Thom Higgins

When news came out earlier this week that Anita Bryant had died, I learned that the young man who threw the first pie at her, in 1977 in Des Moines, was from the Twin Cities. His name was Thom Higgins.

(I was still in high school at the time, and on the East Coast, so I excuse myself for not knowing about him, or remembering where it happened.)

Higgins died in 1994 at the age of 44.

This morning my state rep., Leigh Finke, posted to BlueSky that she and another person had found Higgins' gravesite, not far from her house in the Midway neighborhood of Saint Paul:

We made pilgrimage, dug it out from snow and overgrown grass. Thom was buried with his parents, who clearly loved him.

She posted several photos, including a close-up of his individual stone:

Thanks to Leigh for sharing this.