A busy December has prevented The Grandstander from posting on Absent Friends, so let us not allow this final day of the year to pass without recognizing three notable losses in the month of December.
Taking them in the order in which their deaths occurred....
Few can say that they served their country with more honor and distinction than Bob Dole of Kansas.
Dole served in World War II where he earned a Bronze Star and a Purple Heart. The wounds that he sustained in Italy during the War were visible for the rest of his life, but that hardly "disabled" him for that lifetime. He represented Kansas in the US House of Representatives from 1961-69 and the US Senate from 1969-96. He served as the Senate's Minority and Majority Leader, and was the Republican Party's nominee for President in 1996.
A staunch conservative, Dole was not a guy that I aligned myself with over the course of the years. He did not get my vote in 1996, yet he is typical of politicians of that era, an era I fear has passed for the foreseeable future, in that he put the values of his country first, and wanted to be part of the leadership of a unified nation.
His obituary noted that he considered the most significant piece of legislation that he ever shepherded through Congress was the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act. Who did he work with hand-in-glove to make sure that the ADA passed in the Senate? Senator Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts.
Can you see something like that happening here in 2021?
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Mike Nesmith, 1942-2021, was a member of The Monkees, a rock and roll band created by television in an effort to cash in on the popularity of The Beatles and their movie, "A Hard Day's Night." That TV series, "The Monkees", ran for 58 episodes from 1966-68. It accomplished what NBC desired. The show was as success. The band itself was criticized for being the invention of a TV network, and was often derisively known as the "Pre-Fab Four." Still, if you go back and listen to some of their tunes, they put out some pretty good stuff. No, they weren't the Beatles, the Stones, or the Beach Boys, but their work has stood up fairly well to the test of time.
Nesmith himself had a long career as a singer, songwriter, and record producer. One of hie better known songs was "Different Drum", one of the first big hits by Linda Ronstadt.
Nesmith's death follows those of Davy Jones and Peter Tork, and leaves Mickey Dolenz as the last surviving Monkee.
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Pro Football Hall of Fame member John Madden died earlier in the week at the age of 85.
His name is on a football video game, perhaps the most popular sports video game ever, so his name is familiar to generations that have no real idea of who he really was.
He became arguably the best and most popular TV football analyst ever. He worked for four networks, but he hasn't broadcast a game since the Steelers win over the Cardinals in Super Bowl XLIII.
Yet Madden himself always referred to himself as a Coach. A Football Coach, and what a coach he was. He was head coach of the Raiders for only ten years, and in that time his record was an amazing 103-32-7. His teams reached the AFL/AFC Championship game an astonishing SEVEN times in ten years, and were the Champions of Super Bowl XI.
He retired at a young age because he hated to fly. The rest became broadcasting history.
As a Steelers fan, thoughts of John Madden always bring up memories of those great battles between the Steelers and the Raiders in the 1970's. Here is a shot of Madden with the player with whom, in my mind anyway, he is most closely associated, QB Ken Stabler.
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