# Dead at your age **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [March 25, 2009, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dead-at-your-age/490773 "2009-03-25T18:36:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2009, 7:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dead-at-your-age/490773/41 "2009-03-26T07:03:21Z")
I have outlived Francis Scott Key (who wrote "The Star-Spangled Banner) by 2 weeks. Now I’m wondering what I’ve done in the last 2 weeks, to warrant outliving him. ---
**Author:** ![Uncle\_Brother\_Walker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/f08c70/32.png) [@Uncle\_Brother\_Walker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Uncle_Brother_Walker)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2009, 11:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dead-at-your-age/490773/42 "2009-03-26T11:55:35Z")
This is what I got: At your exact age, Albert DeSalvo died by murder in prison. He was a convicted rapist believed to be The Boston Strangler although he was not convicted for those murders. Briefly perusing an old email from my mother, she seems to describe her connection to the Zodiac Killer…it would lead one to believe that a dark streak runs in our family.🆒 …or not… No, I didn’t admit to anything…:smack: ---
**Author:** ![Ichbin\_Dubist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/51bf81/32.png) [@Ichbin\_Dubist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ichbin_Dubist)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2009, 12:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dead-at-your-age/490773/43 "2009-03-26T12:01:00Z")
As a guitarist who never quite got good enough to play jazz, it’s odd that I’m now just weeks older than both Django Reinhardt and Wes Montgomery ever got. ---
**Author:** ![Catamount](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/catamount/32/2840_2.png) [@Catamount](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Catamount)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2009, 2:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dead-at-your-age/490773/44 "2009-03-26T14:51:20Z")
I’ve outlived Joseph Kennedy, Jr. who died in WWII and Mary Jo Kopechne who died in the infamous Chappaquiddick incident. I take this to mean I should avoid any Kennedys I might run across this year. ---
**Author:** ![NicePete](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ee7513/32.png) [@NicePete](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NicePete)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2009, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dead-at-your-age/490773/45 "2009-03-26T15:26:02Z")
> [@Ichbin\_Dubist](#): > > As a guitarist who never quite got good enough to play jazz, it’s odd that I’m now just weeks older than both Django Reinhardt and Wes Montgomery ever got. We must be very close to the same age – I got both of them as well. Oddly enough, I’m also a mediocre guitarist (and a fan of both Django and Wes). ---
**Author:** ![interface2x](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/c0e974/32.png) [@interface2x](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/interface2x)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2009, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dead-at-your-age/490773/46 "2009-03-26T15:50:45Z")
I considered mine to be slightly coincidental - it’s Dwayne Goettel from Skinny Puppy, who was a week younger than I am right now when he died of a heroin overdose. Coincidental because I’ve been a fan of Skinny Puppy since I was about 15 years old. ---
**Author:** ![Ichbin\_Dubist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/51bf81/32.png) [@Ichbin\_Dubist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ichbin_Dubist)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2009, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dead-at-your-age/490773/47 "2009-03-26T17:23:19Z")
> [@NicePete](#): > > We must be very close to the same age – I got both of them as well. Oddly enough, I’m also a mediocre guitarist (and a fan of both Django and Wes). I don’t know about you, but my initial thought was that I didn’t realize that both had died young, followed immediately by the thought that 43 isn’t all that young! Not by musician “die young” standards anyway. ---
**Author:** ![Yllaria](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yllaria/32/3452_2.png) [@Yllaria](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yllaria)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2009, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dead-at-your-age/490773/48 "2009-03-26T17:43:39Z")
> [@Sternvogel](#): > > I believe you misunderstood the tone of **Yllaria** ’s post – I took it to be an expression of pity that the bacterium wasn’t dubbed _Escherichia coli_ until Theodor was already dead. Kind of like making the Baseball Hall of Fame posthumously and thus never having the opportunity to attend your induction ceremony. Yes. Theodor discovered the bacterium in 1885 and named it _Bacterium coli commume_, or common colon bacterium. It was renamed in his honor seven years after he had died. At the time, it still wasn’t nearly as popular a bug as it came to be. It is now almost the world’s most famous bacteria. And, yes, I know it’s not a bug. I’m a civil engineer and get to be cavalier about these things. (True bugs have piercing, sucking mouth parts.\*) \*which I’ve often thought would make a good name for a Punk Band. ---
**Author:** ![Intergalactic\_Gladiator](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/intergalactic_gladiator/32/112_2.png) [@Intergalactic\_Gladiator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Intergalactic_Gladiator)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2009, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dead-at-your-age/490773/49 "2009-03-26T17:56:48Z")
Here are my results: Hal Riney lived twice as long as you have, but other notable people have died at about this age. You’ve outlived Amon Goeth by three days. He was a head of the Nazi concentration camp at Plaszow in Poland who tortured and murdered thousands. He died of execution by hanging on September 13, 1946, 25 years before you were born. Comment Joe Meek was almost a week younger than you when he died of suicide by gunshot on February 3, 1967. He was an innovative record producer. He died 5 years before you were born. Comment You’ve outlived Jason Mizell by almost a month. He was a musician best known as DJ “Jam Master Jay” of Run D.M.C… He died of murder by gunshot on October 30, 2002, when you were 31 years old. Comment Jim Fisk was almost a month younger than you when he died of murder by gunshot on January 6, 1872. He was a financier, associate of Boss Tweed and business partner of railroad speculator Jay Gould. He died 100 years before you were born. ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2009, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dead-at-your-age/490773/50 "2009-03-26T19:06:58Z")
> [@freckafree](#): > > I’m not getting this. How do you outlive by one day someone who died four years before you were born? > > Likewise, for me: > I was indeed 16 in 1975, but I was born in September, so how does this equate to me having outlived Rod Serling, who died in June, by almost a week? > > ETA: I might be getting it. So Rod Serling’s birthday was Sept. 9-ish? Like I said in the O.P., don’t let yourself be confused. The date of a person’s birth or death is actually irrelevant. The site compares actual life spans. If you’ve been alive 26 years and 143 days, for example, it returns all people it can find who lived close to that same number of days. If they share your birthday, or if they died on today’s date, that’s entirely coincidental. It doesn’t necessarily need to be so. For example, Elvis Presley lived for 42 years and 189 days before dying in 1977. On November 22, 1999, my life span became longer than his when I became 42 years and 190 days old. ---
**Author:** ![koeeoaddi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/koeeoaddi/32/408_2.png) [@koeeoaddi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/koeeoaddi)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2009, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dead-at-your-age/490773/51 "2009-03-26T19:22:58Z")
I outlived Ivan the Terrible by two weeks. 🆒 I also outlived Babe Ruth and Peter Tchaikovsky by about a month. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dead-at-your-age/490773.md?page=2)