Anna Jarvis Biography

Anna Jarvis was the name of two women, mother and daughter.

Anna Maria Reeves Jarvis (September 30, 1832 - May 9, 1905) was born in Culpeper, Virginia. Jarvis worked around what is now West Virginia to promote worker health and safety concerns. During the American Civil War she organized women to tend to the needs of the wounded of both sides. After the war she became active in the promotion of Mother's Day, a holiday at that time involved with the causes of pacifism and social activism. She organized meetings of mothers of soldiers of both sides of the late war.

Her daughter Anna Marie Jarvis (May 1, 1864 - November 24, 1948) was born in Webster, Taylor County, West Virginia. Her family moved to Grafton, West Virginia in her childhood. A year after her mother's death she held a memorial to her mother on May 12, 1907, and then went on a quest to make Mother's Day a recognized holiday. She succeeded in making this nationally recognized in 1914. Later in life she fought against commercialization of the holiday, with less success.

Anna Maire Jarvis died in West Chester, Pennsylvania, recognized as the mother of the Mother's Day holiday in the United States of America.

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Guitarist Leo Jackson dead at 74

Longtime guitarist George "Leo" Jackson died Sunday 4th May 2008 in his Goodlettsville home from an apparent suicide, according to police and family members.

Jackson, 73, was best known for playing with musician Jim Reeves and other artists such as Alabama and Hank Williams Jr.

Family members say Jackson "wasn't in his right mind" when he pulled the trigger and shot himself in bed Sunday afternoon. He had undergone minor surgery last week, but had only taken his prescription of Mepergan, a potent pain medicine, after longtime back problems flared up Sunday, according to family members.

"On top of the operation, I guess it was just too much for him," said Jackson's son, Leo, 42.

Jackson's family fears the medication affected his mental state.

Jackson began to act irrationally, he said, and made comments that he would rather die than live with his pain. His son was called to remove weapons from the house, but he got there too late. He found his father fatally wounded in bed.

"That's a picture I'll never get out of my mind," he said.

Funeral arrangements have not yet been made.

"He led a good life," Leo Jackson said. "He would do anything for anybody. He never would have done this to himself."

Those who knew Jackson said the loss would be hard-felt in the music industry.

"He had such a wonderful personality and he was such a wonderful commercial guitar player," said Harold Bradley, president of The Nashville Association of Musicians, Local 257, of which Jackson was a member. "It happened so suddenly. It's extremely sad. He had a marvelous career and it's not the way we want people's careers to end."

An elegant stylist known for his clean, nimble guitar lines, Jackson joined Reeves' band as a teenager, first appearing on the Louisiana Hayride with him and, later, on the Grand Ole Opry.

Besides his work on guitar, which was integral to "Gentleman Jim's" country-pop sound, Jackson contributed harmony vocals to hits such as "Mexican Joe," the 1953 novelty that became Reeves' first number country single.

Larry Jordan, a biographer for Jim Reeves who spent time interviewing Jackson, said Jackson was never the kind of man who would take his own life.

"He was too conscientious about his own state of health and worried about himself to the point that you couldn't think he'd turn around and inflict grievous injury on himself," Jordan said.

He remembered Jackson as introverted on stage, but enthusiastic and charismatic in more personal settings.

"With the camera focused on Leo he would turn three shades of red - he was such a shy person," Jordan said. "But if you asked Leo a question, you better be prepared for the answer because he would not sugar coat anything. He called a spade a spade."

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Charlton Heston Biography (1924–2008)

Academy Award-winning actor Charlton Heston died Saturday night (April 5, 2008) at his home in Beverly Hills with his wife Lydia was at his side.

The cause of death was not released, but Heston said in 2002 that he had symptoms consistent with Alzheimer's disease.

Heston was born John Charles Carter (Heston was his stepfather's name) on October 4, 1923, in Evanston, Illinois.

He made his film debut in an amateur production of Peer Gynt (1941) and, after air force war service and further theatre experience, his Broadway debut in Antony and Cleopatra (1947).

With his deep voice and noble physique, Heston portrayed historic or heroic roles in several epics.

He parted the Red Sea as Moses in The Ten Commandments (1956) and won an unforgettable chariot race in Ben Hur (1959), which won 11 Oscars, including best actor for Heston.

He also played an 11th-century Spanish warrior in El Cid (1961), British Gen. Charles "Chinese" Gordon fighting an Islamic warrior priest in Khartoum (1966) and an astronaut held captive by a society of intelligent gorilla rulers in Planet of the Apes (1968).

He displayed his potential as a character actor, playing a Mexican narcotics officer in the thriller Touch of Evil (1958), an 11th-century Norman authority figure in The War Lord (1965), and as an aging, illiterate cowboy in Will Penny (1967).

Frequently returning to the stage, he also directed for film and television, including Antony and Cleopatra (1972, film), and A Man for All Seasons (1988, television). Later film appearances include The Awakening (1980), as the boss of spy Arnold Schwarzenegger in True Lies (1994) and Any Given Sunday (1999).

Heston also was president of the Screen Actors Guild (1965-71), helped create the American Film Institute and actively supported the National Endowment for the Arts.

A champion of civil rights (he participated in Dr. Martin Luther King's 1963 civil rights march in Washington, D.C.), Heston also served as president of the U.S. National Rifle Association (1998-2003).

Heston revealed in 2002 that he had symptoms consistent with Alzheimer's disease, saying, "I must reconcile courage and surrender in equal measure."

In 2003, President George W. Bush awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor, for his accomplishments in movies and politics. He was also awarded by the American Film Institute to honor acting talent.

Heston married Lydia Marie Clarke in 1944. They have a son, director Fraser Clarke Heston and an adopted daughter, Holly Ann Heston.