I didn't think anyone would notice! 

Jefferson Airplane drummer Joey Covington dies

Patrick Ryan, USA TODAY 3:32 p.m. EDT June 6, 2013
The musician died in a car crash in Palm Springs, Calif. late Tuesday afternoon.
Story Highlights

    He was a member of Jefferson Airplane, Hot Tuna and Jefferson Starship
    Described as "down-to-earth," "loving" and "jovial" by drummer pal Alvin Taylor
    Covington wasn't wearing a seat belt at the time of the crash

Classic-rock fans are mourning the loss of Jefferson Airplane drummer Joey Covington, who died in a car crash late Tuesday afternoon in Palm Springs, Calif., at age 67.

Police were called to the scene about 5 p.m. after the musician's Honda Civic crashed into a wall at a curve in the road, according to The (Palm Springs) Desert Sun. A guest at a nearby hotel tried to resuscitate Covington, who was not wearing a seat belt, but the drummer died at the scene.

The news of his death was confirmed Wednesday on the Jefferson Starship Facebook page, where dozens of fans left their condolences on a post reading, "Rest in Peace, Joey."

Covington played from 1970 to 1972 with Jefferson Airplane, known for such psychedelic tunes as Somebody to Love and White Rabbit. He was a founding member of the blues-rock band Hot Tuna and later joined Airplane successor Jefferson Starship.

He was described as "down-to-earth," "loving" and "jovial" by Alvin Taylor, a fellow drummer and close friend who spoke with the Desert Sun. On Saturday, Covington performed in Palm Springs at a concert in honor of Marilyn Monroe's 87th birthday


http://www.usatoday.com/story/life/music/2013/06/06/jefferson-airplane-drummer-joey-covington-dies/2397233/

Esther Williams dies; Swimming champion turned actress was 91



Esther Williams, the swimming champion turned actress who starred in glittering and aquatic Technicolor musicals of the 1940s and 1950s, has died. She was 91.

Williams's died early Thursday in her sleep, according to her longtime publicist Harlan Boll.

Following in the footsteps of Sonja Henie, who went from skating champion to movie star, Williams became one of Hollywood's biggest moneymakers, appearing in spectacular swimsuit numbers that capitalized on her wholesome beauty and perfect figure.

Such films as "Easy to Wed," ''Neptune's Daughter" and "Dangerous When Wet" followed the same formula: romance, music, a bit of comedy and a flimsy plot that provided excuses to get Esther into the water.

The extravaganzas dazzled a second generation via television and the compilation films "That's Entertainment." Williams' co-stars included the pick of the MGM contract list, including Gene Kelly, Frank Sinatra, Red Skelton, Ricardo Montalban and Howard Keel.

When hard times signaled the end of big studios and costly musicals in the mid-'50s, Williams tried non-swimming roles with little success. After her 1962 marriage to Fernando Lamas, her co-star in "Dangerous When Wet," she retired from public life.

She explained in a 1984 interview: "A really terrific guy comes along and says, 'I wish you'd stay home and be my wife,' and that's the most logical thing in the world for a Latin. And I loved being a Latin wife — you get treated very well. There's a lot of attention in return for that sacrifice."

She came to films after winning 100-meter freestyle and other races at the 1939 national championships and appearing at the San Francisco World's Fair's swimming exhibition.

As with Judy Garland, Donna Reed and other stars, Williams was introduced in one of Mickey Rooney's Andy Hardy films, "Andy Hardy's Double Life" (1942).

She also played a small role in "A Guy Named Joe" before "Bathing Beauty" in 1944 began the string of immensely popular musical spectaculars.

Among them: "Thrill of a Romance," ''Fiesta," ''This Time for Keeps," ''On an Island with You," ''Take Me out to the Ballgame," ''Duchess of Idaho," ''Pagan Love Song," ''Texas Carnival," ''Skirts Ahoy," ''Million Dollar Mermaid" (as Annette Kellerman, an earlier swimming champion turned entertainer), "Dangerous When Wet," ''Easy to Love" and "Jupiter's Darling."

Williams in a bathing suit became a favorite pinup of GI's in World War II, and her popularity continued afterward. She was a refreshing presence among MGM's stellar gallery — warm, breezy, with a frankness and self-deprecating humor that delighted interviewers.

She laughed as much as anyone over an assessment by Fanny Brice, the original "Funny Girl": "Esther Williams? Wet, she's a star. Dry, she ain't."

