Minister of Education Reports

Katherine Hepburn

My wife called to me from another room saying, "Did you know Katherine Hepburn was dead?" I replied that I did. I heard it last night on the news. We had been watching the chain of events over the past few weeks. First three old time movie stars had died. (They always seem to do it in sequences of three) Then three men famous in political circles had died. I had met Strom Thurmond a long time ago and corresponded with him a couple of times. Lester Maddox, I had admired as a man of principle and one who truly loved his wife in a Biblical sense. Now with the death of Katherine Hepburn, a new cycle of deaths among famous people seems to have begun.

            My wife, Kaye, was not through with her comments though. She asked me if I knew what Katherine Hepburn was supposed to have said? Well, I know a number of quotes that have been attributed to her, but I did not know what she was about to come up with. She said that it was reported on the news Hepburn had said, when she was 90, she was not afraid of hell and was not very excited about heaven. I told her that sounded like Hepburn. Kaye then said she imagined that Hepburn had some feelings on the subject now.

            Hepburn once remarked of herself, "I am quick, but not much memory and not really well informed." Though she knew this about herself, it did not keep her from having decided opinions. Where did she get them? Was it from her father, A Virginia "gentleman and prominent physician" who treated STDs or her mother who was a "feminist and abortion rights activist?" Perhaps her ideas and patrician attitudes were shaped by her Bryn Mawr education? Likely her long-term relationship with the socialist activist and actor Spencer Tracy had develop her ideas. He had plenty of time to work on her because they 'shacked up' together for more than two decades. But the woman who was reputed to be determined "to make us accept her exactly as she was," apparently did not learn that she cannot dictate the rules of her relationship with God.

            When a person of faith dies, there is no cause for mourning for them, even though we might mourn our loss of their presence in our lives. But when a person, famous, infamous, or nondescript departs this world without a saving knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ there is just cause for mourning. I fear this is the case with Katherine Hepburn. Then there is the issue of her influence on others.