| Rabelais,
Francois (1494?-1553) |
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"Bring down the curtain, the farce is played out." |
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Francois Rabelais was a French writer who had been a Franciscan friar,
a Benedictine monk, a secular priest, and a physician. The obscene
humor and ecclesiastical satire of his greatest book, Gargantua and
Pantagruel, led to his condemnation by the Sorbonne. |
|
Rabelais's last words have also been recorded as "I owe much; I have
nothing; the rest I leave to the poor" and "I am going to seek a great
perhaps." |
 |
Recommended reading:
Gargantua
and Pantagruel by Francois Rabelais |
| Raleigh,
Sir Walter (1554?-1618) |
|
"Strike, man, strike!" |
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Sir Walter Raleigh--a poet, historian, explorer, philosopher, and soldier--was
the epitome of a Renaissance man. Unfortunately, Raleigh's anti-Spanish
privateering alienated King James I who charged him with treason in 1603.
Raleigh was held, under sentence of death, in the Tower of London until
1616 when he was finally granted a reprieve. The reprieve was revoked
in 1618 after Raleigh sailed to South America and attacked a Spanish camp
near the Orinoco River. Upon his return to England, Raleigh was beheaded.
Before his execution, Raleigh refused to be blindfolded and touched the
ax, saying " Doest thou think that I am afraid of it? This is that that
will cure all sorrows." He then placed his head on the block and
noting a hesitance on the part of the executioner said, "What dost thou
fear? Strike, man, strike!" It took two blows to sever his
head, which his wife embalmed and kept in a red leather bag until her death
29 years later. |
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Raleigh's last words have also been recorded as "'Tis a sharp remedy,
but a sure one for all ills" and "So the heart be right, it is no matter
which way the head lieth." |
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For more information:
Sir Walter Raleigh
Collection |
|
Recommended reading:
The
Creature in the Map: A Journey to El Dorado by Charles Nicholl |
| Reeves,
George "Superman" (1914-1959) |
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"I'm tired. I'm going back to bed." |
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George Reeves was an American actor most famous for playing Superman
on the classic 1950's television series. Although Reeves had been
a respected actor for years (one of his first important roles was as one
of the Tarlton twins in Gone With the Wind), he became so typecast
in his Superman role that he couldn't find work after the series ended
in 1957. Late one night while he was living with his finance and
another friend, two other friends came to visit. Reeves became angry
that he had been awakened and announced that he was going back to bed.
He went back upstairs to his bedroom and shot himself in the head with
a 30 caliber luger. |
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For more information:
George Reeves
The Adventures of Superman |
|
Recommended reading:
Hollywood
Kryptonite: The Bulldog, the Lady, and the Death of Superman by
Sam Kashner |
 |
Recommended viewing:
TV's
Best Adventures of Superman: Volume 1 |
| Remington,
Frederic (1861-1909) |
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"Cut 'er loose, Doc!" |
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Frederic Remington was the premier artist of the American West.
In 1909, he developed an acute case of appendicitis. He spoke his
last words to the surgeon just before his emergency appendectomy and died
of peritonitis and other complications following the operation. |
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For more information:
Frederic Remington Art Museum |
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Recommended reading:
Frederic
Remington: Masterpieces from the Amon Carter Museum by Rick Stewart |
| Rhodes,
Cecil John (1853-1902) |
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"So little done, so much to do." |
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Cecil Rhodes emigrated to South Africa from England for health reasons
and made a fortune from gold and diamond mining. He died from heart
disease, beset by personal scandals and discredited for his role in fomenting
the Boer War. A colleague, sitting at his bedside, heard Rhodes murmur
his last words. |
|
For more information
Cecil
Rhodes |
|
Recommended reading:
Rhodes:
Race for Africa by Antony Thomas |
| Roland,
Madame Jeanne-Marie Phlipon (1754-1793) |
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"Oh Liberty! Liberty! What crimes are committed in your name!" |
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Madame Roland was a devotee of Jean-Jacques Rousseau and the wife of
Jean-Marie Roland de La Platière, a former government official who
became a leader of the Girondist party during the French Revolution.
Her salon served as an intellectual meeting place for Girondists and Jacobins,
including Maximilien Robespierre and Georges Danton, alike. When the moderate
Girondists lost popularity and fell into disfavor with the radical leaders
of the revolution following their protests over the killing of the aristocracy,
her husband was forced to flee Paris for safety. Eventually Madame
Roland was arrested and sent to prison. On 23 November she was taken
to the guillotine along with another prisoner. Before she was executed,
Madame Roland bowed to a nearby statue of Liberty and spoke her last words.
