WHOA!!! I just found out, by googling my name (which I do occasionally to see what else has popped up about me that I may want to know about) that the letter President Reagan wrote to me has been republished in the book REAGAN: A LIFE IN LETTERS. It's on page 69 of the hardcover edition. I still cherish his letter -- and the one I wrote that elicited a 100% personalized response, answering each topic point by point! I was FLOORED to get a response...

About DeForest Kelley...The Final Journey

The reminders started coming in before midnight from England. This is the 11th anniversary of De's passing.  It's a dreary day here outdoors and perhaps that's fitting...

But on the day he actually passed away, the sun was shining in southern California. And it became very busy, very fast.


I was in charge of calling the 12 people on his list that needed to be notified of his death before the information assaulted the airwaves. The publicist at the hospital said she would release the news at 3 p.m., so I had just under three hours to help Carolyn back to her room, process the loss myself, and make those calls.  It was a very short three hours.


None of the people on De's call list had been given any notice that he was in precarious health -- I'm sure to alleviate their pain until the last possible second, and perhaps to keep the news from leaking out that he was seriously sick at all.  (22K+ cards and notes -- which we received after his passing -- would have put him over the edge, for sure, because he was always so good about responding to everyone who cared enough about him to reach out to him.)

So I had to make the calls, introduce myself, and diplomatically find a way to deliver devastating news. The call list included his two nephews.

The shock in every voice was palpable over the phone. "What?! I can't believe it? What happened?! I didn't even know he was sick!"

So every call took a minimum of five minutes, except when I had to leave voicemail messages. De didn't want anyone who was close to him to find out about his passing while driving a car or by turning on the television...

I turned all the PR stuff over to AC Lyles at Paramount. He would know what to say. I didn't have time or the inclination to face cameras, questions and the further distress of saddened reporters. (When I watched the news late that night, I could see that, although the reporters were professional, they were very sad and surprised to hear the news.)

I wanted to go to the vigil near his star that night... felt I should be there since I was his star polisher.. but it had been a very, very long day and I was exhausted.  Unable to sleep, but exhausted.  So exhausted that as I left Carolyn that night to drive home, the thought crossed my mind as I exited her hospital room, "Oh, wait. I still need to go over and say goodnight to De..."  Crazy. I suppose predictable, too.

While we waited for the fellow from the Neptune Society to arrive to pick up De's body, I sat with Carolyn part of the time and cleaned De's room part of the time (at Carolyn's request, so things wouldn't be vulnerable to theft, souvenirs, what have you).  It was eerie cleaning up in the room where his body lay.  One thing I noticed, the few times I looked over at him, was how peaceful he seemed. The lines in his face were relaxed, smooth. I thought about how hard it must have been for him these past months (indeed, two years) to be constantly concerned about what would happen to Carolyn following his passing. This couple was in love, top to toes; it filled the room as they struggled to keep a lid on the inescapability of his leavetaking.


When the Neptune Society driver arrived, about 4 pm, I left Carolyn's room to help him move De from the bed to the gurney (or whatever you call the contraption that funeral folks use), then accompanied his body as the man pushed the cart down the long hallways to his van.  Nurses stopped what they were doing, turned with respect to the event. Some said, "Goodbye, De.." "Thank you, De."  "God bless you, De," as we passed.  The lump in my throat got bigger; my eyes were swimming.

As we exited the building, TV helicopters hovered overhead. I told the Neptune guy, "I know he can't feel anything, but be gentle with him."  He said, "Oh, I will!  We are with everyone. But I have to tell you.. this one is special to me, too. I've picked up some famous people -- Mayor Sam Yorty included -- but Mr. Kelley... well, I'll never forget this day."

Neither will I. Neither will I.

If I could, I suppose I would, because absolutely every other memory I have of that man is happy, hopeful, humorous and beyond human description. I put a lot of the good stuff into my first book about De. Those of you who have read it now know him about as well as I did all along the way.  And I hope you were all blessed by it.

The last part was hard to read, I know (even though I was very careful as I wrote it) because it was hard to live through. But live through we do... because it's what we have to do, and for no other reason. If losing someone we love doesn't hurt, something is very wrong.

Carolyn and I were "prepared" to lose him, but we weren't ready to lose him. The rest of the world, in a very real sense, was in the same boat with us eleven years ago today.

I'm happy to say that on most days of the year his passing is the farthest thing from my mind. What he brought to this planet remains. That's why people email me from all over the world on his birthday and on this day to tell me they're with me in solidarity: heart, mind and spirit.

DeForest Kelley: You brought love, grace and joy to the world, much like another Fellow you're with today. I hope you look down occasionally and grin that wonderful grin. It lit up the world.

"He isn't really dead, you know... as long as we remember him."

DE: WE REMEMBER YOU -- WITH LOVE AND THANKS!

Lisa Hamner, De's Present Star Polisher

June 11, 2009

Next Installment -- DE-Mented: Crazy About De

OK, over the past week at some point I found the original (unedited) manuscript of my first book about De Kelley (DeFOREST KELLEY: A HARVEST OF MEMORIES, My Life and Times with a Remarkable Gentleman Actor). I'm going through it to glean the DE-mented, crazy stuff that was edited out due to lack of space and due to the fact that the book would debut just two years after his passing which, to many fans and me, was still within the period of mourning. (I was trying to keep the volume a bit more sedate and respectful than our association actually was, out of respect for his fans who would be reading it and coming to grips again with his passing toward the end of it.)

Y'all so enjoyed the Bunny Rabbit "Trekker Treat" story a few blogs ago that I'm encouraged to dig out "the rest of the story" and let you in on some more of the insanity. I think you'll appreciate De all the more for his wild sense of humor after this is all over!

Here you go. Enjoy!

The following adventure took place not long after the letter I sent De on page 20 of DeFOREST KELLEY: A HARVEST OF MEMORIES... in case you're keeping track.. very early on in the newly-budding association I was at that time developing with the Kelleys. By this time in the story, I had met them only once (May 4, 1968); had not yet gone to a second convention or re-met them in person and had dinner with them in Denver. In other words, I was still very much on the outer edges of fandom, but was writing to them and keeping them grinning...

So, with that little bit of background information, here we go. (Print it out and place it into the book after page 20, if you want.)

