Stuart Lutzsays he has always been fascinated by the stories he heard from older people.
His stepson, Robert Lockwood Jr., was the last person to have played with him.
Lockwood was also the only person to ever learn the secrets of the notoriously private guitarist.
He also traveled and performed with him.
Folks crisscrossed that bridge like crazy.
Lockwood died in 2006 at age 91.
The fire quickly spread.
Most of the factory’s workers, mainly immigrant teenage girls, were trapped.
The workers were forced to jump to their deaths from high floors.
But Rose Freedman, then 17, had a different idea.
She recalled: “Everyone started screaming and running toward the fire escape.
I wasn’t near the windows.
I was further back and stood still in shock.”
Then she asked herself, “What are the executives on the 10th floor doing?”
Everyone else made the seemingly logical choice of going down to escape.
A police officer on the roof next door hoisted her over, and she walked downstairs to safety.
That day, the fire claimed 146 other workers.
Freedman died in 2001 at age 107, a month before the 90th anniversary of the fire.
“He would announce me, lift me up and then I would do the Charleston.”
“I saw the ship sinking before me.
“Since we were having lunch, I had a spoon in my hand when the ship went down.
I still had it when we got to England.”
