The Rest In Peace and Remembrance Thread

[David Paleg]

Longtime journalist Daniel Schorr dead at age 93
Jul 23, 1:43 PM (ET)
By BRETT ZONGKER

WASHINGTON (AP) - Veteran reporter and commentator Daniel Schorr, whose hard-hitting reporting for CBS got him on President Richard Nixon's notorious "enemies list" in the 1970s, has died. He was 93.

Schorr died Friday at a Washington hospital after a brief illness, said Anna Christopher, a spokeswoman for National Public Radio, where Schorr continued to work as a senior news analyst and commentator.

Schorr's career of more than six decades spanned the spectrum of journalism - beginning in print, then moving to television where he spent 23 years with CBS News and ending with NPR. He also wrote several books, including his memoir, "Staying Tuned: A Life in Journalism."

Schorr is survived by his wife, Lisbeth, his son, Jonathan Schorr, daughter, Lisa Kaplan, and one grandchild. Memorial plans have not been set.

Full story at Iwon/AP News.

[unchoopfan]

Kaye Cowher, wife of former Steelers coach, dies at age 54
Friday, July 23, 2010
By Ed Bouchette, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette



Kaye Cowher, the wife of former Steelers football coach Bill Cowher, died Friday in her native North Carolina after losing a battle with skin cancer. She was 54.

The Cowhers moved to Raleigh, N.C., in 2006, Mr. Cowher's final season coaching the Steelers, and continued to make it their home.

The Cowhers met when they were classmates at North Carolina State University in 1976. Mr. Cowher was on the football team and Mrs. Cowher, the former Kaye Young, and her twin sister, Faye, played basketball.

Tall at 5-foot-11, Mrs. Cowher displayed an inside power game that made her one of the first young women in her home state to receive a college athletic scholarship.

Her teams at North Carolina State went 21-3 and 29-5, respectively, winning the inaugural Atlantic Coast Conference women's basketball title in 1978 with a 9-0 record and ranking No. 3 nationally.

Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10204/10 ... z0ubeCeRcH

[jag]

Conductor Mitch Miller dies at age 99NEW YORK — Mitch Miller, the goateed orchestra leader who asked Americans to "Sing Along With Mitch" on television and records, has died at age 99.

His daughter, Margaret Miller Reuther, said Monday that Miller died Saturday in Lenox Hill Hospital after a short illness.

Miller was a key record executive at Columbia Records in the pre-rock 'n' roll era, making hits with singers Rosemary Clooney, Patti Page, Johnny Mathis and Tony Bennett.

"Sing Along With Mitch" started as a series of records, then became a popular NBC show starting in early 1961. Miller's stiff-armed conducting style and signature goatee became famous.

As a producer and arranger, Miller had misses along with his hits, famously striking out on projects with Frank Sinatra and a young Aretha Franklin.

The TV show ranked in the top 20 for the 1961-62 season, and soon children everywhere were parodying Miller's stiff-armed conducting. An all-male chorus sang old standards, joined by a few female singers, most prominently Leslie Uggams. Viewers were invited to join in with lyrics superimposed on the screen and followed with a bouncing ball.

"He is an odd-looking man," New York Times critic Brooks Atkinson wrote in 1962. "His sharp beard, twinkling eyes, wrinkled forehead and mechanical beat make him look like a little puppet as he peers hopefully into the camera. By now most of us are more familiar with his tonsils than with those of our families."

Atkinson went on to say that as a musician, Miller was "first rate," praising "the clean tone of the singing, the clarity of the lyrics, the aptness of the tempos, the variety and the occasional delicacy of the instrumental accompaniment."

An accomplished oboist, Miller played in a number of orchestras early in his career, including one put together in 1934 by George Gershwin. "Gershwin was an unassuming guy," Miller told The New York Times in 1989. "I never heard him raise his voice."

Miller began in the recording business with Mercury Records in the late '40s, first on the classical side, later with popular music. He then went over to Columbia Records as head of its popular records division.

Among the stars whose hits he worked on were Clooney, Page, Bennett, Frankie Laine and Jo Stafford. His decision to have Mathis switch from jazz to lushly romantic ballads launched the singer as a superstar.

