Man who walked on moon dies
FAMED HARLEM powerbroker Herman (Denny) Farrell, the tall, trusted and trailblazing leader who spent 42 years in the halls of Albany, died early Saturday at the age of 86.
The cause of death was not immediately known for Farrell, who stepped down last September from his longtime role as head of the state Assembly’s Ways and Means Committee.
Friends from across the Democrat’s decades in politics fondly recalled Farrell as a mentor and role model for colleagues of all affiliations.
“He’s a remarkable American story, from a court clerk to the Democratic County leader,” said ex-Rep. Charles Rangel, a longtime friend. “The words that best describe him, in my 60 years in politics: He was a straight shooter. “He was quite a guy.” Farrell’s failed 1985 mayoral run against incumbent Ed Koch was often cited as paving the way for David Dinkins’ successful bid to become the city’s first black mayor four years later.
“I think it did, no question,” Dinkins said Saturday. “It was breaking ground. He was a good friend, and we were always proud of the fact that we always supported each other.
“He was honest. Candid. And if Denny told you he was going to do something, you could count on it.”
Farrell headed the powerful Ways and Means Committee for 23 years until his retirement last year, the end to an extraordinary APOLLO ASTRONAUT Alan Bean, the fourth man to walk on the moon who later turned to painting, died Saturday. He was 86.
Bean, a native of Wheeler, Texas, was a member of the Apollo 12 mission in November 1969, traveling to the moon alongside Pete Conrad and Richard Gordon.
Bean and Conrad conducted experiments on the moon’s surface and installed a nuclear-power generator on the moon.
He was also spacecraft commander of Skylab Mission II in 1973, spending 59 days in space.
He logged a total of 69 days, 15 hours and 45 minutes in space, including 31 hours and 31 minutes on the moon’s surface, according to a release from NASA.
Following his space days, Bean (photo) became a painter — inspired in large part by his out-of-thisworld experiences.
“In his 18 years as an astronaut, he was fortunate enough to visit worlds and see sights no artist’s eye, past or present, has ever viewed firsthand and he hopes to express these experiences through the medium of art,” NASA wrote in its biography on Bean.
Bean was hospitalized in mid-May after traveling to Indiana for a speech, the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette reported. He was later the subject of death rumors on social media, with celebrities such as Tom Hanks — who starred in “Apollo 13” — reflecting on Bean’s life.
“Alan Bean. Artist. Astronaut. Apollo 12. Ocean of Storms. Footprints on the moon. Skylab, too. Great guy. Goodbye,” Hanks wrote.
Bean was married and had two grown children, a son and a daughter.
“Alan was the strongest and kindest man I ever knew. He was the love of my life and I miss him dearly,” said Leslie Bean, his wife of 40 years.
She said he died “peacefully in Houston surrounded by those who loved him.”