The Postcard
A postcard that was published by Lilywhite. The image is a glossy real photograph. Note the prefix 'ASH' on the number-plates of the two cars on the right; the prefix indicates that they were both registered in Inverness.
The card was posted in Berwick-upon-Tweed on Sunday the 24th. May 1959 to:
Miss Long,
Stone Bridge,
Sand Street,
Soham,
Ely,
Cambs.
The message on the divided back of the card was as follows:
"I am having a very nice
time here. Bell is very kind,
and Berwick is a most lovely
place.
I feel much better for the
rest and change, but you
know how I feel - as soon as
we can arrange things Rachel
I want you to come.
I feel you would do me so
much good.
I do hope Winifred is a little
better and you and Hilda
are comfortable.
Much love,
Nell."
John Foster Dulles
So what else happened on the day that Nell posted the card?
Well, the 24th. May 1959 marked the death in Washington of John Foster Dulles.
Dulles, who was born on the 25th. February 1888, had developed colon cancer, for which he was first operated on in November 1956 when it had caused a bowel perforation.
He experienced abdominal pain at the end of 1958, and was hospitalized with a diagnosis of diverticulitis. In January 1959, Dulles returned to work, but with more pain and declining health underwent further abdominal surgery in February at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, when the cancer's recurrence became evident.
After recuperating in Florida, Dulles returned to Washington for work and radiation therapy. With further declining health and evidence of bone metastasis, he resigned from office on the 15th. April 1959.
Dulles died at Walter Reed at the age of 71. Funeral services were held in Washington National Cathedral on the 27th. May 1959, and he was laid to rest at Arlington National Cemetery, in Arlington, Virginia.
He was eulogized by President Eisenhower as:
"One of the truly great
men of our time".
'Cathy's Clown'
Also on that day, the Number One chart hit record in the UK was 'Cathy's Clown' by the Everly Brothers.
The Everly Brothers
The Everly Brothers were an American country rock duo, known for steel-string acoustic guitar playing and close harmony singing.
Consisting of Isaac Donald "Don" Everly (born 1st. February 1937) and Phillip "Phil" Everly ( born 19th. January 1939), the duo combined elements of rock and roll with country and pop, becoming pioneers of country rock.
The duo was raised in a musical family, first appearing on radio singing along with their father Ike Everly and mother Margaret Everly as "The Everly Family" in the 1940's.
When the brothers were still in high school, they gained the attention of prominent Nashville musicians like Chet Atkins, who began to promote them for national attention.
They began writing and recording their own music in 1956, and their first hit song came in 1957, with "Bye Bye Love", written by Felice and Boudleaux Bryant. The song hit No. 1 in the spring of 1957, and additional hits followed through 1958, many of them written by the Bryants, including "Wake Up Little Susie", "All I Have to Do Is Dream", and "Problems".
In 1960, they signed with the major label Warner Bros. Records and recorded "Cathy's Clown", written by the brothers themselves, which was their biggest-selling single.
The brothers enlisted in the United States Marine Corps Reserve in 1961, and their output dropped off, though additional hit singles continued through 1962, with "That's Old Fashioned (That's the Way Love Should Be)" being their last top-10 hit.
Long-simmering disputes with Wesley Rose, the CEO of Acuff-Rose Music which managed the group, a growing drug usage in the 1960's, as well as changing tastes in popular music, led to the brothers' decline in popularity in its native U.S.
However Don and Phil continued to release hit singles in the U.K. and Canada, and had many highly successful tours throughout the 1960's.
In the early 1970's, the brothers began releasing solo recordings, and in 1973 they officially broke up. Starting in 1983, the brothers got back together, and continued to perform periodically until Phil's death in 2014.
The brothers were highly influential on the music of the generation that followed it. Many of the top acts of the 1960's were heavily influenced by the close-harmony singing and acoustic guitar playing of the Everly Brothers, including the Beatles, the Beach Boys, the Bee Gees, and Simon & Garfunkel.
In 2015, Rolling Stone ranked the Everly Brothers No. 1 on its list of the 20 Greatest Duos of All Time.
They were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as part of the inaugural class of 1986, and into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2001.
Don was inducted into the Musicians Hall of Fame and Museum in 2019, earning the organization's first Iconic Riff Award for his distinctive rhythm guitar intro to the brothers' massive 1957 hit "Wake Up Little Susie".
The Deaths of the Everly Brothers
Phil Everly died at Providence Saint Joseph Medical Center in Burbank, California, on the 3rd. January 2014, 16 days before his 75th. birthday, of lung disease.
Phil's widow Patti blamed her husband's death on his smoking habit, which caused him to develop chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and recounted Phil's spending his final years having to carry oxygen tanks with him wherever he went and taking 20 different types of medications per day.
Don Everly claimed in a 2014 interview with the Los Angeles Times that he had given up smoking in the late 1960's and that Phil had stopped too, but started again during their breakup and had continued until 2001.
Don said that weak lungs ran in the family, as their father, Ike, had died of black lung disease.
He admitted that he had lived "a very difficult life" with his brother, and that he and Phil had become estranged once again in later years, something that was mainly attributed to their vastly different views on politics and life.
Music was the one thing they shared closely, with Don saying:
"It's almost like we could read each
other's minds when we sang."
Don also stated that despite their differences, he had not gotten over Phil's death:
"I always thought about him every day,
even when we were not speaking to
each other. It still just shocks me that
he's gone."
Don added that he had always firmly believed he would die before his brother, because he was older. In a 2016 interview, Don said he was still coping with the loss of Phil, and that he had kept some of his brother's ashes in his home. He added that he would pick up the ashes every morning and say "Good Morning", while admitting that it was a peculiar ritual.
On August 21, 2021, Don Everly died at his home in Nashville, Tennessee at the age of 84.
