RIP

[CherylNYC]

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/06/o...neil-dead.html


Kitty O’Neil, Stuntwoman and Speed Racer, Is Dead at 72

By Richard Sandomir
Nov. 6, 2018

1
On a dry lake in the Alvord Desert in Oregon in December 1976, Kitty O’Neil wedged herself into a three-wheeled rocket-powered vehicle called the SMI Motivator. She gave the throttle two taps to awaken the engine and then watched an assistant count down from 10 with hand signals. At zero, she pushed the throttle down.

“During a sliver of a second, the howling machine stood motionless, as if stuck in time,” Coles Phinizy wrote in Sports Illustrated. “In the next instant, it was gone, a shrinking blur lost in its own trailing noise.”

The Motivator accelerated rapidly, though silently for Ms. O’Neil; she was deaf. Her speed peaked briefly at 618 miles per hour, and with a second explosive run measured over one kilometer, she attained an average speed of 512.7 m.p.h., shattering the land-speed record for women by about 200 m.p.h.

For Ms. O’Neil, her record — which still stands — was the highlight of a career in daredevilry. She also set speed records on water skis and in boats. And, working as a stuntwoman, she crashed cars and survived immolation.


In one stunt, as a double for Lindsay Wagner, she flipped a dune buggy on the television series “The Bionic Woman”; in another, she leapt 127 feet from a hotel balcony onto an inflated airbag as Lynda Carter’s stunt double on “Wonder Woman.”

Ms. O’Neil died on Friday at 72 in Eureka, S.D., where she had lived since 1993. The cause was pneumonia, said Ky Michaelson, a close friend who built rocket-powered vehicles, including some for Ms. O’Neil...

[GeorgiaMa'am]

Stan Lee Dies at the Age of 95

Stan Lee was responsible for bringing many Marvel comics to fruition. Among those were X-Men (a haven for many a queer kid), Black Panther, Spiderman, Captain America, Iron Man, Thor, the Hulk, Daredevil and the ones that started it all, the Fantastic Four. He brought Marvel Comics back from almost dead in the 1960s with these characters. In later years, he became a guru of sorts, the main cheerleader for Marvel fans everywhere. He was the public face of a company that grew into today's Marvel Universe and movie and Netflix franchises.

We'll miss you Stan.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/12/o...-lee-dead.html

[Orema]

[Kätzchen]

My immediate family (my two sons, who are bi-racial African Americans) were big fans of Stan Lee, as well as myself. I often bought them comic books created by Stan Lee, due to his soap box stand on social evils and his views on racism, sexism, bigotry and megalomaniac super villain personalities.

"Let’s lay it right on the line. Bigotry and racism are among the deadliest social ills plaguing the world today. But, unlike a team of costumed super-villains, they can’t be halted with a punch in the snoot, or a zap from a ray gun. The only way to destroy them is to expose them — to reveal them for the insidious evils they really are. The bigot is an unreasoning hater — one who hates blindly, fanatically, indiscriminately. If his hang-up is black men, he hates ALL black men. If a redhead once offended him, he hates ALL redheads. If some foreigner beat him to a job, he’s down on ALL foreigners. He hates people he’s never seen — people he’s never known — with equal intensity — with equal venom," ~ Stan Lee.

Rest in Peace, and thank you for taking a stand, Mr. Stan Lee.

(article link)

[CherylNYC]

From the NY Times Overlooked No More initiative. Belated obituaries for women who were never recognized with a proper NYT obituary at the time of their death. The below baseball pitcher looks and sounds exactly like a butch lesbian to me. You'll have to follow the link to see the awesome photos of a confident young athlete with plenty of swagger.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/07/o...verlooked.html

Overlooked No More: Jackie Mitchell, Who Fanned Two of Baseball’s Greats
Mitchell was a 17-year-old pitcher in 1931 when she struck out Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig in an exhibition game, but questions about that exploit linger.

The baseball pitcher Jackie Mitchell. She was on the roster of the minor league Chattanooga Lookouts when she faced the Yankees.
Credit
George Rinhart/Corbis, via Getty Images



The baseball pitcher Jackie Mitchell. She was on the roster of the minor league Chattanooga Lookouts when she faced the Yankees.CreditCreditGeorge Rinhart/Corbis, via Getty Images
Nov. 7, 2018


By Talya Minsberg
Women have cleared many barriers in sports, but few exploits have been as stunning, and steeped in mystery, as the day Jackie Mitchell struck out two of baseball’s giants, Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig.

