Sanora Babb (98) author whose novel Whose Names Are Unknown, about the struggles of Dust Bowl migrants in California, was published to critical acclaim 65 years after it had been shelved because John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath was released around the same time and had the same theme. Babb died in Los Angeles, California on December 31, 2005.

Julian ("Bud") Blake (87) creator of the award-winning comic strip "Tiger" who quit his job as a New York ad man to pursue his love of drawing. Blake's strip was named the year's best humor strip in 1970, '78, and 2000 by the National Cartoonists Society and still appears in more than 100 newspapers in 11 countries. He died in Portland, Maine on December 26, 2005.

Tory Dent (47) poet and critic whose searing poems about living with AIDS won several awards. Dent published three books of poetry since she was diagnosed as HIV-positive at age 30: What Silence Equals (1993), HIV, Mon Amour (which won several awards, including the James Laughlin Award of the Academy of American Poets), and Black Milk (2005), which came out just weeks before her death from an opportunistic infection associated with AIDS, in New York City on December 30, 2005.

Edith Heath (94) leading ceramicist of mid-20th century modern designs known for her tableware and architectural tiles including the mottled tiles that cover the exterior of the Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena, California. Heath's work is included in major museum collections and sold in specialty stores around the country. She was recognized for her work on the museum by the American Institute of Architects, which awarded her the Industrial Arts Design Medal in 1971, making her the first ceramicist to win the medal. She died in Tiburon, California on December 27, 2005.

Rona Jaffe (74) preternaturally youthful writer whose novel The Best of Everything (1958) told the melodramatic story of four career girls torn between storybook romance and cutthroat corporate Manhattan (the book spent five months on the New York Times best-seller list and was made into a Hollywood movie), who later wrote 15 more popular books, several of which used the quartet-of-women narrative approach, including The Last Chance (1976) and Class Reunion (1979), and established the Rona Jaffe Foundation, which provides grants to emerging female writers. Jaffe died of cancer while on vacation in London, England on December 30, 2005.

John Peter Moore (86) close aide to Salvador Dali who accompanied the painter on many of his world tours during his 20 years as personal assistant. Moore was convicted in 2004 of tampering with one of the surrealist master's paintings and was ordered to pay an estimated $1.2 million in compensation to the Dali-Gala Foundation. He died in Port Lligat, Spain on December 26, 2005.

Stuart Alexander (44) former California sausage plant owner (who proclaimed himself the Sausage King) serving time on death row for killing three meat inspectors during a 2000 rampage. Alexander once ran for mayor of San Leandro. He had been under suicide watch but died of apparently natural causes at San Quentin Prison in California on December 27, 2005.

John Diebold (79) business visionary who preached computerization during the '50s as the future of worldwide industry and was now hailed as a prophet of the computerized future. Diebold laid out his vision in his book Automation (1952), which presented the then-radical notion of using programmable devices in daily business, and headed the consulting firm John Diebold & Associates, which has provided advice to AT&T, IBM, Boeing, and Xerox, along with the cities of Chicago and New York and the countries of Venezuela and Jordan. He died of esophageal cancer in Bedford Hills, New York on December 26, 2005.

Douglas Yale Longshore (56) associate director and principal investigator at the UCLA Integrated Substance Abuse Programs and adjunct behavioral scientist at Rand Corporation, whose drug use-related research interests included interventions for criminal offenders, motivation for treatment and recovery, racial-ethnic and cultural factors in treatment and recovery, and HIV incidence and risk behavior trends. Longshore died of metastatic melanoma in Santa Monica, California on December 30, 2005.

Kerry Packer (68) Australian media magnate thought to be the country's richest man (worth about US $5 billion), whose Publishing & Broadcasting Ltd. (PBL) is the firm behind both the Nine Network TV station and magazines like Australian Women's Weekly. Packer founded World Series Cricket in 1977. He died in Sidney, Australia on December 26, 2005.

