I remember when I was in Grade 3 and the teacher told us that Coco Chanel had died. (I'd never heard of her.) About the same time I remember hearing on the news about Igor Stravinsky's death. I knew he was a composer, but didn't realize just how great he was back then. And in Grade 7 the teacher told us that Betty Grable had died, whom I hadn't heard of either. And about that time I read in the newspaper about the death of Bud Abbott of Abbott and Costello fame.
Where were you when you heard of Elvis Presley's death? I remember hearing it on the radio. (My sister Moira was in Germany, and saw the headline in a Dutch newspaper!) And I remember hearing of the deaths of Maria Callas and Joan Crawford at about the same time. I heard about Princess Diana's death just after I'd returned from England, so I was recovering from jet lag at the time. And I was troubled by the Americans celebrating Osama bin Laden's death: it's the Charlie Sheenization of the U.S.!
Celebrity deaths rarely get to me. (It's easier to keep an emotional distance from people you don't personally know.) Sometimes when I read about some old timer's death I'll think, "I thought he was already dead!" I wonder if people will think that when they read about my death?
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