John A. Keel (79) author of The Mothman Prophecies (1975), later made into a 2002 movie about paranormal phenomena starring Richard Gere. Keel was best known for his writings about unidentified flying objects and the paranormal. He died of congestive heart failure in New York City on July 3, 2009.

Tyeb Mehta (84) one of the most celebrated of India’s Modernist painters, whose work broke auction records. In 2005 Mehta’s painting Mahisasura (1997; shown above), an image of the Hindu buffalo-demon defeated by the goddess Durga, sold at Christie’s New York for $1.58 million, the highest price ever paid for the work of a living Indian artist. Mehta had been treated for a cardiac ailment for two years; he died in Mumbai, India, his home city, on July 1, 2009.

Tom Wilkes (69) Grammy-winning art director and album cover designer whose work included albums for the Rolling Stones, Janis Joplin, Neil Young, and other music legends. Wilkes’s breakthrough psychedelic poster for the 1967 Monterey International Pop Music Festival, printed on foil stock, is shown above. He was diagnosed with a form of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS; Lou Gehrig’s disease) in 1999 but died of a heart attack in Pioneertown, California on June 28, 2009.

John Barry (84) former president and chief executive of WD-40 Co. Inc., credited with helping to turn the rust-preventer for missiles into a household brand. WD-40 was originally used to coat missiles, but consumers used it to lubricate everything from bicycle chains to fishing reels. Barry suggested renaming the firm after its product and later helped to build the company’s place in the global market. He died of pulmonary fibrosis in La Jolla, California on July 3, 2009.

Richard Evelyn Byrd (86) orchardist and son of former Virginia Gov. and US Sen. Harry F. Byrd Sr. (D-Va.; d. 1966). A nephew and namesake of famed US explorer Adm. Richard E. Byrd (d. 1957), the younger Richard Evelyn Byrd didn’t follow his father or his elder brother, US Sen. Harry F. Byrd Jr., into politics; he ran H. F. Byrd Inc.’s canning division and was company president (1966-80) until it ceased operations. He died in Berryville, Virginia on June 28, 2009.

John W. Fisher (93) retired Ball Corp. president and chairman who led the packaging and home canning products company for more than 15 years (1970-86). Fisher, who had married into the Ball family, was chairman of the Ball Brothers Foundation, and Ball Memorial Hospital’s heart center was named in his honor in January. He died of leukemia in Muncie, Indiana on June 28, 2009.

George Fullerton (86) longtime associate of Leo Fender who played a crucial role in the electric-guitar innovator’s success. While Fender came up with improvements in guitar design that led to the creation of his revolutionary Telecaster and Stratocaster electric guitars, Fullerton adapted those innovations for mass production in their Orange County factory that opened in the late ‘40s; nearly 1,000 people were working there when Fender sold it to CBS in 1965. Fullerton died of congestive heart failure in Fullerton, California on July 4, 2009.

Robert Louis-Dreyfus (63) Franco-Swiss heir to billions who made his own fortune by rescuing troubled companies, including sportswear maker Adidas and advertising agency Saatchi & Saatchi. Robert Louis-Dreyfus was a cousin of US actress Julia Louis-Dreyfus, best known for her role as Elaine on the long-running TV sitcom Seinfeld (1990-98). He died of leukemia in Zürich, Switzerland on July 4, 2009.

Billy Mays (50) popular TV pitchman whose exuberant hawking of products such as the stain remover OxiClean and Zorbeez super chamois made him a pop-culture icon. Mays was found dead at his home a day after being hit in the head by falling luggage during a rough airplane landing, in Tampa, Florida on June 28, 2009.

Update: A preliminary autopsy showed Mays died of a heart attack unrelated to the incident, but an official autopsy report released Aug. 7 found that cocaine use contributed to his heart disease.

George G. Shor Jr. (86) geophysicist at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California/San Diego whose study of the ocean floor helped to lay the foundation for the theory of tectonic plates and continental drift. Shor died from complications after a series of strokes, in La Jolla, California on July 3, 2009.

John L. Blackburn (84) University of Alabama administrator credited with bringing groups together to desegregate the school in 1963. Blackburn died of cancer in Tuscaloosa, Alabama on July 3, 2009.

Gordon B. Olson (84) longest-serving president of Minot State University. Olson was Minot State’s sixth president and held that job for 25 years (1967-92). He led the school’s effort to gain university status, which it achieved in 1987, and the campus library is named for him. He died in Minot, North Dakota on June 30, 2009.

