Michael Hurson (65) New York City-based artist whose drawings and paintings imbued human and inanimate subjects alike with a stylish caricatural energy. Hurson died of a heart attack hours after entering a hospital complaining of breathing difficulties, in Nyack, New York on January 29, 2007.

Merilene M. Murphy (51) literary activist and poet who scouted other poets to read their work at the Anansi Writers Workshop, held on Wednesday nights at the World Stage in LA’s Leimert Park, a performance gallery where artists gather to share and hone their craft. Murphy died of cancer in Los Angeles, California on February 2, 2007.

Dr. David B. Ast (104) dentist and public health official who led an effort to begin fluoridating the water supply in New York state in the ’40s and helped to prove its safety and effectiveness in preventing tooth decay. Ast died of heart failure in Laguna Hills, California on February 3, 2007.

Dr. Ivan Boszormenyi-Nagy (86) psychiatrist who helped to establish a powerful therapy for mental illness that brings patients’ extended families into treatment as allies. Boszormenyi-Nagy was one of several therapists who in the ’50s and ’60s began to look beyond individual psychology to understand and try to treat severe mental disorders, particularly schizophrenia. He died of Parkinson’s disease in Glenside, Pennsylvania on January 28, 2007.

Dr. Aaron B. Lerner (86) Yale dermatologist and leader of a team of researchers who discovered melatonin, a powerful hormone regulating human sleep-wake cycles. Lerner died of Parkinson’s disease in New Haven, Connecticut on February 3, 2007.

Floyd Levin (84) Los Angeles textile manufacturer who had a second career as a jazz journalist and historian. Levin led a fund-raising drive to erect a statue of legendary Louis Armstrong in his hometown of New Orleans. He died of a heart attack in Studio City, California on January 29, 2007.

Gordon S. Macklin (78) founder of the National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations (NASDAQ) stock exchange and a board member of Worldcom during its notorious accounting fraud. Macklin helped to launch the electronic stock exchange in 1971 and was its president for nearly 20 years. He died of a stroke in Delray Beach, Florida on January 30, 2007.

Leon J. Thal (62) researcher in Alzheimer’s disease at the University of California at San Diego. Thal directed the Alzheimer’s Disease Cooperative Study, a consortium of more than 70 research centers in the US and Canada that investigates experimental therapies. He was killed when the small plane he was piloting crashed in the mountains near Borrego Springs, California on February 3, 2007.

Loren Grey (91) former longtime professor of educational psychology at Cal State Northridge and keeper of the flame for his famous father, best-selling western-author Zane Grey. Besides writing several books in his field, Loren Grey's name also appeared as the author of a series of ghost-written western novels based on Lassiter, the hero in his father’s Riders of the Purple Sage. The younger Grey died in West Hills, California on February 2, 2007.

Dr. Calvin H. Plimpton (89) former Amherst College president credited with starting the process that led to the admission of women to the prestigious liberal arts school. A physician, Plimpton died of complications after surgery following a fall, in Westwood, Massachusetts on January 30, 2007.

Edmund C. Arnold (93) graphic designer whose reader-friendly ideas altered the appearance of newspapers. Known in the field as the "father of modern newspaper design," Arnold worked with hundreds of newspapers on their design and conducted workshops in every US state and in Canada, Latin America, and Europe. He died of respiratory failure in Roanoke, Virginia on February 2, 2007.

Whitney Balliett (80) jazz critic for the New Yorker for 40 years who believed a reviewer’s job was to share his experience, not to criticize the performer. Balliett also created the CBS-TV program The Sound of Jazz in the late ’50s. He died of cancer in New York City on February 1, 2007.

Lee Bergere (88) veteran character actor who appeared on more than 200 TV shows, including an original Star Trek episode in which he played Abraham Lincoln. Bergere also had a rich stage career, appearing in the musical Man of La Mancha as the villain, the Duke, for its premiere in Los Angeles in 1967. He died in Fremont, New Hampshire on January 31, 2007.

Mike Clark (63) Georgia Music Hall of Fame inductee who recorded some of music’s biggest names. Clark was co-owner and manager of Southern Tracks Recording. A former drummer who toured with Sam Cooke and Smokey Robinson, his recording clients included Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, and Travis Tritt. He died of cancer in Cumming, Georgia on February 1, 2007.

Billy Henderson (67) singer, a member of the band The Spinners who sang "I'll Be Around" and other hits. The five-member band of high school friends formed in 1954 in Ferndale, Michigan, a Detroit suburb. They were later nominated for six Grammys and became the second black musical group to get a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Henderson died of diabetes in Daytona Beach, Florida on February 2, 2007.

