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News and Entertainment
Douglas Allanbrook - Composer, pianist and harpsichordist, whose compositions include seven symphonies and the two operas "Nightmare Abbey" and "Ethan Fromme", and whose compositions have been performed by orchestras worldwide, died Jan. 29 of a heart attack in Annapolis, MD at age 81.
Betty Barry - Broadway actress and wife of actor Gene Berry, to whom she was married for nearly 60 years, died Feb. 1 in Los Angeles at age 79.
Charlie Biddle - Jazz bass player whose name is synonymous with the Montreal jazz scene and his club Uncle Charlie’s Jazz Joint which he opened in the 1950’s, who played with Thelonious Monk and Charlie Parker, died Feb. 4 of cancer in Montreal at age 76.
Lana Clarkson - Sexy actress who starred in the 80's films "Barbarian Queen", "Barbarian Queen II" and "Vice Girls", who also made appearances in better known films like "Blind Date", "Scarface" and "Fast Times at Ridgemont High" as well as TV shows like "Silk Stalkings" and "Night Court", was found shot to death on Feb. 3 at the home of record producer Phil Spector in Alhambra, CA (he is being held in her slaying). She was 41 years old.
Lou Harrison - American classical/fusion music composer and innovator known for compositions that are a synthesis of musical cultures and include exotic instruments from both the East and West, died on Feb. 1 of an apparent heart attack at a Denny's restaraunt in Lafayette, IN at age 85.
Jerome Hines - Opera singer who was respected not only for the richness of his voice but by the care he took in researching all aspects of the roles he sang, and who spent 41 years as a bass at the Metropolitan Opera, died Feb. 4 in Manhattan at age 81.
John Houston - Father and former manager of singer Whitney Houston, who also managed the career of his ex-wife singer Cissy Houston in the 1960’s, and who sued his daughter in December 2002 for $100 million dollars for money owed and never repaid, died Feb. 2 of heart disease and diabetes in Manhattan at age 82.
William Kelley - Best-selling author who became an Oscar winning screenwriter ("Witness" - 1985), but may be best known as a writer for TV shows including "Gunsmoke", "Kung Fu" and "Petrocelli", died Feb. 3 of cancer in Bishop, CA at age 73.
Larry LeSueur - Peabody-award-winning reporter for CBS who was one of the WW2 "Murrow Boys", who landed on Normandy Beach on D-Day in 1944 and was the first correspondent to broadcast from there, and who later became CBS White House correspondent, died Feb. 5 of Parkinson’s disease at age 93.
Michael McCanless - Fiddle player in the "cowpunk" band Hank III, headed by Hank Williams III, which plays music that is a cross between hillbilly and hard rock music, died Feb. 1 of testicular cancer in Nashville at age 40.
Natalya Medvedeva - Russian model, poet, writer and musician who emigrated to the U.S. in the 1970’s where she posed for playboy and for the cover of The Cars 1978 debut album, but who returned to the U.S.S.R. where she became a poet and novelist, died Feb. 3 in Moscow of a reported heart attack at age 44.
Richard Meek - Photographer responsible for many of the 20th century’s most famous photographs, who shot nearly 50 magazine covers for Life and Sports Illustrated, including Bobby Morrow’s gold medal sprints at the 1956 Olympics (pictured), died Jan. 19 in Huntington, NY at age 79.
Joao Cesar Monteiro - Controversial Portuguese filmmaker who won acclaim and awards at the Venice Film Festival in 1989 with "Recordacoes Da Casa Amarela" (Recollections of The Yellow House) and again in 1999 with "Bodas de Deus" (The Marriage of God), died Feb. 3 of cancer in Lisbon at age 64.
Ron Morgan - Longtime St. Louis radio personality who was the premier morning personality at KSD-AM and later at KTRS, died Feb. 3 of a heart ailment at age 60.
Rev. Dr. Percell Perkins - Gospel singer and one of the original members of The Five Blind Boys of Mississippi, one of the most highly praised vocal groups of the 1940’s and 1950’s, who was the only sighted member of the group, died Jan. 31 in Helena, AR at age 85.
Ramon "Mongo" Santamaria - Grammy-winning, Cuban-born percussionist and bandleader who scored a top 10 hit in 1963 with "Watermelon Man", and was known for his conga rhythms, died Feb. 1 in Miami after several strokes at age 80 or 85.
Milton Schwartz - Violinist and last surviving original member of the National Symphony Orchestra, which was founded in 1930 by conductor Hans Kindler, died Feb. 3 of kidney failure in Potomac, VA at age 94.
