# I didn't know they were still alive! **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 20, 2006, 3:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-didnt-know-they-were-still-alive/377181 "2006-10-20T03:11:26Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Jim\_s\_Son](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19adc/32.png) [@Jim\_s\_Son](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jim_s_Son)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2006, 3:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-didnt-know-they-were-still-alive/377181/61 "2006-10-26T03:19:58Z")
It probably shouldn’t be listed as “surprised” but Yankee Stadium public address announcer Bob Sheppard just turned 96 and still is working Yankee games. He is slowing down, retiring fromdoing New York football Giants games last year. ---
**Author:** ![LilyoftheValley](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/54ee81/32.png) [@LilyoftheValley](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LilyoftheValley)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2006, 3:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-didnt-know-they-were-still-alive/377181/62 "2006-10-26T03:24:15Z")
When watching the American Experience “Test Tube Babies” show this week, I saw Howard Jones interviewed. I blurted out, “But…he’s dead!” **MrValley** rolled his eyes at me as I realized the inanity of my comment. It turns out that he’s quite old but still alive; it was his wife Georgeanna who died in 2005. (They worked very closely in the same field, and I somehow confused the two.) ---
**Author:** ![LilyoftheValley](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/54ee81/32.png) [@LilyoftheValley](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LilyoftheValley)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2006, 3:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-didnt-know-they-were-still-alive/377181/63 "2006-10-26T03:26:17Z")
Err…that’s _Drs._ Howard & Georgeanna Jones, for the record. ---
**Author:** ![Uncommon\_Sense](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Uncommon\_Sense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Uncommon_Sense)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2006, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-didnt-know-they-were-still-alive/377181/64 "2006-10-26T17:03:57Z")
I thought for sure that **Ruth Buzzi** had croaked. You know, the lady that used to whack everyone with her purse… She’s still working/whacking too. ---
**Author:** ![Ceejaytee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ceejaytee/32/2956_2.png) [@Ceejaytee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ceejaytee)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2006, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-didnt-know-they-were-still-alive/377181/65 "2006-10-26T18:44:22Z")
I just had one of these today. Esther Williams is in the [hospital](http://www.ew.com/ew/article/reuters/0,24012,1551104_10_0_,00.html). She’s 85. I thought she was dead. Apparently, she is doing much better than I thought. ---
**Author:** ![commasense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/commasense/32/3017_2.png) [@commasense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/commasense)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2006, 2:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-didnt-know-they-were-still-alive/377181/66 "2006-10-28T02:20:51Z")
[Lawrence Ferlinghetti](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lawrence_Ferlinghetti) is still alive! Back in the early 1970s when I was a hippie wannabe, I read his poetry, and thought he was a pretty old guy. (Turns out that he was about as old then as I am now.) But NPR did a story tonight on the 50th anniversary of Allen Ginsberg’s _Howl_. Ferlinghetti was the first publisher of the quintessential Beat poem, and they interviewed him for the story. I don’t recall even hearing his name for decades, much less that he was still alive. But he’s 87 and still kicking. Good on ya, Larry! ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2006, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-didnt-know-they-were-still-alive/377181/67 "2006-10-28T02:30:01Z")
There was a stir a couple of years ago when the last widow of a U.S. Civil War Confederate soldier passed away. Her name was Alberta Martin and she had her own web site and everything. It was probably good that she never knew it, but she wasn’t really the last surviving widow of a Confederate soldier. Maudie Cecelia Hopkins’ family heard the news about Alberta and had to inform the world that Maudie had the same qualifications. So, there is still a widow of a U.S. Confederate soldier still around. > **[Confederate widow, 89, lives in Arkansas](https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2004/jun/11/20040611-084206-3427r/)** > > With the announcement last week of the death of Alberta Martin of Alabama, the nation marked the loss of “the last Confederate widow,” as she was inevitably identified. Mrs. Martin’s first husband, William Jasper Martin, had been a Confederate... [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-didnt-know-they-were-still-alive/377181.md?page=3)