Grim, but perhaps illuminating.

[pikeprof]

I was thinking the other day, what was the first celebrity death I remember. I wracked my brain and could only come up with Jack Benny. I don't know why my then, 11-year old brain seized on this, or why my much older brain insists this was the first one of which I was aware. I could have only have seen him on guest shots on TV shows. Maybe I thought he was funny.

What was the first celebrity death any of your remember.

[Sequin]

I remember the death of RFK being announced on the BBC news - I was 9 years old at the time.

[Momma Snider]

I remember Jayne Mansfield, probably just because it was a gruesome story. Reports then were that she was beheaded when the car she was riding in hit the back of a truck. Wikipedia says she wasn't beheaded, just possibly scalped, but either way, it was sensational enough that I paid attention. That was in 1967.

And Walt Disney in 1966.

[marpocky]

Not sure, but I think it might be Phil Hartman. Yep, I'm a young'n.

[rockgolf]

I was born in '57 so I should have distinct memories of hearing of the Kennedy assassination, yet I don't remember how I heard about it at all. Not at all.
But I have clear and vivid memories of two events in the immediate aftermath. One was of hearing of Oswald's death a day or two later, because my aunt Sue, the kindest, sweetest person I knew, said "They shot Oswald! Good!"
I also remember the funeral carried live on TV. His coffin was being pulled by a horse, and I kept wishing that someone would make that horse go faster because the funeral was so slow that the cartoon show that Channel 2 carried at 5 pm would be over.

Memory is weird.

[grodney]

Elvis - I was 10. Can't think of any before that.

[skullturfq]

For me, it might be Terry Fox (in the summer of 1981, when I was 7). I think he's much more of a household name in Canada (where I grew up) than elsewhere.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terry_Fox

I'm not going to count John Lennon (December 1980, when I was 6) or Elvis Presley (August 1977, when I was 3) because I'm pretty sure I don't actually remember those. In both of those cases, I think I remember it being explained to me that they had died somewhat recently, but that's not quite the same thing as "Hey, have you heard the news? So-and-so just died!"

Some others that I definitely remember (I was old enough to be looking at newspapers, and also knew the people from TV or movies) were Ted Knight (August 1986, when I was 12) and Jackie Gleason (June 1987, when I was 13). EDIT: And Andy Kaufman, who I knew from "Taxi", in May 1984, just before I turned 10.

[billiej]

It's kind of hard to distinguish between what you remember from the time and what you heard about a bit later. I do definitely remember Jack Benny dying, so I used that as a starting point. The moon landing is the only newsworthy thing I remember from the 60's so that gave me 5 years to work with.

Looking through various lists, the only earlier death I have a distinct memory of is Jim Croce's - I definitely remember seeing the news reports as a kid and it caught my attention since I really liked his music.

Dan Blocker a year earlier is questionable - I really liked Bonanza as a kid and I do remember knowing from a early age that he had died but I cannot say with 100% certainty that I noticed it at the time it happened.

[marpocky]

I'm not going to count John Lennon (December 1980, when I was 6) or Elvis Presley (August 1977, when I was 3) because I'm pretty sure I don't actually remember those. In both of those cases, I think I remember it being explained to me that they had died somewhat recently, but that's not quite the same thing as "Hey, have you heard the news? So-and-so just died!"

That's how I am with Jim Henson.

[Momma Snider]

I'm old, and I was 16 in 1969 and should remember the part where we went to the moon. But no, I don't. I only know it was 1969 because of an episode of Even Stevens, where Ren sang about it. I can only think I was so caught up in being 16 (and I can quote just about every word to every song that came out that year) that I didn't pay attention to world events. I remember that it happened, but there's no context for the memory.

[rockgolf]

Marilu Henner (Elaine Nardo on the TV series Taxi) is one of about a dozen people in the US who can remember what happened to her on every day of her life. It's not a brag, it's been documented. She was once on a talkshow with Bob Costas and was asked what happened on July 20, 1969 (the date of the first moon landing). She blushed and quietly said "that's the day I lost my virginity".

So maybe, Momma Snider, you too were up to something else that day.

[Bill]

I remember when the Shah of Iran died in 1980. We were in the middle of the hostage crisis which was, to some degree, triggered by the Shah's being allowed to visit the United States for medical treatment. The hostage crisis was all over the news, and I had learned about it in school, so the Shah's death struck me as important.

