Shirley Temple died today at the age of 85. May she rest in peace.


Shirley Temple, who rose to fame as arguably one of the most famous child actresses in Hollywood history, has died, according to her publicist. She was 85.

RIP

Just heard this on the radio. There was a time when every little girl (and some boys) wanted to be Shirley Temple. They all had Shirley Temple dolls and curls and took tap dancing lessons. She set the bar high for former child stars, getting out early and going into diplomacy. All in all, a life well spent. Safe journey, Shirley Temple Black.

RIP

She always amazes me at how young she was. I think of her as from another time, but she was significantly younger than my grandparents. I guess it's because she was out of the limelight for most of her adulthood.

RIP I admit I never saw one of her movies, but I certainly appreciate the impact she had on the American culture.

RIP

I am a little ashamed to admit that I thought she was already dead.

I remember her as the little actress, her roles as a teen, and her political life. A few jokes from Carson when she became a rep to the U.N. and when she became an Ambassador.

Bet you didn't expect some metal in your Shirley Temple thread.

The person playing bass in this song is Shirley's daughter, Lori "Lorax" Black.

....maybe. Buzz Osbourne's a bit of a prick when it comes to Lorax.

What a disquieting image, Junkie. I love it!

Only 85? I'm surprised.

I have a fond memory of teaching my grandmother about YouTube, and the first thing she wanted to look up was old Shirley Temple clips. The first one she watched, she almost cried, and then she talked about how Temple helped get America through the Depression.

Where were the curly-haired, tap-dancing tykes during our more recent economic downturns??

Strangely, this seems like a program the Japanese would implement during an economic recovery.

Twitter was not kind upon news of her death.

Why would anyone say bad things about Shirley Temple?

Because she's EEEEEEEEEVIL

She was a lifelong conservative Republican, and as you may recall was appointed as Ambassador to the UN by Reagan. So it appears a lot of young people who didn't know that were reading retrospectives upon her death and bombed Twitter with really hateful thoughts about her death.

I don't know why, but it was kind of a downer. Pretty normal these days (things seem pretty tribal on the social media), but mashing that world with Shirley Temple felt blegh.

In other news from Twitter, in all seriousness, quite a few people learned for the first time she was a person and not just the name of a cocktail.

Weird.

I don't recall that ever happening. She did serve as ambassador to Ghana, assigned by Nixon.