Fred Milano, 72, doo-wop singer (The Belmonts, Dion and the Belmonts)
(L.A. Times) - Fred Milano, 72, a singer who made rock 'n' roll history on doo-wop hits with Dion and the Belmonts in the 1950s, died Sunday, Jan. 1, three weeks after he was diagnosed with lung cancer, said Warren Gradus, who joined the vocal group in 1963. Milano and his friends Angelo D'Aleo and Carlo Mastrangelo from the Bronx formed the Belmonts in the mid-1950s, borrowing their name from the borough's Belmont Avenue. They became Dion and the Belmonts after lead singer Dion DiMucci joined in 1958. They had a quick succession of hits, including "I Wonder Why," "No One Knows" and "Teenager in Love." After DiMucci left for a solo career in 1960, the Belmonts continued to perform and record with different lineups.
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Larry Reinhardt, 63, rock guitarist (Iron Butterfly, Captain Beyond)
(Bradenton Herald) - Former Iron Butterfly and Captain Beyond guitarist Larry “Rhino” Reinhardt died Monday, Jan. 2 of complications from liver disease in Manatee, Fla. Reinhardt can be heard on Iron Butterfly’s 1970 album “Metamorphosis.” It reached No. 16 on the Billboard 200 and produced the hit single “Easy Rider (Let the Wind Pay the Way).” Although Iron Butterfly broke up in 1971, Reinhardt participated in several reunion tours across the United States and Europe until the mid-1990s that always included marathon renditions of the band’s epic 1968 hit “In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida.”
When he wasn’t playing with Iron Butterfly, Reinhardt played with the group Captain Beyond, which he co-founded in 1972. Captain Beyond released its self-titled album on famed Southern rock label Capricorn Records in 1972 and another, “Sufficiently Breathless,” in 1973. The group’s final release, “Dawn Explosion,” came out on One Way Records/Warner Bros. four years later. All three albums cracked the Billboard 200, with “Sufficiently Breathless” reaching No. 90. The band continued to tour periodically through 1998.
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Jim Huber, 67, Sports Journalist/Commentator (CNN, TNT)
(USA Today) - Veteran sportscaster and commentator Jim Huber, who spent nearly three decades with Turner Broadcasting, died Monday, Jan. 2 in Atlanta after a brief battle with cancer. He was 67. Huber was only recently diagnosed with acute leukemia, within the two weeks prior to his death. He was a sportscaster for CNN and an anchor for CNN/Sports Illustrated's short-lived 24-hour sports network until joining Turner Sports full-time in 2000, expanding his role as an announcer for both golf and National Basketball Association coverage. A respected essayist, Huber won an Emmy for his writing and coverage of the Centennial Olympic Park bombing during the Atlanta Summer Games in 1996.
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Gene Bartow, 81, college basketball coach (UAB, UCLA)
(AP) - Hall of Fame college basketball coach Gene Bartow, who succeeded legendary coach John Wooden at UCLA and orchestrated the development of the University of Alabama-Birmingham's athletic program, died Tuesday, Jan. 3 after two year bout with stomach cancer. Bartow succeeded Wooden as UCLA coach in 1976, leading the Bruins to the Final Four. After two seasons in Westwood, Bartow left UCLA to start Alabama-Birmingham's program, expanding it under his tenure as athletics director to feature 17 sports. As UAB's basketball coach from 1978-96, he led the Blazers to seven consecutive NCAA tournament appearances. He retired as UAB athletics director in 2000. Bartow coached Memphis State from 1970-74 and guided the school to the 1973 national championship game, where the Tigers lost to a UCLA team coached by Wooden.
Bartow was one of the winningest NCAA Division I basketball coaches with 647 wins over 34 seasons. He was inducted into the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame in 2009 and UAB renamed its basketball arena in his honor in 1997. At the time of his death, Bartow living in Memphis and served as the president of the company that owns the NBA's Memphis Grizzlies and FedEx Forum.
2012 Obits: R.I.P. and Remembrance thread
Moderators: The People's DJ, David Paleg
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unchoopfan
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Re: 2012 Obits: R.I.P. and Remembrance thread
Singer of 'I'm Your Puppet' dies in Florida at 72
Robert Dickey, a guitarist and singer in the group that recorded the hit song "I'm Your Puppet," has died.
The 72-year-old died in his hometown of Tallahassee on Dec. 29. His death was confirmed by a Tallahassee funeral home. No cause was given.
Dickey began his musical career during the '60s and spent time touring with various soul and rhythm and blues singers such as Otis Redding. He eventually became part of the soul group "James and Bobby Purify."
The duo had its biggest hit in the fall of 1966 when "I'm Your Puppet" hit the Top 10. The group has also had a hit with a rendition of "Shake Your Tail Feather."
Dickey told The Tallahassee Democrat back in 2000 that he never liked "I'm Your Puppet," which was written by Spooner Oldham and Dan Penn, who also authored other hits from the same time period.
"I hated it," Dickey told the newspaper when he was honored as part of a Florida rock and roll exhibition held at the Museum of Florida History. "It was originally intended to be the B-side. But things got changed ... I sang it for 23 hours straight (in the studio), that's why I hate it."
Dickey wound up quitting his professional music career and returned to Tallahassee in 1972. He became a city maintenance supervisor but he also kept singing and playing guitar with his church and as a member of the Bethlehem Male Singers.
Robert Dickey, a guitarist and singer in the group that recorded the hit song "I'm Your Puppet," has died.
The 72-year-old died in his hometown of Tallahassee on Dec. 29. His death was confirmed by a Tallahassee funeral home. No cause was given.
Dickey began his musical career during the '60s and spent time touring with various soul and rhythm and blues singers such as Otis Redding. He eventually became part of the soul group "James and Bobby Purify."
The duo had its biggest hit in the fall of 1966 when "I'm Your Puppet" hit the Top 10. The group has also had a hit with a rendition of "Shake Your Tail Feather."
Dickey told The Tallahassee Democrat back in 2000 that he never liked "I'm Your Puppet," which was written by Spooner Oldham and Dan Penn, who also authored other hits from the same time period.
"I hated it," Dickey told the newspaper when he was honored as part of a Florida rock and roll exhibition held at the Museum of Florida History. "It was originally intended to be the B-side. But things got changed ... I sang it for 23 hours straight (in the studio), that's why I hate it."
Dickey wound up quitting his professional music career and returned to Tallahassee in 1972. He became a city maintenance supervisor but he also kept singing and playing guitar with his church and as a member of the Bethlehem Male Singers.
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Richard Threlkeld, 74, former CBS News correspondent
(LA Times) - Richard Threlkeld, a former CBS and ABC correspondent who covered the fall of Saigon and helped establish the CBS "Sunday Morning" show with weekly stories that showcased his prodigious energy and incisive writing, died Friday in a car crash on Long Island, N.Y. He was 74. Threlkeld was driving his 2008 Mini Cooper in Amagansett when he collided with a propane tanker, according to the East Hampton Police Department. He was pronounced dead at Southampton Hospital, not far from his home in East Hampton.
Threlkeld was a broadcast journalist for 36 years and spent 25 of them at CBS News as a correspondent, anchor and bureau chief. He left CBS for seven years in the 1980s to work for ABC News, where his "Status Report" features earned an Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Award in 1984. He returned to CBS in 1989 and was the network's Moscow correspondent from 1996 to 1998, an assignment that inspired his 2001 book, "Dispatches from the Former Evil Empire."
During his news career, Threlkeld covered the Robert F. Kennedy assassination, the Vietnam War, the Patty Hearst kidnapping, the Persian Gulf War, and the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989, as well as numerous U.S. political campaigns. He is survived by his wife Betsy Aaron, a former CNN News correspondent.
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Bob Weston, 64, ex-Fleetwood Mac guitarist
(Rolling Stone) - Bob Weston, a guitarist who played as a member of Fleetwood Mac on their early Seventies albums Penguin and Mystery to Me, has died at the age of 64. Police discovered Weston's body at his home in North London on Jan. 3. An autopsy report indicates that was suffering from a gastric intestinal hemorrhage, cirrhosis and a throat ailment at the time of his death. Weston joined Fleetwood Mac as a replacement for guitarist Danny Kirwan in 1972. He was later fired from the band by drummer Mick Fleetwood after it was discovered that he was having an ongoing affair with Fleetwood's wife, Jenny Boyd. Weston went on to play in Murray Head and Ian Wallace's All-Stars Band and released a string of solo albums, one of which featured Mick Fleetwood on drums.
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Don Carter, 85, pro bowling pioneer/PBA co-founder
(LA Times) - Don Carter, the bowling great with the unorthodox style who flourished as a genuine sports celebrity during the game's golden age on TV, died Thursday (Jan. 5) at his Miami home. He was 85. Known as "Mr. Bowling," Carter was the game's original superstar. He became his sport's most recognizable name at a time when alleys were thriving across the country and bowling was starting to assert itself as a fixture on television. He was a leading force in the formation of the PBA in 1958 and became a charter member of the PBA Hall of Fame in 1975.
Carter had a style all his own as he took his steps to the line. With his stooped shoulders and cocked elbow, he made a deep knee bend as he unleashed the ball as if pushing it toward the pins. He helped transform a sport that had been a blue-collar recreational activity. He also became the first athlete in American sports history to sign a $1-million marketing endorsement contract, with bowling ball manufacturer Ebonite in 1964. The 6-foot, 200-pound Carter bowled five 800 series, 13 perfect games and six 299s in sanctioned play
In 1970, he was inducted into the American Bowling Congress Hall of Fame. The same year Carter was selected as the greatest bowler in history in a Bowling Magazine poll.
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Byron Donzis, 85, inventor (flak jacket)
(LA Times) - Inventor Byron Donzis, 79, who died Jan. 4 in Landrum, S.C., after a stroke, turned his ideas into useful products in fields as diverse as sports equipment, cosmetics, floristry and medicine. "He just wanted to know how things worked and what he could do to make things better," said his wife, Martha Gibson Donzis.
His name appears on more than 35 patents, according to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. His inventions include a prefabricated tennis court, inflatable running shoes, stadium seats with solar panels and an X-ray machine for detecting leaky oil pipelines. Like many inventors, he had more ideas than successes and lost a number of fortunes.
In 1978, Byron Donzis walked into a Houston hospital looking for Dan Pastorini, the Houston Oilers' prized quarterback who was laid up with three broken ribs from a recent game. Donzis was wearing a trench coat and carrying a large bag. He was accompanied by an associate wielding a baseball bat. They sweet-talked their way past the nurses and into Pastorini's private room. The quarterback thought the two strange men must have lost money on the game and had come for revenge.
Instead, Donzis instructed his friend to smack him across his rib cage as hard as he could with the bat. His buddy hit him four or five times but Donzis didn't flinch. When he pulled back his coat to reveal a garment that looked like a life jacket, Pastorini was agog. "I said, 'I'd like to have one of those,'" Pastorini recalled telling Donzis. A few days later, the National Football League star donned Donzis' "flak jacket" in a big game and led his team to the playoffs. The flak jacket became standard gear in the NFL and the greatest success in Donzis' prolific and sundry career as an inventor-entrepreneur.
Before developing the flak jacket, Donzis developed running shoes with air chambers inflated by a built-in pump and acquired a patent on the system in 1972. Two decades later he successfully sued sports shoe maker Reebok for infringing on his patent when it marketed its "Pump" sneaker.
Donzis also discovered the wrinkle-reducing capability of a chemical compound called beta-glucan, which he marketed to leading cosmetics companies, including Estee Lauder and Mary Kay. Licensed under the name Nayad, it won favorable reviews: Vogue magazine described it as "a superstar natural ingredient of the '90s."
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Tom Ardolino, 56, NRBQ drummer
(Rolling Stone/LA Times) - Tom Ardolino, a longtime drummer of NRBQ, died on January 6 at the age of 56, due to complications from alcoholism-related illness.
Ardolino had joined NRBQ in 1974 after years as a fan and stayed with them for three decades, playing in thousands of the cult favorites’ legendary live shows and on 15 studio albums.
With a sound and attitude that embraced the seminal rock of Chuck Berry and no-borders expanse of free-form jazz experimentalist Sun Ra, the invigorating dance rhythms of zydeco kingpin Boozoo Chavis and dreamy multilayered pop of Brian Wilson, the quartet spent the '70s, '80s and '90s recording and touring chiefly for the reward of accolades from fellow musicians including Paul McCartney, Keith Richards, Elvis Costello and Bonnie Raitt, as well as from a coterie of devoted fans scattered across the planet.
In 2004, during NRBQ’s hiatus, he released a solo album, Unknown Brain.
Ardolino was living in Springfield, Massachusetts, at the time of his death.
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Tony Blankley, 63, conservative author/TV commentator
(Politico.com) - Tony Blankley, a conservative author and commentator who served as press secretary to Newt Gingrich during the 1990s, when Republicans took control of Congress died Jan. 7 at Sibley Memorial Hospital in Washington. He had suffered from stomach cancer.
In his long career as a political operative and pundit, his most visible role was as a spokesman for and adviser to Gingrich from 1990 to 1997. Gingrich became House Speaker when Republicans took control of the U.S. House of Representatives following the 1994 midterm elections. From 2002 to 2007, he served as editorial page editor of The Washington Times. In recent years, he also wrote a syndicated newspaper column and provided political commentary for CNN, NBC and NPR. He was also a regular panelist on “The McLaughlin Group.”
Born in London, Blankley moved to California with his parents as a child and became a naturalized American citizen. He worked as a child actor in the 1950s, appearing in such TV shows as “Lassie” and “Highway Patrol” and playing Rod Steiger’s son in the 1956 movie “The Harder They Fall,” Humphrey Bogart’s final film.
He was the author of two books and a visiting senior fellow in national security communications at the Heritage Foundation.
(LA Times) - Richard Threlkeld, a former CBS and ABC correspondent who covered the fall of Saigon and helped establish the CBS "Sunday Morning" show with weekly stories that showcased his prodigious energy and incisive writing, died Friday in a car crash on Long Island, N.Y. He was 74. Threlkeld was driving his 2008 Mini Cooper in Amagansett when he collided with a propane tanker, according to the East Hampton Police Department. He was pronounced dead at Southampton Hospital, not far from his home in East Hampton.
