Chingiz Aitmatov (79) Kyrgyzstan author who introduced his mountainous Central Asian nation to the world through novels about ordinary lives under the Soviet regime. Aitmatov was an advocate of preserving the cultures and languages of non-Russians in the Soviet Union. He died of pneumonia in Nuremberg, Germany, where he had been hospitalized in May after falling ill, on June 10, 2008.

Eliot Asinof (88) writer best known for his journalistic re-creation of the 1919 "Black Sox" scandal, Eight Men Out (1963), a classic of both baseball literature and narrative nonfiction, and its 1988 film version of the same title. The book is a slightly fictionalized account of how eight members of the 1919 Chicago White Sox allowed their anger at team owner Charles Comiskey to corrupt their integrity, leading them to welcome gamblers who persuaded them to throw the World Series against the Cincinnati Reds. A seminal event in baseball history, it led to the appointment of the first baseball commissioner, Kenesaw Mountain Landis. Once married (1950-55) to actress Jocelyn Brando (d. 2005), sister of Marlon, Asinof died of pneumonia in Hudson, New York on June 10, 2008.

Ralph Bacerra (70) ceramic artist who created teapots and other vessels, adorned them with geometric shapes and rich colors, and helped to revive interest in decorative surfaces. Bacerra is pictured above with one of his many ceramic teapot designs. He died of lung cancer in Eagle Rock, California on June 10, 2008.

Allen ("Red") Gagnon (71) restaurateur whose informal coastal eatery Red's Eats was known far and wide. Gagnon bought a trailer-size shack in 1977 that became known for its lobster rolls. It has been featured in media including CNN, NBC, and National Geographic. Marked by a stack of lobster traps, an American flag, and a red and white awning, Red's Eats became so popular that lines often snaked around the walk-up shack and down Main Street. His family said Red's Eats would continue in the shack that's a landmark to thousands of people who pass through town along US Route 1 in Wiscasset, Maine. Gagnon died of respiratory failure in Lewiston, Maine on June 13, 2008.

Dr. J. Ward Kennedy (74) cardiologist who studied the heart's pumping power and helped to evaluate streptokinase, a clot-busting drug widely used to prevent heart attacks. At the University of Washington in the '60s, Kennedy began studying the left ventricle, the heart's main pumping chamber. He died of lung cancer in Seattle, Washington on June 8, 2008.

Donaldson C. Pillsbury (67) lawyer who guided Sotheby's, the auction house, through a welter of legal problems and helped to restore its reputation after a price-fixing scandal. Pillsbury was a great-great-grandson of the founder of the Pillsbury Co. He died of a heart attack after returning from a bike ride, in Old Lyme, Connecticut on June 11, 2008.

Gunther Stent (84) one of the original thinkers in the field of molecular biology, whose research validated the breakthrough discovery of the structure of DNA. Stent died of pneumonia in Haverford, Pennsylvania on June 12, 2008.

Patricia L. Tobin (65) Los Angeles queen of public relations, master of the fine art of networking, and guru of event planning, particularly among the city's blacks. Tobin brought people together: entertainers with their audiences, sellers with buyers, communities in need with those who had cash. She died of cancer in Los Angeles, California on June 10, 2008.

Dennis Weatherstone (77) former chairman and chief executive at J. P. Morgan who helped to usher in a new era of banking during the early '90s. Weatherstone laid the groundwork for transforming Morgan into a diversified global bank. He died of cancer in Darien, Connecticut on June 13, 2008.

Lilialyce Akers (??) leader in the women's rights movement who traveled the world in her activism and mentored women at home in Kentucky. Akers, whose age was a closely guarded secret, was an associate professor emerita of sociology at the University of Louisville, where she taught and headed the women's studies department for years before retiring in 2005. She presented seminars at the United Nations women's conferences in Nairobi, Kenya in 1985 and Beijing in '95 and attended the historic '77 National Women's Conference in Houston. She died after suffering a stroke, in Louisville, Kentucky on June 10, 2008.