It was April 2, 1931, and Mitchell, all of 17, was on the roster of the otherwise all-male Tennessee minor league team the Chattanooga Lookouts, which had signed her to a contract just a week before. The Yankees were in town for an exhibition game as they made their way from spring training in Florida back to New York, and 4,000 people had filled the Lookouts’ stands.

Mitchell took the mound in the first inning, in relief. “The Babe performed his role very ably,” William E. Brandt, a reporter for The New York Times, wrote. “He swung hard at two pitches then demanded that Umpire Owens inspect the ball, just as batters do when utterly baffled by a pitcher’s delivery.”

The third pitch was a strike that left Ruth looking. When the umpire called him out, the Bambino flung his bat away, “registering disgust with his shoulder and chin,” The Times reported. Gehrig took “three hefty swings” and struck out, too.


Mitchell received a standing ovation. “That completed the day’s work for Pitcher Mitchell,” Brandt wrote.ave a Suggestion for an Overlooked Obit? We Want to Hear From YouMarch 8, 2018

The rest of the game was of little note. Another pitcher replaced Mitchell, and her team lost 14-4.

The next day, The Times article was headlined, “Girl Pitcher Fans Ruth and Gehrig.” Mitchell was pictured standing on the mound, baseball glove in hand, smiling slightly.

But what actually happened that day remains in question. Was the strikeout real, or was it orchestrated by Joe Engel, the Lookouts’ owner, as a publicity stunt?...

[ksrainbow]

Nancy Wilson, Legendary Vocalist And NPR 'Jazz Profiles' Host, Dies At 81

Grammy-winning singer Nancy Wilson performs in 2003 at Lincoln Center's
Nancy Wilson died Thursday after a long illness at her home in Pioneertown, Calif., her manager Devra Hall Levy told NPR. She was 81.

Born in Chillicothe, Ohio, in 1937, Wilson has recounted in interviews that she started singing around age 3 or 4.

"I have always just sung. I have never questioned what it is. I thank God for it and I just do it," she told Marian McPartland, host of NPR's Piano Jazz in 1994.

She never had formal training but was influenced by Dinah Washington, Nat "King" Cole, and others. Wilson says she knew at an early age what she would do for a living.

During her decades-long career, Wilson performed jazz ballads, standards, torch songs, show tunes and pop songs. She told McPartland that she loves a song with a good story and good lyrics. A song that has a beginning, middle and an end.

After attending Central State College in Ohio for one year, she left to pursue music full time. She had been touring continuously in her 20s when she met saxophonist Cannonball Adderley. He suggested she move to New York and in 1959 she did. Many successful singles and albums followed.


From 1996 through 2005, NPR listeners will remember Wilson as the host of Jazz Profiles, a documentary series that profiled the legends and legacy of jazz. More than 190 episodes were produced.

In the interview on Piano Jazz, McPartland described Wilson as a multi-talented entertainer. She didn't just sing, Wilson made guest appearances on TV variety programs and acted in several TV series.

As Variety reports: Wilson may be remembered by millions of TV viewers who recall her 1974-75 NBC variety series, "The Nancy Wilson Show," for which she won an Emmy. She was frequently a guest herself on the variety shows hosted by Carol Burnett, Andy Williams and Flip Wilson as well as acting on "The Cosby Show" and dramatic series like "The F.B.I." and "Hawaii 5-O."

In 1998, she received the NAACP Image award — having been active in the civil rights movement, including the 1965 march on Selma, Ala.

In 2011, she stopped touring following a show at Ohio University, but had hinted years earlier that she had thought about retiring.

The Associated Press reports that in 2007, when she turned 70, "Wilson was the guest of honor at a Carnegie Hall gala. 'After 55 years of doing what I do professionally, I have a right to ask how long? I'm trying to retire, people,' she said with a laugh before leaving the stage to a standing ovation."

According to a family statement, Wilson did not want a funeral. A celebration of her life will be held later.

[Bèsame*]

Penny Marshall dead at 75, best known as TV's Laverne and director of 'Big,' 'A League of Their Own'



She definitely left a footprint on our lives 💝💝💝