Wade Mainer

Mainer’s idiosyncratic technique created a softer sound than the three-fingered style formerly associated with bluegrass, and represented a significant change from the heavier drop-thumb style known as “clawhammer”. His style of playing and his skill at translating traditional songs into sounds akin to modern country influenced better-known musicians such as Earl Scruggs and Lester Flatt. As a result, his versions of songs such as Maple on the Hill and Take Me in the Lifeboat later became bluegrass standards.

Wade Mainer

 

Mainer reached the summit of his fame in the early 1940s, but never fully adapted to his life as a celebrity. In 1941 the American folklorist Alan Lomax arranged for Mainer to entertain Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt at “An Evening of American Folklore” at the White House. Mainer turned up in bib overalls with a red bandanna in his pocket and, at supper after the show, spilt ice cream on the First Lady’s dress: “I started to wipe it off and she said 'Oh, don’t bother.’” The next thing Mainer knew, the president’s wife had made a swift exit. “She said, 'Excuse me,’ then went off and came back with a fresh dress,” he recalled.

The following year Mainer sang with Woody Guthrie in the folk musical Chisholm Trail on CBS radio – an engagement that Mainer had almost missed out on due to his moral rectitude. “They gave me a song to sing called Dodge City Jail that had a lot of rough talk,” Mainer recalled. “I said, 'No, I don’t want to do that,’ and Woody stepped in and said, 'If you play the banjo, I’ll sing it.’”

Some attributed Mainer’s comparatively low musical profile to the fact that he failed to make it to the Grand Ole Opry at this early stage in his career. The show’s director invited Mainer to come and play in 1941, but the musician was under contract to a radio station in Knoxville at the time, and was prevented from going to Nashville by his boss.

By the late 1940s Mainer’s brand of old-time music was being overshadowed by modern country and, in 1953, he gave up. Resigned to the idea that he would never make it as a musician, he moved to Michigan and worked in obscurity at a General Motors plant.

Wade Mainer was born in Buncombe County, North Carolina, on April 21 1907 and grew up in a poor farming community. He taught himself to play the banjo on an instrument made from a groundhog’s hide and, while working as a labourer, would perform at corn-shuckings and bean-stringings.
In the mid-1920s Mainer joined his older brother Joseph (“JE”), who worked at a cotton mill in Concord and played the fiddle. They formed a band called The Mountaineers and by 1934 had landed a slot on the local radio station.
By the mid-1930s the Mainers were one of the most popular country acts in the south-eastern United States. “People would come to our shows after riding two hours on horses,” Mainer said. “Some would walk to the shows carrying lanterns so they could see their way back home.” By 1937 Wade had formed his own group, The Sons of the Mountaineers, with which he made more than 100 recordings for RCA’s Bluebird subsidiary.
In 1937 he married Julia Brown, who performed as “Hillbilly Lily” on a local radio station and with whom he had five children.
During the folk revival of the 1960s a generation of younger fans rediscovered Mainer and, with his wife on guitar, he became a regular performer at bluegrass festivals. In 2002, 60 years after he had first been refused permission to perform there, he finally appeared at the Grand Ole Opry.
“Don’t complain and tell people your problems,” Mainer liked to say, “’cause half the people don’t want to hear them and the other half are glad you got ’em.”
He is survived by his wife and by three sons and a daughter. Another son predeceased him.

Kenya's Nobel laureate Wangari Maathai dies aged 71

 

Wangari Maathai was an inspiration for many women across Africa

Kenya's Nobel laureate Wangari Maathai has died in Nairobi while undergoing cancer treatment. She was 71.

She won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2004 for promoting conservation, women's rights and transparent government - the first African woman to get the award.
She was elected as an MP in 2002 and served as a minister in the Kenyan government for a time.
Ms Maathai founded the Green Belt Movement, which has planted 20-30 million trees in Africa.

'Role model and heroine' "It is with great sadness that the family of Professor Wangari Maathai announces her passing away on 25 September, 2011, at the Nairobi Hospital, after a prolonged and bravely borne struggle with cancer," 
"Her loved ones were with her at the time.
"Professor Maathai's departure is untimely and a very great loss to all who knew her - as a mother, relative, co-worker, colleague, role model, and heroine; or who admired her determination to make the world a more peaceful, healthier, and better place."

