Mark David Chapman: The Roanoker

Today is the 25th anniversary of the death of John Lennon. The Roanoke Times has a well-done piece concerning the fact that Chapman lived on Crystal Spring Avenue in South Roanoke when he was seven years old, in 1962. The article says that the narcissitic Chapman has a detailed recollection of his days in Roanoke, and that he began his fixation on death while living there.

This is the second notable Roanoker I did not previously know about who I have discovered lately. I read A Beautiful Mind last year ago (a great book; the film can only be said to have been "loosely inspired" by it), and learned that John Nash lived in the Raleigh Court area of Roanoke for several years in the mid-1960s, when Nash was consumed by his mental illness. Here is the New York Times piece upon which Sylvia Nassar based "A Beautiful Mind."