Blog of death

Cookie Jill in a comment elsewhere led me to this terrific site, The Blog of Death.

W. Pauline Nicholson W. Pauline Nicholson, one of the cooks that prepared Elvis Presley's favorite meals, died on July 7 of cancer. She was 76. Nicholson met the King of Rock 'n Roll in the mid-1960s after his neighbor praised her cooking skills. The legendary singer hired Nicholson to work at Graceland and soon became an ardent admirer of her peanut butter and fried banana sandwiches, meatloaf and banana pudding. When he learned her husband, Ossie Nicholson Sr., had lost his job in 1974, Presley hired him as a guard. Nicholson also worked as the Presley's housekeeper and occasionally babysat for their daughter, Lisa Marie. She remained on staff at Graceland until her retirement in 1990. In later years, Nicholson cooked for Lisa Marie and her mother, Priscilla, whenever they requested her services. In fact, she prepared a home-cooked meal for them last Christmas. In 1981, Nicholson was featured in the documentary, "This is Elvis."

There's obits on the world's oldest panda in captivity, an ATF investigator descended from Founding Father Josiah Bartlett and a heroic Marine general. The great thing about reading obits is they're stories about people and their lives. Here's one of my favorites on the site:

Makobo Modjadji To the Balobedu people of South Africa, Queen Makobo Constance Modjadji VI was a woman with the magical ability to control the clouds and rivers. Known as the rain queen of the northern Limpopo province, she allegedly received her supernatural powers from her grandmother, Queen Mokope Modjadji V, who died in 2001. For two years, Modjadji governed the Balobedu, one of only a few tribes in Africa with a female line of succession. She ruled through a council of men and was forbidden from marrying. Despite its mystical nature, the queen's power was so feared that other tribes avoided the Balobedu, even while warring with each other. In times of drought, caravans of gifts were sent to the rain queen in order to gain her favor. African leaders, such as former presidents Nelson Mandela and F.W. de Klerk, visited with past rain queens. The rain queen even received a government salary, since the mystique of her post boosted tourism to the region.