John Tracy, 82, Spencer Tracy's son, dies
wazzzy
John Tracy, the son of actor Spencer Tracy for whom a well-known
center for deaf children was named, has died. He was 82.
Tracy died late Friday night at his son's home in Acton, where he had
lived for the past several years, his sister, Louise Treadwell "Susie"
Tracy, said in a statement Saturday.
The family did not know the exact cause of death, which followed a
long illness, said Barbara Hecht, president of the John Tracy Clinic
of Los Angeles.
"He lived a fairly healthy life until very recently," she said. "His
systems were just shutting down ... old age," she said.
Tracy had Usher Syndrome, a genetic disease that affects hearing and
vision. His mother, Louise, discovered he was deaf when a slamming
porch door failed to wake the sleeping 10-month-old.
"The impact seemed to shake the building, but the boy slept soundly,"
the clinic said in a statement.
Tracy's mother dedicated her life to helping families with deaf and
hearing-impaired children. She founded the John Tracy Clinic in 1942,
providing free services to parents of hearing-impaired infants and
preschool children.
Tracy did not have an active role in the clinic but made several
visits, Hecht said.
Tracy attended school in Massachusetts, New York and Los Angeles. He
graduated from Pasadena City College and attended Chouinard Art
Institute in Los Angeles.
Despite a childhood battle with infantile paralysis, he began riding
horses at 10 and became an accomplished polo player. He also became an
excellent swimmer, played tennis, and learned to water ski, his sister
said.
Tracy wanted to become a cartoonist and for a time he worked in the
prop department at Walt Disney Studios.
He eventually had to stop working when the Usher Syndrome caused his
eyesight to fail, Hecht said.
He was blind in later years, she said.
"He had one of the best dispositions of anyone I ever knew," his
sister said in a letter to friends announcing his death. "Nothing ever
seemed to get him down, although he had plenty of struggles. He had a
wonderful sense of humor, and it came out in many unexpected ways.
"When my mother brought me home from the hospital, John took one look
at his new little sister and said, 'Too small! Send her back!' He
wanted somebody he could play with that same afternoon.
"I also remember days as a child when, sick in bed, I was entertained
by John's extemporaneous stories, which usually had something to do
with a horse and ended with the words 'to be continued ... '," she
said. "I hung on every word.
Tracy is survived by his sister; son, Joseph Spencer Tracy, and three
grandchildren.
MGW
scrawled:
> Despite a childhood battle with infantile paralysis,
When's the last time anyone used that term for polio?! Very strange to
use in a current news story.
--
MGW
I have yet to see a problem, however complicated, which when you looked at
it in the right way, did not become still more complicated. ~ Poul Anderson
J.D. Baldwin
In the previous article, wazzzy <enter...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Tracy's mother dedicated her life to helping families with deaf and
> hearing-impaired children. She founded the John Tracy Clinic in
> 1942, providing free services to parents of hearing-impaired infants
> and preschool children.
Well, she certainly had lots of free time for that, what with her
husband off fucking his girlfriend all the time.
--
_+_ From the catapult of |If anyone disagrees with any statement I make, I
_|70|___:)=}- J.D. Baldwin |am quite prepared not only to retract it, but also
\ / bal...@panix.com|to deny under oath that I ever made it. -T. Lehrer
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