Threlkeld was a broadcast journalist for 36 years and spent 25 of them at CBS News as a correspondent, anchor and bureau chief. He left CBS for seven years in the 1980s to work for ABC News, where his "Status Report" features earned an Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Award in 1984. He returned to CBS in 1989 and was the network's Moscow correspondent from 1996 to 1998, an assignment that inspired his 2001 book, "Dispatches from the Former Evil Empire."
During his news career, Threlkeld covered the Robert F. Kennedy assassination, the Vietnam War, the Patty Hearst kidnapping, the Persian Gulf War, and the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989, as well as numerous U.S. political campaigns. He is survived by his wife Betsy Aaron, a former CNN News correspondent.
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Bob Weston, 64, ex-Fleetwood Mac guitarist
(Rolling Stone) - Bob Weston, a guitarist who played as a member of Fleetwood Mac on their early Seventies albums Penguin and Mystery to Me, has died at the age of 64. Police discovered Weston's body at his home in North London on Jan. 3. An autopsy report indicates that was suffering from a gastric intestinal hemorrhage, cirrhosis and a throat ailment at the time of his death. Weston joined Fleetwood Mac as a replacement for guitarist Danny Kirwan in 1972. He was later fired from the band by drummer Mick Fleetwood after it was discovered that he was having an ongoing affair with Fleetwood's wife, Jenny Boyd. Weston went on to play in Murray Head and Ian Wallace's All-Stars Band and released a string of solo albums, one of which featured Mick Fleetwood on drums.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Don Carter, 85, pro bowling pioneer/PBA co-founder
(LA Times) - Don Carter, the bowling great with the unorthodox style who flourished as a genuine sports celebrity during the game's golden age on TV, died Thursday (Jan. 5) at his Miami home. He was 85. Known as "Mr. Bowling," Carter was the game's original superstar. He became his sport's most recognizable name at a time when alleys were thriving across the country and bowling was starting to assert itself as a fixture on television. He was a leading force in the formation of the PBA in 1958 and became a charter member of the PBA Hall of Fame in 1975.
Carter had a style all his own as he took his steps to the line. With his stooped shoulders and cocked elbow, he made a deep knee bend as he unleashed the ball as if pushing it toward the pins. He helped transform a sport that had been a blue-collar recreational activity. He also became the first athlete in American sports history to sign a $1-million marketing endorsement contract, with bowling ball manufacturer Ebonite in 1964. The 6-foot, 200-pound Carter bowled five 800 series, 13 perfect games and six 299s in sanctioned play
In 1970, he was inducted into the American Bowling Congress Hall of Fame. The same year Carter was selected as the greatest bowler in history in a Bowling Magazine poll.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Byron Donzis, 85, inventor (flak jacket)
(LA Times) - Inventor Byron Donzis, 79, who died Jan. 4 in Landrum, S.C., after a stroke, turned his ideas into useful products in fields as diverse as sports equipment, cosmetics, floristry and medicine. "He just wanted to know how things worked and what he could do to make things better," said his wife, Martha Gibson Donzis.
His name appears on more than 35 patents, according to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. His inventions include a prefabricated tennis court, inflatable running shoes, stadium seats with solar panels and an X-ray machine for detecting leaky oil pipelines. Like many inventors, he had more ideas than successes and lost a number of fortunes.
In 1978, Byron Donzis walked into a Houston hospital looking for Dan Pastorini, the Houston Oilers' prized quarterback who was laid up with three broken ribs from a recent game. Donzis was wearing a trench coat and carrying a large bag. He was accompanied by an associate wielding a baseball bat. They sweet-talked their way past the nurses and into Pastorini's private room. The quarterback thought the two strange men must have lost money on the game and had come for revenge.
Instead, Donzis instructed his friend to smack him across his rib cage as hard as he could with the bat. His buddy hit him four or five times but Donzis didn't flinch. When he pulled back his coat to reveal a garment that looked like a life jacket, Pastorini was agog. "I said, 'I'd like to have one of those,'" Pastorini recalled telling Donzis. A few days later, the National Football League star donned Donzis' "flak jacket" in a big game and led his team to the playoffs. The flak jacket became standard gear in the NFL and the greatest success in Donzis' prolific and sundry career as an inventor-entrepreneur.
Before developing the flak jacket, Donzis developed running shoes with air chambers inflated by a built-in pump and acquired a patent on the system in 1972. Two decades later he successfully sued sports shoe maker Reebok for infringing on his patent when it marketed its "Pump" sneaker.
Donzis also discovered the wrinkle-reducing capability of a chemical compound called beta-glucan, which he marketed to leading cosmetics companies, including Estee Lauder and Mary Kay. Licensed under the name Nayad, it won favorable reviews: Vogue magazine described it as "a superstar natural ingredient of the '90s."
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tom Ardolino, 56, NRBQ drummer
(Rolling Stone/LA Times) - Tom Ardolino, a longtime drummer of NRBQ, died on January 6 at the age of 56, due to complications from alcoholism-related illness.
Ardolino had joined NRBQ in 1974 after years as a fan and stayed with them for three decades, playing in thousands of the cult favorites’ legendary live shows and on 15 studio albums.
With a sound and attitude that embraced the seminal rock of Chuck Berry and no-borders expanse of free-form jazz experimentalist Sun Ra, the invigorating dance rhythms of zydeco kingpin Boozoo Chavis and dreamy multilayered pop of Brian Wilson, the quartet spent the '70s, '80s and '90s recording and touring chiefly for the reward of accolades from fellow musicians including Paul McCartney, Keith Richards, Elvis Costello and Bonnie Raitt, as well as from a coterie of devoted fans scattered across the planet.
In 2004, during NRBQ’s hiatus, he released a solo album, Unknown Brain.
Ardolino was living in Springfield, Massachusetts, at the time of his death.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tony Blankley, 63, conservative author/TV commentator
(Politico.com) - Tony Blankley, a conservative author and commentator who served as press secretary to Newt Gingrich during the 1990s, when Republicans took control of Congress died Jan. 7 at Sibley Memorial Hospital in Washington. He had suffered from stomach cancer.
In his long career as a political operative and pundit, his most visible role was as a spokesman for and adviser to Gingrich from 1990 to 1997. Gingrich became House Speaker when Republicans took control of the U.S. House of Representatives following the 1994 midterm elections. From 2002 to 2007, he served as editorial page editor of The Washington Times. In recent years, he also wrote a syndicated newspaper column and provided political commentary for CNN, NBC and NPR. He was also a regular panelist on “The McLaughlin Group.”
Born in London, Blankley moved to California with his parents as a child and became a naturalized American citizen. He worked as a child actor in the 1950s, appearing in such TV shows as “Lassie” and “Highway Patrol” and playing Rod Steiger’s son in the 1956 movie “The Harder They Fall,” Humphrey Bogart’s final film.
He was the author of two books and a visiting senior fellow in national security communications at the Heritage Foundation.
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Re: 2012 Obits: R.I.P. and Remembrance thread
January 17, 2012
Former W.Va. governor Hulett Smith passes at 93 By Mannix Porterfield
Register-Herald Reporter
Tue Jan 17, 2012, 12:02 AM EST
http://www.register-herald.com/todaysfr ... sses-at-93
Hulett C. Smith, the second Beckleyan in West Virginia history to be elected governor, died Sunday in Arizona after years of failing health, nearly half a century after he used the state’s highest office to abolish capital punishment, implement environmental reforms and set the stage to modernize the road system.
Smith’s home on tree-lined Harper Road was a longtime Beckley landmark, and it was there he lived until ill health befell him in recent years, forcing him out of public service.
Last fall, he was transferred to an assisted living home in Scottsdale, Ariz., where he died at age 93.
Smith was elected to his only term in 1964, four years after West Virginia voters turned the mansion over to William Wallace “Wally” Barron, whose administration was steeped in corruption. Barron eventually wound up in prison on a jury tampering conviction, drawing a five-year sentence.
“West Virginia is in mourning for one of our native sons, who became a champion for better state government during some of the most turbulent times in America’s history,” Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin said Monday in a statement.
“Gov. Smith enabled our state to take monumental steps forward during his time in office. Today, we remember the progress made under his leadership, and the man who led the way. Joanne and I send our heartfelt sympathies to his family.”
As governor, Smith, a Democrat and the son of a longtime congressman, signed a bill that outlawed the death penalty in 1965 and also inaugurated initiatives that imposed regulations on surface mining and air pollution.
On ending capital punishment, he said in a recent interview, “I still think it was the right thing to do.”
Smith defeated Republican foe Cecil H. Underwood, who had been elected West Virginia’s youngest chief executive in 1956, but afterward, the two once-bitter rivals forged a strong friendship that witnessed them working together on a number of education matters.
“When Hulett Smith stepped forward as your neighbor, a businessman, governor or distinguished civic leader, you could count on two things,” said Rep. Nick Rahall, D-W.Va.
“In one hand, the governor would be carrying the banner of excellence; the other would be outstretched so our kids could grab hold of a brighter future. The only thing this born leader ever followed was the truth as he saw it.”
Rahall, whose family owned a competing radio station, WWNR, said his and Smith’s families “enjoyed a long and treasured friendship.”
“Though we will miss him dearly here in Beckley, our state and nation has lost a champion, a thinker and doer, one who led a life of service to his fellow man,” the 3rd District congressman said.
Smith was the first governor Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., remembers seeing, and that occasion came in a visit to Farmington, when he steered West Virginia through one of its more deadly mine disasters, the No. 9 explosion on Nov. 20, 1968, that entombed 78 coal miners.
“He left a powerful legacy of leading our state into the future, whether it was human rights or infrastructure developments,” said Manchin, who twice was elected governor himself.
Besides the Farmington mine tragedy, Manchin noted that Smith also was in office when West Virginia suffered another horrific disaster, the Silver Bridge collapse of Dec. 15, 1967, at Point Pleasant, that left 46 people dead.
“As we celebrate Martin Luther King Jr. Day, we can also remember Gov. Smith for moving our state into the civil rights area and creating the foundation for who we are today,” Manchin said.
“Gov. Smith was a uniter and I can only imagine how he would approach our political division today. I hope that his example helps all of us see the good in each other and work better together.”
Sen. Rockefeller, also D-W.Va., called the late governor “a great and trusted friend, and someone I deeply admired.”
“A distinguished World War II veteran, Gov. Smith was a staunch advocate for the less fortunate,” the senator said.
“He worked tirelessly on behalf of all West Virginians and he was very kind and open to me when I first arrived in Emmons in 1964. Sharon and I are keeping his family in our thoughts and prayers today and in the days to come.”
Rep. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., whose father, Arch A. Moore Jr., succeeded Smith as governor in 1969, said she and her parents mourned the Beckleyan’s death.
“He was a true leader and a kind gentleman who left a positive mark on our state,” Capito said.
“When my father was elected governor, Hulett and Mary Alice were gracious and helpful during the transition, and they remained lifelong friends. We will keep his family in our thoughts and prayers.”
Appointed by Barron, Smith was the state’s first commerce commissioner, and, as governor, the former Navy lieutenant who served in the Bureau of Ordnance in World War II increased pre-school and university-level programs, while launching a number of organizations involving the arts and humanities.
A successful businessman in his hometown, with links to the insurance, health care, banking and broadcast media, Smith was born in 1918, the son of the late Rep. Joe L. Smith (for whom radio station WJLS was named) and Christine Carlson Smith. His father served eight straight terms in Congress.
A graduate of Woodrow Wilson High School and the Wharton School of Finance and Commerce at the University of Pennsylvania, he married Mary Alice Tieche in 1942, who was first lady in his term as governor. She died in 1967. The union produced six children. In 1990, the former governor married Nancy Pat Lewis of Beckley, who died three years ago. Sons Hulett Jr. and Mark preceded him in death.
While he never again sought public office, Smith remained in the public eye, serving on a number of public boards and agencies, including the West Virginia Parkways Authority, which governs the West Virginia Turnpike.
Manager Greg Barr, who was financial officer for the parkways when Smith served, remembered him as “a very professional, polite, kind man.”
“I guess, with his career in politics and being governor, he had learned how to work through issues and compromises as needed to get things done,” Barr said.
“Obviously, he was there during the creation of Tamarack. He was highly involved with Tamarack. He was a big supporter of that.”
Smith often regaled parkways officials with recollections of his days as governor, recalling his efforts on behalf of education, and how he wanted to assure West Virginia taxpayers got the most mileage as possible for money spent in that arena, Barr said.
“He always dressed nice, kind of flamboyantly sometimes, I thought,” Barr said.
“He was a unique fellow. I really enjoyed him.”
A former board member, Tom Winner of Oak Hill, remembered Smith as “attentive and very forward-thinking” while helping to direct Turnpike business.
In deference to his parkways service, a theater at the artisans mecca near the Beckley exit, Tamarack, is named after him.
Smith became the second Beckley native to win the governorship, joining Clarence Meadows, who served from 1945 to 1949.
His initial test of the gubernatorial waters proved futile, in 1960, when Barron won out, but four years later, he swept all but two of the state’s 55 counties in the Democratic primary and, a few months later, captured the post in what then was the largest majority in 16 years.
His stand against capital punishment, based on “mature belief and faith,” was part of his successful campaign against Underwood.
Smith led voters into approving the “Modern Budget Amendment,” which extended powers to the governor in proposing the annual spending document, in lieu of letting the Board of Public Works draw it up.
During his term, the Vietnam war escalated, causing a great deal of angst for the governor. Smith ultimately aligned himself with Vice President Hubert Humphrey’s position that America should quit bombing the Asian country in an effort to coax both sides to the negotiating table.
National turbulence was dramatized by more than just the war, however, with two public figures — New York Sen. Robert Kennedy and civil rights figure Martin Luther King Jr. — gunned down by assassins. That led Smith to urge stronger gun control laws, saying at the time, “We have to take steps to become a civilized nation.”
When his term ended, Charleston Daily Mail political columnist Bob Mellace opined that Smith’s lone term produced a record “that is remarkable and will stand for a long time, much longer than the words of his critics ... The record will show no man ever tried harder to do good and few accomplished more in the time allotted him in the governor’s office.”
Smith was the last governor barred from seeking a second term.
In his four-year stint, state aid to public education almost doubled, both the welfare caseload and jobless rate were cut, and five new airports were built. The Interstate highway system was brought up to schedule and voters approved a $350 million road bond amendment. In 2006, Interstate 64 from Beckley to the Virginia border was named in his honor.
