Bert Minshall says that final cruise took place on Easter weekend in April 1979, just days after Wayne’s final public appearance on the 1979 Academy Awards telecast. Minshall wrote in his book, that Wayne was particularly thin, gaunt, and tired. He was unable to even complete a short, familiar hike on Catalina-a place where, years before, “he’d raised hell with friends like Ward Bond, Vic McLaglen, and Pappy Ford.” But he nevertheless enjoyed spirited games of backgammon and gin rummy and reminisced with several friends during the weekend. “It was his final trip-he had already talked about selling the boat,” Minshall says today. “When we got back and he walked up the dock-that was the last time I saw him. I think it was a happy weekend for him-I certainly hope so.”

Final Years

Through it all, though, especially late in life, John Wayne’s heart never moved far from his beloved Wild Goose.