Dolly Parton carefully crafted her signature look. Her over-the-top glamor was based on the women she thought were beautiful. Despite young Dolly’s admiration for them, they were known by the rest of the population of Pittman Center, Tennessee as the town tramps. Nevertheless, Dolly was determined to look “beautiful” and they were Dolly’s vision of beauty. She often joked that it cost a lot of money to look this cheap. Dolly was once asked how long it took to do her hair. She answered, “How should I know? I’m never there.” When further question about how many wigs she owned, she replied, “At least 365.”

Dolly knew who she was. Her self-deprecating humor was part of her charm… and charming she was. She was also funny and sweet and talented and charitable and determined — and she was successful at all of those qualities.

Dolly passed away in August 2026 at the age of 80. There will never be another like her.

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C.C.A. Baldi was the embodiment of the “Great American Dream.”

Born in Salernoo, Italy, young Charles Baldi dreamed of going to America. As a teen, he helped his nighbors write letters to relative that had already immigrated to the “New World.” He dreamed of living in America and taking advantage of all the opportunities American had to offer. At 14, that dream became a reality, when he, his father and younger brother arrived in Philadelphia — their new home.

Starting with a humble fruit pushcart, C.C.A. Baldi — his new American moniker — cornered the wholesale and retail market for lemons. He quickly parlayed his profits, using them to secure job contracts with railroads and getting employment for his fellow Italian immigrants. Ever the entrepreneur, Baldi opened a bank at which Italian immigrants could save money and send funds back to Italy. He published an Italian language newspaper. He and his brothers established the C.C.A. Baldi & Brothers, Inc., an anthracite coal supply business.

There was no stopping Baldi and his business ventures. He opened an insurance company, a real estate business, a charity, an Italian interpreter service, even a funeral home. His interest in local Philadelphia politics landed him an appointment to the Philadelphia Board of Education, the very first immigrant to be so named. He served on the board until his death in 1930.  In 1974, Philadelphia honored Baldi by naming a new middle school after him. (I attended Baldi Middle School for eighth grade.)

Baldi was the father of five sons and two daughters. Several of his children entered Pennsylvania politics. Chuck Douglas wrote a book about his great-grandfather’s illustrious life. Baldi’s great-granddaughter, Taylor Swift, is arguably the biggest pop star in the world.

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Hal Smith started off as a DJ in upstate New York. He soon was tapped to be “The Pancake Man” on a morning kids’ show on local Los Angeles television sponsored by International House of Pancakes. Dressed in a classic chef’s uniform, she showed cartoons and told jokes to the amusement of his juvenile audience. He began taking small roles in sitcoms and dramas in the early days of TV. He guested on The Donna Reed Show, Perry Mason, Dennis the Menace, I Married Joan and many others. In 1960, he landed his most recognizable role, that of Mayberry town drunk “Otis Campbell” on The Andy Griffith Show. He appeared in 32 episodes of the folksy comedy until network executives — guided by censors — decided that humor at the expense of an alcoholic was really funny. In the 1986 Andy Griffith Show reunion movie, Hal’s character had sobered up and operated town’s ice cream truck.

In addition to being a prolific character actor, with roles in dozens and dozens of TV series and commercials, Hal was an in-demand voice actor. He provided vocal services for all of the major cartoon studios, including a variety of characters for Hanna-Barbera on The Flintstones, Huckleberry Hound, Quick Draw McGraw and many others, as well as served as the long-time voice of “Owl” in a number of Winnie the Pooh cartoons for Disney. He even voiced Pooh himself after the death of Sterling Holloway until Jim Cummings was hired as a permanent replacement. In a similar situation, Hal took over as the voice of “Goofy” after original actor Pinto Colvig passed away. In the late 80s, he returned to Disney to provide voices on the Duck Tales series.

One of Hal’s more unusual and out-of-character roles was that of “Mother Goose” in a 1976 partly-animated, soft-core pornographic film called Once Upon a Girl. He worked on this at the same time he was giving voice to a number of Saturday morning cartoon characters.

Hal’s health began to decline in the early 1990s, but that didn’t stop his determination. Just a short while before his death in 1994 at the age of 77, Hal recorded some voice work for several episodes of Garfield and Friends.

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In the early 1870s, Mississippi lawyer Finis Bates moved with his family to Texas. In 1873, he met a man named John St, Helen, with whom he shared many interests, including the theater, specifically the works of William Shakespeare. The two became friends and saw each other often socially. In 1878, John St. Helens became ill. Believing death was near, he confided in his friend Finis Bates and offered, what he thought was a deathbed confession.

John revealed to Finis that his name was not John St. Helen, but in fact, he was John Wilkes Booth, the man responsible for the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln. Finis, as expected, was dumbfounded. However, John recovered from his illness and gave Finis further details about his claim. He said the Vice President Andrew Johnson was the lead conspirator of the Lincoln assassination. He also revealed that the man that Union Soldiers shot in the barn at Garrett’s tobacco plantation was an overseer named Ruddy St. Helens. John had switch identification papers with the real St. Helen’s leading authorities to assume it was Booth that was shot. After a full recovery, John St. Helens moved to Colorado. Finis lost touch with his friend after he relocated to Memphis, Tennessee.

Finis did not believe John St. Helens’ story… at first. But, he began to think more about John St. Helen’s character and personality. He contacted the Department of State and the FBI, relating the story he was told.

In 1903, a man named David George committed suicide in his Enid, Oklahoma hotel room. Prior to taking his own life, he confessed to the wife of a local minister that he was John Wilkes Booth. He spun a similar story as the one that was told to Finis Bates. David George’s body was turned over to undertaker William Penniman, along with a handwritten will that detailed some property. Penniman embalmed the body, but did not bury it, pending a claim of the body and the property. Subsequent investigation determined that the property did not actually exist. David George’s embalmed remains sat in Penniman’s front window as a tourist attraction… for eight years. Previously uncovered papers found in David George’s possession mentioned Finis Bates. Bates was summoned and the body was turned over to him. Finis stored the body in his garage until he began to rent it out to circuses and side shows, as well as the 1904 St. Louis Worlds Fair. Showmen’s League of America charter member William Evans paid Finis $1000 every five months to display it at his carnival. Over time, the body was stolen several times, involved in a train wreck. It changed owner ship many times and was put on public display all over the country. It was last documented as part of a carnival in the late 1970s.

In 1931, the now-mummified remains of John St. Helen or David George or whoever he was, were examined by a team of six doctors. X-rays showed a healed fracture in the left fibula. This was consistent with injuries that John Wilkes Booth sustained when he jumped from the balcony at Fords Theater.

In 1907, Finis Bates published a book called The Escape and Suicide of John Wilkes Booth, detailing his friendship and his eventual claim and revelation. The book, of course, stirred controversy. It even set Henry Ford off on his own investigation.

Finis Bates died in 1923, still holding fast to his belief that he had befriend John Wilkes Booth.

Acclaimed Academy Award-winning actress Kathy Bates is Finis Bates’s granddaughter.

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