In November, I planned the next adventure. I would fly to Tampa, Florida for De's next convention, in January. Then my car broke down, and I was suddenly penniless again. I was livid... I was sad... I was DE-straught. But I was resolved not to let this "little" (ARGHHH!) tragedy kill me.

The week before the con, I went to the dentist for a check-up. The experience there provided all the ammunition needed for the next funny letter to the Kelleys.

I wrote:

"Dear Ones:

I want to pass along to you some vital professional advice. It's revolutionary.

Up until today, I thought I had heard it all. But I was wrong.

Today I went in for my regular dental check-up. The dentist looked around in my oral cavity and couldn't find anything on my teeth worth complaining about, so he asked, "And do you also brush your tongue?"

??????????????????

If he hadn't had both hands and some sort of lethal-looking device shoved halfway down my throat, I would have laughed. Instead, I almost choked. When he let me up for air, I said, "You're joking, right?"

"Not at all."

He was serious! He said that people who brush their tongues taste food better. He said that bacteria found on the teeth are also on the tongue; it only made sense that they should receive similar treatment.

O.K. I accepted that; it sounded logical. But that led me to ask, "But -- how do you brush your tongue without gagging?"

He had an answer for that, too. He said, "Stick your tongue out and pant while you brush."

I was beginning to wonder if I had run into one of those dentists you're not supposed to trust as far as you can throw them. (I'm still not sure I didn't!) But now I am dutifully brushing my tongue, as well as my teeth. And it gags me every time, because I refuse to pant in a house where others live and where the walls are thin. I mean, can you IMAGINE?!

"What's she DOING in there?! (silence) (long pause) "I TOLD you we should have had her confined when she started talking to animals, but NO! YOU said she'd out-grow it! And now THIS!"

But the dentist is right: food DOES taste better! (Just what I need, is for food to taste better: I'm already 30 pounds overweight!)

I have been thinking about this conversation ever since. And I thought, "Well, I'll bet THIS is something Carolyn and De haven't been written to about before! It isn't easy coming up with a letter of the month to you that won't end up sounding like old hat, you know. I mean, don't you get tired of hearing how wonderful you are, how you have changed people's lives for the better... all that serious, mushy stuff? Isn't it REFRESHING to know you can always count on me to update you on oral hygiene and other medical and dental advances now and then?

Love you,

Kris (pant, pant)

I sent that letter off on a Monday, the week before the Tampa convention weekend. I didn't figure they would even receive it until after the convention, so I wasn't expecting anything the day my Florida friend (with whom I was planning to visit and hobnob with at the convention while in Florida) called to give me the lowdown on what was happening back there on the east coast.

She floored me by saying, right off the bat, "Oh, Kris, the most awful thing happened..."

My throat fell into my shoes. "What?!" I cried.

She said, "My car broke down on my way to the convention, and I missed De's appearance completely!"

I was so upset by that, I started saying, "Oh, no! Oh, NO!" so much that she finally had to tell me to shut up so she could tell me the rest of her story. "But I DID get to see him AFTER his appearance."

"Oh, SUPER!" I said. "Where was he?"

"HE WAS IN THE BATHROOM, BRUSHING HIS TONGUE!"

I screamed, no doubt deafening her.

As it turned out, my friend had seen De and had ended up on the same shuttle flight between the Tampa and Fort Lauderdale conventions. De had invited her into first class to sit with him and Carolyn, and they had gotten to talking about this goofy letter I had sent them, so De had decided to have my friend play this silly joke on me. He had directed my friend to hang up on me as soon as she reached the punchline (so it would sink in that there was NO WAY she would even have known about the brushing-the-tongue letter without him having told her), but she couldn't bring herself to do that.

Now, remember, I still hadn't spent more than 15 minutes with the Kelleys over the course of 18 years. I couldn't believe that they would go out of their way like this to make me feel a part of the convention I was so heartbroken over not being able to attend.

My friend called me all weekend long to tell me what was happening. One night the Kelleys even came very close to calling me on the phone from a restaurant that they and my friend were at, except that the place was jam-packed and they were hidden back in a quiet alcove. De would have had to risk being spotted going to the phone, and that would have turned the whole evening into an unscheduled personal appearance, so reluctantly, he finally decided against the idea. He told her, "You'll have to tell Kris that, in this instance, it's the thought that counts!"

And, of course, it was everything. I'll never forget it.

The next convention was two months later, in Denver. My friend had joked with De at the Florida con, "Well, I drove all the way here to spend your birthday woth YOU, so now we will fly to Denver in March so you can spend our birthdays with US!" De asked, "Your birthdays are in March?" She said, "Uh-oh. Yeah..." De said, "I won't forget that, you know..."
We started fantasizing what De might mean by, "I won't forget your birthdays." At one point, I kidded, "Gee! Maybe we'll end up at dinner!" (I was sad because I had missed out on the dinner in Florida, so it was on my mind, big-time.) Then I added, "I'd even pay for it -- providing we go to McDonalds!" My friend lost it over that "plan of action."
The ridiculous scenario hit her like a ton of bricks, so both us us started writing goofy skits in which we wind up at McDonalds in Denver with De and Carolyn. The skits had De posing beneath the golden arches with both of the birthday girls until he was frozen like a popsicle in the icy temperatures; they had him sucking helium out of balloons and yelling, "He's dead, Jim!" in a falsetto; all sorts of crazy, riotous stuff.
My friend wrote to the Kelleys, telling them just enough about the skits to get the basics, and then sent a $5 book of McDonald's gift certificates to them, asking them if they might enclose them in a birthday card to me! De did better than that: On a post-it note emblazoned with "Trust Me: I'm a Doctor" he wrote "maybe you can use these in Denver!"
I haven't the faintest memory of anything else I received that year for my birthday, but I've never forgotten De's post-it note!
<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

It was at the next convention, in Denver two months later, that I actually re-connected one-on-one in person again with the Kelleys... and they never let me go after that. But that's all in my first book about De. In case you haven't already read it, now would be a good time! There's a link to it in the first paragraph of this blog entry. Hint, hint...

You won't be sorry if you click on it and actually get the book. Check out the reviews at Amazon and other online bookstores...

If any of these blog posts give you a grin or anything else of value please tweet them! Thank you!

Update -- and a Brand New Kelley Story to Enjoy!

Finished a 20 hour, $500 project today and started another one. WOO HOO!

