A couple of obituaries to note:
Singer/songwriter Jimmy Buffett, known best for his 1977 hit, "Margaritaville," which was played to death then and forever, has died at the age of 76. According to the Daily Mail, Buffett had been battling cancer for several years. First he reportedly had skin cancer, and then it ended up being lymphoma.
Born James William Buffett on Christmas Day 1946 in Pascagoula, MS, and raised in Mobile, Alabama, the singer was one of three children born to James Delaney Buffett Jr. and Mary Loraine (Peets), who both worked for the Alabama Drydock and Shipbuilding company. He grew up listening to his grandfather steamship captain J.D. Buffett’s tales of high seas adventure, to whom he paid homage in “Son of a Son of a Sailor.” The latter features the memorable, salt-caked lines, “I’m just a son of a son, son of a son/ Son of a son of a sailor/ The sea’s in my veins, my tradition remains/ I’m just glad I don’t live in a trailer.”
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Former New Mexico governor and one-time presidential candidate Bill Richardson, 75, has died. He died in his sleep at his summer home in Massachusetts. He was governor from 2003 to 2011. In 2008, he ran for president. I got to meet him a couple of times, with one of those times appearing at the same event as little-known then and forever little-known Joe Biden. This was a picture I got of Governor Richardson when I was there at the University of Nevada, Reno:
I got him to autograph a brochure for me. In fact, I have autographs of all of the Democratic Party and most of the GOP candidates that year with the exception of Mike Gravel. I have to say that with Biden's autograph, I purchased it later on for about $50 on eBay. The rest I received in person including November candidates Barack Obama and John McCain.
Enough of that. From a Richardson obituary from CNN, and I apologize for the paragraph break being screwed up:
He was first elected to the US House in 1983, representing New Mexico’s Third District. Richardson later served as US ambassador to the United Nations and secretary of energy before being elected governor of New Mexico in 2002. He served two terms before leaving office in 2011.
After an unsuccessful bid for the presidency in 2008, Richardson launched the Richardson Center for Global Engagement, a non profit promoting international peace, in 2011.
Richardson and his namesake center had privately worked on behalf of families of hostages and detainees abroad. He traveled to Moscow last year and held meetings with Russian leadership to discuss the release of basketball star Brittney Griner and former US Marine Paul Whelan.
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