J. Donald Rauth (87) former chairman of the Martin Marietta Corporation, which through a merger became part of the Lockheed Martin Corporation. Rauth was a project chief engineer and manager of Martin Marietta's Titan missile division before moving to the corporate side and becoming chief executive in 1972. He died of a heart attack in Washington, DC on December 28, 2005.

Dr. Charles W. Socarides (83) well-known psychiatrist and psychoanalyst who maintained publicly, long after it was considered scientifically acceptable to do so, that homosexuality was a condition amenable to treatment and even to conversion to heterosexuality. Socarides was a frequent guest on TV talk shows and news programs and a clinical professor of psychiatry for many years at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the Bronx, New York. He wrote a half-dozen books about homosexuality and helped to found the National Association for Research & Therapy of Homosexuality. He died of heart failure in New York City on December 25, 2005.

Tokuji Wakasa (91) former president of All Nippon Airways Co. (Japan's No. 2 airline carrier), convicted of graft in the Lockheed scandal, one of Japan's biggest post-World War II bribery cases. Wakasa transformed the airline from a domestic to an international carrier before being arrested and prosecuted for accepting about $1.39 million in bribes from Lockheed Corp. in return for the introduction of the US aircraft maker's passenger jets (he was pardoned in 1996). He died of pneumonia in Tokyo, Japan on December 27, 2005.

John H. Herz (97) scholar of international relations and law and a professor emeritus of government at City College of New York who focused his studies and writings on the relationships between contemporary politics and its worldwide challenges, including population pressures, the exhaustion of natural resources, environmental destruction, and possible nuclear annihilation. Herz was one of several professors who escaped from Nazi Germany after World War II and found teaching jobs at historically black US colleges (a story chronicled in the documentary From Swastika to Jim Crow). He died in Scarsdale, New York on December 26, 2005.

John Liechty (60) Los Angeles Unified School District associate superintendent who developed innovative programs to keep at-risk pupils from dropping out of school. Liechty was himself a former high school dropout who became a passionate advocate for children who failed to thrive in the regular classroom during a 37-year career with the schools. He created the district’s Beyond the Bell program, a $250-million-a-year operation that provides before- and after-school activities, summer school, and academic interventions for those having trouble with class work that became a national model. He died of cancer in Los Angeles, California on December 28, 2005.

Malcolm McKelvey (79) British music teacher and choirmaster who helped to mold the talent of some of Britain's leading figures in the world of classical music. McKelvey died in England on December 29, 2005.

Erica Reiner (81) internationally renowned scholar of Assyrian, one of the world's oldest written languages, who spent 44 years working on the Chicago Assyrian Dictionary, the first of several such monumental undertakings in ancient languages in the US, and saw it through to completion. Reiner died of lung cancer in Chicago, Illinois on December 31, 2005.

Margaret Thomson (95) British documentary filmmaker well known for the series of public information films she made during World War II designed to help amateur gardeners and farmers make their contribution to the war effort. Thomson's films included such titles as Making a Compost Heap (1942), Clamping Potatoes (1942), and Making Grass Silage (1943). She died in London, England on December 30, 2005.

Derek Bailey (75) British guitarist who helped to form a fractured style and a cohesive philosophy for European free improvisation in the '70s. Bailey cofounded the record label Incus, often said to be the first independent label owned by musicians, and cofounded the experimental improvisation arts magazine Musics. Bailey also formed Company, an ever-changing collection of like-minded improvisors, and wrote the book Improvisation: Its Nature & Practice. He died of motor neuron disease in London, England on December 25, 2005.

Candy Barr (70) exotic dancer and pornographic film star who dated mobster Mickey Cohen and was friends with Dallas nightclub owner Jack Ruby (killer of Lee Harvey Oswald). Barr trained actress Joan Collins for her role as an exotic dancer in the movie Seven Thieves (1960) and later served four months of a 15-year sentence for possessing less than 4/5 of an ounce of marijuana, ending her career. She died of pneumonia in Abilene, Texas on December 30, 2005.

