Besides the death of my mother, Rose Finnegan, in 1985, a lot of other celebrities died, like Roger Maris, Yankee MLB player (1934-1985), Paul Castellano, American Mafia boss (1915-1985), Dian Fossey, American biologist (1932-1985), Harry Hopman, Australian tennis player and coach (1906-1985), Samantha Smith, American schoolgirl activist (1972-1985), Frank Oppenheimer, American particle physicist (1912-1985), Karen Ann Quinlan, American right-to-die cause célèbre (1954-1985), Charles Richter, creator of the Richter magnitude scale (1900-1985), Chester Gould, creator of Dick Tracy (1900-1985), László Bíró, Hungarian inventor of the ballpoint pen (1899-1985), J. Willard Marriott, founder of Marriott International (1900-1985), Heinrich Böll, German writer (1917-1985), Marc Chagall, Russian-French painter (1887-1985), Taylor Caldwell, Anglo-American writer (1900-1985), E. B. White, American writer (1899-1985), Jimmy Kinnon, Scottish founder of Narcotics Anonymous (1911-1985), Potter Stewart, American Supreme Court Justice (1915-1985), Henry Cabot Lodge Jr., American politician (1902-1985), and Konstantin Chernenko, General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (1911-1985). Three members of the black listed Hollywood Ten screenwriters died in 1985, Albert Maltz, (1908-1985), Alvah Cecil Bessie, (1904-1985), and Lester Cole, (1904-1985). Some of my favorite entertainers died in 1985, Clarence Nash, American actor (1904-1985), Eugene Ormandy, Hungarian-American conductor (1899-1985), Alan A. Freeman, English record producer (1920-1985), Roger Sessions, American composer (1896-1985), Sir Michael Redgrave, British actor (1908-1985), The Singing Nun (Jeannine Deckers), Belgian nun and singer (1933-1985), Efrem Zimbalist, Russian-American violinist (1889-1985), Edmond O’Brien, American actor (1915-1985), George Chandler, American actor (1898-1985), Phil Foster, American actor (1913-1985), Margo, Mexican-American actress (1917-1985), Kay Kyser, American bandleader (1905-1985), Mickey Shaughnessy, American actor (1920-1985), Grant Williams, American actor (1931-1985), James Craig, American actor (1912-1985), John Welsh, Irish actor (1914-1985), Scott Brady, American actor (1924-1985), Margaret Hamilton, American actress (1902-1985), John Harmon, American actor (1905-1985), Louise Brooks, American actress (1906-1985), Kenny Baker, American actor and singer (1912-1985), Paul Harris, American actor (1917-1985), Ruth Gordon, American actress, (1896-1985), Kenny Clarke, American jazz drummer and bandleader (1914-1985), Marvin Miller, American actor (1913-1985), George O’Brien, American actor (1899-1985), Paul Kligman, Canadian actor (1923-1985), J. Pat O’Malley, English actor (1904-1985), Edward Andrews, American actor (1914-1985), Ricky Nelson, American actor and musician (1940-1985), Lloyd Nolan, American actor (1902-1985), Rock Hudson, American actor (1925-1985), George Savalas, American actor (1924-1985), Nelson Riddle, American bandleader (1921-1985), Yul Brynner, Russian actor (1920-1985), Orson Welles, American actor and director (1915-1985), Phil Silvers, American entertainer (1911-1985), Johnny Olson, American game show announcer (1910-1985), Ricky Wilson, American guitarist (1953-1985), Stepin Fetchit, American actor (1902), Anne Baxter, American actress (1923-1985), Ian Stewart, Scottish rock musician (1938-1985), and Big Joe Turner, American blues singer (1911-1985). Do you know anyone who died in 1985?