Edwina Froehlich (93) mother of Illinois state Rep. Paul Froehlich who was inspired to help found La Leche League, now an international organization, to support breast-feeding after being told at age 35 that she was too old to make breast milk for her baby. In 1950, most pediatricians encouraged formula and bottle-feeding and there were few scientific studies demonstrating the health benefits of breast milk. Edwina Froehlich died two weeks after suffering a stroke, in Arlington Heights, Illinois on June 8, 2008.

Marilyn Edwards Zumberge (83) widow of former University of Southern California president (1980-90) James H. Zumberge (d. 1992). USC's Science Hall was rededicated as Zumberge Hall in honor of James & Marilyn Zumberge in 2003, and a scholarship fund in their names was established in 1985. Marilyn Zumberge died of cancer in Pasadena, California on June 8, 2008.

Raul Alarcon Jr. (82) Cuban exile who built a Spanish-language communications and entertainment empire in the US. A communications pioneer in Cuba, Alarcon founded his first radio station on the island in the early '50s. When he came to the US in 1960, he left behind a network of 14 stations seized by Fidel Castro's government. His Spanish Broadcasting Systems is the largest publicly traded Hispanic-controlled media and entertainment company in the US. Alarcon died in Miami, Florida on June 11, 2008.

Leon Rhodes Austin (74) musician and associate of the late James Brown (d. 2006) who styled the singer's famous hair off and on before stage and media appearances for 20 years. A professional stylist, Austin also owned Leon's DeSoto Club in Augusta, where Brown, his friend since third grade, sometimes played. Austin also performed with Leon Austin & the Buicks in the '60s and was part of the James Brown Enterprises musical staff. He died in Augusta, Georgia on June 12, 2008.

Danny Davis (83) Grammy-winning bandleader and record producer who blended swing music with a country style. A trumpet player and singer, Davis formed the Nashville Brass in 1968 after a career with big bands and as a record producer. The group, with 7-11 members, won a Grammy in 1969 for best country instrumental performance for The Nashville Brass Featuring Danny Davis: Play More Nashville Sounds. Davis died of a heart attack in Nashville, Tennessee on June 12, 2008.

Jean Desailly (87) French actor who worked in film and theater. Desailly appeared in films including Maigret tend un piege (Maigret Lays a Trap) and La Mort de Belle (The End of Belle) and starred in Francois Truffaut's La Peau Douce (The Soft Skin). He also acted in dozens of plays and ran the Theatre Hebertot in the '70s before moving on to the bigger Theatre de la Madeleine. He died in Paris, France on June 11, 2008.

José Bispo Clementin dos Santos (95) celebrated samba singer, a pillar of Rio's most traditional samba school. Jamelao was lead singer for countless Mangueira Carnival parades from the '50s onward and recorded more than 20 albums. He died in a hospital three days after being admitted, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on June 14, 2008.

Dr. Franc Fallico (66) chief medical examiner who performed the autopsy on bear activist Timothy Treadwell after he was mauled to death by a grizzly bear, along with his girlfriend Amie Huguenard, at their campsite in Alaska's Katmai National Park during a film encounter in 2003. Fallico's performance in German director Werner Herzog's documentary Grizzly Man (2005), about the case, was praised by movie critics. He died of cancer in Anchorage, Alaska on June 14, 2008.

Prince Kupi (36) one of South Africa's finest jazz guitarists whose debut album, Loxion (2002), won him the Standard Bank Young Artist Award at the 2003 South African Music Awards as the country's best newcomer and talented musician alongside top artists Hugh Masekela and Judith Sephuma. Kupi was killed in a car accident that also took the life of his wife, stage actress Zandile Ngcobo (32), near Johannesburg, South Africa on June 8, 2008.