Muriel Costa-Greenspon (68) operatic mezzo-soprano and a fixture at the New York City Opera for 30 years who won critical praise for her musicianship, singing, and acting. Costa-Greenspon enjoyed another burst of fame in 1984 when she won $1.7 million in the New York State Lotto but didn't quit her day job, continuing to appear at City Opera until 1993, then volunteering for the musical theater program at the Bronx High School of Science. She died of natural causes in New York City on December 26, 2005.

Barry Cowsill (51) member of the popular '60s singing family The Cowsills that recorded a series of top hits and was the inspiration for the TV series The Partridge Family. Cowsill had been missing since Hurricane Katrina flooded his home. He was found dead nearly four months after he disappeared, on the Chartres Street Wharf in New Orleans, Louisiana on December 28, 2005.

Patrick Cranshaw (86) veteran character actor who racked up 50 years worth of credits. Cranshaw's most notable roles included Joseph ("Blue") Palasky in the comedy hit Old School (2003), the bank teller in Bonnie & Clyde (1967), the hobo in Pee-Wee's Big Adventure (1985), and the ancient mail sorter in The Hudsucker Proxy (1994). He also appeared on TV as a regular for two years on Alice and had guest stints on such shows as The Dukes of Hazzard, Mork & Mindy, ER, The Drew Carey Show, 7th Heaven, Just Shoot Me, and Monk. His final film appearance was in the comedy Air Buddies (2006). He died in Fort Worth, Texas on December 28, 2005.

Richard deAngelis (73) actor and comedian who played Baltimore police Col. Raymond Foerster on the HBO crime drama The Wire. DeAngelis also appeared in Homicide: The Movie and the John Waters films A Dirty Shame and Cecil B. Demented as well as numerous other plays, TV commercials, radio spots, and print advertisements in an acting career that spanned 40 years. He performed standup comedy for many years under the name Ricky Roach. He died of congestive heart failure and prostate cancer in Silver Spring, Maryland on December 28, 2005.

Malcolm A. ("Mal") Deans (83) former reporter and editor at newspapers around the country before becoming a popular journalism teacher at the University of Colorado, consistently rated by students as one of the best teachers at the School of Journalism. Deans's work while he was at the school (1976-87) included creating the Campus Press student newspaper and developing an internship program in which senior students work at area newspapers. He died of prostate cancer in Boulder, Colorado on December 29, 2005.

Bill deArango (85) master guitarist who played with some of the greatest names in jazz and mentored later talents. DeArango performed and recorded with Sarah Vaughan, Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, and other jazz legends and was named to Esquire magazine's All-American Jazz Band in 1946. He died of pneumonia in East Cleveland, Ohio on December 26, 2005.

Enrico diGiuseppe (73) tenor who sang with the Metropolitan and New York City opera companies. DiGiuseppe performed 26 roles in 16 years with the City Opera and with opera greats Beverly Sills and Joan Sutherland. He died of small cell carcinoma in Voorhees, New Jersey on December 31, 2005.

Maurice Dodd (83) artist behind one of Britain's best-loved cartoon strips, “The Perishers,’’ appearing in London's Daily Mirror, which tells the story of a group of children and a hairy Old English sheep dog called Boot. Dodd died of a brain hemorrhage in Surrey, England on December 31, 2005.

Sandy Fawkes (75) Briton found as a baby in the Grand Union Canal who later narrowly escaped death at the hands of a serial killer. Fawkes later was known as a journalist and author besides being a fixture in British pubs. She died on December 26, 2005.

Charles Engell France (59) writer on dance, collector, and influential assistant to Mikhail Baryshnikov when he was artistic director of American Ballet Theater in the '80s. France was widely recognized as a brilliant, astute artistic adviser whose autocratic manner was hurtful to some, but who helped to shape the careers of many promising dancers. He died after collapsing in his New York City apartment, having been in poor health for years, on December 25, 2005.

