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Let's partner for all of it. Learn more at edwardjones.com. Good morning. I'm Jane Pauley and this is Sunday Morning. Christmas has come and gone. The clock is ticking.

Before you know it, we'll ring in the new year. But before we leave 2021 behind, it's that time when we remember the unforgettable. When we say hail and farewell to those who left us in the year gone by. Lee Cowan has our annual look back. From Broadway luminaries to statesmen to actors we'll never forget.

A very strong sun. This Sunday morning, we say goodbye to those who enriched our lives. Leaving us a bit better in a year we hoped would be better too.

As we gear up to wish you a joyous new year, Mo Rocca comes bearing a gift. The inspiring story behind Beethoven's Ode to Joy. Beethoven's towering 9th Symphony was a call for universal fellowship, but the composer was at his most isolated while writing it. I think it's the greatest accomplishment in musical history. The writing of the 9th by a man who was essentially deaf. I don't know how you can ask more of a human being.

Beethoven's gift to humankind ahead on Sunday morning. Actor Peter Dinklage will be telling Leslie Stahl the story behind his latest movie, a classic love story with a twist. Why acting? I ask myself that every morning, but then what else am I gonna do?

I like gardening. I can't tell you how long. The amazing story of how a production of Cyrano de Bergerac starring Peter Dinklage jumped from this little stage to the big screen. Pleasure to meet you, Cyrano de Bergerac.

Later on Sunday morning. Connor Knighton will take us down some country roads. Seth Doan updates us on the reconstruction of Paris's beloved Notre Dame. Faith Salie has the last word on the year 2021 and more on this last Sunday morning of 2021, Sunday, December 26th.

We'll be right back. It's a song that was a huge hit for John Denver in 1971. Today, it's become something of an anthem for the homesick everywhere. Connor Knighton takes us down the road. Almost heaven West Virginia The first line of John Denver's song, Take Me Home Country Roads, calls West Virginia almost heaven.

And when you're up in the mountains, that description can feel pretty accurate. But these winding country roads were immortalized by someone who had never driven them. Had you ever been to West Virginia before you wrote the song?

No. Well, in my dreams, the melody is... Songwriter Bill Danoff, along with his then-girlfriend and bandmate Taffy Nivert, played a rough draft of Country Roads for their pal John Denver after a gig one night in Washington, D.C. John's biggest contribution to anything at that point was just his enthusiasm. Well, let's finish it, you know, at one o'clock in the morning, at one thirty, you know, let's get it. The three stayed up late collaborating on the version that hit the airwaves 50 years ago. When it came out in 71, you know, the Vietnam War was was really rocking.

We had hundreds of thousands of troops over there. So coming home is a big, big deal. I hear a voice in the morning hour.

She calls me. The radio reminds me of my home far away. It was a song about home, just not Danoff's home. You're from Massachusetts. Could it just as easily have been almost heaven, Massachusetts? Yeah, except I didn't like the word. West Virginia sounded good.

And as it turned out, a lot of other people thought so, too. The song was John Denver's first hit. And despite some questionable geographic accuracy — the Blue Ridge Mountains and Shenandoah River in the lyrics are barely within the state's borders — West Virginians embraced it in a big way. John Denver, the Mountain State's adopted favorite son, paid a special visit to the campus.

Debbie drops, Debbie throws down the left side, and he's got a man, and that pass is caught in the end zone. Students at West Virginia University sing the song after every home game victory. It's a staple at wedding receptions. You can find the lyrics on posters and t-shirts everywhere from small town storefronts to the back of Senator Joe Manchin's boat.

But the enduring appeal outside of the state has been more surprising. From television's The Office Sorry, I like that song. You're good.

You're good. To Germany's Oktoberfest. The song is known throughout the world. So we can think about the song as being about any place. It names West Virginia, but it doesn't have to.

West Virginia University assistant professor Sarah Morris has been studying the global impact of country roads. People take the song and reappropriate it so that it's about the place that's home to them. So they just swap in their own geographic references. Change the geographic references, change the lyrics, change the location, but it doesn't really change the song, and it doesn't change the meaning of the song. This Toots and the Maytals version was a hit in Jamaica.