Joe Hunter (79) Motown's first bandleader and a three-time Grammy winner with the Funk Brothers, the group that played backup on many Motown recordings. Hunter was Motown legend Berry Gordy Jr.'s first hire. He suffered from diabetes and died in Detroit, Michigan on February 2, 2007.

Jeanne Kane (58) one of the famous Kane triplets who along with her sisters, Lucille and Maureen, were automatic celebrities in 1948 as the first triplets born in Brooklyn Hospital. The Kane sisters appeared in shoe advertisements with their six older siblings and later made a half-dozen appearances on several TV shows, including The Ed Sullivan Show, The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, The Jack Benny Show, and most of TV’s other popular variety programs. Jeanne Kane was found shot to death in Pleasant Plains, New York on January 30, 2007.

Pedro Knight (85) accomplished trumpeter and widower of legendary salsa singer Celia Cruz (d. 2003). Knight grew up in Cuba and played trumpet in the rollicking days of Havana in the ’50s with internationally acclaimed Sonora Matancera, in which Cruz was a singer. He suffered for years from diabetes and other ailments and died in Arcadia, California on February 3, 2007.

Nikos Kourkoulos (73) Greek film and stage actor who appeared in dozens of Greek films from the '50s to the early '80s and in many stage productions. Kourkoulos ran the Greek National Theater for the past 13 years. In 1967, he appeared with Greek actress and Socialist politician Melina Mercouri in the Broadway musical Ilya Darling, for which he was nominated for a Tony. He died of cancer in Athens, Greece on January 30, 2007.

Alex Levasseur (13) son of top Nashville songwriter Jeffrey Steele, who wrote such hits as "My Wish," sung by Rascal Flatts, Tim McGraw's "The Cowboy in Me," and "My Town," sung by Montgomery Gentry. Levasseur was killed in an all-terrain-vehicle (ATV) accident in Franklin, Tennessee on January 28, 2007.

Mone Little (19) granddaughter of the late Motown singer David Ruffin (d. 1991) whose mother, Kimberly, is the youngest of Ruffin’s three daughters. Little was killed in a drive-by shooting in Detroit, Michigan on January 28, 2007.

Gian Carlo Menotti (95) Italian composer of a pair of Pulitzer Prize-winning operas who founded the Spoleto arts festivals in the US and Italy. Menotti won Pulitzers for a pair of the 20th century’s more successful operas: The Consul, which premiered in 1950 in Philadelphia, and The Saint of Bleecker Street, which opened at New York City’s Broadway Theater in ’54. He also wrote the first opera specifically for TV—Amahl & the Night Visitors, first telecast on NBC at Christmas 1951. He died in Monaco on February 1, 2007.

Ronald Muldrow (57) guitarist, a fixture on the Los Angeles jazz scene for more than 30 years. As an emerging jazz guitarist in the early '70s, Muldrow connected with soul-jazz saxophonist Eddie Harris and was best known for their work together. He was found dead two days before his 58th birthday, in his Los Angeles, California home on January 31, 2007.

Vickie Myers (39) former beauty queen who in 1991 had beaten out 32 other contestants to be crowned ’92 Miss West Virginia USA. Myers had been arrested three times on drunken driving charges within the last two years. She was found dead in her home of apparent suffocation, in Parkersburg, West Virginia on January 28, 2007.

O. P. Nayyar (81) Indian music director who composed some of Bollywood's most memorable tunes of the '50s and '60s. Nayyar was famous for the use of Punjabi rhythms in his music and was credited with making stars of several leading singers, including Asha Bhosle. He died of a heart attack outside Mumbai, India on January 28, 2007.

Deborah Orin-Eilbeck (59) Washington bureau chief for the New York Post since 1988. Orin-Eilbeck had covered every Presidential campaign since 1980. She died of cancer in New York City on January 28, 2007.

Michel Roux (77) French actor considered a pillar of Paris's so-called boulevard theater for the masses and the dubbed voice for many English-speaking movie stars. Roux provided the voice for stars like Jack Lemmon, Peter Sellers, and Alec Guinness, dubbing their translated movie lines for French audiences. He had been suffering from heart problems when he died in Paris, France on February 2, 2007.

Charles E. Scripps (87) longtime chairman of media company E. W. Scripps Co. Scripps was board chairman (1953-94), presiding over the company's growth as a newspaper publisher along with its entry into broadcast TV, cable TV systems and networks, and the Internet. He died in Naples, Florida on February 3, 2007.