Disasters of 1985
There were a lot of airplane crashes in 1985. Iberia Airlines Flight 610 crashed, killing all 148 on board. Arrow Air Flight 1285R, a Douglas DC-8, crashed after takeoff from Gander, Newfoundland, killing 256 people, 248 of whom were USA servicemen. Air India Flight 182, a Boeing 747, was blown up by a terrorist bomb 31,000 feet above the Atlantic Ocean, south of Ireland, on a Montreal–London–Delhi flight, killing all 329 aboard. Aeroflot Flight 5143 crashed near Uchquduq, Uzbek SSR, Soviet Union, killing all 200 people on board. Delta Air Lines Flight 191 crashed near Dallas, Texas, killing 137 people. Japan Air Lines Flight 123 crashed in Japan, killing 520 people, the worst single-aircraft disaster in aviation history. British Airtours Flight 28M caught fire while on its takeoff roll at Manchester Airport in the UK with 55 people killed while trying to evacuate the aircraft. Bar Harbor Airlines Flight 1808 crashed in the USA, killing all 8 on board. Midwest Express Airlines Flight 105, a McDonnell Douglas DC-9, crashed just after takeoff from Milwaukee, killing all 31 on board. EgyptAir Flight 648 was hijacked by the Abu Nidal group and flown to Malta, where Egyptian commandos stormed the plane with 60 people killed. 1985 Aeroflot Antonov An-12 was shot-down, killing 8 crew members and 13 passengers on board. Abu Nidal terrorists opened fire in the airports of Rome and Vienna, leaving 18 dead and 120 injured. The Provisional IRA carried out a mortar attack on the Royal Ulster Constabulary police station at Newry in Northern Ireland with 9 officers dead, the highest loss of life for the RUC on a single day. A Beirut car bomb to assassinate Islamic cleric Sayyed Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah killed more than 80 people and injured 200 more. A terrorist bombing attributed to the Islamic Jihad Organization in the El Descanso restaurant near Madrid, Spain, mostly attended by U.S. personnel from the Torrejón Air Base, caused 18 deaths and 82 injuries. The Accomarca massacre took place in Ayacucho, Peru. An 8.0 earthquake hit Santiago and Valparaíso, Chile, leaving 177 dead, 2,575 injured, 142,489 houses destroyed, and approximately a million people homeless. An 8.0 earthquake struck Mexico City, killing about 10,000 people and injuring 30,000 more. Approximately 10,000 people were killed when Bangladesh was affected by the storm surge from Tropical Storm One. Forty-four tornadoes hit Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, and Ontario, including a rare and powerful F5. In total, the event killed 90 people. The Val di Stava dam collapsed in Italy, killing 268 people, destroying 63 buildings, and demolishing eight bridges. The Nevado del Ruiz volcano erupted, killing an estimated 23,000 people, including 21,000 killed by lahars, in the town of Armero, Colombia. The Finnish dry cargo ship MS Hanna-Marjut, on its way from Mariehamn to Naantali, sunk in the sea on the open water of Kihti between the Kökar and Sottunga islands of Åland, leading to the drowning of four people. 39 spectators were killed in rioting on the terraces during the European Cup final between Liverpool F.C. and Juventus at Heysel Stadium in Brussels, Belgium. A fire engulfed a wooden stand at the Valley Parade stadium in Bradford, England, during an Association football match, killing 56 people. What disaster do you remember from 1985?
Great events of 1985
Mikhail Gorbachev became the General Secretary of the Soviet Communist Party, and de facto leader of the Soviet Union. In Geneva, USA President Ronald Reagan and Soviet Union leader Mikhail Gorbachev met for the first time. The State President of South Africa, P. W. Botha, declared a state of emergency in 36 magisterial districts of South Africa amid growing civil unrest in black townships. However, South Africa ended its ban on interracial marriages. Pope John Paul II announced the institution of World Youth Day for Catholic young people. The Nobel Prize for Peace went to the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War. Mohamed Al-Fayed bought the London-based department store company Harrods. Coca-Cola changed its formula and released New Coke, but the response was overwhelmingly negative and the original formula was back on the market in less than three months. The Space Shuttle Atlantis made its maiden flight. New Hampshire teacher Christa McAuliffe was selected as the first person to go into space under the Teacher in Space Project, and designated to ride aboard the Space Shuttle Challenger. STS-51-G Space Shuttle Discovery completed its mission, but is best remembered for having Sultan bin Salman Al Saud, the first Arab and first Muslim in space, as a payload specialist. The iconic USA Route 66 was officially decommissioned. The Nintendo Entertainment System was released in North America. Microsoft Corporation had the first USA release of Windows 1.0. The Internet’s Domain Name System was created. Scientists of the British Antarctic Survey announced the discovery of the ozone hole. A total solar eclipse occurred over Antarctica. DNA was first used in a criminal case. William J. Schroeder became the first patient with an artificial heart to leave a hospital. Emirates Airlines was established in Dubai and made its first flight, to Karachi, Pakistan. What do you remember about 1985?
