Do you know the person whose last words were "I'm not ok"?

MessageType: Praise

Ernie, thanks for your quick reply regarding my daughter's paper for school! I would like to share with you a little about our family and my sharing of Tiny Tim's life with them. We live in a small town south of St. Louis, Missouri called Farmington. About 2 months ago there was a report in our local newspaper that headlined "Tiny Tim sentenced for."-it was a sexual crime. To my astonishment, I couldn't believe it was our Tiny Tim. So I read the article and researched a little on line and was glad to find out it wasn't our Tiny Tim. Sadly, I discovered that our Tiny Tim was deceased.

I can't recall my first experience with Tiny Tim as a youngster but I, at the time, was working at the State Hospital-(MIDD)/mentally ill, developmentally disabled. I was instructing a group on Music appreciation and accordingly I put together a lesson plan and introduced my clients to Tiny Tim. As well as them, I introduced Tiny Tim to my family. My children are awesome, no problems, kind, gentle, compassionate and spiritual. I've done my best to teach them kindness towards others and acceptance regardless of differences. Meanwhile, I found Tiny Tim on "You Tube" and other spots on the net and was astonished at some of the rude and vulgar comments people had and the inconsiderate thoughts people posted! I allowed my children to read certain postings, carefully selecting the least obscene ones to show them how mean people could be. My children's first reaction to Tiny Tim was "weird" as they said, however I introduced them to the new word of eccentric.

Admittedly, Tiny Tim was eccentric, but inspirational to many and most of all a brave person who was genuine and did what he did regardless of others scrutiny and suggestions. In essence, a Renaissance man or a Genius-original thinker/beginning, since my initial introduction of Tiny Tim my son has been able to imitate Tiny's Falsetto-in Tiptoe Through the Tulips, my daughter got the lead solo in the Christmas concert and she chose to do her report in English on Tiny Tim-not someone that everyone knows, including her instructor. My daughter started her report and while assisting her in proof reading I was able to teach her the reliable sources and straighten out her confusion of Charles Dicken's Tiny Tim from A Christmas Carol so everyone learned something! That's when we found your site and she wanted to know if you knew him. Thus, the first email. Thank you for putting together an amazing site and allowing such a masterful artist to be revealed to others to whom he was so introverted with!

In closing, I will type her report for you-as your web site is a labor of love so too is her report as she has worked so hard and has gone the extra mile in reporting on an American icon that few remember, few ever truly knew, and mostly few ever truly understood. Remember, this is a fifth grade report-I'm so proud of her efforts and courage to report on someone little known and educate others in the process! I hope you enjoy and I'm looking forward to future correspondence-if you have feedback on her report we would both love to hear what you have to say.

Do you know the person whose last words were "I'm not ok"? Well if you don't know who this person is you might want to keep reading. This person's stage name was Tiny Tim. Tiny Tim was an eccentric person, amazing singer, Dodgers baseball fanatic, and even an actor.

Tiny Tim's birth name was Herbert Khaury, born April 12, 1932 in New York City to the proud parent's of Tille Staff and Butros Hanna Khaury. According to Tiny Tim's parents he was preoccupied at an early age with music. Herbie, as his parents called him, loved to watch the Dodgers play baseball and he could be described as a Dodgers fanatic. His parents enjoyed watching his expressions when the Dodgers won. Herbie's first musical instrument was the violin given to him at age five. He soon tired of the violin and took up the guitar at age six. When his mother offered him lessons from the next door neighbor, Herbie replied, "No, I'll figure it out on my own."

Tiny Tim was a talented singer as well as a musician. He was mostly known for his ability to sing Falsetto style. A Falsetto is a vocal technique that allows a singer to sing notes beyond the vocal range of the normal voice. Due to his use of the Falsetto, he became a well known singer/performer by singing "Tip Toe Through the Tulips" in the Falsetto method. Tiny Tim covered "Tip Toe Through the Tulips" and it peaked at #17 on the billboard top 100-catapulting him to instant celebrity status.

After success with "Tip Toe Through the Tulips", Tiny started traveling around the world performing in small clubs and big restaurants and diners. The first few couple of performances were rough. He expected riches and fame, however little came. Later on in Tiny Tim's life he continued to sing on stage. One day while performing he suffered a heart attack and survived. Later, in poor health, while performing "Tip Toe Through the Tulips" he suffered another heart attack and died an hour and fifteen minutes later on November 30, 1996.

This wonderfully talented performer's internment was in a Mausoleum at Lakewood Cemetery. His third wife asked if he was ok after his heart attack and his last words spoken were "I'm not ok." Tiny Tim may be different but he brings back memories to a lot of people-in a special way.

By Kiana T.