In Hawaii, it's West Makaha. From France to Brazil, there are countless reinterpretations. The song is hugely popular in Japan.

The plot of the anime film Whisper of the Heart centers around a teenage girl who translates country roads. The feeling of longing, of homesickness, is universal. It's the rare song that isn't just singing about something, it's causing it. Country star Brad Paisley grew up in Glendale, West Virginia. He's been playing country roads ever since he learned to play guitar, but the song gained new meaning for him when he left for Nashville.

I think once you move away, the song takes on way more just character and depth. You hear that on the radio and you're not in West Virginia, like you hear that in your car and it comes on and you hear that iconic acoustic guitar part. Driving down the road, I get a feeling that I should have been home yesterday. Leaving and homecoming has always been something that West Virginians have experienced, but we've been at a loss in our population since 1950, so I think it's a perennial mood for West Virginians.

Including this one. I grew up in the capital city of Charleston. I learned to ride my bike on country roads. I left the state after high school, but I'm still nostalgic for it. It's like the song says, all my memories gather round her.

One of the things that I've been thinking about is a Welsh concept called hariath. This deep longing for some place that you can't quite name. It's home, but maybe more. It's maybe a place that you've never been or the home that you've only dreamed of. This deep pull toward place. Whatever home means to you, there's no place like it. The place really is immaterial. It's the place I belong. I think that's the key line. That's what people are looking for in their lives. Like so many people, I didn't head home for the holidays in 2020, which has made returning this year feel especially meaningful.

At the end of the year, the place I belong is at the end of a country road. It was April 15th, 2019, when fire tore through Paris's beloved Notre Dame. Plans to restore and reconstruct the great cathedral of the city of Paris, the city of Paris, the city of Paris, and the cathedral were launched almost immediately.

Two plus years later, our Seth Doan has a progress report. It's at the heart of Paris in every sense of the word, but this landmark, which has endured since the 12th century, is now almost unrecognizable inside, as we saw when Sunday morning was granted rare access. Today Notre Dame is a cathedral of scaffolding. That's after that April 2019 fire, likely sparked by an electrical short, which engulfed the church. The magnificent 160-year-old gothic spire toppled and much of the roof collapsed. Remarkably though, most of the main stone structure remained, and French president Emmanuel Macron vowed to rebuild within five years. Lead contamination from the destroyed roof and spire is just one of the many challenges slowing renovation work and even access to the monument, as we found out.

So they've given us completely new clothes, which we will wear and then dispose of. We suited up this past summer to go high on the scaffolding over the cathedral to meet from this commanding perch, the man in charge of the renewal effort, Jean-Louis Jojolain, who does not exactly have much time to enjoy the vistas of Paris. What a view. Yes, it's one of the most magnificent views you can have from Paris, but only for a small time because this will be here only for five years.

He's referring to the scaffolding and that ambitious renovation deadline. And I'm here, me, to win this battle. It's a battle.

It's a daily battle. In fact, he's a former military general. And Jojolain says that's part of the reason Macron chose him. He's charged with managing this rebuilding effort.

They've already raised one billion dollars. He showed us the gaping hole at the church's transept. This is the heart of the drama.

The heart of it all. And pointed out where there once was the roof. Here you will have in wood the framework. Above the framework, the roof in lead.

This is where a lattice of centuries-old wooden beams known as the forest made up a sort of attic for the church. It doesn't look like it'll be ready by 2024. Why do you say that?

Because you have a lot of scaffold. Yes. But we have a plan which is very precise. Now you are at the end of what we call the stabilization to proceed to the restoration. So in some way the most difficult has been done. We're going up to the very top. To see the work, chief architect Philippe Villeneuve took us into that web of scaffolding which had initially obscured the cathedral's soaring ceiling.

Incredible. Villeneuve says this renovation is for him a duty and a mission, adding My job is that every morning I wake up to save the cathedral. They were putting in place temporary custom-built wooden braces designed to support the flying buttresses.

With such a beloved landmark, there has been debate over every detail. Chairs versus pews, lighting and art. But Villeneuve told us the structure will be as close to the original as possible. We'll be using the exact same materials as they did during the Middle Ages and in the 19th century, he told us.

