Sports
Billy Joe Burge - Noted billiard player better known to many as Cornbread Red, considered by some to be the game's greatest living player, and who was the subject of Bob Henning's book "Cornbread Red: Pools Greatest Money Player", died Feb. 13 of heart failure at a hospital in Prestonburg, Kentucky at the age of 72.
John Charles - Star British football (soccer) player of the 1950's and 60's, known as the 'gentle giant', who scored 269 goals in 530 games for the Leeds and Juventus teams, and who among his awards, was given the CBE, Commander of the Order of the British Empire, from the Queen, in 2001, died Feb. 21 at a hospital in Wakefield, England, a month after he fell ill while filming an Italian TV program. He was 72 years old.
Charlie Fox - Baseball manager who was voted Manager of the Year in 1971 after leading the San Francisco Giants to a 90-72 record, who managed the team from 1970 to 1974 with an overall record of 348-327, and who later served as general manager for the Montreal Expos from 1976 to 1978, died Feb. 16 at a hospital in Palo Alto, California of pneumonia at the age of 82.
Al Heppner - Track and field athlete and world class race walker, who had several top finishes in national competitions, including first place at the USA 3.1-mile Race Walk Championships in 2002, who on Feb. 15 competed in the U.S. Olympic Team Trials and held a huge lead two-thirds of the way before faltering near the end of the grueling race, finishing fifth and failing to qualify for the Olympics, committed suicide on Feb. 18 by jumping off a bridge into a canyon near San Diego. He was 29 years old.
Marco Pantani - Cycling great and national hero in Italy, who won the 1998 Tour De France and finished third in both 1994 and 1997, who in 1999 during a race in Switzerland was tested and found to be using performing-enhancing drugs and was disqualified, who was accused in a handful of doping cases and suspended, and who had been treated for depression over the last few years and had become withdrawn and bitter, was found dead on Feb. 14 at his hotel room in Rimini, Italy at the age of 34. An autopsy revealed he died of a heart attack and cerebral edema (excess of water on the brain).
Cammy Potter - Member of the U.S. Snowboard Team that narrowly missed qualifying for the 1998 winter Olympics, who competed at snowboarding events around the world and achieved a World Cup win in the Boarder Cross at Sun Peaks, Canada, died Feb. 12 in Park City, Utah of breast cancer at age 35.
Lee St. Hilaire - Standout Maine high school athlete who set records in football and hockey and led his high school football squad to three straight Class C championships, who was awarded a scholarship at the University of Maine, but quit school during his first season, and who enrolled at and was starting quarterback for the football team at Husson College, died Feb. 17 of self-inflicted gunshot wounds at his apartment in Bangor, Maine at the age of 21.
Jimmy Streater - Star quarterback at the University of Tennessee from 1976 to 1979, who was that school's all-time leader in passing and total offense when he left college, who played two seasons in the Canadian Football League, 1980 and 1981, for the Toronto Argonauts, but whose days after football were beset with problems with drug addition and medical problems, died Feb. 20 at a hospital in Ashville, North Carolina from multiple ailments at the age of 46.
Shirley Strickland - Australian track and field star and one of the country's greatest athletes, who during Olympic games in 1948, 1952 and 1956, won seven medals (3 gold, 1 silver, 3 bronze), more than any Australian athlete in history, died Feb. 17 at her home in Perth at age 78.
Chris Thomas - Popular Tampa, Florida radio and TV personality, who most recently hosted a sports talk show on radio station WDAE, who was known for his trademark show ending of Kate Smith singing "God Bless America" and who was a horse racer as owner of CT Stables and an astute handicapper, died of cancer on Feb. 18 at a Tampa hospital at the age of 55.

Art and Literature
Babs Deal - Author who wrote more than a dozen novels over a 20 year period, whose best known titles are "Fancy's Knell", "The Walls Came Tumbling Down" and "It's Always Three O'Clock", died Feb. 20 in Scottsboro, Alabama after a brief illness at age 74.
Earl Hutchinson Sr. - Father of civil rights author and radio host Earl Ofari Hutchinson, who with the prodding of his son, wrote his autobiography "A Colored Man's Journey Through 20th Century Segregated America", which was published in 2000, and who is believed to be the oldest black American to write his autobiography, died Feb. 13 in Los Angeles at age 100.
Molly Izzard - British author and wife of noted newsman Ralph Izzard, who wrote of her experiences living in the Middle East as the wife of a foreign correspondent in books like "Smelling The Breezes" and "A Private Life", but who is best known for her controversial book "Freya Stark : A Biography", where she concluded that most of the accounts described by the famed explorer were "invented", died Feb. 4 at the age of 84.