Also went to the movie today with the wee ones again. Wendy, Jamie, Casey and I saw Horton Hears a Who, a Dr. Seuss classic that's even better with the voiceovers of Jim Carrey, Steve Carrell and Carol Burnett. I've seen the movie before, but twice is not too many times. I'd probably enjoy seeing it a third time, and a fourth, way down the road sometime. Very clever, very well done.

I fertilized the lawn and watered it today since the temperature was slated to reach only 75 degrees today and tomorrow. After that it's soaring into the 90's again. I wish it would stay 75 for the next four days, but that isn't going to happen. My garage sale is Friday and Saturday from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m...

If I think I can survive it, I want to help out at the northbound Rochester rest stop (south of Olympia) on Monday from 6 a.m. to noon or 2. Don't know if I can make it past 10 though, if the temperature is going to skyrocket. I dehydrate and overheat very easily these days. The rest area is in the trees, so that should reduce the temperature by 15 or 20 degrees, I think. I'll call Vernita on Sunday and see how they're faring. I just need a little encouragement to know I won't die doing a good deed. (It's a fundraiser for the women's ministry at CFAN. They're offering free coffee to travelers and accepting donations.)

What else? My hair is getting too long. I have given it four months to hang down to the lower part of my jaw, but I just can't handle it anymore. I tug on it all the time and it feels like straw. I don't think it looks that much better on me, either, although others disagree. I just don't want to have to mess with it, and so I don't, and then it looks like I don't mess with it, so shorter is better for me. I'm gonna get it chopped off next time I go in. Yes. And the sooner the better.

The baby birds are almost too big for their nest anymore. I'll catch a few more photos of them -- better ones this time, I hope -- before they fly away. I expect they'll start thinking about that in the next week or so.

Yesterday I took photos of the garden and of Jackie with its first fruits -- an armful of zucchini and a quart or more of peas. We had mushrooms and zucchini for dinner last night with peapods on the side. Scrumptious. There's nothing like homegrown produce. And those peas are producing so fast it's hard to keep up.

Guess that's about it for now. Oh... I owe you a new De story, don't I? *sigh* OK... Here you go..

<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<< >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>


Trekker Treat

The Kelley Home

A friend and I were going to knock on A.C. Lyles' Bel Air door one year at Halloween time dressed in the most pathetic (by design) rabbit costumes possible, and say we were there to audition for a sequel to De's movie NIGHT OF THE LEPUS (a.k.a. in fandom as Attack of the Killer Bunnies), which AC produced and directed. (I was also AC's star polisher at the time, so he knew me and my friend well enough that he wouldn't call Bel Air Security or shoot us when we arrived at the door.)

We fashioned ears out of white panty hose/leotards and placed cardboard into them so that when we pulled them onto our heads, they'd look really, really dumb! (Again, by design.)

We got mens white BVDs/briefs and pulled those on over white jogging pants and glued gaudy, misshapen bunny tails onto them. We had something on for t-shirts but I don't recall now what those looked like. (That's why I wish I could get to my journals or the unedited version of HARVEST OF MEMORIES right now... but I can't.)

Ready, set... all that remained was to call AC's wife to make sure they'd be home so we could surprise him with this outlandish stunt.

We called. The phone rang. Martha Lyles picked up the phone, listened, laughed, and then said, "I'm sorry to have to tell you this but AC isn't even in town right now. He's back on the east coast campaigning for President (George Herbert Walker) Bush. I'm sorry you went to all that trouble for nothing."

Deflated, disappointed, and frustrated, we hung up. Then my friend perked up noticeably. I asked, "What"?'

She said, "Let's do it to De."

I said, "No way."

She said, "Oh c'mon! It was his movie, too -- and we've spent a small fortune here on these asinine costumes."

I repeated: "No way. Absolutely -- no -- way -- in -- hell with you catch me in the Kelley neighborhood in these getups."

"Why not?"

"Because I visit there. His neighbors think I'm sane. No way am I going to give them any other way to think of me."

My friend moped... and moped... and moped... until I began to consider her dumb idea.

She saw that and perked up again, like a dog about to be tossed a bone or a ball.

Damn...

"All right..."

She jumped up.

"All right," I repeated, "but it goes against everything I believe in. I can act like an idiot in Bel Air, because nobody knows me there, but Sherman Oaks is different..."

She already had the door open against the possibility that I might back out on the idea.

We went...

We drove to the Kelleys address, got out of the car... My friend grabbed a handful of Science Diet kibble and held it tightly in one fist. That did not bode well at all, but I had no idea...

We walked up to the front door of the Kelley abode and knocked.. waited... knocked again...

Suddenly we heard the garage door open "behind" us. (Take a look at the configuration of the Kelley home in the photo above, and you'll see where the front door is -- to the left side of the garage up a little walkway -- and you'll know what I mean.) We turned to face the street and the direction from which the sound of a garage door opening was emanating.

Around the corner came De, blocking our escape. He didn't look any too happy. He threw a look across the street to see if any of his neighbors were witnessing the atrocity, and saw they weren't. That seemed to relieve him. But he still didn't look overjoyed to see us.

My friend fake-hopped over to where he was, fist of Science Diet kibble held under her tail, and when she got to him, she "crapped" it onto the sidewalk and said, "Oh, Mr. Kelley, I'm so excited to see you again!"

Fastidious De looked down at the bouncing, rolling kibble, frowned, and knelt down to begin retrieving it. I was mortified. My friend (by now she was quickly becoming my former friend, for having dragged me into this embarrassing fiasco) knelt, too, and started to help him pick up the fake poop, but De would have none of it. He stood back up, frowned like the great badass actor he was, and pointed toward his front door. "Get inside the house. Now. Get. Inside. Now."

It was as close to Toby Jack Saunders as I ever saw him get in real life.

We. Went. Inside. The. House. No further questions asked. Yes, sir, Mr. Kelley!

Once inside, a cheery voice called out, "Hi, girls! Come on back!"

We scurried to the work room, where Carolyn sat. She howled when she saw us. "What on earth are you two up to now?" she asked.

I quickly said, "We were going to go trick or treating at AC's and do a NIGHT OF THE LEPUS number on him, but he's back east campaigning for the President..." I glared at my friend so she'd finish the story, but she didn't... so I added, "So 'we' -- cough cough -- decided we shouldn't waste our efforts and ... came here instead."

oh please, oh, please, Carolyn, figure this one out and realize that it was not my idea!