He had a less rewarding collaboration with Sinatra, whose recording of the novelty song "Mama Will Bark," featuring a barking dog, was considered the nadir of the singer's career. Still, Miller became known for his distinctive arrangements, such as the use of a harpsichord on Clooney's megahit version of "Come On-a My House." He used dubbing of vocal tracks back when that was considered exotic.

"To me, the art of singing a pop song has always been to sing it very quietly," Miller said in the book "Off the Record: An Oral History of Popular Music."

"The microphone and the amplifier made the popular song what it is _ an intimate one-on-one experience through electronics. It's not like opera or classical singing. The whole idea is to take a very small thing and make it big."

Miller and a chorus had a No. 1 hit in 1955 with "The Yellow Rose of Texas," and that led to his sing-along records a few years later.

The years of Miller's biggest successes were also the early years of rock 'n' roll, and many fans saw his old-fashioned arrangements of standards and folk favorites as an antidote to the noisy stuff the teens adored. As an executive at Columbia, Miller would be widely ridiculed for trying to turn a young Aretha Franklin into a showbiz diva in the tradition of Sophie Tucker.

But Miller was not entirely unsympathetic to rock 'n' roll.

In a 1955 essay in The New York Times magazine, he said the popularity of rhythm and blues, as he called it, with white teens was part of young people's "natural desire not to conform, a need to be rebellious."

He added: "There is a steady _ and healthy _ breaking down of color barriers in the United States; perhaps the rhythm-and-blues rage _ I am only theorizing _ is another expression of it."

"Miller has often been maligned as a maestro of 1950s schlock ... Yet Miller injected elements of rhythm and blues and country music, however diluted, into mainstream pop," Ken Emerson wrote in his book "Always Magic in the Air."

In the Martin Scorsese documentary on Bob Dylan, "No Direction Home," Miller acknowledged that he was dubious when famed producer John Hammond brought the nearly unknown Dylan to the staid Columbia label in the early '60s. "He was singing in, you know, this rough-edged voice," Miller said. "I will admit I didn't see the greatness of it." But he said he respected Hammond's track record in finding talent.

In recent years, Miller returned to his classical roots, appearing frequently as a guest conductor with symphony orchestras.

In 2000, he won a special Grammy Award for lifetime achievement.

Reuther said her father died of "just old age."

"He was absolutely himself up until the minute he got sick," she said. "He was truly blessed with a long and wonderful life."

Miller was born in 1911, in Rochester, N.Y., son of a Russian Jewish immigrant wrought-iron worker and a seamstress. He graduated from the Eastman School of Music of the University of Rochester.

Reuther said there will be a memorial service for her father in the fall.

[jag]

Bobby Hebb of `Sunny' fame dead at age 72
Published - Aug 03 2010 05:11PM EST

By JOE EDWARDS - Associated Press Writer

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Bobby Hebb, whose 1966 pop music classic "Sunny" described a sincere smile from a woman that lifted the singer's burdens, died Tuesday. He was 72.

Family members and a funeral home spokeswoman said Hebb died at Centennial Medical Center. Friends said he had lung cancer.

"Sunny" also was recorded by many other singers, including Marvin Gaye, Wilson Pickett and Jose Feliciano.

The song's key lines:

"Sunny, yesterday my life was filled with rain.

"Sunny, you smiled at me and really eased the pain.

"The dark days are gone and the bright days are here.

"My sunny one shines so sincere.

"Sunny one so true, I love you."

Hebb had said in several interviews that he wrote "Sunny" in response to the slaying of his brother outside a Nashville nightclub and to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy a few days before.

On his 69th birthday in 2007, he recalled that he was living and performing in New York City at the time he wrote the song.

"I was intoxicated," Hebb told The Associated Press. "I came home and started playing the guitar. I looked up and saw what looked like a purple sky. I started writing because I'd never seen that before."

He included the song in his act at a bar called Brandy's and the audience liked it.

After a Japanese artist had a hit with the song in Asia and vibraphone player Dave Pike recorded it in the United States, Hebb recorded the vocal at Bell Sound in New York.

At the height of "Sunny" popularity, Hebb toured with the Beatles.

In a 2004 interview with The Tennessean newspaper, Hebb recalled that all four Beatles were nice.