We went to look in quarries to see if the stones we had were the correct density. It was oak. It shall be oak.

The rebuilding techniques are absolutely identical. CBS News visited one of the French forests where they were selecting some of the 1,000 oak trees, at least a century old, for the spire and transept. Earlier this month they began sawing the first few trees. Notre-Dame did not have modern fire safety equipment like sprinklers to slow the blaze, but French firefighters had trained to fight a fire at the cathedral. It's beautiful. They used water at lower pressure and tried to avoid directly spraying the hot stained glass. These stained glass windows are absolutely irreplaceable, Philippe Villeneuve told us.

Thus, these treasures were spared. There are carpenters, stonemasons, ironworkers, artisans from about 20 different specialties at work here, some in this medieval place, using the most modern of implements. Including a drone fitted with special imaging technology. It's a high resolution photograph, so I really have the cathedral in my computer, actually. The cathedral in the computer.

Philippe Dillman is the research director at France's National Center for Scientific Research, the CNRS. He showed us what he calls Notre-Dame's digital twin. We made 3D maps to understand the way they were built and the way ancient people built these cathedrals, but also to restore them. And they can compare these images with high resolution ones taken before the fire. They've examined how the monument moved, where it was stressed by the fire, and the temperatures at which it burned.

They're trying to understand where specific pieces were placed. Some materials, like stone, can be reused. But this piece of wood, for instance, has been burned.

That's not going to be able to be put back in place. So why does it matter if you know where exactly that came from if you can't put it back? It's a matter of knowledge of the ancient carpentry. And in trying to understand those processes, there have been some unexpected revelations from materials, like that centuries-old wood. We can have indications on the medieval climate, the evolution of the medieval climate, just by looking on the isotopes inside the wood. Wow. So you're not only learning about putting the cathedral back together, you're also learning bits and pieces of history. Exactly.

Climate. Science for the rebuilding of the cathedrals, but it's also the cathedrals for science. They're tantalizing details.

This precious time capsule is inspiring and challenging artisans of our modern era, charged with preserving the majesty of the past. I killed my mother, Joanna Lannister, on the day I was born. I killed my father, Tywin Lannister, with a bolt to the heart. I am the greatest Lannister killer of our time.

So actor Peter Dinklage has won four Emmys for his portrayal of Tyrion Lannister in HBO's Game of Thrones. Now he's tackling another literary hero. Leslie Stahl has our Sunday profile. Hello, Leslie.

Hi. Full disclosure, I've wanted to interview Peter Dinklage for years, but he's a hard man to get in the chair. You're famously private. I'm told you really don't like to talk like this. Well, if I was truly private, I wouldn't be here.

I'm not Salinger. I'm an actor, so I'm selling cars here, you know what I'm saying? But I think privacy is something that's really getting chipped away at these days, especially with actors. The more you know about an actor's personal life, you see it on screen when they're playing a character.

And I feel like subconsciously, it kind of trips away at the fabric of what you're watching, who you're seeing. I want to say to you, get over it, because this is the way it is. And you're not going to read it.

I know, but I'm a cranky old man that's still railing against it. Pleasure to meet you, Cyrano de Bergerac. The vehicle this charmingly cranky 52-year-old is selling is Cyrano. Cyrano? Cyrano. Cyrano. A new movie based on an old play.

Cyrano de Bergerac was written by Edmund Rustand in 1897. It's the tale of a man ashamed of his appearance. You don't think she has the depth to look beyond your— Careful. —unique physique.

Not bad. Thank you. To love you for who you are, not for how you look.

Who helps another man— With women? My whole life I've been useless. Silent. I'm—what's the word for when you're bad at expressing yourself?

Inarticulate. That's it! So Cyrano ghostwrites love letters to Wu Roxanne, the woman both men love. The character, who's traditionally bedecked with a large and repellent nose, has been played by everyone, from José Ferrer, who won an Oscar for his portrayal, to Steve Martin, who didn't. Yes, what you've heard is true! I am not a rumor!

