanded guitar

God is alive, magic is afoot..........sang Buffy St. Marie on an old album.

03 Jul 10 - 11:11 PM (#2939447)
Subject: RE: My god, is he still alive!
From: LadyJean

In 1989, the last living survivor of the Johnstown flood was three to be part of the centennial commemoration. She was 104, but she could still remember the flood and the courageous engineer who drove his train into town at top speed with the whistle screaming, to warn people that the water was coming. (He jumped out of the cab at the last minute and did, indeed, survive.)

04 Jul 10 - 11:20 AM (#2939594)
Subject: RE: My god, is he still alive!
From: Bill D

sadly, I missed the opportunity to post that Art Linkletter was still alive. He died in May, at 97.

21 Aug 11 - 10:42 PM (#3210646)
Subject: RE: My god, is he still alive!
From: GUEST,Cody_M

George Beverly Shea is still alive at age 102 - AND he is still occasionally singing. Heard him a couple of years ago and he is still good ( not up to his earlier time with Billy Graham - but still good)

Cody_M

22 Aug 11 - 10:13 AM (#3210863)
Subject: RE: My god, is he still alive!
From: Trevor Thomas

Coleridge Goode, who played double bass in the UK with Django Reinhardt and Stephane Grapelli at the end of the second world war is still alive, and will be about 96 or 97.

16 Dec 12 - 05:43 AM (#3452669)
Subject: RE: My god, is he still alive!
From: GUEST,ltlwidget

That's very sad to hear about Rex Hickok. I went all thru grade and middle school with him.

16 Dec 12 - 10:04 AM (#3452762)
Subject: RE: My god, is he still alive!
From: Leadfingers

Compared to some in this thread he is a mere stripling but Tom Lehrer is still with us ! He'll be 85 next April .

16 Dec 12 - 12:00 PM (#3452820)
Subject: RE: My god, is he still alive!
From: Larry The Radio Guy

Jerry Lee Lewis

16 Dec 12 - 12:14 PM (#3452822)
Subject: RE: My god, is he still alive!
From: Beer

Dolores Hope(103). One-time singer and longtime wife of comedian Bob Hope.
ad.

16 Dec 12 - 12:37 PM (#3452833)
Subject: RE: My god, is he still alive!
From: GUEST

God

17 Dec 12 - 11:44 AM (#3453343)
Subject: RE: My god, is he still alive!
From: GUEST,John Foxen

Don't know what beer you're drinking Beer but Dolores Hope died in September 2011 aged 102. There were stories in the news eight days ago about the Hope kids holding a garage sale at Bob and Dolores' mansion to clear out their late parents' belongings.

17 Dec 12 - 01:00 PM (#3453385)
Subject: RE: My god, is he still alive!
From: Little Hawk

Our dog Valdy finally took the "long walk" one night after reaching a pretty incredible age for a Dachshund. I think he was in his 17th year. He was barely able to walk at that point, but he went out by his own choice on a rainy, cold night...extraordinary! You would not normally have been able to persuade him to do that. He headed down to the forest at the back of the property and vanished. I went out after 1/2 hour and looked all over for him...never found any sign of him. It snowed lightly that night, the first snow of that winter. I looked for him the next day too. Never found a thing. Valdy had left in the way that suited him best, and I have to say that I rather admire him for having done so in the way he did. That's how I'd like to do it too....just "poof!"...gone without a trace.

17 Dec 12 - 01:57 PM (#3453395)
Subject: RE: My god, is he still alive!
From: Beer

My apologies John. Here is where I found the information. It wasn't the beer.
Ad.

http://www.deadoraliveinfo.com/dead.nsf/viewdocs-nf/oldpeople

17 Dec 12 - 02:30 PM (#3453403)
Subject: RE: My god, is he still alive!
From: GUEST,Rev Bayes

On the topic of Civil War pensions, there are in fact two pensioners still living (at least, as of not that long ago). Both are disabled children of late-marrying veterans.

And this, kids, is why you should ensure your defined benefit scheme is fully funded.

17 Dec 12 - 08:46 PM (#3453537)
Subject: RE: My god, is he still alive!
From: frogprince

"Don't know what beer you're drinking Beer but Dolores Hope died in September 2011 aged 102"

Actually the confusion is understandable; on the Canadian calendar, this year is only 2010.

18 Dec 12 - 12:50 PM (#3453828)
Subject: RE: My god, is he still alive!
From: GUEST,John Foxen

I was about to say "Good lord, have the Canadians actually got as modern as 2010" then I remembered the chap from Ontario is a good six inches taller than me and far fitter so I won't denigrate them. Thanks for the link to the website, Beer. I was amused to see that it opens with the words: "Yes, despite some skeptical emails received, all of the following people really are alive ... yes, really ... "
Not worth sending them a sceptical email then…

18 Dec 12 - 12:52 PM (#3453829)
Subject: RE: My god, is he still alive!
From: GUEST,999

"My god, is he still alive!"

In your heart, my child, in your heart.

18 Dec 12 - 03:55 PM (#3453928)
Subject: RE: My god, is he still alive!
From: topical tom

Pete Seeger.