Friday, June 24, 2011

"Putting the fun in funerals ... since 2011"

Thursday, June 16, 2011

On a summer morning in 1974, a man in Ohio bought a package of chewing gum and the whole world changed.


Mr. Haberman’s committee comprised more than half a dozen type-A businessmen, and discussion could be fractious. At one meeting, in San Francisco in the early 1970s, as Mr. Brown’s book reports, Mr. Haberman found a spectacularly good way to smooth dissent. First he organized a dinner at one of the city’s finest restaurants. Then he took everyone to a local movie theater to see “Deep Throat.”

Sunday, June 12, 2011

A signature accomplishment in any era


It was a beautiful sunny morning and the birds she loved were in flight accompanying her precious soul.

A truly liberated woman ahead of her time, she adapted the world to herself. As a young woman, Trudy bicycled solo from Philadelphia to Key West, ferried to Cuba, returning home a month later.

Tuesday, June 7, 2011

Her husband joined his mother "in a much warmer climate."


Ida married High School friend, Karl Hadaway. On January 31, 1953, a child was born named Mary Denise. The marriage decayed and the couple divorced in 1954. Ida's marriage to Karl was a three ring circus, engagement ring, wedding ring and suffering. Ida met and married Albert Sills in 1960. Ida said "I never knew what real happiness was until I got remarried, then it was too late".

Ida Mae Russell Sills slipped away and joined her beloved daughter in Heaven. Fortunately her husband Albert preceded her and joined his mother in a much warmer climate.

Thursday, June 2, 2011

His favorite patron was Cole Porter. His least favorite was ...


He worked many other side jobs, a pattern that repeated itself throughout his life. In New Haven, he delivered telegraphs by bicycle for Western Union, worked maintenance on the New Haven Railroad, and was a busboy in the Berkeley College dining hall at Yale. When war broke out, he enlisted in the U.S. Navy, and was called up in October 1942. He trained as a pilot in Jacksonville, Fla., and Hutchinson, Kan., and flew the PB4Y-2, the "Privateer". Bill was stationed in Kearney, Calif., and left active service when the war ended. He attended Columbia University on the GI Bill and graduated in 1950. During his studies, he was a waiter at the Drake Hotel, where his favorite patrons included Cole Porter and his least favorite patrons included Frank Sinatra.