"John (Lennon) and George (Harrison) were very quiet," he said. "But Ringo (Starr) and Paul (McCartney) were more active and easier to get to know. It was just something to be with those cats."

In 1971, Lou Rawls won a Grammy award for "A Natural Man," written by Hebb and Sandy Baron. Broadcast Music Incorporated said Tuesday there have been 7 million airings of "Sunny."

As recently as 2007, Hebb was still writing songs and had his own publishing company and record label, Hebb Cats.

Hebb was born to blind parents and raised in Nashville. He joined the Navy in 1955 where he played the trumpet in a jazz band.

In the 1950s Hebb also played and danced with Roy Acuff's country band, the Smoky Mountain Boys, and became one of the first black musicians to perform on the Grand Ole Opry show in Nashville.

Funeral services were pending. Survivors include a daughter and four sisters.

[David Paleg]

'Ty-D-Bol Man' Dan Resin dies
'Caddyshack' and TV commercial actor dead at 79
August 03, 2010 12:15 PM EDT


The 'Ty-D-Bol Man' Dan Resin is dead at age 79. Resin died on Saturday due to complications from Parkinson's disease according to daughter Elizabeth Olynick. Resin had been residing in New Jersey.

Originally born in South Bend, Indiana, Dan Resin attended Indiana University before going on to star in several Broadway shows. Among his stage work were roles in both 'Once Upon a Mattress' and 'My Fair Lady'. Resin also was one of the characters in the classic golf comedy 'Caddyshack'. Resin played Dr. Beeper in the film, a country club member who served as opposition to Rodney Dangerfield's character. Other movie work Resin has on his resume includes 'Wise Guys' and 'The Sunshine Boys'.

Dan Resin also appeared in a cream cheese commercial as an elegant diner. He had several television roles such as the CBS show 'On Our Own', a soap opera 'Edge of Night' and a 1978 syndicated comedy called 'Madhouse Brigade'.

[Scott Reppert]

Oscar-winner actress Patricia Neal dies at age 84
Source: AP Sun Aug 08, 2010, 11:39 pm EDT


KNOXVILLE, Tenn. - Patricia Neal, the willowy, husky-voiced actress who won an Academy Award for 1963's "Hud" and then survived several strokes to continue acting, died on Sunday. She was 84.

Neal had lung cancer and died at her home in Edgartown, Mass., on Martha's Vineyard, said longtime friend Bud Albers of Knoxville.

Neal was already an award-winning Broadway actress when she won her Oscar for her role as a housekeeper to the Texas father (Melvyn Douglas) battling his selfish, amoral son (Paul Newman).

Less than two years after winning the Academy Award, she suffered a series of strokes in 1965 at age 39. Her struggle to regain walking and talking is regarded as epic in the annals of stroke rehabilitation. She returned to the screen to earn another Oscar nomination and three Emmy nominations.

The Patricia Neal Rehabilitation Center that concentrates on helping people recover from strokes and spinal cord and brain injuries is named for her in Knoxville, where she grew up.

"She never forgot us after she went to Hollywood," said the 85-year-old Albers, who graduated with Neal from Knoxville High School in 1943.

Whenever she was in town, a bunch of her friends would always get together and have dinner, Albers said. Her family let him know of her death.

"She was so courageous," he said of her battling back from her illnesses and losing her 7-year-old daughter to measles in 1962. "She always fought back. She was very much an inspiration."

In her 1988 autobiography, "As I Am," she wrote, "Frequently my life has been likened to a Greek tragedy, and the actress in me cannot deny that comparison."

She made a grand return to the screen in 1968, winning an Oscar nomination for her performance in "The Subject Was Roses."

In 1971, she played Olivia Walton in "The Homecoming: A Christmas Story," a made-for-TV film that served as the pilot for the CBS series "The Waltons." It brought her the first of her three Emmy nominations.

"You can't give up," she said in a 1999 Associated Press interview. "You sure want to, sometimes."

In 1953, she married Roald Dahl, the British writer famed for "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory," "James and the Giant Peach" and other tales for children. They had five children. They divorced in 1983 and he died in 1990.

Even before her own illness, her life often was touched by misfortune. Besides her daughter's death, an infant son nearly died in 1960 when his carriage was struck by a taxi.

