The Misanthrope’s Corner

THE death of actress Butterfly McQueen three days before Christmas hit me hard. Part of my shock was due to the way I heard about her passing. As I was watching the late news, they announced that she had been badly burned in a fire at her Georgia home and was not expected to live. Then, seconds later, they got a bulletin that she had just died.

The two reports coming one on top of the other gave me a disturbing sensation of telescoped time; is and was were crowding each other. To separate them and regain a sense of cosmic order, I mentally thumbed through some Gone with the Wind chronology. “Olivia De Havilland is the last one left now,” I mused. “Melanie died at 29 but she’s outlived everybody except the young bit players . . . the little girl who played Bonnie must be about five years older than I . . . the baby Bonnie is three years younger.”

About the Author

Florence King

Florence King was a contributing editor of National Review.

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THE death of actress Butterfly McQueen three days before Christmas hit me hard. Part of my shock was due to the way I heard about her passing. As I was watching the late news, they announced that she had been badly burned in a fire at her Georgia home and was not expected to live. Then, seconds later, they got a bulletin that she had just died.

The two reports coming one on top of the other gave me a disturbing sensation of telescoped time; is and was were crowding each other. To separate them and regain a sense of cosmic order, I mentally thumbed through some Gone with the Wind chronology. “Olivia De Havilland is the last one left now,” I mused. “Melanie died at 29 but she’s outlived everybody except the young bit players . . . the little girl who played Bonnie must be about five years older than I . . . the baby Bonnie is three years younger.”