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michael barbaro

From The New York Times, I’m Michael Barbaro. This is “The Daily.” 100,000 lives. Today, we remember 100 of them. It’s Friday, May 29.

bianca giaever

Willie Levi was born in Orange, Texas on August 19, 1946. His father was a mill worker. His mother, a hotel housekeeper.

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annie brown

The identical twins Cleon and Leon Boyd were born at Bennington Hospital in Vermont on March 13, 1956. Cleon came at 5:03 p.m. Then, eight minutes later, Leon followed. Leon always said they saved the best for last.

[string music with piano]

lynsea garrison

Valentina Blackhorse was born on September 2, 1991, in Tuba City, Arizona. At age 7, Valentina wore her hair in a braided ponytail, and carried around with her everywhere a stuffed bear whose name was Mr. Bear.

stella tan

Madeline Kripke he was in fifth grade when she was given her first dictionary, and had the feeling that it unlocked the whole world for her.

archived recording (madeline kripke) Once the book bug has bit you, it doesn’t let you go. I conceive of each of these books as a sparkling jewel.

austin mitchell

At 16, Orlando Moncada left his home in Peru with his mother and two siblings, and traveled up through Mexico, hoping to cross into the U.S., where his father had been working cleaning buildings. It was the 1970s, and Orlando loved disco.

archived recording (madeline kripke) So he would try to comb his hair like John Travolta. He would try to have almost, like, fancy clothes like John Travolta did in that time.

austin mitchell

His family crawled through a hole under a fence into the United States. Orlando was told it was good luck to reach down into the American soil and fill his pockets. Soon after, they were arrested by the border patrol. While searching his pockets, the authorities found he was carrying two things — his comb and fistfuls of sand. Orlando didn’t speak English. He couldn’t explain himself. They spent five days in jail in Mexico, and then crossed again. This time successfully.

bianca giaever

John Prine was a quiet kid. But his brother said it wasn’t because he was shy, it was because he was always listening.

dave prine This was the time period when singer-songwriters were popping up like dandelions in June. And he said, hey, Dave, I’ve been writing some songs. Would you like to hear them? It, like, blew me over. Because here was my little brother, who was a genius for God’s sake. I mean, I never thought he — [CHUCKLES]

bianca giaever

John was 16 when he got up the courage to go to a local club called the Fifth Peg and play three songs.

dave prine And when he finished the third one, the place was absolutely silent. A few minutes or seconds later, they broke into tremendous applause. [CHUCKLES] He thought — he said, when I first finished it, I thought, jeez, I must have really bombed.

bianca giaever

John liked old people. He wrote one of the first songs inspired by a nursing home, called “Hello in There,” which captured the loneliness of aging so well that no one could imagine a teenager could have written it. “No way somebody this young can be writing so heavy,” the musician Kris Kristofferson once said. “John Prine is so good we may have to break his thumbs.”

annie brown

On her 21st birthday, Britta Lou Miller enlisted in the Women’s Army Corps.

rachel quester

Directly out of college, Ann Sullivan began working at Walt Disney’s animation studios on films like “Peter Pan” —

archived recording ("peter pan" clip 1) You think of a wonderful thought. archived recording ("peter pan" clip 2) Any happy little thought? archived recording ("peter pan" clip 3) Uh huh.

annie brown

— before she gave up her job to take care of her children.

austin mitchell

Ralph McGehee was 23 and had recently failed to try out with the Green Bay Packers when he received a telegram out of the blue that asked, would you serve your country in an unusual way? It was from the C.I.A.

daniel guillemette

When Wallace was 27, The Washington Post wrote, “His name is Wallace Roney III. He is 27 years old. He is from Washington, and he is one of the best jazz trumpet players in the world.”

[jazz trumpet music]

adizah eghan

Wilson Jerman was 28 when he started working as a cleaner in the White House under president Dwight D. Eisenhower.

annie brown

Arlene Saunders was 32 when she made her debut as an opera singer in an 8,000-person stadium.

[opera singing]

annie brown

As a young man, Rafael Leonardo Black supported himself with various jobs — typist in a law firm, Macy’s sales clerk. But really his life revolved around his art. A self-trained artist born in Aruba. He read voraciously and drew on ancient myth and pop culture to create elaborate pencil drawings that brought together disparate characters like Orpheus, Andy Warhol and three giraffes, as if they were all mingling at one party. One drawing could be years in the making. But almost no one saw his work. He lived alone.

bianca giaever

They met at a wedding in Miami. Margaret Powe was a bridesmaid, Charles a groomsman.