Eleni Kazantzakis - Greek journalist and author, who was the widow of one of Greece's most influential writers, Nikos Kazantsakis (died 1957), author of such works as "Zorba The Greek" and "The Last Temptation of Christ", and who wrote the lengthy biography of her husband, "Nikos Kazantzakis, the Uncompromising", published in 1968, died Feb. 18 at a hospital in Athens at the age of 100.
Adrian Lopez - Publisher for more than 60 years of dozens of niche magazines with titles like Laff, Real Crime, Surfing, Stock Car Racing and Lady's Circle, died Jan. 27 in Bay Head, New Jersey of complications of dialysis treatments at age 97.
Gil Ott - Avant-garde poet and activist who founded Paper Air magazine and publishing company Singing Horse Press, who published 12 volumes of his own poetry, and who more recently served as the director of Liberty Resources, a prominent organization for people with disabilities in Philadelphia, died Feb. 5 of kidney disease at a hospital in Philadelphia at the age of 53.
Steve Neal - Author and political columnist for the Chicago Sun-Times, whose trademark one-line leads would introduce what was a must-read for political insiders, who published several politically-tinged books including "Rolling on the River: The Best of Steve Neal", "Harry and Ike: The Partnership that Remade the Postwar World" and the upcoming "Happy Days are Here Again", was found dead on Feb. 18 at his home in Hinsdale, Illinois, an apparent suicide by carbon monoxide poisoning. He was 54 years old.
Lawrence S. Ritter - Author best known for the 1966 baseball classic "The Glory of Their Times", a book based on taped interviews with some of the early stars of the game like Ty Cobb, Honus Wagner and Rube Marquand, that gave first person accounts of baseball in the early 1900's and sold 400,000 copies, who went on to write other books like "Lost Ballparks" and "The Babe: A Life in Pictures", died Feb. 15 at his New York City apartment after a series of stokes at the age of 81.
Gerald Walker - Author and editor best known for the 1970 novel "Cruising" about the homosexual underground in New York City that was made into the 1980 film starring Al Pacino, died Feb. 19 at a hospital in New York City from stroke complications at age 75.

Politics and Military
Esther "Kitty" Bradley - Freelance writer and Hollywood screenwriter, who was better known as the wife of General Omar N. Bradley, who married the military commander in 1965 when he was 73 and she was 44 (press accounts at the time made much of the couple's age difference), who as a screenwriter has credits for the 1958 Victor Mature film "China Doll", as well as several television productions such as "My Three Sons" and "The 20th Century-Fox Hour", died Feb. 3 at a Rancho Mirage, California hospital of pneumonia contracted after a fall in her home several weeks ago. She was 81.
Sybil Brand - Los Angeles civic leader known for her efforts to improve conditions for imprisoned women, and for whom the famed Sybil Brand Institute for Women is named, died Feb. 17 of natural causes at her home in Beverly Hills at the age of 104.
Jeanne Honda - Wife of California Congressman Mike Honda, who was born in Hiroshima, Japan and survived the atomic bomb there in 1945 before moving with her family to the U.S. at age 11, died Feb. 14 of ovarian cancer at her home in San Jose, California at the age of 61.
Herman A. Johnson - Missouri legislator who served as state representative from 1968 to 1972, who later became the influential president of the Kansas City NAACP, who was known for his behind the scenes efforts to push for employment and educational opportunities for blacks, died Feb. 17 at a hospital in Kansas City, Missouri at the age of 87.
David McCall - Mayor of Plano, Texas from 1956 to 1960, who is credited with transforming the small town into a large suburb of Dallas, but who in 1997 was sentenced to six months in prison for dubious business practices at a failed savings & loan, and who was pardoned by President Bush just two days before his death, died Feb. 17 of cancer at a hospital in Plano at the age of 79.
José López Portillo - President of Mexico from 1976 to 1982, who attempted to raise his country's living standard by creating jobs through increased oil production and encouragement of private investment, but whose programs had disastrous results, leaving the economy staggering, and whose administration was plagued by accusations of corruption, died Feb. 17 in Mexico City of pneumonia at age 83.
Wan Ruizhong - Former Chinese Communist Party official, who was convicted of taking bribes and abusing his power, who was also convicted of plotting to cover up a mine accident that killed 81 miners in July 2001, and who was sentenced to the confiscation of his personal property and all illegal income (nearly $400,000 for the Chinese national treasury) as well as death, was executed on Feb. 20 in Nanning, the capital of Guangxi, China at the age of 56.
