by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist
Three disparate characters have passed away during the past couple of weeks, and while bearing no connections to each other, each left a large imprint on American culture and society.
American political operative Bobby Baker died on November 12th, his 89th birthday, in St. Augustine, Florida. Baker was a twenty-year-old experienced Senate page when Lyndon Johnson arrived in the chamber in 1948. LBJ quickly latched on to the youth who had a commanding knowledge of the interests and proclivities of the other members of that august body, and he used Baker's political acumen to build a power base that eventually led to his selection as the Majority Leader of the Senate. Baker was involved in an influence-peddling scandal during the Johnson presidency that commanded headlines and ended his powerful dominance on Capitol Hill - and tainted LBJ's political image.
Charles Manson, the charismatic leader of the Manson Family cult, died in California on November 17th at the age of eighty-three. The diminutive Manson became a father figure to several disaffected youth and eventually led the his group of followers in a couple of murder sprees of rich and famous people, crimes which generated sensationalized headlines and captured the focus of the nation. The members of the Manson Family were originally sentenced to death, but when the Supreme Court ended the death penalty, their sentences were commuted to life-in-prison. At the time of his death, Charles Manson had been incarcerated nearly fifty years.
Pop singer David Cassidy died November 21st in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. The former teen idol was the son of actor Jack Cassidy and the step-son of actress Shirley Jones. In 1970 he began a four-year run with his famous step-mother on the television show, The Partridge Family, a sitcom about a family of singers. Some of the songs recorded by the show's cast went on to be pop favorites, and Cassidy had his own career as a solo singer. He was still touring and performing up until a few months before his death.
It was a period of rapid change in America, and the baby-boomers were confronted with a smorgasbord of sex, drugs, and rock-and-roll served up with a rich sauce of politics and war. But the hedonistic feast which rocked and changed the world has ended, and the table is slowly being cleared.
Headlines are becoming footnotes.
A generation is fading.
Citizen Journalist
Three disparate characters have passed away during the past couple of weeks, and while bearing no connections to each other, each left a large imprint on American culture and society.
American political operative Bobby Baker died on November 12th, his 89th birthday, in St. Augustine, Florida. Baker was a twenty-year-old experienced Senate page when Lyndon Johnson arrived in the chamber in 1948. LBJ quickly latched on to the youth who had a commanding knowledge of the interests and proclivities of the other members of that august body, and he used Baker's political acumen to build a power base that eventually led to his selection as the Majority Leader of the Senate. Baker was involved in an influence-peddling scandal during the Johnson presidency that commanded headlines and ended his powerful dominance on Capitol Hill - and tainted LBJ's political image.
Charles Manson, the charismatic leader of the Manson Family cult, died in California on November 17th at the age of eighty-three. The diminutive Manson became a father figure to several disaffected youth and eventually led the his group of followers in a couple of murder sprees of rich and famous people, crimes which generated sensationalized headlines and captured the focus of the nation. The members of the Manson Family were originally sentenced to death, but when the Supreme Court ended the death penalty, their sentences were commuted to life-in-prison. At the time of his death, Charles Manson had been incarcerated nearly fifty years.
Pop singer David Cassidy died November 21st in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. The former teen idol was the son of actor Jack Cassidy and the step-son of actress Shirley Jones. In 1970 he began a four-year run with his famous step-mother on the television show, The Partridge Family, a sitcom about a family of singers. Some of the songs recorded by the show's cast went on to be pop favorites, and Cassidy had his own career as a solo singer. He was still touring and performing up until a few months before his death.
It was a period of rapid change in America, and the baby-boomers were confronted with a smorgasbord of sex, drugs, and rock-and-roll served up with a rich sauce of politics and war. But the hedonistic feast which rocked and changed the world has ended, and the table is slowly being cleared.
Headlines are becoming footnotes.
A generation is fading.
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