The Super Bowl XX game, January 26, 1986
The Chicago Bears had shutout their postseason opponents, the New York Giants, and the Los Angeles Rams. 45-0 combined. Unfortunately, the Patriots scored first on a field goal, after a Walter Payton fumble on the second play of the game. However, the Patriots never scored again until a touchdown in the fourth quarter. It was all Bears the rest of the day. The Bears struck back with a 7-play, 59-yard drive, featuring a 43-yard pass completion from Jim McMahon to wide receiver Willie Gault, to set up a field goal, tying the score 3–3. Then Dan Hampton recovered a fumble on the Patriots 13-yard line that led to another field goal, 6-3. On the next drive, Dent forced a fumble, recovered by linebacker Mike Singletary at the 13-yard line. Two plays later, Bears fullback Matt Suhey scored on an 11-yard touchdown run to increase the lead to 13–3. After New England failed to score, the Bears subsequently drove 59 yards in 10 plays, scoring on McMahon’s 2-yard touchdown run to increase their lead, 20–3. The Bears then marched 72 yards in 11 plays, moving the ball inside the Patriots 10-yard line. New England kept them out of the end zone, but Butler kicked his third field goal on the last play of the half to give Chicago a 23–3 halftime lead. The Bears had absolutely dominated New England in the first half, holding them to 21 offensive plays, only 4 with positive yardage, 19 total offensive yards, 2 pass completions, 1 first down, and 3 points. In the second half, McMahon faked a handoff to Payton, then threw a 60-yard completion to Willie Gault. Eight plays later, McMahon finished the Super Bowl record 96-yard drive with a 1-yard touchdown run to make the Bears lead 30–3. On New England’s second drive of the period, Chicago cornerback Reggie Phillips intercepted a pass from Steve Grogan and returned it 28 yards for a touchdown to increase the lead to 37–3. On the second play of their ensuing possession, the Patriots turned the ball over again. A few plays later, McMahon’s 27-yard completion to receiver Dennis Gentry moved the ball to the 1-yard line. William “the Refrigerator” Perry was brought on to score on offense, as he had done twice in the regular season. His touchdown made the score 44–3. I was mad that Walter Payton never got to score a Super Bowl touchdown. The Patriots finally scored a touchdown early in the fourth quarter. But the Bears defense dominated New England for the rest of the game, forcing another fumble, another interception, and defensive lineman Henry Waechter’s sack on Grogan in the end zone for a safety to make the final score 46–10, as the Bears won Super Bowl XX over the New England Patriots on that early January Sunday evening. McMahon, who completed 12 out of 20 passes for 256 yards, became the first quarterback in a Super Bowl to score 2 rushing touchdowns. Tony Eason became the first Super Bowl starting quarterback to fail to complete a pass, going 0 for 6 in pass attempts. The Bears also dominated the Patriots starting running back Craig James, holding him to 1 yard on 5 carries, with 1 fumble. This Super Bowl XX at the Louisiana Superdome set several more records. First, the Bears’ 46 points broke the previous record of 38. Their 36-point margin of victory also topped the 29-point margin of victory that the Raiders recorded over the Washington Redskins in Super Bowl XVIII. The game was almost perfect except for Payton not scoring. It should have been a shutout. Do you remember Super Bowl XX?