Nancy Whiskey - British skiffle guitarist and vocalist known as the "Queen of the Skiffle", who was a member of the Chas McDevitt Skiffle Group and sang on their 1957 U.S. top 40 hit "Freight Train", and later formed Nancy Whiskey & Her Skifflers, died Feb. 1 of a heart attack at age 67.
Sports
Goldie Bateson - LPGA golfer who became better known as one of the best golf instructors in the U.S. and was listed among the top 50 contributors of the 20th century to women’s golf, died Feb. 3 in Brookfield, WI at age 87.
John H. Burke - College basketball and golf coach at Boston University from 1959 to 1966, including the Terriers worst basketball season in history in 1965 when the finished 4-19, died Jan. 27 in Natick, MA at age 78.
Dennis Fosdick - Luminary in U.S. water polo, who as a coach compiled a 189-32 record at Texas A&M and led Occidental College in California to a national championship in 2000, and who started programs promoting the sport in both states and is a member of the U.S. Water Polo Hall of Fame, died Feb. 1 of cancer in Los Angeles at age 63.
Reed Green - Athletic director at Southern Mississippi from 1949 until 1973, who previously had been both football and basketball coach at the school beginning in the 1930’s, and for whom the school’s basketball coliseum is named, died Jan. 30 in Hattiesburg, MS at age 90.
Bob Kammeyer - Pitcher with the N.Y. Yankees in 1978 and 1979, best known for an incident where he allegedly took $100 from Yankee’s manager Billy Martin to intentionally hit Cleveland batter Cliff Johnson with a pitch, in an inning where Kammeyer gave up 8 runs in the inning without retiring a batter, and was promptly demoted to the minors, never to return to the majors, died Jan. 27 of a pulmonary embolism in Sacramento, CA at age 52.
Jack Lauterwasser - British cyclist who won a silver medal at the 1928 Olympics and was the last surviving British medallist of those games, and who went on to set several world records for speed, died Feb. 2 at age 98.
Naoto Morishita - President of Dream Stage Entertainment, a company that organizes "PRIDE" martial arts events world wide, committed suicide by hanging himself on Jan. 8 in a Tokyo hotel (apparently after being dumped by his girlfriend). He was 42.
Jim North - Football player who played at tackle for one season with the 1944 Washington Redskins, died Feb. 4 of heart problems in Seattle at age 83.
Andre Noyelle - Cyclist who became the only individual in Belgium’s history to win two gold medals in a single Olympics when he accomplished the feat at Helsinki in 1952, died Feb. 4 in Brussels at age 71.
Dick Shatto - Canadian football legend who played 12 years for the Toronto Argonauts, who at the time of his retirement from football in 1965 held Canadian Football League records for most touchdowns, most passes caught and most offensive yardage, died Feb. 4 of cancer in New Port Richey, FL at age 69.
Manfred von Brauchitsch - German Grand Prix winner for Mercedes-Benz who dominated the European circuit in the 1930’s, and who defected from West to East Germany in the 1950’s and became a noted sports official there, died Feb. 4 in Graefenwarth, Germany at age 97.
Bill Wellwood - Harness racing legend and Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame inductee who turned out some of Canada’s top racehorses from his stables including Breeders Crown winners Village Jiffy and Village Connection, died Feb. 3 of cancer in Mississauga, Ontario at age 62.
Art and Literature
Michael de Lisio - Sculptor known for creating statues of well known-literary figures including W.H. Auden, Emily Dickinson and Truman Capote, usually using only photographs for inspiration, died Jan. 21 in Manhattan at age 93.
Burton Feldman - Historian who chronicled and appraised the Nobel Prizes, and put his findings into the 2000 book "The Nobel Prize: A History of Genius, Controversy, and Prestige", which mixed praise and criticism for the annual awards, died on Jan. 10 of cancer in Denver at age 76.
Louis FitzGibbon - British author best known for his 1971 book "Katyn " A Crime Without Parallel", which exposed the Soviet murder of 15,000 Polish officers in 1940 (long believed to have been killed by the Nazis), died Jan. 31 at age 78.
Ernst Kitzinger - Noted art historian and Harvard professor who specialized in Byzantine, early Christian, and early medieval art, and whose books include "Early Medieval Art in the British Museum" and "Mosaics of Monreale", died Jan. 22 of a stroke in Poughkeepsie, NY at age 90.