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lynsea garrison

Arthur Winthrop Barstow met his future wife, Marilyn Louise Moser, in the asparagus fields of Hadley, Massachusetts.

adizah eghan

Sal Capozucca, or “Mr. Cappi,” as he called himself, met his wife, Veronica Griffith, across the dance floor at Club 82, a storied drag bar in New York’s Lower East Side. On that night, Sal, always a flashy dresser, was peacocking in blue satin pants and a white satin scarf.

bianca giaever

Jerry Spring was working as an engineer on a 727 Alaska Airlines red-eye flight when, somewhere in the sky between Seattle and Anchorage, he laid eyes on a flight attendant named Joan, in her uniform.

joan spring No, I wouldn’t even call it a uniform. It was embarrassing to wear.

bianca giaever

He asked her out.

joan spring I’m a cradle Catholic, and he was divorced. And I didn’t want to get involved with a divorced person. I didn’t think it was right at the time. But then, you know, I got to know him better, and he was a really nice person.

bianca giaever

She said yes to coffee.

joan spring He eventually ended up becoming a Catholic. It meant — you know, it meant a lot to him to be Catholic.

bianca giaever

And they got married in the basement of their church.

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stella tan

Alison Schwartz read “The Velveteen Rabbit” at her friend’s wedding ceremony.

lynsea garrison

Valentina Blackhorse, who had grown up from the young girl clutching Mr. Bear, was so excited to have a daughter of her own. She had an emergency C-section, and gave birth to a girl named Poet Bessie Blackhorse Jones — “Poet” after the protagonist in her dad’s favorite book. She called her “my baby” in Navajo.

daniel guillemette

Jazz pianist Ellis Marsalis, Jr. Raised four musicians, watching each one take up a new instrument, even though he never pressured his kids to follow in his footsteps. His son Wynton said, “He was too cool for that kind of stuff.”

rachel quester

Once her children were all grown up, Ann Sullivan, the “Peter Pan” animator, returned to work after 20 years. She worked on “The Little Mermaid.”

archived recording ("the little mermaid" clip) I don’t see how a world that makes such wonderful things could be bad.

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adizah ehgan

Wilson Jerman, the White House cleaner, got his first big promotion to Butler when president John F. Kennedy was in office, thanks to Mr. Kennedy’s wife, Jacqueline Kennedy.

bianca giaever

In his early 40s, Joel Reed released the most disturbing horror film of his career —

archived recording ("blood sucking freaks" clip) [SCREAMING] Prepare yourself for the horror.

bianca giaever

— entitled —

archived recording ("blood sucking freaks" clip) Blood sucking freaks!

bianca giaever

— “Blood Sucking Freaks.” It soon had a cult following.

austin mitchell

Joyce Posson Winston was an editor at the Ladies’ Home Journal.

lynsea garrison

Vinton Mason came to own the Bark-and-All logging company.

daniel guillemette

Donald Horsfall co-wrote nine books about computing.

annie brown

In the screenwriting classes that she taught at Columbia, Milena Jelinek developed the habit of starting out every semester despairing about her students’ lack of talent. By the end, though, she was convinced they were all terrific — except for one or two.

bianca giaever

Georgianna Glose was a renegade nun. Bill Mantell was an optimist. Durlene Shuffler had a mischievous laugh. Alan Potanka collected stamps. John Schoffstall was a volunteer football coach. Carmen Lydia Rodriguez was a huge Elvis fan.

austil mitchell

16 years after Mr. McGehee was recruited by the C.I.A., he had risen to the very middle of the agency’s ranks. In 1968, he landed in Saigon, where the Vietnam War was going badly. As bad turned to worse, it shattered him. He questioned America’s role in the world, the C.I.A.‘s role in Vietnam, his role in the C.I.A. and his very existence. He thought about unfurling a banner reading, “The C.I.A. lies,” and then killing himself to protest the war. Instead he decided to tell the world in a memoir. “Why did we have to bomb the people we were trying to save?” he asked. “Why were we napalming young children?” Why did the C.I.A., my employer for 16 years, report lies instead of the truth?” He struggled to answer those questions for the rest of his life.

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annie brown

And after decades of creating art with no audience, Rafael Leonardo Black had his first New York gallery show when he was 64. The work was so finely detailed that the gallery provided magnifying glasses to view it. Most of the work sold, making him more money than he’d ever had. He considered traveling back to Aruba, but ultimately he just kept drawing. “People who become what are called artists don’t stop,” he told the Times. “There’s a saying: ‘Everybody writes poems at 15; real poets write them at 50.’” He planned to buy a vacuum cleaner.