I also remember my fifth-grade teacher talking about the assassination of John Lennon, but I hadn't made the connection that it had just recently happened. The Beatles were before my time, and I assumed it was a history lesson. Many years later, I realized that Lennon was shot when I was in fifth-grade.

[TheConfessor]

Marilu Henner (Elaine Nardo on the TV series Taxi) is one of about a dozen people in the US who can remember what happened to her on every day of her life. It's not a brag, it's been documented. She was once on a talkshow with Bob Costas and was asked what happened on July 20, 1969 (the date of the first moon landing). She blushed and quietly said "that's the day I lost my virginity".

Who documented Marilu Henner losing her virginity? There were no camcorders back then. Maybe it's on Super 8 film. Most of the things I've seen her claim to remember could have easily been made up, with no way of verifying them.

[Whatsahoe]

Marilu Henner (Elaine Nardo on the TV series Taxi) is one of about a dozen people in the US who can remember what happened to her on every day of her life. It's not a brag, it's been documented. She was once on a talkshow with Bob Costas and was asked what happened on July 20, 1969 (the date of the first moon landing). She blushed and quietly said "that's the day I lost my virginity".

Who documented Marilu Henner losing her virginity? There were no camcorders back then. Maybe it's on Super 8 film. Most of the things I've seen her claim to remember could have easily been made up, with no way of verifying them.

Hey Henner, How about answering this:
Quick! What was the first female field reporter wearing for your local news on the August 2, 1971 evening newscast? And when was the next time that person wore that outfit?

[skullturfq]

I can add another one to my list. I don't know how much of a "celebrity" she is, but I remember her death being in the news when I was 11.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samantha_Smith

[billiej]

I can add another one to my list. I don't know how much of a "celebrity" she is, but I remember her death being in the news when I was 11.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samantha_Smith

In this neck of the woods, she was very much a celebrity.

My father was working for that airline at the time.

[Momma Snider]

Well, Rock, I'm quite sure I wasn't up to THAT at the age of 16, but now that I see that it was in July, that explains why I don't have a context of hearing about it in school. Summers all blur together in my mind.

[rockgolf]

Who documented Marilu Henner losing her virginity? There were no camcorders back then. Maybe it's on Super 8 film. Most of the things I've seen her claim to remember could have easily been made up, with no way of verifying them.

Sure, she could have made that up, but if so she's a better actress than Meryl Streep. I don't know of anyone who can consciously will themselves to blush.

Nonetheless, her memory has been demonstrated in multiple ways that exclude the possibility of just making things up. For example, she was asked to give the dates of every Easter she could remember, and gave them all (except one) correctly, along with a description of what she was doing that day. A few years later, the experiment was repeated, and this time she got all the dates correct, and gave the same descriptions of what she had been doing on each of those dates. So her only way of faking that would be to still have an extraordinary memory.

Ken, I believe, has met some other guy with similar abilities.

[grodney]

Ken, I believe, has met some other guy with similar abilities.

Thread regarding Brad Williams, with a mention of Marilu:
http://www.ken-jennings.com/messageboar ... hp?p=28975

Thread where Brad Williams tells about meeting Ken:
http://www.ken-jennings.com/messageboar ... ght=#59456

[Ken Jennings]

Sort of surprised by all the John Lennon non-reminiscences from my generation. That was definitely mine.

[pikeprof]

Sort of surprised by all the John Lennon non-reminiscences from my generation. That was definitely mine.

I certainly remember Nixon's resignation speech and where I was at the time, at my Grandma's house during summer vacation.

74 seems to be a big year for me remembering things outside my own little universe.

[skullturfq]

Speaking of prodigious memory, here's somebody else who has been documented as being able to recall many details of her life for a specified date:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jill_Price

[econgator]

Elvis - I was 10. Can't think of any before that.

Ditto, although I was 11.

[Paucle]

MLK, for sure, happened right on my 7th birthday.

[skullturfq]

Most people wouldn't count this guy as a "celebrity", but it just occurs to me that I remember hearing about his death, three months before my 7th birthday.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don_Koehler

My teacher mentioned that he had died, and I knew who he was talking about because I read the Guinness Book of World Records.

This predates the death of Terry Fox, which I mentioned earlier. It also occurred two and a half months after the death of John Lennon, which I'm not sure if I can quite claim that I remember exactly.

(This might say something about how a child's mind works and who a child considers "famous". Being really tall or having a fake leg = famous. Singing boring grown-up songs about love and peace and drugs = obscure.)