Paul Walker - Too Fast, Too Furious

 

"Maybe this is just horrible bad, but I think I've had enough successes to where the journey is more important to me now.  There's no guarantee, no matter what.  We've got one run in life."

Paul William Walker IV was born in Glendale, California on September 12, 1973.  He was born to a family that had already seen its share of fame.  His father, Paul III, was an amateur boxer and two-time Golden Gloves champion while his mother Cheryl was a fashion model.  His paternal grandfather, Paul II, had also been a professional boxer, while his other grandfather was a racecar driver.

He began his acting career when he was just 13 years old, appearing in the long-forgotten horror comedy film Monster in the Closet.  Bigger roles would follow, including a short-term stint on the daytime soap opera The Young and the Restless.  It got him noticed in Hollywood, leading to roles on the big screen, including Varsity Blues and She's All That, both released in 1999.

In 2001, he was cast as Brian O'Connor in The Fast and the Furious, spawning a franchise that today includes 12 feature films and an animated series.  Really.  Walker would only appear in six and a half of these films however.

On November 30, 2013, Walker attended a fundraising event for his charity Reach Out Worldwide (see Trivia below).  He was joined by friend Roger Rodas, a fellow racing enthusiast and investment banker.  The two left the event in Rodas's 2005 Porsche Carrera GT, reaching speeds up to 93 MPH in a 45 MPH zone.  Rodas lost control of the car, which, after crashing into a concrete lamp post, burst into flames.

Both men died in the crash.  An autopsy would later determine that Rodas died on impact, while Walker would die in the fire.  Both of their bodies were burned beyond recognition.

Walker was cremated and his ashes were buried at famed Forest Lawn Cemetery in the Hollywood Hills.  Don't bother asking the front office for directions though, because they don't give them.

Court of Liberty Section
Gardens of Heritage

Rest in peace.

Trivia

• If you want to learn more about Paul Walker, take a voyage to Amazon.  It's all in books.
  
  
• The crash occurred at 28385 Constellation Road in Valencia.  It is today a macabre tourist attraction, even receiving its own page on Roadside America.
  
  
• Walker died halfway during production of the seventh film in the series, aptly titled Furious 7.  His brothers were employed to help finish the project.  Producers also made use of CGI.
  
  
• Walker founded the non-profit organization Reach Out Worldwide following a devastating 2010 earthquake in Haiti.  It is a collaboration between first responders, medical technicians, and construction experts who travel the globe in response to natural disasters.  For more information on how you can support this worthy organization, please visit roww.org. 
  
  
• Walker was raised in the Mormon faith, later becoming a devout Christian, graduating from Village Christian High School in 1991.  "I'm a Christian now," he later said.  "The people I don't understand are atheists.  I go surfing and snowboarding and I'm always around nature.  I look at everything and think, who couldn't believe there's a God?  Is this all a mistake?  It just blows me away."
  
  
• Rapper Wiz Khalifa wrote and produced the single See You Again for the Furious 7 soundtrack as a tribute to Walker.  You can check out the video on YouTube.
  
  
• Walker's life was chronicled in the 2018 documentary I am Paul Walker.  Check out the trailer on YouTube.

Peter, Paul, and Mary Travers

 

"People say to us 'oh we grew up on your music' and we often say, sotto voce, 'so did we.'"

Mary Allin Travers was born in Louisville, Kentucky on November 9, 1936.  Her parents were journalists who moved the family to New York City just two years later.

She grew up in Greenwich Village, where, as a teenager, she found herself drawn to the burgeoning folk music scene.  She attended the progressive Little Red School House, but dropped out in the 11th grade to join her first group, the Song Swappers.  She stayed with them for six years before catching the ear of Bob Dylan in 1961.

That year, he teamed Mary with fellow folk musicians Peter Yarrow and Paul Stookey.  Between 1961 and 2009, Peter, Paul, and Mary would release nearly 50 albums and 29 hit singles.  This blogger would discover them through their hit The River of Jordan, covered by Lorna Patterson in the 1980 cinematic masterpiece Airplane!.