After leaving MGM, she starred in two Universal dramatic films, "The Unguarded Moment" and "Raw Wind in Eden." Neither was successful. In 1961 Lamas directed her last film, "The Magic Fountain," in Spain. It was never released in America.

When she published her autobiography in 1999, she titled it "The Million Dollar Mermaid."

Esther Jane Williams grew up destined for a career in athletics. She was born Aug. 8, 1921, in Inglewood, a suburb southwest of Los Angeles, one of five children.

(Some references give a birth year of 1922 or 1923, but she told The Associated Press in 2004 that the correct date was 1921. "I think we ought to just count our blessings," she said at the time. "You get old. It happens, but oh, what life we had when we were young.")

A public pool was not far from the modest home where Williams was raised, and it was there that an older sister taught her to swim. They saved the 10-cent admission price by counting 100 towels.

When she was in her teens, the Los Angeles Athletic Club offered to train her four hours a day, aiming for the 1940 Olympic Games at Helsinki. In 1939, she won the Women's Outdoor Nationals title in the 100-meter freestyle, set a record in the 100-meter breaststroke and was a part of several winning relay teams. But the outbreak of war in Europe that year canceled the 1940 Olympics, and Esther dropped out of competition to earn a living.

She was selling clothes in a Wilshire Boulevard department store when showman Billy Rose tapped her for a bathing beauty job at the World's Fair in San Francisco.

While there, she was spotted by an MGM producer and an agent. She laughed at the suggestion she do films that would popularize swimming, as Henie had done with ice skating.

"Frankly I didn't get it," she recalled. "If they had asked me to do some swimming scenes for a star, that would have made sense to me. But to ask me to act was sheer insanity."

She finally agreed to visit MGM boss Louis B. Mayer, and recalled that she took the job after her mother told her: "No one can avoid a challenge in life without breeding regret, and regret is the arsenic of life."

Lamas was Williams' third husband. Before her fame she was married briefly to a medical student. In 1945 she wed Ben Gage, a radio announcer, and they had three children, Benjamin, Kimball and Susan. They divorced in 1958.

After Lamas' death in 1982, Williams regained the spotlight. Having popularized synchronized swimming with her movies, she was co-host of the event on television at the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles. She issued a video teaching children how to swim and sponsored her own line of swimsuits.

"I've been a lucky lady," she said in a 1984 interview with The Associated Press. "I've had three exciting careers. Before films I had the experience of competitive swimming, with the incredible fun of winning. ... I had a movie career with all the glamor that goes with it. That was ego-fulfilling, but it was like the meringue on the pie. My marriage with Fernando — that was the filling, that was the apple in the pie."

http://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/2013/06/06/esther-williams-dies-swimming-champion-turned-actress-was-1/?intcmp=features

Guess I'm kinda sad that Debbie has stopped posting her good morning posts each day, but I can understand. Not much activity here anymore. Think everyone is on Facebook now.

Jean Stapleton, best known for playing Edith Bunker in 'All in the Family,' dies at 90



NEW YORK –  Jean Stapleton, the stage-trained character actress who played Archie Bunker's far better half, the sweetly naive Edith, in TV's groundbreaking 1970s comedy "All in the Family," has died. She was 90.

Stapleton died Friday of natural causes at her New York City home surrounded by friends and family, her children said Saturday.

Little known to the public before "All In the Family," she co-starred with Carroll O'Connor in the top-rated CBS sitcom about an unrepentant bigot, the wife he churlishly but fondly called "Dingbat," their daughter Gloria (Sally Struthers) and liberal son-in-law Mike, aka Meathead (Rob Reiner).

Stapleton received eight Emmy nominations and won three times during her eight-year tenure with "All in the Family." Produced by Norman Lear, the series broke through the timidity of U.S. TV with social and political jabs and ranked as the No. 1-rated program for an unprecedented five years in a row. Lear would go on to create a run of socially conscious sitcoms.

Stapleton also earned Emmy nominations for playing Eleanor Roosevelt in the 1982 film "Eleanor, First Lady of the World" and for a guest appearance in 1995 on "Grace Under Fire."

Her big-screen films included a pair directed by Nora Ephron: the 1998 Tom Hanks-Meg Ryan romance "You've Got Mail" and 1996's "Michael" starring John Travolta. She also turned down the chance to star in another popular sitcom, "Murder, She Wrote," which became a showcase for Angela Lansbury.