Sidney Sheldon (89) writer who won awards in three careers—Broadway theater, movies, and TV—then at age 50 turned to writing best-selling novels about stalwart women who triumph in a hostile world of ruthless men. Several of Sheldon’s novels became TV miniseries, often with the author as producer. He died of pneumonia in Los Angeles, California on January 30, 2007.

Michael Shurtleff (86) for years a leading Broadway casting director and author of an influential book about the audition process. For an actor on Broadway in the '60s and '70s, there were few figures more powerful than Shurtleff, who cast shows for producer David Merrick and director-choreographer Bob Fosse, among others. Shurtleff died of lung cancer in Los Angeles, California on January 28, 2007.

Karel Svoboda (68) one of the Czech Republic's most prominent pop music composers, well known in his own country and neighboring Germany for his work in musicals, films, and popular radio songs. Svoboda was found dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound in the garden of his villa in Jevany, east of the capital of Prague, Czech Republic, on January 28, 2007.

Eric von Schmidt (75) performer and composer of folk music who as a boy instantly fell in love with the blues when he heard legendary blues artist Leadbelly on the radio. Von Schmidt later became a mentor to and inspired singers like Bob Dylan and Joan Baez. He suffered a stroke in 2006 and died in Fairfield, Connecticut on February 2, 2007.

Hsu Wei-lun (28) Taiwanese actress who starred in the TV drama Express Boy (2005) with Mike He Jun Xiang. Hsu's first popular leading role was probably in the TV drama Love Storm alongside her ex-boyfriend Zhou Yu-Ming. She had also made a brief appearance in the popular Asian TV drama Meteor Garden. She died of injuries sustained in a fatal car accident in Taipei, Taiwan on January 28, 2007.

George Becker (78) second-generation steelworker who became the sixth international president of the United Steelworkers union (1993-2001). A respected union organizer and strategist, Becker was also an internationally known spokesman for industrial safety, workers’ rights, and fair global trade. He died of prostate cancer in Gibsonia, Pennsylvania on February 3, 2007.

Ralph deToledano (90) news magazine editor, syndicated columnist, and author of 25 books best known for his friendship with Richard M. Nixon and his passionate embrace of the conservative cause. DeToledano was a top editor at Newsweek magazine and later wrote a column distributed by King Features Syndicate. He died in Washington, DC on February 3, 2007.

Rev. Robert F. Drinan (86) first Roman Catholic priest elected as a voting member of Congress. An internationally known human-rights advocate, Drinan was elected on an antiwar platform and represented Massachusetts in the US House for 10 years during the turbulent '70s. He had suffered from pneumonia and congestive heart failure for 10 days and died in Washington, DC on January 28, 2007.

Nat H. Hentel (87) former New York State Supreme Court justice (1987-92) and an interim Queens district attorney in 1966. A Republican, Hentel was appointed interim DA by Gov. Nelson A. Rockefeller in January 1966, then 10 months later lost the seat to a Democrat by more than 71,000 votes. He died of Parkinson’s disease in Tucson, Arizona on January 31, 2007.

Molly Ivins (62) best-selling author, syndicated columnist, and sharp-witted liberal who skewered the political establishment and referred to President George W. Bush as “Shrub.’’ More than 400 newspapers subscribed to her nationally syndicated column, which combined strong liberal views and populist-toned humor. Ivins died after her third bout with breast cancer, in Austin, Texas on January 31, 2007.

Richard ("Dick") Kelley (91) stepfather of former President Bill Clinton. Kelley was a salesman, running a family food brokerage business for many years in Little Rock. He and Clinton’s mother, Virginia (d. 1994), met at Oaklawn Park race track and married in 1982. It was his second marriage and her fourth. Kelley died in Hot Springs, Arkansas on January 31, 2007.

Mohammed Jamal Khalifa (50) brother-in-law of Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden with deep roots in the organization as a financier and facilitator. Khalifa, who mined and traded precious stones, was murdered by a gang of 20-30 gunmen who broke into his bedroom, shot him dead, and stole his belongings, in Madagascar on January 31, 2007.

Nona Koirala (78) leading female pro-democracy activist in Nepal and sister-in-law of the prime minister. Koirala had played a key role in organizing pro-democracy protests since she entered political life in the '60s. She suffered from jaundice and high blood pressure and died eight days after being hospitalized with chest pains, in the capital, Katmandu, Nepal on January 28, 2007.