I am living proof that God has a sick sense of humor! Peter Dinklage's Cyrano is certainly a contender. This Cyrano was filmed in a small town in Sicily last fall, at the height of the pandemic. The movie set was isolated and safe most of the time. What made you decide to shoot a sequence on a volcano? Well, it seemed to be a good idea at the time. Director Joe Wright almost had a disaster movie on his hands when Mount Etna— It exploded while you were there! Yeah, that was unforeseen. It was bad luck, really. On the last day, the volcano erupted, and literally spitting lava at us as we ran down the hill. Literally ran for your life?

Yeah, pretty much, yeah. That was the cliffhanger finale of the film shoot in Sicily, but our story really began calmly in Connecticut at the Goodspeed Theatre three years ago. Was Peter still working on Game of Thrones at the time? He wrapped Game of Thrones, and two days later, he started a rehearsal for Cyrano.

Erica Schmidt, an award-winning dramatist, is Peter Dinklage's wife. I am a poet! My words are wasted now!

They need to be spoken aloud! She wrote and directed the stage adaptation of Cyrano. I love the character of Cyrano. I love how uncompromising he is, that he is unwilling to be bought. I don't think he would post much on Instagram or Twitter. He really is his own person.

And yet he's insecure? Yes. Erica told us, your wife, that you begged her for the part. Begged, yeah. Yes, yeah.

I mean, essentially, yes, that's true. But why? What was it? Well, for an actor, you always want to do something that, for me at least, that scares you.

I know that sounds very valiant of me, but it's true. I just never had a chance to sing since I was a kid. I can't tell you how long I've... Joe Wright came to see the play. His girlfriend, Haley Bennett, starred as Roxanne on the stage, as well as in the movie. He asked Erica Schmidt to write the screenplay. So there are scenes in the movie that are almost directly from the play?

Yes. And then other things he needed to change? Yeah, I mean, the last act is almost word for word. What did you ask her to add?

She had cut all reference to the nose and made no reference to Pete's height. And I felt that it was important to make some reference to how others might perceive Cyrano. So at the very beginning... Someone calls him a freak. You're a freak. The insult is antique, but I accept it.

And so we understand... Freak. What the deal is, and then we can get past it. Is that it? Is that it? Your wife, she said she didn't write the play with you in mind.

No. But I wonder if she did subliminally, because it fits you so perfectly. It's the glove.

Perhaps she did subliminally. I think with the stage version, I'd like to think that it just, it allows it to then speak more universally and not just specifically to someone my size or somebody who is differently abled, that we all have that sort of insecurity when it comes to the person we are. In the movie, you forget it.

Well, that's my gig, is to sort of... But even though it's set explicitly. Let's get beyond it. And that's not all who I am.

I mean, I've read scripts where I say no to these characters that they're trying to get me to play, because it's just my height, and it never scratches anything deeper. You had a rule, it is said, that you wouldn't play Santa's elves, and you wouldn't play a leprechaun. They're not real people. They're not real people. No. I mean, if it was a really well-written leprechaun who had complexity and like, but no. Bronn, the next time Samoan speaks, kill him. Game of Thrones. That was a threat.

Because of that. See the difference? You're totally famous. Can you walk down the street without being swarmed? Depends. Depends on the day. Do you hate it?

Yes, that I do, because I'm not working. I'm just walking down the street. We lived in Chelsea for a while, and we had a dog, a very big dog, that had to be walked a lot. And this was probably season three of Thrones. And he started walking down the street, and all of these people came, I don't know where they were coming from, from the restaurants. And it was like 30 people, you know, Peter, Peter, Tyrion, coming towards him. And I see, walking towards me, Leonardo DiCaprio with a baseball cap and sunglasses. And he just walked right by, nobody even blinked. But it was, I mean, he can't hide, Peter.

He can't put on a sunglasses and a hat and disappear. What's intriguing is that you have spoken about how you don't want to be stared at, you don't want to be looked at. And then you choose a profession that's all about people staring at you. But I own that stare.

It's because I've flipped it, maybe, and they're staring at me for a different reason. Well, what about when you were growing up? You've said you had a happy childhood. Oh, here we go.