1985-1986 Super Bowl excitement
During the lead up to the Super Bowl, in January, 1986, the hype was unbelievable. I guess that I never realized how much excitement a sports team can bring to a city, town, or state. Everyday there were TV news reports about the various Bears on Bourbon Street in New Orleans. Quarterback Jim McMahon was always up to something. I remember that Super Bowl Sunday, January 26, 1986, like it was yesterday. I was working that day at Montgomery Wards like I did every Sunday. As I was in charge that day, I closed the store early at three o’clock in the afternoon. The game started at 4:20 PM. I had plenty of time to get there. I simply wrote on the doors, “Closed for the Super Bowl.” I just assumed that nobody in Chicago would be out shopping. In fact, one of my part-time workers, Bill Fitzpatrick, was at the game in the New Orleans Superdome. Then I drove to watch the Super Bowl game at a Super Bowl Party. Diane and Walt Seiler were having a party, while Margaret and Joy were already there. Diane Seiler was a fellow teacher with Margaret at St. Lawrence O’Toole School, so that Joy knew the family also. I think that Walt Seiler was an Ozinga concrete truck driver. It was real fun watching the game where everyone was a Bears fan. We did not have to prepare anything or clean up. Of course, the Bears won. As if we did not have enough excitement, winning changed everything. The Super Bowl Shuffle had come through. The Chicago Bears had a big but cold homecoming for everybody downtown the next day. There was happiness all around. This reminded me of the time I flew into Kennedy International Airport in 1969, when I wanted to attend the funeral of my brother, Johnny. I could not get over how happy everyone in New York City was because the New York Mets had just won the World Series. A winning sports team changes a town or city for a couple of days and then it all wears off. Reality sets in. Both the Cubs and the Bulls were to do the same much later in my life. Strangely enough, these Chicago Bears never got to see President Reagan at the White House, because that trip was cancelled due to the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster. However, a Chicago guy with a long memory, President Barack Obama, a Bears fan, invited the living 1986 Super Bowl champs to the White House in 2011. What part does sports play in your life?
“The Super Bowl Shuffle”
In December, 1985, the Chicago Bears football team performed, danced, sung, and released “The Super Bowl Shuffle” video seven weeks ahead of their only Super Bowl victory in early 1986. This video song peaked at number 41 on the US Billboard Hot 100 in February 1986. It also earned a Grammy nomination for Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals in 1987. “The Super Bowl Shuffle” instantly became a minor hit, but an especially big hit in Chicago, selling over 500,000 copies. Everyone in the Chicago area was singing this “Super Bowl Shuffle” song. I know that we bought a copy of the video and played it all the time. Over $300,000 in profits from the song and music video were donated to the Chicago Community Trust to help Chicago families in need with clothing, shelter, and food. This was consistent with Walter Payton’s lyric in the song: “ow we’re not doing this because we’re greedy / The Bears are doing it to feed the needy.” This video was taped at the Park West Theater, a Chicago night club, the morning after the Bears’ only loss of the 1985 season to the Miami Dolphins on Monday Night Football on December 2, 1985. Jim McMahon and Walter Payton refused to participate in the video shoot, thinking it would be better to release the song and video after the season was complete. However, the team was insistent on releasing the song and video shortly after the shoot. Thus, the video was filmed as the remaining players Payton and McMahon both filmed their segments separately a week later at the Bears’ practice facility, so that these segments were interspersed in the video prior to release. However, Dan Hampton refused to participate because of the song’s arrogance. The success of “The Super Bowl Shuffle” initiated numerous imitations from numerous teams across the league. There were individual verses from Walter Payton (Well, they call me Sweetness), Willie Gault (This is Speedy Willie), Mike Singletary (I’m Samurai Mike), Jim McMahon (I’m the punky QB), Otis Wilson (I’m mama’s boy Otis), Steve Fuller (If Jimmy can’t do it, I sure can), Mike Richardson (I’m L.A. Mike), Richard Dent (The sackman’s comin’), Gary Fencik (It’s Gary here, and I’m Mr. Clean), and William Perry (You’re lookin’ at the Fridge). They were dressed in their Bear uniforms as they all danced and sang the chorus:
“We are the Bears Shufflin’ Crew
Shufflin’ on down, doin’ it for you.
We’re so bad we know we’re good.
Blowin’ your mind like we knew we would.
You know we’re just struttin’ for fun
Struttin’ our stuff for everyone.
We’re not here to start no trouble.
We’re just here to do the Super Bowl Shuffle.”
This song was everywhere in Chicago, including the great victory at Super Bowl XX on January 26, 1986. Do you remember the “Super Bowl Shuffle?”
