Jimmy Savile

[lethargic_man]

I had no idea Sir Jimmy Savile was such a great person until he died, and I read his obituary. To me he had been famous for Jim'll Fix It and Top of the Pops and for running marathons (plus, of course, all of his personality quirks). I had no idea he raised £40m for charitable causes in his life, or had spent so much time working as a volunteer porter in a hospital, or had invented twin-turntable disc jockeying.

The report of his funeral at the BBC New website quoted Leeds City Council leader Keith Wakefield as saying:

What has taken me by surprise has been the fact that nearly everybody I speak to knew him, experienced some time with him or actually saw him running.

Now, a lot of my mother's family are from his native Leeds, and indeed not far away from Roundhay where he lived, so I thought I'd send them an email to see if they bore out Cllr Wakefield's remark; and two minutes later I got a response from my uncle:

I last saw him (and had a chat with him) in Rice, an Indian Restaurant at Oakwood, near Roundhay Park, about 7 or 8 months ago. Ironically, in response to "how are you" he replied "when I wake up in the morning I put my hands out, and if I can't feel wood either side of me, I know I'm alright."

R.I.P. Sir Jimmy.

ETA: I later got back responses from my cousin, who said he didn't want him near him as he would distract his female fans, and from my aunt, to whom he called out "Shabbat shalom" as he ran past, whilst she was walking her young sons back from Bnei Akiva years ago. "Almost part of the Jewish community," was her verdict.

Comments

RIP

[michael koplow (from livejournal.com)]

Thank you. I'd never heard of Sir Jimmy until I read your post. He sounds wonderful in many ways. I'm especially impressed by his volunteering as a porter at the hospital--not at all glorious, but absolutely necessary.