Death
Richard died of abdominal cancer on May 27, 2000. Although he was long retired by the time of his death, an estimated 115,000 people of all ages paid their respects while his body lay in state at Montreal's Bell Centre. Following Richard's death, the Montreal Expos Major League baseball team wore Richard's number 9, in black, on their right sleeves for the duration of the 2000 season, and flags were lowered to half staff as Quebec's National Assembly was suspended for the day. Richard was given a provincial state funeral that was broadcast live across Canada, the first time such an honour was bestowed on an athlete. Among those who attended were Governor General Adrienne Clarkson, Lieutenant Governor of Quebec Lise Thibault, various politicians (including then Prime Minister of Canada, Jean Chrétien, and then Premier of Quebec Lucien Bouchard), Gordie Howe, Jean Béliveau, and then Canadiens team captain Saku Koivu.
Read more about this topic: Maurice Richard
Famous quotes containing the word death:
“The mercury sank in the mouth of the dying day.
What instruments we have agree
The day of his death was a dark cold day.”
—W.H. (Wystan Hugh)
“It is a strange, strange fate, and now, as I stand face to face with death I feel just as if they were going to kill a boy. For I feel like a boy—and my hands so free from blood and my heart always so compassionate and pitiful that I cannot comprehend how anyone wants to hang me.”
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“Lo! Death has reared himself a throne
In a strange city lying alone
Far down within the dim West,
Where the good and the bad and the worst and the best
Have gone to their eternal rest.”
—Edgar Allan Poe (1809–1849)