the last famous person you were surprised to discover was actually still alive

Wow.

Whitey Herzog was still alive this week.

This isn't really that surprising, because he isn't that old, and he certainly isn't famous but the boy who provided the voice on Stockhausen's Gesang der Jünglinge is still alive. Which makes me happy. His name is Josef Protschka and he was 80 this year.

this reminded me that one of my most vivid music listening experiences was on a train out of Rome listening to Gesang der Jünglinge, so this also makes me happy. Good work, Josef.

gnna to tell my grandchildren that herbert halbik and josef protschka are the same age and the same guy

He did become an operatic tenor as an adult, he didn't end up as a bus driver or something. That would have been cool though.

Masanori Murakami, turns 80 in a couple of weeks--first Japanese MLB player, pitched for the Giants in '64 and '65. And pitched really well: 90 innings, 65 hits, 100 strikeouts, 23 walks. He was 21 years old. I was mystified, so checked his Wikipedia page; the Japanese commissioner, Yushi Uchimura--Bowie Kuhn's brother, evidently--forced him to return to Japan after the '65 season.

https://i.postimg.cc/7PJ017j8/masanori.jpg

(Wasn't another Japanese player till Hideo Nomo in 1995.)

Jackie Robinson's widow Rachel (101!)

I know...I've posted about her at least once in this thread. Time passes, I'll assume she died and I forgot about it, and then she'll be in the news--she was in one of the clubhouses (Mets', I think) on Jackie Robinson Day last week.

I've posted her once too, itt.

PJ Proby, 85.

Norman "Spirit in the Sky" Greenbaum, 81.

Picked up a nice copy of this not two weeks ago.

https://www.discogs.com/release/1684951-Norman-Greenbaum-Back-Home-Again

Howard Wilkinson, 80

Having belatedly learned of the death of Bruno Latour and Jean-Luc Nancy, I checked up on big names in French Philosophy and many I figured were gone are still here - most surprisingly Luce Irigiray at 93 and Helene Cixous at 86 (I thought both had died decades ago)

Also the painter Alex Katz (who I knew was old and living, but wasn’t sure he was ~still~ living) is in fact alive at 96