Life In Legacy - Week of November 1, 2008

Art and Literature

Tony Hillerman (83) author of the acclaimed Navajo Tribal Police mystery novels and creator of two of the unlikeliest literary heroes—Navajo police officers Joe Leaphorn and Jim Chee. Hillerman wrote 18 books in the Navajo series, the most recent entitled The Shape Shifter. He survived two heart attacks and surgeries for prostate and bladder cancer but died of pulmonary failure, in Albuquerque, New Mexico on October 26, 2008.

Es'kia Mphahlele (88) South African writer. Mphahlele was best known for Down Second Avenue (1959), an autobiography that describes his early years in rural South Africa and later in a bustling Pretoria black township. The book ends with the politically active writer's exile from apartheid South Africa in 1957. Mphahlele returned to South Africa in the '70s. With the end of apartheid he became an advocate of nurturing the arts in a culture damaged by colonization and oppression. He died in Lebowakgomo, in northern South Africa, on October 27, 2008.

Louis ("Studs") Terkel (96) master of listening and speaking, a broadcaster, activist, and Pulitzer Prize-winning author whose interviews with ordinary Americans helped to establish oral history as a serious genre. Terkel's best-selling oral histories celebrated the common people he liked to call the "noncelebrated." He roamed the country engaging a cross-section of Americans in tape-recorded chats—about their dreams, fears, chewing gum, racism, courage, dirty floors, and the Beatles, among other things, then transcribed and edited the interviews and compiled them into books, among them Division Street, Hard Times, Working, and The Good War, which won the 1984 Pulitzer Prize for general nonfiction. He was also a local radio personality, hosting a daily music and interview show on Chicago's WFMT for 45 years. He died in Chicago, Illinois on October 31, 2008.

William Wharton (82) successful impressionist painter (under his real name, Albert du Aime) who at age 53 published his first novel, Birdy (1979), which won a National Book Award, became a critically acclaimed movie, and led to a dozen more books. Wharton died of an infection he contracted while hospitalized for blood-pressure problems, in Encinitas, California on October 29, 2008.

Business and Science

Robert H. Foote (86) Cornell University animal scientist known for his pioneering work on in vitro fertilization and cloning. Foote's work later was used as a model for animal and human in vitro fertilization techniques and was credited as one of the first steps in the scientific advances toward animal cloning. He died of lung failure in Ithaca, New York on October 27, 2008.

Philip M. Neal (68) retired chairman and chief executive of Avery Dennison Corp. instrumental in driving the strategic focus of the Pasadena firm, a global leader in office products such as specialty tapes, peel-and-stick postage stamps, and labels for automotive, industrial, and durable goods applications. Neal died of heart failure in Manhattan Beach, California on October 29, 2008.

Jacques Piccard (86) Belgian-born scientist and underwater explorer who plunged deeper beneath the ocean than any other man. Piccard helped his father, physicist Auguste Piccard, to invent the bathyscaphe, a vessel that allows people to descend to great depths. On Jan. 23, 1960, Jacques Piccard and Lt. Don Walsh of the US Navy took the vessel, named the Trieste, into the Mariana Trench in the Pacific to a depth of 35,800 feet, nearly seven miles below sea level; it remains the deepest human dive ever. Piccard died at Lake Geneva, Switzerland on November 1, 2008.

George Rush (70) restaurateur who founded the Rush's restaurant chain. Rush worked in his family's restaurant from an early age, but soon after college he changed the name to Rush's Chicken and eventually expanded the small ice cream and sandwich shop into a local fast-food chain with eight locations around Columbia, South Carolina. An independent nationwide evaluation of restaurant chains rates Rush's one of the top five fast-food restaurants in the nation. Rush died in Columbia, South Carolina on October 29, 2008.

Betty Wagner Spandikow (85) advocate of breast-feeding whose book on the subject has sold more than 2 million copies. Spandikow was one of seven suburban Chicago women who founded La Leche League International in 1956, naming it for the Spanish word for milk so meeting notices could be printed in newspapers without offense. She suffered a stroke in 2006 and died in Glen Ellyn, Illinois on October 26, 2008.

