Two Deaths in NOLA

Last week, a good friend of the family, and a long-standing member of my wife's church, Frank "Eddie" Durham passed away after a long battle with cancer. He was a great guy. He taught physics at Tulane for more than 35 years and was an accomplished scholar as well as a novelist and poet. He was a man of science and faith. His novel Cain's Burden was recently published and I had the opportunity to see Frank just last month give a reading from his book at Octavia Books. Yesterday was his memorial service at St. Charles Avenue Baptist Church. It was a packed audience. We'll miss you Eddie. Rest in peace.

The second death is someone whom I don't even know. I read his obituary in the paper this morning. His name was Harry Anthony Smith. What captured my attention about him was that he was apparently an avid NOLA blogger. I try to keep up with the NOLA blogosphere, but I can't say that I recognized this young man by his obituary description. If any other NOLA bloggers out there knew Mr. Smith, please fill in some more details in the comments. I would like to read some of his stuff, if I haven't already. But what also captured my attention was the fact that Mr. Smith was only 36 years old, and was apparently murdered in what seems like a senseless late night robbery. His murder was reported in the Times-Picayune on Saturday, but I missed it because I didn't have the chance to read Saturday's paper. News of Mr. Smith's tragic death is just another sad commentary on the crime problem in New Orleans. We are all diminished by this death and all the other senseless violence that continues to plague our city. Stop the killing!