“I was proud of my administration,” Smith said in a 2006 interview with The Register-Herald, emphasizing his efforts to expand civil service coverage and remove the taint of political corruption that characterized the Barron years.
Among Smith’s survivors are his children, Carolyn H. Sheets and husband, George, of Columbus, Ohio; Alice Christine Merritt of Atlanta, Ga.; Suzaine Smith of Boulder, Colo., and Paul Smith and wife Patti of Beckley; and 12 grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.
Funeral arrangements are pending at Melton Mortuary in Beckley.
Former W.Va. governor Hulett Smith passes at 93 By Mannix Porterfield
Register-Herald Reporter
Tue Jan 17, 2012, 12:02 AM EST
http://www.register-herald.com/todaysfr ... sses-at-93
Hulett C. Smith, the second Beckleyan in West Virginia history to be elected governor, died Sunday in Arizona after years of failing health, nearly half a century after he used the state’s highest office to abolish capital punishment, implement environmental reforms and set the stage to modernize the road system.
Smith’s home on tree-lined Harper Road was a longtime Beckley landmark, and it was there he lived until ill health befell him in recent years, forcing him out of public service.
Last fall, he was transferred to an assisted living home in Scottsdale, Ariz., where he died at age 93.
Smith was elected to his only term in 1964, four years after West Virginia voters turned the mansion over to William Wallace “Wally” Barron, whose administration was steeped in corruption. Barron eventually wound up in prison on a jury tampering conviction, drawing a five-year sentence.
“West Virginia is in mourning for one of our native sons, who became a champion for better state government during some of the most turbulent times in America’s history,” Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin said Monday in a statement.
“Gov. Smith enabled our state to take monumental steps forward during his time in office. Today, we remember the progress made under his leadership, and the man who led the way. Joanne and I send our heartfelt sympathies to his family.”
As governor, Smith, a Democrat and the son of a longtime congressman, signed a bill that outlawed the death penalty in 1965 and also inaugurated initiatives that imposed regulations on surface mining and air pollution.
On ending capital punishment, he said in a recent interview, “I still think it was the right thing to do.”
Smith defeated Republican foe Cecil H. Underwood, who had been elected West Virginia’s youngest chief executive in 1956, but afterward, the two once-bitter rivals forged a strong friendship that witnessed them working together on a number of education matters.
“When Hulett Smith stepped forward as your neighbor, a businessman, governor or distinguished civic leader, you could count on two things,” said Rep. Nick Rahall, D-W.Va.
“In one hand, the governor would be carrying the banner of excellence; the other would be outstretched so our kids could grab hold of a brighter future. The only thing this born leader ever followed was the truth as he saw it.”
Rahall, whose family owned a competing radio station, WWNR, said his and Smith’s families “enjoyed a long and treasured friendship.”
“Though we will miss him dearly here in Beckley, our state and nation has lost a champion, a thinker and doer, one who led a life of service to his fellow man,” the 3rd District congressman said.
Smith was the first governor Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., remembers seeing, and that occasion came in a visit to Farmington, when he steered West Virginia through one of its more deadly mine disasters, the No. 9 explosion on Nov. 20, 1968, that entombed 78 coal miners.
“He left a powerful legacy of leading our state into the future, whether it was human rights or infrastructure developments,” said Manchin, who twice was elected governor himself.
Besides the Farmington mine tragedy, Manchin noted that Smith also was in office when West Virginia suffered another horrific disaster, the Silver Bridge collapse of Dec. 15, 1967, at Point Pleasant, that left 46 people dead.
“As we celebrate Martin Luther King Jr. Day, we can also remember Gov. Smith for moving our state into the civil rights area and creating the foundation for who we are today,” Manchin said.
“Gov. Smith was a uniter and I can only imagine how he would approach our political division today. I hope that his example helps all of us see the good in each other and work better together.”
Sen. Rockefeller, also D-W.Va., called the late governor “a great and trusted friend, and someone I deeply admired.”
“A distinguished World War II veteran, Gov. Smith was a staunch advocate for the less fortunate,” the senator said.
“He worked tirelessly on behalf of all West Virginians and he was very kind and open to me when I first arrived in Emmons in 1964. Sharon and I are keeping his family in our thoughts and prayers today and in the days to come.”
Rep. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., whose father, Arch A. Moore Jr., succeeded Smith as governor in 1969, said she and her parents mourned the Beckleyan’s death.
“He was a true leader and a kind gentleman who left a positive mark on our state,” Capito said.
“When my father was elected governor, Hulett and Mary Alice were gracious and helpful during the transition, and they remained lifelong friends. We will keep his family in our thoughts and prayers.”
Appointed by Barron, Smith was the state’s first commerce commissioner, and, as governor, the former Navy lieutenant who served in the Bureau of Ordnance in World War II increased pre-school and university-level programs, while launching a number of organizations involving the arts and humanities.
A successful businessman in his hometown, with links to the insurance, health care, banking and broadcast media, Smith was born in 1918, the son of the late Rep. Joe L. Smith (for whom radio station WJLS was named) and Christine Carlson Smith. His father served eight straight terms in Congress.
A graduate of Woodrow Wilson High School and the Wharton School of Finance and Commerce at the University of Pennsylvania, he married Mary Alice Tieche in 1942, who was first lady in his term as governor. She died in 1967. The union produced six children. In 1990, the former governor married Nancy Pat Lewis of Beckley, who died three years ago. Sons Hulett Jr. and Mark preceded him in death.
While he never again sought public office, Smith remained in the public eye, serving on a number of public boards and agencies, including the West Virginia Parkways Authority, which governs the West Virginia Turnpike.
Manager Greg Barr, who was financial officer for the parkways when Smith served, remembered him as “a very professional, polite, kind man.”
“I guess, with his career in politics and being governor, he had learned how to work through issues and compromises as needed to get things done,” Barr said.
“Obviously, he was there during the creation of Tamarack. He was highly involved with Tamarack. He was a big supporter of that.”
Smith often regaled parkways officials with recollections of his days as governor, recalling his efforts on behalf of education, and how he wanted to assure West Virginia taxpayers got the most mileage as possible for money spent in that arena, Barr said.
“He always dressed nice, kind of flamboyantly sometimes, I thought,” Barr said.
“He was a unique fellow. I really enjoyed him.”
A former board member, Tom Winner of Oak Hill, remembered Smith as “attentive and very forward-thinking” while helping to direct Turnpike business.
In deference to his parkways service, a theater at the artisans mecca near the Beckley exit, Tamarack, is named after him.
Smith became the second Beckley native to win the governorship, joining Clarence Meadows, who served from 1945 to 1949.
His initial test of the gubernatorial waters proved futile, in 1960, when Barron won out, but four years later, he swept all but two of the state’s 55 counties in the Democratic primary and, a few months later, captured the post in what then was the largest majority in 16 years.
His stand against capital punishment, based on “mature belief and faith,” was part of his successful campaign against Underwood.
Smith led voters into approving the “Modern Budget Amendment,” which extended powers to the governor in proposing the annual spending document, in lieu of letting the Board of Public Works draw it up.
During his term, the Vietnam war escalated, causing a great deal of angst for the governor. Smith ultimately aligned himself with Vice President Hubert Humphrey’s position that America should quit bombing the Asian country in an effort to coax both sides to the negotiating table.
National turbulence was dramatized by more than just the war, however, with two public figures — New York Sen. Robert Kennedy and civil rights figure Martin Luther King Jr. — gunned down by assassins. That led Smith to urge stronger gun control laws, saying at the time, “We have to take steps to become a civilized nation.”
When his term ended, Charleston Daily Mail political columnist Bob Mellace opined that Smith’s lone term produced a record “that is remarkable and will stand for a long time, much longer than the words of his critics ... The record will show no man ever tried harder to do good and few accomplished more in the time allotted him in the governor’s office.”
Smith was the last governor barred from seeking a second term.
In his four-year stint, state aid to public education almost doubled, both the welfare caseload and jobless rate were cut, and five new airports were built. The Interstate highway system was brought up to schedule and voters approved a $350 million road bond amendment. In 2006, Interstate 64 from Beckley to the Virginia border was named in his honor.
“I was proud of my administration,” Smith said in a 2006 interview with The Register-Herald, emphasizing his efforts to expand civil service coverage and remove the taint of political corruption that characterized the Barron years.
Among Smith’s survivors are his children, Carolyn H. Sheets and husband, George, of Columbus, Ohio; Alice Christine Merritt of Atlanta, Ga.; Suzaine Smith of Boulder, Colo., and Paul Smith and wife Patti of Beckley; and 12 grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.
Funeral arrangements are pending at Melton Mortuary in Beckley.
"It was impossible to get a conversation going, everybody was talking too much." - Yogi Berra
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unchoopfan
- Member
- Posts: 209
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Jimmy Castor, 64, Soul, R&B singer/bandleader
(Rolling Stone) - Jimmy Castor – leader of the Jimmy Castor Bunch, a funk and soul band with a string of hits in the Seventies – died yesterday (Monday, Jan. 16) in Las Vegas. He was 64. A saxophonist and percussionist whose bands played a broad range of R&B and dance music, Castor was nicknamed "the Everything Man." The Jimmy Castor Bunch's hits included "Troglodyte (Cave Man)" (which was sampled by N.W.A.), "It's Just Begun" (featured in the breakdance battle scene in the 1983 movie Flashdance) and novelties such as "The Bertha Butt Boogie." Ice Cube and Eric B. and Rakim are among the many hip-hop acts to sample Castor's music over the years; Kanye West sampled one of his records on The College Dropout. Late in his career, Castor toured with a version of the doo-wop group the Teenagers, whose late singer, Frankie Lymon, had been a boyhood schoolmate of Castor's in New York.
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Dan Evins, 76, Cracker Barrel founder/former CEO
(AP/The Tennessean) - Dan Evins, the former oil wholesaler who founded the Cracker Barrel Old Country Store restaurant chain from a handful of gas stations near Southern interstates, died Saturday, Jan. 14 in Lebanon, Tennessee, from complications related to bladder cancer, The Tennessean reported. He was 76.
Evins, who went by Danny, started his life in the oil business, as his family owned the Lebanon-based petroleum sales company Consolidated Oil. Shortly after Highway 109 connected with Interstate 40 in 1968 in Middle Tennessee, Evins noticed an unmet demand for gasoline along the interstate, birthing the original idea of Cracker Barrel: a glorified gas station in which travelers could grab a bite and browse a gift shop, as well as fill up their tank.
Beginning in 1969, Evins helped build the chain into a national brand as CEO. By 1981, the year the company went public, Cracker Barrel had 25 locations along interstates in the Southeast. Ten years later, store locations kept multiplying and sales were outperforming rivals Shoney's and Denny's. After stepping down as CEO in 2001, Evins continued as chairman until he retired in 2004. Cracker Barrel now operates more than 600 restraurants in 42 states.
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Mike Current, 66, former NFL lineman (Denver Broncos)
(Denver Post) - Former Ohio State and NFL lineman Mike Current was found dead Monday, Jan. 16, 2012 in the Baskett Slough National Wildlife Refuge viewing area in Oregon, according to a report in the Salem (Ore.) Statesman Journal. Polk County, Oregon sheriff's officials told the Statesman Journal that Current, 66, of Las Vegas, apparently fatally shot himself with a shotgun. Current also had lived in Silverton, Ore. Off-duty paramedics found Current dead on a viewing platform off Highway 22 west of Dallas (Ore.) about 9 a.m. Monday. A Lima, Ohio, native, Current played for the legendary Woody Hayes at Ohio State. The 6-foot-5-inch, 274-pound offensive lineman was the Broncos' third-round draft choice in 1967 (the 58th overall pick). He played for the Broncos from 1967-75. He also played for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the Miami Dolphins. He started 164 of the 169 games in which he played.
(Rolling Stone) - Jimmy Castor – leader of the Jimmy Castor Bunch, a funk and soul band with a string of hits in the Seventies – died yesterday (Monday, Jan. 16) in Las Vegas. He was 64. A saxophonist and percussionist whose bands played a broad range of R&B and dance music, Castor was nicknamed "the Everything Man." The Jimmy Castor Bunch's hits included "Troglodyte (Cave Man)" (which was sampled by N.W.A.), "It's Just Begun" (featured in the breakdance battle scene in the 1983 movie Flashdance) and novelties such as "The Bertha Butt Boogie." Ice Cube and Eric B. and Rakim are among the many hip-hop acts to sample Castor's music over the years; Kanye West sampled one of his records on The College Dropout. Late in his career, Castor toured with a version of the doo-wop group the Teenagers, whose late singer, Frankie Lymon, had been a boyhood schoolmate of Castor's in New York.
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Dan Evins, 76, Cracker Barrel founder/former CEO
(AP/The Tennessean) - Dan Evins, the former oil wholesaler who founded the Cracker Barrel Old Country Store restaurant chain from a handful of gas stations near Southern interstates, died Saturday, Jan. 14 in Lebanon, Tennessee, from complications related to bladder cancer, The Tennessean reported. He was 76.
Evins, who went by Danny, started his life in the oil business, as his family owned the Lebanon-based petroleum sales company Consolidated Oil. Shortly after Highway 109 connected with Interstate 40 in 1968 in Middle Tennessee, Evins noticed an unmet demand for gasoline along the interstate, birthing the original idea of Cracker Barrel: a glorified gas station in which travelers could grab a bite and browse a gift shop, as well as fill up their tank.
Beginning in 1969, Evins helped build the chain into a national brand as CEO. By 1981, the year the company went public, Cracker Barrel had 25 locations along interstates in the Southeast. Ten years later, store locations kept multiplying and sales were outperforming rivals Shoney's and Denny's. After stepping down as CEO in 2001, Evins continued as chairman until he retired in 2004. Cracker Barrel now operates more than 600 restraurants in 42 states.
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Mike Current, 66, former NFL lineman (Denver Broncos)
(Denver Post) - Former Ohio State and NFL lineman Mike Current was found dead Monday, Jan. 16, 2012 in the Baskett Slough National Wildlife Refuge viewing area in Oregon, according to a report in the Salem (Ore.) Statesman Journal. Polk County, Oregon sheriff's officials told the Statesman Journal that Current, 66, of Las Vegas, apparently fatally shot himself with a shotgun. Current also had lived in Silverton, Ore. Off-duty paramedics found Current dead on a viewing platform off Highway 22 west of Dallas (Ore.) about 9 a.m. Monday. A Lima, Ohio, native, Current played for the legendary Woody Hayes at Ohio State. The 6-foot-5-inch, 274-pound offensive lineman was the Broncos' third-round draft choice in 1967 (the 58th overall pick). He played for the Broncos from 1967-75. He also played for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the Miami Dolphins. He started 164 of the 169 games in which he played.