The theater was Stapleton's first love and she compiled a rich resume, starting in 1941 as a New England stock player and moving to Broadway in the 1950s and `60s. In 1964, she originated the role of Mrs. Strakosh in "Funny Girl" with Barbra Streisand. Others musicals and plays included "Bells Are Ringing," "Rhinoceros" and Damn Yankees," in which her performance -- and the nasal tone she used in "All in the Family" -- attracted Lear's attention and led to his auditioning her for the role of Archie's wife.

"I wasn't a leading lady type," she once told The Associated Press. "I knew where I belonged. And actually, I found character work much more interesting than leading ladies." Edith, of the dithery manner, cheerfully high-pitched voice and family loyalty, charmed viewers but was viewed by Stapleton as "submissive" and, she hoped, removed from
reality. In a 1972 New York Times interview, she said she didn't think Edith was a typical American housewife -- "at least I hope she's not."

"What Edith represents is the housewife who is still in bondage to the male figure, very submissive and restricted to the home. She is very naive, and she kind of thinks through a mist, and she lacks the education to expand her world. I would hope that most housewives are not like that," said Stapleton, whose character regularly obeyed her husband's demand to "stifle yourself."

But Edith was honest and compassionate, and "in most situations she says the truth and pricks Archie's inflated ego," she added.

She confounded Archie with her malapropos -- "You know what they say, misery is the best company" -- and open-hearted acceptance of others, including her beleaguered son-in-law and African-Americans and other minorities that Archie disdained.

As the series progressed, Stapleton had the chance to offer a deeper take on Edith as the character faced milestones including a breast cancer scare and menopause. She was proud of the show's political edge, citing an episode about a draft dodger who clashes with Archie as a personal favorite.

But Stapleton worried about typecasting, rejecting any roles, commercials or sketches on variety shows that called for a character similar to Edith. Despite pleas from Lear not to let Edith die, Stapleton left the show, re-titled "Archie's Place," in 1980, leaving Archie to carry on as a widower.

"My decision is to go out into the world and do something else. I'm not constituted as an actress to remain in the same role.... My identity as an actress is in jeopardy if I invested my entire career in Edith Bunker," she told the AP in 1979.

She had no trouble shaking off Edith -- "when you finish a role, you're done with it. There's no deep, spooky connection with the parts you play," she told the AP in 2002 -- but after O'Connor's 2001 death she got condolence letters from people who thought they were really married. When people spotted her in public and called her "Edith," she would politely remind them that her name was Jean.

Stapleton proved her own toughness when her husband of 26 years, William Putch, suffered a fatal heart attack in 1983 at age 60 while the couple was touring with a play directed by Putch.

Stapleton went on stage in Syracuse, N.Y., that night and continued on with the tour. "That's what he would have wanted," she told People magazine in 1984. "I realized it was a refuge to have that play, rather than to sit and wallow. And it was his show."

Stapleton was born in New York City to Joseph Murray and his wife, Marie Stapleton Murray, a singer. She attended Hunter College, leaving for a secretarial stint before embarking on acting studies with the American Theatre Wing and others.

Stapleton had a long working relationship with playwright Horton Foote, starting with one of his first full-length plays in 1944, "People in the Show," and continuing with six other works through the 2000s.

"I was very impressed with her. She has a wonderful sense of character. Her sense of coming to life on stage -- I never get tired of watching," Foote told the AP in 2002. He died in 2009.

Her early TV career included guest appearances on series including "Lux Video Theatre," "Dr. Kildare" and "The Defenders."

She and Putch had two children, John and Pamela, who followed their parents into the entertainment industry.

Her post-"All in the Family" career included a one-woman stage show, "Eleanor," in which she portrayed the wife of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Stapleton spent summers working at the Totem Pole Playhouse near Harrisburg, Pa., operated by her husband, William. She made guest appearances on "Murphy Brown" and "Everybody Loves Raymond" and even provided the title character's voice for a children's video game, "Grandma Ollie's Morphabet Soup."

For years, she rarely watched "All In the Family," but had softened by 2000, when she told the Archive of American Television that enough time had passed.

"I can watch totally objectively," she said. "I love it. And I laugh. I think, `Oh,' and I think, `Gee, that's good."'

http://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/2013/06/01/all-in-family-jean-stapleton-dies-at-0/