Anthony ("Tony") Tarracino (92) former mayor (1989-91) of Key West and legendary bar owner of Captain Tony's Saloon whose colorful life was memorialized in a Jimmy Buffett song. Tarracino was a charter boat captain fond of telling stories about the mercenaries of the failed Bay of Pigs invasion. A longtime friend, Buffett sang about Tarracino's exploits in the song "Last Mango in Paris," from his 1985 album of the same title. Tarracino died after being hospitalized for a week with a heart and lung condition, in Key West, Florida on November 1, 2008.

Education

Thomas Dunn (82) classical conductor whose work reflected the early music revival that took place in the mid-20th century and afterward. A specialist in Baroque music, Dunn taught (1990–99) at the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University and before that at Boston University and the Peabody Institute at Johns Hopkins. He had suffered from Parkinson’s disease for several years but died of heart failure in Bloomington, Indiana on October 26, 2008.

News and Entertainment

Buck Adams (52) pornographic actor and director who appeared in over 270 big-budget porn movies and directed 62 titles during his career in the adult entertainment industry in the early '80s. Adams was also the elder brother of former porn superstar Amber Lynn. He died of heart failure in Northridge, California on October 28, 2008.

Gerald Arpino (85) cofounder of the Joffrey Ballet who oversaw its move from New York to Chicago in 1995. Arpino was a dancer and choreographer when he established the troupe in 1956 with its namesake, the late Robert Joffrey (d. 1988). Arpino choreographed more than one-third of the repertoire of the company, known for commissioning groundbreaking young choreographers, performing socially relevant pieces, and reconstructing "lost" ballets of the early 20th century. He died in Chicago, Illinois on October 29, 2008.

Edith Evans Asbury (98) award-winning reporter for the New York Times (1952-81) who routinely covered hard news in an era when most of her female colleagues were writing about society luncheons. In a career that began in 1929 and lasted more than 50 years, Asbury interviewed some of the leading newsmakers of the 20th century, among them pilot Amelia Earhart, birth-control pioneer Margaret Sanger, and painter Georgia O'Keeffe. Asbury died in Greenwich Village, New York City on October 30, 2008.

Dean Barnett (41) conservative columnist and blogger best known as the occasional fill-in host for radio personality Hugh Hewitt. In 2004, Barnett created a weblog called SoxBlog that focused on conservative politics, social issues, golf, and the Boston Red Sox. His popularity led to a coblogging role on Hewitt's web site and eventually to writing several columns for the Weekly Standard and the New York Times about his support for former Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney. Barnett died of cystic fibrosis in Boston, Massachusetts on October 27, 2008.

Jimmy Carl Black (70) musician who went from drummer in Frank Zappa’s avant-garde Mothers of Invention rock band to doughnut shop worker and house painter. Of Cheyenne ancestry, Black was best known for his appearance on the cover of the Mothers of Invention’s 1968 album, We’re Only in It for the Money, and for his signature line on its first song, "Are You Hung Up?" He died of cancer in Siegsdorf, Germany on November 1, 2008.

Dina Cocea (95) "queen of Romanian theater" who performed over 100 roles in a career spanning more than 50 years. Besides the theater, Cocea starred in a dozen films. She died of a heart attack in Bucharest, Romania on October 28, 2008.

John Daly (71) British-born producer of 13 Oscar-winning movies including Platoon and The Last Emperor who helped to launch the careers of many A-list directors and actors. Daly was chairman of Film & Music Entertainment Inc. Over a career that spanned 40 years, he helped to produce films that won 13 Oscars for Best Picture, earned 21 Oscar nominations, and won numerous Golden Globes and other awards. He died of cancer in Los Angeles, California on October 31, 2008.

David de Caires (70) founder and editor of Guyana's leading independent newspaper. The South American country had only state-controlled media when DeCaires helped to create the Stabroek News in 1986 with a $110,000 grant from the US National Endowment for Democracy. He feuded with Guyana's government in 2007 over the withdrawal of state advertisements. President Bharrat Jagdeo's administration said it was getting a better value from other publications, but critics said the government was punishing the Stabroek News for endorsing an opposition party in the 2006 elections. DeCaires died in Barbados, where he had gone for a medical evaluation after a heart attack in August, on November 1, 2008.

