Some background:
On Feb. 8, 1963, a young, socially prominent tobacco farmer from southern Maryland named William Devereux Zantzinger was drunk at a charity ball at Baltimore's old Emerson Hotel. Carrying a cheap toy cane and dressed in a top hat at the Spinsters Ball, he began the evening in a spirit of jest by imitating Fred Astaire.
As he continued to drink throughout the night, Zantzinger, who was a husky 6 feet 1, became more threatening in his demeanor. He assaulted a bellhop with his cane and, according to news accounts at the time, shouted at a waitress, "Hey, black girl, bring me a drink." He fell down on his wife while dancing with her. Then he went back to the bar and demanded a drink from Hattie Carroll, a 51-year-old black barmaid with 11 children and a history of heart problems. "Just a minute, sir," she said, which angered Zantzinger. It was not how the white man was used to being treated on his 630-acre farm.
He thrust a racial profanity at Carroll and struck her with his cane. She served him his bourbon and then stepped away. Hours later, she collapsed and died of a stroke, and William Devereux Zantzinger, at 24, was charged with homicide. Because of several inconclusive factors, including Carroll's already poor health, the charge was reduced to manslaughter.
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One of the top sportswriters in the country, horse racing writer Joe Hirsch, has died at the age of 80. He wrote for many years for the Daily Racing Form and was one of my favorite turf writers.
Details:
The Form reported Hirsch, who fell and broke a hip at his midtown Manhattan apartment last spring, had been living in a long-term care facility before being transferred to St. Luke's earlier in the week. He had suffered for many years from Parkinson's disease. Funeral arrangements were not immediately available.
Because he suffered from Parkinson's Hirsch retired in 2003.
He will be missed.
The Blood-Horse's Steve Haskin remembers Hirsch:
As Joe grew older his driving became infamous. During the Oaklawn Park meeting one year, he totaled the car he was driving after falling asleep at the wheel and meeting a tree head-on. A few months later, at a Daily Racing Form dinner in Louisville, one of the wives mentioned to Joe she had heard what happened in Arkansas. Joe responded, “Yes, it’s quite a feeling waking up with an air bag in your face.”
On another occasion in Miami, Joe went to pick up George Bernet at his hotel before dinner. Not seeing the round grassy island in front of the hotel, Joe, instead of driving around it, drove right on top of it with a thud. He looked out his window, saw where he was, and commented, “Oh, turf course.”
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Just months after his twin brother, Jim Hager, died, Jon Hager has passed away at the age of 67. He had been in declining health for quite some time.
He and his late brother were fixtures on the television program Hee Haw as a musical comedy team. Jon had a hard time after Jim died last May.
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