For a moment, I thought this would be the abrupt end of our interview, but... Oh, God. No, I mean, I grew up in a town in New Jersey, and we didn't move. I wasn't the new kid. I imagine if someone like me comes into a new school, there's a bit of getting used to it, a social dance there.

But I grew up in the same town, so it was just what it was. Are you as balanced as you come off? No. I think you're giving me a little bit of acting thing. You think I'm acting now? A little bit.

No, really? Well, then turn off the cameras. Then I won't act anymore. No, this is me.

I'm balanced. Now streaming. I used to believe in progress. That no matter what we do, we just end up back at the start.

We're in crazy time. The Paramount Plus Original Series The Good Fight returns for its final season. The point isn't the end.

The point is winning. There are bad people in the world. The best way to protect the good people is to convict the bad. So here's to us.

The Good Fight, the final season. Now streaming exclusively on Paramount Plus. 2020 was supposed to be the year music lovers marked Beethoven's 250th birthday.

The pandemic made that impossible. Muraka has a belated tribute. How important in the history of music is Beethoven's 9th? It's immensely important. It's literally and metaphorically bigger than any other symphony.

That's what it's intended to be. It's Beethoven's hug for the whole world. And says Beethoven biographer Jan Swafford, it's no coincidence that the symphony's final movement, the triumphal Ode to Joy, has long been a worldwide anthem of freedom and peace. Beethoven wanted to write an anthem for humanity with this little tune that anybody can sing. Probably half the population of the earth knows that tune, whether they know it's by Beethoven or not. The 9th was Beethoven's final major work, the coda to an epic life in music. It's impossible to actually think about the history of music, the history of humanity without Beethoven. Last year, the pandemic complicated plenty of music. Last year, the pandemic complicated plans to celebrate Beethoven's 250th birthday. But, says conductor Marin Alsop, there may be no better time to reflect on the man and his philosophy. It's about coming to terms with tremendous challenge, strife, struggle, and deciding that it's worth it. Strife and struggle were constants in the composer's life.

Born in 1770 in the German city of Bonn, Ludwig van Beethoven was by age 10 considered the next Mozart. But throughout his life, he was plagued with physical maladies. He may have had chronic lead poisoning. He had colitis.

He had fevers and headaches that lasted for months. Even worse, in his late 20s, the composer began to lose his hearing. And he wrote this letter, which is partly a suicide note and partly a statement of defiance.

It's both. And he just said in this letter, I'm going to be the most miserable person in the world, but I'm going to live for my art because I can't imagine killing myself, basically, before I've done what I know I can do. And so as the world around him gradually fell silent, Beethoven wrote at a furious pace. String quartets. Piano compositions.

And of course, symphonies. But by the 1820s, Beethoven, his health worse than ever, his personal life in shambles was no longer writing as easily. Was it an open question whether or not Beethoven would be back before the ninth premiered? The general opinion about Beethoven was that he was so sick and crazy that he was finished. But Beethoven wasn't through just yet.

He was still in his early 20s. But Beethoven wasn't through just yet. Passionately political all his life, he adapted the Friedrich Schiller poem, Ode to Joy, a revolutionary call for freedom for his symphony, a radical act. By the time Beethoven wrote the Ninth Symphony, it was a police state. And it's amazing to me that everybody knew what the Ode to Joy was about. It was about the revolutionary period. Beethoven was tapping into all that to keep the dream of freedom alive in a bad time. I think you could rightly say, and I think of this, it's the greatest accomplishment in musical history. The writing of the Ninth by a man who was essentially deaf.

I don't know how you can ask more of a human being. San Francisco based hearing specialist Dr. Charles Lim was inspired to create simulations of how Beethoven may have heard his own compositions. Here's an example of what really severe hearing loss sounded like. It's a muddy, distorted sound that's barely audible. You can tell right away there's a loss of clarity.

You're just hearing rumblings. And you can't even tell really that it was based once on a piece of music. You can fairly state that he composed the Ninth Symphony using his mind's ear. Using his mind's ear.

What does that mean? If you just stop right now and try to hear the Ninth Symphony in your head, you can hear it. And you're hearing it because your auditory memory allows you to have that recollection. Marin Alsop thinks Beethoven's loss of hearing may very well have liberated him creatively. I think because he didn't hear the pieces played. He didn't censor them in the same way. He kept moving forward in terms of experimentation.