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unchoopfan
- Member
- Posts: 209
- Joined: Mon Feb 03, 2003 10:52 am
Johnny Otis, 90, R&B singer/songwriter
(LA Times) - Pioneering rhythm-and-blues singer, songwriter, drummer, bandleader and disc jockey Johnny Otis, who discovered future stars of R&B and rock such as Etta James, Little Richard, Jackie Wilson, Hank Ballard and Little Esther Phillips, died Tuesday, Jan. 17 in the Los Angeles area. He was 90.
Inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1994, Otis scored his first signature hit in 1946 with the moody, saxophone-driven instrumental "Harlem Nocturne," which was revived in 1960 by the white New Jersey rock group the Viscounts. In 1958, he created the sensually pulsing hit "Willie and the Hand Jive." It also gave him a deep connection to black culture that helped him discover such future stars of R&B and rock as Etta James, Little Richard, Jackie Wilson, Hank Ballard and Little Esther Phillips.
At one point, Otis was asked to judge a talent competition in Detroit and selected three winners: Wilson, Ballard and Little Willie John. Otis' talent, he once said, was being able to "see something before anyone else." He wrote the song that became James' first charting hit — vaulting her to No. 1 on the R&B chart in 1955 — with "The Wallflower," popularly known as "Roll With Me Henry." It was a female-centric response to Ballard's sexually charged hit "Work With Me Annie" that raised eyebrows for its frankness.
Then he came up with a variant on Bo Diddley's signature 1955 hit "Bo Diddley" using the same five-count "shave-and-a-haircut, two-bits!" beat and created a smash of his own in "Willie and the Hand Jive." It's been recorded dozens of times by a wide variety of musicians, most notably by Eric Clapton in 1974. Commonly referred to as the "Godfather of Rhythm and Blues," Otis wrote other R&B hits, including "So Fine," "Double Crossing Blues" and "All Nite Long," and produced early recordings for Little Richard, Big Mama Thornton and Johnny Ace.
In recent years, Otis continued leading a big band R&B, jazz, soul, gospel and roots-rock revue, literally and figuratively beating the drum for the music that fired his imagination. made the kind of conscious life choice early on that few people have the inclination, or circumstance, to carry out. He also hosted early radio and television shows in L.A. and later guided new generations of listeners through music history on oldies radio shows at KPFK-FM (90.7) in L.A. and a sister station in the Bay Area.
(LA Times) - Pioneering rhythm-and-blues singer, songwriter, drummer, bandleader and disc jockey Johnny Otis, who discovered future stars of R&B and rock such as Etta James, Little Richard, Jackie Wilson, Hank Ballard and Little Esther Phillips, died Tuesday, Jan. 17 in the Los Angeles area. He was 90.
Inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1994, Otis scored his first signature hit in 1946 with the moody, saxophone-driven instrumental "Harlem Nocturne," which was revived in 1960 by the white New Jersey rock group the Viscounts. In 1958, he created the sensually pulsing hit "Willie and the Hand Jive." It also gave him a deep connection to black culture that helped him discover such future stars of R&B and rock as Etta James, Little Richard, Jackie Wilson, Hank Ballard and Little Esther Phillips.
At one point, Otis was asked to judge a talent competition in Detroit and selected three winners: Wilson, Ballard and Little Willie John. Otis' talent, he once said, was being able to "see something before anyone else." He wrote the song that became James' first charting hit — vaulting her to No. 1 on the R&B chart in 1955 — with "The Wallflower," popularly known as "Roll With Me Henry." It was a female-centric response to Ballard's sexually charged hit "Work With Me Annie" that raised eyebrows for its frankness.
Then he came up with a variant on Bo Diddley's signature 1955 hit "Bo Diddley" using the same five-count "shave-and-a-haircut, two-bits!" beat and created a smash of his own in "Willie and the Hand Jive." It's been recorded dozens of times by a wide variety of musicians, most notably by Eric Clapton in 1974. Commonly referred to as the "Godfather of Rhythm and Blues," Otis wrote other R&B hits, including "So Fine," "Double Crossing Blues" and "All Nite Long," and produced early recordings for Little Richard, Big Mama Thornton and Johnny Ace.
In recent years, Otis continued leading a big band R&B, jazz, soul, gospel and roots-rock revue, literally and figuratively beating the drum for the music that fired his imagination. made the kind of conscious life choice early on that few people have the inclination, or circumstance, to carry out. He also hosted early radio and television shows in L.A. and later guided new generations of listeners through music history on oldies radio shows at KPFK-FM (90.7) in L.A. and a sister station in the Bay Area.
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Scott Reppert
- Member
- Posts: 1442
- Joined: Tue Dec 18, 2001 12:50 pm
- Location: Fairmont, WV
Re: 2012 Obits: R.I.P. and Remembrance thread
One Of My "Five Heroes" Has Passed...
Christians around the world are mourning the loss of international evangelist R.W. Schambach.
The East Texas-based pastor died of a heart attack Tuesday. He was 85.
Schambach and his wife ministered through international crusades and inner city tent meetings for more than 60 years.
Schambach preached in more than 200 countries boldly proclaiming, "You don't have any trouble … all you need is faith in God."
"Legendary father of faith, R.W. Schambach, was received by the Lord to his reward Tuesday, Jan. 17, when his heart failed," a statement on his ministry website said.
"His life and ministry were a divine military mission, which began on a destroyer off the coast of Japan in WWII. He and his wife Winn served in international crusades, inner-city tent meetings, bringing countless thousands to the saving knowledge of Jesus for over six decades," the statement read.
Schambach was a graduate of the Central Bible Institute in Springfield, Mo., in the mid-1940s.
His daughter, Donna, now runs the Schambach Ministries located in Tyler, Texas.
Memorial services are scheduled for 7 p.m., Feb. 3 at the Rose Heights Church of God in Tyler, Texas.
Christians around the world are mourning the loss of international evangelist R.W. Schambach.
The East Texas-based pastor died of a heart attack Tuesday. He was 85.
Schambach and his wife ministered through international crusades and inner city tent meetings for more than 60 years.
Schambach preached in more than 200 countries boldly proclaiming, "You don't have any trouble … all you need is faith in God."
"Legendary father of faith, R.W. Schambach, was received by the Lord to his reward Tuesday, Jan. 17, when his heart failed," a statement on his ministry website said.
"His life and ministry were a divine military mission, which began on a destroyer off the coast of Japan in WWII. He and his wife Winn served in international crusades, inner-city tent meetings, bringing countless thousands to the saving knowledge of Jesus for over six decades," the statement read.
Schambach was a graduate of the Central Bible Institute in Springfield, Mo., in the mid-1940s.
His daughter, Donna, now runs the Schambach Ministries located in Tyler, Texas.
Memorial services are scheduled for 7 p.m., Feb. 3 at the Rose Heights Church of God in Tyler, Texas.
Scott Reppert
Music Director/Program Director/On-Air Personality
WTCS/WFGM/WMQC/WAIJ/WLIC/WRIJ/WKJL/WRWJ/WPCL/WWPN
Operations Manager: Hope Radio, T8WH, Palau
Production/Editor: "Believe Right" and "MFC WorldWide"
"For mine eyes have seen Thy salvation"--Luke 2:30
Music Director/Program Director/On-Air Personality
WTCS/WFGM/WMQC/WAIJ/WLIC/WRIJ/WKJL/WRWJ/WPCL/WWPN
Operations Manager: Hope Radio, T8WH, Palau
Production/Editor: "Believe Right" and "MFC WorldWide"
"For mine eyes have seen Thy salvation"--Luke 2:30
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unchoopfan
- Member
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- Joined: Mon Feb 03, 2003 10:52 am
Re: 2012 Obits: R.I.P. and Remembrance thread
Etta James, 73, R&B/Soul legend
(CNN) - Etta James, whose assertive, earthy voice lit up such hits as "The Wallflower," "Something's Got a Hold on Me" and the wedding favorite "At Last," died Friday, Jan. 20 of complications from leukemia, according to her longtime friend and manager, Lupe De Leon. She was 73.
James' husband, Artis Mills, and her sons were by her side at her death, De Leon said. She was diagnosed with leukemia in 2010, and also suffered from dementia and hepatitis C. James died at a hospital in Riverside, California. She would have turned 74 Wednesday.
The powerhouse singer, known as "Miss Peaches," lived an eventful life. She first hit the charts as a teenager, taking "The Wallflower (Roll With Me, Henry)" -- an "answer record" to Hank Ballard's "Work With Me, Annie" -- to No. 1 on the R&B charts in 1955. She joined Chess Records in 1960 and had a string of R&B and pop hits, many with lush string arrangements. After a mid-decade fade, she re-emerged in 1967 with a more hard-edged, soulful sound.
Throughout her career, James overcame a heroin addiction, opened for the Rolling Stones, won six Grammys and was voted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Despite her ups and downs -- including a number of health problems -- she maintained an optimistic attitude.
In 1950, her mother took her to San Francisco, where James formed a group called the Peaches. Singer Johnny Otis, best known for "Willie and the Hand Jive," discovered her and had her sing a song he wrote using Ballard's tune as a model. "The Wallflower," with responses from "Louie Louie" songwriter Richard Berry, made James an R&B star.
Her signing to Chess introduced her to a broader audience, as the record label's co-owner, Leonard Chess, believed she should do pop hits. Among her recordings were "Stormy Weather," the Lena Horne classic originally from 1933; "A Sunday Kind of Love," which dates from 1946; and most notably, "At Last," a 1941 number that was originally a hit for Glenn Miller.
James' version of "At Last" starts out with swooning strings and the singer enters with confident gusto, dazzlingly maintaining a mood of joy and romance. Though the song failed to make the Top 40 upon its 1961 release -- though it did hit the R&B Top 10 -- its emotional punch has long made it a favorite at weddings.
James' career suffered in the mid-'60s when the British Invasion took over the pop charts and as she fought some personal demons. But she got a boost when she started recording at Rick Hall's FAME Studios in Muscle Shoals, Alabama. Her hits included the brassy "Tell Mama" and the raw "I'd Rather Go Blind," the latter later notably covered by Rod Stewart.
She entered rehab in the 1970s for her drug problem but re-established herself with live performances and an album produced by noted R&B mastermind Jerry Wexler. After another stint in rehab -- this time at the Betty Ford Clinic -- she made a comeback album, "Seven Year Itch," in 1988.
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Larry Butler, 69, country songwriter/producer
(The Tennessean) - Larry Butler, the only person in Nashville history to win an all-Genre producer of the year Grammy, died of natural causes Friday morning (Jan. 20) at his home in Pensacola, Fla. He was 69.
Butler produced works by numerous stars, including Johnny Cash, Charlie Rich, John Denver, Bill Anderson, Dottie West and Waylon Jennings, but his biggest impact was on the career of Kenny Rogers. Butler helmed Rogers’ shift from rock music to country, and he produced major hits including “The Gambler,” “Lucille” and “Coward of the County,” taking care to place Rogers’ vocals front and center in the mix, and accentuating acoustic guitar parts and percussion.
“The success he and Kenny had together is mind-boggling,” said Kim Carnes, who co-wrote Rogers’ Gideon album, produced by Butler. That album featured “Don’t Fall in Love with a Dreamer,” a Rogers/Carnes duet that became a top five country and adult contemporary hit. “Larry and Kenny were really intertwined. Larry worked with artists who had their own individual style, and he would figure out what made them unique and then get the best out of them.”
A native of Pensacola, Butler began his career at the age of six with the Harry James Orchestra; at age ten he sang with Red Foley and before he was old enough to drive he had hosted his own radio show and co-hosted a live TV show in his market. He eventually joined a Florida band, Jerry Woodward and the Esquires. While on a trip to Nashville he met a noted publisher/producer, Buddy Killen of Tree International. In 1963, with Killen's encouragement, Butler moved to Nashville with only a few dollars in his pocket. Soon his unique style of piano playing supported such hits as "Hello Darlin" by Conway Twitty and "Honey" by Bobby Goldsboro. Butler was in high demand as a Nashville session player and backed up Nashville celebrities such as Johnny Cash, Roger Miller, George Jones, Tammy Wynette, Loretta Lynn, Dolly Parton, Bobby Goldsboro, Jerry Lee Lewis, Charlie Rich, Lynn Anderson and more.
Moving to Memphis in the late 1960s, Butler hooked-up with Chips Moman. As The Gentry's they hit the pop charts with "Keep On Dancin'" and "Every Day I Have To Cry Some". During that same period of time Butler co-wrote the Poppies hit single "Lullaby Of Love". He was signed as a solo artist and served as Bobby Goldsboro's pianist and music director. He also penned other big hits, co-writing with Moman the B.J. Thomas hit, “(Hey, Won’t You Play) Another Somebody Done Somebody Wrong Song," and writing “Only The Strong Survive” (Tammy Wynette) and “Standing Tall” (Billy Joe Spears, Lorrie Morgan).
Butler returned to Nashville to join Capitol Records as an in-house producer. The very first single he produced, "Seven Lonely Days", became a Billboard Top-20 Country single for Jean Shepard in 1969. Moving on to CBS Records at the urging of legendary producer Billy Sherrill, Butler worked closely with Johnny Cash producing some "The Man In Black's" biggest hits. So successful was the partnership that Butler became Cash's producer, pianist, musical director and studio manager.
In 1973 Butler made one of his most significant career moves by joining United Artists Records as head of the label's Nashville division. His leadership and vision brought in such acts as Kenny Rogers, Crystal Gayle, Dottie West and The Kendalls and established the label as one of the most successful and respected in Nashville.
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Sarah Burke, 29, skier-snowboarder/XGames athlete
(LA Times) - Canadian skier Sarah Burke, a leading pioneer of the freestyle halfpipe and the best-known athlete in her sport, died Thursday, nine days after crashing at the bottom of the superpipe during a training run in Utah. She was 29.
A four-time Winter X Games champion, Sarah Burke was a driving force behind the inclusion of the halfpipe in the 2014 Winter Olympics. A four-time Winter X Games champion, she was a daredevil who set the standard for skiing in the superpipe, a sister sport to the more popular snowboarding brand that has turned Shaun White and others into stars.