The organisation did not provide further details.
Ms Maathai, who was a professor of veterinary anatomy, rose to international fame for campaigns against government-backed forest clearances in Kenya in the late 1980s-90s.
Under the former government of President Daniel Arap Moi, she was arrested several times, and vilified.
In 2008, Ms Maathai was tear-gassed during a protest against the Kenyan president's plan to increase the number of ministers in the cabinet.
In her speech accepting the Nobel prize, Ms Maathai said she hoped her own success would spur other women on to a more active role in the community.
"I hope it will encourage them to raise their voices and take more space for leadership," she said.

Beatles photographer Robert Whitaker dies aged 71

 

Robert Whitaker exhibited his work all over the world

Photographer Robert Whitaker, best known for this work with The Beatles during the 1960s, has died aged 71.

Whitaker took many pictures of the Fab Four, including a cover for the album Yesterday and Today featuring meat and dismembered dolls.
But the controversial image was pasted over with a much less graphic shot of the band for the album's US release.
Whitaker captured other acts including Cream and Mick Jagger and covered the war in Cambodia and Vietnam.
The British photographer also worked during the conflict between Pakistan and Bangladesh in the 1970s.
Whitaker first photographed the Beatles on their visit to Australia in 1964 where he had been working for the Melbourne Jewish News.
'Hard work'
Their manager Brian Epstein gave him the job of staff photographer for his company, leading him to work with other artists including Cilla Black.
He chronicled The Beatles' concerts at New York's Shea Stadium and on their final world tour in 1966.
The photographer was also on hand to capture them in more informal poses during this period.
Whitaker said that it had been "hard work" to set up the Yesterday and Today "butcher" pose, in which the band members wore white coats.
"I had to go to the local butcher and get pork. I had to go to a doll factory and find the dolls. I had to go to an eye factory and find the eyes. False teeth.
"There's a lot in that photograph," he said.
The image was published on a number of occasions in the music press before being withdrawn on grounds of taste.
Towards the twilight of his career, Whitaker was engaged in creating a digital archive of his body of work.

Brian Kelley

Brian Kelley, who has died aged 68, was a former American spy accused, and later exonerated, of being a double agent working for the Russians from inside the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).

Brian Kelley

For two years, in 1999-2000, Kelley was hounded by the FBI in the mistaken belief that he was the “mole” for whom they were searching inside US intelligence. Although innocent, the CIA officer was kept away from his desk for nearly two years and confronted with “facts” that might have been borrowed from a spy novel: that he visited strip clubs, was paid in diamonds, took trips to Panama, and had access to pertinent information at certain crucial times.

Code-named Grey Deceiver, Kelley was, the FBI said, the most damaging mole ever in American intelligence. Because of his “treachery”, American agents abroad had been executed and the Russians handed highly sensitive information about US military capability.

In fact, the double agent was not working at the CIA at all, but within the FBI itself: Robert Hanssen, an FBI agent code-named Grey Day, had spied for Russia for 22 years in what has been called the “worst intelligence disaster in US history”.

With Aldrich Ames, a counter-intelligence officer working for the CIA and also a Soviet spy, Hanssen had betrayed three Russians secretly spying for the FBI — including a Soviet general code-named Top Hat — who were executed by Moscow. When he was working for the KGB, Hanssen even directed a study of potential traitors in the FBI when — as he alone knew — he himself was the mole.

Eventually, in an unprecedented operation, the FBI paid a defector $7 million to pull a file from KGB headquarters in Moscow. The file contained an audiotape of the mole talking to his Russian handler, which agents expected to contain Kelley’s voice. Instead, the aghast investigators heard the voice of one of their own men: Hanssen. It was Hanssen, not Kelley, who had been paid in diamonds for his spying, Hanssen who had frequented a strip club, and he who had been in the right places at the right time.

Brian Joseph Kelley was born on January 8 1943 at Waterbury, Connecticut, and graduated from Saint Michael’s College in Vermont with a degree in Political Science. He joined the US Air Force in 1964, and spent 20 years with the Office of Special Investigations on counter-intelligence work. In 1984 he moved to the CIA.
Five years later he worked out a method used by Moscow to communicate clandestinely with deep-cover agents called “illegals”. The discovery led to the unmasking of the State Department diplomat Felix Bloch, a suspected spy who was photographed meeting a KGB “illegal” in Vienna and exchanging a briefcase believed to contain secrets.
But Bloch got away, leading the FBI to suspect that Kelley had tipped off the very man he was investigating. They tapped his phone and tried to trap him into confessing.
When agents secretly searched Kelley’s home, they found a map of a park marked, they said, with places at which he would leave secret documents for the KGB.
They even spotted a KGB officer in the park and were convinced that the spy was picking up documents left there by Kelley; only later did they realise that the park was also yards from Hanssen’s house in the same neighbourhood. Kelley had used the map to plot his jogging routes.
The false accusations against Kelley and his family continued for a further two years. His two sisters were confronted and interrogated by the FBI, as were his three grown-up children, his friends and his colleagues. His daughter, who was also working at the CIA, was taken into an interview room and told that her father was a spy. Agents even threatened to go to the nursing home where Kelley’s ailing mother was living and tell her that her only son was a traitor.
After finally being exonerated, Kelley worked in the Office of the National Counter-intelligence Executive; he retired from the CIA in 2006. While working for the government he earned numerous intelligence awards, and in retirement became a teacher.
According to a CIA spokesman, Preston Golson, Kelley had kept the faith with his country and his colleagues. The Pentagon press secretary, George Little, a former CIA spokesman, called him “a national treasure”. Explaining his story in an interview in 2006, Kelley said: “I just want to make sure that what happened to me never happens again to anyone.”
Brian Kelley, who died of an apparent heart attack on September 19, is survived by his wife, Patricia, and by their two sons and one daughter.

Former Newmarket trainer Michael Jarvis dies

 

Philip Robinson rides Rakti in 2005 

 

Former Newmarket trainer Michael Jarvis has died, aged 73.

Jarvis guided Carroll House to victory in the 1989 Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe and landed the 2005 Epsom Oaks with Eswarah.
He retired in February after having heart surgery in 2009. He was also treated for prostate cancer.
Royal Ascot winner Rakti, who also won the Champion Stakes and Lockinge Stakes, was among his horses and he trained numerous Group One winners.
Former jockey Mick Kinane said: "It's very sad news. He was a lovely man to ride for and a lovely man to know.

Cornelius Lysaght,
  Horse racing correspondent

The word 'gentleman' is badly over-used on these occasions, though in talking about Michael Jarvis, I can't think of anyone who could possibly come up with a better one. But his invariably quiet, measured tones and unswerving politeness disguised a steely edge that made the team from Kremlin House Stables in Newmarket's Fordham Road feared by all rivals. So, racing finds itself mourning a second racehorse trainer this week after the death of Ginger McCain. Two more different people doing the same job it is hard to imagine, but there is no difference in the intensity of the pain felt at their loss. Two legends of the sport, one who went about his highly effective business rather more flamboyantly than the other went about his, are gone. A sad week.

"He was a thorough gentleman. It's so unfortunate that he didn't get to enjoy his retirement and such is life.
"Carroll House got me off to a great start. I'd have to say he got me on to the international stage in winning an Irish Champion Stakes and then going on to win an Arc.
"He was my big breakthrough horse so he'll always have a high place in my book."
Roger Varian, who took over the Kremlin House Stables after Jarvis's retirement said: "It's a terribly sad day. Michael passed away this afternoon having lost his battle against cancer.
"His achievements and racing exploits go without saying but, first and foremost, he was a wonderful man - a true gentleman and I imagine a great husband, a great father and a good friend to many.
"That was Michael Jarvis.
"He happened to be a great racehorse trainer as well but, first and foremost, he was just a wonderful man.
"He won many big races but probably put up the bravest fight of his life against cancer. He battled hard and he saw it out as long as he possibly could."
Philip Robinson enjoyed many major successes as Jarvis' stable jockey, including five Group One wins with Rakti.
He told At The Races: "It's really heartbreaking. I was trying to get to see him at the weekend but I was informed by his wife Gay that he was in a very bad way and not able to talk. It's very sad.

 

Jarvis retired in February 

  "All you can say is that he was a very, very nice man. I've never known anybody say a bad word about him. That for me sums it up.
"He was a gentleman and he wasn't just a normal trainer - he was an exceptional trainer, who was able to get the best out of horses.
"It's devastating news.
"We had a run of a few exceptional years. We won the French Derby with Holding Court, the Italian Derby with Morshdi and then Rakti came along. We had a purple run and it was lovely to be there with him.
"At the time we enjoyed it and it was a privilege to be there with him."

US singer Dolores Hope dies at 102

 

Dolores Hope released her first album aged 83

US singer Dolores Hope, who was married to comedian Bob Hope for 69 years, has died at the age of 102.

Family spokesman Harlan Boll said she died of natural causes at her home near Los Angeles on Monday.
Dolores Hope, who met her husband while singing in a nightclub in 1933, accompanied him on trips to entertain US troops from the 1940s onwards.
"Together, they brought countless hours of laughter and cheer to Americans everywhere," said friend Nancy Reagan.
Hope gave up her singing career to raise the couple's four adopted children before joining her husband on his troop tours.
In 1966, her rendition of Silent Night in front of thousands of GIs brought a standing ovation.
In 1990, she was the only female entertainer to perform in Saudi Arabia when she sang for troops taking part in Operation Desert Storm.

 

Hope celebrated her 100th birthday in 2009

 

Marie Osmond, the Pointer Sisters and Ann Jillian did not perform, in order to avoid offending Saudi sensibilities.
But Hope was given the go-ahead to perform and sang White Christmas.
She released her first album, Dolores Hope: Now and Then, when she was 83.
Her husband died at the age of 100 in 2003.
"Both the entertainment world and the church have lost a woman of profound faith, gifted musical talent and dedication," said Los Angeles Archbishop Jose H Gomez.
"The death of Dolores Hope leaves a huge void in southern California," he added.

Red Rum trainer Ginger McCain dies aged 80

When the colourful racehorse trainer Ginger McCain wanted to mark his fourth Grand National victory, some 27 years after the last, there was only one place to do it.
Following Amberleigh House's win in 2004, he quietly made his way to the Aintree grave of his beloved triple National winner Red Rum, buried alongside the winning post.
He joked that the horse, who had died nine years earlier, spoke to him about his latest triumph.
"[Red Rum] said 'let him win it twice more and he might be nearly as good as me'," said McCain.
"It's just lovely to know he's buried where he is on the line and every time a horse goes across to win you can hear him saying 'well done, but you're not as good as me'. He was like that."
McCain, who has died aged 80 after suffering from cancer, was a character who lit up Aintree with his unaffected love for the four-and-a-half mile race that captures the world's attention.
As the years progressed, his face became as red as the horse's name with which he was so inextricably associated.

I'm no legend, I was associated with a horse who was a legend Ginger McCain

He was politically incorrect, eccentric yet somehow endearing. Speaking to Ginger was like talking to a slightly barmy yet commanding uncle. He had an uncanny knack of putting a smile on your face.
In 2005, McCain sparked a sexism row when he claimed a woman jockey could never win the Grand National, but he downplayed the controversy a year later.
"People are very nice to an old dog like me, which is lovely," said McCain. "There was that episode last year - the silly, silly stuff with Carrie Ford, and I said if she won the Grand National, I would bare my bottom.
"When we went in, the gateman shouted: 'Hey, Ginger, if that woman wins the National, they'll be queuing up all the way to Anfield to kick your backside.' That's typical of what I get, and it makes for a very, very good day."
McCain was saved a kicking as Ford finished fifth on Forest Gunner.
And despite his public pronouncements, he was on pretty good terms with leading women in the sport, such as National-winning trainer Jenny Pitman and BBC presenter Clare Balding.
McCain met Red Rum's owner, the wonderfully-named Noel Le Mare, when he drove a taxi.
"I'd pick him up right on the dot of 12 o'clock, and drive him home, and he'd invite me in for a drink," he recalled.
"Well, I was brought up in a family in which you didn't drink whisky, or even sherry, unless someone had died or got married and I'd have three enormous scotches and talk horses. It went on from there.
"The guv'nor had three ambitions in life: to marry a beautiful woman, make a million and, at 86, he fulfilled his final ambition to win the Grand National, and he did it three times with 'Red', and was second twice, which was magic."
He persuaded the owner to part with £6,000 for the horse, who was discovered to be lame as a novice chaser so McCain sent him to the seaside at Southport.

McCain's beloved Red Rum on the beach at Southport

"He came back with us sound as a bell," said McCain.
"Being at Southport, with the beach and the sea, was very important to him, and I don't think we quite appreciated it at the time.
"We had one of the best all-weather gallops in the country, and the best swimming pool, and the water was great for his legs. "
Red Rum became a hero to racegoers and once-a-year punters, but he began his National career as villain when he overhauled the gallant, exhausted top-weight Crisp in the final strides of the 1973 race.
"It was very much like the tortoise and the hare. The old horse stuck his head down and ran to the line. The tortoise won," said McCain.
A year later, Rummy emerged from his stables behind a second-hand car showroom to win again. He was runner-up twice before a historic third victory in 1977.
"Red Rum is given a famous reception. You've never heard the like of it at Liverpool," boomed BBC commentator Peter O'Sullevan, who like the horse was born in Ireland.
The horse, like his trainer, thrived on the heady atmosphere of Grand National day.
"He loved Aintree, and revelled in the challenge, and was a complete professional, a great character, and, it may seem silly to say it, but he was a horse with a great charisma, like I have never seen in any other horse," said McCain.
Red Rum may not have been the classiest racehorse.
He never won Cheltenham Gold Cups, for example, like Best Mate and Kauto Star, and was third behind Arkle and Desert Orchid in a 2004 Racing Post poll to find their readers' all-time favourite racehorse.
But he made the world's most famous race, a marathon over 30 fences including daunting obstacles such as Becher's Brook and The Chair, his own.
"You know, one of your daft reporter fellows said it must have been like losing the wife when he died," said McCain.
"Losing the wife? There are 25 million women in this country - what a daft thing to say - but there was, and always will be, only one Red Rum. "
They will never make another Red Rum, and they will never make another Ginger McCain. Two racing greats who were made for each other.
Ginger, like his son whom he handed the training reins to in 2006, was also christened Donald but widely known by his nickname.
Born in Southport, Lancashire, he started out as a used car salesman but became synonymous with the horse nicknamed 'Rummy'.
"I'm no legend, I was associated with a horse who was a legend," he would say.
In 1977, Red Rum was brought into the TV studio where the BBC Sports Review of the Year show was staged.

 

 Sports Personality Classics - Red Rum 1977

 "He was listening to the applause in the back and thought it was for him all the time," said McCain.After his retirement the following year, the bay gelding who was placed in 52 of his 100 races embarked on a second career as a travelling celebrity."He switched on Blackpool Lights, he opened hypermarkets, pubs, and cricket clubs," his trainer said at the time."He really enjoys it. He likes seeing people and doing these unusual things."When Aintree staged a special Red Rum meeting to mark his 30th birthday in 1995, the course attracted 10 times the usual crowd.

It was a fitting tribute as his successes in the 1970s came at a time when the race was struggling for sponsorship.
"People say he saved the Grand National and when I think about it and analyse it, I think they are right," said McCain.
Any trainer's relationship with a horse they see and care for every day can be an emotional bond. As McCain watched Red Rum die, he had tears in his eyes.
"He was a very, very big part of our lives for 23 years," he recalled.
"He had a charisma all of his own. He loved people and people loved him. The old lad was magic," said McCain.
An epitaph fit for Ginger.

---

Red Rum completes historic hat-trick