My god, is he still alive!

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

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.

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

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.

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

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


A

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

Are you sure?

Could you have died and just not realized it yet?

Subject: RE: My god, is he still alive!
From: GUEST
Date: 25 Apr 07 - 03:07 PM

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

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

Ernest Borgnine

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

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

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

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...

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

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

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

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.

Subject: RE: My god, is he still alive!
From: GUEST,Jim
Date: 25 Apr 07 - 07:07 PM

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.

Subject: RE: My god, is he still alive!
From: Ythanside
Date: 25 Apr 07 - 07:13 PM

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

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

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

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

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!

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

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.

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

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

Wolfgang

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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.

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

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

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

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.

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

Patty Andrews, 89, last of the Andrews Sisters.

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

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.

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

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

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

Very kewl, frogprince! Wiki on Doris Eaton Travis.

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

"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

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

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

Dave Oesterreich

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

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!

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

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.

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

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. :)

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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.)

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

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.

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

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

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!

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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!

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

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

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

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.

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

"He's not dead, Jim!"

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

Though, I believe his wife is....

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

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

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

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