Burke was injured Jan. 10 while training at Park City Mountain resort. She crashed on the same halfpipe where snowboarder Kevin Pearce suffered a traumatic brain injury during a training accident on Dec. 31, 2009. Her death is certain to reignite the debate over safety on the halfpipe.
(CNN) - Etta James, whose assertive, earthy voice lit up such hits as "The Wallflower," "Something's Got a Hold on Me" and the wedding favorite "At Last," died Friday, Jan. 20 of complications from leukemia, according to her longtime friend and manager, Lupe De Leon. She was 73.
James' husband, Artis Mills, and her sons were by her side at her death, De Leon said. She was diagnosed with leukemia in 2010, and also suffered from dementia and hepatitis C. James died at a hospital in Riverside, California. She would have turned 74 Wednesday.
The powerhouse singer, known as "Miss Peaches," lived an eventful life. She first hit the charts as a teenager, taking "The Wallflower (Roll With Me, Henry)" -- an "answer record" to Hank Ballard's "Work With Me, Annie" -- to No. 1 on the R&B charts in 1955. She joined Chess Records in 1960 and had a string of R&B and pop hits, many with lush string arrangements. After a mid-decade fade, she re-emerged in 1967 with a more hard-edged, soulful sound.
Throughout her career, James overcame a heroin addiction, opened for the Rolling Stones, won six Grammys and was voted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Despite her ups and downs -- including a number of health problems -- she maintained an optimistic attitude.
In 1950, her mother took her to San Francisco, where James formed a group called the Peaches. Singer Johnny Otis, best known for "Willie and the Hand Jive," discovered her and had her sing a song he wrote using Ballard's tune as a model. "The Wallflower," with responses from "Louie Louie" songwriter Richard Berry, made James an R&B star.
Her signing to Chess introduced her to a broader audience, as the record label's co-owner, Leonard Chess, believed she should do pop hits. Among her recordings were "Stormy Weather," the Lena Horne classic originally from 1933; "A Sunday Kind of Love," which dates from 1946; and most notably, "At Last," a 1941 number that was originally a hit for Glenn Miller.
James' version of "At Last" starts out with swooning strings and the singer enters with confident gusto, dazzlingly maintaining a mood of joy and romance. Though the song failed to make the Top 40 upon its 1961 release -- though it did hit the R&B Top 10 -- its emotional punch has long made it a favorite at weddings.
James' career suffered in the mid-'60s when the British Invasion took over the pop charts and as she fought some personal demons. But she got a boost when she started recording at Rick Hall's FAME Studios in Muscle Shoals, Alabama. Her hits included the brassy "Tell Mama" and the raw "I'd Rather Go Blind," the latter later notably covered by Rod Stewart.
She entered rehab in the 1970s for her drug problem but re-established herself with live performances and an album produced by noted R&B mastermind Jerry Wexler. After another stint in rehab -- this time at the Betty Ford Clinic -- she made a comeback album, "Seven Year Itch," in 1988.
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Larry Butler, 69, country songwriter/producer
(The Tennessean) - Larry Butler, the only person in Nashville history to win an all-Genre producer of the year Grammy, died of natural causes Friday morning (Jan. 20) at his home in Pensacola, Fla. He was 69.
Butler produced works by numerous stars, including Johnny Cash, Charlie Rich, John Denver, Bill Anderson, Dottie West and Waylon Jennings, but his biggest impact was on the career of Kenny Rogers. Butler helmed Rogers’ shift from rock music to country, and he produced major hits including “The Gambler,” “Lucille” and “Coward of the County,” taking care to place Rogers’ vocals front and center in the mix, and accentuating acoustic guitar parts and percussion.
“The success he and Kenny had together is mind-boggling,” said Kim Carnes, who co-wrote Rogers’ Gideon album, produced by Butler. That album featured “Don’t Fall in Love with a Dreamer,” a Rogers/Carnes duet that became a top five country and adult contemporary hit. “Larry and Kenny were really intertwined. Larry worked with artists who had their own individual style, and he would figure out what made them unique and then get the best out of them.”
A native of Pensacola, Butler began his career at the age of six with the Harry James Orchestra; at age ten he sang with Red Foley and before he was old enough to drive he had hosted his own radio show and co-hosted a live TV show in his market. He eventually joined a Florida band, Jerry Woodward and the Esquires. While on a trip to Nashville he met a noted publisher/producer, Buddy Killen of Tree International. In 1963, with Killen's encouragement, Butler moved to Nashville with only a few dollars in his pocket. Soon his unique style of piano playing supported such hits as "Hello Darlin" by Conway Twitty and "Honey" by Bobby Goldsboro. Butler was in high demand as a Nashville session player and backed up Nashville celebrities such as Johnny Cash, Roger Miller, George Jones, Tammy Wynette, Loretta Lynn, Dolly Parton, Bobby Goldsboro, Jerry Lee Lewis, Charlie Rich, Lynn Anderson and more.
Moving to Memphis in the late 1960s, Butler hooked-up with Chips Moman. As The Gentry's they hit the pop charts with "Keep On Dancin'" and "Every Day I Have To Cry Some". During that same period of time Butler co-wrote the Poppies hit single "Lullaby Of Love". He was signed as a solo artist and served as Bobby Goldsboro's pianist and music director. He also penned other big hits, co-writing with Moman the B.J. Thomas hit, “(Hey, Won’t You Play) Another Somebody Done Somebody Wrong Song," and writing “Only The Strong Survive” (Tammy Wynette) and “Standing Tall” (Billy Joe Spears, Lorrie Morgan).
Butler returned to Nashville to join Capitol Records as an in-house producer. The very first single he produced, "Seven Lonely Days", became a Billboard Top-20 Country single for Jean Shepard in 1969. Moving on to CBS Records at the urging of legendary producer Billy Sherrill, Butler worked closely with Johnny Cash producing some "The Man In Black's" biggest hits. So successful was the partnership that Butler became Cash's producer, pianist, musical director and studio manager.
In 1973 Butler made one of his most significant career moves by joining United Artists Records as head of the label's Nashville division. His leadership and vision brought in such acts as Kenny Rogers, Crystal Gayle, Dottie West and The Kendalls and established the label as one of the most successful and respected in Nashville.
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Sarah Burke, 29, skier-snowboarder/XGames athlete
(LA Times) - Canadian skier Sarah Burke, a leading pioneer of the freestyle halfpipe and the best-known athlete in her sport, died Thursday, nine days after crashing at the bottom of the superpipe during a training run in Utah. She was 29.
A four-time Winter X Games champion, Sarah Burke was a driving force behind the inclusion of the halfpipe in the 2014 Winter Olympics. A four-time Winter X Games champion, she was a daredevil who set the standard for skiing in the superpipe, a sister sport to the more popular snowboarding brand that has turned Shaun White and others into stars.
Burke was injured Jan. 10 while training at Park City Mountain resort. She crashed on the same halfpipe where snowboarder Kevin Pearce suffered a traumatic brain injury during a training accident on Dec. 31, 2009. Her death is certain to reignite the debate over safety on the halfpipe.
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unchoopfan
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Joe Paterno, 85, College Football coaching legend
(ABC News) - Joe Paterno Jr., whose glittering career as Penn State's football coach was tainted by a child sex-abuse scandal, died today (Sunday, Jan. 22). He was 85.
"It is with great sadness that we announce that Joe Paterno passed away earlier today. His loss leaves a void in our lives that will never be filled," Paterno's family said in a statement.
Paterno coached the Nittany Lions for 46 years and in 2011 became the winningest coach in Division 1 football. But before the season was over, he was abruptly dismissed as the sex scandal involving former assistant Jerry Sandusky suggested that top school officials had ignored signs of Sandusky's alleged predatory behavior.
During his tenure, the reputation of Penn State grew from that of a small land-grant university to a nationally ranked research university. The football program ballooned in prestige, with the school's Beaver Stadium expanding six times during his tenure.
Paterno's football program consistently ranked among the top in the NCAA for graduation rates, as well as the top grade point averages for student athletes in Division 1 sports. The achievements helped illustrate Paterno's philosophy on collegiate sports and on life, as he said in a 1973 commencement speech to Penn State graduates, that "Success without honor is an unseasoned dish; it will satisfy your hunger but it won't taste good."
And despite offers from other universities and NFL football teams, including an ownership stake in the New England Patriots, Paterno remained at Penn State, where his base pay was only a fraction of that of other top football coaches in the country. His base pay in 2011 was a little less than $600,000. He and his wife, Sue, donated more than $4 million to the university, which named a library and a campus spirituality center for them.
(ABC News) - Joe Paterno Jr., whose glittering career as Penn State's football coach was tainted by a child sex-abuse scandal, died today (Sunday, Jan. 22). He was 85.
"It is with great sadness that we announce that Joe Paterno passed away earlier today. His loss leaves a void in our lives that will never be filled," Paterno's family said in a statement.
Paterno coached the Nittany Lions for 46 years and in 2011 became the winningest coach in Division 1 football. But before the season was over, he was abruptly dismissed as the sex scandal involving former assistant Jerry Sandusky suggested that top school officials had ignored signs of Sandusky's alleged predatory behavior.
During his tenure, the reputation of Penn State grew from that of a small land-grant university to a nationally ranked research university. The football program ballooned in prestige, with the school's Beaver Stadium expanding six times during his tenure.
Paterno's football program consistently ranked among the top in the NCAA for graduation rates, as well as the top grade point averages for student athletes in Division 1 sports. The achievements helped illustrate Paterno's philosophy on collegiate sports and on life, as he said in a 1973 commencement speech to Penn State graduates, that "Success without honor is an unseasoned dish; it will satisfy your hunger but it won't taste good."
And despite offers from other universities and NFL football teams, including an ownership stake in the New England Patriots, Paterno remained at Penn State, where his base pay was only a fraction of that of other top football coaches in the country. His base pay in 2011 was a little less than $600,000. He and his wife, Sue, donated more than $4 million to the university, which named a library and a campus spirituality center for them.
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unchoopfan
- Member
- Posts: 209
- Joined: Mon Feb 03, 2003 10:52 am
Jim Irwin, 77, Green Bay Packers play-by-play voice
(AP) - Jim Irwin, the longtime former radio voice of the Green Bay Packers during a distinguished sports broadcasting career, has died after a battle with cancer. He was 77. His wife, Gloria, said Irwin died Sunday (Jan. 22) of metastatic cancer at their home in Southern California, where he was in hospice care.
Irwin worked as a color analyst for Packers games on WTMJ-AM in the 1960s and '70s. He then worked as a play-by-play announcer until he and his longtime on-air partner, former Packers receiver Max McGee, retired at the end of the 1998 season. During his run, Irwin called 612 consecutive Packers games. In addition, Irwin also called University of Wisconsin football games for 22 years, Milwaukee Bucks games for 16 years, University of Wisconsin basketball games for five years and UW-Milwaukee basketball games for two years. He also filled in for Bob Uecker on Milwaukee Brewers games.
Irwin was inducted into the Packers Hall of Fame in 2003 and was recognized as Wisconsin sports Announcer of the Year 10 times. He's in the Wisconsin Broadcasting Association Hall of Fame.
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Andy Musser, 74, Philly sportscaster/Phillies-Sixers play-by-play voice
(AP) - Andy Musser, a sports announcer for 45 years and a Philadelphia Phillies broadcaster for a quarter-century, has died. He was 74. Musser's son, Allan, of Roswell, Ga., said his father died Sunday evening (Jan. 22) at his home in Wynnewood in suburban Philadelphia.
"Andy was a dear friend to many, an absolute gentleman, and a true professional," Phillies president David Montgomery said in a statement. "I had the pleasure of working with him for 26 years during which time he made a significant contribution to our club. Additionally, along with thousands of Philadelphia sports fans, I admired his versatility in announcing not only Phillies games but also his work with the Eagles, Sixers and Villanova Basketball. Since leaving the Phillies broadcast booth in 2001, Andy remained close to the club. We will all miss our dear friend."
Musser retired in 2001 after 25 years with the Phillies, working throughout his tenure beside Harry Kalas. Musser missed only two games for health reasons when laryngitis kept him out of the broadcast booth. He also covered the World Series, Eagles and 76ers games, and Big Five basketball.
"Andy was my first TV partner, and he taught me the TV business," 76ers coach Doug Collins said. "There was no better pro than him, and we're all going to miss him."
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Bingham Ray, 57, film executive/producer
(LA Times) - Bingham Ray, the co-founder of October Films, one of the top independent film distribution companies of the 1990s, and a former president of United Artists who was a leading force in independent films for more than two decades, died Monday (Jan. 23). He was 57.
Ray, who was named executive director of the San Francisco Film Society in November, died in a hospital in Provo, Utah, after suffering a stroke last week while attending the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, said Sarah Eaton, a spokeswoman for the family.
Ray co-founded October Films in 1991 with Jeff Lipsky in Lipsky's garage in Sherman Oaks. Six months after its first release, Mike Leigh's "Life Is Sweet," the company had raised capital and opened its doors in New York City. Ray served as co-president until the company's sale to USA Networks in 1999.
During his years with October Films, Ray distributed films such as Leigh's "Secrets & Lies," Lars von Trier's "Breaking the Waves," John Dahl's "The Last Seduction," Robert Duvall's "The Apostle," David Lynch's "Lost Highway," Robert Altman's "Cookie's Fortune" and Jim Jarmusch's "The Year of the Horse."
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Philip Vannatter, 70, LAPD detective led O.J. Simpson murder investigation
(LA Times) - Philip Vannatter, the Los Angeles police detective who led the investigation of the 1994 slayings of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman, has died. Vannatter died of complications from cancer Friday (Jan. 20) in Santa Clarita, his wife, Rita, said. He was 70.
"He was a real blue-collar detective," O.J. Simpson prosecutor Christopher Darden said in an emotional interview Sunday. "He did his job the best he could and he was a fine detective, one of the best." Vannatter was among the first detectives to arrive at former football star Simpson's mansion in June 1994 after the stabbing deaths of Simpson's ex-wife, Nicole, and her friend, Goldman.
In 1977, Vannatter arrested film director Roman Polanski in the lobby of the Beverly Wilshire Hotel on charges of having unlawful sex with a 13-year-old girl.