Roland Galvan (48) former weatherman on KTLA-TV in Los Angeles in the late '90s, who later became chief meteorologist at KIII-TV in Corpus Christi, Texas and previously worked at TV stations in San Antonio, Houston, and Beaumont. Galvan died of cancer in San Antonio, Texas on December 25, 2005.

Octavio Gomez (71) one of the first Latinos to work in Los Angeles as a TV cameraman, whose work put him at the center of the Mexican-American civil rights movement and placed him by Ruben Salazar's side when the journalist was killed while covering a riot in 1970. Gomez documented the United Farm Workers’ movement for almost 20 years. He died of a heart attack in Los Angeles, California on December 30, 2005.

Raymond M. Griffith (58) assistant managing editor of the Riverside(Calif.) Press-Enterprise who enjoyed a 35-year career that included stints as executive news editor of the San Bernardino Sun and managing editor of the Redding Record Searchlight, and the Palm Springs Desert Sun. Griffith died of a heart attack in Redlands, California on December 28, 2005.

Joseph Duncan McLellan (76) longtime music critic for the Washington Post known for his generosity of spirit. McLellan became a music critic for the paper in 1982, covered world chess matches, and edited a syndicated column by Czech-American grandmaster Lubomir Kavalk. He died of kidney failure in Hyattsville, Maryland on December 26, 2005.

Farouk Nassar (79) 42-year veteran Mideast correspondent for the Associated Press who became supervisor of Beirut's leading daily An-Nahar newspaper's English-language Web site after retiring from the AP in 1996. Nassar covered military coups in Syria during his AP service and was jailed several times by authorities in Syria for his reporting. He died two weeks after suffering a stroke when he learned of the Dec. 12 car-bomb assassination of Gibran Tueni, editor and general manager of An-Nahar, in Beirut, Lebanon on December 26, 2005.

Birgit Nilsson (87) Swedish farmer's daughter who became renowned in the world's great opera houses for her dazzling voice and among colleagues for her playful sense of humor. Nilsson was one of the world's top Wagnerian sopranos, who reigned supreme at the world's opera houses during her career and astounded audiences in live performance with the unforced power of her voice. She died in Vastra Karup, Sweden on December 25, 2005.

Maclovia Ruiz (95) first ethnic dancer in a major American ballet company to play the lead role in Carmen at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York. Ruiz was born in Mexico and moved to San Francisco as a child, where she was repeatedly turned away from dance schools because of her skin color. She later became the first woman of color to gain entry to the San Francisco Ballet and performed with the American Ballet Company and the Metropolitan Opera Company. She continued dancing in nightclubs, performing flamenco throughout Spain and South America and teaching ballroom and Spanish dance well into her 70s. She died of pneumonia in San Francisco, California on December 31, 2005.

Vincent Schiavelli (57) droopy-eyed character actor who appeared in scores of movies, including One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest, Amadeus, and Ghost. Schiavelli made appearances in some 150 film and TV productions (his other notable appearances include Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Batman Returns, and The People vs. Larry Flynt) He was selected in 1997 by Vanity Fair as one of the best character actors in the US. He died of lung cancer in Sicily on December 26, 2005.

Neil Strawser (78) CBS News radio anchor who covered the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. Strawser worked in Washington, DC as a CBS News radio and TV reporter for 34 years and was the only TV journalist admitted into the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base during the 1962 Cuban Missile crisis. He left journalism in 1986 to be a Democrat spokesman for the House Budget Committee. He died of a heart attack in Washington, DC on December 31, 2005.

Roy Stuart (78) veteran character actor who played Cpl. Chuck Boyle on the '60s sitcom Gomer Pyle, USMC. Stuart also made guest appearances on Mister Ed, Bewitched, General Hospital, The Golden Girls, Mama's Family, and many other TV shows. He performed in nightclubs, on Broadway, and in films and appeared in more than 100 commercials in the '70s. He died of cancer in Woodland Hills, California on December 25, 2005.

