Louis Braille

popular name: Varina Davis

date_of_death: October 16, 1906

age: 80

cause_of_death: Pneumonia

claim_to_fame: Historical Figure

best_know_for: Varina Davis was the only First Lady of the Confederate States of America, and the longtime second wife of President Jefferson Davis. Born and raised in the South and educated in Philadelphia, she had family on both sides of the conflict and unconventional views for a woman in her public role. She did not support the Confederacy's position on slavery, and was ambivalent about the war. Davis became a writer after the American Civil War, completing her husband's memoir. She was recruited by Kate (Davis) Pulitzer, a purportedly distant cousin of Varina’s husband and wife of publisher Joseph Pulitzer, to write articles and eventually a regular column for the New York World.

popular name: Eddie Rickenbacker

date_of_death: July 23, 1973

age: 82

cause_of_death: Pneumonia

claim_to_fame: Historical Figure

best_know_for: Captain Edward V. Rickenbacker was called America’s Ace of Aces during World War I, the highest scorer of American aerial victories over the Germans. He could just as easily have been labeled the ‘luckiest man alive,’ however, since he survived — by his own count — 135 brushes with death during his exciting lifetime. With 26 aerial victories, he was the United States' most successful fighter ace in the war and is considered to have received the most awards for valor by an American during the war. He was also a race car driver, an automotive designer, a government consultant in military matters and a pioneer in air transportation, particularly as the long-time head of Eastern Air Lines. At one time he even owned and raced at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Towards the end of his life as CEO of Eastern Air Lines, the company was the most profitable airline in the postwar era. However during the late 1950s Eastern Air Lines' fortunes declined, and Rickenbacker was forced out of his position as CEO in 1959. Rickenbacker also resigned as the chairman of the board in 1963, at the age of 73. After that, Captain and Mrs. Rickenbacker traveled extensively for a number of years and in the 1960s, Rickenbacker became a well-known speaker, sharing shared his vision for the future of technology and commerce. Upon his death, he was buried at Green Lawn Cemetery in Columbus, Ohio.

popular name: Florence Vanderbilt Twombly

date_of_death: 04/11/1952

age: 98

cause_of_death: Natural causes

claim_to_fame: Historical Figure

best_know_for: Florence Adele Vanderbilt Twombly was an American heiress and a member of the prominent Vanderbilt family. She and her husband, Hamilton McKown Twombly, built Florham, a gilded age estate in Madison, New Jersey then considered the 10th largest private residence in the United States. When she died at the age of 92, Florence was considered the last of the Grand Dames of the Gilded Age.