By this time De came into the house, into the workroom, and joined Carolyn in a chair across from us. I decided he really wasn't mad; he had just been "portraying" pissed.

He looked at both of us sitting there in our pathetic costumes and shook his head. Then he offered, "You know, in those rabbit ears, you two look a little bit like nuns."

My friend laughed and replied, "No one has ever thought of me as a nun before!" and De retorted, "I'm sure of that!"

I was blushing horribly and since I was dressed all in white, it showed.

That's the first and last time I ever trick or treated at the Kelley home. And it was under duress, I can assure you.

Still... as I revisited it again just now, I was laughing so hard and so loud that Jackie came over to see what was happening over here... so it's a memory that I treasure to my toes now!

I tell you... we were insane back in the good old days of yesteryear...

#

If any of these blog posts give you a grin or anything else of value please tweet them! Thank you!

The DE-Mented (Crazy About De) Side of Me...

This afternoon Dr. Mary Jo Robinson and I spent a couple hours watching convention tapes of De. It was a lot of fun and reminded me of his fun, funny side and all the ways we frequently cracked each other up before life became so blasted serious and precarious toward the end of his time on earth. I have been living in the aftermath of his loss for so long that I more or less laid the humorous memories aside, other than the couple dozen or so that I put into the first book I wrote about him (DeFOREST KELLEY: A HARVEST OF MEMORIES).

Then I got an email from Mary Doman today (whose essay in the newest book about De, ENDURING LEGACY, is nothing short of fabulous) telling me that she hopes I'll still write the book about De that I intended to write before I got the idea for ENDURING LEGACY; a book that tells "the rest of the story" of my fun association with the Kelleys: all the silly, fun stuff I edited out of the first tome so that readers

a.) would be able to lift the blasted thing and

b.) not have to pay an arm and a leg for it

Talk about perfect timing.

But... another book? Eegads...

A book is hard work, really hard work, even when they're labors of love. And I barely broke even on the other two I wrote about De, not because they aren't good, not because people who read them don't love them, but because the mass media folks couldn't care less about letting people know they exist! (The reviews at Amazon are mostly 5-stars and at Payloadz they're 100% 5-stars and the e-book is still #1 in the non-fiction category nearly two months after its debut.)

And publicizing via the social media route is so time-consuming that if I did that as often as I "must" to keep the information out there, I'd wind up bleary-eyed for my day job (copy writing at Elance), at which I have to be very, very sharp to keep earning glowing reviews and additional clients! So it's kind of a Catch-22: I can write good books, but where do I find enough hours in the day to multi-task (Elance work and viral networking, plus life as a homeowner, yard mower, weed puller, vegetable gardener, sister and auntie) and still stay sane and viable? It's a pickle!

So, since I need to make money if I'm going to be investing significant time writing more about De (this time totally humorously), Mary suggested that I "blog" the stories going forward and when I have enough of them down in black and white, I can compile them into an e-book and offer them for sale. This way, she says, I'll only be investing the time I usually invest in blogging and won't need to take time away from my real job to make headway on it.

Hmmm... Sounds totally do-able.

But...

Doesn't logic suggest, Mr. Spock, that if people can get stuff for free (via this blog) they probably won't bother to buy the same stories in e-book form later?

Mr. Spock : "Not necessarily. Many people glean postings from their blogs and create viable e-books with the information. However, if memory serves, most of them are 'how-to' or technical books."

Oh joy... (Vulcans sure can be wet blankets at times...)

Mary says she will buy one, for sure! So I have one confirmed buyer! The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step!

So now I'm going to ask YOU: If I do as Mary suggests, and you get to read all (or almost all) of my previously-unpublished funny De-related tales for free right here on my blog in the days and weeks to come (off and on), would you, too, be willing to buy a compilation of the same material if it's offered for under $5 at some time in the future, to share with friends and/or to keep for yourself in one convenient volume?

I need some encouragement, here. I don't need to make a killing, but I do need to know that people would value a De-based (debased?!) book of humor enough to buy it at some point... and tell others about it... and purchase a few extras as gifts, even...

(Hey, you could do the same thing with the two existing De books, too, and the other three really good books I've written that aren't De related.)

[No pressure! wink, wink]

Whaddaya say?

Let me hear from you! Would you help support this "starving artist" if I blog my best stuff before publishing it? LET ME KNOW!

A Humor Sampler

(no real-life anecdotes included, yet, but I have a bunch of them!)

A never-before published limerick that I wrote and sent to the Kelleys:

It isn't all a bad dream -

I'm as stuck on you as I seem.

If you had your druthers,

You might prefer others -

Or even the transporter beam!

A never-before-published poem I wrote about the RowDE Cowboy:

(based on a real incident)

Now, De was a cowboy with flair

He rode side-by-side without care

'Til one day, while dismountin'

He spurred he next mount an'

Spent half of the scene in midair!

Song I co-wrote to the tune of Yellow Rose of Texas:

(semi-raunchy ranch humor)

De is De Rowdy Cowboy

We girls just love to love

His eyes are even bluer

Than Texas skies above

You can talk about Roy Rogers

Or the dudes from Lonesome Dove

But De's the only cowboy

That we will ever love.

My mama told me not to love

A man with big blue eyes

He'd only steal my heart away

And tell me lots of lies

But let him tell me all those lies

and lead me to the straw

'Cause De's the sexiest cowboy

That I have ever saw!

Can you tell I started out as a silly, starry-eyed teenager?

Yup! And it was a lot of fun!

Then I grew up

and life got seriouser and seriouser...

but we still laughed and laughed

right up until the end.

It sure beat crying!

"Return with us now, to those thrilling days of yesteryear.

The RowDE Cowboy rides again!"

#
If any of these blog posts give you a grin or anything else of value please tweet them! Thank you!

Thank You, DeForest Kelley...

I face a blank page here... wondering where to start...

I've been contacted several times already today - via phone and email - telling me that others are thinking about De today, too, and thanking me for being there for him and Carolyn when they needed someone they could count on.

Sometimes it seems it just happened; at other times, it seems like it couldn't possibly have happened the way it did, that it must all have been a really great dream that ended very sad...

When someone you love and rely on for wise input and undying encouragement dies, you go into a kind of shock, especially when you have to carry on, make arrangements, be strong for somebody else. You manage to function in a fog, day to day, like an animal, out of memory, out of instinct more than out of any real desire.

