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Menin tyttäreni 40-vuotishääpäivän juhliin Savannahin Harbor View Country Clubille, taskussani pieni puinen laatikko, jossa oli edesmenneen vaimoni Eleanorin vihkisormus – sen, jonka olin luvannut antaa lapsenlapselleni sinä iltana, kun tämä lopulta kihlautuisi. Mutta kun olin pääsemässä juhlasalin ovelle, oma tyttäreni astui eteeni ja painoi kämmenensä rintaani vasten. “Isä, sinä et voi tulla tänne tänä iltana. … Read more

Richard Pryor didn’t just perform chaos—he lived it. Born December 1, 1940, in Peoria, Illinois, he was raised in a brothel run by his grandmother, Marie Carter. His mother worked there as a prostitute, and his father acted as a solicitor, bringing in clients. This was the literal structure of his childhood, and it shaped … Read more

Fats Domino said little about Chuck Berry for most of his life, preferring to let his piano speak for him. But near the end of his life, at age 89, he finally addressed the record directly: he acknowledged Berry as one of the greatest showmen ever, then quietly added that rock and roll did not … Read more

Jimmy Bryant didn’t just play the guitar. He attacked it with a speed and aggression that made him the fastest guitarist of his era, a virtuoso whose technique anticipated the rise of rock and roll and the shredders of the 1980s by decades. But his astonishing speed was born from trauma, the defining trauma of … Read more

Kun astuin sisään maalaistalon ovesta, jonka edesmennyt vaimoni Lena oli kieltänyt minua lähestymästä koko 23 avioliittovuotemme ajan, Magdalena Vasquez nousi keittiöntuolilta. Hän katsoi minua noin neljä sekuntia sanomatta mitään. Sitten hän sanoi odottaneensa minua. Lena oli kertonut hänelle yksitoista viikkoa ennen kuolemaansa, että minä lopulta astuisin tuosta ovesta sisään, ja että kun se tapahtuisi, Magdalenan … Read more

George Burns had already lived an extraordinary life before he reached his final milestone. The vaudeville star, born January 20, 1896, built a legendary partnership with his wife Gracie Allen, dominating radio, television, and film for decades. After Gracie’s death, he reinvented himself and won an Oscar at age 80 for The Sunshine Boys. He … Read more

Born in Hungary in 1849, Mary Katherine Horony would become known to history as Big Nose Kate, the woman most often remembered simply as Doc Holliday’s companion. But her life involved far more than her famous and volatile relationship with the tubercular gambler and dentist. Kate was born on November 9, 1849, in Rév-Komárom, Hungary, … Read more

A song that became one of the most beloved wedding anthems of all time did not begin as music at all. “We’ve Only Just Begun” first captured public attention as a soundtrack for a California bank commercial in 1970. Songwriters Paul Williams and Roger Nichols wrote a quiet, cheerful tune for a television advertisement depicting … Read more

In September 1327, a deposed English king died inside a small stone chamber at Berkeley Castle in Gloucestershire. The official record attributed the death to natural causes, but witnesses and chroniclers spoke of murder, and the mystery has never been fully resolved. The death of Edward II, and the family that held him prisoner, became … Read more

A 22-year-old Union private was shot just below his right collarbone on July 2, 1863, at the Battle of Gettysburg. The bullet tore through his lung and exited his back, collapsing the lung instantly. Surgeons at a makeshift hospital on Baltimore Pike did not expect him to survive. His name was Adalbert Clinton Sherman, a … Read more