In Memoriam: Daniel Grayling Fogelberg, 1951-2007

Damn it all to frigging hell. Dan Fogelberg has died in his Maine home of prostate cancer at 56, at 6 AM Eastern yesterday. (Same age my mother was when a different, much rarer form of cancer took her.)

One of my all-time favorite songwriters, and I didn't even know he was sick. This is the man who gave us "Leader of the Band," "Same Auld Lang Syne," "Longer," "Run for the Roses," and a whole string of other hits back in the 1970s and '80s.

What's your fave Fogelberg number? Seen him in concert, met him in person? Post your memories here. I never got to do either, and now it looks as if I never will. I so did not need this news on top of a morning already fraught with technical headaches at work.

On a cheerier note...

Belated birthday greetings to mshollie (my first truly serious girlfriend, and now a rediscovered old and dear friend) and mseuphrates! Wasn't online at all yesterday, partly due to self-enforced rest to shake the bronchitis and partly due to TNT's broadcasting of The Whole Entire Damn Peter Jackson Lord of the Rings Trilogy all in one afternoon and evening, back-to-back-to-back.

Those we have lost this year

Going back over my "In Memoriam" LJ posts for the year now almost concluded, I tally the following tragic losses:

01/09 David John Alway, 1950-2007 - filk music fan, performer and composer
01/18 Arthur Joseph Buchwald, 1925-2007 - commentator, humorist and author
01/31 Mary Tyler "Molly" Ivins, 1944-2007 - commentator, humorist and author

02/08 Vickie Lynn Hogan Marshall Stern (AKA Anna Nicole Smith), 1968-2007 - actress and model

04/09 John Lewis "Johnny" Hart, 1931-2007 - cartoonist
04/12 Kurt Vonnegut Jr., 1922-2007 - author
04/13 Roscoe Lee Browne, 1925-2007 - actor
04/26 Robert George Pickett (AKA Bobby "Boris" Pickett), 1938-2007 - singer/songwriter

05/03 Walter Marty Schirra, Jr., 1923-2007 - astronaut
05/15 Jerome Lamon Falwell, D.D., 1933-2007 - television evangelist and political activist

06/24 Christopher Michael Benoit, 1967-2007 - professional wrestler

07/15 Douglas N. Marlette, 1949-2007 - cartoonist
07/31 Thomas Martin Snyder, 1936-2007 - television host and journalist

08/12 Mervyn Edward Griffin, Jr., 1925–2007 - television host and producer

09/06 Luciano Alberto Pavarotti, 1935-2007 - opera tenor
09/07 Madeleine L'Engle Camp, 1918-2007 - author
09/22 Alice June Ghostley, 1926-2007 - actress

10/01 Lois Hooker Maxwell, 1927-2007 - actress
10/18 Joseph Abraham Gottlieb (AKA Joey Bishop), 1918-2007 - television host and comedian
10/29 Porter Wayne Wagoner, 1927-2007 - singer/songwriter
10/30 Robert Gerard Goulet, 1933-2007 - singer and actor

11/12 Norman Kingsley Mailer, 1923– 2007 - commentator, playwright and author
11/27 James Robert Cade, MD, Ph.D., 1927-2007 - scientist and inventor
11/30 Robert Craig "Evel" Knievel, Jr., 1938-2007 - daredevil motorcyclist

12/17 Daniel Grayling Fogelberg, 1951-2007 - singer/songwriter
12/18 William A. Strauss, theater director, musical parodist, lecturer, philanthropist and historian

Did I miss anyone?
UPDATE, 12/20, 10:38a: It seems I did miss a few, besides the ones my readers posted in response: Charles Nelson Reilly and Brett Somers (two former regular panelists of the original Match Game TV game show, now being rerun on GSN), Tammy Faye Bakker Messner, Ingmar Bergman and Deborah Kerr. Mea maxima culpa.

Travel itinerary for me and the Songbird over the next two weeks

The lady who puts up with me lights up my life, singing_phoenix, is coming in Thursday afternoon. Her teeth have been acting up again lately, so we are likely going to have to take some of the precious time she is Stateside in visiting a specialist.
UPDATE: See this entry, Wednesday 12/19 for revised itinerary.