R.I.P.

NHL stars of my younger days dropping like flies...

Guy Lafleur, Dynamic Star of the Montreal Canadiens, Dies at 70​

He helped lead the team to five Stanley Cup titles and was the first player in N.H.L. history to score at least 50 goals and 100 points in six consecutive years.


Guy Lafleur of the Montreal Canadiens in the 1980s. He helped lead the team to five Stanley Cup championships.

Guy Lafleur of the Montreal Canadiens in the 1980s. He helped lead the team to five Stanley Cup championships. Credit...Denis Brodeur/NHLI via Getty Images


By Richard Sandomir
April 22, 2022, 12:19 p.m. ET

Guy Lafleur, the dynamic, freewheeling wing who helped lead the dynastic Montreal Canadiens to five Stanley Cup championships in the 1970s, including four in a row, died on Friday near Montreal. He was 70.
The Canadiens announced his death but did not give a cause. A cigarette smoker during his playing career, Lafleur had been diagnosed with lung cancer.

Lafleur was a magician on ice, a creative force who could deftly split defenses. He was the first player in National Hockey League history to score at least 50 goals and 100 points in six consecutive seasons — a streak that was topped by the 136 points (56 goals and 80 assists) he totaled in the 1977-78 season.

He amassed 560 goals and 793 assists over 17 seasons, 14 of them with the Canadiens, one with the New York Rangers and two with the Quebec Nordiques. He won the Art Ross Trophy for leading the league in scoring three times, and the Hart Memorial Trophy twice, as the N.H.L.’s most valuable player. He was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1988. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada wrote on Twitter that Lafleur “was unlike anyone else on the ice,” adding, “His speed, skill and scoring were hard to believe.”

Lafleur’s death comes a week after that of another great scorer, Mike Bossy of the New York Islanders.
 
Wow, I'm sort of surprised he was only 70. My friend used to have a Rangers-Canadiens table hockey game, we used to fight over who used to get the Guy Lafleur side lol. This must have been the Boston edition.

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Born David William Kearney, Guitar Shorty (a name granted him on a club marquee) started his career in the clubs of the south and southwest, with a stop in New Orleans at the famed Dew Drop Inn, where he led his own band. He then headed to Los Angeles and a gig with Sam Cooke, playing the west coast blues circuit.

During his travels, he met his future wife, Marsha, in Seattle, Washington. She was the step-sister of Jimi Hendrix, who quickly grew into one Guitar Shorty’s biggest fans. His bio claims he introduced Hendrix to the wah-wah pedal and loaned him one when the young man couldn’t afford one. Shorty married Marsha in 1962.

Guitar Shorty’s playing was abetted by his stage flair. He would perform backflips and somersaults during his set, wowing the crowd with his antics.

In addition to Cooke, his resume includes stints with Ray Charles.
 
 
Military.com

‘The Only Thing I Was Doing Was Taking Care of Troops:’ Medal of Honor Recipient John Canley Dies at 84​


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Richard Sisk
Thu, May 12, 2022, 12:41 PM


The Marine Corps announced Thursday the death of "Gunny" John L. Canley, a legendary warrior in Vietnam and Medal of Honor recipient who was held in awe by other Marine legends.

The 84-year-old Canley, who retired as a sergeant major in 1981, passed away Wednesday with his family at his bedside in Bend, Oregon, after a decade-long battle with cancer, the Marine Corps said in a press release.

He is survived by several siblings, three children, a stepson and two grandchildren. With his death, there are now 64 living recipients of the nation's highest award for valor, according to the Congressional Medal of Honor Society.

The most impressive combat Marine I ever knew," retired Maj. Gen. Ray Smith, a Marine legend himself who earned the Navy Cross, two Silver Stars, a Bronze Star and three Purple Hearts, said of Canley in a 2018 interview with Military.com.

As a lieutenant, Smith fought alongside Canley in the brutal 1968 Battle of Hue. Those who served with Canley "worshiped the ground the guy walked on," Smith said. "All through my career, whenever I had to make a decision that would affect Marines, I'd always think, 'What would Canley tell me to do?'"

Smith spoke after the announcement came down that then-President Donald Trump had signed a bill passed by Congress to waive the five-year limit on recommendations for the Medal of Honor and upgrade Canley's Navy Cross to the Medal of Honor 50 years after the Battle of Hue.

"This honor is for all of the Marines with whom I served," Canley said at the time in an interview with Military.com. "The only thing I was doing was taking care of troops best I could. Do that, and everything else takes care of itself. They are an inspiration to me to this day."

Trump awarded the Medal of Honor to Canley at a White House ceremony on Oct. 17, 2018, citing Canley's undaunted courage and calm under fire during one of Vietnam's bloodiest battles.

