So that the year of famous deaths is finally over, which ones hit you the hardest and why? For me it was Merle Haggard and Patty Duke. For Haggard, it was a combination of growing up in a household where country music’s all I heard as a child and a feeling his brand of country music is starting to die off with him. Rock will survive Bowie, R&B will survive Prince, but it’s only a few years until all the classic country artists die off or retire.
As far as Patty, yeah a lot of it was having a big crush on her as a teen (not old enough to see her show in first run but saw it a lot on Nick at Nite). But as a grownup finding out how awful her life was, from her impoverished childhood to her painful death, yet never succumbing to self pity or addiction was very moving to me. How many other people of her stature were happiest living in a modest house in small town Idaho, and by all indications loved by all who met her?