You don't have to know someone personally for their death to have some kind of impact. The footballer who was a little boy's childhood hero. The singer who's song was playing in the background when someone had their first kiss. Do you need to know an author personally to be affected by a book they've written? Do you need to know an artist personally to be affected by one of their paintings? And so on. People we don't know personally can be a part of our lives and affect who we are, so why would anyone not want to remember them? I suspect part of that remembering is a mourning for their own past childhood/adulthood memories rather than the person per se... Can't help but agree with that