"John and his company of less than 150 Marines had pushed into the city held by at least 6,000 communist fighters," Trump said. "In the days that followed, John led his company through the fog and rain and in house-to-house, very vicious, very hard combat."

Canley was born on Dec. 20, 1937, in Caledonia, Arkansas, and enlisted in the Marines in 1953, despite being underage. "John used his brother's paperwork to enlist," Trump said at the White House ceremony.

On his second of three tours in Vietnam, Canley, then a gunnery sergeant, took over as company commander of Alpha Company, 1st Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment, when Capt. Gordon Batcheller was wounded and evacuated during the fight to retake Hue from the North Vietnamese Army and the Viet Cong during the Tet Offensive in late January and February 1968.

In the combat that followed, Canley repeatedly exposed himself to the enemy to draw their fire and reveal their positions to his troops. Twice, he leaped over a wall to pick up wounded Marines and carry them to safety under fire, according to his medal citation.

On taking command of the company, Canley "immediately reorganized his scattered Marines, moving from one group to another to advise and encourage his men. Although sustaining shrapnel wounds during this period, he nonetheless established a base of fire which subsequently allowed the company to break through the enemy strongpoint," the citation said.

Then on Feb. 4, 1968, "despite fierce enemy resistance," Canley managed to get into the top floor of a building held by the enemy. He "dropped a large satchel charge into the position, personally accounting for numerous enemy killed, and forcing the others to vacate the building," according to the citation.

The upgrade of Canley's Navy Cross to the Medal of Honor was the result of a long lobbying campaign by those who served with him, including former Marine Pfc. John Ligato, a retired FBI agent, along with the advocacy of Rep. Julia Brownley, D-Calif.

In an interview with Military.com and in an article for Leatherneck Magazine, Ligato said the lobbying effort grew out of a 2005 reunion of Alpha Company's members.

At the reunion, "there were six or seven eyewitnesses to the Gunny carrying wounded Marines to safety, the Gunny confronting enemy automatic weapon positions, and many testimonials of, 'You saved my ass, Gunny.'"

Sergeant Major of the Marine Corps Troy Black emphasized Canley's devotion to his troops in the service's press release. "[Canley's] first priority was and has always been his Marines -- a true example of Semper Fidelis. I'm saddened by the loss of such a great Marine, yet I'm grateful for the legacy he established for generations of warriors," he said.

That legacy will live on with the scheduled christening June 25 in San Diego of the 784-foot, 90,000-ton USS John L. Canley, a new expeditionary sea-based ship that will be deployed to the Western Pacific.
 
Just had one if those brutal reminders that we sometimes need....

We got news today that my neighbor died suddenly. His oldest daughter is graduating from High School this year and the next one next year. He was 57 and went from okay to heaven in 24 hours.

Never forget to live every day and cherish the ones you love.

RIP Captain. :cry:
 
Just had one if those brutal reminders that we sometimes need....

We got news today that my neighbor died suddenly. His oldest daughter is graduating from High School this year and the next one next year. He was 57 and went from okay to heaven in 24 hours.

Never forget to live every day and cherish the ones you love.

RIP Captain. :cry:
Very sad ?
 
damn - met her about 15 years ago when the family & friends met up in Stowe for my brother & brother-in-laws wedding


She was a lovely person with great stories to tell (and tell them she did for well over an hour).

RIP


Rosmarie Trapp, whose Austrian family the von Trapps was made famous in the musical and beloved movie “The Sound of Music,” has died.

She died Friday at the age of 93 at a nursing home in Morrisville, Vermont, Trapp Family Lodge announced. Her brother Johannes is president of the Stowe resort.

Rosmarie was the first daughter of Austrian naval Capt. Georg von Trapp and Maria von Trapp, and a younger half-sibling to the older von Trapp children portrayed on stage and in the movie. The family escaped from Nazi-occupied Austria in 1938 and performed singing tours throughout Europe and America. They settled in Vermont in the early 1940s and opened a ski lodge in Stowe.

“She traveled and performed with the Trapp Family Singers for many years, and worked at the Trapp Family Lodge in its infancy when the family first began hosting guests in their home,” Trapp Family Lodge said in a statement.

“Her kindness, generosity, and colorful spirit were legendary, and she had a positive impact on countless lives,” the statement said.

Rosmarie worked for five years as a missionary and teacher in Papua New Guinea with her sister Maria, her relatives said. In Stowe, she was known for walking everywhere, frequently pulling her purchases home in a wagon or cart. She also wrote frequent letters to the local newspaper, where she was given her own space, “Rosmarie’s Corner,” for her stories, they said. She led sing-alongs, knitting circles, spun wool, owned multiple thrift shops and loved to teach people to sing, they said.
 
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