Ray Ellis (85) versatile big band musician and pop music arranger who in the mid-'50s wrote the charts for hits by the Four Lads, Bobby Darin, Connie Francis, Doris Day, and Johnny Mathis. Ellis died of liver cancer in Encino, California on October 27, 2008.

Margaretta Bisson Groark (67) retired real estate manager and adventurer who ran with a 40-pound backpack all the way up the Eiffel Tower to the observation deck during the first season of reality TV's hit The Amazing Race series in 2001. A licensed pilot in both the US and Australia, Groark once flew a classic AT-6 Texan trainer in an air show along with her husband, retired fighter pilot David Groark. In recent years she volunteered as a court-appointed special advocate representing foster children. She died of cancer and pulmonary fibrosis in Rockwall, Texas on October 26, 2008.

Nathaniel Mayer (64) Detroit soul singer who enjoyed a minor hit single in 1962 with "Village of Love" but largely abandoned the recording business until 2004, when he made the album I Just Want to Be Held for Fat Possum Records, the boutique Mississippi label famed for its raw sound and salty bluesmen. Mayer released a follow-up in August 2005, Why Don't You Give It to Me?, helped by a crew of young punk and soul revivalists, including Black Keys guitarist Dan Auerbach. Mayer suffered a stroke in April and died in Detroit, Michigan on November 1, 2008.

Mae Mercer (76) North Carolina-born blues singer who spent much of the '60s performing at a blues bar in Paris and touring Europe before launching an acting career back home in films and TV. Mercer had roles in the Don Siegel-directed Clint Eastwood movies The Beguiled and Dirty Harry (both 1971). She also appeared in the movie Pretty Baby and the TV-movie A Woman Called Moses (both 1978) and made guest appearances on TV shows such as Kung Fu, Mannix, ER, and The Shield. She suffered two ministrokes in 2007 and was found dead at her home in Northridge, California on October 29, 2008.

Rosetta Reitz (84) ardent feminist who scavenged through the early history of jazz and blues to resurrect the music of long-forgotten women musicians and singers and created a record label, Rosetta Records, dedicated to them. Reitz died of cardiopulmonary problems in New York City on November 1, 2008.

Tiffany Sloan (35) former model and actress who was named Playboy Magazine's Playmate of the Month in October 1992 but continued on with her modeling and acting career, including her guest appearances on the hit TV show Married with Children. Sloan recently became a featured exotic dancer at Club Paradise, a popular Las Vegas gentlemen's club. She died of unspecified causes in Las Vegas, Nevada on November 1, 2008.

Shakir Stewart (33) former executive vice president who succeeded Jay-Z as head of the legendary hip hop music label Def Jam Recordings, founded in the mid-'80s. Stewart signed such artists as Rick Ross and Young Jeezy to the label before being named last June to the post, in which he oversaw the development of new talent, managed producers, and guided the label's vision. He died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound in Marietta, Georgia, an Atlanta suburb, on November 1, 2008.

Yma Sumac (86) Peruvian-born soprano who wowed international audiences in the '50s with her stunning vocal range and modern take on South American folk music. Sumac died of colon cancer in Los Angeles, California on November 1, 2008.

Delmar Watson (82) member of a family of child actors who together appeared in more than 1,000 films in the early days of Hollywood. Watson grew up to be a news photographer who in his later years oversaw a private archive of news photographs and related memorabilia. His movie career started six months after he was born in 1926 at his family home near Mack Sennett Studios in the Edendale district of Los Angeles, an early movie mecca. The home of the nine Watson children—six brothers and three sisters—was a ready-made casting office. Delmar Watson's 300 film appearances included juvenile roles in Heidi (1937) and Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939). He died of prostate cancer in Glendale, California on October 26, 2008.

Politics and Military

Dr. Josef Alliluyev (63) Russian cardiologist and grandson of the late Soviet dictator Josef Stalin. Alliluyev was the elder son of Stalin's daughter Svetlana Alliluyeva and was said to have been the only one of Stalin's grandchildren to have known his famous grandfather as an 8-year-old when Stalin died in 1953. Alliluyev died in Moscow, Russia on November 1, 2008.

