Alan LeGloahec, 1929-2017

On Monday, April 3, 2017, my father left this world for the next. His journey ended just days after a diagnosis of leukemia. My father was not a patient man, so my siblings and I all agreed that once he was presented with this diagnosis, he was going to get on with it. We would have liked more time with him, but we were blessed with 87 good years. The picture above shows him at 40 years of age - I found the picture about 10 years ago and was immediately struck by how much I looked at him. For many years, I had thought that I favored my mother's side of the family - but there was no denying that he was my father. The picture shows my father in his element, a book in his hands (though there is likely a glass of scotch close by and probably a cigarette burning in an ashtray) and the model ship in the background is one that he surely made, a lifelong devotion of his, making models, and painting lead soldiers.

This picture to the left shows my father at the Jones Beach airshow, just last summer. My father was not a veteran - but loved war movies, military history, and history in general. Below is a picture of my father at a tank museum that my siblings and I took him to, also just last summer. He made many a model of tanks - and there are many, many models of tanks that he never got to build. Maybe I can get LBA and SoBA in model building.

My mother passed away 11 years ago, this past February, and I am sure that he is back with her now. My mother firmly believed that when you got to heaven, you got to be whatever age you wanted and I hope for his sake, she is about 20 and he is the same. They were married for 53 years and raised four children - I am the youngest of all of us. He was also the proud grandfather of eight, LBA and SoBA, along with three children from my brother and sister. He also became a great grandfather just in the past few years.

For the past nine years, he was blessed to have found a companion who took care of him as much as he took care of her. While she could never replace my mother, he found love a second time, and my siblings and I were grateful that she was in his life.

My father spent his professional life on Madison Avenue. He was a Mad Man, before any of us knew what a Mad Man was. He started working at American Home Products, which later became Wyeth, before being bought by Pfizer, in pharmaceutical advertising. He later left AHP to go over to the advertising side exclusively, ending his career at McCann-Erickson. He really enjoyed watching MadMen, as we all did - and we looked forward to talking to him about the latest episode after it aired.

I can't begin to express my thanks to all of those who have supported me and my family over the past week - so many messages of love and support have come to us through Facebook, texts, phone calls, and emails. When we sent my father home on Thursday morning, my brother offered some words of remembrance about my father, quoting Napoleon, one of my father's favorite historical figures, by saying, "What is history but a fable agreed upon?" He offered several stories about my father, which my siblings and I all contributed to, and also included the words of the "Chairman of the Board":

"I’ve lived a life that’s full

I’ve traveled each and every highway

But more, much more than this,

I did it my way."

Thanks Dad for everything.  Rest well, you've earned it.  We all love you and miss you - but we know that you are always with us.

For Tracy

The first text came while I was at church on Sunday morning.  Then a Facebook message from another class mate.  When I saw the words, "News about Tracy Fentress" I knew.  I didn't want to believe it, but I knew.

Tracy and I met in elementary school.  We became fast friends and then when the school district reorganized, I went to a different school until we were reunited in junior high.  She had become active in girl scouts and so I still saw her on occasion - as my mother was one of the troop leaders.  The year that my mother organized a troop trip to Bermuda (of all places), I got to tag along and stayed with friends of my parents while the girls camped not far away.  I have a great picture from that trip of Tracy, throwing some shade (before throwing shade was a thing) while we are all on the beach.  But you can see it even in that picture, the bubbly friendly personality that embodied Tracy.

We graduated high school and went off to different colleges and our lives diverged further. When my mother died in 2006, one of the people I remember seeing at both the wake and the funeral was Tracy and her mother.  Tracy continued in girl scouting, becoming a leader for her daughter's troop and cookie mother.  Tracy would often contact me at cookie time, because she knew that I would buy boxes from her, knowing full well that I wasn't going to be able to eat them - but I made the donation to her - because that's what she wanted (and it's what my mother would want me to do).

Once Facebook began to bring old friends back together, Tracy and I reconnected as I did with many others from my high school class.  I now am the moderator for a group dedicated to my class, which is a little weird for me, because I wasn't the most popular kid in high school, I was just one of the class, in the middle of the pack.  But I am happy with the way the group has turned out and that so many of us from our class (we were over 500 people in our class) have been able to reconnect and reminisce about old times.  I post each week the birthdays that are ahead and almost without fail, Tracy would be one of the first people to comment, wishing everyone a heartfelt happy birthday.

In 2010, I attempted to use Facebook to organize a 25th Reunion, which did not manifest itself very well - though those of us who came had a good time.  Tracy was involved in that reunion planning, but unfortunately she had begun her battle against cancer and she was unable to attend our mini-reunion. I was urged by my classmates to give it a go again for our 30th, set for 2015.  I knew my own limitations and found one of the few remaining reunion companies to help me organize the reunion the right way.  Once again, Tracy reached out to me and volunteered to be there for whatever I needed as the plans moved forward.

