Archive for the Deaths Category
Posted on September 5, 2009 with No Comments
After passing away more than two months ago, Michael Jackson finally reached his fnal resting place on Thursday, at a private mausoleum at the Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California.
Close friends of Jackson who didn’t attend the public memorial service on July 7 were in attendance invitation-only funeral service including Elizabeth Taylor, Lisa Marie Presley, and Macaulay Culkin.
The Jackson family paid $150 thousand dollars in advance to the Glendale police department to provide security and released the following statement after the 90-minute service: “Michael Jackson reached his final resting place tonight at 9:43 pm PST…At the beginning of the ceremony, Michael’s children placed a crown on their father’s coffin to signify the final resting place of the King of Pop.”
One of the funeral programs contained personal messages from Michael’s brother Jermaine and sister La Toya:
“Michael, I always think about the time when you and I were in our bedroom in Indiana and it was snowing outside, we had our faces pressed against the window singing x-mas songs. It was the innocence and joy that made us sing as the snow was falling,” Jermaine writes.
“Your dreams were so incredible that it made the world a much happier place to live, and the world wouldn’t let you rest because they demanded your dreams to transport them to another place. You’ve done your work here Michael, you’ve entertained us for decades and there’s nothing else that you can prove or accomplish here on earth. You taught us how to laugh, how to love, and how to believe,” La Toya writes.
Posted on August 3, 2009 with No Comments
Naomi Sims, one of the first black supermodels of the 1960s and 70s, died this weekend from cancer at the age of 61.
Born in Mississippi and raised in Pittsburgh, Sims began modeling in her teens and was the first black woman to appear on the cover of Ladies Home Journal in 1968. She was a representation of the “black is beautiful” movement during the late sixties and would say “it’s ‘in’ to use me.” Sims also appeared on the cover of Life magazine in 1969.
“Naomi was the first,” the designer Halston told The New York Times in 1974. “She was the great ambassador for all black people. She broke down all the social barriers.”
Sims’ 1967 Times fashion supplement photo was featured in the Spring 2009 exhibit at the Metrolitan Museum of Art called “The Model as Muse.”
As well as achieving international success as a model, Sims studied at New York’s Fashion Institute and New York University and later launched a line of skin products and wigs for African American women.
She also penned several books including “All About Health and Beauty for the Black Woman,” “How to Be a Top Model” and “All About Success for the Black Woman, and wrote an advice column for Right On! magazine.
Posted on July 24, 2009 with No Comments
Best-selling author E. Lynn Harris has died at the age of 54 during a West Coast book tour.
Harris, an openly gay writer, self-published his first novel “Invisible Life” in 1991, selling copies from the trunk of his car. He became known for his novels about young, urban professionals and the portrayal of black men living as closeted gay men or on the “down low”.
A graduate of the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville, Harris was the school’s first black male cheerleader and the first black yearbook editor.
The Doubleday writer was promoting his eleventh novel, “Basketball Jones,” a story about a gay love affair with an NBA player. All of Harris’ previous novels including “Just As I Am” (1995), “And This Too Shall Pass” (1996), and “I Say a Little Prayer” (2006) have made it onto the New York Times bestseller list
Posted on July 7, 2009 with No Comments
Although Janet Jackson was supposed to close the memorial service with parting words for the family, it was Michael’s 11-year-old daughter Paris Katherine who brought the world to tears.
“I just want to say ever since I was born, Daddy has been the best father you could ever imagine,” she said, as her relatives surrounded her. “And I just wanted to say I love him so much.”
Posted on July 1, 2009 with 1 Comment
OK! magazine made a tacky decision to use one of the last images of Michael Jackson as he lay dying as the cover for their tribute issue, sparking outrage among fans and musicians (like Sean “Diddy” Combs and Jay-Z), who have launched a petition to stop the publication of further copies.
The petition argues that the tabloid has violated Jackson’s right to privacy, while OK!’s editorial director Sarah Ivens adamantly defends her cover:
“It’s a photo that captures the surprise and the upset and the moment of this breaking news story . . . I hope the cover will provoke readers. It celebrated the man, but it also does expose that he was an eccentric character who lived a very controversial life.”
Blindie finds the tabloid’s cover to be sensational, a ploy to sell covers rather than a celebration of the Jackson’s musical legacy.
Posted on June 26, 2009 with 1 Comment
Michael Joseph Jackson died in Los Angeles on Thursday after suffering a cardiac arrest. He was pronounced dead at 2:26pm at the UCLA Medical Center. The singer was just 50 years old.
Crowned the King of Pop, Jackson’s musical career spanned over five decades beginning at the age of 11 as part of the group The Jackson 5 with his brothers Tito, Jermaine, Jackie and Marlon. As a solo artist he created some of the world’s best-selling records: “Off the Wall” (1979), “Thriller” (1982), “Bad” (1987), “Dangerous” (1991) and “HIStory”(1995) and was inducted into the Rock and Roll twice.
Although he was beloved by the world over, Jackson’s life was plagued with controversy from his drastic plastic surgery, accusations of child molestation, to eccentricities that ranged from sleeping in an oxygen chamber to buying the Elephant Man’s bones.
The incredible talent that made Jackson a superstar also isolated him from the world and he seemed to be on an endless quest to reclaim the childhood that was robbed from him by an abusive, overbearing father who thrust him into the spotlight at a young age. He often referred to himself as a lonely man and was obsessed with the story Peter Pan, even calling his palatial animal-filled and carnival themed residence in California Neverland Ranch.
Michael Jackson was truly a gifted and innovative entertainer who made a profound impact on the music industry, touching the world with his musical genius and shaping pop culture as we know it.
Posted on December 25, 2008 with No Comments
Screen and song legend Eartha Kitt died Thursday at age 81.
The seductive icon broke barriers with her role as Catwoman in the 1960s TV series Batman, and jumped into every man’s heart with her 1953 Christmas song “Santa Baby.”
Dying on Christmas day, the legend will be remembered for her more than six decades in show business.
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