A comment from a long-ago post that I thought was interesting enough to spotlight:

"I was fortunate enough to meet Jon just before he died. It was on 2 October 1984, in New York City when he was the guest on FIVE AT FIVE at NBC in Rockefeller Center. At that time I was photographer Jay Grant's assistant, and went along to help carry heavy equipment up the rather long flight of stairs at the center. While I was carrying a very heavy carrybag containing overhead lights up the steps, a gent - who was on his way down - offered to help me, as he could see I was clearly struggling. Turns out the gent in question was none other than Jon Erik Hexum, who was rushing downstairs to take a telephone call prior to the interview…

"We spoke very briefly - I told him my favourite show on telly was ‘Cover Up’, I think (it was a while ago, you understand, so I cannot really remember exactly what I said) - to which he smiled that million dollar grin and thanked me, and then excused himself so he could take the phone call. I just stood there, my mouth wide open like some kind of zombie or something like that, drooling. As a young gay man in the eighties, Jon Erik was the object of my deepest desires...

"Needless to say, when I heard on the evening news on 18 October 1984 that he had died as a result of head injuries, I emmediatly thought of that charming, gorgeous hunk with eyes like sparkling sapphires I had met on the stairwell that evening who was kind enough to help me with that damn bag while others simply passed by. It felt as if someone I had known intimately had just died. I was devastated...

"Yes, even to this day I still remember his face that evening as clear as if it were yesterday, and I am still filled with sorrow when I think that someone with such promise is gone forever, taken by the most stupid of mistakes. A real tragedy, and a terrible waste of such a hunk indeed…

"The well-known axiom 'Only the beautiful die young' could easily have referred to Jon-Erik Hexum."