As several of us met in the bar before going upstairs to the ballroom for the reunion, I got tapped on the shoulder and turned around to see Tracy.  As with so many of us that evening, it was like we were back in high school and not 30 years later and the night just got better from there.  Later, as we tried to get everyone's attention to say a few words - it was Tracy who managed to get everyone to listen for a few minutes so that I could express my thanks to everyone for making the night such a success - but it was Tracy's words that echoed with everyone - because when Tracy talked, you listened.

She made a point of saying to several of us that evening that she would be back for the next reunion - but unfortunately that won't happen.  A few months ago, she posted on Facebook that she was back at Sloan-Kettering because she was having some pain.  I commented then that I was sure she would get through this as she had been doing all along.  But after fighting the bravest fight, Tracy lost her battle with breast cancer on Sunday morning.  She was 49 years old.  She leaves behind her husband and daughter, her sister and brother, both her parents, and all of us from the Class of 1985.  Tracy is the 14th Brave to leave us from our class - Once a Brave, Always a Brave.

Tonight family and friends gathered to remember Tracy and tomorrow she will be sent home.  I really wanted to be there - but couldn't make it happen.  I know that Tracy would have understood, but she would have also given me a little lip about it.  But she didn't quite know how to stay mad at people.

God speed my dear friend. You are free of pain now. I am sure that you and my mother are having a grand time talking about anything and everything.  And eating girl scout cookies.

Farewell to a Friend

"Has this world been so kind to you that you should leave with regret?  There are better things ahead that any we leave behind."

- C.S. Lewis

This has been a very difficult week at the Launchpad.  Just one week ago (though it seems much longer), the Brave Astronaut clan, the Cheverly community, and I'm also convinced in a way, everyone, were stunned by the premature loss of my friend and next door neighbor, and founding member of the "collective."

Our friend Riley left us entirely too soon.  He had faced an inordinate number of health challenges over the past year (and through his entire life), but these past several years were the happiest - with his wife and two children.  As has been noted here before, their two children are very close to LBA and SoBA and the eight of us did a lot together.  Riley and I had often talked of removing the fence between our yards because the kids were always climbing over it instead of going around through the gate.

Then again, had we done that, neither Riley nor I would have had something to lean on during our many conversations about politics, our town, our families - there was no subject that Riley wouldn't talk about.  Riley was my "spotter" and support structure for working in and around the house, if I didn't quite know how to finish something - I'd go find him, because he would know.  We never got to build our communal shed - but I'm going to work on that this summer, and I know that he will be around to help me.

Last Monday, I noted on Twitter that I was having "one of those days that you don't like to have. But if you have to have it, have it in Cheverly."  I am so touched by the support of this community for Riley's family at this time and am honored to be a part of this great place.

When we sent Riley home on Saturday, his family was supported by hundreds of friends and we heard stories of comfort, humor, and dignity - all integral parts of Riley's character.  Riley spent most of his life working in politics and I woke up on Saturday morning with Ted Kennedy's eulogy for his brother, Bobby, stuck in my head.

"My brother need not be idealized, or enlarged in death beyond what he was in life; to be remembered simply as a good and decent man, who saw wrong and tried to right it, saw suffering and tried to heal it, saw war and tried to stop it. 
Those of us who loved him and who take him to his rest today, pray that what he was to us and what he wished for others will some day come to pass for all the world. 
As he said many times, in many parts of this nation, to those he touched and who sought to touch him:"

"Some men see things as they are and say why. I dream things that never were and say why not."

Farewell my friend.  You will be greatly missed and I know that you will always be with us.

Kenneth Wayne Rose

On February 3, the archives community lost a friend and champion. The Rockefeller Archive Center lost its heart and soul. I lost a friend and mentor. Ken Rose, who served as Assistant to the Director when I worked at the Archive Center, left us behind to wonder how to continue on.

Last night, I went with a colleague from the Archive Center, who now lives here in the DC area as well to the service in Ken's hometown of Winchester, VA. It was a wonderful service, one that I think Ken would have accepted, although he did not like being the center of attention.

I dreamed of Ken last night. Over the weekend, after having learned of Ken's passing, I was searching for a "Ken story" that I could share. I became frustrated with myself that I couldn't come up with something specific. As I was traveling with a colleague to the memorial service yesterday evening, I came to the realization that is just how Ken was. Many of the successes that I had at the Archive Center were because of Ken. He was the type of individual that would stand behind you and push you forward. He was a listener, a deep thinker. I cannot count the number of afternoons I spent in his office, sitting on the couch in his office, while he sat behind an enormous desk that had come to the Center from the Commonwealth Fund, as we would talk about everything, family, friends, archives, history, baseball. There was no end to the subjects on which Ken could conduct a great conversation.