Over time, as the numbness fades and the big hole in your life (where your friend once stood) yawns before you, you find healing to be slow. You're alternately angry, afraid, confused. You wonder anew if the tales of heaven are true or only fabrications of a mind that refuses to let go of the person you loved and the person you are. You realize you MUST see them again, be with them again, to tell them that even though you appreciated them in life, you had no idea how little you could measure their worth to your world until they were gone.

I'm lucky in so many ways. When it comes to De, I have hours of convention tapes to keep me company when I feel a need to re-connect visually, viscerally. Not that I do it much, because even though it's cool, it's never enough. It isn't now, it isn't here, it isn't real. It was real, but now it's just a memory, as blessed and as wonderful as memories are.

I think, "People like De should never die. They're too valuable. They love like too few others do."

I interact with other Christians frequently, and see glimpses of De in them, but even in this rarefied atmosphere, so few of them seem to "get" Christ and his message in the way De did. God's message ("love one another") inhabited De the way beauty inhabits a rose. Never a Bible-thumper or preacher, De was simply a mirror -- a reflector of God's love and light.

St. Francis' saying fit De to a T: "Preach the gospel always. If necessary, use words."

It's this quality I miss most about De. He knew what a failed human being I am, when compared against my actual potential. I have always wanted to grow up to be just like De, a reflection of Christ (since becoming like De seems at least remotely do-able, while becoming like Christ -- completely perfect and without sin -- does not).

De was a touchstone for me. Here was a man who had mastered the art of being in the world but not of the world. His ministry was to lift up the downcast and downtrodden and help them realize they are worthy of love.

He was an encourager, a helper, a reliable beacon, and an invaluable friend. I have no doubt whatsoever that when he arrived in heaven ten years and fifteen minutes ago, he heard, "Well done, good and faithful servant."

De, I miss you, love you, and will never forget you. And I look forward to seeing you again soon. You are as irreplaceable in my life as you are in eternity.


http://trekmovie.com/2009/06/11/remembering-deforest-kelley-2/

"Our relationships are the only things we carry with us into eternity."

Pastor Bill Wolfson, Church For All Nations

Link to the DeForest Kelley/Kris Smith Interview...

In case you missed the interview, you can access it here. It's two hours long, so sit back and relax! (Get a tissue first, though! Some of it is mighty poignant...)
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/NoriegaDOTBiz/2009/06/04/Kristin-M-Smith-beams-in-for-a-visit

One of My Articles to Appear Tomorrow...

Author Pat Bertram (More Deaths Than One and A Spark of Heavenly Fire, available from Second Wind Publishing, LLC; Bertram's website URL is http://patbertram.com/) is scheduling a Facebook Event for tomorrow.

For the event, she'll be publishing my newest article, Writing a Memoir, and then will be opening up the forum for its readers (mostly writers) to send me questions.

If you're interested, here's the link:
http://ptbertram.wordpress.com/2009/05/11/deforest-kelley-a-harvest-of-memories-my-life-and-times-with-a-remarkable-gentleman-actor/

Let me know what you think afterward, please!

I Met DeForest Kelley 41 Years Ago Today....

Flashback, May 4, 1968

Wow! I just realized it's May 4th.

I met DeForest and Carolyn Kelley for the first time on May 4, 1968, 41 years ago today. Never would I have dared to dream, on that special day, that this meeting was a God appointment and that the Kelleys would figure into my life in the way they have and always will.

It seems like a fairy tale dreamed up by a school girl. But DeForest Kelley and his wife Carolyn helped make it all come true for me, as they did for so many others.

I have a three ring binder here at home containing copies of De's important papers. I have the list he wrote for me of the addresses and phone numbers of his closest friends and relatives, the people he wanted me to call as soon as he passed away so that I could give them the sad, unexpected news and they wouldn't have to find out on the radio while driving home or on the TV after they got home. I have a copy of his personal address and phone book. He wanted me to have all this for the biography I never wrote. (I loaned it all to Terry Lee Rioux so she could do the honors, because I'm an anecdotal writer, not an historian.) I have lots more... andI will find an appropriate repository for all of these artifacts -- a museum that "gets" and truly honors his importance -- and pass it along to them when I'm sure I have found the right one. Terry is helping me decide because she's the historian. I just pulled it out of my archives because I remembered that on the cover of this (very sentimental to me) three-ring binder is a poem I found and placed there, because it pretty much says it all. It reads, in part...

FOR YOU

by Martha Snell Richardson

The things you loved I have not laid away

To moulder in the darkness, year by year;

The songs you sang, the books you read each day

Are all about me, intimate and dear.

I do not keep your chair a thing apart,

lonely and empty, desolate to view --

But if one come a'weary, sick at heart --

I seat him there and comfort him for you.

I do not go apart in grief and weep,

For I have known your tenderness and care.

Such memories are joys that we may keep,

And so I pray for those whose lives are bare...

Perchance so much that now seems incomplete

Was left for me in my poor way to do,

And I shall love to tell you when we meet

That I have done your errands, dear, for you.

OK, I'm in tears. This poem reveals the soul of what my two books about DeForest were written to accomplish: I wanted to finish the loving errands that sickness compelled De to leave undone, to let his fans, his friends and his co-workers know that he loved them more than they would ever be able to accept or realize.

He was simply and truly sum'pin' else, my friends.

The PR is LIVE Now!

WOO HOO! The press release for my new book, The Enduring Legacy of DeForest Kelley: Actor, Healer Friend has been LIVE since midnight at PRWeb and the book has already received three five-star reviews (highest possible rating) at Payloadz.

Gosh, I love it when a plan comes together!

There have already been 4,700 views of the press release. A significant percentage of viewers have also printed out the press release for follow-up. Perhaps with the new movie coming out this week I have finally released a PR that won't be swallowed up (God forbid!) in the way the PR for the first book was. (DeForest Kelley: A Harvest of Memories came out just weeks after September 11th, 2001 and not even I was interested in thinking about much else in the aftermath of that tragic day.) I'm glad I had the insight to release it this week just before the debut of the newest TREK incarnation and not wait until the actual 10th anniversary of De's passing (June 11th, 2009). That would have been too sad a day to do it, anyway. Why not announce it when the puppies are bouncing over a new TREK movie, so it can do double duty?

I will be going to Facebook and listing an announcement on the De Kelley fans pages there, and on some of the STAR TREK sites as well.

Thanks to all of you who worked like the Energizer bunny to get the word out in advance of the PRWeb release. Because of you, the outlay for the PR ($100) is already halfway paid off! That means that 10 people downloaded the book before the PR even went live at PRWeb.

Keep at it! If you visit a De or Trek website that doesn't have a blurb about the new book, please send them the PR and let them deal with it, if you would be so kind!

Thanks!

Here's a copy of the official PR from PRWeb (you can cut and paste it wherever you like in the TREK/De Kelley realm as long as it, or something about the new e-book, isn't already there:)

New DeForest Kelley Book Debuts During Tenth Anniversary of Star Trek Actor's Passing

Kristine M Smith, author of DeForest Kelley: A Harvest of Memories (2001), celebrates the late actor's enduring legacy in a new e-book

Seattle, WA (PRWEB) May 3, 2009 -- In the first edition of a newly-released 61-page e-book, The Enduring Legacy of DeForest Kelley: Actor, Healer, Friend, DeForest Kelley's former personal assistant Kristine M Smith has compiled the memories and reminiscences of nearly two dozen fans and friends whose lives were blessed and changed forever by the career or kindness of the late actor who portrayed Dr. Leonard "Bones" McCoy in the original Star Trek television series and motion pictures.

On the back cover of the new e-book, available via Payloadz.com, Smith writes, "I was going to write a book about all the things I had to leave out of my first book about De (in order for readers to be able to lift the blasted thing!), but then got to thinking that enough of my own story has already been told. I don't want anyone getting the impression that I was the only fan that DeForest and Carolyn Kelley took under their wings, because that simply is not true. The Kelleys were emotionally invested in their fans. They loved them, appreciated them, respected them - and it always showed."

The e-book reveals that many of Kelley's fans went on to become doctors, nurses, medical technicians, social workers, and other helping professionals. One even went so far as to become a space nurse for NASA. Still others continue to impact the world as writers, actors and teachers. All have realized the impact that the iconic "Dr. McCoy" has had on their lives. Smith says, "The legacy of the reel McCoy has blessed the world with some very real McCoys who continue to boldly go where few have gone before, making a difference every step of the way."

Smith adds, "One goal of the book is to encourage other Kelley and Star Trek fans to 'go thou and do likewise.' De was always most proud of fans who took their inspiration from the series and elected to use it to help others. Another goal is to present the e-book as a keepsake to new DeForest Kelley fans who are too young to remember when he was among us. I don't want anybody to miss out on his unique and continuing influence."

Author Kristine M Smith's blog is located at http://almostfamousbydesfault.blogspot.com/. Her copywriting service business URL is http://kristinemsmith.elance/com. She can be reached at KRISTINEMSMITH (at) MSN (dot) COM.

# # #

Mary Doman is the First Purchaser of ENDURING LEGACY AT PAYLOADZ.COM

Mary Doman

in Southern California

(Garden Grove, to be exact)

is the first owner of the new book,

THE ENDURING LEGACY OF

DeFOREST KELLEY:

ACTOR, HEALER, FRIEND.
Congratulations, Mary!


And if you think THAT'S special,

just wait till you read HER contribution in the book!

It'll blow you away... in the absolute nicest way.

Mary has also disseminated the PR as far away as Australia!

Go, Mary, go!

What a team De Kelley folks are!

Stay tuned! I expect there will be updates all weekend!

DeForest Kelley's Home Still Exists -- in Cyberspace!

Although the Kelley home was sold and torn down following Carolyn's passing in 2004, the realtors who sold it have kindly left the listing in existence. So if you ever wondered what kind of home the Kelleys had, you'll be surprised to discover how small it was and how un-Hollywood-like.

http://tours.tourfactory.com/tours/tour.asp?t=205550&home=www.JerryKeller.com&slink=-1&sReferer=&r=http://www.google.com/search?sourceid%3Dnavclient%26ie%3DUTF-8%26rls%3DGGLR,GGLR:2005-52,GGLR:en%26q%3D15463%2BGreenleaf%2BStreet%252c%2BSherman%2BOaks%252c%2BCalifornia

When furnished, it was the most comfortable-feeling home I ever walked into. It felt familiar and "like home" the moment you entered.

I wish it hadn't been razed to make way for a McMansion, but buyers aren't sentimental in the least, in most cases. In fact, they may not even have known whose home they were buying...

Alas...

But do enjoy the only tour you will ever have of the home!


P.S. I'm very much looking forward to finding out what Karl Urban has done with the reel McCoy this time around. I'll be seeing the movie opening weekend (next weekend) and blogging about it afterward. I expect good things, based on all I've read, seen and heard.

P.P.S My newest De Kelley book, the first edition of THE ENDURING LEGACY OF DeFOREST KELLEY: ACTOR, HEALER, FRIEND will be ready in time for the tenth anniversary of De's passing (June 11th, 2009). In fact, except for a final proofreading and deciding on its "carrier" (Payloadz or Clickbank), it's ready NOW! So get the word out, and let Trek folks and reporters know that I'm available for phone interviews about it...

Thanks!

Surprise, Surprise! One of My Poems is in the Current Issue of the Shambala Newsletter!

I was mighty pleased -- and wildly surprised -- to open the latest issue of the Shambala newsletter and find one of my poems (LEO) emblazoned across the inside front cover! Tippi placed it on her own editorial page and wrote around it, so yes, it's a major honor!

If you go to the following URL, you can register as a member of Shambala and help out this worthy cause... and they'll promptly send you the current newsletter, chock full of great stuff, including my heart-rending poem about the status of lions from ancient Greece to now!!!

http://www.shambala.org/

I volunteered at Shambala for a number of years and cannot recommend a non-profit organization more highly than I can Shambala.

If you love captive wild animals (or their wild counterparts, living free) and want to help Tippi's wild ones thrive in luxurious, open fields (she rescues them), logon today and find out more about her and her Roar Foundation.

You'll be glad you did. Prepare to be wowed: Bill Dow's photos of Tippi's wild wards are breath-taking!

TrekToday Runs Info On My Upcoming Book...

