Evel Knievel ill, readies gravestone

Associated Press via The Billings Gazette ^ | July 21, 2005 | Associated Press

[BigSkyFreeper]

AP Photo/Montana Standard, Walter Hinick
Evel Knievel is pictured Tuesday, July 19, 2005, in Butte, Mont., with a stone marker that he will use as his headstone on his grave. While rumors about the daredevil's failing health have been buzzing for a few years, his friend Alma Barry in Twin Falls, Idaho, didn't believe them until Knievel called and asked for a gravestone he left in her care to be shipped to him in Butte. Doctors have diagnosed Knievel with a lung disease called idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. There is no cure. The gravestone hasbeen stored in Twin Falls since his attempted Snake River Canyon jump in 1974.

[fieldmarshaldj]

Prayers for one of America's originals.

[MJY1288]

"He says his doctors give him three to five years to live."

At his age, that is a safe bet with or without a terminal illness.

I wish Evel Knievel all the best, but 3 to 5 years to live is probably better odds than Vegas would give with Knievel in perfect health

[pcottraux]

Is his casket going to fly over a line of semi trucks into the hole?

Sorry, that was uncalled for. But I couldn't resist.

[durasell]

Is he going to jump it?

[Echo Talon]

He said he wasn't doing too well and wanted to be buried in Butte

Butte? Is that pronounced "bootie", or "but"?

[Biblebelter]

I would have to call him one the last examples of "rugged individualism".

[durasell]

Really? I'd have to call him a showman.

[digger48]

His personal life was a wreck, in itself. But a true idol to many a young lad in his day.

[BigSkyFreeper]

Butte? Is that pronounced "bootie", or "but"?

Neither. Butte, is pronounced "b-yoot".

[leadpenny]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evel_Knievel

Robert Craig "Evel" Knievel (born October 17, 1938 in Butte, Montana)

~much more . . .

[Larry Lucido]

Before he goes, he wants one more shot at Sheldon Saltman.

[Echo Talon]

Neither. Butte, is pronounced "b-yoot".

As in "My Cousin Vinny" "uhhh whats a yoot?" ?

[BigSkyFreeper]

Right.

[ocr1]

Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, my mother died from this. It is a horrible way to die. You slowy suffocate to death over the years. My prayers go out for him.

[Echo Talon]

Thats one of my favorite movies BTW. :D

[BigSkyFreeper]

Mine too, of course Marisa Tomei was in it. :)

[Mr Ramsbotham]

The only guy who was ever happy to miss the bus.

[No Blue States]

Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure, than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much because they live in the gray twilight that knows neither victory nor defeat. Theodore Roosevelt

I wish him the best, having pretending to be him more than once while jumping ramps on my bicycle as a kid.