Michael Vale (83) character actor who starred in more than 100 Dunkin' Donuts commercials as the early-rising Fred the Baker. Vale was also a veteran of a dozen Broadway shows, a handful of movies, and about 1,000 other commercials. He died of diabetes on in New York City on December 31, 2005.

Jack Wiener (79) coproducer of The Eagle Has Landed, F/X, and other films, who, after working at MGM and Columbia Pictures, formed Kelso Productions where he produced independent films. Wiener died of a heart attack in Los Angeles, California on December 26, 2005.

Donald S. Dawson (97) lawyer who worked as a special assistant to President Harry S. Truman and was responsible for all Presidential appointments. Dawson helped to organize Truman's whistle-stop Presidential campaign in 1948 and was chairman of the White House Loyalty Review Board, established by Truman to oversee federal loyalty investigations of government employees. He died of a stroke in Bethesda, Maryland on December 25, 2005.

Evelyn Fowler Grubb (74) Pennsylvania native who worked to gain recognition for prisoners of war after her husband was shot down and captured in North Vietnam in 1966. Grubb initially got little information from federal officials, leading her to contact other wives facing similar situations and form groups that eventually became the National League of PoW/MiA Families (she was its national coordinator in Washington [1971-72]). She later learned that her husband had been killed in captivity shortly after his capture despite the fact that his captors had released his photo as an example of humane treatment. Evelyn Grubb died of breast cancer in Melbourne, Florida on December 28, 2005.

William H. Guthman (81) prominent antiques dealer who specialized in items of historical and military Americana and helped to make them stars of the collecting world, leading to his founding of Guthman American in Westport, Connecticut. Guthman exhibited his collections at New York's Winter Antiques Show for 32 years and was a guest appraiser on PBS-TV's Antiques Roadshow for five seasons. He wrote such books as March to Massacre: A History of the First Seven Years of the United States Army (1974). He died of lung cancer in Westport, Connecticut on December 28, 2005.

Lewis Hanson (81) retired USAF colonel and a pilot for four US Presidents (Harry Truman, Dwight Eisenhower, Lyndon Johnson, and John F. Kennedy), who copiloted the flight that brought Kennedy's body back to Washington, DC from Dallas, Texas aboard Air Force One after his 1963 assassination. Hanson flew everyone from British Prime Minister Winston Churchill to the Shah of Iran. He died in Laconia, New Hampshire on December 27, 2005.

Young O. Kim (86) retired US Army officer, one of the most celebrated heroes of World War II and the Korean War, who later became the elder statesman of Los Angeles and a link among Korean, Japanese, and other Asian-American communities. Kim was a major cofounder of the Japanese-American National Museum, Korean-American Museum, and the Korean Health Education Information & Research Center in Los Angeles. He led efforts to build the Go for Broke monument in Little Tokyo, which honors the primarily Japanese-American members of WWII's combined 100th Infantry Battalion and 442nd Regimental Combat Team. Kim died of cancer in Los Angeles, California on December 29, 2005.

Philip A. Rollins (70) former district attorney for the Cape and Islands, Massachusetts who helped to change the face of the state justice system during his 32-year tenure as DA. Rollins was credited with persuading state lawmakers to create a separate DA's office for the Cape and Islands. He died in Ipswich, Massachusetts on December 25, 2005.

Perry Shinneman (70) subject of a black & white Vietnam War photograph entitled "Home from Vietnam" that showed him returning home on medical leave after losing a leg in an explosion (the picture was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize and was chosen by the Associated Press as one of the 20th century's most significant works). Shinneman died of pulmonary fibrosis in Sioux Falls, South Dakota on December 25, 2005.

Phillip Whitehead (68) chairman of the European Parliament's internal market committee and a longtime member of the British Labour Party. Whitehead was also an award-winning TV producer and program editor for British TV networks and was director of a TV production company, winning two Emmys. He died of a heart attack in Brussels, Belgium on December 31, 2005.

