Sample Obituaries
Ceija Stojka
Ceija Stojka survived three Nazi death camps and then found her life's work: Raising awareness of the Nazis'
persecution of Roma — also known as Gypsies — in her art and her writings.
Stojka carried the horrors of those camps with her until she was in her 50s, speaking out in words and pictures only
decades after she was liberated from the Bergen-Belsen camp at age 12.
Her death Monday at age 79 in a Vienna hospital was announced by her publisher. The Budapest-based European
Roma Cultural Foundation described Stokja's concentration-camp themed paintings to The Associated Press on
Wednesday as reflecting "entrenched sorrow in the bodies and spirit of the victims."
Austrian Education and Culture Minister Claudia Schmied lauded Stojka's work in exposing Roma suffering under the
Nazis, saying her advocacy gave rise to "hope that the oath 'Never Again!' is and will remain more than a historic
promise."
Her family's persecution under the Nazis began in 1941 and ended four years later with Stojka's liberation from the
Bergen-Belsen camp in Germany. While her mother and four siblings also survived, Stojka's father and brother were
killed in Auschwitz, two of the more than 1 million Roma estimated to have been killed under Hitler. In all, nearly 200
members of her extended family perished under the Nazis.
Stojka kept those experiences to herself for decades at a time most Austrians embraced the popular notion that they
and their nation were victims of Hitler instead of his willing accomplices.
"If I could write down all my thoughts, they would surely be an endless book of suffering," she told an interviewer
before embarking on her 1988 autobiography "We Live in Seclusion." ''But my thoughts race more quickly than my
hands are able to put everything to paper."
Born in Austria to a nomadic family of horse traders, Stojka returned after the end of the Nazi era and made a living
selling carpets. She started speaking out in the 1980s, as Austrian awareness of the country's complicity in Nazi
crimes grew. And she started painting — dark somber pictures depicting the death camps that alternated with joyful
images of pre-war life on the road in her family's horse-drawn wagon.
Despite those happier images, she never forgot the horrors of the Nazi era — and implored audiences not to let
history repeat itself.
"How is it possible at the beginning of the new century that the Roma population ... is still humiliated and maltreated
— and sometimes killed as it happened in Hungary — for the only reason of being Roma?" she asked a gathering of
Hungarian university and high-school students three years ago after a spate of Roma hate killings there.
"Let my grandchildren live," she declared.
Houdini
On October 22 of 1926, the legendary performer, whose real name was Ehrich Weiss, had a show scheduled at the
Princess Theater in Montreal. Later, in his dressing room, a McGill University student, J. Gordon Whitehead
(whatever happened to him?), who was reputed to be a school boxing star, asked Houdini if it were true that he could
take any punch to the abdomen. Houdini was sitting on the couch half-listening, and mumbled a yes. As he stood up,
Whitehead hammered 3 punches into his belly before Houdini was able to prepare for the blow.
That evening and the next he continued his performances with much discomfort. He then endured a 1000-mile train
ride for a 2-week engagement in Detroit, to perform at the Garrick Theater. The pain failed to subside, so he wired
ahead for his manager to have a doctor waiting at the theater to examine him. Through sheer willpower, he
persevered (with a 104-degree temperature) until his final act. When the curtain fell, he collapsed. He was rushed to
the nearby Grace Hospital, and diagnosed with a ruptured appendix. An operation was performed, but peritonitis set
in. He had one more operation, but again failed to respond. His last words were, "I am weaker. I guess I have lost the
fight."
On Sunday October 31st, Halloween day, at 1:26pm, Houdini died in room 401, Corridor D, in the old John R. Wing
of Grace Hospital (See it then and now). He was 52 years old.
Apparently, according to fad friend Karen Hunt, Grace Hospital was quite historic, built, I think, during the Civil War,
was torn down in the 1970's. The "now" photo of the building is a completely different building than the one in which
Houdini died.
His body was taken to the funeral home of W.R. Hamilton and Co., 3975 Cass Avenue. No one had been permitted
to view the body.