Jo Amar (79) Moroccan-born Jewish singer whose mixing of Andalusian and Israeli musical influences made him a star in Israel and a popular performer in Jewish communities around the world. Amar died of complications from Parkinson’s disease in Woodmere, New York on June 29, 2009.

Pina Bausch (68) German choreographer whose work is credited with revolutionizing modern dance. As artistic director of the Wuppertal Dance Theater since 1973, Bausch earned world renown for her avant-garde performances and choreographies combining dance, sound, and narrative. She had been diagnosed with cancer only five days before her death in Berlin, Germany on June 30, 2009.

Dee Dee Bellson (49) jazz singer-songwriter and adopted daughter of the late Broadway actress-singer Pearl Bailey (d. 1990) and her husband, jazz drummer Louie Bellson (died Feb. 14, 2009). Dee Dee Bellson had performed as a back-up singer for such acts as the Rolling Stones, Sheryl Crow, and Sheena Easton. She died of a heart attack in Charlottesville, Virginia on July 4, 2009.

Joe Bowman (84) known as the Straight Shooter and the Master of Triggernometry. At gun shows and rodeos all over the US, Bowman dazzled audiences with his fancy gunplay and sharpshooting with pistol and rifle. He trained TV and film actors to draw a gun at lightning speed and twirl a six-shooter with authority. Bowman died of a heart attack in Junction, Texas, where he had stopped for the night after putting on a fast-draw and sharpshooting exhibition in Albuquerque, on June 29, 2009.

Lee Henry Chandler Jr. (80) father of rhythm and blues singer Deniece Williams. Chandler worked at LTV Steel in Gary, Ind. as security supervisor for over 45 years. He died in East Chicago, Indiana on July 1, 2009.

Charles Eastman (79) playwright and screenwriter whose credits included the ‘70s films The All-American Boy and Little Fauss & Big Halsy. Eastman was a brother of the late Five Easy Pieces screenwriter Carole Eastman (d. 2004). Charles Eastman died of heart disease in Culver City, California on July 3, 2009.

Susan Fernandez (52) Filipino singer and political activist best known for her protest music, especially at the height of the authoritarian regime under the country’s former corrupt President Ferdinand Marcos. Fernandez also became well known in east Asia’s entertainment circles for her award-winning rendition of the 1990 feminist anthem “Babae Ako” and was later dubbed the “Nightingale of the Philippine progressive political movement.” She died of ovarian cancer in Pasig City, Philippines on July 2, 2009.

Ric Hardman (84) writer of screenplays, TV scripts, and novels, mostly in the western genre. In the early ‘60s, Hardman wrote for the western TV series Lawman using his name and a pen name, Bronson Howitzer. For the big screen, he wrote Gunman’s Walk (1958), a western starring Van Heflin and Tab Hunter, and The Rare Breed (1966), another western featuring James Stewart. Hardman suffered from cancer and died in his sleep in Los Angeles, California on June 29, 2009.

Cary Jaquish (32) Kentucky musician traveling with the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus from Phoenix to Fresno, Calif. as part of a touring musical gig with a local band. Jaquish was killed in a motorcycle accident in Phoenix, Arizona on June 28, 2009.

Alejandro, Alberto Jimenez (35) twin professional midget wrestlers known in the ring as "La Parkita" and "El Espectrito Jr.," veteran Mexican stars of minilucha wrestling who began their careers in 1992 in a tag team called the Small Devils and sometimes fought in the US. The Jimenez brothers were found dead in their motel room, apparently drugged, fatally poisoned, and robbed by two prostitutes after an alcohol-fueled sex party in Mexico City, Mexico on June 29, 2009.

Brenda Joyce (92) only movie actress to portray Jane opposite two different Tarzans—in five films in the ‘40s. Joyce also was the rare blonde to play Jane, beginning in 1945 opposite Johnny Weissmuller in Tarzan & the Amazons. Her final film was Tarzan’s Magic Fountain (1949), with Lex Barker in the title role. Joyce had suffered from dementia for 10 years and died in Santa Monica, California on July 4, 2009.

Allen Klein (77) music executive who managed the business affairs of singer Sam Cooke, the Rolling Stones, and the Beatles, for whose breakup in 1970 he was partly blamed. Klein died of complications from Alzheimer’s disease in New York City on July 4, 2009.