Milan Machovec - Czech Marxist philosopher who initiated discussions in the 1960’s on the role of Christians in Communism in the Prague Spring movement, and whose books include the influential "A Marxist Look At Jesus", which was printed everywhere but Czechoslovakia, died Jan. 15 in Prague at age 77.
Augusto Monterroso - Highly-acclaimed Guatemalan writer who was awarded the Prince of Asturias prize for literature in 2000, and who was known as a master of the short story, died Feb. 7 of a heart attack in Mexico City at age 81.
Ernest Morenon - Internationally acclaimed sculptor who created hundreds of works in clay, wood, stone, plasitics and medal, including a dozen pieces at the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, DC, died Jan. 30 in Providence, RI at age 99.
Margaret Muller - American artist whose works have been exhibited at the Slade School of Fine Art, George Mason University and the University of Maryland, and who was teaching in London at the Slade, was attacked and stabbed to death on Feb. 4 in London’s Victoria Park while jogging. She was 27.
Robert St. John - Author who started as a journalist and announced the end of WW2 over the NBC network, but lost his network job during the Red Scare after being accused of being a Communist, but went on to become a prolific best-selling author of books like ""The Silent People Speak" and "From the Land of the Silent People", died Feb. 6 at his home in Maryland at age 100.
Emerson Woelffer - Abstract Expressionist painter known as the "Grandfather of L.A. Modernism", whose signature works are bold, jagged-edge abstractions that look as though they just fell into place, died Feb. 2 of pneumonia in Los Angeles at age 88.
Edward Young - British writer and designer who designed the world-famous penguin symbol on the covers of Penguin Books, and who penned the best-selling autobiography "One of Our Submarines" about his WW2 service, died Jan. 28 at age 89.
Politics and Military
Robert Giersdorf - Alaska state representative elected to the state house at age 23, won a Senate seat at age 24 but was forced to resign because he was too young, but went on to a long career as an airline and travel industry executive, including a stint as president of the Travel Industry Association of America, died Feb. 5 in Seattle at age 67.
Rosemary Lucas Ginn - Former U.S. ambassador to Luxembourg, a national Republican party official and President of the United States National Commission for UNESCO, died Feb. 3 in Osage Beach, MO at age 90.
George Kirkpatrick - Longtime Florida state senator who ran as both a Democrat and Republican over the years and served from 1980 until 2000, died on Feb. 5 of an apparent heart attack in Tallahassee at age 64.
Richard C. Lee - Mayor of New Haven, Connecticut from 1954 to 1970 who is credited with renewing the city’s downtown area, and whose administration was the subject of the book "Who Governs" by Robert Dahl which describes politics through the study of one city, died Feb. 2 at age 86.
Richard Lyng - U.S. Secretary of Agriculture from 1986 to 1989 appointed by Ronald Reagan who helped develop the food stamp program, died Feb. 1 of Parkinson’s disease at age 84.
Richard Nelson - The youngest of the 12 men aboard the Enola Gay, the bomber that dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan in WW2, who served as the radio operator and uttered the two-word message "Results excellent" in a message to Harry Truman after the bomb was dropped, died Feb. 1 of emphysema in Riverside, CA at age 77.
Joseph Vigorito - U.S. Congressman from Pennsylvania who served as a Democrat in the U.S. House from 1965 to 1977, who worked on the Agriculture and Interior committees, died Feb. 5 of lymphoma in Washington, DC at age 84.
Social and Religion
Ralph Charles - One of the U.S.’s oldest pilots, who worked with Orville Wright (wow!) in 1919, who received notoriety in 1999 for flying an airplane at age 100 leading to appearances on the "Today Show" and "David Letterman", and who last flew during the summer of 2001, died Feb. 2 of pneumonia in Somerset, OH at age 103.
Tom Christerson - The longest living recipient of a self-contained artificial heart, who was given little chance of surviving more than a month before he received the AbioCor artificial heart transplant in Sept. 2001, and who was the last surviving of the 7 AbioCor device transplants, died Feb. 7 in Louisville, KY of device failure at age 71.
Marie-Therese Danielsson - French activist and writer who fought against French nuclear testing in the South Pacific in the 1960’s and wrote many books on Polynesia including "Mururoa, mon amour", about the nuclear testing there, died Feb. 6 after a stroke in Papeete, Tahiti at age 80.
Henry Dunn - Texas man who was part of the ’CB’ gang known for harassing gay men in Tyler, Texas, who in 1993 kidnapped and shot Nick West in cold-blood 15 times, just because he was gay, was executed by lethal injection on Feb. 6 in Huntsville, TX at age 28.