Spot - Family pet of President George and First Lady Laura Bush, who was born in the White House in 1989 to famous "first dog" and author Millie, the English springer spaniel belonging to President George and Barbara Bush, was euthanized on Feb. 21 at a veterinary clinic in Washington, DC after suffering a series of strokes. He was 15 years old.
Irvine H. Sprague - Longtime government official who served as Chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) during the 1970's and 80's, who had served as a special assistant to President Lyndon Johnson during the 1960's, and who later wrote the oft-quoted book "Bailout" about his working through 374 bank failures during his 12 years at the FDIC, died Feb. 17 in Great Falls, Virginia at the age of 82.
Sadanori Yamanaka - Former trade minister of Japan known as 'Mr. Consumption Tax' for his efforts to draft a national sales tax, which was passed and took effect in 1989, and who was one of Japan's most senior lawmakers, died Feb. 20 at a hospital in Tokyo of pneumonia at the age of 82.

Social and Religion
Clark Byers - Alabama man who was hired in 1936 by an advertiser who hoped to lure motorists to Rock City Gardens, a tourist attraction of rock formations in the Georgia mountains, who painted slogans like "See Rock City", "To Miss Rock City Would Be a Pity" and "See 7 States From Rock City" on over 900 barn roofs from Michigan to Florida, died Feb. 19 in Trenton, Georgia at the age of 89.
Norman Cleary - Oklahoma man who in 1995 during a home robbery, shot housekeeper Wanda Neafus, 44, five times in the head and neck, before getting away from the house in Tulsa with just a purse and a walking cane, was executed by lethal injection on Feb. 17 at the state prison in McAlister, Oklahoma at the age of 38.
Colette Controis - California woman who was throwing a birthday party for her son on Feb. 16 at a paintball complex in Placerville, California, was killed when, at the end of the party, a partygoer began disassembling his paintball gun which malfunctioned shooting a high-pressure air canister through air like a torpedo which struck her in the back of the head, killing her instantly. She was 37 years old and the incident was witnessed by over 30 children and parents.
Maria Cruz - New Jersey financial analyst missing since April, 2003, who, at the time of her disappearance, was believed to have seen sham cosmetic surgeon, Dean Faiello, to have a growth removed from her tongue (Faiello was on probation for practicing medicine without a license), but who vanished without a trace, was found dead on Feb. 18 in a suitcase encased in concrete on Faiello's former property in Newark, New Jersey. She was 35 at the time of her disappearance. Police believe she died from a fatal dose of anesthesia administered by Faiello and that he fled to his native Costa Rica.
Mary Diaz - Director of the Women's Commission for Refugee Women and Children, a nongovernmental group that advocates for refugees before the United Nations and around the world and was founded by actress Liv Ullman, who deployed volunteers in Africa, the Middle East, South America and trouble spots like Kosovo and Afghanistan, died Feb. 12 of pancreatic cancer at a New York City hospital at the age of 42.
Manuel Gehring - New Hampshire man accused of the abduction and likely murder of his two children, Sarah, 14, and Phillip, 11 on July 4, 2003 (the children's bodies have never been found and are believed to be buried in the Midwest near I-80), who had been in a bitter custody battle with his ex-wife, and who would not cooperate with authorities in locating the children, strangled himself with a ligature on Feb. 18 at the county jail in Boscawen, New Hampshire. He was 44 years old.
Thomas Hickey - Australian Aborigine boy who on Feb. 14 was returning by bicycle to the home of his aunt in Sydney after visiting his mother, and who encountered police and for reasons unknown fled from them, was killed when he crashed his bike and became impaled on a metal fence. He was 17 years old. Police denied chasing Thomas although several people witnessed a chase. The Sydney police force has a long established track record of racist behavior against the Aboriginal community. The incident has caused rioting in Sydney among Aborigines in which 30 police officers have been injured.
Gene Hovis - New York chef and famed caterer, who was one of the first to promote traditional Southern cooking and soul food as fine cuisine, who was known as the hospitable host of lavish dinner parties (he even made several international "best dressed" lists), and who penned the 1987 memoir and cookbook "Gene Hovis's Uptown Down Home Cookbook", died Feb. 17 of a heart attack at his New York City home at the age of 59.
Archbishop Denis Hurley - One of South Africa's most prominent Catholics, who along with Nelson Mandela and Desmond Tutu, was considered one of the most effective crusaders against apartheid, who criticized white police forces for terrorizing black civilians and was one of the most outspoken critics of the apartheid regime, died Feb. 13 in Durban, South Africa after a stroke at age 88.
