Jack Webb

 

The story you about to read is true.

John Randolph "Jack" Webb was born in Santa Monica, California on April 2, 1920.  He never knew his father, who left the family before Webb was born.  He grew up in the Bunker Hill section of Los Angeles, an area ripe with poverty.

Webb attended St. John's University in Minnesota, but he never received his diploma.  Like many of his generation, he put his studies on hold as America entered World War 2.  He enlisted with the Army Air Corps, where he served on the crew of a B-26 Marauder.  Webb was ultimately issued a hardship discharge however, as he was the sole provider for his mother and grandmother.

After the war, Webb got his start in radio, working for station KGO in San Francisco.  The Jack Webb Show, his first weekly series, was actually a comedy, running contrary to the serious persona for which he'd become known.  In 1949, he introduced Dragnet and his Joe Friday character on NBC Radio in Los Angeles, where it ran for the next eight years. 

Three years into its run, the first television version, also starring Webb, began airing on NBC.  It ran until 1959.  Webb brought it back to television as a mid-season replacement in 1967, where it ran for the next three years.  If you've ever stumbled across a Dragnet rerun in syndication, its from this three-year time period.

On December 23, 1982, Jack Webb died of a sudden heart attack.  He was just 62 years old.  He was laid to rest at Forest Lawn Hollywood Hills with full honors befitting an LAPD detective, including a 17-gun salute.

Location: Sheltering Hills Section, Map #C07, Lot #1999

Rest in peace.

Just the Facts

• If you want to learn more about Jack Webb, take a voyage to your public library or Amazon.  Its all in books.
  
  
• While there is no Jack Webb Museum per se, there is a rather unique exhibit on display at the Valley Relics Museum in Lake Balboa, California.  It includes a wall of televisions sets from Webb's former living room, from which he would simultaneously watch his own shows as well as those of his competitors.
  
  
• Joe Friday's badge number was 714.  This was an homage to Babe Ruth and the number of home runs he scored during his baseball career.  Webb was his biggest fan. 
  
  
• Upon Webb's passing, the LAPD retired his badge number and christened a police academy auditorium in his honor.
  
  
• Back when late-night television was actually funny, Webb appeared on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson in a spoof of his Joe Friday character.  If you've never seen it, I highly recommend it.  Check it out on YouTube.
  

JonBenet Ramsey

 

JonBenet Patricia Ramsey was born in Atlanta, Georgia on August 6, 1990.  She was the youngest of two children born to John Bennett and Patrica Ramsey.  She had an older brother named Burke and three half-siblings.

As a former Miss West Virginia herself (1977), Patricia began entering her daughter in beauty pageants from a very early age.  During her brief career, JonBenet won no less than seven titles, including Little Miss Colorado, Little Miss Charlevoix (Michigan), and Little Miss Christmas, the latter of which she won the week before her death.

On the morning of December 26, 1996, the Ramsey family reported that JonBenet was missing.  Later that day, her body was discovered in the basement of their home.  A subsequent investigation determined that she had been strangled on Christmas night, and the case was ruled a homicide.

Sadly, the case remains unsolved to this day, almost thirty years after the crime.  JonBenet was laid to rest at Saint James Episcopal Cemetery in Marietta, Georgia.

Rest in peace.

Trivia

• Several books have been written on this tragic case, enough to fill a library.  Check out some of them on Amazon.
  
  
• The Alcatraz East Crime Museum in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee has a few of Ramsey's personal effects on display, including her bicycle and a pair of tap-dancing shoes.  They are housed within the museum's cold cases gallery.
  
  
• Seven years after the murder, forensic investigators examined DNA taken from Ramsey's clothing and compared it to every sample on file.  There was no match in their database.
  
  
• The current owners of the former Ramsey House in Colorado, Timothy and Carol Milner, have turned down multiple Hollywood offers to showcase the property, including those from Netflix and Dr. Phil.  As Carol told one media outlet, "we want nothing to do with the exploitation of that poor family."
  
  
• Ten years after her daughter's death, Patricia Ramsey lost her battle with cancer, passing away at the age of 49.  She was laid to rest with her daughter.
  
  

  

  This photo courtesy of Find a Grave.

Strother Martin

 

"No man can achieve immortality.  We don't live for what comes after we are dead, but for what we can achieve in this life - the only chance we have."

Strother Douglas Martin, Jr. was born in Kokomo, Indiana on March 26, 1919.  As a child, he excelled at swimming and diving (see Trivia below).  He later served as a swimming instructor with the U.S. Navy during World War 2 and then as a student at the University of Michigan.

His swimming abilities then took him to Hollywood, where he found work as an instructor for such films as The Damned Don't Cry (1950) starring Joan Crawford.  His foot in the door, he soon started earning small parts on such series as Gunsmoke and Have Gun - Will Travel.  Throughout his career, he'd amass 189 credits in television and feature films.

Martin is best remembered for his role in the 1967 Paul Newman film Cool Hand Luke. Credited simply as the Captain, he served as a prison warden and main antagonist in the film, who was best remembered for this scene.

By 1980, Martin was under a doctor's care for diabetes and cardiac-related issues.  He ultimately died of a heart attack on August 1st at the age of 61.

Strother Martin was cremated and his ashes were interred at Forest Lawn Memorial Park Hollywood Hills.

Location: Court of Remembrance, Columbarium of Radiant Dawn,
Outdoor Garden Niche #62310

Rest in peace.

Trivia

• While there are no biographies or museums for Martin, there is a mural painted in his honor in Los Angeles.
  
  

  

  Location: 5200 Fountain Avenue

  
  
• In 1970, Chico State College in California hosted the First Annual Strother Martin Film Festival.  Sadly, it did not become an annual event as originally billed.
  
  
• Martin's most famous line of dialogue from Cool Hand Luke serves as the opening of the Guns N' Roses song Civil War.  Check it out on YouTube.
  
  
• An avid swimmer who earned the nickname "T-Bone Martin," Martin won the National Junior Springboard Division Championship in 1936.  Although he failed to make the 1948 Olympic team, he would later coach the children of Hollywood stars, agents, executives, and more.
  
  
• Just a few months before Cool Hand Luke opened in theatres, Martin appeared on a classic episode of the sit-com Gilligan's Island (see profile picture above).  He played a man who was attempting to win a cash prize for being marooned on an island.  Despite the similarity between this concept and the reality series Survivor, it would take CBS 37 years to develop the award-winning format.