01/31/13 - NNHS Newsletter

The other day my sister (Eleanor Buckley Nowitzky - '59 - of NC) called me from her magic hands-free phone in her magic car all excited because this song was playing on her magic Sirius radio.. Neither of us remembers ever hearing it before - but didja catch the second line in the second stanza?!?

"... Mr. Earl in the lyric is a reference to the great lead singer of the Cadillacs, Earl Carroll who, sadly, passed away (on November 25, 2012). He was 75...."

From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earl_Carroll_%28vocalist%29:

Earl "Speedoo" Carroll (November 2, 1937^[1] – November 25, 2012^[2]) was the lead vocalist for the doo-wop group The Cadillacs. The group's biggest hit was "Speedoo", Carroll's subsequent nickname. It was released in 1955. He joined The Coasters in 1961, leaving the group in the early 1990s to permanently reform The Cadillacs.

In the 1990s, a newspaper reported that Carroll had worked as a custodian at PS 87, a New York elementary school, where he was a beloved figure whom the children called "Speedo". Earl was chosen to be the subject of a children's book, That's Our Custodian, by Ann Morris (Brookfield, Connecticut: Millbrook Press). The publicity helped him to revive his career. He became a mainstay of the PBS series honoring doo wop, hosted by Jerry Butler.

Carroll died in a nursing home in New York at the age of 75, following a stroke and a battle with diabetes.^[3]

THIS WEEK'S BIRTHDAYS:

    Happy Birthday today to Lynn Stewart Schroeder ('71) of NC!

    Happy Birthday tomorrow to Paul Dobie ('66) of CO!

    Happy Birthday this week to:

02 - Porter Phillips Booker ('57) AND the late Thelma Spade Roberts ('57) (deceased - 08/26/05) AND John Patterson ('59) of TN AND Alan Nesbitt ('64) of NC;

03 - Maynard Thweatt ('57);

04 -     John London (Warwick HS - '57) of VA AND the late Ronnie Sanders ('65) (deceased - 10/08/06);

05 - The late Dickie Krause ('57) (deceased - 12/27/99) AND    Charles Braslow ('65) of the Virgin Islands AND    Mark Hutcherson ('66) of VA;

06 - Sue Miller Dearnley ('64) of VA AND Steve Burns ('65) of MN

   Many Happy Returns to you all!

http://www.nnhs65.com/Happy-Birthday.html

THIS DAY IN WWII:

January 31, 1942 - Allied forces were defeated by the Japanese at the Battle of Malaya and retreated to the island of Singapore.

January 31, 1943 - German Field Marshal Friedrich Paulus surrendered to the Soviets at Stalingrad, followed 2 days later by the remainder of his Sixth Army, ending one of World War II's fiercest battles.

January 31, 1944 - American forces landed on Kwajalein Atoll and other islands in the Japanese-held Marshall Islands.

January 31, 1944 - During Anzio campaign 1st Ranger Battalion (Darby's Rangers) was destroyed behind enemy lines in a heavily outnumbered encounter at the Battle of Cisterna, Italy.

January 31, 1945 - US Army private Eddie Slovik was executed for desertion, the first such execution of an American soldier since the Civil War.

January 31, 1945 - About 3,000 inmates from the Stutthof concentration camp were forcibly marched into the Baltic Sea at Palmnicken (now Yantarny, Russia) and executed.

From Bill Hobbs ('66) of Northern VA - 01/29/13 - "Paraprosdokian Sayings":