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stella tan

Helen Antonette Molina enjoyed jogging in full makeup.

bianca giaever

Fred Walter Gray enjoyed his bacon and hash browns crispy. Angelo Piro enjoyed serenading friends with Tony Bennett songs.

austin mitchell

Leo Sreebny preferred bolo ties to neckties.

stella tan

Norman Leslie Jenkins loved to see the full moon rise over the ocean.

adizah eghan

Jeanne Madden Cibroski loved being quiet at the beach.

bianca giaever

Peggy Rakestraw loved mystery novels.

annie brown

Mattie Adams loved hats.

austin mitchell

And Lillian Press of Kentucky dearly loved Kentucky.

adizah eghan

Myles Coker’s favorite song was “Free” by Graffiti6. He had a handheld radio, and used to lie in his cell in Lewisburg Prison in Pennsylvania waiting for the song to come on. When he was first sentenced to life in prison, he couldn’t bear to tell his two sons the truth. He told them he was just taking some time off from work to travel to the Midwest to train a heavyweight boxer. But finally Myles owned up to why he was really gone. In his early 40s, he was convicted for dealing heroin, and federal sentencing guidelines demanded that he be put away for life. What Myles didn’t know was that three weeks after he was sentenced, these guidelines were relaxed. And a year later, the rules were changed again, so that the new guidelines could be applied retroactively. But nobody told Myles. In college, his sons learned that if they were going to get their dad out, they would need some legal help, and they enlisted a lawyer. After 23 years inside, Myles Coker was released from prison with a spotless disciplinary record. His sons came to pick him up, and they played the song, “Free” by Graffiti6, on the way home. Once he got settled on the outside, he was looking forward to traveling to Miami with his sons to watch the Miami Dolphins play football.

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rachel quester

Celia Yap-Banago planned to retire in April.

austin mitchell

Steve Dalkowski played as a pitcher in nine minor baseball leagues, but never made it to the major league.

stella tan

Carlos Ernesto Escobar Mejia was the only one in the family unable to get a green card.

bianca giaever

John Nakawatase planned to walk his only daughter down the aisle. Richard Rutledge had an unpublished novel.

austin mitchell

Juanita Pippins — “Nita” for short — was well into retirement in Florida when one day, in 1987, she received a call from her only child, who was dying of AIDS in Manhattan. “Mom, I can’t get out of bed,” her son told her. “It’s time.” Nita put her belongings in a friend’s house, took what she could and moved to New York to care for her son. Devastated and ashamed by her son’s AIDS diagnosis, and troubled that he was gay, Nita initially kept the illness a secret from her family and friends. And she felt out of place in the big city. On breaks from caring for her son, she would sit inside the Nathan’s Famous hot dog restaurant in Times Square and repeat, “I hate New York. I hate New York. I hate New York.” But after her son died, she didn’t leave. She became close with her son’s friends and volunteered for Miracle House, a charity that provided the families of AIDS patients with housing and support. For mothers who were confused or angry, Nita was someone who had been there, and she encouraged them to be present with their sons. For men whose families didn’t come, Nita became a replacement mother, sometimes holding their hands as they died. She remained a member of the AIDS activist community for the rest of her life.

bianca giaever

John Sebastian Laird-Hammond was a member of a Franciscan monastery.

annie brown

Mary Desole was a member of the Literacy Volunteers of America.

rachel quester

Gertrude Clemmer was a member of the Sandston Garden Club.

stella tan

Motoko Fujishiro Huthwaite was the last living female member of the World War II Monuments team.

daniel guillemette

John von Sternberg, Jr. was a member of the Old Coots on Scoots motorcycle club.

lynsea garrison

Anna Elizabeth Pearson Lugg was a member of too many genealogical societies to mention.

annie brown

After decades of playing the gas station scratch-off lottery and never winning more than $20, Barbara Krupke was 77 when she bought a ticket and scratched off the eight circles. The first seven were nothing. But behind the eighth were the words, “jackpot, one million dollars.” She didn’t believe it was real until she showed her husband that night. But she waited a month to tell her extended family, because she worried she’d upstage her granddaughter’s imminent wedding. Barbara split the money among her family members, including her grandson Eric, who used it to cover his expenses for an internship at PBS. Eric is now a producer on our show.

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austin mitchell

It was rumored that Kenneth Godwin of Michigan could spit a watermelon seed halfway across a double lot.

daniel guillemette

Stanley Grossman of Nanuet, New York, was known to many for his Donald Duck impersonation.

annie brown

Philip Scardilli of Colonia, New Jersey, gained notoriety for his freeform dancing at family functions.

stella tan

Arthur Barstow read every Louis L’Amour western three times.

austin mitchell

Harold Reisner of Lancaster, Massachusetts, took furniture repair to the level of an art form.

bianca giaever

And Clara Louise Bennett of Albany, Georgia was known for singing songs to her grandchildren every year on the first day of school. Her son, Jay Bennett, remembered this song.

jay bennett (SINGING) School day, school day. Good old Golden Rule days. Reading and writing and arithmetic, talk to the tune of a hickory stick. (SPEAKING) I don’t know the rest of that.

adizah eghan

Ultimately Wilson Jerman served 11 presidents. The last one was Barack Obama. In her memoir “Becoming,” Mrs. Obama featured a photo of her and her husband with Mr. Jerman in the White House elevator, where he worked as an operator, wearing a white bow tie. He was so proud to work for them, and so happy to see a person of color as president, one of his daughters said. He never ever thought that in his time at the White House he would see something like that.

