The Wake

*Update

B.T.'s sister, Maureen Collins Baker, will be at the Sacramento Fair Oaks Blvd Borders on Wednesday, June 4th, at 7pm autographing her new book, Outrageous Hero, The B.T. Collins Story. See you there!

Here's info about the book

http://tinyurl.com/3jwaz6

Burying Tradition, More People Opt for "Fun" Funerals
by Carrie Dolan

For some, new rites of passage include parties, boat rides and psychedelic caskets

Sacramento, California - In a hotel ballroom here, about 3,000 revellers float among bouquets of balloons and mingle around a trio of bars. An ice sculpture drips over the buffet. A 7-piece band, led by a vocalist in a black lace dress, blares out James Brown's I Feel Good. In the midst of the action is the party's host - lying in a flag-draped coffin.

He was B T Collins, a popular California state legislator, who died of a heart attack in March at age 52. A former Green Beret who lost an arm and a leg in the Vietnam War, he was fond of unconventional tributes. He marked his 50th birthday with a parachute jump and once donated a urinal to Santa Clara University's school of law, his alma mater. Known for his disdain for protocol and his love of a good time, he had set aside funds to celebrate his passing. As for his attendance at the festivities, Nora Romero, his longtime administrative assistant, asks: "You don't think B T would miss his own party, do you?" Full B.T. Collins Tribute

• Of Better Men - Geoff Metcalf
• The Courage of Sam Bird - by B.T. Collins - Reader's Digest
• The California Viet Nam Veterans Memorial
• Joseph Galloway's Speech at the Wall
• My Friend in Need - by B.T. Collins - The Wall Street Journal
• Burying Tradition: More People Opt for "Fun" Funerals - The Wall Street Journal
• B.T. Collins Captain Hook Scholarship - Santa Clara University
• B.T. Collins: A Simple Truth by Assemblyman Jim Nielsen
• He Always Remembered Your Birthday
• If B.T. Were Here, He'd Call Me a Candy-Assed Marine and Tell Me To Pull Myself Together