Ritchie Valens. May 13, 1941-February 3, 1959. He was the first ever noted Latino rocker. He was the one behind was is known as Chicano rock, meaning rock music performed by American people of Mexican ancestry. It's so sad that Ritchie died in a plane crash, but that cold night, he wasn't the only one to die, The Big Bopper and Buddy Holly also died that cold night. They all died on February 2, 1959, Ritchie was the youngest to die, at 17 years old. Their passing is what inspired folk singer Don McLean's 1971 hit American Pie. and now forever February 3 will be known as the day music died.
John Lennon. October 9, 1940-December 8, 1980. For all who listen to The Beatles, he was the one who was sometimes called a troublemaker by some, but ended up being a very loving person. He was the one who married the artist Yoko Ono and they had a son from Lennon's previous marriage to Cynthia, named Julian. For some reason, some might say he had a thing for Asian women because he dated May Pang, who was an assistant for ABKCO records. But there was no reason for John Lennon to die. On Dec. 8, 1980, he was brutally and fatally shot in the head 4 times outside his apartment in New York, by a crazed gunman named Mark David Chapman. Sadly, he was already dead before he hit the ground. The man behind his murder will be lucky if he ever gets out. I look up to John Lennon because he wasn't afraid to be himself, and he believed in giving peace a chance. I say, right on John! Yeah, give peace a chance!
Princess Diana. July 1, 1961-August 31, 1997. It's so sad that this beautiful woman is gone. Her wedding to Prince Charles actually made news headlines and everyone tuned in to watch this beautful woman walk down the aisle with her beautiful dress. It was so nice to see someone as pretty as her getting married. You want to know something sort of strange? One of her sons, William, recently got married too, to a beautiful woman named Kate Middleton. She's a beautiful woman, it's so nice to see someone getting married and not having it look so dramatic, what I mean by this is when celebs get marrie over here, it's such a big deal. But when people heard about the marriage of this man and this woman, it was big news in England and it was refreshing to hear about 2 good souls spending time together like this. I bet it must have been hard for both of Diana's sons, William and Harry, to be there at their mother's funeral. It's always hard for a child to be at their paren't funeral. But she's free of any pain or suffering, she's up in the beautiful land above, being the beautiful soul she always was. The saddest thing is that she died in a car crash, and you want to know why the crash happened? Princess Diana was trying to escape the nutso paparazzi, I swear, those jackasses always do whatever they can to terrorize someone, and now the world lost a beautful woman to these, pardon my French, assholes! That's what paparazzi are, assholes!
Jim Croce. January 10, 1943-September 20, 1973. This folk singer was 30 years old when he died and best known for hits like time in a Bottle and Bad, Bad Leroy Brown. Him, musician Maury Muehleisen and 4 others died in a plane crash that happened on Sept. 20, 1973. After finishing a concert at Northwestern State University's Prather Coliseum in Natchitoches Louisiana, the crew was flying to Austin Texas for a concert, when despite good visibility, the plane did not gain enough altitude to clear a pecan tree near the runway and the plane crashed, killing all 3 on impact
.
John Denver. December 31, 1943-Oct. 12, 1997. He was a country singer, and an avid pilot and photographer. He was most popular in the 1970s, and when he was flying his Rutan Long EZ plane, it crashed in to the Pacific Ocean, taking him with it and taking one of the best known country singers with it, despite having over 2700 hours of flying experience.
Martin Luther King Jr. January 5, 1929- April 4, 1968. This man was best known for his "I Have a Dream" speech in Washington D.C. This speech talked about uniting everyone together and about a world where skin color, race, religion, sexuality, etc didn't matter and about everyone coming together as one, which is a lyric from the song Imagine by John Lennon. Martin Luther King Jr was a nonviolent man, using the teachings of Mahatma Gandhi to spread the word about coming together as one, and he fought ever so desperately to end racial segregation and racial discrimination through civil means. He was staying in room 306 at the Lorraine Motel when he was standing on the balcony and he was shot. Nowadays, you can visit the motel where he was killed, but you can visit it today and see how the room looked before his murder. There was a man convicted of his death, James Earl Ray, he was charged and found guilty of his murder.
The reason I did a blog about those who have passed is we should never forget those who passed. Sometimes people take life for granted and before they know it, someone they love very dearly is passed away and they don't know it. We should live every day like it's our last and we should cherish the precious gift called life.