In my dream last night (one that I only sort of remember), Ken was not a vivid presence, he was for me, as he was in life, standing there off to the side, watching, listening. He was being Ken. As I write this, Ken has been laid to rest in Virginia. The words that were offered in comfort yesterday evening were fitting. I am, however reminded of the words of Aeschylus, spoken by Robert Kennedy to a crowd of people in Indianapolis, Indiana, upon learning of the death of Martin Luther King, Jr.

"Even in our sleep, pain which cannot forget
falls drop by drop upon the heart,
until, in our own despair,
against our will,
comes wisdom
through the awful grace of God."

Later that year, when Robert Kennedy was himself laid to rest, his brother, Ted Kennedy, spoke words that could also be used to describe Ken.

"[He] need not be idealized, or enlarged in death beyond what he was in life; to be remembered simply as a good and decent man."

Farewell Ken. Rest well. Your earthly travels are finished now. We will see you down the road.

from the Archives and Archivists listserv:

It is with great sadness that the staff of the Rockefeller Archive Center announces the passing of Kenneth Wayne Rose, on Thursday, February 3, 2011, after a brief illness. Ken managed the outreach programs as the Associate Director of Research and Education at the Rockefeller Archive Center in Pocantico Hills, NY. With more than twenty-three years of service at the Archive Center, Ken’s loss to the archival and scholarly communities is incalculable.

A native of Albright, W. Va., Ken received his BA in history from Washington and Lee University, and his MA and PhD degrees from Case Western Reserve University. He was senior managing editor of the Encyclopedia of Cleveland History before joining the staff of the Rockefeller Archive Center in 1987. He has written articles on the Rockefeller family and Rockefeller philanthropy for various journals, reference volumes and conferences. He also has contributed to the American National Biography, the Dictionary of Virginia Biography, and the historical encyclopedias for New York City, New Jersey, and the Midwest. Ken was selected as a Fulbright Fellow to teach American history at Ege University in Izmir, Turkey.

A historian, Rose remained a Virginian at heart, yet engaged with scholars and archivists in China and Turkey as easily as those in the United States. He was intrigued by local history, by African-American history, by 20th-century radicals and by traditional American folk music.

The family suggests charitable donations in Ken's name to the American Heart Association or the Remote Area Medical Foundation.

Rene Verdon

While much of America is surely wiping off some melted cheese from their shirts after yesterday's Super Bowl parties (I had actually intended to post some of my favorite Super Bowl recipes myself), it seems somewhat wrong to post an obituary for classic French chef Rene Verdon, while the smell of hot sauce still lingers in the air.

Verdon was the White House chef during the Kennedy years, before leaving quite publicly after a rift with the Johnson family. Evidently Lyndon and Lady Bird's tastes were, um, a little more, um, let's say basic, from Jackie Kennedy. Read the obituary linked above (from the Washington Post) and you will see what I mean.

Many say that Verdon inspired many Americans to try French cuisine in their homes. My mother was one of those people so inspired. Here is a Verdon recipe used for a luncheon at the White House to honor Princess Grace in May 1961 (taken from here).

Strawberries Romanoff

• 1 cup vanilla ice cream
• 4 cups halved small strawberries
• 2 tbsp each curacao and Grand Marnier or other orange-flavored liqueur
• 1/2 cup whipping cream
• 1 tbsp confectioner’s sugar
• 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
• Candied violets or mint leaves
  

Place ice cream in refrigerator for 30 minutes or until soft enough to smooth easily with the back of a spoon.

Meanwhile, place the strawberries in large bowl. Pour curacao and Grand Marnier over berries; stir gently to combine. Let stand for 30 minutes.

In large chilled bowl and using electric mixer, beat whipping cream at low speed for 45 seconds or until slightly thickened. Add sugar and vanilla; increase speed to medium-high and beat for 3 minutes, or until thick.

In large bowl, stir softened ice cream with wooden spoon until soft. Using rubber spatula, fold dollop of whipped cream into ice cream. Add remaining whipped cream and fold gently until well combined.

Into each of chilled glass dessert bowls, spoon enough strawberries to just cover bottom; top with large dollop of cream mixture, then divide remaining berries, and any juices, among bowls. Distribute remaining cream equally. Garnish each dish with candied violets or mint leaves. Serve immediately. Makes 6 servings.

Tips: If strawberries are large, cut into quarters. Candied violets can be purchases at most upscale grocers or cake decorating shops.

