Post by Frank Beacham

Feb. 27: Actress Joanne Woodward is 91 years old today; Dexter Gordon, jazz tenor saxophonist, was born 98 years ago; actress Elizabeth Taylor was born 89 years ago; singer Marian Anderson was born 124 years ago; novelist John Steinbeck was born 119 years ago; and poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was born 214 years ago. Also, on this day in 1915 — 106 years ago — The Valley of Fear, the final Sherlock Holmes novel by Arthur Conan Doyle, was published; on this day in 1860 — 161 years ago — President Abraham Lincoln posed for the first of several portraits by Mathew Brady, the noted Civil War-era photographer; and on this day in 1827 — 195 years ago — a group of masked and costumed students danced through the streets of New Orleans marking the beginning of the city's famous Mardi Gras celebrations. www.beachamjournal.com