UNION is blowin' in the wind through my tree

Every now and then famous people not associated in life are linked in public memory by dying at the same time. Princess Diana and Mother Teresa. Groucho Marx and Elvis Presley. John Adams and Thomas Jefferson. (Okay, so they had some connections with each other before both expiring on the 50th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence). I can't say that I made a point of sharing the legacies of Mary Travers, Patrick Swayze, and Crystal Lee Sutton (the "real Norma Rae") with my children this week, but since I learned the songs of one at summer camp, swooned for another with most middle-school girls in 1987, and had the chance to participate in an interview of the third for a college research paper, together they seemed to sketch an arc through childhood moments for me. I wonder which celebrities will dot Edith and Alice's memories of growing up?

A little Puff