RIP Annette Funicello
[Hat tip: commenter “Artfldgr”]
The news of Margaret Thatcher’s death today eclipsed this news for me. But to those of a certain age, Annette (we were on a first-name basis) was a formative figure in our childhood.
I never was a Mickey Mouse Club fan, I must admit. I thought the show strangely silly even though I was a very young child; I just didn’t get big kids wearing mouse ears. Not my style even back then. But Annette struck a chord because she was the first curly-dark-haired pop icon I knew of, and as a curly-dark-haired sort myself I appreciated her presence. And she even did a little ballet on the side.
Multiple sclerosis, the disease from which Annette died, can be either a relatively minor ailment or a very cruel affliction. Annette’s went from the first variety to the second over a period of many difficult years in which she showed courage that belied her fluffy image.
Today, even the fact that she was already 70 (seventy!) came as a shock; now how did that happen, I ask you? I know, I know—in the usual way.
RIP.
R.IP., Annette Funicello, and may you forgive me for my referring to you as “Annette Full-a-Jello.” Juvenile humor is what juveniles do. At least some smartass juveniles do. I doubt that Annette lost any sleep over my juvenile sense of humor, though. 🙂
A childhood friend of my mother died of multiple sclerosis. I remember visiting her in the hospital. I never met her children, but I heard that after their mother’s death, their grandparents couldn’t handle them and, not knowing anything else to do, sent them to some Boys’ Home. On a more helpful note about MS, a cousin of mine has been diagnosed with MS for about 10 years, and with proper medication is still functioning, still working.
“I thought the show strangely silly even though I was a very young child…”
Well, you must have been a silly and strange very young child.
“But Annette struck a chord because she was the first curly-dark-haired pop icon I knew of, and as a curly-dark-haired sort myself I appreciated her presence.”
We boys appreciated her even more because she was not only curly-dark-haired, she was also the first to have real breasts, even if they did sort of tape them down for awhile.
My sister had progressive MS and it is a terrible disease. Your body just gradually shuts down. It started as a loss of coordination and got worse. She was finally bedridden in a nursing home and I dreaded going to see her. It was like watching death in slow motion. I admire her husband because he stayed with her. In many cases like that the healthy partner divorces and abandons the sick one and moves on to a new life.
I had a crush on her around the time of the Spin and Marty series, which now that I think of it is sort of weird, because I was too young to be having crushes. RIP.
I remember her well. I and my brothers were big time fans of the Mickey Mouse Club during the late 1950’s, until I discovered “the Popeye Club” (which was as close to “edgy” as late 50’s cartoon shows ever got down here. Pretty good violence, Love interest, and regular triangles. Sometimes spooky/scary: the Goons, Goonland and the Sea Hag).
RIP Annette.
I too was a fan of the MM Club and she got my full attention. Sigh, I am only three years younger than Annette. Where DOES that time go.
I remember her less from the Mickey Mouse Club than from her later work. She fit in to the whole Frankie Avalon, Fabian, American Bandstand era for me. It was a far more innocent time than today.
Well, the quote must now be changed…
Nobody’s juggs were bigger than Annette’s.
Our big sister loved the Mousketeers. She used to sit cross-legged on the floor in front of our black-and-white television, with her Mouse Ears hat firmly on her little head.
I saw her once in 1960 I believe, at Radio City Music Hall. Flash forward about 30 years later and I saw another childhood legend Hayley Mills in London.
I’m of the generation which can spell ‘encyclopedia”. While keeping the beat..
“Spin and Marty” and several other MMC serials were pretty good kid fiction for the day. Not cheap production values, iirc.
I suppose the question is, given the day, what other possibility would have been better?
This question is not to be answered by people who get off by deflowering innocent minds for no purpose but their own sick fun.
Ray:
I admire her husband because he stayed with her. In many cases like that the healthy partner divorces and abandons the sick one and moves on to a new life.
Good point. A teacher at my high school, whom many considered to be a “cool guy,” had a wife with MS. One week he went missing, and was found two thousand miles away, apparently with a case of amnesia. “Where am I?”
As a divorce from his wife followed, I suspected that the amnesia was faked, just a way to make it easier to get a divorce- see the stress this is putting me under.
He did not return to teaching.
I had the hat; it was a prized possession, and was worn while watching, and especially watching her (oh yeah: huge crush …my first, I think) …
…every move you make, I’ll be watching you …
…was pretty much true, even through the Funicello/Avalon Beach Blanket days (the ears, alas, were long gone by then).
RIP Missie, RIP.