Recent Celebrity Deaths

I was affected and saddened by varying degrees by all of the recent celebrity deaths.

Ed Mc Mahon - was the sidekick to Johnny Carson on the Tonight Show for over 20 years. I have always been a night owl and grew up watching that show. I remember when it was 90 minutes and was upset when they shortened it to only 60 minutes.

His sideline was the Publisher's Clearing House Sweepstakes and like many other Americans I fantasized about the day he would show up at my front door with a BIG check.

Farrah Fawcett - When I was a kid and she was at her peak, she was still Farrah Fawcett-Majors. She was the beautiful, blonde angel that everyone loved. Bonus she was married to the Six Million Dollar Man they were the epitome of the beautiful Hollywood couple.

I probably never gave her the credit she deserved as a dramatic actress; but she had a profound and positive influence on my floundering pubescent self-esteem, for which I am eternally grateful. As a result of that poster in the red one piece swimsuit I stopped being ashamed of my small boobs for which I was teased unmercifully at school and started walking taller and prouder. I rarely got my hair to feather as perfectly as hers did, but I think the gift of self esteem to an adolescent girl is worth far more in retrospect.

Michael Jackson - I literally grew up with his music. I watched the cartoons of the Jackson 5 religiously and I even had the coloring books. From 1976 until now, I don't think I have ever made a mix tape/CD that didn't include at least one of his songs. I think I stopped liking his physical appearance after Thriller. Over the years and his myriad of changes I have chosen to remember MJ as he looked when I first became aware of him. That's the Michael I had a crush on and when I hear ABC, or Rockin' Robin I can shut my eyes and see his sweet, brown, smiling face.

I think Michael Jackson's death makes me the most sad because he was only 7 years older than me and his death reminds me of my own mortality.