Born Thomas Lanier Williams in 1911, he began to write under his college nickname, Tennessee, which was also the state where his father was born. He struggled with depression and substance abuse for much of his life despite his success as a playwright, poet, and short story writer. The New York Times obituary reported his passing at 71 in 1983. "Death was due to natural causes, and he had been under treatment for heart disease." Had you read, or seen any of his plays on stage or film?

This survey was born when I stumbled across an article that stated Williams had died at Hotel Elysee in NYC, choking on the cap of an eye drop or nose drop bottle. I found that peculiar, and decided to write about it. Have you ever heard of anyone dying from asphyxia in this manner?

Other articles indicated his system had toxic levels of barbiturates at the time of his death. Referring to his death, CUNY professor Annette Saddik said, "When this happened, John Uecker, who was his companion and assistant at the time, was still around and told the (New York City) Medical Examiner, 'Look, people are going to think it's suicide or AIDS or something bizarre and we don't know what happened.' So the Medical Examiner, said, 'OK, he choked on a bottle cap.' But really, his body just gave up and the eventual diagnosis was intolerance." Are you surprised a Medical Examiner would allow his findings to be manipulated like this?

Ultimately, the autopsy report was amended to say that the bottle cap became lodged while being used to take barbiturates. I think his consumption of alcohol contributed to the accident as he was known to have been drinking heavily at the time. (The inscription on his gravestone, "The violets in the mountains have broken the rocks!", is a quote from his play "Camino Real", and was chosen by his brother, Dakin.) Would you ever be dishonest in sharing someone's cause of death?