In terms of taking risks. At the premiere of the Ninth Symphony, the crowd went wild. But Beethoven couldn't hear them.

Somebody had to turn him around to see the audience going crazy. But it wasn't for the music, it was for him. 22 years after he contemplated taking his own life, a determined, defiant Beethoven gave the world a reminder that even in the darkest of times, there's potential for joy. They touched us in so many ways.

Their talents, their deeds, their special gifts. Time for our look back at those who left us in the year gone by. With Lee Cowan, we say hail and farewell.

Move on. That's something we've been trying to do all year, to move a little closer to normalcy. But we still ended the year with more COVID deaths than last year. And a whole new variant that's threatening our holidays once again. There were more school shootings and, of course, a deadly line of tornadoes that cut a scar across the nation's midsection.

In December, not exactly common. So much for normal. Broadway, though, reopened cautiously and with it a new revival of a groundbreaking musical, Company, although still reeling from the loss of its creator, Stephen Sondheim.

No one here to guide you. Now you're on your own. From Into the Woods, to Follies, to Sweeney Todd, Sondheim was one of the most influential composer lyricists Broadway has ever known. A standing ovation to him.

I used to think I was going to buy the world back in those days. Cicely Tyson left us after decades of powerful performances. We have a very strong son. That elevated the lives of black Americans and their stories. I wanted to address certain issues and I chose to use my career as my platform. And how did you go about doing that?

Just simply ruling out what I wouldn't do. Of all her roles, the autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman she considered her most important. Other fighters like Gloria Richardson pushed aside a National Guardsman's rifle. Lucille Times staged a one-woman bus boycott six months before Rosa Parks. And they both lived long enough to see Colin Powell reach the peak of politics. He was the first black chairman of the joint chiefs and national security advisor. And later, President George W. Bush's secretary of state. People look to you and they trust you because you're serving selflessly as the leader.

Not self-serving, selflessly. To all of those who served our country, abroad, and at home, we salute you. Hammering Hank Aaron served America in uniform too. Surpassing Babe Ruth as baseball's home run king. What a marvelous moment for baseball, for the country, and the world. A black man is getting a standing ovation in the deep south for breaking a record of an all-time baseball idol. I just thank God it's all over with.

Thank you very much. Yeah, but he's got it away in the zone. He's got to get out of the way. And we can't forget Tommy Lasorda. As manager, he took his beloved LA Dodgers to two world championships and four pennants. You're a happy good man, Tommy Lasorda. I love every day of my life, Larry. Mary King loved every day of his life too. To you, my audience. With his signature suspenders, he reigned as king of the TV interview. And I'm on my way to heaven. But he wasn't really royalty.

Not like this anyway. Britain's Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. He cut a dashing figure by his wife, Queen Elizabeth's side, for royal weddings and funerals, defending the monarchy for nearly three quarters of a century.

To sleep, a chance to dream. Christopher Plummer was royalty in his own way. But he'll always be remembered as Captain Von Trapp. Even if he wished, he was remembered for something else. Have you ever sang Edelweiss in public after that? I mean, you were hoping I might sing it for you here now. I don't know.

It's a wrap. He won his first Oscar at age 82. Christopher Plummer, Beginners. You're only two years older than me, darling. Where have you been all my life? To you, Captain, Al Fiedersehen. Another captain leftist this year, the Love Boat's Captain Stube, played by Gavin MacLeod. Hi, sweetheart.

Highlighting a cruise ship was quite a promotion from the struggling writer he once played. Murray, come into my office. Being bossed around by Lou Grant. Sit down, Murray. I'm already sitting down.

Sit down, I said. Sure, Lou. Of all the roles Ed Asner played, Hi, Murray.

the gruff, hardworking newsman on the Mary Tyler Moore show was really his favorite. You know what? You got spunk. Well, yes.

I hate spunk. Because, he said, everyone on that cast was family. Lou.

Lou, I really admire you for having the nerve to stay here after that humiliating experience. That included Cloris Leachman. Stay close to the candles.