In 2004, Mary was diagnosed with leukemia. She underwent a bone marrow transplant the following year, which led to a temporary remission, but she ultimately passed away on September 16, 2009.  She was just 72 years old.

Mary Travers was laid to rest at Umpawaug Cemetery in Redding, Connecticut.

Rest in peace.

Trivia

• The inscription on Mary's headstone reads "Voice of a generation that echoes through the ages."  
  
  
• At the height of their fame, the trio appeared as mystery guests on the popular game show What's My Line, brought to you by Kellogg's.  You can watch the 1963 episode in its entirety (complete with commercials) on YouTube.
  
  
• Mary was co-founder of the Newport Folk Festival, an annual event still conducted each year in Rhode Island.
  
  
• Mary was a frequent performer on the annual Jerry Lewis Labor Day MDA Telethon.  Here she is in 1975 being introduced by the host himself and performing The Song is Love.
  
  
• The day after her death, Brian Williams filed this retrospective report for MSNBC.  Shockingly, he didn't claim to have known her or to taught her how to sing.
  
  
• Can't make it to Connecticut yourself?  Vlogger Fascinating Graveyard posted this video of the grave.

The Roots Graveyard?

 

In January 1977, approximately 140 million Americans tuned in to the eight-part television mini-series Roots, based on author Alex Haley's book of the same name.  Spanning more than 100 years, it tells the story of Haley's ancestors, abducted from Africa and sold into slavery in Colonial America.

The main protagonist, Kunta Kinte (played by Levar Burton), was a fictional character based on one of Haley's Gambian ancestors.  Upon arriving in America, he was sold into slavery, eventually working on a plantation in Spotsylvania County, Virginia.

Today, that land has been reclaimed and turned into Loriella Park, which features hiking trails, a swimming pool, a frisbee golf course and more.  One area that remains undisturbed is the former slave graveyard.  While the headstones are no more, many historians and Roots aficionados believe that Haley's ancestor, who died around 1822, is among those buried in this sacred plot.

Rest in peace.

Trivia

• Roots: The Saga of an American Family, was one of 1976's top-selling books.  It spent 46 weeks on The New York Times Best Seller List.  You can pick up a copy on Amazon.
  
  
• Haley eventually passed away in 1992 at the age of 70.  He was buried on the grounds of his childhood home in Henning, Tennessee, which today serves as the Alex Haley Museum and Interpretive Center.
  
  
• The series had hundreds of well-known actors and others who were just starting out.  Many of them have since passed away, and some of those graves have been profiled by this blog.  You can re-visit Robert Reed, Vic Morrow, Carolyn Jones and Roxie Roker.
  
  
• Can't make it to Virginia to see for yourself?  Vlogger VA Travels posted an eight-minute walking and drone tour of the park and the burial grounds.  Check it out on YouTube.

Arnold Horshack!

 

Ronald Gabriel Paolillo was born in New Haven, Connecticut on April 2, 1949. He was the son of Gabriel and Carmel, the former of whom died of lung cancer when Ronald was just ten years old.  He graduated from high school in 1967 and attended the University of Connecticut at Storrs.  Intent on becoming an actor, he made his way to Hollywood, where he changed his name to Ron Palillo.

In 1975, he was cast in his signature role, that of Arnold Horshack on the sit-com Welcome, Back Kotter.  It was his first television role.  The series ran for four seasons totaling 94 episodes.  The final episode was a back-door pilot that would serve as a starring vehicle for Paolillo, but the new series was never produced.

In the 1980s, he made guest appearances on many popular shows of the day, including The Love Boat, Chips, and of course, Murder, She Wrote.  He also appeared in a number of feature films, including Friday the 13th, Part 6: Jason Lives (1986) and the charmingly titled Snake Eater (1989), an action vehicle for Lorenzo Lamas.  Apparently the movie was a success, because later the same year, he reprised his role in its sequel, Snake Eater 2: The Drug Buster.

