OBITUARIES
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 1995:
Veterinarian James Alfred
Wright, 78, known to the world as author
James Herriot, died of prostate cancer on
February 23 in Thirsk, Yorkshire. Deciding
to become a vet at age 13, Wright studied
small animal medicine, but under financial
duress became junior partner in an agricultural
practice in Thirsk, where he continued to treat
animals until 1990. Adopting as pseudonym
the name of a Scots soccer goalie, Wright
wrote unsuccessfully, as a hobby, for many
years before producing two successful vol-
umes of reminiscences of his veterinary career
at age 53. Sales were initially slow, but they
inspired a hit BBC television series, even
more popular in the U.S. than in Britain, and
combined into a single volume, retitled A l l
Creatures Great And Small, became a best-
seller. Wright went on to produce six more
books, including Every Living Thing, which
at his death had been on The New York Times
bestseller list for 22 weeks.
Homer Pickens, 91, died February
19 in Albuquerque. As assistant director of
the New Mexico Department of Game and
Fish, Pickens in 1950 nursed back to health a
bear cub called Hot Foot Teddy by the fire-
fighters who rescued him from a blaze in the
Lincoln National Forest. Pickens eventually
flew the bear to the National Zoo, where,
renamed Smokey, he lived until 1976 and is
remembered still as emblem of the U.S. Forest
Service firefighting effort.
Bambi, 31, the oldest deer on
record––since 1989––died January 23.
Adopted as a fawn by Nancy Fraser of
Inverness, Scotland, she was kept in a guest
house and fed a diet of sugar beets, corn, and
chocolate biscuits.