Here's the link...


http://www.trektoday.com/news/210208_02.shtml

And Trekmovie.com got into the act, too!

http://trekmovie.com/

"Remember..." An Excerpt From My Next DeForest Kelley Book

Several people sent me "I remember De!" messages yesterday on what would have been his 88th birthday. I tried to locate an earlier essay that was published in newspapers, called REMEMBERING DeFOREST KELLEY, but it's on a disc that's unaccessible right now, so instead, I'll give you a sneak-peek of my next book,THE ENDURING LEGACY OF DeFOREST KELLEY: ACTOR, HEALER, FRIEND.


Following is the working draft of the intro to the ACTOR section of the book. It's copywrited, but if you'd like to use it for publicity purposes at any of the STAR TREK or DeForest Kelley websites, just let me know and also append this: "Author Kristine M Smith's first book about DeForest Kelley is DeFOREST KELLEY: A HARVEST OF MEMORIES, garnering 5-star reviews at Amazon. She is seeking additional contributors to her next Kelley book, of which the preceding has been a preview. Fans, friends and co-workers are encouraged to tell their stories of meeting or knowing De -- or of simply loving him from afar. Send your reminiscences to Kris at KRISTINE M SMITH AT MSN DOT COM."



Fans are undoubtedly familiar with De’s portrayal as Dr. McCoy on the original, iconic STAR TREK® television and motion picture series. This is probably the way most of today’s fans became fans, watching him interact with the crew of the Starship Enterprise. As we all know, McCoy’s on-again, off-again irascible tendencies covered a heart of gold that was sold out to his patients, to his mission, and to his crewmates (yes, even Spock). There was no doubt about that. Time and again, he offered his life for theirs, as they had for his.

A television host in Colorado, a huge fan of Westerns, once regaled De and his Good Day Colorado audience with an almost “word-for-word” recreation of some of De’s lines from “Warlock,” a better-than-most Western starring Henry Fonda, Richard Widmark, and Anthony Quinn. Pretending to be De’s character Curly Burne in the movie, the host did a fast draw, then stopped short when he realized his opponent (Fonda) had out-drawn him. Much to De’s delight, the host flailed helplessly as he “backed down” from the confrontation he had engendered, and then jumped to another aspect of the same scene. “And just before that, where you’re trying to goad him into this gunfight, you say, ‘Oh, them pearly handles of yo’s … they’re enough to blind a man’s eyes. You really ought to stop polishing them that way, por favor, you know, the way you always do… Someone ought to just take them pearly handles from you and rough them up a bit, you know?”

When the host finished his faithful rendition of the scene, De’s eyes shone and his grin was as wide as Colorado itself. He took a brief look into the studio audience – the largest audience for that particular show, ever, filled as it was past capacity with TREK fans imported from a STARLAND convention nearby – and he laughed. “You know,” he told the show host, then pointed at his fans and said, “They know! If this wasn’t a television show, I could tell you a story about that very scene…” And he left it there. The show host undoubtedly asked for, and received, “the rest of the story” backstage.

For those who haven’t heard it:

Days before the scene was filmed, the director had told De that the Princess of Greece, Princess Sofia, would be on the soundstage the day he was scheduled to shoot the scene. De thought he was joking, because this particular director had a dry sense of humor. “I thought maybe he meant Sophia Loren.”

Sure enough, when the day arrived a very real Princess Sofia and her large entourage gathered on the upper part of stairway in the “saloon” where the filming of this scene was about to take place. The visitors to the set were out of camera range.

“At first,” De recalled, “I was very nervous – not necessarily because the Princess and her people were there, but because in this scene I had to do a fly-away – that’s a move with a gun where I flip it and it goes into my holster, with any luck at all – and I had been practicing this move, but it was nowhere near certain I could get it on the first take, or even the second.

“Henry Fonda was away that day – Tyrone Power had passed away the week before and Fonda was at his funeral – so his lines were read to me. In this scene, I’m supposed to goad Fonda into a fight, and when I do, his gun is out of the holster in a flash and I realize I’m done for unless I back down, so I quickly, and as humbly as this hombre can, back down. I do the fly-away and it goes in perfectly; a big relief to me. Then I start backing away, with a little wave to Fonda, toward the bat-wing doors, and… this wasn’t in the scene… I trip backward over a chair! As I went over, I called out, ‘Oh, shit!’

“Well, you could have heard a pin drop. All of a sudden I remember Princess Sofia and her people are standing on the staircase watching this whole thing! So I crawled out through the bat-wing doors on my knees! And on the other side of the doors, the director looks down at me and says, ‘De, I’ll bet you sat up all night trying to think of what to say in front of the Princess of Greece.’

“As it turned out, Princess Sofia didn’t know what that word meant. But when I went to the commissary for lunch that day, everyone stood up and applauded me! It was all over the lot what I had said in front of the princess!”

Okay, now you know about the outtake. Go and rent or buy the movie and see what De, a conscience-ridden bad guy hanging with the wrong crowd, does when confronted with the enormity of his gang’s depravity. In a way, he becomes the hero of the motion picture, in my opinion. ‘Nuf said.

Curly Burne in Warlock was one of De’s very few good-natured bad guys. Most of his portrayals were so cussedly ornery and demonic that he was often hired to snarl at the likes of Steve McQueen, Clint Eastwood, Audie Murphy, the Lone Ranger and the Bonanza boys. If you haven’t seen his other portrayals, you are missing out on some of the best acting ever in Westerns. (A top-notch and complete filmography of De’s entire acting career can be found at Karen Halliday’s website: http://www.klhalliday.com/DeKelley/Index.htm. Check it out, rent some of the films at your local video store, and feast your eyes on ACTOR DeForest Kelley If you don’t have Internet access, ask a friend to download the site for you, or visit a library to download it.)

Be forewarned, however: Before watching any of De’s Westerns, you may have to divorce yourself from any knowledge of Dr. McCoy (and that takes some doing!) in order to truly appreciate his pre-McCoy portrayals. Remind yourself beforehand that McCoy had not yet been created and that De’s cowboy portrayals were the rationale the network had for believing that STAR TREK’s audience could never “buy” DeForest Kelley as good guy Doctor McCoy, which is why he wasn’t in the first pilot of STAR TREK. You will understand their concern after seeing him in these earlier roles!