The 1985 Chicago Bears
The 1985 season was the Chicago Bears’ 66th in the NFL, and their fourth under head coach Mike Ditka. The Bears entered 1985 looking to improve on their 10–6 record from 1984, and advance further than the NFC Championship Game, where they had lost to the San Francisco 49ers. The Chicago Bears did improve on that record. They put together what would be considered by many football historians as one of the greatest seasons in NFL history. The Bears won their first twelve games of the season before losing to the Miami Dolphins on Monday Night Football in December. The loss to the Dolphins would be the only loss that the Bears would suffer that season, as they finished with a 15–1 record. This matched the 49ers’ mark from the year before, as they tied the then-record for most wins in a regular season. The Chicago Bears won the NFC Central Division by seven games over the second-place Green Bay Packers. Thus, they earned the NFC’s top seed and home-field advantage throughout the playoffs at Soldier Field. In their two playoff games against the New York Giants and the Los Angeles Rams, the Bears outscored their opponents 45–0 and became the first team to record back-to-back playoff shutouts. This was the Bears’ first NFL Championship title since 1963. The 1985 Chicago Bears were one of the few teams to consistently challenge the undefeated 1972 Miami Dolphins for the title of the greatest NFL team of all time. The Bears’ famous 46 defense under defensive coach Buddy Ryan was ranked first in the league, since they only allowed 198 total points. They led the league in least yards allowed (4,135), and takeaways (54). The Chicago Bears’ hopes for a perfect season were dashed when Dan Marino and the Dolphins defeated the Bears on Monday Night Football, 38–24, so that the ’72 Dolphins have been the only undefeated regular season team in league history. The day after this loss, the Bears filmed the video for “The Super Bowl Shuffle.” During that 1985 season, the Bears defeated all their four NFC division rivals twice, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, the Minnesota Vikings, the Green Bay Packers, and the Detroit Lions. Plus, they beat the New England Patriots, the Washington Redskins, the San Francisco 49ers, the Dallas Cowboys, the Atlanta Falcons, the Indianapolis Colts, and the New York Jets. The real disappointment was that one stupid loss in Miami on Monday Night Football. This was a team of characters led by a great character himself, Mike Ditka. George Halas had named Ditka the head coach before he died in 1983. I really liked this team. The biggest frustration was that after this year, they never established a dynasty for the next forty years. They were good for one year only, a one hit wonder. However, seven players from this team were elected into the NFL Hall of Fame: Walter Payton, Mike Singletary, Dan Hampton, Jim Covert, Mike Ditka, Richard Dent, and Steve McMichael. Four others became NFL head coaches: Ron Rivera, Mike Singletary, Lelie Frazier, and Jeff Fisher. Were the 85 Chicago Bears the best NFL team ever?
Mark Twain (1835-1910)
Samuel Langhorne Clemens, known by the pen name Mark Twain, was an American writer, humorist, and essayist. He was praised as the “greatest humorist the USA has produced.” William Faulkner called him “The father of American literature.” The novelist Ernest Hemingway claimed that “All modern American literature comes from one book by Mark Twain called Huckleberry Finn.” Twain was raised in Hannibal, Missouri, which later provided the settings for both Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. He served an apprenticeship with a printer early in his career. Then he worked as a typesetter, contributing articles to his older brother Orion Clemens’ newspaper. His father, John Marshall Clemens (1798–1847), was a lawyer from Virginia. When Twain was 18, he left Hannibal and worked as a printer in New York City, Philadelphia, St. Louis, and Cincinnati, joining the newly formed International Typographical Union. Twain educated himself in public libraries in the evenings, finding wider information than at a conventional school. Twain studied the Mississippi River, learning its landmarks, how to navigate its currents effectively, and how to read the river and its constantly shifting channels, reefs, submerged snags, and rocks that would tear the life out of the strongest vessel that ever floated. It was more than two years before he received his pilot’s license. Piloting also gave Twain his pen name from “mark twain,” the leadsman’s cry for a measured river depth of 12 feet, which was safe water for a steamboat. Mark Twain then became a riverboat pilot on the Mississippi River, which provided him the material for Life on the Mississippi in 1883. Twain continued to work on the river and was a river pilot until the Civil War broke out in 1861, when traffic was curtailed along the Mississippi River. Twain’s first success as a writer came when his humorous tall tale “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County” was published on November 18, 1865, in the New York weekly The Saturday Press, bringing him national attention. Twain wrote many of his classic novels during his seventeen years in Hartford, Connecticut (1874–1891). Twain’s novels include The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876), The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884), A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court (1889), and Muttonhead Wilson (1894). His wit and satire, both in prose and in speech, earned praise from critics and peers. Mark Twain was a friend to presidents, artists, industrialists, and European royalty. Mark Twain also published a satirical pamphlet, “King Leopold’s Soliloquy” in 1905 about Belgian atrocities in the Congo Free State. Mark Twain earned a great deal of money from his writing and lectures, but invested in ventures that lost most of it. Mark Twain was fascinated with science and scientific inquiry. In 1909, Thomas Edison visited Twain at his home in Redding, Connecticut, and filmed him. Part of the footage was used in The Prince and the Pauper (1909), a two-reel short film, the only known existing film footage of Mark Twain. In his later years, Twain lived at 14 West 10th Street in Manhattan. What do you know about Mark Twain?