Mickey McMahan (77) trumpet player with big-band leaders Lawrence Welk, Les Brown, and others. McMahan played trumpet on The Lawrence Welk Show (1967-82). He also played with Les Brown's Band of Renown on The Steve Allen Show in the '50s and '60s and toured with the band when it accompanied comedian Bob Hope on USO tours entertaining the military overseas. He died of neuropathy and an unrelated blood disease in Van Nuys, California on June 11, 2008.

Traci Michaelz (34) drummer for the long-running Hollywood, California-based glam-metal band Peppermint Creeps whose first full-length album, Animatron X (2003), launched the group's first tour throughout the US that extended far beyond their original performances in Hollywood clubs. Michaelz died unexpectedly after performing a concert in Forth Worth, Texas on June 13, 2008.

Sadia Morrison (26) fashion stylist and publicist, among those arrested in connection with a fight involving former Tennessee Titans standout player Adam Pacman Jones that broke out when a shooting occurred outside Las Vegas's Minxx strip club in February 2007. Morrison was accused of fighting with strippers inside the club and of striking a security guard with a champagne bottle and later pleaded no contest to a felony battery charge for her role in the brawl. She was found dead outside a New York building; police said she had been thrown from the rooftop in The Bronx, New York on June 13, 2008.

Diane Muise (59) singer with the award-winning Southern gospel group The Majestic Singers who had recorded seven albums in Nashville and toured extensively across the US and Canada, performing 150-200 concerts per year on national TV and radio. Muise had recently performed her last concert at the Court Street Baptist Church in Auburn, Maine. She died four days after a heart bypass operation in Lewiston, Maine on June 9, 2008.

Vihang Nayak (58) Indian film and TV actor, a familiar father-figure in millions of Marathi households through his popular and memorable roles on the ongoing TV serial Awaghachi Sansar. Nayak was also actively involved in Mumbai's English theater productions, including his major role in Indian playwright Bharat Dabholkar's upcoming "Hinglish" play Ugly aur Pagli. He was killed in a car accident outside Pune, India on June 9, 2008.

Tim Russert (58) host of NBC's Meet the Press since 1991 and its Washington bureau chief. Russert made a TV career of his passion for politics with unrelenting questioning of the powerful and influential on the Sunday talk show, which he turned into the most widely watched program of its type in the country. This year, Time magazine named him one of the 100 most influential people in the world. He died suddenly and unexpectedly of a heart attack in Washington, DC on June 13, 2008.

Tony Schwartz (84) self-taught, sought-after, and reclusive media consultant who helped to create what is considered the most famous political ad to appear on TV: the so-called "daisy ad," made for Lyndon B. Johnson's Presidential campaign in 1964 and credited with starting negative political advertising in the US. Schwartz died in New York City on June 14, 2008.

Esbjorn Svensson (44) Swedish jazz pianist. Svensson and his band, the Esbjorn Svensson Trio, became world-renowned with their 2002 album Strange Place for Snow. The trio won a string of jazz awards, including the Guinness Jazz in Europe Award and best international act in the BBC Jazz Awards. In 2005, it became the first European jazz band featured on the cover of Downbeat jazz magazine in the US. Svensson was killed in a diving accident outside Sweden's capital, Stockholm, on June 14, 2008.

Ward Boston (84) former US Navy attorney who helped to investigate the 1967 Israeli attack on the USS Liberty that killed 34 crewmen. Years later Boston said President Lyndon B. Johnson ordered that the assault be ruled an accident even though the ship clearly displayed American flags and had markings in English instead of Arabic. Boston died of pneumonia in San Diego, California on June 12, 2008.

Gene Damschroder (86) retired World War II pilot and former lawmaker who served in the Ohio state Legislature (1973-83) as a Republican, whose son, Rex Damschroder, later occupied the same seat in the state House (1995-2003). An exerienced pilot, Gene Damschroder was one of six people killed in a charter plane crash in Fremont, Ohio on June 8, 2008.

