Mobituaries: great lives worth reliving

Death of the fantastic: dragons {3000 BC-1735} and other mythical creatures we thought were real (mermaids, Kishi, The Roc, Unicorns, Frankenberry) Death of a founding father: Thomas Paine {1737-1809} and other famously disembodied body parts (T-Pain, aka Faheem Rasheed Najm; Einstein's rain, Grover Cleveland's jaw, Galileo Galilei's middle finger, Louis XIV's heart) Forgotten forerunner: Elizabeth Jennings {1827-1901} "The Rosa Parks of New York" Death of an influencer: Beau Brummell {1778-1840} and other dead fashion trends (fur coats, corsets, hobble skirts, the codpiece Death of an American story: Chang and Eng Bunker {1811-1874} and other sideshow sensations (Tiny Lavinia Warren, Captain Marin Van Buren Bates, Victor the Wild Boy of Aveyon, Sara Baartman the Hottentot Venus Death of representation: The black congressmen of Reconstruction {1870-1901} and other political firsts who didn't make your high school history book (Robert Smalls, Blanche K. Bruce, Hiram Rhodes Revels, Robert Brown Elliott, Susan Madora Salter, Ebenezer Don Carlos Bassett, Charles Curtis, Harvey Milk, Romualdo Pacheco, Shirleey Chisholm) Forgotten forerunner: when a woman ruled Hollywood: Lois Weber {1879-1939} Death of Medieval Science {800-1928} Alchemy, Astrology, Blodletting, Scrying, and other less science that was less than scientific (Mrs. Winslow's Soothing Syrup; Cocaine; Phrenology; Phlogiston Theory; Trepanning; Spontaneous Combustion, Dr. Mamba's Miracle Balm) Death of a Sports Team: Los Dragones de Ciudad Trujillo {1937-1937} and other teams you can't root for anymore (The Philadelphia Sphas; The New Jersey Generals; The Washington Senators; Maurice Rocca's Little League Career) Forgotten Forerunner: Thee Byronic Woman, Ada Lovelace {1815-1852} Death of a Country: Prussia {1525-1947} and other places you won't find on a map (Königsberg; Assyria; Republic of West Florida; Tannu Tuva; Sodom and Gomorrah; Hanging Gardens of Babylon) Heroes of the New Jersey Turnpike (historic figures memorialized by rest stops on the NJT): Clara Barton; John Fenwick; Walt Whitman; James Fenimore Cooper; Richard Stockton; Woodrow Wilson; Molly Pitcher; Joyce Kilmer; Grover Cleveland; Thomas Edison; Alexander Hamilton; Vince Lombardi