Kenneth Lyon - Dallas plainclothes police officer who helped apprehend Lee Harvey Oswald at the Texas Theatre after the shooting of President Kennedy, died Feb. 13 of emphysema in a Dallas hospital at age 70.
Rev. John Minkler - Albany, New York priest who allegedly wrote a 1995 letter (which recently surfaced) to Cardinal John O'Connor that accused Bishop Howard Hubbard of being part of a ring of homosexual priests, who was asked by Hubbard in a Feb. 13 meeting to sign a statement denying he wrote the letter and that he knew nothing of it, and who signed the statement but evidently had great regret for doing so, was found dead on Feb. 15 at his home in Watervliet, New York, an apparent suicide. He was 57 years old.
Susan Schechter - Social worker and author who wrote several landmark books about domestic violence that helped in efforts to assist battered women, who is best known for 1982's "Women and Male Violence: The Visions and Struggles of the Battered Women's Movement", died Feb. 3 at her home in Iowa City, Iowa of endometrial cancer at age 57.
Rev. Dr. John H. Tietjen - President of the Concordia Seminary during the 1970's, who helped create a split in the Lutheran church over biblical doctrine when he started a breakaway seminary, forming an alliance of dissident Lutheran congregations, and who was a major force in 1987 in the merger of churches that created the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, now the nation's largest Lutheran denomination, died Feb. 15 of cancer at his home in Fort Worth, Texas at age 75.
Angela Vecchio-Ozmon - Canadian woman who after being diagnosed with breast cancer several years ago, agreed to let CBC follow her through her treatment, who shared her experiences on national television for over two years, and took on public speaking appearances to share what it was like to live with cancer, succumbed to the disease on Feb. 19 at a hospital in Halifax, Nova Scotia at the age of 39.
Cameron Willingham - Texas man, who two days before Christmas in 1991, in a effort to cover up evidence that he had abused his children, set fire to his own house killing his daughters, Amber, 2, and one-year-old twins Karmon and Kameron, was executed by lethal injection on Feb. 17 at the Texas state prison in Huntsville at the age of 36.
Coolidge Winesett - Well-known fiddler, banjo player and storyteller in the mountains of Virginia, North Carolina and Tennessee, who achieved international attention in 2000 after falling through the floor of his outhouse in southwestern Virginia, where he was trapped without food or water for three days, and whose story was broadcast from media outlets all around the world, died Feb. 13 at a nursing home in Wytheville, Virginia at the age of 79.
Yang Xinhai - Chinese drifter who confessed to 65 killings in central China from 1999 to 2003, becoming one of the worst serial killers in the country's history, who would enter houses at night, killing all the occupants in their sleep with axes, meat cleavers and shovels, and then often rape the women, was executed on Feb. 14 in Beijing, less than two weeks after being convicted. He was 38 years old.

Business and Science
Dr. Jordi Casals-Ariet - Epidemiologist and leader of the team involved in the 1960's research of the Lassa fever virus from Africa at Yale University, who was nearly killed by Lassa fever after being exposed to the virus due to lab accidents (another lab worker was killed), prompting fears of widespread infection along the eastern seaboard (the accidents coincided with publication of book "The Andromeda Strain"), the incident of which changed future research into infection diseases into maximum security laboratories such as the CDC in Atlanta, died Feb. 10 in New York City at age 92.
Jervis Langdon Jr. - One of the nation's best known railroad executives, who served as president and CEO of the Penn Central, the Baltimore and Ohio and the Rock Island railroads in a career that spanned 50 years, who is the grandnephew of author Mark Twain and onetime owner of Twain's summer retreat, Quarry Farm in Elmira, New York, which he donated to Elmira College as a center for Mark Twain studies, died Feb. 16 at his home in Elmira, New York at the age of 99.
Ed Rast - President of Southern Bell (now BellSouth Telecommunications) from 1970 to 1981, who led the organization through a transformation from a telephone company into a high-tech communications company, and under whose direction became a leader in developing computerized operating systems and in fiber optics, died Feb. 11 in an Atlanta hospital of a heart attack at age 87.
Dr. Samuel Seltzer - Endodontist who, along with Dr. I.B. Bender, is credited with developing the root canal treatment, who at the University of Pennsylvania conducted research on saving diseased teeth, and who co-authored "The Dental Pulp", the definitive book on how to perform a root canal, died Feb. 13 of Alzheimer's disease at a retirement community in Philadelphia at the age of 90.