Grey Ferris (62) two-term Mississippi state senator who devoted his energy to improving the state's public schools and strengthening race relations. A Democrat, Ferris served in the Mississippi Senate (1992-2000). He ran for lieutenant governor in 1999, losing in the Democrat primary. As chairman of the state Senate Education Committee, he worked to reform education in rural and underfunded areas of the state. He died of cancer in Vicksburg, Mississippi on June 13, 2008.

Jake Flake (72) longtime state lawmaker and reminder of the days when cowboys used to dominate the Arizona Legislature. Flake served in the state House (1997-2004), was speaker (2003-04), and was elected to the state Senate in 2005. He represented Arizona's largest district, a swath in the central-eastern part of the state. The Republican senator had been recovering from eight cracked ribs he suffered May 24 after being bucked from his horse while riding on his ranch. He had seemed to be doing well until he died, near Snowflake, Arizona on June 8, 2008.

Sara Gear Boyd (67) former Republican leader in both houses of the Vermont Legislature (1985-92), where she became the first woman in the country to serve as majority leader in both houses of a state legislature, and later secretary of the Republican National Committee. Gear Boyd died of cancer in Montpelier, Vermont on June 10, 2008.

Vo Van Kiet (85) former Vietnamese prime minister (1991-97), an economic reformer who led the Communist nation away from poverty and isolation and backed normalization of ties with the US. Kiet died four days after suffering a stroke, in Singapore on June 11, 2008.

Vice Adm. Jerome H. King Jr. (88) retired US naval officer who as commander of naval forces in Vietnam carried out a plan to end US involvement in the Vietnam War and hand the fight over to the South Vietnamese. King died from complications of pneumonia and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease in Pasadena, California on June 13, 2008.

Alton Knappenberger (84) Pennsylvania farm laborer awarded the Medal of Honor after using his exceptional marksmanship to hold off two German infantry companies near Rome during World War II. Knappenberger single-handedly disrupted a German attack on Feb. 1, 1944 near Cisterna di Littoria, a market town about 30 miles from enemy-held Rome. Armed with a Browning Automatic Rifle, he was credited with killing 60 German soldiers over a two-hour span that day. He had survived five heart attacks over the last 30 years but died in Pottstown, Pennsylvania on June 9, 2008.

Anne C. Martindell (93) late-blooming socialite who, liberated from a sheltered upper-class life by the turbulent 1960s, entered politics in her 50s, found true love as ambassador to New Zealand in her 60s, earned a college degree in her 80s, and published a memoir entitled Never Too Late in her 90s. Martindell died in Princeton, New Jersey on June 11, 2008.

Elly Peterson (94) pioneering former chairwoman of the Michigan Republican Party who devoted herself to passing the Equal Rights Amendment. Peterson was the first woman to head a major political party in Michigan, serving as state Republican chairwoman (1965-69). She was also the first Michigan woman to be nominated for the US Senate, the first to address a National Republican Convention, the first to twice cochair the Republican National Committee, and the first to serve as deputy campaign chairman for a Presidential candidate. She was a national cochairwoman of ERAmerica, a private national campaign organization, during the fight to get the Equal Rights Amendment ratified. She died in Grand Junction, Colorado on June 9, 2008.

Edith Derby Williams (90) political campaigner and granddaughter of former US President Theodore Roosevelt whose mother, Ethel Carow Roosevelt, was T. R.'s youngest daughter. Williams was a trustee of the Theodore Roosevelt Association before she won national attention when she delivered a seconding Presidential nomination speech for Richard Nixon at the 1960 Republican National Convention and later became cochairwoman of the Washington State Rockefeller for President Committee. She died on Vashon Island, Washington on June 8, 2008.

Karl Eugene Chamberlain (37) Texas killer convicted in the 1991 rape and capital murder of Felecia Prechtl (30), shot to death in the head at her Dallas apartment during an attempted robbery. Chamberlain became the first inmate put to death this year in the nation's most active capital punishment state since the US Supreme Court lifted an unofficial nine-month moratorium on the death penalty in April after rejecting a legal challenge to the three-drug cocktail used in most executions for the past 30 years. He was executed by lethal injection in Huntsville, Texas on June 11, 2008.

