Frankie Manning – The Passing of a Great Ambassador
This morning one of my heroes died. He was 94 years old.
Many of my readers know him and for those who don’t his name is Frankie Manning. He was born May 26, 1914 and passed away today, April 27th, 2009.
For many of us in the Lindy Hop community it has been a day of sadness for the loss of one of our elders. Too many of our old timers are gone from us and today we lost one of our most famous, we lost our Ambassador.
In the hours following his death thousands of lindy hoppers around the globe poured onto social networking sites, texted, and left numerous messages of love and thanks for Frankie. There were many postings of clips of Frankie, photos of Frankie and memories of Frankie.
The first time I met Frankie was at Beantown 2002. I had been dancing less than a year and I remember the vibrancy with which he greeted the room and every dancer there. Most of it though is blurry in my memories.
My next encounter with Frankie is almost comical to me. I was sitting on the sidelines at ALHC two years ago (2007) next to Dawn Hampton and him. They were eating chicken wings from what I can remember and as they finished their food I offered to take their empty boxes to the trash as I was throwing away my own garbage. Frankie would have none of it. He waved me off and made his own to the trash can. He was a strong man even in his 90s with so much character. Dawn smiled and let me take her boxes.
Most recently I saw Frankie in Berkeley, CA in February. He was glorious, shooting of jokes and going back and forth with Manu while he recounted stories and talked about various video clips. During his Q&A I asked him what he would like to see in the community now and his answer was basically this, “to carry on, to keep on dancing cause that is what keeps him going.”
Now that has passed away I see the community pulling together to carry on, to keep on dancing. In less than a month we celebrate Frankie 95, the celebration of his 95th birthday. While I don’t know how the event will change in light of his passing it will still be a great celebration of the life of one our great Lindy Hop heroes.
With that I leave you with these short words and footage of Frankie singing along to “You Make Me Feel So Young.”
He lived to 94 years 11 months and 1 day young.
Let us hope that each of us can take that youth into every day of our lives whether we are 18 or 25 or 40 or 94.
Live each day like it is your last.
If you don’t wake up smiling that famous Frankie smile maybe it’s time for a change.