Adelaide Tambo (77) widow of South African antiapartheid hero Oliver Tambo and a stalwart in the struggle against racial segregation. Like her husband, Adelaide Tambo was a lifelong political activist and widely regarded as a mother figure to antiapartheid figures in exile. She collapsed and died in Johannesburg, South Africa on January 31, 2007.

Maj. Gen. Ellis W. Williamson (88) US military officer who led the first Army combat troops into South Vietnam. Williamson also participated in the D-Day landings in Normandy in World War II and the Inchon landings in the Korean War. He died in Arlington, Virginia on January 28, 2007.

Ahmed Abu Laban (60) Denmark’s most prominent Muslim leader and a central figure in the 2006 uproar over cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad. Abu Laban was thrust into the international spotlight when he accused Denmark of being disrespectful to Islam and Muslim immigrants. He died of lung cancer in Copenhagen, Denmark on February 1, 2007.

Daniel Brown (54) Florida man who shot and killed Jackson County (Fla.) Sheriff John McDaniel’s wife, Mellie McDaniel, and another deputy, Harold Altman, outside McDaniel’s home. Brown had previously served eight years in a Texas prison for assault. He was shot and killed during the attack in Marianna, Florida on January 31, 2007.

William Leo Cahalan (75) former Wayne County (Mich.) Circuit judge who forged a reputation for helping felons to overcome their addictions to drugs and alcohol during 30 years on the bench. Cahalan died of lung disease after open-heart surgery in Ann Arbor, Michigan on January 31, 2007.

Charlotte de Armond (87) Oscar-winning filmmaker who wrote a book on adoption and as a civic leader played a key role on matters related to Los Angeles's Griffith Park. In 1979 the short film Teenage Father, sponsored by the Children’s Home Society and produced by De Armond in collaboration with director Taylor Hackford, won an Oscar for best live-action short film. De Armond died of complications from surgery in Los Angeles, California on January 31, 2007.

Douglas W. Hillman (84) retired US District judge. Hillman practiced law in Grand Rapids for 30 years before President Jimmy Carter appointed him to the federal court in 1979. He suffered a stroke in 2000, and his health took a turn for the worse within the past month. He died in Grand Rapids, Michigan on February 1, 2007.

Antonio Maria Javierre Ortas (85) Spanish-born cardinal who held top Vatican posts for 20 years. Javierre Ortas was secretary of the Vatican’s office for Catholic Education and prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments. He died in Rome, Italy on January 29, 2007.

Darrell Lee & Family (35) Nebraska family shot and killed by grandfather Richard Wilkinson (62). Darrell Lee, his wife Jamie (26), and her sons Michael Wilkinson (6) and Jacob Shinabarger (3) were planning to move into their own apartment when the elder Wilkinson killed them during an argument, then turned the gun on himself, in Omaha, Nebraska on January 28, 2007.

Mellie McDaniel (51) wife of Jackson County (Fla.) Sheriff John McDaniel. Mellie McDaniel and a sheriff’s deputy were shot and killed during a shootout with two suspects outside the McDaniel home after Mellie told her husband over a radio phone that she was being followed home from grocery shopping, in Marianna, Florida on January 31, 2007.

Robert Meier (109) oldest living man in Germany and one of that country’s last World War I veterans who in October 2006 met 110-year-old Henry Allingham, oldest living British World War I veteran, in his hometown. Meier died in Witten, Germany on January 29, 2007.

Milan Opocensky (75) prominent Czech theologian, former secretary-general of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches and professor emeritus of ethics on the Faculty of Evangelic Theology at Charles University in Prague. Opocensky died in Prague, Czech Republic on January 31, 2007.

Sandip Patel (32) only survivor of a racially motivated shooting rampage in 2000; five other shooting victims were killed in the two-county attacks. Patel was shot twice inside his family-owned store and had been living in a personal care facility since becoming a quadriplegic. He died of pneumonia in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on February 3, 2007.

Filippo Raciti (40) Italian police officer killed during the 2007 Catania football violence between Calcio Catania and US Citta di Palermo supporters. Raciti was hit by a home-made bomb inside his vehicle after the conclusion of the match. Italian football matches were suspended for an indefinite time. Raciti died in Catania, Italy on February 2, 2007.

Lionel Sands (60) former Army officer who fatally shot Mellie McDaniel, wife of Jackson County (Fla.) Sheriff John McDaniel. Sands also killed a deputy, Harold Altman, outside McDaniel’s home. Sands was the primary suspect in the June 2001 death of his wife, Gail Sands, but was never charged in that case. He was shot and killed during the McDaniel attack in Marianna, Florida on January 31, 2007.