Hermina Dunz (110) Austria’s oldest known woman. Dunz lived independently for most of her life and didn’t move to a retirement home until she turned 101. She was born in Zagreb, Croatia and settled in Austria, where she died in the southern city of Graz, on June 14, 2008.

Petal the Elephant (52) oldest African elephant in an American zoo. Petal, who usually slept standing up, was found lying in her stall by Philadelphia Zoo staff. Veterinarians were called immediately, but Petal died about two hours later. A video monitoring system showed that her right rear leg buckled suddenly, causing her to collapse. Petal had lived most of her life at the Philadelphia Zoo and had been in excellent health, showing no recent signs of illness or decline. She died in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on June 9, 2008.

Samuel L. Evans (105) leader of Philadelphia's political, civil rights, and entertainment spheres for about 70 years. Evans founded antiviolence and youth mentoring programs, brought world-class musicians to the Academy of Music, and organized Philadelphia's 43,000-member contingent to Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s historic march on Washington. He died in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on June 13, 2008.

William ("Al") Grant (66) father of convicted murderer Stephen Grant, serving a 50- to 80-year prison sentence for the strangulation and dismemberment of his wife, Tara (34), at their Washington Township home in December 2007. The case drew national attention, but the elder Grant was rarely at his son's trial. He committed suicide with a self-inflected gunshot wound to the head at his home and later died at a hospital in Capac, Michigan on June 13, 2008.

Sarah Gustafson (56) registered nurse and registry advocate who, along with her second husband, Richard Gustafson, led an effort in Madison, Wisconsin to create a registry of violent offenders called Leah's Law after the brutal murder of her stepdaughter, Leah Gustafson (29), found choked, bludgeoned, and stabbed to death outside her Superior apartment on Jan. 7, 2006. The Gustafsons pushed for the bill in the 2007 State Assembly. It was approved this year by the Assembly's Committee on Criminal Justice but did not make it to the floor of the full Assembly before adjournment of the 2008 session. Sarah Gustafson died of breast cancer in Duluth, Wisconsin on June 12, 2008.

Stewart R. Mott (70) General Motors heir and self-described "avant-garde philanthropist" whose gifts to progressive and sometimes offbeat causes were often upstaged by his eccentricities, like cultivating a farm with 460 plant species (including 17 types of radishes), a chicken coop, and a compost pile atop his Manhattan penthouse. Mott used his family's fortune to underwrite progressive social causes and liberal political campaigns. He died of cancer in Mount Kisco, New York on June 12, 2008.

Boy Scouts killed by a tornado while camping at Iowa's Little Sioux Scout Ranch. From left to right: Aaron Eilerts (14) of Eagle Grove, Iowa and Josh Fennen (13), Ben Petrzilka (14), and Sam Thomsen (13), all of Omaha, Nebraska. All four were found buried under rubble near a collapsed stone chimney in the multipurpose building where scouts gathered to socialize, in rural Iowa on June 11, 2008.

Robert Stamps (58) one of nine former Kent State University students wounded in the Ohio National Guard shootings that killed four other students in 1970. An observer sympathetic to antiwar demonstrators, Stamps was shot in the lower back on May 4, 1970 while fleeing tear gas and gunfire during a protest against the US invasion of Cambodia. He died of complications from pneumonia and Lyme disease in Tallahassee, Florida on June 11, 2008.

Shep Wilson Jr. (50) Alabama death row inmate who waited for nearly 18 years without getting a new trial for the 1986 rape and slaying of store clerk Monica Cook (19), even though a frustrated judge vowed there would be no more delays in the stalled retrial. Wilson's case history included at least a dozen trial dates that came and went because of delays caused by hundreds of legal requests, scheduling conflicts, mental evaluations, three different prosecutors, and two judges. His defense team believed he'd probably be convicted again of capital murder. Wilson died of liver failure in his prison cell in Talladega, Alabama on June 12, 2008.

Ove Andersson (70) Swedish former rally driver and first head of the Toyota Formula One team in 2002. During his rally career in the '70s, Andersson won the Monte Carlo Rally, Rally Sanremo, Osterreichische Alpenfahrt, Acropolis Rally, and Safary Rally and gained seven podium places in the World Rally Championships. He was competing in the Milligan Vintage Trial rally, for classic pre-1960 cars, when he crashed head-on with a taxi as he turned a corner, outside Oudtshoorn, South Africa in the Western Cape on June 11, 2008.

Karen Asrian (28) Armenian chess grandmaster, the ex-Soviet nation's reigning champion who helped it to win the 2006 Chess Olympiad. Asrian was ranked 92nd by the World Chess Federation, or FIDE. Apparently feeling ill, he pulled his car into a courtyard and lost consciousness. An ambulance crew pronounced him dead at the scene, possibly from a heart attack, in the capital, Yerevan, Armenia on June 9, 2008.

Brian Budd (56) former Canadian national soccer player who played with four teams in the now-defunct North American Soccer League. During the '70s, Budd played with Vancouver, Colorado, Toronto, and Houston in the NASL and with Ayr United reserves in Scotland. He was a four-time champion in the "Canadian Superstars" competition and a three-time champion in the "World Superstars" event (1978-80). He died in Toronto, Canada on June 11, 2008.

Mitch Frerotte (43) offensive lineman who played in three Super Bowls for the Buffalo Bills. Frerotte played for four years, including the Bills' Super Bowl seasons (1990-92), mostly as a reserve and on special teams. He sustained a career-ending neck injury after joining the Seattle Seahawks for training camp in 1993. He died of a heart attack in Kittanning, Pennsylvania on June 11, 2008.

Charlie Jones (77) deep-voiced sportscaster whose career as a play-by-play announcer dated to the beginning of the American Football League in 1960. Jones worked for ABC and NBC, where he announced 28 different sports, in a career spanning 38 years. He died of a heart attack in La Jolla, California on June 12, 2008.

Tyrone Jones (46) linebacker who helped the Winnipeg Blue Bombers to capture two Grey Cup titles during his eight-year tenure with the Canadian Football League club. Jones was a four-time CFL All-Star and still held the Winnipeg career sack record with 98. He was the 1984 Grey Cup Most Valuable Player and in '85 was named the CFL's top defensive player. He was diagnosed with brain cancer in August 2005 and died in his native Folkston, Georgia on June 10, 2008.

Mel Krause (80) former University of Oregon baseball coach (1970-81). instrumental in bringing the baseball program back to Oregon after an absence of 26 years. Krause's teams went 218-220-1 and won two conference Northern Division championships. He also worked as a scout for the San Francisco Giants, Philadelphia Phillies, and Los Angeles Dodgers. He died of acute myeloid leukemia in Eugene, Oregon on June 13, 2008.

Adam Ledwon (34) soccer player on Poland's international team. Ledwon, who played 18 matches for Poland (1993-98), was working as a commentator for Polsat TV at the European Championship. He played for GKS Katowice in Poland and Bayer Leverkusen and Fortuna Koeln in Germany in the '90s and moved to Austria in 2000, where he was with Austria Vienna, Admira Vienna, and Sturm Graz before joining Austria Kaernten in '07. He was found hanged at his home in southern Austria on June 11, 2008. Friends said he had threatened to commit suicide after his wife left him.

John Rauch (80) former Georgia quarterback who coached the Oakland Raiders to a berth in the second Super Bowl. Rauch was 33-8-1 in three seasons as the Raiders' coach (1966-68). He died in his sleep, possibly because of a heart problem, in Oldsmar, Florida on June 10, 2008.