Life In Legacy - Week of October 27, 2007

Art and Literature

Jane Cooper (83) prominent poet whose work explored women's struggle to maintain meaningful artistic lives in America. Cooper was professor and poet in residence emerita at Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville, New York, where she had taught for nearly 40 years, and was a former official poet of New York State (1995-97). She died of Parkinson's disease in Newtown, Pennsylvania on October 26, 2007.

R. B. Kitaj (74) American artist who became influential in Britain with figurative and Pop Art paintings in the '60s and '70s when abstraction was king. Kitaj (pictured above with a self-portrait) died eight days before his 75th birthday, in Los Angeles, California on October 21, 2007. The Los Angeles County coroner's office was investigating his death as a possible suicide.

Eve Curie Labouisse (102) journalist and humanitarian best known for her biography of her mother, Nobel Prize-winning French scientist Marie Curie. Published in 1937, Madame Curie chronicled the life of Marie Curie, who won the Nobel Prize twice, first in physics in 1903 (shared with her husband, Pierre, and Henri Becquerel) and again in chemistry in 1911. The Curies discovered the radioactive elements radium and polonium. The book quickly became a best-seller and in 1943 was made into a Hollywood film starring Greer Garson as Marie and Walter Pidgeon as Pierre. Eve Labouisse died in New York City on October 22, 2007.

Florence Miller Pierce (89) artist, part of the Transcendental Painting Group of Taos, New Mexico in her 20s who gained broader attention decades later with her Post-Minimalist works of tinted resin, an example of which is shown above. Pierce died of lung disease in Albuquerque, New Mexico on October 25, 2007.

Ileana Sonnabend (92) New York art dealer whose eye, shrewdness, and lasting alliance with her first husband, Leo Castelli (d. 1998), made her one of the most formidable contemporary art dealers of her time. Sonnabend was especially important for introducing postwar American art to Europe in the '60s and later bringing Americans up to date on art developments abroad. Her galleries—one in New York and another in Paris—showed new, usually top-tier talent from both continents for more than 40 years. She died in her sleep after several months of illness, one week before her 93rd birthday, in New York City on October 21, 2007.

Ursula Vaughan Williams (96) second wife (since 1953) and widow of British composer Ralph Vaughan Williams (d. 1958), who wrote librettos for her husband and produced his biography, R.V.W. (1964). Ursula Vaughan Williams also wrote five volumes of verse and three novels. She died in London, England on October 23, 2007.

Leonard Vernon (89) industrial developer, builder, and contractor who with his wife, Marjorie (d. 1998), amassed one of the country's finest private collections of photography. The couple, equal partners in the success of the collection, started buying photographs in 1976 and built an archive that now stands at 4,000 images, many of which have been loaned to the Museum of Contemporary Art, the Getty Center, and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in southern California, the Museum of Modern Art in New York, and other major institutions. Vernon had been in failing health with Parkinson's disease. He died in his sleep in Bel-Air, California on October 26, 2007.

Business and Science

Dr. F. Gene Dixon (84) dentist who helped to make dental insurance accessible to millions of Americans by founding the company now known as Delta Dental of California. Dixon fell on the driveway outside his house, causing a head injury. He died at a hospital the next day, in San Mateo, California on October 26, 2007.

Dennis Frate (59) medical anthropologist whose studies shed light on blood pressure in rural populations and the effects of pesticide exposure. Frate was a longtime professor at the University of Mississippi. He was killed in a car accident near his home in Canton, Mississippi on October 22, 2007.

Dr. Arthur Kornberg (89) Stanford University scientist whose test-tube synthesis of DNA won him the 1959 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine, shared with Dr. Severo Ochoa of New York University. Kornberg discovered the chemical mechanism that demonstrated how DNA—the blueprint of heredity—gets constructed in the cell. Kornberg and Ochoa discovered enzymes that create the genetic building blocks of DNA and RNA. Their studies were a precursor to genetic engineering and provided the basis for many drugs now in use to treat cancer and viral infections. Kornberg died of respiratory failure in Palo Alto, California on October 26, 2007.

Leslie Orgel (80) Salk Institute theoretical chemist, father of the RNA world theory of the origin of life who joined with Nobel laureate Francis Crick to postulate that life might have been seeded on Earth by a higher intelligence. Orgel died of pancreatic cancer in San Diego, California on October 27, 2007.

