June Seventh

The linguist and author Deborah Tannen is 66. “Saying that men talk about baseball in order to avoid talking about their feelings is the same as saying that women talk about their feelings in order to avoid talking about baseball.”

Tom Jones is 71.

Oscar nominee (for Schindler’s List) Liam Neeson is 59.

Author Louise Erdrich is 57.

Louise Erdrich is the author of 13 novels as well as volumes of poetry, short stories, children’s books, and a memoir of early motherhood. Her novel “Love Medicine” (1984) won the National Book Critics Circle Award and “The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse” (2001) was a finalist for the National Book Award. Most recently, “The Plague of Doves” (2008) won the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. Louise lives in Minnesota and is the owner of Birchbark Books, an independent bookstore.

Erdrich is descended from a father of German descent and a mother of the Turtle Mountain Chippewas, a Native American tribe in North Dakota. Her maternal grandfather was a tribal chief and her ancestral homestead (which she is currently restoring) is one of the oldest extant structures on the Turtle Mountain Reservation.

Louise Erdrich | Faces of America | PBS

Prince Rogers Nelson is 53.

Allen Iverson is 36.

Anna Kournikova is 30 and Michael Cera is 23.

Jessica Tandy was born on this date in 1909. Tandy won an Oscar at age 81 for Driving Miss Daisy, a Tony, an Emmy and a Golden Globe. She was the mother who didn’t like Tippi Hedren much in The Birds.

Dino Paul Crocetti was born on June 7th 94 years ago today. We know him as Dean Martin.