James Dean Memorial Service, September 30, 2003, Fairmount IN
Updated January 17, 2004
URL is www.tentativetimes.net/03mem/03house.html
James Dean Memorial Service,
September 30, 2003
Back Creek Friends Meeting House
Fairmount, Indiana
Arlene Sachs (Tascha) Martel related moving memories of her experiences with Jimmy in New York City when she was only 15 years old. Arlene introduced Jimmy to Roy Schott. She later played Mr. Spock’s wife on television, and was Bob Crane’s girlfriend on Hogan’s Heroes. She appeared in The James Dean Story. How did she meet Jimmy? She simply looked in the New York telephone directory. He was listed! She dialed! Wonder if anyone owns that rare phone book! There’s an elusive collectible for you to hunt.
Nicky Bazooka speaks briefly before leading the march to Park Cemetery. He wears a scarf in memory of Adeline Nall, and his yellow roses are for her also.
Larry Ledgerwood and Pam Crawford both spoke briefly at the memorial service.
Mattie Sellers, organist at Back Creek Friends Meeting House may look familiar if you spent time at Taylor University in Upland, Indiana. Mrs. Sellers was an assistant to the president of the University for many years. This year her musical selections included Amazing Grace, When The Saints Go Marching In, The Little Brown Church In The Vale, Home Sweet Home, Back Home Again In Indiana, The Missouri Waltz, Love Me Tender, Somewhere My Love, Sweet Adeline, Goin’ Home, I’ll Fly Away. Postlude: Auld Lang Syne and God Be With You ‘Til We Meet Again.
Flowers for the dais arrived from Jim Curran. If you want to order flowers in Fairmount, to be delivered to the grave or the church or wherever, at any time of the year, the flower shop once owned by Jimmy’s aunts is now called Lone Oak Gardens, telephone 765.948.4267. It’s at 123 North Main Street, zip code 46928.
Dick Grindle, former chief of police in Fairmount, was a classmate of James Dean.
Speaking at this memorial service is a once-in-a-lifetime, emotionally exhausting ordeal for all our speakers. It is so sad that such a talent was lost to the world on that September day. Jimmy was so involved with life; his sun had just risen. Please nurture any sparks of creativity you find in the young people you know. Adeline Nall, his devoted teacher, is gone now. We can carry her torch into the twenty-first century. Take the time.
Katherine Schomisch is planning a benefit in Indianapolis for the summer of 2004. It will have a 1950s theme and James Dean links. We need all the look-alikes to volunteer to circulate among the guests. Email Kathryn at Katherine.Schomisch@nobleofindiana.org
We need the rest of you readers to attend! We need bands to volunteer to play…. This benefit is for a non-profit organization for disabled little children. Can you pitch in? Send ideas? Connect us to anyone with Indianapolis benefit-planning experience?
With the cuts in federal spending, many organizations for genuinely needy tots have lost tremendous amounts of funding. They have to make it up somehow.
LINKS OUT
| The 2003 Memorial Service index of pages | Fans at Park Cemetery 2003 |
Fans at the 2003 Memorial Service |
| Speakers at the Service, 2003 (you are here) | Flowers at graveside, 2003 | Back Creek Friends Meeting |
| The 2002 James Dean Memorial | The 2001 James Dean Memorial | The 2000 James Dean Memorial Service |
| The 1999 James Dean Memorial Service | The 1998 James Dean Memorial | The 1997 James Dean Memorial |
The 2003 James Dean Festival index
Please contact me, Sandra Weinhardt, at wswart@parlorcity.com if you want information added or subtracted. Sometimes my spamkiller kills legit mail, so write again if I fail you. Tell me exactly which page and exactly which picture you are writing about. I tend to forget everything once I finish a huge project like this one. And I do make a lot of other sites. Add a subject line with James Dean in it and I will probably get your email. Thanky.