Remembering Ed, Billy, Michael and Farrah

It was quite the week for me to be on vacation.

And I’m not even talking about Mark Sanford’s confession.

This is about celebrity death… after death… after death… after death.

Here are my thoughts about the famous people who left us in late June.

ED McMAHON

I considered him a classy guy.  If he was involved in a show, it was classy.  He was Johnny Carson’s sidekick on “The Tonight Show” and was an excellent straight man, the guy who set up the jokes so Johnny could hit a hilarious homer.  In the 1980s and 90s, he hosted “Star Search” which propelled the career of such notables as country music’s Sawyer Brown.  He was pitchman for “Publishers Clearinghouse.“  I was sorry to hear of his health and financial troubles late in life.

BILLY MAYS

Boy, could he sell.  He’s the guy every business wanted working for them.  You be the judge of whether the products he hawked were worth the money, but he’d convince you to at least try it.  I’m pretty sure there is a container of OxyClean in the cabinet of my family’s laundry room, and it had to be because he sold us on it.  Billy had a lot of good TV infommercials left in him.  His exit was far too early.

MICHAEL JACKSON

When I was in the tenth grade at Orange High School in Hillsborough, North Carolina, “I Want You Back” by the Jackson 5 was one of the big hits of 1969.  Sometimes teachers would let the kids play music as a reward for good work in the classroom, and a copy of that single seemed to always be in someone’s book bag.  Michael’s talent and creativity grew to be monstrous.  His showmanship was a combination of James Brown and Jackie Wilson, two of the most exciting entertainers ever.  I wish he had never had the bizarre plastic surgeries and just lived with his natural good looks.  But that aside, his music was amazing.  I wish I had seen one of his concerts.  The music industry has lost one its best ever.  I heard this quote from the Reverend Al Sharpton:  “He wasn’t a freak.  He was a genious.“

FARRAH FAWCETT

I don’t have the famous Farrah poster, but a Charlie’s Angels poster hangs in the office/music room of my home.  Some years ago, my wife and I bought unframed posters at a shop at Barefoot Landing at Myrtle Beach.  We bought the Charlie’s Angels poster because that TV show was such a big part of the 1970s.  All the Angels were gorgeous, but Farrah was extraordinary.  Not just the hair, but her classic features, her persona, the total package.  How very sad it has been to lose Farrah, especially after I watched all two hours of “Farrah’s Story” on MSNBC, which documented her battle with cancer.  You might not have thought this beautiful woman had so much fight in her, but she literally was at war with her illness.  She tried everything, went everywhere, that offered a glimmer of hope for a cure.  She was beautiful even when she felt horrible.  And I felt such compassion for Ryan O’Neal, who stood by Farrah with unrelenting love.