Beryl M. Danielson (94) prominent Los Angeles fund-raiser for cultural events and hostess for her late husband, Sweden's Consul General Emeritus Walter G. Danielson, who helped to found the International Committee of the Southern California Symphony Association, which supports the LA Philharmonic Association. Beryl Danielson entertained wives of visiting ambassadors and other diplomats and played host to parties for visiting royalty, including Princess Christina of Sweden. She died in Los Angeles, California on December 27, 2005.

Milton L. Goldberg (92) executive director of the Jewish Big Brothers/Big Sisters of Los Angeles for 40 years who led the agency to become a national leader in the field of child welfare with youth mentoring, family counseling, and a strong camping program. Goldberg was also a cofounder of what is now the LA Times Family Fund Summer Camp Campaign (which helps disadvantaged youths to attend camp) and was an active leader with the Boy Scouts, serving as vice chairman of the National Committee on Handicapped Scouting and establishing the National Jewish Committee on Scouting besides serving on the camping committee of LA’s Council of the Boy Scouts for more than 20 years. He died of heart failure in Pasadena, California on December 25, 2005.

Abuna Yesehaq Mandefro (72) leader in the diaspora of the Orthodox Church of Ethiopia who, caught up in the political upheaval at home in the '90s, split his congregations in the Americas from the mother church in Addis Ababa. Mandefro died in Newark, New Jersey on December 29, 2005.

James G. Pulliam (80) civic-minded architect whose understated geometric style helped to shape mid-century modernism in southern California, who fought to preserve the Los Angeles Central Library and crafted the LA Maritime Museum out of a San Pedro ferry building in 1980. Pulliam was president of the LA chapter of the American Institute of Architects. He died after having suffered from Parkinson's disease for more than 10 years, in La Canada-Flintridge, California on December 27, 2005.

Eddie Barlow (65) former South African cricket star of the late '60s, a key player in a golden era for South African cricket before the international sporting boycott in response to the republic's racial separation policies. Barlow was a strong opponent of apartheid and later played for English county Derbyshire besides briefly coaching in Bangladesh. He died of a stroke in Wales on December 30, 2006.

Harry ("Flash") Clarke (89) halfback on the Chicago Bears' 1940, '41, and '43 championship teams who later played three seasons with the Los Angeles Dons in the newly formed American Football Conference beginning in '46. Clarke also played for the Chicago Rockets before retiring in 1948. He was inducted into the West Virginia University Hall of Fame. He died of Alzheimer's disease in Morgantown, West Virginia on December 31, 2005.

Ted Ditchburn (84) former Tottenham and England goalkeeper who won six England caps and held the club record of 247 consecutive league appearances set between April 1948 and March '54. Ditchburn won the old First and Second Division championships and was well known as a heavyweight boxer. He died in England on December 26, 2005.

John Druze (91) college football star, last surviving member and captain of Fordham's famed Seven Blocks of Granite, the 1937 team that went 7-0-1 in the school’s last undefeated season. Druze later coached at Boston College, Notre Dame, and Marquette. He died in Scottsdale, Arizona on December 27, 2005.

Visco Grgich (82) one of the first stars of the San Francisco '49ers who played nose guard for the original 1946 team before a serious knee injury ended his career. Grgich was named first-team All-America Football Conference in 1949 and was chosen for the Pro Bowl in '50, the first season the '49ers played in the NFL. He died in Modesto, California on December 26, 2005.

Clint Sampson (44) former wide receiver for the Denver Broncos in the '80s, one of John Elway's favorite targets early in Elway's career and a member of the 1986 team that advanced to Super Bowl XXI. After his football career, Sampson worked with underprivileged children at places that included the Roundup Fellowship home in Denver and the Compton School District in Los Angeles. He was killed in a car accident in Los Angeles, California on December 25, 2005.