Herbert G. Klein (91) former Pres. Richard M. Nixon’s ex-White House director of communications and a longtime (52 years on and off) editor for Copley Newspapers. Klein resigned from the White House staff in 1973, one year before the Watergate scandal forced the President to step down. He died after suffering cardiac arrest in the San Diego suburb of La Jolla, California on July 2, 2009.

Drake Levin (62) lead guitarist for Paul Revere & the Raiders during the quintet’s hit-making prime in the mid-‘60s. Levin died of cancer in San Francisco, California on July 4, 2009.

Vibe Magazine (16) independent magazine that succumbed to the punishing ad market and announced it would cease publication immediately despite an 800,000 circulation. Founded by music impresario Quincy Jones with a test issue in 1992, Vibe was a magazine about hip-hop, R&B, and urban youth culture that brought major-league photography and writing to the music that dominated and shaped American pop culture in the late ‘90s. It died in New York City on June 30, 2009.

Karl Malden (97) Oscar-winning actor whose characterizations on stage and screen made him a star despite his plain looks. Malden won a supporting actor Oscar in 1951 for his role as Blanche DuBois’s naïve suitor Mitch in A Streetcar Named Desire—a role he had also played on Broadway. He was nominated again in 1954 for his performance as a fearless, friend-of-the-workingman priest in On the Waterfront. The role of Lt. Mike Stone on the ‘70s TV show The Streets of San Francisco earned him five Emmy nominations. He died in Brentwood, California on July 1, 2009.

Bob Mitchell (96) organist, the first such house musician at Los Angeles’s Dodger Stadium and the last surviving working accompanist from the silent-film era. Mitchell died of congestive heart failure in Los Angeles, California on July 4, 2009.

Anna Karen Morrow (94) character actress who had a regular role (1965-66) as Mrs. Chernak, the Harrington family housekeeper on the prime-time soap opera Peyton Place. Morrow also appeared on Broadway, in films, and on numerous other TV shows. She was the widow of actor Jeff Morrow (d. 1993), perhaps best known for his performances in several science fiction films that achieved cult status. Anna Karen Morrow died in Encino, California on July 1, 2009.

Kathleen (Toni) Murray (86) widow of stand-up comedian and game show host Jan Murray. Kathleen Murray had been married to the late vaudeville and TV performer for more than 56 years until his death in 2006. She died after being hit by a car in Los Angeles, California on June 28, 2009.

Harve Presnell (75) singer/actor who created the role of Johnny (“Leadville”) Brown in the Broadway musical The Unsinkable Molly Brown, written just for him by composer Meredith (The Music Man) Willson in 1960, then recreated the role in the ‘64 film version. In 1979 Presnell replaced John Schuck in the role of Daddy Warbucks in Annie and toured with the show after a four-year Broadway run. A memorable appearance in the movie Fargo (1996) jump-started his later career as a character actor. He died of pancreatic cancer in Santa Monica, California on June 30, 2009.

Shi Pei Pu (70) Beijing opera singer and spy whose sexually complicated love affair with a French Embassy worker created one of the strangest cases in international espionage and was the inspiration for the Broadway show M. Butterfly. Shi was convicted of espionage in France in 1986 along with his lover, Bernard Boursicot. For years Shi had been believed to be a woman, at least by Boursicot, now 64, who served time in prison after the affair and became a laughingstock in France, where he still lives. Shi died in Paris, France on June 30, 2009.

Jan Rubes (89) Czech-born character actor and opera singer who built a career in Canada, where he immigrated in 1948. Rubes was a founding member of the Canadian Opera Co. in Toronto, performing more than 1,000 times (1949-89). He found wider fame as host of the weekly radio show The Songs of My People and later had a career as an actor, first appearing in the film Witness (1985) as the Amish grandfather. He died of a stroke in Toronto, Canada on June 29, 2009.

Mollie Sugden (86) British actress best known for her role as Mrs. Slocombe on the TV comedy series Are You Being Served? (1972-85). Reruns of the show in the US in the ‘90s gained Sugden a new audience overseas. She died in London, England on July 1, 2009.

Robert E. Lee Taylor Jr. (96) former publisher (1964-75) of the now-defunct Philadelphia Bulletin when it was one of the nation’s largest newspapers. In 1963, before he was named publisher, Taylor briefly went to jail in a test case of journalists’ right to keep sources confidential. He died in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania on July 2, 2009.