A grandfather known as "Dutch" among friends and as a "super cop" among colleagues, Vannatter rose to the elite Robbery-Homicide division of the Los Angeles Police Department early in his 27-year career and earned a reputation for meticulous, tough-minded work.
Simpson's defense team branded Vannatter a "devil of deception" and said he had used a vial of blood from Simpson to plant evidence at the former football star's estate. The detective acknowledged that he had a vial of Simpson's blood in an unsealed envelope in his car during a visit to Simpson's home, but was unapologetic about the matter and said he was simply carrying it to a criminalist.
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Charla Krupp, 58, author/commentator
(USA Today) - Charla Krupp, a popular author and commentator on fashion and beauty whose best-sellers included "How Not to Look Old" and "How to Never Look Fat Again" has died in New York City. She was 58. Krupp's husband, Richard Zoglin, says she died Monday (Jan. 23) of breast cancer at their home in Manhattan.
Krupp made numerous television appearances over the years. She was on NBC's "Today" show, Oprah Winfrey's syndicated talk show and ABC's "Good Morning America." She also wrote for several publications, including Time, USA Today and Town & Country.
(AP) - Jim Irwin, the longtime former radio voice of the Green Bay Packers during a distinguished sports broadcasting career, has died after a battle with cancer. He was 77. His wife, Gloria, said Irwin died Sunday (Jan. 22) of metastatic cancer at their home in Southern California, where he was in hospice care.
Irwin worked as a color analyst for Packers games on WTMJ-AM in the 1960s and '70s. He then worked as a play-by-play announcer until he and his longtime on-air partner, former Packers receiver Max McGee, retired at the end of the 1998 season. During his run, Irwin called 612 consecutive Packers games. In addition, Irwin also called University of Wisconsin football games for 22 years, Milwaukee Bucks games for 16 years, University of Wisconsin basketball games for five years and UW-Milwaukee basketball games for two years. He also filled in for Bob Uecker on Milwaukee Brewers games.
Irwin was inducted into the Packers Hall of Fame in 2003 and was recognized as Wisconsin sports Announcer of the Year 10 times. He's in the Wisconsin Broadcasting Association Hall of Fame.
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Andy Musser, 74, Philly sportscaster/Phillies-Sixers play-by-play voice
(AP) - Andy Musser, a sports announcer for 45 years and a Philadelphia Phillies broadcaster for a quarter-century, has died. He was 74. Musser's son, Allan, of Roswell, Ga., said his father died Sunday evening (Jan. 22) at his home in Wynnewood in suburban Philadelphia.
"Andy was a dear friend to many, an absolute gentleman, and a true professional," Phillies president David Montgomery said in a statement. "I had the pleasure of working with him for 26 years during which time he made a significant contribution to our club. Additionally, along with thousands of Philadelphia sports fans, I admired his versatility in announcing not only Phillies games but also his work with the Eagles, Sixers and Villanova Basketball. Since leaving the Phillies broadcast booth in 2001, Andy remained close to the club. We will all miss our dear friend."
Musser retired in 2001 after 25 years with the Phillies, working throughout his tenure beside Harry Kalas. Musser missed only two games for health reasons when laryngitis kept him out of the broadcast booth. He also covered the World Series, Eagles and 76ers games, and Big Five basketball.
"Andy was my first TV partner, and he taught me the TV business," 76ers coach Doug Collins said. "There was no better pro than him, and we're all going to miss him."
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Bingham Ray, 57, film executive/producer
(LA Times) - Bingham Ray, the co-founder of October Films, one of the top independent film distribution companies of the 1990s, and a former president of United Artists who was a leading force in independent films for more than two decades, died Monday (Jan. 23). He was 57.
Ray, who was named executive director of the San Francisco Film Society in November, died in a hospital in Provo, Utah, after suffering a stroke last week while attending the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, said Sarah Eaton, a spokeswoman for the family.
Ray co-founded October Films in 1991 with Jeff Lipsky in Lipsky's garage in Sherman Oaks. Six months after its first release, Mike Leigh's "Life Is Sweet," the company had raised capital and opened its doors in New York City. Ray served as co-president until the company's sale to USA Networks in 1999.
During his years with October Films, Ray distributed films such as Leigh's "Secrets & Lies," Lars von Trier's "Breaking the Waves," John Dahl's "The Last Seduction," Robert Duvall's "The Apostle," David Lynch's "Lost Highway," Robert Altman's "Cookie's Fortune" and Jim Jarmusch's "The Year of the Horse."
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Philip Vannatter, 70, LAPD detective led O.J. Simpson murder investigation
(LA Times) - Philip Vannatter, the Los Angeles police detective who led the investigation of the 1994 slayings of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman, has died. Vannatter died of complications from cancer Friday (Jan. 20) in Santa Clarita, his wife, Rita, said. He was 70.
"He was a real blue-collar detective," O.J. Simpson prosecutor Christopher Darden said in an emotional interview Sunday. "He did his job the best he could and he was a fine detective, one of the best." Vannatter was among the first detectives to arrive at former football star Simpson's mansion in June 1994 after the stabbing deaths of Simpson's ex-wife, Nicole, and her friend, Goldman.
In 1977, Vannatter arrested film director Roman Polanski in the lobby of the Beverly Wilshire Hotel on charges of having unlawful sex with a 13-year-old girl.
A grandfather known as "Dutch" among friends and as a "super cop" among colleagues, Vannatter rose to the elite Robbery-Homicide division of the Los Angeles Police Department early in his 27-year career and earned a reputation for meticulous, tough-minded work.
Simpson's defense team branded Vannatter a "devil of deception" and said he had used a vial of blood from Simpson to plant evidence at the former football star's estate. The detective acknowledged that he had a vial of Simpson's blood in an unsealed envelope in his car during a visit to Simpson's home, but was unapologetic about the matter and said he was simply carrying it to a criminalist.
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Charla Krupp, 58, author/commentator
(USA Today) - Charla Krupp, a popular author and commentator on fashion and beauty whose best-sellers included "How Not to Look Old" and "How to Never Look Fat Again" has died in New York City. She was 58. Krupp's husband, Richard Zoglin, says she died Monday (Jan. 23) of breast cancer at their home in Manhattan.
Krupp made numerous television appearances over the years. She was on NBC's "Today" show, Oprah Winfrey's syndicated talk show and ABC's "Good Morning America." She also wrote for several publications, including Time, USA Today and Town & Country.
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unchoopfan
- Member
- Posts: 209
- Joined: Mon Feb 03, 2003 10:52 am
Dick Tufeld, 85, radio/TV announcer and voice actor
(LA Times) - Dick Tufeld, a longtime radio and TV announcer who intoned "Danger, Will Robinson!" as the voice of the Robot in the 1960s science-fiction TV series "Lost in Space," has died. He was 85. Tufeld died Sunday (Jan. 22) at his home in Studio City while watching the NFL playoffs, his family said. He had heart disease and had been in declining health since sustaining a fall last year.
In "Lost in Space," producer Irwin Allen's futuristic retelling of the "Swiss Family Robinson" story that aired on CBS from 1965 to 1968, actor Bob May wore the Robot costume and Tufeld provided the voice.
Besides warning young Will Robinson of impending danger, Tufeld's Robot uttered other lines that became catchphrases for faithful viewers — including "That does not compute" — and needled the antagonistic Dr. Zachary Smith with barbs like "Dr. Smith is a bubble-headed booby."
Tufeld was the announcer for Allen's other TV shows, including "Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea" and "The Time Tunnel," and his narration and other voice-over work could be heard on an array of TV programs. He introduced many Walt Disney productions, notably the 1950s TV series "Zorro" and Disney's long-running prime-time anthology series.
His other TV credits from the '50s through the '90s included "Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends," "The Fantastic Four," "The Gallant Men," "Surfside 6," "Annie Oakley" and variety shows starring Judy Garland and Julie Andrews.
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James Farnetino, 73, actor
(LA Times) - James Farentino, a stage, film and television actor who starred in "The Bold Ones: The Lawyers" TV series, died Tuesday (Jan. 24) at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles after a lengthy illness, family spokesman Bob Palmer said. He was 73.
Farentino made his Broadway debut in a 1961 production of "Night of the Iguana" and played Stanley Kowalski in a 1973 revival of "A Streetcar Named Desire."
His movie roles include "The Pad and How to Use It" (1966) and his co-starring role with Natalie Wood in "Me, Natalie" (1969). In 1978 he was nominated for an Emmy Award for Outstanding Performance by a Supporting Actor in a Comedy or Drama Special for his portrayal of Saint Peter in the mini-series, "Jesus of Nazareth." In 1980, Farentino starred in film "The Final Countdown" with Kirk Douglas and Martin Sheen. In the late 1990s, Farentino appeared in a recurring role as the estranged father of George Clooney's character on the NBC drama "ER."
In 1994, Farentino pleaded no contest to stalking ex-girlfriend Tina Sinatra, daughter of singer Frank Sinatra.
Farentino is survived by his fourth wife, Stella, and two sons, David and Saverio.
(LA Times) - Dick Tufeld, a longtime radio and TV announcer who intoned "Danger, Will Robinson!" as the voice of the Robot in the 1960s science-fiction TV series "Lost in Space," has died. He was 85. Tufeld died Sunday (Jan. 22) at his home in Studio City while watching the NFL playoffs, his family said. He had heart disease and had been in declining health since sustaining a fall last year.
In "Lost in Space," producer Irwin Allen's futuristic retelling of the "Swiss Family Robinson" story that aired on CBS from 1965 to 1968, actor Bob May wore the Robot costume and Tufeld provided the voice.
Besides warning young Will Robinson of impending danger, Tufeld's Robot uttered other lines that became catchphrases for faithful viewers — including "That does not compute" — and needled the antagonistic Dr. Zachary Smith with barbs like "Dr. Smith is a bubble-headed booby."
Tufeld was the announcer for Allen's other TV shows, including "Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea" and "The Time Tunnel," and his narration and other voice-over work could be heard on an array of TV programs. He introduced many Walt Disney productions, notably the 1950s TV series "Zorro" and Disney's long-running prime-time anthology series.
His other TV credits from the '50s through the '90s included "Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends," "The Fantastic Four," "The Gallant Men," "Surfside 6," "Annie Oakley" and variety shows starring Judy Garland and Julie Andrews.
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James Farnetino, 73, actor
(LA Times) - James Farentino, a stage, film and television actor who starred in "The Bold Ones: The Lawyers" TV series, died Tuesday (Jan. 24) at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles after a lengthy illness, family spokesman Bob Palmer said. He was 73.
Farentino made his Broadway debut in a 1961 production of "Night of the Iguana" and played Stanley Kowalski in a 1973 revival of "A Streetcar Named Desire."
His movie roles include "The Pad and How to Use It" (1966) and his co-starring role with Natalie Wood in "Me, Natalie" (1969). In 1978 he was nominated for an Emmy Award for Outstanding Performance by a Supporting Actor in a Comedy or Drama Special for his portrayal of Saint Peter in the mini-series, "Jesus of Nazareth." In 1980, Farentino starred in film "The Final Countdown" with Kirk Douglas and Martin Sheen. In the late 1990s, Farentino appeared in a recurring role as the estranged father of George Clooney's character on the NBC drama "ER."
In 1994, Farentino pleaded no contest to stalking ex-girlfriend Tina Sinatra, daughter of singer Frank Sinatra.
Farentino is survived by his fourth wife, Stella, and two sons, David and Saverio.
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EZ103.3FM
- Member
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- Location: Huntington
Re: 2012 Obits: R.I.P. and Remembrance thread
Kind of coincidental that Johnnie Otis discovered Etta James and they died 3 days apart....
"It was impossible to get a conversation going, everybody was talking too much." - Yogi Berra
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jag
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Re: 2012 Obits: R.I.P. and Remembrance thread
'Welcome Back, Kotter' star Robert Hegyes dies at 60
Robert Hegyes, who played Juan Epstein on '70s sitcom "Welcome Back, Kotter," died Thursday, the New Jersey Star-Ledger reports. Hegyes, who died of an apparent heart attack after suffering chest pains at his Metuchen, N.J. home, was 60.
Hegyes had not been in good health for the past two years, his brother Mark Hegyes told the paper. The actor had suffered a previous heart attack in recent years.
Police responded to an emergency call from Hegyes' home at approximately 9 a.m. He was transported to JFK Medical Center in Edison, N.J., but at that point he had gone into full cardiac arrest.
Though Hegyes also starred on the detective series "Cagney & Lacey" (as Det. Manny Esposito) and, in later years, guest-starred on shows such as "NewsRadio" and "Diagnosis Murder," Hegyes was best-known for his role as Juan Epstein -- full name: Juan Luis Pedro Phillipo de Huevos Epstein -- on the 1970s sitcom "Welcome Back, Kotter" from 1975 to 1979. Perpetually scheming and always ready with a self-written note signed "Epstein's Mother" to explain his school absences, Epstein stood out among a group of characters that included the super-cocky womanizer Vinnie Barabarino (played by a young John Travolta) and hip but beleaguered high-school teacher Gabe Kotter (played by Gabe Kaplan).
Hegyes' last listed acting role on IMDB is in the film "Hip, Edgy, Sexy, Cool" in 2002. He also appeared with most of the original "Kotter" cast members for a reunion at the TV Land Awards last year, as a commemoration for the series' 35th anniversary.
He leaves behind a two children, Cassie and Mack, and two stepchildren, Sophia and Alex.
Robert Hegyes, who played Juan Epstein on '70s sitcom "Welcome Back, Kotter," died Thursday, the New Jersey Star-Ledger reports. Hegyes, who died of an apparent heart attack after suffering chest pains at his Metuchen, N.J. home, was 60.
Hegyes had not been in good health for the past two years, his brother Mark Hegyes told the paper. The actor had suffered a previous heart attack in recent years.
Police responded to an emergency call from Hegyes' home at approximately 9 a.m. He was transported to JFK Medical Center in Edison, N.J., but at that point he had gone into full cardiac arrest.
Though Hegyes also starred on the detective series "Cagney & Lacey" (as Det. Manny Esposito) and, in later years, guest-starred on shows such as "NewsRadio" and "Diagnosis Murder," Hegyes was best-known for his role as Juan Epstein -- full name: Juan Luis Pedro Phillipo de Huevos Epstein -- on the 1970s sitcom "Welcome Back, Kotter" from 1975 to 1979. Perpetually scheming and always ready with a self-written note signed "Epstein's Mother" to explain his school absences, Epstein stood out among a group of characters that included the super-cocky womanizer Vinnie Barabarino (played by a young John Travolta) and hip but beleaguered high-school teacher Gabe Kotter (played by Gabe Kaplan).
