obit beat 1

Fairly often I come across an obituary in the Sunday NY Times that I tell myself to make a note of. I never do, so here's a stab at mending my ways. This week it was Patricia Travers, 82, a violin prodigy who suddenly dropped from sight at age 23 and was never heard from (musically speaking) again (3/7/10). The NY Times Magazine end of the year issue, devoted entirely to obits, included these two: Betsy Blair, who did much more than marry and divorce Gene Kelly, and Joe Ades, who sold vegetable peelers on the streets of Manhattan (12/29/09).