Simone Segouin. She was 97.
She was a French resistance fighter as a teenager.
She was also the subject of a “Life” profile by Jack Belden:
…
New York Public Library digital archive.
Lawrence sent over two interesting obits:
Gloria Dea, the first magician to perform on the Vegas Strip.
On May 14, 1941, at only 19 years old, Dea performed in the Roundup Room at the El Rancho Vegas. That made her the first magician to ever perform on Highway 91, which wouldn’t be renamed Las Vegas Boulevard for 18 more years. (At the time, only the El Rancho Vegas and Last Frontier lined the road. The Flamingo was still under construction.)
Dea performed two shows that night. The crowds went wild for her billiard-ball trick and a floating-card trick, both taught to her by her father.
“It felt good,” Dea told the R-J at her birthday bash in August. “Anytime someone likes something that you do, you feel good don’t you? Oh, yeah. I was received wonderfully. It was a great room. You had the audience seated, then floor-to-ceiling glass in the back, and on the other side of that was the swimming pool.”
“Then you were onstage, facing that. It was fancy. It was a fun place.”
Byrd Odum Holland, makeup artist and actor.
Lawrence pointed out “The Creeping Terror”. We have “Five Minutes to Live“: I bought it on a cheap gas station DVD that I couldn’t pass up because it also had “Land of the Free” (Shatner!) We haven’t watched “Five Minutes” yet, but I am trying to sell the Saturday Movie Group on it because it sounds interesting. Johnny Cash plays a psychotic killer in one of only two “theatrical film roles” he played in his career (as opposed to appearances on TV and in documentaries).
Mr. Holland’s other acting credits include “Swamp Girl” and “The Black Klansman” (1966).
NYT obit for Jim Gordon, which, while late, is better than some of the other obits I’ve seen.