Hegyes' last listed acting role on IMDB is in the film "Hip, Edgy, Sexy, Cool" in 2002. He also appeared with most of the original "Kotter" cast members for a reunion at the TV Land Awards last year, as a commemoration for the series' 35th anniversary.
He leaves behind a two children, Cassie and Mack, and two stepchildren, Sophia and Alex.
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Hoosier Daddy
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Re: 2012 Obits: R.I.P. and Remembrance thread
Dr. Mildred Mitchell-Bateman dead at 89
Mental health pioneer and local icon Dr. Mildred Mitchell-Bateman died from a sudden, undisclosed illness Wednesday in Charleston General Hospital. She was 89. The state psychiatric hospital in Huntington was named in her honor.
[SOURCE: Herald-Dispatch, Huntington WV]
Mental health pioneer and local icon Dr. Mildred Mitchell-Bateman died from a sudden, undisclosed illness Wednesday in Charleston General Hospital. She was 89. The state psychiatric hospital in Huntington was named in her honor.
[SOURCE: Herald-Dispatch, Huntington WV]
Translators are a Pox on the FM radio dial.
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unchoopfan
- Member
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Re: 2012 Obits: R.I.P. and Remembrance thread
Dick Kniss, 74, bassist/songwriter
(LA Times) - Dick Kniss, 74, who played stand-up bass with the folk trio Peter, Paul and Mary and co-wrote the John Denver hit "Sunshine on My Shoulders," died Wednesday (Jan. 25) of pulmonary disease at a hospital near his home in Saugerties, N.Y, said his wife, Diane.
Born in 1937 in Portland, Ore., Kniss was playing in a band led by Woody Herman in New York City before joining Peter, Paul and Mary. He performed with them throughout the 1960s, rejoined them when they reunited in 1978 and continued to give concerts with them until 2009, the year Mary Travers died.
Kniss was "our intrepid bass player for almost as long as we performed together," the trio's Peter Yarrow said in a statement. "His bass playing was always a great fourth voice in our music."
From 1970 to 1978, Kniss was also featured on many Denver recordings. With the singer Mike Taylor, Kniss co-wrote "Sunshine on My Shoulders."
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Ian Abercrombie, 77, actor (Seinfeld)
(Hollywood Reporter) - Ian Abercrombie, a busy character actor who gained recognition as Elaine Benes’ (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) eccentric boss Mr. Pitt on NBC’s Seinfeld, died Thursday (Jan. 26) in Hollywood. He was 77.
Abercrombie seemed to be always working, appearing in scores of films, TV shows and theater productions during his 50-year-plus career in show business. The British actor made his American stage debut in 1955 in a production of Stalag 17 opposite Jason Robards, played the Wise Man in Sam Raimi’s comedy-horror film Army of Darkness (1972) and was 800-year-old wizard Professor Crumbs on Disney Channel hit Wizards of Waverly Place.
Abercrombie also had a recurring role as Palpatine/Darth Sidious on George Lucas’ animated series Star Wars: The Clone Wars, did voice work on animation hit Rango this year and, just before his death, completed his work on the latest episode of the Green Lantern animated series for Cartoon Network.
In seven episodes of Seinfeld, Abercrombie played Justin Pitt, Elaine’s picky boss who eats his candy bars with a knife and fork and wears white knee socks. He fired Elaine after he became convinced she had tried to murder him using a deadly drug interaction, with Jerry (Jerry Seinfeld) as an accomplice.
Abercrombie’s film credits start with Von Ryan’s Express (1965) and include They Shoot Horses, Don’t They? (1969), The Molly Maguires (1970), Young Frankenstein (1974), Puppet Master III (1991), The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997), Marilyn Hotchkiss’ Ballroom Dancing and Charm School (2005) and Garfield: A Tale of Two Kitties (2006).
On television, he was a regular on the WB Network series Birds of Prey and also worked on such shows as Get Smart, Hunter, L.A. Law, Dynasty, Northern Exposure, NewsRadio, Murphy Brown, Desperate Housewives and dozens of others.
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Dimitra Arliss, 79, actress (The Sting)
(AP) - Dimitra Arliss, who played a hired killer alongside Robert Redford and Paul Newman in the caper comedy "The Sting," has died in Los Angeles. She was 79.
Jaime Larkin, a spokesperson for the Motion Picture and Television Fund Hospital, says Arliss died Jan. 26 at the Woodland Hills facility of complications from a stroke.
The Ohio native began her acting career at the Goodman Theatre in Chicago. On Broadway, Arliss starred opposite Stacy Keach in "Indians" and with Kevin Kline and John Malkovich in "Arms and the Man." After appearing as a "hit lady" in the 1973 hit "The Sting," she was seen in "Xanadu," starring Olivia Newton-John and Gene Kelly, and in Clint Eastwood's "Firefox."
Her numerous television credits include "Dallas," ''Quincy M.E.," and "Rich Man, Poor Man."
(LA Times) - Dick Kniss, 74, who played stand-up bass with the folk trio Peter, Paul and Mary and co-wrote the John Denver hit "Sunshine on My Shoulders," died Wednesday (Jan. 25) of pulmonary disease at a hospital near his home in Saugerties, N.Y, said his wife, Diane.
Born in 1937 in Portland, Ore., Kniss was playing in a band led by Woody Herman in New York City before joining Peter, Paul and Mary. He performed with them throughout the 1960s, rejoined them when they reunited in 1978 and continued to give concerts with them until 2009, the year Mary Travers died.
Kniss was "our intrepid bass player for almost as long as we performed together," the trio's Peter Yarrow said in a statement. "His bass playing was always a great fourth voice in our music."
From 1970 to 1978, Kniss was also featured on many Denver recordings. With the singer Mike Taylor, Kniss co-wrote "Sunshine on My Shoulders."
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Ian Abercrombie, 77, actor (Seinfeld)
(Hollywood Reporter) - Ian Abercrombie, a busy character actor who gained recognition as Elaine Benes’ (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) eccentric boss Mr. Pitt on NBC’s Seinfeld, died Thursday (Jan. 26) in Hollywood. He was 77.
Abercrombie seemed to be always working, appearing in scores of films, TV shows and theater productions during his 50-year-plus career in show business. The British actor made his American stage debut in 1955 in a production of Stalag 17 opposite Jason Robards, played the Wise Man in Sam Raimi’s comedy-horror film Army of Darkness (1972) and was 800-year-old wizard Professor Crumbs on Disney Channel hit Wizards of Waverly Place.
Abercrombie also had a recurring role as Palpatine/Darth Sidious on George Lucas’ animated series Star Wars: The Clone Wars, did voice work on animation hit Rango this year and, just before his death, completed his work on the latest episode of the Green Lantern animated series for Cartoon Network.
In seven episodes of Seinfeld, Abercrombie played Justin Pitt, Elaine’s picky boss who eats his candy bars with a knife and fork and wears white knee socks. He fired Elaine after he became convinced she had tried to murder him using a deadly drug interaction, with Jerry (Jerry Seinfeld) as an accomplice.
Abercrombie’s film credits start with Von Ryan’s Express (1965) and include They Shoot Horses, Don’t They? (1969), The Molly Maguires (1970), Young Frankenstein (1974), Puppet Master III (1991), The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997), Marilyn Hotchkiss’ Ballroom Dancing and Charm School (2005) and Garfield: A Tale of Two Kitties (2006).
On television, he was a regular on the WB Network series Birds of Prey and also worked on such shows as Get Smart, Hunter, L.A. Law, Dynasty, Northern Exposure, NewsRadio, Murphy Brown, Desperate Housewives and dozens of others.
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Dimitra Arliss, 79, actress (The Sting)
(AP) - Dimitra Arliss, who played a hired killer alongside Robert Redford and Paul Newman in the caper comedy "The Sting," has died in Los Angeles. She was 79.
Jaime Larkin, a spokesperson for the Motion Picture and Television Fund Hospital, says Arliss died Jan. 26 at the Woodland Hills facility of complications from a stroke.
The Ohio native began her acting career at the Goodman Theatre in Chicago. On Broadway, Arliss starred opposite Stacy Keach in "Indians" and with Kevin Kline and John Malkovich in "Arms and the Man." After appearing as a "hit lady" in the 1973 hit "The Sting," she was seen in "Xanadu," starring Olivia Newton-John and Gene Kelly, and in Clint Eastwood's "Firefox."
Her numerous television credits include "Dallas," ''Quincy M.E.," and "Rich Man, Poor Man."
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unchoopfan
- Member
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- Joined: Mon Feb 03, 2003 10:52 am
Don Cornelius, 75, "Soul Train" creator/host
(LA Times) - "Soul Train" creator Don Cornelius was found dead at his Sherman Oaks on home Wednesday morning (Feb. 1).
Law enforcement sources said police arrived at Cornelius' home around 4 a.m. He apparently died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound, according to sources, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the case was ongoing.
The sources said there was no sign of foul play, but the Los Angeles Police Department was investigating.
In a 2010 interview with The Times, he said he was excited about a movie project he was developing about "Soul Train."
"We've been in discussions with several people about getting a movie off the ground. It wouldn't be the 'Soul Train' dance show, it would be more of a biographical look at the project," he said. "It's going to be about some of the things that really happened on the show."
According to a Times article, Cornelius’ “Soul Train” became the longest-running first-run nationally syndicated show in television history, bringing African American music and style to the world for 35 years.
Cornelius stopped hosting the show in 1993, and “Soul Train” ceased production in 2006.
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Charlie Spoonhour, 72, college basketball coach
(St. Louis Post-Dispatch) - Charlie Spoonhour, one of St. Louis University's and Missouri State's most successful basketball coaches and one of the most popular figures among college basketball's coaching fraternity, died at his home in Chapel Hill, N.C., today (Feb. 1) at age 72.
"Spoon," as he affectionately was known, had been in and out of the Duke University Medical Center for the past couple of years after getting a lung transplant there in 2010. He had been diagnosed with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis — a scarring of the lungs.
In seven seasons (1992-99) at St. Louis U., where "Spoonball" became a box-office hit, Spoonhour's teams compiled a 122-90 record, making three NCAA appearances. At Missouri State (then Southwest Missouri State), his teams were 197-81 in nine seasons (1983-92) with four NCAA bids. He finished his coaching career at University of Nevada-Las Vegas from 2001-04 with a 57-31 mark.
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Leslie Carter, 25, singer (sister of Nick & Aaron Carter)
(NY Daily News) - Leslie Carter, sister of Backstreet Boys member Nick Carter and singer Aaron Carter, died Tuesday (Jan. 31) in upstate New York. She was 25. The cause of death has not yet been revealed.
"Our family is grieving right now and it's a private matter," a spokesperson for the family said in a statement to the Daily News. "We are deeply saddened for the loss of our beloved sister, daughter and granddaughter, Leslie Carter. We request the utmost privacy during this difficult time."
Carter, like her brothers, was a singer who had reportedly signed a deal with DreamWorks Records in 1999, but never released an album. Her single "Like Wow!" was included on the soundtrack for "Shrek" in 2001. The aspiring singer also appeared in the family’s 2006 reality show, “House of Carters,” with her four siblings.
Carter is survived by her husband, Mike Ashton, and a daughter, Alyssa Jane Ashton.
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John Rich, 86, TV sitcom producer/director
(AP) - Television director John Rich, who won an Emmy Award for the memorable "All in the Family" scene showing Sammy Davis Jr. planting a kiss on Archie Bunker, has died in Los Angeles at 86.
Rich also won an Emmy for "The Dick Van Dyke Show."
Directors Guild of America spokeswoman Sahar Moridani tells the Los Angeles Times that Rich died Sunday morning (Jan. 29) at his Los Angeles home after a brief illness. No other details were released.
His 50-year Hollywood career included "I Married Joan," ''Our Miss Brooks," ''Gunsmoke" and "Bonanza." He also directed episodes or pilots of "The Twilight Zone," ''Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C.," ''Gilligan's Island," ''The Brady Bunch," ''Maude," ''Good Times," ''The Jeffersons," ''Barney Miller" and "Newhart."
(LA Times) - "Soul Train" creator Don Cornelius was found dead at his Sherman Oaks on home Wednesday morning (Feb. 1).
Law enforcement sources said police arrived at Cornelius' home around 4 a.m. He apparently died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound, according to sources, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the case was ongoing.
The sources said there was no sign of foul play, but the Los Angeles Police Department was investigating.
In a 2010 interview with The Times, he said he was excited about a movie project he was developing about "Soul Train."
"We've been in discussions with several people about getting a movie off the ground. It wouldn't be the 'Soul Train' dance show, it would be more of a biographical look at the project," he said. "It's going to be about some of the things that really happened on the show."
According to a Times article, Cornelius’ “Soul Train” became the longest-running first-run nationally syndicated show in television history, bringing African American music and style to the world for 35 years.
Cornelius stopped hosting the show in 1993, and “Soul Train” ceased production in 2006.
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Charlie Spoonhour, 72, college basketball coach
(St. Louis Post-Dispatch) - Charlie Spoonhour, one of St. Louis University's and Missouri State's most successful basketball coaches and one of the most popular figures among college basketball's coaching fraternity, died at his home in Chapel Hill, N.C., today (Feb. 1) at age 72.
"Spoon," as he affectionately was known, had been in and out of the Duke University Medical Center for the past couple of years after getting a lung transplant there in 2010. He had been diagnosed with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis — a scarring of the lungs.
In seven seasons (1992-99) at St. Louis U., where "Spoonball" became a box-office hit, Spoonhour's teams compiled a 122-90 record, making three NCAA appearances. At Missouri State (then Southwest Missouri State), his teams were 197-81 in nine seasons (1983-92) with four NCAA bids. He finished his coaching career at University of Nevada-Las Vegas from 2001-04 with a 57-31 mark.
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Leslie Carter, 25, singer (sister of Nick & Aaron Carter)
(NY Daily News) - Leslie Carter, sister of Backstreet Boys member Nick Carter and singer Aaron Carter, died Tuesday (Jan. 31) in upstate New York. She was 25. The cause of death has not yet been revealed.
