Your first hero to die during your lifetime?

[ohiosmith]

[SteppingRazor]

1. One of my earliest memories is John Lennon being shot.

Of course, he wasn't a hero to me then as I had just barely gotten out of diapers, but he's certainly become one since then.

[ohiosmith]

6. One of mine as well.

[Maine-ah]

52. I was six. Sat and cried with my mother.

[MorningGlow]

66. Agreed--I cried for weeks

I was a HUGE Beatlemaniac even though I was 15 when he was killed. Absolutely devastating. Encouraged me to become a better musician, though, through the desire to play his music in his memory.

[Phentex]

2. Jim Henson.

:cry:

[MrCoffee]

23. seconded

[JTG of the PRB]

53. Hear hear!

I didn't know a lot about him when he died, but he created the Muppets. Any man who can do that is a hero in my book.

[TZ]

59. That was my first thought too...

I miss him still..:(

[Tommy_Carcetti]

64. See my response on Mr. Rogers

The same could be said for Jim Henson

[MissMillie]

3. well, I can't say that because

according to my parents, I was made the day he was murdered.


This woman was a political hero of mine...

[WolverineDG]

29. Barbara Jordan

:thumbsup:

My Republican parents admired the heck out of her.

dg

[azmouse]

4. Carl Sagan

I've always been interested in science and especially astronomy.
I was fascinated by the series Cosmos in the '80s.
Sagan was a very intellegent man who could explain science.

[Deep13]

40. bingo n/t

[Liberal Veteran]

48. Same here....

Carl Sagan brought a universe to a poor rural boy in Georgia with his series Cosmos and I have adored him for it ever since.

[Lisa]

55. an astronomer friend called to tell me about it

He was so upset, he was crying. He'd never met Sagan, but it's a pretty small community.

[nytemare]

71. I miss that man so much right now.

He had the nerve to speak out against nuclear weapons, and the Star Wars project under Reagan, and Reagan honestly wasn't 1/10th as bad as this jackass we have in office now.

Sagan had a knack for arousing an interest not only in science, but reality.

I got COSMOS on DVD off of Ebay, and I watch it every few weeks. The amazing thing is, even with the huge advances of science, most of information on his program needed very little updating.

His books are amazing as well.

We miss you, Carl.

[1gobluedem]

5. Same here

Although I have no memory of it; I was only three. I remember Robert Kennedy's assassination vividly, though.

[sinkingfeeling]

7. John Kennedy. When I first knew there was something 'sick' in the USA.

[yellowdogintexas]

49. same here, I think I cried for 4 days non stop. I was 15.

so much that might have been so different had he not died.

then Martin,

Then Robert.

[quip]

8. God, sometimes I just think and wonder

how the hell we ever survived the '60s.... :shrug:

[ohiosmith]

15. We didn't. JFK, MLK, RFK.

[quip]

18. We, the nation...

But your point is well taken. :hi:

[LynneSin]

9. I suppose it would be very selfish of me to post John Bonham pictures

:cry:

[ohiosmith]

12. No. Why?

Please allow me.

[malta blue]

10. John Lennon. nt

[unpossibles]

11. Bruce Lee but I was not aware of him until after he died

John Lennon was the first I remember.

[redqueen]

13. Lennon.

[Pendrench]

14. Harry Truman and Lyndon Johnson (within weeks of each other)

Of course I was too young at the time to really know what was going on (or really know who they were) - but I remember seeing the newspaper headlines, and watching the news broadcasts with my parents.

Tim

[Parche]

16. Admiral Spruance

:hi: And Rear Admiral Eugene Fluckey

[Prisoner_Number_Six]

17. Roy Rogers.

After he passed, the world just wasn't the same any more. :cry:



My heroes have always been cowboys. --Willie Nelson

[ohiosmith]

19. Did you ever visit his museum in SoCal? It was pretty cool.

[Prisoner_Number_Six]

20. Never been that far west.

One day, perhaps.