Fred Travalena (66) impressionist, a regular in Las Vegas showrooms and on late-night TV talk shows with his impersonations of presidents, crooners, and screen stars. Travalena was known for the huge number of celebrities he imitated, inspiring the nicknames “The Man of a Thousand Voices” and “Mr. Everybody.” His act included US Presidents from Kennedy to Obama, musicians from Sinatra to Springsteen, and actors from Brando to Cruise. He died after a recurrence of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, which first surfaced in 2002, in the Los Angeles suburb of Encino, California on June 28, 2009.

Sandra Warfield (88) American mezzo-soprano who performed frequently with the Metropolitan Opera in the ‘50s, ‘60s, and early ‘70s. Warfield died of a stroke in New York City on June 29, 2009.

Louise Weil (97) former co-owner with her husband, F. Granger Weil (d. 2006), of the Port Huron Times Herald, founded by his father. It was sold to Gannett Co. in 1971. Louise Weil helped to raise money for Port Huron Hospital and to organize the Port Huron Town Hall series, which began bringing national speakers to the city in 1955. She died in Port Huron, Michigan on June 28, 2009.

Norman Welton (81) photo editor for the Associated Press whose long career (1946-92) included coverage of New York, the United Nations, and four Olympic Games. Welton was hospitalized after a fall at his home in Hawley, Pa. and died of colon cancer in Port Jervis, New York on July 1, 2009.

Lyudmila Zykina (80) one of the Soviet Union’s best-loved folk singers, a former machine tool factory worker. Zykina’s singing career took off after she won a nationwide singing competition in 1947. Her powerful voice personified the Soviet style of Russian folk singing, using traditional songs but performed in an almost operatic style with a full orchestra. She suffered a heart attack a few days before her death in Moscow, Russia on July 1, 2009.

Vasily Chervoni (??) Ukrainian politician excommunicated by the Russian Orthodox Church in 1992 for his attempts to revive an ancient pagan cult. Chervoni was a close friend of Ukraine’s current President Viktor Yushchenko. A former activist in the Soviet youth movement Comsomol, he started an independent political career in the early ‘90s with radical Ukrainian nationalists and later joined the religious movement Runvera, a self-proclaimed Ukrainian sect that seeks the revival of obscure ancient cults, especially worship of the sun god Dazhbog. Chervoni was struck and killed by a lightning bolt while on a fishing trip near the village of Derazhnoye, Ukraine on July 4, 2009.

Bela Kiraly (97) one of the military leaders of Hungary’s short-lived anti-Soviet revolution in October 1956. Aimed at overthrowing the Communist regime, it lasted less than two weeks before it was crushed. Kiraly fled to Austria and later settled in the US. Returning to Hungary, he was elected to a four-year term in parliament in the first post-Communist elections in 1990. He died in Budapest, Hungary on July 4, 2009.

Louis R. Nowell (94) former Los Angeles city councilman who served for 14 years and resigned in the late ‘70s, days after coming under fire for taking a trip to Mexico funded by billboard companies lobbying for the defeat of a billboard-control ordinance. It was the last straw for two community activists—husband and wife Jerry and Betty Decter—who had spent years documenting what they called Nowell’s “indiscretions," including his failing to properly report $19,700 raised at a 1972 testimonial dinner aboard the Queen Mary and mooring a yacht for four months at a public landing without paying docking fees. Nowell died in Camarillo, California on July 2, 2009.

Andree Layton Roaf (68) former Arkansas Supreme Court justice, the first black woman to serve on that state’s Supreme Court. Roaf died after losing consciousness in her office in Little Rock, Arkansas on July 1, 2009.

Sheila Cloney (83) Irish housewife who with her late husband Sean (d. 1999) was caught in an international controversy that led to a 1957 sectarian boycott in a bitter dispute over how their children were to be educated. A Protestant, Sheila Cloney left her Catholic husband, her home, and the country after being told by the local parish priest that she must send her two young daughters to a local Catholic school. The issue led to what became known as the Fethard Boycott and later was the subject of the 1999 film A Love Divided. Cloney died in Fethard-on-Sea, Ireland on June 29, 2009.