Her husband committed suicide upon learning of her death. |
|
Recommended reading;
Memoirs
of Madame Roland: A Heroine of the French Revolution translated
by Evelyn Shuckburgh |
| Roosevelt,
Franklin Delano (1882-1945) |
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"I have a terrific headache." |
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Franklin Roosevelt was the 32nd president of the United States and
greatly expanded the role of the federal bureaucracy in attempting to manage
economic and social issues. As president, he also led the nation
through most of World War II. In February, 1945, Roosevelt met with
Winston Churchill and Joseph Stalin at Yalta to plan the final months of
the war and decide upon the organization of the post-war world. Bested
by Stalin at the conference and exhausted by the negotiations, Roosevelt
returned to the United States and took Lucy Page Mercer Rutherford, his
long-time mistress and his wife's former secretary, with him to relax at
his private getaway in Warm Springs, Georgia. There, while having
his portrait painted, he remarked to the artist that he had a terrible
headache, collapsed, and died of a cerebral hemorrhage. Of course,
Mrs. Rutherford was spirited away before Roosevelt's wife, Eleanor, arrived. |
|
For more information;
The Little
White House State Park
Franklin
D. Roosevelt Library and Museum |
|
Recommended reading:
No
Ordinary Time: Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt: The Home Front in World
War II by Doris Kearns Goodwin
Closest
Companion by Geoffrey C. Ward |
| Rothstein,
Arnold "Mr. Big" (?-1928) |
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"Me mudder did it." |
|
Arnold Rothstein was the notorious gangland money man who made a fortune
on the 1919 World Series fix. Rothstein, a partner of Meyer Lansky,
was shot while playing poker at Park Central Hotel in New York City on
November 4, 1928. He was taken to Polyclinic Hospital where despite
intensive police questioning he refused to name his killer. He appears
as the fictional character, Meyer Wolfshiem, in F. Scott Fitzgerald's novel,
The
Great Gatsby. |
|
For more information:
The Major Players |
|
Recommended reading:
The
Big Bankroll: The Life and Times of Arnold Rothstein by Leo Katcher
The
Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald |
| Ruffin,
Edmund (?-1865) |
|
"I here declare my unmitigated hatred to Yankee rule--to all political,
social and business connection with the Yankees and to the Yankee race.
Would that I could impress these sentiments, in their full force, on every
living Southerner and bequeath them to every one yet to be born! May such
sentiments be held universally in the outraged and down-trodden South,
though in silence and stillness, until the now far-distant day shall arrive
for just retribution for Yankee usurpation, oppression and atrocious outrages,
and for deliverance and vengeance for the now ruined, subjugated and enslaved
Southern States! . . . And now with my latest writing and utterance,
and with what will be near my latest breath, I here repeat and would willingly
proclaim my unmitigated hatred to yankee rule--to all political, social
and business connections with Yankees, and the perfidious, malignant and
vile Yankee race." |
|
Edmund Ruffin was a vocal proponent of secession and rabid supporter
of Southern rights. Following the defeat of the Confederacy, he found
that he could not bear to live under Union reconstruction and chose to
commit suicide. Before he did, he wrote these words in his diary. |
|
For more information:
Edmund S.
Ruffin's Famous Last Words |
| Ruth,
George Herman "Babe" (1895-1948) (see
epitaph) |
|
"I'm going over the valley." |
|
Babe Ruth was one of the all-time greatest American baseball players.
On 13 June 1948, he returned to Yankee Stadium in New York City to celebrate
its 25th anniversary despite being gravely ill from throat cancer.
He was admitted to the hospital a little over a week later but recovered
enough to attend the premier of The Babe Ruth Story starring William
Bendix in late July. He became so weak during the screening that
he departed before the movie finished and was readmitted to the hospital.
On 16 August Ruth told a visitor "Don't come back tomorrow. I won't
be here." Later that evening he left his bed and began to wander
about his room. A doctor noticed him and asked where he was going.
Ruth returned to his bed and lapsed into a coma and died within the hour. |
|
For more information:
Yankees'
Tribute to Babe Ruth |
|
Recommended reading:
Babe:
The Legend Comes to Life by Robert W. Creamer |
|
Recommended viewing:
The
Babe starring John Goodman |
| Sacco,
Nicola (1891-1927) |
|
"If it had not been for these things I might live out my life talking
at street corners to scorning men. I might have died unmarked, a
failure, unknown. Now we are not a failure. This is our career
and our triumph. Never in our full life could we hope to do such
work for tolerance, for justice and for man's understanding of man." |
|
In 1921, Nicola Sacco and his partner Bartolomeo Vanzetti, Italian
immigrant anarchists, were convicted of murdering the paymaster and a guard
at a shoe factory during a robbery. National and international communist,
anarchist, socialist, and labor organizations protested their innocence,
and a series of defense motions and appeals wound their way through the
courts for over six years. Repeatedly, judges and even an independent
investigative committee upheld their conviction and sentence. Both
men were finally executed in 1927. In 1977, on the fiftieth anniversary
of their execution, the governor of Massachusetts, Michael Dukakis, decreed
that they were innocent and declared any "disgrace should be forever removed
from their names." |
|
For more information:
The
Case of Sacco and Vanzetti by Felix Frankfurter
Vanzetti's
Last Statement |
|
Recommended reading:
Sacco
and Vanzetti: The Anarchist Background by Paul Avrich
The
Letters of Sacco and Vanzetti edited Marion Denman Frankfurter |
| Sanders,
George (?-1972) |
|
"Dear World. I am leaving you because I am bored. I
feel I have lived long enough. I am leaving you with your worries
in this sweet cesspool. Good luck." |
|
George Sanders was a British actor whose film career spanned four decades
and included Rebecca, Forever Amber, and All About Eve,
for which he won an Oscar. The screen's epitome of a cad, Sanders
was married four times in real life; his wives included two of the Gabor
sisters, Zsa Zsa and Magda. In April 1972, Sanders checked into a
hotel in Barcelona, wrote a short suicide note, and took an overdose of
sleeping pills. |
|
For more information:
"You,
sir, are an unmitigated cad." |
|
Recommended reading;
Memoirs
of a Professional Cad by George Sanders |
|
Recommended viewing;
All
About Eve starring Betty Davis and George Sanders
Rebecca
starring Joan Fontaine, Laurence Olivier, and George Sanders |
| Saroyan,
William (1908-1981) |
|
"Everybody has got to die, but I have always believed an exception
would be made in my case. Now what?" |
|
William Saroyan was a Pulitzer Prize winning writer of plays, short
stories, and novels whose works were noted for their sentimental optimism.