In my opinion, De deserved a Best Supporting Actor award for a number of his bad-guy portrayals in motion pictures, among them: as Toby Jack Saunders in APACHE UPRISING and as Wexler in THE LAW AND JAKE WADE. And a Best Supporting Actor television award wouldn’t have hurt for his role in THE HONOR OF COSHISE, a BONANZA episode. The fact that De’s character bites the dust in so many of his Westerns – whether soon or late – just underscores that his scoundrels had to die or the audiences would have gone home with nightmares, and the tales told -- most of which were morality plays in disguise -- would have fallen flat!

De was asked at numerous conventions about how he managed to portray scoundrels so ably, when he was obviously such a gentleman. He said, “When I was a boy growing up in Georgia, there was a Sheriff who looked as though he couldn’t wait to find someone stepping out of line so that he could shoot him. He just looked like a snake to me; coiled and ready to strike. He was one of the role models for some of the heavies I played. I figured if I could capture that sheriff’s ominous aspects, my portrayal would be convincing.”

When De was in the hospital the last few months of his life, he related that one of his and Carolyn’s best friends for over 60 years had told them, years ago, that she would never believe De in a bad guy role and so that’s why she had never gone to see him in one. “When she said that, I became a bad guy right in front of her, just to show her I could do it. Well, I when I did, it scared her so badly that she started to cry! So I started to cry! I had to apologize! I wanted to convince her I was an actor, not scare her half to death! It was just awful…”

In APACHE UPRISING, an AC Lyles film, De portrayed a sociopath, Toby Jack Saunders, a man so void of decency and conscience that he exuded malevolence from every pore. The role haunted De even years later. He reflected, “I sat up half the night last night” (in the hospital) “thinking what a no good son of a bitch Toby Jack was. In the script, he was supposed to ride into town and when the town mongrel came out to wag a barking hello, I was supposed to pull out my gun and shoot him. Well, that was too much for me. I told AC I couldn’t do that. I told him I would establish his character some other way.”

He did! I had a nightmare about that hombre after seeing APACHE UPRISING!

De was one of very few actors in the late 40’s and early 50’s with a “crossover” career, working in motion pictures as well as in the new medium of television. For the most part, motion picture actors felt it was “beneath them” to work in television. As a struggling young actor, De wasn’t allowed the luxury of that lofty an opinion of himself; his focus was on keeping a roof over his and Carolyn’s heads. His list of credits from the 40’s 50’s is mind-boggling: he appeared in over 100 different series episodes, as well as in fifteen motion pictures, mostly as heavies, ne’er-do-wells and scoundrels.

Occasionally he appeared in a role as a hapless fellow falsely accused of a crime (in motion pictures, FEAR IN THE NIGHT and ILLEGAL, and in television, the Bonanza episode THE DECISION). The despair, anger or panic he showed in these portrayals was spot on. Viewers could vicariously experience this poor fellow’s dilemma as we sweated for him, hoping against all hope that his innocence would be discovered before the executioner could do his fatal job. In the case of ILLEGAL, our hope is dashed. Seconds after his execution, the truth is found out, too late to save him. The consequences are agonizing for the star of the show, Edward G. Robinson, who suffers the tortures of the damned for the rest of the picture. De’s role in this movie is small, but pivotal.

Another small but powerful role in RAINTREE COUNTY captures the attention of the audience as De -- the only Southern soldier seen in the film in a seminal role -- rides in on a horse and is felled by a bullet. For the next ten minutes or so De’s unnamed character plays with Lee Marvin’s mind in an attempt to get him to let down his guard long enough so that De can shoot him and escape to get help before he bleeds to death. The charm and easy attitude of De’s character is utterly captivating. The audience begins to hope that these two enemies will bury the hatchet and strike some kind of mutually-acceptable deal that will allow them both to survive the intersection of their lives as soldiers. Alas, it is not to be… and the men meet their end in a sudden showdown that is both a surprise and an outrageous obscenity to the audience.

 “What a shame,” we sigh – and then we realize the sentiment is the epilogue for the entire sorry history of the Civil War in which men like these, with personalities and potential for greatness, fought and perished. These two men embody, in a palpable way, the obscenity of war. In other times, they would likely have been fast friends and would probably have been willing to lay down their lives for each other…

Many of De’s roles were small, but very few of them were insignificant. The power of his performances proves the adage, “There are no small parts, only small actors.” Any time De appeared in anything, his character seemed to be the true north for that particular type of human soul. He got inside his characters and breathed life into them. His heavies were not cardboard caricatures; they were people largely unaware that they were deviating from a norm; they were simply responding to cards that had been dealt to them since childhood. Their stories and actions were made perfectly understandable given their wounded psyches, and no word of exposition had to be written to explain them; we just knew because De-the-actor seemed to know.

De made bad guys bad, but he also made a number of them somehow pitiable, fearfully and wonderfully accessible. He allowed us to inhabit them as easily as we could the hero of the piece, not happily, not willingly, but with a sense of morbid curiosity, the way we examine mothers who drown their children or Hitler or Ted Bundy, people who irrationally embarked on workable plans to carry out successive, horrible deviant behaviors. We don’t know how they got there, and we realize that if we understood them we would be just as whacked out as they were, and yet we try to figure out their pathology as if figuring it out would make us safer.

A Virtual Tour of the Kelley Home On-Line!

For those of you who never got a look at the Kelley home inside and out before it was torn down, here it is in a virtual format, from the Realtor who sold it. Enjoy... Sadly, the home no longer exists except in this form....

Here's the link:

http://tours.tourfactory.com/tours/tour.asp?t=205550&home=www.JerryKeller.com&slink=-1&sReferer=&r=http://www.google.com/search?sourceid%3Dnavclient%26ie%3DUTF-8%26rls%3DGGLR,GGLR:2005-52,GGLR:en%26q%3D15463%2BGreenleaf%2BStreet%252c%2BSherman%2BOaks%252c%2BCalifornia

At Last -- Las Vegas Convention Photos -- ENJOY!

Many thanks to Billie Rae Walker, Alison Winter, and Melinda Kettler for these wonderful photos!

Kris, Billie Rae Walker and Tim Gaskill

Alison Winter, Marge Duff and Kris

at Book Signing Table

Kris and Melinda Kettler

Marge Duff and Kris

Kris Presenting at 2007 Las Vegas Creation Entertainment

STAR TREK Convention August 11, 2007

Klingons Three

Borg-Assimilated!!

Two Very Happy Hilton Starfleet Officers