The staircase can be treacherous. Also a memorable part of the Frankenstein household. I am Frau Blucher. Except for the horses, she made everyone laugh. As did a chorus of other actors, to whom we bid a fond farewell. Do you love them, Loretta? No. Good.

When you love them, they drive you crazy, because they know they can. Olympia Dukakis won an Oscar playing Cher's mother in Moonstruck. She was 89.

Sally Ann Hounds was truly scrumptious. We lost her at 91. Look what happened to my fox.

Someone cut off his little foot. And we lost Jessica Walter, too. I love all my children equally. I don't care for Joe.

She played one of the worst and funniest moms ever. I'll be in the hospital bar. Uh, I'll be in the hospital bar. Uh, you know, there isn't a hospital bar, Mother.

This is why people hate hospitals. Oh, that's touching. That's downright moving. That's what that is.

Up yours. George Segal was a powerful dramatic actor. Oy, gevalt. But he came to prefer lighter fare.

And he was good at it, right up till the end. I don't want any old doll. Jane Withers found humor in being a brat.

I'm gonna tell. But later in life, she was known as Josephine the Plumber in good-natured commercials for Comet Cleanser. New Comet gets out stains when other leading cleansers can't.

Try new Super Comet. It's the fishing invention of the century. Ron Popiel could sell almost anything. We'll put this blade in like so. Look how easy it takes the corn off the cob. He invented gadgets to solve problems we didn't even know we had.

It scrambles an egg while it's still in the shell. And sold them. It's just four easy payments. By the millions. His inventions will be cluttering our closets for years to come. Spencer Silver invented that slightly sticky glue that ended up on the back of Post-It notes. So remember to thank him. And we lost the creator of the game of life, Ruben Clamer. He died at 99. Maybe helping entertain people is the key to longevity. There's only one way that you can always look young.

Hang around with very old people. Comedian Jackie Mason had us laughing until he was 93. His thick Yiddish accent brought the borscht belt to Broadway. It was the first show in the history of Broadway without furniture. There's no furniture in this show. What does it got to do with a show? When you go to a furniture store, do they show you a comedian?

That's my best joke, mister. Comedian Mort Saul was one of the first to make us laugh at politics. The official portrait of the president, which shows him next to a globe with the troubled spots of the world marked in black.

He's standing next to this black globe. We lost him at 94. Man is really the most interesting jackass there is. Hal Holbrook became the living and burning actor of the show. Holbrook became the living embodiment of Mark Twain over the years. He's the only one that's got the true religion, several of them.

He loves his neighbor as himself and cuts his throat if his theology isn't straight. He died this year at 95. When I look back on what is a long life, I think how lucky I was with just luck.

When it came, though, to staying power, Norman Lloyd had the ball beat. He started out with Alfred Hitchcock back in 1942. 70 years later, he took a turn with Amy Schumer. I was the first person on my block to own a television set. At age 100, and he was ready for more.

What are robins? You coming? Gaaaaaaad! He died at 106. Farewell to him. So many, however, weren't as lucky to live that long. Suzanne Douglas died of cancer at just 64.

Well, if it isn't little Carrie Bradshaw. We lost actor Willie Garson to cancer, too, at only 57. All in the game, yo. Michael K. Williams. All in the game. All in the game.

Who first strode into the limelight on the mean streets of Baltimore as Omar Little in The Wire died at only 54. Henry, I don't know how to dance. What?

And Peter Scolari. That's it, yeah, there you go. Bosom Buddies with everyone, it seemed.

Every once in a while, you just point, you know? Was only 66. Dream, dream, dream, when I... Music can help heal from loss.

Don Everly died this year at 84, seven years after his brother Phil. Their sweet harmonies made them teen idols back in the 60s. Hey, hey, we're the Monkees.

And people say we monkey around. The Monkees were 60s teen idols, too. Never mind the group was made for TV. Mike Nesmith, the quiet monkey, died this year at 78.

I can't give it up. As drummer for the Rolling Stones, Charlie Watts was the quiet one with a sweet, shy smile, keeping the beat right there in the back. As co-founder of the Supremes, Mary Wilson was rarely front and center, but she was always there.

