FAREWELL & GODSPEED – a book

FAREWELL & GODSPEED – a book

No, not me. I'm not voluntarily going anywhere. Farewell is the title of a book edited by Cyrus M. Copeland. The full tile is Farewell, The Greatest Eulogies of Our times. Here are some random passages that I thought of interest.

Adlai Stevenson on Eleanor Roosevelt

We who are assembled here are of various religious and political faiths and perhaps different conceptions of man's destiny in the universe…And now one can almost hear Mrs. Roosevelt saying the Funeral speaker has already talked too long so we must say farewell…We pray that she has found peace, and a glimpse of the sunset. But today we weep for ourselves. We are lonelier. Someone has gone from one's own life – who was like the certainty of refuge. And someone has gone from the world – who was like a certainty of honor."

Stan Laurel

At the funeral of Stan Laurel of Laurel and Hardy fame, it was pointed out that Laurel, who died of a heart attack at age 74, had warned his friends "If anyone at my funeral has along face, I'll never speak to them again."

Cathy Guisewite on Charles Schultz, cartoonist

It's night, Snoopy bams on the door. Charlie Brown gets out of bed, opens the door, and crouches down next to Snoopy on the porch. "Are you upset, little friend?" he asks. " Have you been lying awake worrying? Well don't worry, I'm here. I'm here to ive you reassurance. Everything is all right. The floodwater's will recede. The famine will end. The sun will come up tomorrow and I will always be here to take care of you. Be reassured." Snoopy walks back to his doghouse. Charlie Brown gets in bed, pulls the covers up to his face, looks out, and asks "Who reassures the reassurer?"

Edward A Guest on Henry Ford

Henry Ford has been called in the midst of his eighty third year to join the great of the earth. Tonight he knows the answer to the mystery of life and death of which he often thought and talked. Life to him was a thrilling experience; a never ending struggle for the perfection of the human soul. Among the few ho have come closest to attaining that perfection in a single lifetime, his name must be recorded.

We are all his debtors now. There is none of us – rich or poor, in humble or high place – whose life has not been bettered by his labor.

Garrison Keillor on Chet Atkins of Country Hall of Music fame

In his recollection, he was kind, but he was honest, like the bartender in Frankie and Johnny, "I don't want to cause you no trouble, but I ain't gonna tell you no lies."

Larry McMurtry on Irving "Swifty" Lazar talent agent

I happened to open a silver cigarette box given to him by Walter and Carol Matthau. It was engraved with the following tribute "You have that rarest of things, an evolved heart."

Larry Gelbart on Billy Wilder movie director commenting on Wilder's "rules"

  • Throw away any rules you didn't write yourself And you might want to do another draft of those every once in awhile as well
  • If what you are writing isn't likely to offend or annoy anyone at all, go back and start again

  • Treat your failures the same way you treat your successes. Either one is a natural outcome of your efforts. Either way, just mush on

Orson Wells on Darryl Zanuck

I always knew that if I did something really outrageous, that if I committed some abominable crime and if all the police in the world were after me, there was one man and only one man I could come to and that was Darryl. He would not have been mealymouthed or put me aside. He would have hid me under the bed. Very simply he was a friend and that is why it is so very hard to say good by to him.

Robert L Bernstein on Theodor Seuss Geisel creator of Dr. Seuss stories

We are all mortal so it had to happen. Ted Geisel had to leave this earth sometime. But it worked out so that he came as close to being immortal as possible. While Ted is gone, he left behind Dr. Seuss.

Christopher Isherwood on Virginia Woolf

Virginia Woolf is dead and thousands of people, far outside the immediate circle of her friends and colleagues will be sorry, will feel the loss of a great and original talent to our literature. For she was famous, surprisingly famous when one considers that she was what is called "a writer's writer."

Edward Kennedy on Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis

She graced our history. And for those of us who knew and loved her – she graced our lives.

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