2024 was the fifteenth (!!) year that I have been pounding out these Grandstander pieces, and I have come to love the fact that one of the more popular features of this Blog has been my Absent Friends posts. In all, I recognized 35 Absent Friends in 2024, which brought the total since I began doing this to 519. For you trivia buffs out there, Absent Friend #500 was actress/stuntwoman Susan Backlinie, who played Chrissy Watkins, the skinny-dipper who got served up as a midnight snack to the great white shark at the beginning of the movie "Jaws" in 1975, and she is the perfect example of why I do this.
The list this year includes a very personal loss to our family caused by the passing of my mother-in-law, Yvonne "Grandma Bonnie" Mulzet. As I wrote at the time, I only knew her for three years, but the outpouring of remembrances and love that we experienced upon her death told me that I was the one who missed out by not knowing her longer.
2024 was a tough year for sports immortals. Seven of tis last year's Friends were/are members of various sports Halls of Fame, and that doesn't include non-HOF'ers, but still significant figures like Pete Rose, Fernando Valenzuela, Carl Erskine, and Andy Russell. I also introduced a new category called Absent Scoundrels for people who for various reason can't be considered Friends, but whose passing bears noting. There were two of them, O.J. Simson and Cyril Wecht, this year. For Rose, I just left the heading blank, because he can be considered both a Friend and a Scoundrel, depending one your point off view.
So below is a list of all those Absent Friends recognized in 2024. If you want to see what I wrote about these folks at the time of their passing, just type their name in the Search Box at the top of this post.
NOTE: This list does not include President Jimmy Carter who died on December 29. Holiday busy-ness prevented me from getting a chance to write my tribute to him, but earlier this afternoon, our 39th President became the first Absent Friend of 2025.
Shecky Greene
Cindy Morgan
Joyce Randolph
Melanie Safka
Charles Osgood
Andy Russell
Ed Ott
Chris Mortensen
Randy Sparks
Yvonne Mulzet, aka "Grandma Bonnie"
Larry O'Brien
Carl erskine
Roman Gabriel
O.J. Simpson
Cyril Wecht
Susan Backlinie
Bill Walton
Jerry West
Howard Fineman
Willie Mays
Donald Sutherland
Orlando Cepeda
Bobby Grier
Remo Saraceni
Bob Newhart
Johnny Gaudreau
Matthew Gaudreau
Joe Schmidt
Pete Rose
Fernando Valenzuela
Teri Garr
Quincy Jones
Elwood Edwards
Marshall Brickman
Rickey Henderson
Rest in peace, one and all.
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