John "Jackie" Elliott - British citizen convicted of raping and beating 18-year-old Joyce Munguia to death with a motorcycle chain in 1986 in Texas while he was free on probation after serving 4 months (of an 8 year sentence) for killing a man in a bar brawl, was executed by lethal injection on Feb. 4 in Huntsville, TX at age 42.
Thomas Gettelman - The last president of A. Gettelman Brewing which opened in 1854 in Milwaukee, but who sold the company to Miller Brewing in the 1960’s, which changed the name of Gettelman’s to Milwaukee’s Best (still sold today), died Feb. 5 of heart failure in Brookfield, WI at age 85.
Abbie Haddaway - Female pilot and friend of Amelia Earhart, who helped her organize the woman’s flying group the Ninety-Nines in the 1930’s, died Feb. 5 in Mobile, AL at age 91.
Kenneth Kenley - Missouri man who went on a robbery spree in 1984 and robbed or attempted to rob four businesses and in the process shot three persons, killing 27-year-old Ronald Felts at the Evenin’ Shade Bar in Poplar Bluff, was executed by lethal injection on Feb. 5 in Potosi, MO at age 42.
Rev. James "Jay" Lintner - Religious leader who held top positions with United Church of Christ and the National Council of Churches and who wrote books including "Peace Futuring" and "Empowering the Church in Society", died Jan. 29 of lymphoma in Washington, DC at age 65.
Shigeo Sasaki - Father of Sadako Sasaki (Japanese girl from Hiroshima who died in 1955 of radiation-related leukemia and became famous for the paper cranes she folded and that have become a symbol of peace throughout Japan), who devoted his life to campaigning for peace and started the Sadako Peace Campaign, died Feb. 7 in Tokyo of a brain tumor at age 87.
Werenfried van Straaten - Dutch priest who started the Aid to the Church in Need charity after WW2 to help ethnic Germans expelled from eastern Europe after Hitler’s defeat, which has grown into an organization supporting church activities in over 100 countries, died Jan. 31 in Frankfort, Germany at age 90.
David R. Waters - Man convicted in the extortion plot that ended in the slaying and dismemberment of atheist leader Madalyn Murray O’Hair, her son Jon Murray and granddaughter Robin Murray O’Hair, who authorities considered the mastermind behind the plot and who was serving 20 years in prison for the crime, died during the week of Jan 27 of lung cancer in Butner, NC at age 55.
Business and Science
Vincent G. Chin - Founder of the legendary reggae label VP Records, who helped shape the careers of some of reggae’s biggest stars in the U.S. like Bounty Killer, Sean Paul, Wayne Wonder, Capleton and Lady Saw, died Feb. 2 of diabetes complications in Ft. Lauderdale, FL at age 65.
Walter Clore - Noted viticulturist (viticulture ’ the science of winemaking and grape growing) who worked for decades to help make Washington state the second largest producer of wines (behind California) and who was honored by the state legislature with the title "The Father of Washington’s Wine Industry", died Jan. 28 of cancer in Yakima, WA at age 91.
John N. Kessler - Founder and former president of KMI Research, an internationally recognized consulting firm in fiberoptics and communications, died Jan. 30 in Newport, RI at age 71.
Lord Aberconway (real name Charles McLaren) - British industrialist who built the Queen Elizabeth 2 ocean liner and who in 1939 took part in a secret meeting with Hitler's close aide Hermann Gring in an effort to avert a war, and who was a longtime friend of England’s royal family, died Feb. 4 in London at age 89.
Matilda - Australia’s first cloned sheep who had appeared "remarkably healthy" the day before, died unexpectedly Feb. 2 in Adelaide, Australia and an autopsy could not identify the cause of death. Matilda was 2 years old.
E.T. "Ted" Meredith - President and CEO of the publishing and broadcasting giant Meredith Corp. from 1971 until 1988, who has been chairman of the executive board since then, and who was grandson of the company founder, died Feb. 3 in Des Moines, IA at age 69.
Robert Mumma - Computer pioneer at NCR during WW2 (then a part of the Navy computer laboratory), who was top assistant to computer legend Joseph Desch and developed machines called Bombes to help decipher German codes, and who retired with 36 patents, including early patents in the design of the first analog fixed-program computer, died Jan. 31 in Lebanon, OH at the age of 97.
Wick Temple - Longtime executive with the Associated Press who was head of AP's sports, news, personnel and newspaper-membership departments, died Feb. 1 in New York of throat cancer complications at age 65.