Subject: Two Vonnegut-related deaths
From: wyaduck@aol.com (WYADUCK)
Date: 1998/05/29
WYADUCK here...
KV faxed me this morning to let me know that Mary O'Hare died last night. Mary
was the wife of Bernard O'Hare. Kurt has used O'Hare's name in a number of his
stories (including "Mother Night"), but the real O'Hare was Vonnegut's war
buddy and fellow prisoner in the slaughterhouse in Dresden. They remained the
closest of friends until O'Hare's death about four years ago.
Readers of SH-5 will remember the foreword in which it is Mary O'Hare who gave
Kurt his angle for SH-5. She scolded him, thinking he would write a book that
would romanticize war like a John Wayne or Frank Sinatra movie. "You were all
babies" she reminded him. Hence, the book's subtitle: "The Children's Crusade."
Another fellow prisoner from the slaughterhouse, Tom Jones (his real name) died
only last week. Jones and Kurt did not stay in touch after the war, but Kurt
spoke in D.C. several years ago about strategic bombing and Jones was in the
audience, so they had a reunion and remained in touch since then. Those of you
who want to revisit all this should look at "Fates Worse Than Death," the
chapter beginning on page 215. (Also, in Mary's honor, re-read the introduction
to Slaughterhouse.)
Jones was buried last week at Arlington with full military honors. Ironically,
Kurt was calling Mary last night to tell her of the furneral, when he was told
that Mary had just died. Compare and contrast with the passage in "Angels
Without Wings" by Kurt's first wife, Jane Vonnegut Yarmolinsky. She writes
about how Kurt darted out of his study to call his brother-in-law at his
office, at the precise moment his brother-in-law's commuter train was going off
an open drawbridge.
Cheers,
-W.