Frederick Baron (61) Democrat fund-raiser and wealthy Texas trial lawyer who built a fortune representing plaintiffs in asbestos-exposure lawsuits. In August, Baron made headlines when he acknowledged sending money to Rielle Hunter, former mistress of two-time Democrat Presidential candidate John Edwards. Baron died of multiple myeloma, or bone marrow cancer, just two weeks after he obtained Tysabri, an experimental cancer-fighting drug, in Dallas, Texas on October 30, 2008.

Gen. Robert H. Barrow (86) commandant of the US Marine Corps (1979-83). Barrow was a veteran of World War II and the Korean and Vietnam wars. His many personal decorations include the Bronze Star with Combat V, Silver Star, Navy Cross, Army Distinguished Service Cross, Defense Distinguished Service Medal with Oak Leaf Cluster, Navy Distinguished Service Medal, and three Legions of Merit. He died in his sleep in St. Francisville, Louisiana on October 30, 2008.

Delfino Borroni (110) last surviving World War I veteran in Italy. Borroni joined the Italian army in January 1917 and fought on the Italian-Austrian front in the light infantry Bersaglieri corps, but returned home for Christmas '18. In 1921 he became a trolley driver in the Milan region. He died in Rome, Italy on October 26, 2008.

Richard and Jean DeWine (85, 83) parents of former US Sen. Mike DeWine (R-Ohio). The elder DeWines celebrated their 65th wedding anniversary earlier in the year. Richard DeWine died of pancreatic cancer four days after his wife Jean died of pneumonia, in Dayton, Ohio on October 28 and November 1, 2008.

James Fantroy (71) former Dallas City Council member (2000-07) who chose to serve one month in prison rather than admit that he embezzled public funds. In 2003, Fantroy was removed as treasurer of a Paul Quinn College community development fund after thousands of dollars disappeared from the nonprofit group's bank account. He was accused of writing five checks totaling nearly $21,000 to himself and to relatives and was convicted of embezzlement earlier this year. The presiding judge gave him the choice of prison versus confession because he suffered from kidney cancer and used a wheelchair. He died in Dallas, Texas on October 26, 2008.

Tom Moody (78) 44th mayor of Columbus (1972-84) who oversaw an expansion of the city's freeway system and growth of the downtown skyline. The Republican started the State of the City address during his first year in office and oversaw the building of a trash-burning power plant. He died in Columbus, Ohio on October 30, 2008.

Col. John Ripley (69) retired US Marine officer credited with stopping a column of North Vietnamese tanks by blowing up a pair of bridges during the 1972 Easter Offensive of the Vietnam War. Ripley apparently died in his sleep. He was found dead after missing a speaking engagement, in Annapolis, Maryland on November 1, 2008.

Gen. Bernard W. Rogers (87) four-star general who introduced major reforms as Army chief of staff in the ‘70s and later was top military commander of NATO. Rogers became the longest-serving military chief in NATO’s 60-year history and strengthened the trans-Atlantic military alliance’s presence throughout Europe. He died of a heart attack in Virginia on October 27, 2008.

Kung Te-cheng (88) former longtime senior adviser to ex-Republic of China President Lee Tung-hui and 77th in the main line of descent from China's greatest sage and philosophical teacher Confucius. Born at the family's ancestral home in northeastern China, Kung fled the mainland in 1949 ahead of the victorious Communist armies and settled in Taiwan, where he led the island's main official ceremony honoring Confucius on the sage's birthday each year for more than half a century. He gave up the ceremonial role about three years ago owing to growing infirmity. He died of heart and respiratory failure in Sindian City, Taiwan on October 28, 2008.

Society and Religion

Julian Alexander (20) California man shot and fatally wounded without any warning by a police officer during a brief encounter while chasing four juvenile suspects in a possible burglary outside his home. Authorities said the unidentified officer mistook Alexander for a suspect and shot him twice in the chest when he stepped into his front yard holding either a broomstick or a shower rod to protect his pregnant wife and mother-in-law after he heard a commotion from what he thought might be intruders. He died in Anaheim, California on October 28, 2008.