Death of a Funny Girls: Fanny Brice {1891-1951} and other historical figures eclipsed by the actors who played them (Calamity Jane/Doris Day; T. E. Lawrence/Peter O'Toole; George S. Patton/George C. Scott; George M. Cohan/James Cagney; Eva Perón/Patti LuPone; Marlene Dietrich/Madeline Kahn; Maria von Trapp/Julie Andrews; Jame LaMotta/Robert De Niro; Spartacus/Kirk Douglas) Before and After: Herbert Hoover {1874-1964} and John Quincy Adams {1767-1848} with the Mount Rushmore of Terrible Presidents: A. Johnson, Harding, Nixon, & Buchanan; The Graveyard of Failed Presidential Candidates: William Jennings Bryan; Pat Paulsen; Pigasus the Pig; Eugene V. Debs; Victoria Woodhull; John Anderson; Alfred E. Smith; Alf Landon; Gracie Allen; Henry Clay; Margaret Chase Smith; Aaron Burr; Dr. Spock Forgotten forerunner before Jackie: Moses Fleetwood Walker {1857-1924} Death of a diagnosis: Homosexuality as a Mental Illness {1952-1973} and other defunct diagnoses (Wandering Womb/The Vapours; Consumption, Ague, the Grippe; Left-Handedness; Red Hair; Drapetomania) Reputation Assassination: A Story of Three Killings: Giacomo Meyerbeer {1791-1864}, Arnold Bennett {1867-1931} and Disco {1970-1979} and other ruined reputations (Eve; Fatty Arbuckle; Richard III; William Shakespeare) Forgotten forerunner before AA: The Washington Movement {1840-1860} Death of a Brother: Billy Carter {1937-1988} and other black sheep siblings (Branwell Brontë; Seth; Magda Gabor; Gumma Marx; Donald Nixon) Death of the entertainer Sammy Davis Jr. {1925-1990} and other one-eyed wonders (Wiley Post; Andre DeToth; Polyphemus; Peter Falk; Hannibal; Tex Avery; Elle Driver) Death of a Square: Lawrence Welk {1903-1992} and other victims of the "rural purge" (The Beverly Hillbillies; The Ed Sullivan Show; The Andy Griffith Show; Bonanza; Gunsmoke) Death of an Icon: Audrey Hepburn {1929-1993} and other famous people commonly confused with each other (Davy Crockett & Daniel Boone; Molly Pitcher & Molly Hatchet; Andrew Johnson, Andrew Jackson; & Stonewall Jackson; Atilla the Hun & Genghis Khan; Hubert Humphrey, Herbert Hoover, & J. Edgar Hoover; Dom DeLuise & Paul Prudhomme; Alan Hale & Nathan Hale; Joan of Arc & Joan Van Ark; Torquemada & Savonarola & Casanova; Norman Fell & Norman Conquest; Gore Vidal & Vidal Sassoon; Alvin Ailey & Beetle Bailey; Nostradamus & Nosferatu)

Forgotten forerunner, the Aviatrix: Bessie Coleman {1892-1926}

Death of a Career: Vaughn Meader {1936-2004}; The Story of Melba Moore's ill'fated sitcom (1986-1986); Where's Chuck? The Graveyard of disappeared and dead sitcom characters: Judy Winslow, "Family Matters"; Chico Rodrigues, "Chico and the Man"; Martin, "Love, Sidney"; Susan Ross, "Seinfeld"; The cast of "Bewitched"; Mr. Hooper, "Sesame Street"; Becky Conner, "Roseanne"; Chuckles the Clown, "The Mary Tyler Moore Show"; Opie's mother, "The Andy Griffith Show; Lieutenant Colonel Henry Blake, "M*A*S*H"

Died the Same Day: Farrah Fawcett {1947-2009} and Michael Jackson {1958-2009} and other famous people who died the same day: Mahatma Gandhi & Orville Wright; John Adams & Thomas Jefferson; Ingmar Bergman & Michelangelo Antonioni; Sammy Davis Jr. & Jim Henson; Dick Sargent & Kim Il Sung; Orson Welles & Yul Brynner; William Shakespeare & Miguel de Cervantes; Margaret Thatcher & Annette Funicello; River Phoenix & Federico Fellini; Dudley Moore, Milton Berle, & Billy Wilder; Cecil B. DeMille & Carl "Alfalfa" Switzer

Death of a Leviathan: The Station Wagon {1949-2011} and other things from the '70s that could've killed us: McDonald's collectible drinking glasses; Quaaludes; Alar; Shag carpeting; Jarts; Electric blankets; UFFI

Forgotten forerunner: The first Great Wall: Hadrian's Wall {128-1746}

Celebrities who put their butts on the line: Elizabeth Taylor {1932-2011}, Marlene Dietrich {1901-1992}, and Lord Byron {1788-1824} and other people famous for more than one thing: Paul WInchell; William Howard Taft; Harold Sakata; Johnny Weissmuller; Hedy Lamarr; Matthew Fontaine Maury; Carlton Cole Magee; Alan Thicke; Bert Convy

Death of a Tree: the Live Oaks of Toomer's Corner {1937-2013} and other trees felled too soon: The world's first Christmas tree; The tree of Ténéré; Anne Frank's Chestnut Tree; The Giving Tree; The Spaghetti Tree; The Senator; Augustine Washington's Cherry Tree

Dedication: Marcel "Jack" Rocca {1929-2004}.