Hans Stern (85) poor German immigrant who used Brazilian precious stones to create a jewelry empire known the world over. Stern fled Germany with his family at the outbreak of World War II and arrived at age 17 in Brazil, where he fell in love with the country's abundant colored gemstones. In 1945, he founded his own gemstone trading business in Rio, H. Stern, to exploit the potential he saw in marketing Brazilian gems—a trade then practically nonexistent. H. Stern grew to become a chain of 160 stores in Brazil. Stern had been hospitalized for days before his death in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on October 26, 2007.

Lim Goh Tong (90) Malaysia's third-richest man who turned a forested hilltop into a thriving casino resort, creating a diverse business empire worth US$22 billion (euro15.70 billion). A migrant from China, Lim battled against the odds to build Genting Highlands, a casino hotel resort that opened in 1971 and flourished into a Las Vegas-style resort. It is the country's only casino and includes five hotels and a theme park. Lim died in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on October 23, 2007.

News and Entertainment

Petr Eben (78) Czech composer whose wide variety of music has been performed around the globe. Throughout his career, Eben composed some 200 pieces, including works for organ and piano, orchestral and chamber compositions, masses, cantatas, and music for children. He died in Prague, Czech Republic on October 24, 2007.

Friedman Paul Erhardt (63) German-born cook known as "Chef Tell," one of America's pioneering TV chefs. Erhardt's jolly personality, thick German accent, and wit made him a fixture on TV shows such as Regis & Kathie Lee and comedy skits on Saturday Night Live. He was also said to be the inspiration for the Swedish chef on The Muppet Show. He was known on the Philadelphia dining scene as the owner of several restaurants in the '70s and '80s and as a culinary educator, cookbook author, and spokesman for major cookware and food product lines. A diabetic, he died of heart failure in Upper Black Eddy, about 25 miles east of Allentown, Pennsylvania, on October 26, 2007.

Freddie Jefferson (71) first black woman to sit on the editorial board of the Palm Beach Post. Jefferson wrote a column under the name Stebbins Jefferson, using her maiden name as her first name. She joined the Post as a columnist in 1989, writing largely about race relations. In 1994, she joined the editorial board, where she spent the next 10 years. She died of complications after heart surgery, in West Palm Beach, Florida on October 27, 2007.

Ricky Parent (37) drummer for the Chicago hard rock band Enuff Z'nuff who was involved in other bands and projects over the years, including a brief stint with Alice Cooper and playing with Sass Jordan and Tod Howarth (Frehley's Comet). Parent died after a long battle with cancer in Los Angeles, California on October 27, 2007.

Julia Rodriguez (??) grandmother of Latin pop star and actress Jennifer Lopez who inspired her famous granddaughter to open a restaurant, Madre's, in Pasadena, California to serve her favorite Latin dishes in her honor. Rodriguez had prepared meals at the Latina songstress's restaurant whenever she visited her in California. Rodriguez died in The Bronx, New York on October 22, 2007.

Lowell Smith (56) former principal dancer of the Dance Theater of Harlem who used classical ballet and bodily and facial expressions to convey emotions. Smith began at the dance theater in 1976, seven years after it was founded to give black dancers an entry into the white world of classical ballet. He was later director of the Kennedy Center Dance Project and the Dance Theater of Harlem School. He died of lung cancer in Los Angeles, California on October 22, 2007.

Masakuzu Yoshizawa (57) musician best known for his mastery of traditional Japanese flutes who was featured on the Memoirs of a Geisha soundtrack. A scholar of ancient and modern Japanese traditional music, Yoshizawa had already been hired to act as a drummer in Geisha when he was asked to play the shakuhachi—a bamboo flute—and other Japanese instruments for the 2005 film's soundtrack, composed by John Williams. Yoshizawa died of stomach cancer in San Gabriel, California on October 24, 2007.

Politics and Military

Alexander Feklisov (93) Russian KGB master agent who handled some of Moscow's most damaging Cold War spies in the West—Klaus Fuchs and the Rosenbergs. Feklisov arrived in New York in 1941 and within two years was overseeing Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, a married couple who supplied the Soviet Union with top-secret information on the US Manhattan project to develop the atomic bomb. After the Rosenbergs, Feklisov worked with Fuchs, a German-born scientist who passed on secrets that helped to speed Moscow's race for the nuclear bomb by at least 18 months. Feklisov died in Moscow, Russia on October 26, 2007.