[ohiosmith]

21. It moved to Branson MO. several years ago.

[ashling]

22. Superman

I was 7 years old ...


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p0B1ufyXOds&feature=related

[Sequoia]

24. Great photo.

His eyes are full of enlightenment.

[bertha katzenengel]

25. Lucille Ball. 1989.

[Rabrrrrrr]

26. Frank Zappa

[bbernardini]

57. Agreed. nt

[Tommy_Carcetti]

27. Mr. Rogers

Grew up watching his show as a little kid, so I remember feeling sad when he died.

[kwassa]

28. Otis Redding

a great artist at the height of his artistry

[hyphenate]

30. My grandmother

Died in 1965. She was a widow living in St. Johns, Newfoundland, came to the U.S. when she was about 41 with six kids (all living in Newfoundland) and began work as a cook. She sent money home to Newfoundland and eventually, all the kids (my aunts, uncles and whatnot) came to the U.S. to the Boston area.

I imagine that life for a woman alone back in the 1930s and on was difficult enough--to be trying to support six kids was a demand that few likely tackled.

[bmbmd]

31. January made me shiver

with every paper I'd deliver.
Bad news on the doorstep
I couldn't take one more step.
I can't remember if I cried
when I read about his widowed bride
but something touched me deep inside
the day
the music
died.

February 3, 1959

[johnnie]

32. Elvis Presley

I knew of others dying, but he was the first that really hit home.

[GreenPartyVoter]

33. Elvis. I was 7 or 8 and heartbroken because I thought we would get married one day.

[Cabcere]

34. My mom was in labor with me at the time it actually happened, but I suppose it still counts...

The crew of the space shuttle Challenger:


:cry: I've always felt sad and slightly guilty for being born the day they died - silly, I know, but still...

[Swede]

35. Dan Blocker who played Hoss on Bonanza.

He was my tv hero when I was a kid and it really hit me when he died.

[av8rdave]

36. Mine too

[zanne]

37. JFK

I was in sixth grade. We were outside at recess and one of the nuns came over, rang her bell, looked at us and started crying. A few minutes later, she told us what happened. Everybody was sent home.

[NewJeffCT]

38. I've never really had a hero

People I've admired, sure, but not in a hero sense.

[RFKHumphreyObama]

39. Benigno Aquino

He may be a trifle obscure for some people here but, growing up in South East Asia and knowing several Filippino people, he became a hero of mine from early on. His assassination by the Marcos regime was one of the great evils of modern times and deprived the Philippines of a potentially great leader who was prepared to fight for democracy. The only good thing that came of his murder was that it inspired a backlash against the Marcos regime that helped ensure its downfall three years later and resulted in his widow becoming President

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benigno_Aquino,_Jr.
Incidentally, around the same time as this happened, and with full knowledge of the brutal treatment of political dissidents by the Marcos regime, Bush Senior paid a visit to the Philippines and acclaimed the country "one of the greatest democracies in the world" :puke: :puke: :puke:. The Reagan Administration would be one of the Marcos regime's staunchest allies until the very end

[cloudbase]

41. Roberto Clemente

I think I spent half of my misspent youth at Forbes Field. Misspent, maybe, but certainly not wasted.

[otherlander]

42. I'm young...

[rockymountaindem]

43. I'm young and all my figures are historical figures

I guess I can't answer this question.

[ghostsofgiants]

44. Probably Joe Strummer.

Stanley Kubrick died before Strummer, but he wasn't a hero of mine at that point.

(Yeah, I'm a young'n, haha.)

[Drunken Irishman]

45. I remember when Dr. Seuss died. I was 7. Heartbroken, because I loved his books.

:(

[TheCentepedeShoes]

46. JFK

I was 15.

[Taverner]

47. John Denver - and I'm serious!

When I was a kid my three heroes were Rev. Glenn Fuller of our church (he marched at Selma with Dr. King), President Jimmy Carter and John Denver. As a kid, I was a lefty :)

[Bennyboy]

50. Bill Graham

I just loved to watch the guy work. He was great, did everything against the grain and still made it. And made things better.

