Mountain survivor Fendler dies at 90

Dixie Cups founder dead

PORTLAND, Maine, Oct 12, (AP): Donn Fendler, who as a boy survived nine days alone on Maine’s tallest mountain in 1939 and later wrote a book about the ordeal, has died at 90.

Fendler collaborated with Joseph B. Egan on a book, “Lost on a Mountain in Maine,” which was required reading for many fourth-graders in Maine. He also enjoyed visiting schools to tell his story.

He died Monday in Bangor, Maine, after being hospitalized for failing health, family members said.

“He loved Maine. He loved kids. He loved telling his story to kids to help them keep their cool if they get lost,” his niece, Nancy Fendler, said.

Fendler said he used techniques learned as a Boy Scout to survive on Mount Katahdin, the northern terminus of the Appalachian Trail.

As a 12-year-old, Fendler got lost while hiking and made his way down the mountain and through the woods to the east branch of the Penobscot River, where he was found more than 30 miles from where he started. Bruised and cut, starved and shoeless, he’d survived by eating berries. He had lost 15 pounds.

The book became a children’s classic. A graphic novel, “Lost Trail, Nine Days Alone in the Wilderness,” was published five years ago. A movie is now in the works.Survival

His family issued a statement Tuesday, saying his survival story “will stand forever as a testament to the mercy and miracles of God, faith in God, prayer and determination to never give up.”

Fendler never seemed to tire of recounting the tale to children.

“I tell every one of them they have something inside them they don’t know they have,” he told The Associated Press in 2011. “When it comes up to a bad situation, they’re going to find out how tough a person they are in the heart and the mind — it’s called the will to live.”

Fendler retired in Clarksville, Tennessee, but had a summer home in Newport, Maine, the town where his family, from Rye, New York, was vacationing at Sebasticook Lake when he got lost.

Many feared the worst when Fendler became separated from the others on Katahdin, setting off a search by state troopers, National Guardsmen, paper mill workers, loggers and guides.

He later received a medal from President Franklin D. Roosevelt at the White House, was honored with a parade and featured in Life magazine.

Fendler’s twin, Ryan Fendler, said the trauma of spending so many nights lost in the woods didn’t lessen his brother’s affection for Maine. He and his brother celebrated their 90th birthdays together in August in Maine.

“He had a great heart and a great sense of humor,” Ryan Fendler said, describing his brother as a natural-born athlete who beat the rest of the party to the top of Katahdin before starting down on his own.

Fendler

Inspiration

Ryan Cook, who’s working on a movie adaptation of “Lost on a Mountain in Maine,” was one of those who drew inspiration as a boy from hearing Fendler speak about the importance of grinding through obstacles.

“He always tried to put a positive spin on things. It goes to speak as to why he made it through the woods. His attitude was there’s no point in wallowing in things, you’ve got to push forward,” Cook said.

A private funeral will be held in Clarksville, Tennessee. There also will be public memorial in Maine.

Joan Marie Johnson, one of the founding members of the New Orleans girl group The Dixie Cups, who had a No. 1 hit in 1964 with “Chapel of Love,” has died at a hospice in New Orleans. She was 72.

Johnson, who was only with the group for its first few years because she was diagnosed with sickle cell anemia, died of congestive heart failure Oct 3, according to former bandmate Barbara Ann Hawkins.

Their “Chapel of Love,” written by Phil Spector, Ellie Greenwich and Jeff Barry, supplanted the Beatles’ “Love Me Do” as the No. 1 song on both the pop and R&B charts. The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame later included it in the 500 Songs that Shaped Rock & Roll. It turns out the trio arranged the vocals on the spot.

“When Ellie and Jeff first played ‘Chapel’ for us, we looked at each other, like, ‘You really want us to sing that like that?’ They said, ‘Well, how do you want to sing it?’ So I said, ‘Give us a minute.’ So we went in the corner and started singing. We walked back to them and when we sang it the way it was recorded, they were just, ‘Wow! That was awesome,’” Hawkins said.

The trio’s other hits include “People Say,” “You Should Have Seen the Way He Looked at Me” and their version of a traditional New Orleans song “Iko Iko.” Though they meet all the qualifications for entry in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, so far they have not been invited to join.

“We went through a lot because it was the early ’60s and we went through a lot as far as race and a whole lot of other things. We had a manager who wasn’t really in our corner, but there were a lot of good times,” Hawkins said.

Johnson started the group as a teenager and asked Hawkins to join. Hawkins soon asked if her sister, Rosa Lee, could also join. When they were about to go to New York to set up music deals, Hawkins’ grandmother called over to the Johnson house to find out more about her and her family.

Soon the grandmother started laughing and the Hawkins sisters eventually realized that Johnson was their cousin. “I had never even met her,” said Barbara Ann Hawkins.

The trio would eventually be signed to Red Bird Records by the songwriting team of Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller. But the traveling and inconsistent meal times took their toll on Johnson, who dropped out of the group.