Irma Stahler (107) one of the oldest residents of Australia, believed to be the oldest Holocaust survivor, during which she lost her husband, father, and three siblings. Stahler (pictured with one of her five great-great-grandchildren) was later deported to several concentration camps in 1941. She died in Sydney, Australia on February 2, 2007.

Christopher Swift (31) Texas man convicted of fatally stabbing his pregnant wife, Amy Sabeh-Swift (27), and strangling his mother-in-law, Sandra Sabeh (61), in the family recreational vehicle in Irving, Texas in 2003. Swift later abducted and abandoned his 5-year-old son after the murders. He was executed by lethal injection in Huntsville, Texas on January 30, 2007.

Elizabeth Tashjian (94) matriarch of the Nut Museum in Old Lyme, Connecticut, where she displayed nut art, nut jewelry, and a Nativity scene made entirely of nuts. The many varieties of nuts Tashjian collected, including the 35-pound Coco de mer, which resembles buttocks, from the Seychelles, were gifts from patrons. Tashjian died in old Saybrook, Connecticut on January 28, 2007.

Emma Faust Tillman (114) oldest-known living person, born to former slaves, who lived to see 21 American Presidencies. Tillman had assumed the title as world's oldest person just four days earlier, on January 24, with the death of 115-year-old Emiliano Mercado del Toro of Puerto Rico. Her four-day reign was the shortest on record. She died in East Hartford, Connecticut on January 28, 2007.

Richard Wilkinson (62) Nebraska man who shot and killed four family members, including his daughter Jamie Lee (26), his son-in-law Darrell Lee (35), and his two grandsons Michael Wilkinson (6) and Jacob Shinabarger (3) at their Omaha home, apparently in a dispute. The Lees were having problems living with Wilkinson and were planning to move into their own apartment. Wilkinson died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound (suicide) in Omaha, Nebraska on January 28, 2007.

John A. Bell 3rd (88) prominent horse owner and breeder for more than 50 years and founder of the Kentucky horse farm best known as the final resting place of Triple Crown winner Affirmed. Bell died of pulmonary fibrosis in Lexington, Kentucky on January 31, 2007.

Ray Berres (99) former major league catcher and longtime pitching coach (1949-66, '69) for the Chicago White Sox. Berres was the second-oldest living major leaguer; Rollie Stiles, who pitched for the St. Louis Browns (1930-33), is 100. Berres died of heart failure and pneumonia in Kenosha, Wisconsin on February 1, 2007.

George Burger (50) former political consultant who became vice president of the Professional Golfers Association Tour’s new FedExCup competition. Burger experienced severe back pain on January 13 during the Sony Open in Honolulu. He died of bacterial spinal meningitis in Jacksonville, Florida on January 31, 2007.

Yang Chuan-kwang (74) Taiwan's first Olympic medalist. Yang won silver in the men's decathlon at the 1960 Rome Olympics. He died of a brain hemorrhage three days after suffering a stroke, in Los Angeles, California on January 28, 2007.

Art Fowler (84) pitcher for the Los Angeles Dodgers' 1959 championship team who later became a pitching coach for five major league clubs. Fowler won back-to-back World Series rings with the New York Yankees (1977-78), then worked as a pitching coach for 14 years. He died in Spartanburg, South Carolina on January 29, 2007.

Barbaro the Horse (4) Kentucky Derby-winning colt who dispatched 19 opponents in the 2006 Derby in dominating fashion, by 6-1/2 lengths. Trained to be the first Triple Crown winner in 28 years, Barbaro tragically broke a leg in the 2006 Preakness, second race in the series. After eight months of heroic efforts to save him, the horse developed a debilitating infection and other complications and was euthanized in Kennett Square, Pennsylvania on January 29, 2007.

Stu Inman (80) basketball scout who helped to build the Portland (Ore.) Trail Blazers’ 1976-77 NBA championship team. After he left the Trail Blazers, Inman was director of player personnel for the Milwaukee Bucks and the Miami Heat. He collapsed and died of an apparent heart attack in Lake Oswego, Oregon on January 31, 2007.

Max Lanier (91) pitcher in three consecutive World Series for the St. Louis Cardinals during World War II. Lanier spent 12 seasons with the Cardinals (1938-51), pitching in the 1942-44 World Series, posting a 2-1 record in seven games. He had a career record of 108-82, including stints with the New York Giants and the St. Louis Browns in 1952 and '53. He died in Dunellon, Florida on January 30, 2007.