[The Seven Dirty Words You Can't Say on Television]

But evidently can say on the Internet (definitely NSFW!)


George Carlin was one of those comedians that was always there when I was growing up. I even had a few cassette tapes of his performances. But he was such a visual comedian that he was best seen on TV or in person. He will most certainly be missed.

I saw George Carlin once live (at the Westbury Music Fair). The stage at Westbury rotates (it's a theater in the round) and he just kept moving the whole time. I had noted with interest in last week's Washington Post that Carlin was supposed to receive this year's Mark Twain prize from the Kennedy Center. I had thought about getting tickets to that event.

While the above clip is the one that he will likely be most remembered for (I mean the case did go all the way to the Supreme Court), it is the clip below that I will always associate with him. I think about it a lot (and it is why I always unpack whenever I go away on vacation, even overnight). I thought a lot about this routine when I read this post on another blog along with the accompanying article in Time Magazine. as well. I was going to do a full post on the topic, but that would be just one more thing and I am pretty sure that I am already well over 100 items.

Good night George.

Thanks Harvey

You made us laugh for so long. Harvey Korman left us today. Here is just one of many really great sketches. And don't even get me started on Blazing Saddles. "That's Hedley!"

A Sad Day for New York

A very sad day for New York today. First is the loss of the legend that was Phil Rizzuto. I could go on for hours about the Scooter, but if he talked first, everyone would have left by now. His Hall of Fame induction speech in 1994 is a classic. And of course, he will be forever memorialized with his words here. You can go watch the video here. An interesting fact I learned today, Rizzuto was the oldest hall of fame member still living. His loss leaves only Yogi Berra as one of the last members of the Yankee dynasty that won seven World Series in nine years.

I hate to mention that the Orioles were mean to the Yankees tonight, pummeling the boys from the Bronx, 12-0, while in Boston the Red Sox came back in the ninth inning to beat the Devil Rays, 2-1. The gap is back to 5 games.

Secondly, as an archivist who worked for the Rockefeller family, I noted with sadness the passing of Brooke Astor. At 105, she had become a recluse and was still in the news recently with allegations of elder abuse by her son. And for some mandatory archival content, her obituary in the New York Times, noted the following.

"Mrs. Astor kept the diaries, letters and drawings from her childhood travels squirreled away in Briarcliff Manor in a closet that she called her “archive room.” Some of her early drawings, poems and plays were reproduced in an illustrated edition of “Patchwork Child: Early Memories,” published in 1993."

Lady Bird Johnson, 1912-2007

[There is no shortage of testimonials about Lady Bird Johnson. The majority of the biographical information below comes from the Lady Bird Johnson Final Tribute page, being hosted on the website for the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center.]

A significant loss for our country this week. With the passing of Lady Bird Johnson, America is down a first lady, and a real lady at that. Lady Bird Johnson died this week at her home in Austin, Texas. In failing health for several years, she was 94 years old, but that does not earn her the record as the longest-lived First Lady. That record is held by Bess Truman, who died in 1982 at the age of 97. Lady Bird lived nearly 25 years longer than her husband, who died of a heart attack in 1973.

Lady Bird inspired the passage of the Beautification Act of 1965, which made environmentalism a top priority in the United States. The Johnsons had a true political marriage, serving as Lyndon Johnson's closest advisor as he rose from Congressman to Senator to Vice President to President.

Claudia Alta Taylor's mother died when she was five years old. She graduated high school and enrolled in the University of Texas at Austin, graduating with two Bachelor's degrees, one in journalism and the second in History.

Lady Bird met a tall, ambitious man when Lyndon Johnson was a Congressional secretary visiting Austin on official business. They were engaged just seven weeks after their first date and married in November 1934. Mrs. Johnson recalled that “sometimes Lyndon simply [took] your breath away.” Her life with Lyndon Johnson was one of such achievement in politics, business and philanthropy it left those around them breathless, too.

Lady Bird was a tireless campaigner and political "operative." While Lyndon served in World War II, she ran his Congressional office singlehandedly. In 1960, she covered 35,000 miles for the Kennedy/Johnson ticket. When Lyndon ran for election in his own right in 1964, she campaigned independently on a whistle-stop train throughout the South for the ticket.

There is the indelible image of a grim-faced Lady Bird Johnson standing next to her husband on the fateful November day in 1963 when Lyndon Johnson became the 36th President of the United States after the assassination of John Kennedy. There was a recent exhibit at the National Archives in Washington, DC, "Eyewitness to History," in which Lady Bird captured her thoughts on the days events. You can read them here. You can hear her words here.

There has been a fair amount of archival content in the news this week. More to come tomorrow. For now, rest well, Lady Bird.