An Anything Can Happen Life

Annette Funicello, an original Mouseketeer, died today at the age of 70.  My memories of Annette take me back to the summer of 1956.  Annette was 13.  I was a mature 7-year-old (soon to be 8).  Each sweltering weekday afternoon my brother and I would lay on the hardwood floor of my grandparent's home in Vinita, Oklahoma to enjoy a new show . . . The Mickey Mouse Club.  It was in black-and-white, but then, everything was.  Color TV was an unaffordable luxury for most people I knew until the late '60's.  So was air conditioning.  My grandparents home was cooled (?) by a window fan that blew air across a puddle of water at the base.  Worked just fine as far as I was concerned.

Annette Funicello was discovered by Walt Disney himself in 1955 and became the 24th, and final, Mouseketeer.  Many would say the cutest too.  At the height of her mousecapades she received 6000 fan letters a week.  For a sample of the show, click on the following link (or copy and paste):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=_9BWW6Mb7oA

From singing about "Anything Can Happen" days, Annette went on to have an "Anything Can Happen" life.  She described Walt Disney as a "second father" and remained under contract with Disney after the "The Mickey Mouse Club" show ended.  She went on to star in a series of "beach" movies with Frankie Avalon, but at Mr. Disney's request, she didn't bare her navel (on-screen) until 1964 at the ripe old age of 21.

After she married Jack Gilardi in 1965,  Annette left beach movies behind to raise a family.  It was in 1987 when she and Frankie Avalon reunited to film Back to the Beach that Annette began showing signs of Multiple Sclerosis.  Her diagnosis was made public in 1992.  Annette once said she sometimes asked herself "Why me?"  The late KC Royal pitcher, Dan Quisenberry, had the best answer I've ever heard to that question.  After he was diagnosed with a brain tumor, a reporter asked him if he ever asked "Why me?"  Dan said "no", and then added  "Why not me?"


According to Annette's family, she'd been in a coma for years.  I'm sorry that her life, with so many memorable "anything can happen" days, didn't have a Disneyesque "happily ever after" ending. 

At the end of each Mickey Mouse Club show, the Mouseketeers would join together to sing a sad farewell to their fans.  As a farewell to Annette, click here to listen to that goodbye song:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QNK5KzI48mM&feature=player_embedded

For many Baby Boomers, that final "See Ya Real Soon!" becomes more meaningful everyday.

Rest in peace, Annette.  Or as the Mouseketeers might sing it,

R-E-S   T-I-N   P-E-A-C-E