Vera Lynn, singer and rallying point for the troops in WWII.
Long after the war ended, the melodies lingered on: “We’ll Meet Again,” “(There’ll Be Bluebirds Over) The White Cliffs of Dover,” “A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square.”
In those wartime years, she became known as the “Forces’ Sweetheart,” and to the end of her life the veterans were her “boys,” still misty-eyed when she sang, “We’ll meet again, don’t know where, don’t know when.”
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At 22, in 1939, she won The Daily Express newspaper’s “Forces’ Sweetheart” poll in a landslide. In 1940, she began her own BBC radio show, “Sincerely Yours,” which was beamed to troops around the world on Sunday nights right after the news.
“Winston Churchill was my opening act,” Ms. Lynn once said.
She read letters from the girlfriends, wives and mothers the troops left behind. She sang her sentimental songs, “We’ll Meet Again” being the most popular. In the blitz that sent the Luftwaffe on nightly raids over London in 1940, she sometimes slept in the theater until the all-clear sounded, then drove home through the rubble left by the bombings.
“The shows didn’t stop if a raid started,” she said. “We just used to carry on.”
Often, it seemed, Luftwaffe bombers droned over London just as Ms. Lynn sang “A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square,” which became the theme song of the blitz.
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She was 103.
From the legal beat: Ronald Tackmann, artist. And by “artist” I mean in both the visual sense and the escape sense.
At the Manhattan Criminal Courthouse on Sept. 30, 2009, Mr. Tackmann, a neophyte artist and professional prisoner, put on a light-gray three-piece suit and covered his orange inmates’ slippers with black socks to try to pass as his own lawyer. (At the time, inmates were allowed to change into court clothes before facing a judge.) Briefly uncuffed and unchained and momentarily out of the view of guards, he fled down a back staircase, sauntered outside and vanished into the streets.
It wasn’t his first escape attempt. Twice before he had tried to hijack Correction Department vans that were transporting him and other convicts to court or to prisons upstate, using fake guns he had fashioned out of bars of soap and remnants of eyeglasses and aluminum cans.
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There’s a picture of that buffalo carving in the obit, and I have to give the man credit: it’s well done. I wanted to post this obit so I could work this in:
Delbert Africa, one of the MOVE members. He wasn’t present at the 1985 MOVE headquarters bombing: he was serving time in prison after being convicted of third-degree murder (along with eight other MOVE members) for killing police officer James Ramp in 1978.
I saw that Vera Lynn had died somewhere else. I knew the name but could not place it. Then when I read about her, I remembered hearing about her courage and heroism, in helping to keep morale up for the troops. I left a brief note there about my uncle who was an army lifer.
He was in both Korea and Vietnam,as a communications installer. He was involved in fighting in Korea, but not in Vietnam. He told me about Korea and how he had an M1 carbine. He said he was shooting at a Chinese soldier, who had on one of those quilted vests that they wore, and hit him in the vest 3 time, he could see the dust fly off each time,and the guy kept right on coming. He said they would get doped up on opium, before a battle, and would not feel wounds until they finally dropped over, dead. He said that was the only time during his entire enlistment of 23years that he was scared, the Chinese came at them in waves,so deep you could hardly tell individuals.
He told me he saw Bob Hope several times, at various places, when he came over seas to do shows for the troops. My uncle told me that after the show, Bob Hope would sit around with a bunch of the fellas and tell dirty jokes for an hour or two.
People like that, Vera Lynn, Bob Hope, Ann Margaret, and so many others from the past, and many more who are still doing the same today, going to our fighting men and women,to perform for them, and to thank them and tell them that what they are doing is appreciated and worth it, are just as much heroes to me as those who wear a uniform. And those like Vera Lynn, Bob Hope, Ann Margaret, and others who often went to the front lines, to visit the soldiers, deserve the greatest honor that we can give to them.
So RIP Ms. Lynn, and thanks for your service to the allies during a most difficult time in history.
I will be 60 years old next week. The only thing that I hate about it,is that I see so many of the heroes and performers of my youth are passing away. Rock stars from the 70’s when I was growing up are now in their own 70’s, and due to the lifestyles that many of them led during their early lives, they don’t live late into their 80’s, like so many others do today. Thank the good Lord that we have this wonder called the internet. I can sit behind my computer and watch a concert from 1978, the year I graduated high school. Or like the other night,I watched part of an Alice Cooper concert from 2011. I had seen him on television when he did his show, Welcome to My Nightmare. It was an important thing back then, but now,television doesn’t actually do much of that, unless it is rap or some awards show that turns political, which I choose to ignore.
As always, thanks for your service, at both recording for posterity the passing of icons and important people that are somewhat obscure,and shouldn’t be. Have a safe weekend,and a good summer.
tim