What a Life!

J. Richard Steadman was a renowned orthopedic surgeon who pioneered procedures and treated both elite athletes and ordinary patients. He died January 20, 2023. Quotable Quotes: "I take every opportunity that I can [to ski]. But I do follow my own rules, such as conditioning myself before skiing. And I try to ski in control."

On treating Bode Miller:

"I recognized that ligaments didn't just go away, that if they were torn close to the bone, sometimes they partially healed. The same technique I used to form cartilage at the end of the bone, if I used that procedure in the area where the ligaments attached — and created an environment where the ligament could accept the healing process that I'd created — I could (avoid) the full reconstruction."

Lord Randolph Churchill, 45, was Leader of the House of Commons and the father of Winston Churchill. He died January 24, 1895.

Quotable Quotes: "The duty of an Opposition is to oppose." "Talking jaw is better than going to war."

"Commanders and senior officers should die with troops. The honour of the British Empire and the British Army is at stake."

Joseph A. Hardy II, 100, was a business magnate who started the 84 Lumber Company – and lived a very colorful life.

Quotable Quotes:

"The only guy I need to keep whipping is myself. I really am tough on myself but that's the way it has to be."

"I always wanted to be a big shot. It's a bunch of crap to think I was some sort of visionary."

"As you get older, before you cash in, you wonder — lumber. It's pretty good. But is that all there is?"

"I get a kick out of life. I really, really do."

Hody Childress, 60, was a farmer in Alabama who anonymously supplied medicines for fellow residents in Alabama. He died January 1, 2023.

Quotable Quotes:

"Don't tell a soul where the money came from - if they ask, just tell them it's a blessing from the Lord." – Hody Childress

"His kindness motivated me to be more of a compassionate person. He was just a good old guy who wanted to bless his community, and he certainly did. He established a legacy of kindness." – Brooke Walter, pharmacist

"If what he did could touch one person and let them know there's still goodness in the world, it's worth it. It's what my dad would have wanted." – Tania Nix, daughter

Carl Hahn, 96, was an automobile executive and former CEO of Volkwagen who championed the export of the Beetle. He died January 14, 2023.

Quotable Quotes:

"I learned, apparently very fast, to get to know and understand America. And I loved it."

"The unification of the two German states puts an ultimate end to the chapter of horrors of World War II and its consequences,"

''The people who bought the Beetle were customers with a very high education level. They liked its driving qualities."

Sister Andre Randon, 118, was a French Catholic nun who had the distinction of being the oldest person in the world. She died January 17, 2023.

Quotable Quotes:

'I'm not afraid of Covid because I'm not afraid of dying."

"People say that work kills, for me work kept me alive, I kept working until I was 108."

"People should help each other and love each other instead of hating. If we shared all that, things would be a lot better."

Robbie Knievel, 60, was a stunt performer and son of the famous daredevil, Evel Knievel. He died January 12, 2023.

Quotable Quotes:

"I'm tired of doing shows where people come up to me and say, you know, 'Always respect your father.' I don't need people telling me what our relationship is, between me and my father."

"I wanted to beat every guy who beat my dad, and I beat them all."

"When I made the jump (over Caesar's Fountains) and said, 'That was for you, Dad,' he (Evel) ran up and hugged me, with tears in his eyes. I had never seen him so emotional."

"This is crazy 'cause life is crazy." "During the last few years of my father's life, we spent a lot of time together. We reminisced about the crazy lives we'd lived, and how lucky we'd been time and time again. I'd say to him, 'I love you, Dad,' and he'd tell me, "I love you, too, Rob.'"

"The creation of the United States of America is the greatest of all human adventures. No other national story holds such tremendous lessons, for the American people themselves and for the rest of mankind."

"Ronald Reagan looked, spoke, and usually behaved as if he had stepped out of a Norman Rockwell Saturday Evening Post cover from the 1950s. More important, he actually thought like a Rockwell archetype. He had very strong, rooted, and unshakeable views about a few central issues of political and national life, which he expressed in simple and homely language. Like [Margaret] Thatcher, Reagan saw himself as a radical from the right, a conservative revolutionary who had captured the citadel of the state but, like Thatcher, still treated it as an enemy town."

"If everyone agrees that television has unrivaled efficiency at selling goods, services, culture, music, God, politics and fashion," he once wrote, "why does the industry continue to claim that the one thing it cannot sell is violence?"

Lisa Marie Presley, 54, was a singer-songwriter and the only child of Elvis and Priscilla Presley. She died January 12, 2023.

Quotable Quotes:

"Anytime I was in Memphis with my dad and at the house, I was happy. That was, like, a given. It was what I lived for. And I still feel the same excitement and warmth."

"Leaving my first marriage, for the person that I left it for — that was probably the biggest mistake of my life," she would later say.

"It's hard for me to be happy because I'm always worried about something going awry or what could happen to screw it up. It's hard for me to sit and look around, going, 'Ah, I'm really happy.' I'm not that kind of person." "I've been through so much in my life. I've seen so much. I know how fast things can change. I know someone can be here one minute and gone the next."

Joan Cummings Batura, 80, was a wife, mother, grandmother, homemaker, writer and very curious person. She died January 12, 2012.

Quotable Quotes:

"A little learning is a dangerous thing."

"Good things come to those who wait."

"Pride goeth before the fall." (Proverbs 16:18)

"We are wonderfully and fearfully made." (Psalm 139:14)