Shelby Foote, Civil War writer, historian, dies

Published 9:00 pm Tuesday, June 28, 2005

Novelist and Civil War historian Shelby Foote, who became a national celebrity explaining the war to America on Ken Burns’ 1990 PBS documentary, has died at age 88.

Foote died Monday night, said his widow, Gwyn.

The Mississippi native and longtime Memphis resident wrote a stirring, three-volume, 3,000-page history of the Civil War, as well as six novels.

“He had a gift for presenting vivid portraits of personalities, from privates in the ranks to generals and politicians. And he had a gift for character, for the apt quotation, for the dramatic event, for the story behind the story,” said James M. McPherson, a Pulitzer Prize-winning Civil War historian. “He could also write a crackling good narrative of a campaign or a battle.”

Though a native Southerner, Foote did not favor South in his history or novels and was not counted among those Southern historians who regard the Civil War as the great Lost Cause.

Pilot who saved palace from direct hit dies at 90

Ray Holmes, a World War II fighter pilot who rammed a German plane to prevent a direct hit on Buckingham Palace, has died. He was 90.

He died Monday at Hoylake Cottage Hospital in Wirral after a two-year battle with cancer, his wife, Anne, said Tuesday.

Holmes spotted a German Dornier bomber lining up to attack the palace on Sept. 15, 1940, and, finding he had run out of ammunition, the pilot from 504 Squadron slammed into the bomber, slicing off its tail.

Holmes, from Wirral in northwest England, parachuted to safety, while his Hurricane plane crashed at 400 mph behind Victoria Station, well away from the palace.

From Herald news services