Today marks the one year anniversary of the deaths of two entertainment industry icons.

Farrah Fawcett, who happened to be a practicing Catholic, died just hours before Michael Jackson on the same June day in 2009.

Here’s what I wrote about their passings (as well as that of Ed McMahon who died just a couple of days earlier) at the time for Examiner.com.  My thoughts still apply:
 

The
deaths of three entertainment icons in one week (two in one day) brings
to mind a few thoughts on celebrity and what it means — and what it
doesn’t.

Michael Jackson was, of course, the
biggest name of the the three yet, to the extent we can know such
things, he seemed the unhappiest.

Farrah
Fawcett who died only hours earlier was the subject of a recent
documentary that seemed to set the stage for her passing being a major
media event.  It was — but, ironically, eclipsed by Michael Jackson’s
untimely death.

Michael Jackson, despite at one time being the hottest media star in the world, apparently died in debt. 

Ed McMahon, who was a TV icon for decades — primarily known as Johnny Carson’s second banana on The Tonight Show for thirty years, he was also top banana on Star Search
and numerous other shows.  To say he did well financially was probably
an understatement.   Yet, he too was reportedly pretty much broke when
he died at the age of 86.

He lived a long life.  Farrah and Michael died relatively young.  But death came to them all.

And,
in time, their memories will fade.  What will really matter is not the
flashing fame and fortune they achieved but the enduring love they left
behind. 

That’s true about any life.