Carole Hillard (71) first woman elected lieutenant governor in South Dakota. In recent years, Hillard had become an international consultant, traveling on behalf of the US State Department and nongovernmental organizations. She had suffered a spinal fracture and three broken ribs Oct. 8 while sailing the Adriatic Sea with friends. She underwent surgery in Zagreb, Croatia on Oct. 10, then was hospitalized Oct. 19 during a stop in Switzerland on her way back to the US. She suffered pneumonia, a bacterial blood infection, and a series of strokes, which claimed her life in Lausanne, Switzerland on October 25, 2007.

Leonard Horwin (94) attorney and former mayor of Beverly Hills. While in office (1964-65), Horwin worked to ensure that the city acquired Greystone Mansion, the home built by the Doheny family in the '20s that was leased to the American Film Institute for many years. He died of pneumonia in Beverly Hills, California on October 25, 2007.

Society and Religion

Kathleen ("Kay") Anderson (41) woman with learning disabilities whose marriage to Troy ("Andy") Anderson, who has similar disabilities, was the subject of the "Vows" column in the New York Times on Sept. 16, 2007. Kay Anderson was diagnosed with cancer a week after her Sept. 1 wedding and died in Summit, New Jersey on October 26, 2007.

Joseph A. Boyd Jr. (90) retired Florida chief justice proud of his dissents to opinions later overturned by the US Supreme Court. Boyd served 18 years on the Florida Supreme Court through 1987 and was chief justice from mid-'84 through mid-'86. He died in Tallahassee, Florida on October 26, 2007.

Stephan Cowans (37) Massachusetts man who spent more than six years in prison after being wrongly convicted in the shooting of a Boston police officer in 1997 when fingerprints found on a glass near the crime scene were mistakenly identified as his. Cowans was exonerated in 2004 after authorities reexamined the fingerprints and later received a $3.2 million settlement from the city and $500,000 from the state. Cowans was found shot to death at his home in Randolph, Massachusetts on October 26, 2007.

Ernst Ludwig Ehrlich (86) Jewish religious philosopher who escaped the Nazis and later helped to bridge the gap between Christians and Jews. Ehrlich was European director (1961-94) of the Independent Order of B'nai B'rith, founded in New York in 1843. At the Second Vatican Council in 1965, he was adviser to German Augustin Cardinal Bea in preparing "Nostra Aetate," a key document on Roman Catholic-Jewish relations. Ehrlich died in Riehen, Switzerland on October 21, 2007.

Billy Ray Hamilton (58) California man who along with cohort, Clarence Ray Allen (executed in 2006), was convicted in the contract killings of three employees—Douglas White (18), Bryon Schletewitz (27), and Josephine Rocha (17)—at a Fresno grocery store in 1980. Hamilton was charged with three counts of first-degree murder with special circumstances. His case was caught up in challenges to the death penalty in the '80s after the jury sentenced him to death in 1981. He died of cancer at a hospital in Bakersfield, California on October 22, 2007.

Hilda Menchions (89) Newfoundland woman who at age 18 months became famous in 1919 when she was wrapped up in blankets and packed into a mailbag by her mother to be sent down a line over open ocean and later sent ashore to safety from the grounded steamship, SS Ethie, one of Newfoundland's most famous shipwreck stories. Menchions died in St. John's, Newfoundland, Canada on October 22, 2007.

Shalita Middleton (17) student at Delaware State University who had been shot and critically injured by fellow student Loyer D. Braden (18) on the campus on September 21. The gunman had also shot and wounded another student, Nathanial Pugh (17), who later recovered from the attack. Middleton died of gunshot wounds in Washington, DC on October 23, 2007.

Gerald A. Renner (75) religion reporter and editor who helped to uncover a trail of sexual abuse accusations against the powerful founder of a Roman Catholic religious order, the Legionaries of Christ. While he was a reporter at the Hartford (Conn.) Courant, Renner and a free-lance writer, Jason Berry, wrote investigative articles for the newspaper about nine former Legionaries seminarians who said they had been sexually victimized over 20 years by Rev. Marcial Maciel Degollado, the order's founder. Renner died of abdominal cancer in Norwalk, Connecticut on October 24, 2007.

Khun Sa (74) one-time Myanmar drug warlord, variously described as among the world's most wanted men and as a great liberation fighter. At the height of his notoriety, Khun Sa presided over a veritable narcotics kingdom complete with satellite TV, schools, and surface-to-air missiles in the drug-producing Golden Triangle region where Myanmar, Thailand, and Laos meet. He had long suffered from diabetes, partial paralysis, and high blood pressure. He died in the Myanmar capital of Yangon on October 26, 2007.