[mitchum]

51. My Aunt Rae

[rug]

54. Lou Costello

[DeposeTheBoyKing]

56. JFK here, but I was only 1 - he became my hero later

I don't even remember Bobby getting killed in 1968 - my first assassination attempt memory (sad that I have to have those) is of George Wallace getting shot in 1972. I remember hightailing it to my friend Veneita's house on my bike to tell her about it.

But heroes? JFK and RFK will always be mine.

[Der Blaue Engel]

58. John Lennon and Danny Kaye

I'm sure there were others that I'm not thinking of at the moment, but these two stand out.

John Lennon's death didn't hit me until the following spring, a month or so after my mother died. I had never been allowed to listen to "secular" music, but my father took the family to visit relatives as a "bonding" experience. At my Aunt's house, I spent hours in the basement listening to my cousins' old Beatles records and I was Beatlemaniac by the time we got home.

A few days later I heard "Beautiful Boy (Darling Boy)" on the radio and it hit me what the world had lost. I cried so hard that I collapsed in the kitchen and just lay on the floor sobbing for an hour. (Obviously, there was some transferrence there from grief for my mother, whom I had been unable to cry about at all.)

Danny Kaye was a "hero" because of my early-childhood attachment to him. My first record (that's a vinyl recording device for you younguns) was "Snow White and Rose Red" as narrated by Danny Kaye. I fell asleep to his voice many a nap.

:cry:

[FloridaJudy]

60. Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and The Big Bopper

What does God have against gifted people in small planes?

[Roon]

61. Jerry Garcia eom

[noonwitch]

62. I don't remember RFK or MLK's deaths, so I guess it was Lennon

I was 3 when RFK and MLK were killed. I was a junior in high school when John Lennon was killed. I'll never forget the morning after-the radio station was playing Lennon and Beatle's music all morning, my brother finally said, "What the hell, did John Lennon die or something?". A few minutes later, the dj came back and gave the news.

[Carolina]

63. JFK

"I believe in human dignity as the source of national purpose, in human liberty as the source of national action, in the human heart as the source of national compassion and in the human mind as the source of our invention and our ideas. It is, I believe, this faith in our fellow citizens as individuals and as people that lies at the heart of the liberal faith; for liberalism is not so much a party creed or a set of fixed platform promises as it is an attitude of the mind and heart, a faith in man's ability through the experiences of his reason and judgment to increase for himself and his fellow men the amount of justice and freedom and brotherhood which all human life deserves."

Great photo, great man. No amount of dirt that modern historians sling at/about him concerning his health or other women will ever tarnish this hero of my childhood. I will always be inspired by his image and his words!

[Burma Jones]

65. Personal Hero? That would be my Uncle Chuck

He was a Marine. Did two tours in Viet Nam. He was serving as a Military Policemen out of Camp Pendleton and was killed in the line of duty in 1966 - two tours in Nam, and he gets killed responding to a bar fight in San Diego. I was 6 years old and I idolized him. He was killed a month after my Maternal Grandfather died of a heart attack. It was another 20 years until another family member died.

I still have a small photo of Uncle Chuck in his Dress Blues that I have had since I was six sitting on my desk, it made it through college and all the band tours and hasty moves of my youth. My son's middle name is Charles to honor my Uncle.


Public Hero? Well, I was alive when Kennedy was killed, but I don't remember any of it. I do remember the death of Churchill and of course I do remember the Spring of 1968........

[MorningGlow]

67. Add Douglas Adams to Lennon and Henson

Got his autograph when I was 17--he was a peach. Special place in my heart for the goofy Hitchhiker guy.

And my darling George Harrison, although his death wasn't as much of a shock a the others, since he had been sick with cancer for a time.

[sakabatou]

68. Mako

More: http://imdb.com/name/nm0538683/

[Blue_In_AK]

69. My oldest brother when I was seven. n/t

[RFKHumphreyObama]

70. I'm so sorry

My thoughts, prayers and sympathies to you :hug: