Back By Popular Demand, It's Famous Last Words!

[Prospero101]

Oh, absolutely. He's arguably my personal favorite as well.

[Prospero101]

James Monroe, speaking about James Madison, said "I only regret that I will leave this earth without again beholding him."

Man, I wish I knew the story behind that one.

[Sieg Reyu]

DAMMIT, HOSK. There's a name off the Literature Greats list.

Actually, I understood Oscar Wilde's last words to be "Either that wallpaper goes, or I do."

Guess who went.

I thought it was "I may have been born yesterday but I still went shopping."

[Prospero101]

John Quincy Adams, completing the first of several father-son pairs to assume the American purple, said "This is the last of the Earth. I am content."

[Robo4900]

Theme suggestion: Irony week.

[Prospero101]

Andrew Jackson said, "Be good, children. All of you. And strive to be ready when the change comes." No mention of which change.

It's a shame, really, because earlier on the day he died a preacher asked him if he had any regrets and he said, "I only regret that I have not shot Henry Clay and hung John C. Calhoun." I feel like those would have been better dying remarks.

[AdmiralMemo]

Not famous, but interesting: my maternal grandmother's last words were "I don't feel too good." She'd been feeling fine just before that, and was in the doctor's office for a routine physical. She asked for an emesis basin, puked, said her last words, and had a massive heart attack, right in front of her doctor and my mom.

Also, the last words of a woman at my church: "Thanks for stopping by!" She said this when one of the other ladies at my church visited her at the nursing home. Within 5 minutes of saying that, she had peacefully closed her eyes and was gone.
Those words struck me as a pretty good metaphor for life. I want to live my life well enough and make it meaningful enough that someone would say "Thanks for stopping by!"

Finally, not last words of the person, but an interesting death: my paternal grandmother. She was in the hospital for something unrelated, but while there, she caught one of those "super-bug" viruses that tend to live in hospitals, immune to many treatments. She was fighting a losing battle against it and was unconscious for much of the time after she developed it. My family and my uncle's family were there, not knowing whether she'd make it or not. At one point, it was getting late, and since my uncle lived a few hours away, he was factoring in the time needed to get the kids to bed and other priorities. He said to us "I think we're only going to stay another hour." Just about 1 hour later, almost to the minute, my grandmother died while still unconscious. It's freakily almost like she heard him and was taking his concerns into consideration.

[Prospero101]

Well, that's...not what I expected to read when I started a thread like this, but that got to me in ways that...frankly I can't express. Thanks for sharing, Memo.

[Prospero101]

Martin Van Buren said, "There is but one reliance..." and died before finishing the sentence. One assumes he was going to say something profound.

Martin Van Buren was our first president to have been born after the American Revolution (granted, Andrew Jackson would have been ten-ish at the time, but shut up) so one could arguably say that Van Buren was the first president to have been born in America, as a country.

[Prospero101]

William Henry Harrison said, "I ask you to understand the true principles of government. I ask them to be carried out. I ask nothing more."

William Henry Harrison delivered the longest inaugural address in American history. In January. In the rain. He died of pneumonia....

Is what the doctors of the time mistakenly thought. While Harrison's inaugural address was indeed the longest, some 8,445 words (AFTER being heavily cut down by soon-to-be Secretary of State Daniel Wbster) and he did refuse to wear a hat, gloves, or overcoat in 48 F weather, he didn't actually contract a cold until three weeks after the event, on March 26. He died on April 2, making his 32-day term the shortest in American history.

[Prospero101]

John Tyler said, "Doctor? I am going. Perhaps it is best."

...is anyone still reading this? Just curious.

[Jamfalcon]

Yep, just haven't had much to say.

[My pseudonym is Ix]

Reading too. It's a nice thing to have to read every day, I just don't think my appreciative smiles are worth replying with every time.

[Prospero101]

Makes sense. Please don't feel obligated to reply if you don't want to. I was just wondering.

I'll be happy when we're done with the presidents though. Only a few of them have really interesting last words. Things will get better once we have more freedom.

[RedNightmare]

I'm still reading these too. Not every day, but I catch up every other day or so. Keep them coming

[Master Gunner]

I'm always watching.

[Prospero101]

Of course. The Dutch could strike at any moment. Glad you're here, MG.

[Robo4900]

I read this whenever I check the forum(At least once a day).

[Prospero101]

James Polk wasn't quite so composed. Frantically grasping his wife's hand, he said, "I love you, Sarah. I love you for all eternity."

Can anybody show me how to make in-text URL links? I'd like to start linking to the subject's Wikipedia page.

[Sieg Reyu]

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[url=example.com]example text[/url]

[Prospero101]

Thanks!

[Sieg Reyu]

Also, I love that Polk one. New favorite president.

[Prospero101]

What'll you hear Franklin Pierce's campaign slogan:

"We Polked You in '48, Now Let Us Pierce You in '52."

[My pseudonym is Ix]

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[url=placeholderURL.com]example text[/url]

FTFY

[Prospero101]

Zachary Taylor said, "I regret nothing, but I am sorry that I am about to leave my friends."

Taylor came down with an unidentified illness after eating raw cherries diagnosed by his doctor as "cholera morbus," which was something of a nineteenth-century catch all term for any sort of digestive trouble that wasn't Asiatic cholera. He died on his knees, playing marbles.

There are actually a number of theories that he might have been poisoned. Personally, I find that hard to believe, since Taylor didn't really DO anything in his mere 16 months as president. Of course, this was 1850, and the sectional crises and slavery debates were in full swing. So maybe the only reason his assassin needed was "fuck you, that's why."