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austin mitchell

Lettie Dionisio, 68, was finally on the trip of her dreams through Thailand and South Korea. But in a call home to her sister, she mentioned she didn’t feel well.

stella tan

Miguel Ulluari, 51, developed a slight cough.

lynsea garrison

Chicago sisters Vera Jackson, 65, and Marilyn Williams, 54, became sick around the same time.

annie brown

Upon being admitted to the hospital, 10 years after a nearly deadly bout of swine flu, Merrick Dowson, 67, joked, “These viruses seem to really like me.”

daniel guillemette

Tomas Puebla, 47, and his daughter had to stop talking on the phone because he would just start coughing. So they texted instead. She told him, why don’t you try sleeping? He said he couldn’t sleep.

adizah eghan

Lloyd Porter, 49, seemed to be getting better after weeks on a ventilator.

rachel quester

Sally Rowley’s family said their goodbyes through a window at her nursing home facility.

bianca giaever

Her family watched on video as Sherrell Stokes, 54, drew her final breaths.

austin mitchell

Frank Gabrin, 60, an emergency room doctor, died in his husband’s arms.

stella tan

Tommie Brown, 82, died on the same day as his wife. Doris Brown, 79, died on the same day as her husband.

bianca giaever

Israel Sauz was 22. His son was 21 days old.

lynsea garrison

Harold L. Upjohn was 91.

speaker 7

Philip Kahn was 100.

austin mitchell

Bernice Silver was 106.

daniel guillemette

Lorena Borjas was 59.

rachel quester

Laneeka Barksdale was 47.

annie brown

Dez-Ann Romain was 36.

stella tan

Dave Edwards was 48.

austin mitchell

George Freeman Winfield was 72.

daniel guillemette

Steve Hann was 67.

adizah eghan

Islam Uddin Khan was 65.

lynsea garrison

Eddie Gancayco was 62.

rachel quester

Mary Roman was 84.

annie brown

Rafael Leonardo Black was 71.

stella tan

Hailey Herrera was 25.

austin mitchell

Ronald Lewis was 68.

bianca giaever

Conrad Ifill was 81.

adizah eghan

Francis Kennedy was 95.

rachel quester

Dr. Julie Butler was 62.

austin mitchell

Jana Prince was 43.

lynsea garrison

Skylar Herbert was 5.

stella tan

Kimarlee Nguyen was 33.

daniel guillemette

Raymond Copeland was 46.

annie brown

Wanda Bailey was 63.

lynsea garrison

Valentina Blackhorse was 28.

bianca giaever

Cornelia Ann Hunt was 87. Her last words were “thank you.”

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michael barbaro

We’ll be right back. Here’s what else you need to know today.

archived recording (CHANTING) George Floyd! Say his name! George Floyd!

michael barbaro

The governor of Minnesota, Tim Walz, has declared a state of emergency in Minneapolis after two nights of protests and riots there over the death of George Floyd, who died in police custody on Monday. But the protests only intensified in the hours afterward, as residents took over a police precinct and set it on fire.

archived recording (protestors) (CHANTING) No justice, no peace! Prosecute the police! No justice, no peace!

michael barbaro

Floyd, who was black, died after being pinned to the ground by a white police officer, who pressed his knee on Floyd’s neck for several minutes, even as Floyd repeatedly told him that he could not breathe — a scene that was captured on video.

archived recording (protestor 1) You’re watching an execution — a public execution. archived recording (protestors) Word! That’s right. archived recording (protestor) So I charge the young people —

michael barbaro

Four police officers involved in the encounter have been fired, and the Department of Justice is now investigating Floyd’s death. And —

donald trump

My executive order calls for new regulations under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, to make it that social media companies that engage in censoring or any political conduct will not be able to keep their liability shield. That’s a big deal. They have a shield. They can do what they want.

michael barbaro

President Trump has issued an executive order curtailing the legal protections that shield social media companies from being sued or held liable for the content posted on their platforms. The move appeared to be a response to a decision made by Twitter days earlier to fact-check the president’s misleading tweets about mail-in ballots in this fall’s elections.

donald trump

One egregious example is when they try to silence views that they disagree with by selectively applying a fact-check — fact-check, F-A-C-T, fact-check. What they choose to fact-check, and what they choose to ignore or even promote is nothing more than a political activism group or political activism.

michael barbaro

But the Times reports that the executive order may backfire on Trump. Removing legal protections could encourage social media companies to more aggressively police the most provocative message on their platforms, including, perhaps, the president’s.

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Source: New York Times

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