"Our family is grieving right now and it's a private matter," a spokesperson for the family said in a statement to the Daily News. "We are deeply saddened for the loss of our beloved sister, daughter and granddaughter, Leslie Carter. We request the utmost privacy during this difficult time."
Carter, like her brothers, was a singer who had reportedly signed a deal with DreamWorks Records in 1999, but never released an album. Her single "Like Wow!" was included on the soundtrack for "Shrek" in 2001. The aspiring singer also appeared in the family’s 2006 reality show, “House of Carters,” with her four siblings.
Carter is survived by her husband, Mike Ashton, and a daughter, Alyssa Jane Ashton.
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John Rich, 86, TV sitcom producer/director
(AP) - Television director John Rich, who won an Emmy Award for the memorable "All in the Family" scene showing Sammy Davis Jr. planting a kiss on Archie Bunker, has died in Los Angeles at 86.
Rich also won an Emmy for "The Dick Van Dyke Show."
Directors Guild of America spokeswoman Sahar Moridani tells the Los Angeles Times that Rich died Sunday morning (Jan. 29) at his Los Angeles home after a brief illness. No other details were released.
His 50-year Hollywood career included "I Married Joan," ''Our Miss Brooks," ''Gunsmoke" and "Bonanza." He also directed episodes or pilots of "The Twilight Zone," ''Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C.," ''Gilligan's Island," ''The Brady Bunch," ''Maude," ''Good Times," ''The Jeffersons," ''Barney Miller" and "Newhart."
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unchoopfan
- Member
- Posts: 209
- Joined: Mon Feb 03, 2003 10:52 am
Angelo Dundee, 90, legendary boxing trainer
(AP) - Angelo Dundee, the famed boxing cornerman who trained 15 world champions including Muhammad Ali, Sugar Ray Leonard and George Foreman, died Wednesday night (Feb. 1) at his Tampa, Fla. residence. He was 90.
Dundee was the brilliant motivator who worked the corner for Ali in his greatest fights, willed Sugar Ray Leonard to victory in his biggest bout, and coached hundreds of young men in the art of a left jab and an overhand right.
More than that, he was a figure of integrity in a sport that often lacked it.
Dundee was best known for being in Ali's corner for almost his entire career, urging him on in his first fight against Sonny Liston through the legendary fights with Joe Frazier and beyond. He was a cornerman, but he was much more, serving as a motivator for fighters not so great and for The Greatest.
Promoter Bob Arum said he had been planning to bring Dundee to Las Vegas for a Feb. 18 charity gala headlined by Ali.
"He was wonderful. He was the whole package," Arum said. "Angelo was the greatest motivator of all time. No matter how bad things were, Angelo always put a positive spin on them. That's what Ali loved so much about him."
Arum credited Dundee with persuading Ali to continue in his third fight against Joe Frazier when Frazier was coming on strong in the "Thrilla in Manilla." Without Dundee, Arum said, Ali may not have had the strength to come back and stop Frazier after the 14th round in what became an iconic fight.
Dundee also worked the corner for Leonard, famously shouting, "You're blowing it, son. You're blowing it" when Leonard fell behind in his 1981 fight with Tommy Hearns — a fight he would rally to win by knockout.
A master motivator and clever corner man, Dundee was regarded as one of the sport's great ambassadors. He was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 1992 after a career that spanned six decades, training 15 world champions, including Leonard, George Foreman, Carmen Basilio and Jose Napoles.
(AP) - Angelo Dundee, the famed boxing cornerman who trained 15 world champions including Muhammad Ali, Sugar Ray Leonard and George Foreman, died Wednesday night (Feb. 1) at his Tampa, Fla. residence. He was 90.
Dundee was the brilliant motivator who worked the corner for Ali in his greatest fights, willed Sugar Ray Leonard to victory in his biggest bout, and coached hundreds of young men in the art of a left jab and an overhand right.
More than that, he was a figure of integrity in a sport that often lacked it.
Dundee was best known for being in Ali's corner for almost his entire career, urging him on in his first fight against Sonny Liston through the legendary fights with Joe Frazier and beyond. He was a cornerman, but he was much more, serving as a motivator for fighters not so great and for The Greatest.
Promoter Bob Arum said he had been planning to bring Dundee to Las Vegas for a Feb. 18 charity gala headlined by Ali.
"He was wonderful. He was the whole package," Arum said. "Angelo was the greatest motivator of all time. No matter how bad things were, Angelo always put a positive spin on them. That's what Ali loved so much about him."
Arum credited Dundee with persuading Ali to continue in his third fight against Joe Frazier when Frazier was coming on strong in the "Thrilla in Manilla." Without Dundee, Arum said, Ali may not have had the strength to come back and stop Frazier after the 14th round in what became an iconic fight.
Dundee also worked the corner for Leonard, famously shouting, "You're blowing it, son. You're blowing it" when Leonard fell behind in his 1981 fight with Tommy Hearns — a fight he would rally to win by knockout.
A master motivator and clever corner man, Dundee was regarded as one of the sport's great ambassadors. He was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 1992 after a career that spanned six decades, training 15 world champions, including Leonard, George Foreman, Carmen Basilio and Jose Napoles.
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jag
- Member
- Posts: 820
- Joined: Thu Aug 29, 2002 2:57 pm
Re: 2012 Obits: R.I.P. and Remembrance thread
Ben Gazzara dies at 81
Ben Gazzara died Friday of pancreatic cancer, the New York Times reported.
The star of award-winning films and plays such as "Anatomy of a Murder" and "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" was 81 years old.
Gazzara employed his distinctive, gravel-specked voice and powerful stare most memorably in a series of film collaborations with the director John Cassavetes.
For the maverick director, Gazzara played a collection of bitter spouses and down-on-their heels gamblers and theater directors in films such as "The Killing of a Chinese Bookie" and "Opening Night."
Like Peter Falk, his co-star in Cassavetes' "Husbands," Gazzara was perfect for director's signature examinations of bruised men who struggle to articulate and come to grips with their emotions, fears and hopes in a rapidly changing world.
Among his other notable film roles were an accused rapist in "Anatomy of a Murder" (1959), the smooth-talking pornographer Jackie Treehorn in the Coen Brothers' "The Big Lebowski" (1998), and a grandfather separating from his wife of 40 years in Todd Solondz's "Happiness"(1998).
Less successful was his starring role opposite his then-lover Audrey Hepburn in Peter Bogdanovich's "They All Laughed" (1981). The romantic comedy was a box office and critical disaster.
On stage, Gazzara originated the role of the alcoholic, sexually confused Brick in Tennessee Williams' "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof." It helped make his name, but he saw the role go to Paul Newman in the 1958 film adaptation.
Ben Gazzara died Friday of pancreatic cancer, the New York Times reported.
The star of award-winning films and plays such as "Anatomy of a Murder" and "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" was 81 years old.
Gazzara employed his distinctive, gravel-specked voice and powerful stare most memorably in a series of film collaborations with the director John Cassavetes.
For the maverick director, Gazzara played a collection of bitter spouses and down-on-their heels gamblers and theater directors in films such as "The Killing of a Chinese Bookie" and "Opening Night."
Like Peter Falk, his co-star in Cassavetes' "Husbands," Gazzara was perfect for director's signature examinations of bruised men who struggle to articulate and come to grips with their emotions, fears and hopes in a rapidly changing world.
Among his other notable film roles were an accused rapist in "Anatomy of a Murder" (1959), the smooth-talking pornographer Jackie Treehorn in the Coen Brothers' "The Big Lebowski" (1998), and a grandfather separating from his wife of 40 years in Todd Solondz's "Happiness"(1998).
Less successful was his starring role opposite his then-lover Audrey Hepburn in Peter Bogdanovich's "They All Laughed" (1981). The romantic comedy was a box office and critical disaster.
On stage, Gazzara originated the role of the alcoholic, sexually confused Brick in Tennessee Williams' "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof." It helped make his name, but he saw the role go to Paul Newman in the 1958 film adaptation.
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unchoopfan
- Member
- Posts: 209
- Joined: Mon Feb 03, 2003 10:52 am
Zalman King, 69, director/writer, producer
(Reuters/Variety) - Director Zalman King, best known for erotic film "9 1/2 Weeks" and television series "Red Shoe Diaries," died on Friday (Feb. 3) in Santa Monica, Calif., after a long battle with cancer. He was 69.
"Zalman was an extraordinary man and artist, more complex and humane than those who knew him only from afar could possibly imagine," said Allison Burnett, King's son-in-law.
Actor Charlie Sheen paid a tribute to the late director on his Facebook page, saying "the world lost a brilliant and noble soul today."
King started his career on screen in the 1960s, starring alongside James Caan and Walter Koenig in an episode of "Alfred Hitchcock Presents," before going on to play an attorney in television drama "The Young Lawyers" in the 70s. He made a name for himself in the ensuing decades by writing and directing sexy fare including "Wild Orchid" (1990) and "Red Shoe Diaries" (1992), which later became a long-running series on Showtime. More recently, he partnered again with the pay cable service for another series, "Body Language,"
But it was "9 1/2 Weeks," which he wrote and produced, that may have been his most high-profile work. Directed by Adrian Lyne ("Fatal Attraction"), the 1986 movie starred Kim Basinger and Mickey Rourke as lovers having a kinky affair. While not a big box-office draw, its notoriety only grew internationally and on home video. "Weeks" spawned two sequels that went direct to video.
Burnett recalled that director Stanley Kubrick consulted King every night when filming "Eyes Wide Shut" because "he wanted to learn how to shoot eroticism."
"(Zalman) had a singular vision, a unique vision, and very few filmmakers in the advent of cinema have made a visual statement that undeniably belongs to them, a visual signature," said Burnett.
King is survived by wife Patricia Louisianna Knop, a screenwriter, and daughters Chloe King and Gillian Lefkowitz.
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George Esper, 79, journalist/professor
(AP) - George Esper, the tenacious Associated Press correspondent who covered the Vietnam War for nearly a decade, has died at 79. Esper's son, Thomas, said Friday that his father died in his sleep Thursday night (Feb. 2).
He was the AP's bureau chief in Saigon during the last two years of the war. As the war ended in 1975, Esper refused to join the massive U.S. evacuation. He stayed behind so he could report on the fall of Saigon.
Esper became an AP special correspondent when he returned to the United States. He covered major stories such as the 1978 Jonestown massacre in Guyana and the 1991 Gulf War. Esper retired from the AP in 2000 to become a professor of journalism at his alma mater, West Virginia University.
(Reuters/Variety) - Director Zalman King, best known for erotic film "9 1/2 Weeks" and television series "Red Shoe Diaries," died on Friday (Feb. 3) in Santa Monica, Calif., after a long battle with cancer. He was 69.
"Zalman was an extraordinary man and artist, more complex and humane than those who knew him only from afar could possibly imagine," said Allison Burnett, King's son-in-law.
Actor Charlie Sheen paid a tribute to the late director on his Facebook page, saying "the world lost a brilliant and noble soul today."
King started his career on screen in the 1960s, starring alongside James Caan and Walter Koenig in an episode of "Alfred Hitchcock Presents," before going on to play an attorney in television drama "The Young Lawyers" in the 70s. He made a name for himself in the ensuing decades by writing and directing sexy fare including "Wild Orchid" (1990) and "Red Shoe Diaries" (1992), which later became a long-running series on Showtime. More recently, he partnered again with the pay cable service for another series, "Body Language,"
But it was "9 1/2 Weeks," which he wrote and produced, that may have been his most high-profile work. Directed by Adrian Lyne ("Fatal Attraction"), the 1986 movie starred Kim Basinger and Mickey Rourke as lovers having a kinky affair. While not a big box-office draw, its notoriety only grew internationally and on home video. "Weeks" spawned two sequels that went direct to video.
Burnett recalled that director Stanley Kubrick consulted King every night when filming "Eyes Wide Shut" because "he wanted to learn how to shoot eroticism."
"(Zalman) had a singular vision, a unique vision, and very few filmmakers in the advent of cinema have made a visual statement that undeniably belongs to them, a visual signature," said Burnett.
King is survived by wife Patricia Louisianna Knop, a screenwriter, and daughters Chloe King and Gillian Lefkowitz.
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George Esper, 79, journalist/professor
(AP) - George Esper, the tenacious Associated Press correspondent who covered the Vietnam War for nearly a decade, has died at 79. Esper's son, Thomas, said Friday that his father died in his sleep Thursday night (Feb. 2).
He was the AP's bureau chief in Saigon during the last two years of the war. As the war ended in 1975, Esper refused to join the massive U.S. evacuation. He stayed behind so he could report on the fall of Saigon.
Esper became an AP special correspondent when he returned to the United States. He covered major stories such as the 1978 Jonestown massacre in Guyana and the 1991 Gulf War. Esper retired from the AP in 2000 to become a professor of journalism at his alma mater, West Virginia University.
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Scott Reppert
- Member
- Posts: 1442
- Joined: Tue Dec 18, 2001 12:50 pm
- Location: Fairmont, WV
Re: 2012 Obits: R.I.P. and Remembrance thread
Two of pieces of Zalman King's filmography that you must see if you have never seen them...
1. The episode of "The Munsters" where beatniks (and The Standells) take over Herman and Lily's home and there is the famous
"poetry reading scene". Zalman King is the bearded beatnik shown with daughter Marilyn. His big quote, if I remember correctly,
is "Man, that cat is deep"...
2. The movie "Blue Sunshine"...
1. The episode of "The Munsters" where beatniks (and The Standells) take over Herman and Lily's home and there is the famous
"poetry reading scene". Zalman King is the bearded beatnik shown with daughter Marilyn. His big quote, if I remember correctly,
is "Man, that cat is deep"...
2. The movie "Blue Sunshine"...
Scott Reppert
Music Director/Program Director/On-Air Personality
WTCS/WFGM/WMQC/WAIJ/WLIC/WRIJ/WKJL/WRWJ/WPCL/WWPN
Operations Manager: Hope Radio, T8WH, Palau
Production/Editor: "Believe Right" and "MFC WorldWide"
"For mine eyes have seen Thy salvation"--Luke 2:30
Music Director/Program Director/On-Air Personality
WTCS/WFGM/WMQC/WAIJ/WLIC/WRIJ/WKJL/WRWJ/WPCL/WWPN
Operations Manager: Hope Radio, T8WH, Palau
Production/Editor: "Believe Right" and "MFC WorldWide"
"For mine eyes have seen Thy salvation"--Luke 2:30