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News; Fannish & Historical
Fannish news - Big Finish just announced their audio license has been extended to December 2012. I'm totally going to have to buy a bigger shelf
Historical news: This was buried deep in the WaPo and really needs to be spread around a little more: Elizabeth Hobbs Keckly [sic] finally has a memorial on her grave. One hopes, after that article, that the memorial is spelled correctly.
Keckley was born a slave, but eventually got the chance to buy freedom for herself and her son - a sum, she points out proudly in her autobiography Behind the Scenes in the Lincoln White House; or, Thirty Years a Slave, and Four Years in the White House every penny of which she earned (it was a loan from friends, which she paid back). As the book title tells you, she would become the seamstress for Mary Todd Lincoln; among other things, she made the Inaugural Gown which (if memory serves) is one of the ones on display in the Smithsonian Museum of American History.
However, the publication of the book would ruin the friendship between Keckley and the former First Lady; Lincoln's son would have the book banned, although it is freely available now. Considering how dismissive it is of Mrs. Lincoln's intelligence - Keckley doesn't outright say "her brain must roll around in her skull like a BB on a 4-lane highway, bless her heart" but she certainly verges on the historical equivalent - this is probably not surprising.
Keckley's body was moved when the graveyard was bought by developers and the new grave was unmarked until this ceremony.
Also in the news about famous African Americans (although this time on the front page), Sir Paul McCartney sang "Michelle" to the First Lady last night, joking afterwards that it was the first time he risked being punched out by a President.
Historical news: This was buried deep in the WaPo and really needs to be spread around a little more: Elizabeth Hobbs Keckly [sic] finally has a memorial on her grave. One hopes, after that article, that the memorial is spelled correctly.
Keckley was born a slave, but eventually got the chance to buy freedom for herself and her son - a sum, she points out proudly in her autobiography Behind the Scenes in the Lincoln White House; or, Thirty Years a Slave, and Four Years in the White House every penny of which she earned (it was a loan from friends, which she paid back). As the book title tells you, she would become the seamstress for Mary Todd Lincoln; among other things, she made the Inaugural Gown which (if memory serves) is one of the ones on display in the Smithsonian Museum of American History.
However, the publication of the book would ruin the friendship between Keckley and the former First Lady; Lincoln's son would have the book banned, although it is freely available now. Considering how dismissive it is of Mrs. Lincoln's intelligence - Keckley doesn't outright say "her brain must roll around in her skull like a BB on a 4-lane highway, bless her heart" but she certainly verges on the historical equivalent - this is probably not surprising.
Keckley's body was moved when the graveyard was bought by developers and the new grave was unmarked until this ceremony.
Also in the news about famous African Americans (although this time on the front page), Sir Paul McCartney sang "Michelle" to the First Lady last night, joking afterwards that it was the first time he risked being punched out by a President.
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Good news for Mrs Keckly, a strong woman who deserves recognition. I can't help imagining that she was thinking, "I was a slave, and this shopaholic ditz is First Lady...."
FYI, the kitty who needed a home the other day has found one! But plenty others need one too.
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I'm glad the kitty has a home!
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