Ever wonder who was tickling the ivories when Marilyn Monroe infamously cooed “Happy Birthday, Mr. President” to JFK in ’62? The great jazz pianist, bandleader and composer Hank Jones (“The Man Who Accompanied Marilyn”) pulled presidential piano duty that day in Madison Square Garden. Born in Vicksburg, Mississippi, on this day in 1918, Henry Jones Jr. received the Jazz Masters Award from the National Endowment for the Arts; he died in 2010.
Also born today:
Fatboy Slim (aka Quentin Leo Cook) — born 1963 in Bromley, Kent, England.
R.E.M. drummer Bill Berry — born 1958 in Duluth, Minnesota.