A true dream girl. Farewell to her. And to Chick Corea, who fused jazz, and rock, and Latin, and even classical music into his own unique sound. He died this year at 79.

Earl Simmons, better known as DMX, transmuted his troubled soul into rap music, but spoke to his generation. He died this year at only 50. Remember Schoolhouse Rock? We can thank songwriter Dave Frishberg for making the process of legislating a little more understandable, following a lonely bill all the way up the chain to the White House.

Walter Mondale lost his bid for the White House to Ronald Reagan in the 80s, but he'd already been there in 1976 as Jimmy Carter's VP. He died at 93. There are things we know we know.

We also know there are known unknowns. Donald Rumsfeld served four presidents during his long career in Washington, twice serving as America's Secretary of Defense. I'm extremely proud to introduce to you Senator Bob Dole. But it was Robert Dole who ended up one of the longest-serving Republican leaders in Washington, a poor kid from Russell, Kansas, who sought his party's nomination for president several times before finally getting it in 1996.

We are bound by our heritage to a set of common values. Only to lose to Bill Clinton. The statesman and veteran left us at 98. Well, just when you thought things couldn't get worse for Bob Dole. Weekend Update's Norm McDonell honored Dole on Saturday Night Live in the way that comedians do. How are you, Senator? Norm, Bob Dole knows how much it meant for you to play me on the show the next four years, and Bob Dole feels your pain. He died this year at just 61. From CBS News headquarters... Roger Mudd was a very real newsman.

Here at the Lincoln Memorial, the site is almost something no Washingtonian has beheld before... Reporting the news with integrity and insight for over 30 years. Freedom is not just limited to 60 Minutes or the New York Times. It also means Hustler Magazine. Larry Flint was on the other side of that spectrum.

He and his Hustler Magazine became unlikely vehicles to test the First Amendment. Mary in Plattsburgh, New York, hi and welcome to the Rush Limbaugh program. Rush Limbaugh exercised his First Amendment rights on the radio, never shy to say what he thought. I think I just happen to be saying what a whole lot of people think, but don't have a chance to say themselves.

That's why they call me the most dangerous man in America. It might feel like there is a big divide in this country, but there are those whose actions have bridged that chasm, making us feel just a little bit closer. And they will have the 10th anniversary of guess what? The chimney sweeps, right up your chimney. For nearly 50 years on NBC, weatherman Willard Scott always found a little something to celebrate, rain or shine.

When the skies get cloudy, we have this tune performed by BJ Thomas to cheer us up. There are many, many more we've failed to mention. Those who delighted us with their dances, inspired us with their music, left us with wisdom, love, and the satisfaction of lives well lived. To all of them, we bid a fond hail and farewell.

Time to get The Word from our Faith Salie. The Merriam-Webster word of the year is vaccine. For the Oxford English Dictionary, it's vax.

Those are solid choices. Vaccines are a game changer. But for a word nerd like me, there's not a lot to dig into with vaccine.

The word I can really use a shot of is vaccine. The word I can really use a shot of is grace. I've heard people using the word grace more than ever this past year. When I was growing up, grace to me either meant the Christian definition, a favor from God that's spontaneous and undeserved, or it referred to my great Aunt Grace who collected frogs and bourbon. Today, folks are using it to mean so many things, not just elegance of movement or a blessing before a meal, but when someone says I need grace or let's show some grace, it means let's be patient, let's be forgiving, let's be understanding that we all fail to be impeccable. Grace is the spiritual high five we give and get for even trying to show up. This challenging time has taught us that we're all in this together. Our ability to grant grace rather than judge is what heals us. You give grace to someone not because they're worthy of it, but because you can, because you're human and you hope someone will give you the same gift. Thank you for listening.

Please join us when our trumpet sounds again next Sunday morning. This is Intelligence Matters with former acting director of the CIA, Michael Morell. Bridge Colby is co-founder and principal of the Marathon Initiative, a project focused on developing strategies to prepare the United States for an era of sustained great power competition. The United States put our mind to something we can usually figure it out. What people are saying and what we kind of know analytically and empirically is our strategic situation, our military situation, is not being matched up with what we're doing. Follow Intelligence Matters wherever you get your podcasts.