He lay in a great cumbersome coffin that he had built just 4 weeks earlier, specifically to use in his stage
presentation. It was for a trick. It was a dull bronze with a full-length glass top. It had been lined with silk, during the
last day in Detroit. By a coincidence, the coffin, which he specified in his will should be used for his burial, was left in
Detroit when the large amount of paraphernalia used in the show was shipped to New York. Through an oversight,
the coffin was left in a warehouse of the Detroit Transfer Company, and not discovered until sometime after the other
articles had been shipped.
A special Pullman car had been added to a train called the "Detroiter", to take him from Michigan Central Station
Monday night. A truck rumbled toward the baggage coach on which was a long box. Mrs. Houdini arrived in a
wheelchair, in shock since her husband's death. The private car carrying the Houdini party in addition to Mrs. Houdini
included the magicians two brothers, Theodore Hardeen and Nathan J. Weiss, Miss Julia Sawyer, a niece, Miss Julia
Karchere, a cousin of Mrs. Houdini, H. Elliot Stuckel, Houdini's manager, James Collins, a confidential, technical
director and a nurse.
He was buried in Machpalah Cemetery, just inside the front gate, next to his mother who had died in 1913.
Paul Walker
Paul Walker, star of The Fast and the Furious movie franchise, has passed away at the age of 40.
Walker was born in Glendale, California on September 12, 1973 to sewer contractor Paul William Walker III and
fashion model Cheryl and was brought up in a working class Mormon household.
The eldest of five children, Walker began a modeling career at the young age of 2, appearing in a commercial for
Pampers. Encouraged by his mother, he auditioned for television acting roles and went on to make guest
appearances in Highway to Heaven and Touched by an Angel. In 1992, Walker bagged a recurring role as teenager
Brandon Collins in US soap The Young and the Restless.
Walker's talents were transferred to the big screen in 1998, when he made his feature film debut as Phil Deedle in
Disney comedy Meet the Deedles. Following the movie's success, Walker secured supporting roles in teen films
including Varsity Blues, She's All That, and The Skulls.
Walker's most notable role came in 2001, in the form of LAPD officer Brian O'Conner in The Fast and the Furious,
opposite Vin Diesel. Propelling the actor into the spotlight, Walker went on to reprise his role, this time as the lead
character, for 2003 sequel 2 Fast 2 Furious. After taking a break from the franchise, he returned for fourth movie
Fast & Furious in 2009, 2011's Fast Five and this year's Fast & Furious 6. Prior to his death, Walker had been filming
the seventh installment of the series, which is due for release in 2014.
Having established himself as a Hollywood leading man, Walker's other notable roles included 2005 action film Into
the Blue opposite Jessica Alba, Disney adventure Eight Below and crime thriller Takers, alongside Idris Elba, Hayden
Christensen and Zoe Saldana.
Walker dedicated much of his time to charity work, flying out to Chile to help bring aid after an earthquake in 2010,
and supporting the earthquake victims in Haiti the same year. The trips inspired Walker to set up Reach Out
WorldWide, a non-profit organization with the aim of providing skilled professional aid in the wake of natural
disasters. The charity has since helped with the relief effort for the Indonesian tsunami in 2010, the 2011 Alabama
tornado, the Oklahoma tornado earlier this year, and most recently, the devastation caused by Typhoon Haiyan.
Walker had been attending a fundraiser for Reach Out WorldWide when he was involved in a fatal car accident in
Santa Clarita, California yesterday (November 30). The actor was the passenger in a Porsche when it collided with a
telegraph pole. Both the actor and the driver were pronounced dead at the scene.
Fast and Furious producers at Universal Pictures said: "All of us at Universal are heartbroken.”
"Paul was truly one of the most beloved and respected members of our studio family for 14 years, and this loss is
devastating to us, to everyone involved with the Fast and Furious films, and to countless fans.”
"We send our deepest and most sincere condolences to Paul's family."