Hannibal Missouri
Sometime in 1985, we traveled along the Mississippi River to Hannibal, Missouri, with a current population of 17,108, the largest city in Marion County. Commerce and traffic has long been an integral part of Hannibal’s development, about 110 miles northwest of St. Louis, and 100 miles west of Springfield, Illinois, across the river from East Hannibal, Illinois. The next city upriver is Quincy, Illinois, 17 miles to the north. This river community was the mid-19th-century boyhood home of the author Samuel Langhorne Clemens, better known as Mark Twain (1835–1910). Mark Twain drew from his childhood settings for his novels The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876) and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884). Numerous historical sites are associated with Mark Twain and the places depicted in his fiction work from his Hannibal home. Hannibal was laid out in 1819 by Moses Bates and named after Hannibal Creek, a hero of ancient Carthage. By 1846, Hannibal was Missouri’s third-largest city when the Hannibal and St. Joseph Railroad was organized by John M. Clemens, Mark Twain’s father and his associates. This railway was built to connect St. Joseph, Missouri, the state’s second-largest city. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the city served as a regional marketing center for livestock and grain, as well as as cement and shoes. The Mark Twain Memorial Lighthouse was constructed in 1933 as a public works project under President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Today, tourism is a major part of Hannibal’s economy. The Mark Twain Boyhood Home & Museum and Mark Twain Cave are two of the city’s major attractions. I have five postcards from Hannibal. One was about the Mark Twain Cave system that I did not know much about. Two others were about the entrance to the caves and one from inside the caves. Then there was one postcard with Tom Sawyer’s house with the famous white painted picket fence. The other postcard was from inside Becky Thatcher’s house. Joy was intrigued about Becky and her clothes. Margaret liked the caves, and I was interested in the Tom Sawyer white fence. However, there was very little about Huckleberry Finn. Have you ever been to Hannibal?
My Inheritance
My mother had made a will, her Last Will and Testament, on September 19, 1972, at the law offices of Elmer Brown, in Carteret, New Jersey, after my father had died that year. There was nothing complicated about it. She left her beloved step-son, Gerald Mingin $2,000. The rest of the estate was to go to her beloved son, Eugene Finnegan, me. I was also appointed Executor of this will. My mother did not own any property, since she never drove a car during her life. All she had was in her #1008 apartment at Thornwood House. However, she did have a savings account with about $20,000 in a bank right next to Thornwood House. She would bring her monthly Social Security check there to cash it. Jerry and I agreed that it should be put aside as a college savings for Joy, which we did. He then left for home in New Jersey. I was still getting a $100.00 mortgage check every month from Raymond and Joyce Skokowski, who had bought her house in Carteret, NJ, from her. Within the next few days, we went over to her Thornwood House studio apartment to clean it out. Joy knew where my mother kept all her money, in the McQuaid pipe tobacco can. That is where she kept money, when I was a little kid, also. We always had cash on hand in the pipe tobacco can. She never smoked, but my father always had a pipe in his mouth. Besides the money in the tin can, we found all kinds of cash in the apartment, in her dresses and clothes. She always believed in cash, and never had a checking account or credit card. For her, cash was king. We took care of the funeral home. We got the bill on September 6, 1985 and paid it on October 29, 1985, for a grand total of $2977.00 from Hirsch & Spindler-Koelling Funeral Home. The biggest expense was the 19-gauge steel casket at $1144.00. However, I do not have the expenses for the cemetery. My parents did not leave me a huge financial inheritance, but they were kind and loving. There is no greater inheritance that a kind wonderful life well lived. What did you inherit from your parents?
Gene Finnegan Remembers Living Eighty Wonderful Years 