In 1991, he returned to the New York stage, where he played Mozart in Amadeus and Nathan Detroit in Guys and Dolls, among many other roles.  He was also a talented stage director, releasing his first full-length play, The Lost Boy, in 2006.  It told the story of Peter Pan author J.M. Barrie.

In 2012, Paolillo was living in Palm Beach, Florida with his partner of 41 years, Joseph Gramm.  It was there that he suffered a heart attack on August 14th.  Although he was rushed to a nearby hospital, he was pronounced dead on arrival.  He was just 63 years old.  A memorial tribute, hosted by Cagney and Lacey star Tyne Daly, was held in New York City later that year.

Ron Paolillo was laid to rest in Saint Larence Cemetery in West Haven, Connecticut.

Rest in peace.

Trivia

• Paolillo was the second Sweathog to pass away in 2012, the first being Robert Hegyes, who also died of a heart attack.
  
  
• In the early 1980s, Paolillo became a voice actor for several Saturday morning cartoons, including Laverne and Shirley in the Army.  He provided the voice of Sargeant Squealy, a talking pig.  Think I'm making this up?  You can watch an episode in its entirety on YouTube.
  
  
• Paolillo was also an illustrator who worked on the children's book The Red Wings of Christmas with fellow former child star Wesley Eure.  You can pick up a copy on Amazon.  He illustrated a second children's book with author Michael Mele entitled A Gift for the Contessa, which is also available on Amazon.
  
  
• In 1983, Paolillo cut a public service announcement for The Alcoholism Center in Chicago.  Check it out on YouTube.
  
  
• In the 1990s, Paolillo returned to the University at Connecticut, this time as a professor.
  
  
• Remember Celebrity Boxing?  It was a guilty pleasure back in 2002.  During the second season, Paolillo fought a fellow TV nerd about three decades younger, Saved by the Bell's Dustin Diamond.  You can watch the fight in its painful entirety on YouTube.

Pearl S. Buck

 

"The secret of joy is contained in one word - excellence.  To know how to do something well is to enjoy it."

Pearl S. Buck is not exactly a household name.  Chances are however, that at some point in your life, you were reading the dust jacket on a book and saw that it was recipient of the Pearl S. Buck Award. This prestigious honor is given to female American authors whose work reflects the same principles for whom the award is named.  But who exactly was she?

She was born Pearl Comfort Sydenstriker in Hillsboro, West Virginia on June 26, 1892.  She was the daughter of American missionaries, who took her to China when she was just four months old. She'd spend her formative years abroad, even learning to speak Chinese before English.  Then in 1911, she returned to the States and settled in Lynchburg, Virginia, where she enrolled in Randolph-Macon Woman's College.  She graduated Phi Beta Kappa just three years later.

Upon graduation, she returned to China where she married fellow missionary John Lossing Buck.  They'd settle in the Suzhou, Anhui Province, which would serve as the inspiration for her most famous work, The Good Earth, first published in 1931.  This influential novel won Buck the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1932, and later, the Nobel Prize for Literature.  It is today considered an American literary classic.

Buck died of lung cancer on March 6, 1973.  She was 80 years old.  She was interred on the grounds of Pearl S. Buck International, a non-profit organization founded in 1964 in Perkasie, Pennsylvania. It's mission is to "bridge cultures and change lives through humanitarian aid and intercultural education."

Rest in peace.

Trivia

• If you want to learn more about Pearl S. Buck, take a voyage to Amazon.  It's all in books.
  
  
• Winners of the Pearl S. Buck Award receive a medallion and a $25,000 prize.
  
  
• Randolph-Macon Woman's College is today known simply as Randolph College.
  
  
• In 1973, the National Women's Hall of Fame opened in Seneca Falls, New York.  Buck was the first inductee.