Before his death in 1981, Saroyan telephoned his final words to the Associated
Press. |
|
For more information:
Saroyan |
|
Recommended reading:
My
Name Is Aram by William Saroyan |
| Scott,
Robert Falcon, Captain (1868-1912) |
|
"Had we lived, I should have had a tale to tell of the hardihood,
endurance, and courage of my companions which would have stirred the heart
of every Englishman. These rough notes and our dead bodies must tell
the tale, but surely, surely, a great rich country like ours will see that
those who are dependent on us are properly provided for. R. Scott" |
|
Captain Scott was a famous British explorer who led an ill-fated expedition
to the South Pole. Despite severe weather and repeated equipment
failure, Scott and his men arrived at the South Pole on January 18, 1912,
only to find that Roald Admundsen and his party had reached it a month
before. On the return trip, the entire party became lost within eleven
miles of the basecamp, and everyone perished. Scott's diary
was later found by other explorers. See Captain
Lawrence Oates. |
|
For more information:
The Terra Nova Expedition
1910-1912 |
| Sedgwick,
John "Uncle John," General (1813-1864) |
|
"They couldn't hit an elephant at this dist--." |
|
General John Sedgwick was a corps commander in the Army of the Potomac
during the Civil War. At the battle of the Wilderness, while inspecting
his troops, he approached a parapet and peered out over the surrounding
countryside. His officers and men urged him to take cover from small
arms fire, but Sedgwick scoffed at their concerns, "What! What men! This
will never do, dodging from single bullets!" As the general
spoke his last words, he was shot in the head by a Confederate sharpshooter. |
|
For more information:
Uncle John Sedgwick |
| Sitting
Bull (1831-1890) |
|
"I am not going. Do with me what you like. I am not
going. Come on! Come on! Take action! Let's go!" |
|
Although Sitting Bull--an important Sioux chief who is most famous
for his role in defeating Custer at the Battle of the Little Big Horn--surrendered
with about 200 of his followers in 1886, he continued to resist the U.S.
government and tribal authorities by encouraging performances of the Ghost
Dance ceremony and fomenting a new war against the white man. On
15 December 1890, about forty Native American members of the Indian Constabulary
surrounded Sitting Bull's cabin and attempted to arrest him. When
Sitting Bull refused to leave with the police, a crowd of angry supporters
gathered around him. One of them, Catch the Bear, pulled a gun and
shot the senior officer, Lieutenant Henry Bull Head. As Bull Head
fell, he fired once and hit Sitting Bull in the side. A close quarters
fire fight immediately broke out, and by the time it ended fourteen men--six
of whom were police officers--had died. |
|
For more information:
An
Account of Sitting Bull's Death |
| Sobhuza
II (1899-1982) |
|
"I am going." |
|
Sobhuza II, King of Swaziland, called a meeting of his advisors to
discuss political relations with other African states. Suddenly,
he stopped the meeting and dismissed everyone except his minister of health.
To him, Sobhuza said, "I am going." Confused, the minister asked
where. Sobhuza silently smiled, waved good-bye, and died. |
|
For more information:
His Majesty King
Sobhuza II |
| Stein,
Gertrude (1874-1946) |
|
"What is the question?" |
|
Gertrude Stein was a U.S. writer who became famous for her experimental
prose. She lived most of her life in Paris with her companion Alice
B. Toklas. When Stein was dying of cancer, she turned to Alice B.
Toklas and whispered, "What is the answer?" Miss Toklas did not respond.
Stein nodded, as if in agreement, and continued, "In that case, what is
the question?" |
|
For more information:
Stein,
Gertrude |
|
Recommended reading:
Autobiography
of Alice B. Toklas by Gertrude Stein
Gertrude
Stein: In Words and Pictures: A Photobiography edited by Gertrude
Stein |
|
