Maybe the Strangest Celebrity Death This Year

Tweet

As I've mentioned a few times (especially when listing the ever-growing number of Rock and Roll Hall of Famers who've died this year [we're up to eight now, with the death of Booker T. & the MGs original bassist Lewie Steinberg last week]), 2016 seems to be living up to what CNN dubbed as "the year of the celebrity death." Now maybe the strangest "celebrity death" of the year has occurred near Mansfield, Ohio. The Shawshank Redemption oak tree is dead. The tree, featured in the classic 1994 film, was damaged in a severe thunderstorm in July 2011. Last week another high-wind storm knocked what was left of the tree over completely. The sites where the movie was filmed had turned into quite the tourist attraction in the Mansfield, Ohio area. Here's the website about the tree and the film sites: