Jeannette Eyerly (100) one of the first writers for young adults to deal with themes like unwanted pregnancy, alcoholism, and drugs. In books like Drop-Out, A Girl Like Me, and Escape from Nowhere, Eyerly moved beyond the world of dates and sock hops to focus on more serious problems confronting young girls. Besides facing the usual troubles with school and boyfriends, her heroines dealt with their parents' failing marriages, or with peer pressure to take drugs or shoplift. Eyerly died in Des Moines, Iowa on August 18, 2008.

Manny Farber (91) painter and film critic who targeted sacred cows like Orson Welles and lauded American genre-movie directors like Howard Hawks and Sam Fuller to legendary status. In the '70s Farber developed an idiosyncratic style of still life. Often depicted from a bird's-eye view, it incorporated pop objects like candy bars or suggested scenes from his favorite films. He died in Leucadia, California on August 18, 2008.

Dave Freeman (47) coauthor of 100 Things to Do Before You Die (1999), a travel guide and ode to odd adventures that inspired readers and imitators. An advertising agency executive, Freeman cowrote the book subtitled Travel Events You Just Can't Miss with Neil Teplica, based on the Web site whatsgoingon.com, which the pair ran together (1996-2001). Freeman died after hitting his head in a fall at his home in Venice, California on August 17, 2008.

John Russell (89) British-born art critic who contributed elegant, erudite criticism for more than 50 years to the Sunday Times of London and the New York Times, where he was chief art critic (1982-90), and helped to bring a generation of postwar British artists to international attention. Russell joined the New York Times in the mid-'70s after contributing occasional reviews from London. He died in the Bronx, New York on August 23, 2008.

Muriel Kallis Steinberg Newman (94) Chicago art collector whose donation of artworks by the likes of Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning, Robert Motherwell, and Alexander Calder greatly bolstered the standing of New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art as an exhibitor of modern art. Newman died in Chicago, Illinois on August 22, 2008.

Iosif Constantin Dragan (91) billionaire businessman who supported Romania's pro-Nazi movement before finding favor with Communist dictator Nicolae Ceausescu. Dragan was banned from Romania when Communists came to power in the '40s because of his support for the earlier Fascist regime. He moved to Italy and in 1948 founded petroleum products company Butan Gas. His wealth was estimated at US$1.6 billion (euro1.08 billion) in 2006, making him Romania's wealthiest man. After the end of communism in Romania in 1989, he founded a university and set up various newspapers there. He died in Palma de Mallorca, Spain on August 21, 2008.

Dr. Thomas H. Weller (93) tropical-medicine specialist whose tissue-culture research in 1949 made development of the Salk and Sabin polio vaccines possible and won him a share in the '54 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine. Weller died in his sleep in Needham, Massachusetts on August 23, 2008.

V. Orville Wright Jr. (87) president and chief executive of MCI Communications during its transformation from a start-up into the leading challenger of AT&T in the '70s and '80s. Wright, who had no familial link to the airplane pioneer, died of kidney failure in Chevy Chase, Maryland on August 21, 2008.

Thomas K. Hearn Jr. (71) former president of Wake Forest University (1983-2005). During Hearn's tenure, Wake Forest saw applications double, hired significantly more faculty, and hosted Presidential debates (1988, 2000). The college also launched an extensive construction and renovation program on campus. Hearn had brain cancer in 2003 but was eventually declared cancer-free. He died in Winston-Salem, North Carolina on August 18, 2008.

Laurence Urdang (81) lexicographer who had a hand in more than 100 dictionaries and other reference books. As managing editor of the first edition of the Random House Dictionary of the English Language (1966)—a nearly 10-pound, 2,091-page volume defining more than 260,0000 terms and the first dictionary organized using a computer—Urdang presided over a seven-year research and compilation project that, at a cost of $3 million, was, at the time, the largest undertaking in the history of Random House, a company founded in 1925. He died of congestive heart failure in Branford, Connecticut on August 21, 2008.

Julius J. Carry 3rd (56) actor who had a long career in films and on TV, including a scene-stealing turn as Sho'nuff, the bad guy who yearns to be the "Shogun of Harlem" in the cult action-comedy The Last Dragon (1985). His height—6 feet 5 inches—made Carry perfectly suited to play Sho'nuff. He died of pancreatic cancer in Studio City, California on August 19, 2008.

Maria ("Missy") Christina (40) porn actress known professionally as Missy, who began her career in the adult entertainment industry in 1994 and had appeared in over 350 X-rated amateur videos with her then-husband Mickey G. before she left the business in 2001 because of personal problems. Missy reportedly died of an apparent drug overdose in Valencia, California on August 18, 2008.

Fred Crane (90) former longtime Los Angeles classical music radio station announcer best known for his memorable role as one of the Tarleton twins with George Reeves in the classic movie Gone with the Wind (1939). Crane became a part-time announcer at LA classical radio station KFAC in 1946. He continued to act, mostly on TV, until the mid-'60s, when he began working full-time at KFAC. He had been hospitalized for a few weeks with diabetes-related complications but died of a pulmonary embolism in Los Angeles, California on August 21, 2008.

Marcus Egerton-Warburton (14) son of Great Britain's leading prominent banker Charles Egerton-Warburton and second cousin of Oscar-winning actress Helena Bonham Carter. Marcus's mother, Fiona Bonham Carter, is a cousin of the Hollywood star but had recently been estranged from his father. Marcus was one of four people killed in a safari minibus crash along with his grandmother Brenda Bonham Carter (74), his step-grandfather Francis Kirkwood (75), and his aunt Kay Bonham Carter (55), in Johannesburg, South Africa on August 20, 2008.

Jerry Finn (39) record producer who had helped to produce records for numerous American pop-punk bands such as Blink-182, AFI, Green Day, Sum 41, The Offsprings, Bad Religion, Sparta, and British singer Morrissey, among many others. Finn's best-known productions include Blink-182's Enema of the State and Morrissey's You Are the Quarry and the upcoming Years of Refusal. He had suffered a massive brain hemorrhage in July and was taken off life support in New York City on August 21, 2008.

Christi Marie Fisher (51) daughter-in-law of Oscar-nominated actress Debbie Reynolds and singer Eddie Fisher, and wife of their son, Todd Fisher. Christi Marie Fisher had worked as head of the art and costume department at the Hollywood Motion Picture Museum, founded by Reynolds. She died of cancer in Creston, California on August 17, 2008.

Steve Foley (49) drummer with The Replacements at the tail end of the alternative rock band's career. Foley was working as a car salesman in Minneapolis, Minnesota, where he died after accidentally overdosing on prescription medication, on August 23, 2008.

Buddy Harman (79) drummer whose beat can be heard on thousands of recordings by Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Patsy Cline, and Simon & Garfunkel, among others. Harman played on an estimated 18,000 recordings, many of them major hits, in a career of more than 50 years. He worked most sessions with the celebrated "A Team" of studio musicians who shaped the Nashville Sound of the '50s and '60s, performing on Cash's "Ring of Fire," Roger Miller's "King of the Road," and Tammy Wynette's "Stand by Your Man," along with scores of hits by Loretta Lynn, George Jones, Dolly Parton, Ray Price, and others. Harman died of congestive heart failure in Nashville, Tennessee on August 21, 2008.

Pervis Jackson (70) man behind the deep, rolling bass voice in a string of '70s rhythm-and-blues hits by The Spinners. Jackson was one of the original five members of the group that started out in the late '50s singing doo-wop in Detroit. They worked under the Motown label in the '60s but shot to stardom after moving on to Atlantic Records in the '70s. Jackson died of brain and liver cancer in Detroit, Michigan on August 18, 2008.

Damon Lanza (55) last surviving son of legendary operatic tenor and Hollywood movie star Mario Lanza (d. 1959). Damon Lanza had lived with his parents in Italy but returned to his native Los Angeles and was left orphaned along with three other siblings when his mother, Betty Hicks Lanza, committed suicide just five months after their father's death. His younger brother, Marc Lanza, died of a heart attack in 1991, and their elder sister, Colleen Lanza Davis, was killed in an automobile accident in '97. Damon Lanza died in Los Angeles, California on August 19, 2008.

Jeff MacKay (59) character actor best remembered for his familiar recurring role as Magnum's friend Mac on the long-running TV show Magnum PI. MacKay had also made regular guest appearances in many episodes of numerous TV series such as Black Sheep Squadron, JAG, Battlestar Galactica, Airwolf, The Greatest American Hero, and Tales of the Gold Monkey. He died of liver complications in Dallas, Texas on August 22, 2008.

LeRoi Moore (46) saxophonist with the Dave Matthews Band. Lead singer Matthews credited Moore with arranging many of his songs, which combine Cajun fiddle-playing and African-influenced rhythms. On June 30, Moore crashed his all-terrain vehicle on his farm outside Charlottesville, Va. but was discharged from the hospital and returned to his Los Angeles home to begin physical therapy. Complications forced him back into a hospital on July 17. He died in Los Angeles, California on August 19, 2008.

Doug Seabern (64) character actor and film director best known for his familiar roles in a handful of feature films, inlcuding The Patriot (1998), The Flying Dutchman (2001), Northfork (2003), and Love Comes to the Executioner (2006). Seabern also made regular guest appearances on the TV miniseries Return to Lonesome Dove and directed several made-for-TV movies and stage productions in recent years. He died in Los Angeles, California on August 23, 2008.

Leopoldo Serran (66) Brazilian screenwriter behind such '70s art-house hits as Dona Flor & Her Two Husbands (1976) and Bye Bye Brazil (1979). Serran died of liver cancer in Ipanema, Brazil on August 20, 2008.

Paul Starr (51) celebrity makeup artist who had worked with Angelina Jolie, Jennifer Garner, and Sophia Loren, among other Hollywood stars. Starr's client roster included old and new Hollywood, from Sophia Loren, Michelle Pfeiffer, and Jane Fonda to Scarlett Johansson, Cameron Diaz, and Jessica Alba. An autopsy was pending after Starr was found dead in his home; police forced their way in after friends and neighbors became concerned that they had not heard from him for several days, in the Echo Park area of Los Angeles, California on August 19, 2008.

Richard Stone (70) retired engineer and former uncle by marriage of Hollywood star Teri Hatcher, currently best known for her role as Susan Mayer on the TV series Desperate Housewives. Stone had pled guilty to four counts of child molestation and was sentenced to 14 years in prison after Hatcher revealed in a 2006 Vanity Fair interview that she was sexually abused as a child by her divorced uncle. She assisted prosecutors with their indictments for a more recent molestation that led Stone's latest female victim, Sarah van Cleemput (14), to commit suicide by shooting herself in 2002. Stone died of colon cancer at Chuckawalla Valley State Prison in Blythe, California on August 19, 2008.

Ralph Young (90) singer best known as the English-language half of the popular multilingual duo Sandler & Young. Young and his longtime performing partner, Belgian-born Tony Sandler, were popular from 1966, when they signed with Capitol Records and recorded a spate of hits, through the heyday of the TV variety programs, especially Ed Sullivan's; they were among the performers on the very last Ed Sullivan Show televised by CBS on June 6, 1971. The two had an active nightclub and recording career together until Young retired from the act in 1983. He died in Palm Springs, California on August 22, 2008.

Andre Young Jr. (20) son of Grammy-winning rap impresario and multiple platinum record producer Dr. Dre (born Andre Young Sr.). Andre Young Jr. became the subject of a paternity dispute in 1990 when his mother, Jenita Porter, filed a lawsuit against Dr. Dre in Orange County Superior Court seeking $5,000-a-month child support after she received only a small amount of cash, a few gifts, and diapers during their four-year relationship. The elder Young had admitted being the father of the child in a legal answer to the suit but promised to pay only $500 a month in support. Andre Jr. was found unresponsive by his mother at their home and died unexpectedly in Woodland Hills, California on August 23, 2008.

Leo Abse (91) retired British politician. Abse was best known for having taken a leading role in liberalizing Britain's laws on homosexuality and divorce. The Labour Party member served in Parliament (1958-87) and sponsored legislation in 1967 that decriminalized private homosexual acts between adult men in England and Wales. He also was active in having the Divorce Reform Act passed in 1969 to make irretrievable breakdown of a marriage the sole ground for divorce. He died in London, England on August 19, 2008.

Lt. Col. Howard Lee Baugh (88) one of the original Tuskegee Airmen. Baugh enlisted in the US Army in 1942 and joined the all-black fighter group that trained at the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama. He flew 135 combat missions as part of the 332nd Fighter Group's 99th Fighter Squadron in Sicily, Italy during World War II and was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross, the Air Medal with three Oak Leaf Clusters, the USAF Commendation Medal, and the Air Force Outstanding Unit Award. In 2004, he received the French Legion of Honor. He died in Richmond, Virginia on August 23, 2008.

John Brandl (70) former federal health official, Minnesota state legislator, and public policy expert. Brandl was dean of the Humphrey Institute (1997-2002). A Democrat known for bucking the prevailing orthodoxy, he served in the Minnesota House (1977-78, '81-86) and Senate (1987-90), representing parts of south Minneapolis. In the federal government, he also was deputy assistant secretary at HEW (1968-69) and in positions in the Office of the Secretary of Defense, the Office of Economic Opportunity, and the Economic Development Administration. He died of gastric cancer in Minnetrista, Minnesota on August 18, 2008.

Edward Freeman (80) former US Army helicopter pilot awarded the Medal of Honor for his heroics during the Vietnam War and portrayed by actor Mark McCracken in the Mel Gibson movie We Were Soldiers (2002). Freeman braved intense enemy fire in the Ia Drang Valley as he carried out rescue missions on Nov. 14, 1965, during what was considered one of the fiercest battles of the Vietnam War. He died of complications from Parkinson's disease in Boise, Idaho on August 20, 2008.

Hua Guofeng (87) successor to Communist founder Mao Zedong who briefly ruled China but was pushed aside before reforms launched an economic boom. Hua took power after Mao's death in 1976 but saw his powers erode until Deng Xiaoping took control in '78. Hua died in Beijing, China on August 20, 2008.

Maudie White Hopkins (93) one of the last surviving widows of a Civil War veteran. Hopkins married former Confederate soldier William M. Cantrell in 1934 when she was 19 and he was 86, in hopes of escaping poverty. Hopkins was supported by her husband on a pension of $25 every two or three months, but received no furthur pension benefits after his death in 1937. She was recently certified by various historical organizations, most notably the United Daughters of the Confederacy. She died in Helena, Arkansas on August 17, 2008.

Ryan Largay (23) stepson of former Connecticut Gov. John G. Rowland whose mother Patricia married Rowland in a private ceremony on Block Island 12 days after he won the 1994 election for governor. Largay was in the news in October 2003 as an 18-year-old, when he was arrested on charges of marijuana possession after police broke up a party at a friend's home. The charge was removed from his record after he completed a court-ordered community service program. He had been hospitalized for three days after he was found unresponsive and having trouble breathing, but died unexpectedly in Waterbury, Connecticut on August 22, 2008.

Levy Mwanawasa (59) president of Zambia. The soft-spoken lawyer was Zambia's third president since independence from Britain in 1964 and so was not bound by the liberation movement ties of older African leaders. Mwanawasa won praise for his anticorruption and economic modernization drive in one of the world's biggest copper producers but failed to lift the Zambian people out of crushing poverty. He was evacuated to a Paris hospital after he collapsed from a stroke on June 30 on the eve of an African Union summit in Egypt. He took a turn for the worse on Aug. 18 and died the next day, in Paris, France on August 19, 2008.

Yuri Nosenko (81) former Soviet agent at the center of some of the most dramatic espionage episodes of the cold war. As recently as July, the CIA thanked Nosenko for his service and, by implication, offered a final apology for the way he was treated after he defected to the US in the winter of 1964. Nosenko gave his American handlers vital information about Soviet agents who had penetrated American and European embassies and about microphones that Russians had planted in the American Embassy in Moscow. But James Angleton, the CIA's legendarily suspicious counterintelligence chief, thought Nosenko's defection was a trick. The former spy died under an assumed name, somewhere in the southern US, on August 23, 2008.

Gladys Powers (109) world's last remaining female World War I veteran. Powers died in Abbotsford, British Columbia, Canada on August 22, 2008.

Sherman Rose (88) flight instructor for the Tuskegee Airmen. Rose was among the first blacks to receive pilot training as part of the US government's Civilian Pilot Training Program, which led directly to the formation of the Tuskegee Airmen, an all-black unit trained at Moton Field in Tuskegee, Ala. that helped to break racial barriers while gaining fame escorting bombers in World War II. He died in Dothan, Alabama on August 20, 2008.

Stephanie Tubbs Jones (58) US congresswoman (D-Ohio), the first black woman elected to the House of Representatives from Ohio and a leader in the fight against predatory lending practices. Tubbs Jones was in her fifth term representing the 11th Congressional District, which includes most of the east side of Cleveland. She died one day after suffering a ruptured brain aneurysm, in East Cleveland, Ohio on August 20, 2008.

Wolfgang Vogel (82) lawyer in Communist East Germany who became wealthy during the Cold War by opening cracks in the Berlin Wall to swap captured spies and release political prisoners. For 30 years before the wall came down and Germany was reunified, Vogel pulled strings in Moscow as effectively as in Washington, useful to each side because he was trusted by the other. In 1962, his negotiations resulted in the exchange of convicted Soviet master spy Rudolf Abel, imprisoned in the US, for captured American U-2 spy plane pilot Francis Gary Powers at the Glienicke Bridge outside Berlin. Vogel died in Schliersee, a lakeside Bavarian Alps resort, on August 21, 2008.

John Challis (18) Pennsylvania teen who inspired professional baseball players with his battle against cancer. Challis made national headlines when he threw out the ceremonial first pitch at a Pittsburgh Pirates game against the New York Yankees in June. The 5-foot-5, 93-pound teenager was diagnosed at 16 with Stage 4 hepatocellular carcinoma, an adult form of liver cancer, in 2006 and later established the Courage of Life Foundation to help high school students fighting terminal illnesses. He died of cancer in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on August 19, 2008.

Ryan McDonald (15) student at Knoxville's Central High School, shot and fatally wounded by fellow sophomore Jamar Siler (15) during a violent confrontation in the school cafeteria. Police took the juvenile suspect into custody shortly after the attack, but initial reports said the two had been involved in previous altercations. McDonald died in Knoxville, Tennessee on August 21, 2008.

Habib Miyan (130 or 138) Indian man reported to be the self-proclaimed oldest person in the world. Miyan claimed to be 138 years old and spent many years making several contradictory assertions of his unoffical age. His extraordinary claims were based principally upon his pension documents issued in 1938 that identified a man named Rahim Khan, born on May 20, 1878, around the same time as pacifist leader Mahatma Gandhi and Soviet dictator Vladimir Lenin. But Miyan claimed, at different times, to have been born in 1872 and 1869. He died in Jaipur, India on August 19, 2008.

Deanne Smith Myers (64) Los Angeles County Superior Court judge. Myers was appointed in 1989 as a judge at the South Bay Municipal Court in Torrance, where she served for more than 15 years before moving to the Long Beach Courthouse in 2007. For much of her time in Torrance, she handled preliminary hearings and later moved on to probate and civil matters. She died of ovarian cancer in Palos Verdes Estates, California on August 20, 2008.

Warneta Overton (84) widow of the late Texas civil rights activist Rev. Volma Overton Sr. (d. 2005), responsible for the desegregation of Austin schools in the '70s. Warneta Overton died in Austin, Texas on August 20, 2008.

Adrian Sudbury (27) young British journalist who blogged about his fight with cancer and campaigned for more bone marrow donations. "Baldy's Blog" was Sudbury's life—and death—laid bare, documenting sad milestones such as leaving his own apartment and returning to his parents, the breakup of his longtime relationship, and his realization that his disease was terminal. Sudbury died in his sleep of leukemia, in London, England on August 20, 2008.

Holly Bugel (36) daughter of Washington Redskins offensive line coach Joe Bugel. Holly Bugel was diagnosed in December with a rare strain of osteosarcoma, a bone cancer; out of 1,000 cases diagnosed in 2007, only five were of that same strain. She died in Phoenix, Arizona on August 21, 2008.

Larry Hennessy (79) All-American basketball player at Villanova who played in the NBA. Hennessy scored 1,737 points (1950-53) at Villanova, which retired his No. 14 jersey. He averaged 23.2 points for the Wildcats and later played two seasons in the NBA. He was part of the Philadelphia Warriors 1955-56 championship team and later coached basketball at the high school and community college level. Hennessy died in Williamsburg, Virginia on August 20, 2008.

Genuine Risk (31) fabulous filly who dared to take on the boys in the 1980 Kentucky Derby and wound up in the winner's circle draped in a blanket of roses, one of just three fillies to win America's greatest horse race. Genuine Risk died at Newstead Farm in Upperville, Virginia on August 18, 2008.

Gene Upshaw (63) longtime head of the NFL Players' Association. Upshaw was a Hall of Fame guard for the Oakland Raiders, starting as a rookie and playing for 15 pro seasons with that team after being drafted in 1967. He took over as executive director of the players' union in June 1983, two years after retiring. In 1993 he helped to negotiate a seven-year deal that included free agency and a salary cap, and ever since then player salaries have shot up along with league revenues. He died only days after learning he had pancreatic cancer, in Lake Tahoe, California on August 20, 2008.

Elmer Willhoite (78) All-American guard on the University of Southern California's Rose Bowl championship team in 1952. Willhoite played a key role in sending the Trojans to the 1953 Rose Bowl when he returned an interception 77 yards to set up the deciding touchdown in a 14-12 win over UCLA late in the '52 regular season. He was drafted by the Cleveland Browns but spent two years playing in Canada before a knee injury ended his career. He died in Hawthorne, Nevada on August 21, 2008.