We remember Gene Tierney 1920-1991

Gene Tierney was born on this day in 1921.   Her father was a very successful insurance broker and Gene had a chance to study in Connecticut and Switzerland.

She played many famous roles:   

Martha Strable Van Cleve in "Heaven Can Wait" (1943), 

Isabel Bradley Maturin in "The Razor's Edge" (1946), 

Lucy Muir in "The Ghost and Mrs. Muir" (1947), 
Ann Sutton in "Whirlpool" (1949), 
Maggie Carleton McNulty in "The Mating Season" (1951), and Anne Scott in "The Left Hand of God" (1955).

My favorite is "Laura".   She was nominated for best actress in that role from the 1944 movie.

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We remember Garrick Utley (1939-2014)

We remember Garrick Utley.  He was one of those TV newsmen that many of us grew up watching:

"Clifton Garrick Utley was born Nov. 19, 1939, in Chicago. His parents, Clifton Utley and Frayn Utley, were pioneering broadcast journalists in Chicago, and he began accompanying them to studios at an early age.He graduated in 1961 from Carleton College in Northfield, Minn., then served in the Army before joining NBC as John Chancellor’s assistant in the Brussels bureau. (Chancellor later became anchor of the “Nightly News.”)By 1964, the 24-year-old Mr. Utley was reporting from war zones in Vietnam, earning $62.50 a week, he later recalled.After covering major international events, Mr. Utley served as a weekend anchor of “Nightly News” in the 1970s, reported on U.S. presidential elections and prepared a series of in-depth programs on civil rights, foreign affairs and other topics.He won two of broadcast journalism’s most prestigious honors: the Overseas Press Club of America’s Edward R. Murrow Award for coverage of the Cold War and the Peabody Award for his contributions to a 1985 NBC special report, “Vietnam: Ten Years Later.”

My memories are of Vietnam but he also reported from Prague 1968.  

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1863: The Gettysburg Address

We remember today one of the greatest moments in US history:  The Gettysburg Address.

A great speech and one that should be remembered by every new generation.
  

Click here for my chat with Frank Burke.

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We remember Roy Campanella (1921-1993)

Roy Campanella, who became one of the key figures of the Dodgers’ great teams of the 1950s, was born on this day in 1921.   

Later, Roy made his major league debut in July 1948.   He got a double in his first at bat. 

Campy, as he was known, turned into one of the greatest catchers of his era.  He was the NL MVP in 1951, 1953 & 1955 when the Dodgers finally beat the Yankees in the World Series.  

His career abruptly ended after a car crash left him paralyzed in early 1958.    Coincidentally, it happened months after the Dodgers played their last game in Brooklyn and moved to Los Angeles.

His numbers were very impressive for a catcher: .276 batting average, 242 HR & 856 RBI.  Campy was elected to The Hall of Fame in 1969 and died in 1993. 

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1863: Lincoln's Gettysburg Address

Today, we recall Pres Lincoln's Gettysburg Address. It is probably the greatest presidential speech in US history.

Pres Lincoln spoke at the dedication of the Soldiers' National Cemetery in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. It was a few months after the Union won the decisive Battle of Gettysburg.

Here is the text:

"Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure.

We are met on a great battle-field of that war.

We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live.

It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate -- we can not consecrate -- we can not hallow -- this ground.

The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract.

The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here.

It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced.

It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth." (Abraham Lincoln Online)

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The Gettysburg Address: 272 words that made history

It’s Gettysburg Address Day and another time to remember my late great “Tio Joaquin Ramos”.  He was my grandmother’s brother and another distinguished citizen of Sagua La Grande.   

Before 1959, Tio Joaquin was a judge, law college professor, an attorney and a big fan of President Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address.  

Here it is.  I can still hear my great uncle reciting it and telling me that it was the greatest speech ever delivered:

“Four score and seven years ago, our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.   

Now we are engaged in a great Civil War, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this. 

But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate — we can not consecrate — we can not hallow — this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. 

It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us — that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion — that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain — that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom — and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”

To say the least, I can see my late great uncle giving me “thumbs up” from heaven for this post about his favorite speech.  He loved it and I’ve grown to love it, too.

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