Rosa Broadous (89) community leader, matriarch both of a prominent San Fernando Valley family with 10 children and of the Baptist church she cofounded with her husband, Rev. Hillery T. Broadous, in 1955. Rosa Broadous died in Van Nuys, California on October 28, 2008.

John Carlin (51) Alaska man serving a 99-year prison sentence for conspiring with former strip dancer Mechele Linehan in the 1996 shooting death of her fiancé, Kent Leppink, whose body was found off a trail south of Anchorage. The notorious murder case went unsolved for more than 10 years. Prosecutors had accused Carlin as one of three possible gunmen sexually manipulated by Linehan into slaying Leppink for his insurance money, but he was later found guilty of first-degree murder shortly after Linehan was arrested in 2006 in Olympia, Washington, where she was living with her physician husband. Carlin was found dead in his cell in Seward, Alaska on October 27, 2008.

Ryan Henderson and Chavarez Block (18, 19) University of Central Arkansas students found shot and mortally wounded in an alley outside a campus dormitory. Police questioned two people and were seeking two others allegedly involved in the attack that left another person wounded. The incident did not appear to have been "a random attack," and all the suspects were not students. Henderson and Block died at the scene in Conway, Arkansas on October 26, 2008.

T. J. Darrisaw (12) South Carolina boy shot and fatally wounded while trick-or-treating on Halloween night with his family. More than 20 shots burst through the front door as they approached a home to collect candy because the porch light was on. Authorities said suspect Quentin Patrick (22), an ex-convict who told police he had been shot and robbed in the past year, had feared the trick-or-treater wearing a ghoulish mask was a robber and opened fire with his homemade AK-47 assault rifle after hearing a knock on the door. He was charged with murder and three counts of assault and battery with attempt to kill. The boy's father and 9-year-old brother were wounded but recovered. T. J. Darrisaw died in Sumter, South Carolina on October 31, 2008.

P. Cameron DeVore (76) attorney who helped to establish the field of media law and was one of the first to successfully argue that advertising was a form of speech protected by the US Constitution. DeVore was devoted to defending news organizations against libel lawsuits and other types of liability. He had a particular interest in freedom of commercial speech and was an early champion of it. He died of a heart attack on Lopez Island, near Seattle, Washington, on October 26, 2008.

Charles Dubin (87) former top Canadian judge best known for heading an inquiry into drug use in amateur sport. Dubin was appointed to Ontario's top court in 1973 and was tapped to head several inquiries, most notably the high-profile commission that formed after sprinter Ben Johnson was stripped of his gold medal for testing positive for anabolic steroids at the 1988 Seoul Olympics. Dubin died of pneumonia in Toronto, Canada on October 27, 2008.

Rev. Louis H. Evans Jr. (82) organizing pastor of Los Angeles's Bel Air Presbyterian Church who later led the congregation of the National Presbyterian Church in Washington, DC. In 1950, Evans married '40s-'50s movie actress Colleen Townsend, who ultimately gave up her career to assist him in his ministry. Evans died of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), or Lou Gehrig's disease, in Fresno, California on October 29, 2008.

Peter Getz (32) volunteer at the nonprofit animal refuge Safari's Exotic Wildlife Sanctuary outside Tulsa who suffered from puncture wounds to his neck and upper back and trauma to his vertabre after he was savagely mauled by Rocky, a 1,000-pound liger (rare cross-breed between a lion and a tiger), when the hybrid cat pounced on him during feeding time on October 29. Zoo officials said Getz somehow entered Rocky's cage under mysterious circumstances, then hauled himself out with help from two fellow keepers before he collapsed and was airlifted to a nearby hospital in critical condition. The US Department of Agriculture's animal and plant health inspection service is currently investigating the attack. Getz died from his wounds in Tulsa, Oklahoma on October 30, 2008.

Eric Nenno (47) former plumbing supply salesman condemned to die for the 1995 abduction, rape, and choking death of 7-year-old Nicole Benton, whose body was found hidden in the attic of his home just two days after she disappeared from the front yard of her father's birthday party down the street in their northwestern Houston neighborhood. Nenno was executed by lethal injection in Huntsville, Texas on October 28, 2008.