Marwa el-Sherbini (31) Egyptian pharmacist, a former national handball champion who recently brought charges of insult and abuse against an unemployed Russian stockbroker identified as Alex W. for shouting racial slurs and anti-Muslim epithets at her for wearing an Islamic headscarf during an apparent dispute at a park in the summer of 2008. As she testified at the trial, el-Sherbini was stabbed to death by the defendant, and her husband was shot and critically wounded by a police officer who mistook him for the attacker, in Dresden, Germany on July 1, 2009. Alex W. was arrested at the scene and charged with murder.

Liam Fairhurst (14) British fund-raiser who won a Child of Courage award at the London Daily Mirror’s Pride of Britain ceremony last fall for his tireless fund-raising efforts for children with pediatric cancer while undergoing years of treatment for the disease himself. Fairhurst was diagnosed with a synovial sarcoma in his leg in 2005 (the condition later became incurable) and began fund-raising with a one-mile swim after his close friend, Jack Wilkinson, died of cancer in 2006 at age 12.  Fairhurst died in Soham, Cambridgeshire, England on July 1, 2009.

Capt. Khaled Hajeb (45) pilot for Yemenia Airways, survivor among many hostages held captive by a Pakistani terror group when they seized two hotels and massacred more than 164 guests in three days during a series of violent Islamic terrorist attacks across Mumbai, India in November 2008. Hajeb was presumed dead along with 153 people aboard Yemenia Flight 626 when the jetliner crashed into the Indian Ocean during a storm near the Comoros islands on June 30, 2009.

T. Willard Hunter (93) California minister, author, and orator who once spoke continuously for more than 34 hours to commemorate the Fourth of July. Hunter founded his hometown’s Fourth of July citizens’ oratory program in 1977 and was its most enthusiastic participant, reciting the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights and speaking on great American patriots. He had been in failing health for several months and died in Claremont, California on June 29, 2009.

Barbara Margolis (79) longtime volunteer in New York City jails who in 1989 founded Fresh Start, a training program that brings the city’s finest chefs to Rikers Island to train inmates in culinary arts, then helps those inmates to find restaurant jobs upon release. Margolis died of cancer in New York City on July 3, 2009.

Thomas Norman (79) veteran assistant district attorney who came under enormous criticism when he did not win a death penalty verdict against former supervisor Dan White for the 1978 assassinations of San Francisco Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk. Norman prosecuted almost 400 murder cases before juries in his 37-year career in the DA’s office until his retirement in 1997, but it was the ‘79 trial of White for the murders of the mayor and the city’s first openly gay supervisor that made him known to thousands of San Franciscans. He died in San Francisco, California on July 1, 2009.

Alexis Arguello (57) Nicaraguan boxing champion considered one of the best lightweights to step in the ring. Arguello turned pro in 1968 and in ‘74 won his first title by knocking out Ruben Olivares for the featherweight crown. Nicknamed “The Explosive Thin Man,” he later won the super featherweight and lightweight belts, becoming the sixth boxer to win titles in three weight classes in 1981, and retired in ‘95 with a record of 82-8 with 65 knockouts. Elected mayor of Managua in 2008, he was found dead at his home with a gunshot wound to the chest, an apparent suicide in Managua, Nicaragua on July 1, 2009.

Steve McNair (36) former NFL quarterback. McNair played 13 seasons in the NFL and led the Titans within a yard of forcing overtime in the 2000 Super Bowl, which they lost 23-16 to the St. Louis Rams. He was found shot to death along with a woman identified as Sahel Kazemi (20), a waitress at a restaurant the quarterback and his family frequented, in Nashville, Tennessee on July 4, 2009. On July 8, Nashville police said that McNair was murdered by his girlfriend, who then used the same gun to kill herself.

John Henry Moss (90) one of the most influential figures in minor league baseball during his 50-year (1957-2007) run as president of the South Atlantic League. Under Moss, 43 cities fielded teams; the league currently has 16 clubs in eight states. Hospitalized since June 7, Moss died of a stroke in Kings Mountain, South Carolina on July 1, 2009.

Ernie Salvatore (87) writer, editor, and sports columnist whose career with two newspapers—the Herald Advertiser and the Herald Dispatch, both in Huntington, W. Va.—spanned nearly 60 years. In April 2008 the press box at Marshall University’s football stadium was named in Salvatore’s honor. He died in Huntington, West Virginia on July 3, 2009.

Ricky Sandoval (49) Detroit Lions’ director of security since 2001, for whom the team’s indoor practice field was named. Sandoval died after a three-year battle with pancreatic cancer, in Detroit, Michigan on July 2, 2009.