This year has been SO hard losing special people especially from my childhood. From the music we danced to, those we looked up to, and those that made us laugh!
Nov 16 George Brown, American R&B and funk drummer (Kool & the Gang - "Celebration"), dies of lung cancer at 74
Hours of joy and dancing he gave all of us!
Nov 19 Rosalynn Carter, American activist and First Lady (1977-81), dies at 96
August 18, 1927 – November 19, 2023, she was an American writer and activist who served as the first lady of the United States from 1977 to 1981, as the wife of President Jimmy Carter. Throughout her decades of public service, she was perhaps best known for being a leading advocate for women's rights and mental health.
In March 1977, Carter gave her first interview since becoming first lady. She outlined her goals in focusing on mental health: "For every person who needs mental health care to be able to receive it close to his home, and to remove the stigma from mental health care so people will be free to talk about it and seek help. It's been taboo for so long to admit you had a mental health problem."
Jimmy Carter, 99, has been in hospice care since February but made the 150-mile journey to attend the Atlanta service and was seen at the smaller Wednesday, Nov 29th service as well.
The funeral at Maranatha Baptist Church, which the Carters have attended for decades, was a smaller gathering made up mostly of family members and locals, in contrast to the Atlanta memorial, which included visiting dignitaries such as President Joe Biden and five first ladies.
Nov 25 Marty Krofft, Canadian puppeteer and television producer - with his brother Sid (H.R. Pufnstuf; Land of the Lost; Sigmund and the Sea Monsters; Donny & Marie), dies at 86
After designing the characters and sets for Hanna-Barbera's The Banana Splits (NBC, 1968–1970), the Kroffts' producing career began in 1969 with the landmark children's television series H.R. Pufnstuf. The series introduced the team's trademark style of large-scale, colourful design, puppetry, and special effects. Featuring a boy who has been lured into an alternate fantasy world and can never escape, the team also established a storytelling formula to which they would often return.
The Banana Splits and Pufnstuf, come on Witchy Poo! My kid crush, Jack Wild, were my absolute favorites as a kid! I got so much joy watching them and also collecting items from the shows. The brothers made me smile on hard days and they were just so fun!!!
Nov 29 Henry Kissinger, German American diplomat (US Secretary of State, 1973-77) and winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1973, dies at 100
He was always on the news when I was growing up, and always in the middle of arguments in my house.
Kissinger was a highly influential but polarizing figure. His impact extended beyond his tenure as national security adviser from 1969 to 1975 and overlapping/concurrent service as Secretary of State from 1973 to 1977, for decades spanning from the Vietnam War to the aftermath of 9/11. He leaves behind a mixed legacy: Once the most admired man in America according to a 1973 Gallup poll—the same year that he was controversially named the joint recipient of a Nobel Peace Prize for the Paris Peace Accords, along with North Vietnamese counterpart Le Duc Tho—he has also been fiercely criticized as a war criminal.
He managed to escape the Watergate scandal largely unscathed, continuing to serve as Secretary of State until the end of the Ford administration in 1977, when he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian award.
Some critics have objected to Kissinger’s continued involvement in American foreign policy, arguing that his actions as America’s top diplomat created long-lasting problems that the nation continues to grapple with today, such as aiding fundamentalist Islamic movements in the Middle East and playing a role in fostering American dependence on Saudi oil.
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