Neal also suffered a nervous breakdown, and had an ill-fated affair with Gary Cooper, who starred with her in "The Fountainhead."

"I lived this secret life for several years. I was so ashamed," she told The New York Times in 1964.

She and Dahl divorced after she learned he was having an affair with her best friend.

The strokes at first paralyzed her and impaired her speech. After recovering, she limped and had bad vision in one eye.

A 1991 biopic about her travails starred Glenda Jackson as Neal.

Neal was born in a mining camp in Packard, Ky., the daughter of a transportation manager for the South Coal & Coke Co. After leaving Knoxville, she attended Northwestern University and then struck out for Broadway.

After doing well there, she made her screen debut in 1949's "John Loves Mary," that also starred Jack Carson and Ronald Reagan.

Among Neal's children is Tessa Dahl, who followed in her father's footsteps as a writer. Tessa Dahl's daughter is the model and writer Sophie Dahl.

Friends said her sorrows gave her an inner toughness that brought new power to her screen portrayals.

"I don't lie down. ... I'm fightin' all the way," she said in 1999.

[jag]

'Muppet Show' bandleader Jack Parnell dies at 87LONDON — British jazz drummer Jack Parnell, who served as bandleader on "The Muppet Show," has died aged 87, his family said Monday.

The family said Parnell died at his home in Southwold, eastern England, on Sunday following a yearlong battle with cancer.

Parnell was born in 1923, the son of a showbiz family _ his father was a music hall performer and his uncle ran a string of theaters _ and began drumming professionally as a teenager. During World War II he served in the Royal Air Force and performed in a band at the headquarters of Bomber Command.

Later, Parnell joined the renowned Ted Heath jazz band before leading his own ensembles.

As musical director at British broadcaster ATV from the late 1950s, he oversaw the music for long-running variety show "Sunday Night at the London Palladium," produced specials featuring Tom Jones and Barbra Streisand, composed theme tunes and served as musical director of "The Benny Hill Show."

In 1976, ATV began producing "The Muppet Show," a musical variety show with a cast of Jim Henson puppets and celebrity human guest stars.

Parnell conducted the orchestra for the whole of the series' five-year run, although the ostensible bandleader was the pop-eyed Muppet conductor, Nigel.

Parnell retired from ATV in 1982 but continued to perform with bands near his home well into his 80s.

He is survived by his wife, Veronica, two daughters and three sons _ two of them drummers.

Funeral details were not immediately available.

[amayo]

Richie Hayward, co-founder of Little Feat, dies
By NEKESA MUMBI MOODY, AP Music Writer

.NEW YORK – Richie Hayward, co-founder of Little Feat, an eclectic jamband that maintained a strong cult following throughout the decades, has died. He was 64.

The drummer had been suffering from liver cancer and died Thursday at a hospital near Vancouver, Canada, after complications of pneumonia, his publicist, Bridget Nolan, confirmed Friday.

"He was waiting for a liver transplant," said Nolan. Over the past year, benefits had been staged on Hayward's behalf; he had no health insurance.

In a letter to fans last August, Hayward wrote about his predicament, but sounded hopeful: "My intent is to come back to the band, as soon as I am physically able. Your love and support will mean a lot to me, more than I can say. I love and will miss you all, and I will see you again on the proud highway."

He last performed with the band on July 11.

Hayward helped form Little Feat in 1969, along with frontman Lowell George, Bill Payne and Roy Estrada. The jamband mixed a variety of genres including rock, country, jazz and blues, and were known for songs like "Willin." The group fell apart in 1979 after George died, but reformed in 1987, and had been a fixture on the touring circuit.

Besides his work with Little Feat, Hayward also performed with acts including Eric Clapton, Robert Plant, Buddy Guy and Barbra Streisand.

[Dave Allen]

One of my all time favorite bands...thanks to my old PD Thom Robinson for turning me on to them!

[amayo]

This sucks--though I'm not a huge R&B fan, The Gap Band had a funk backbone that was killer...

Robert Wilson, bassist for the Gap Band, dead

.NEW YORK – Robert Wilson, the bassist for the funk and R&B group the Gap Band, has died. He was 53.

His death was confirmed by Karen Lee, publicist for his brother and Gap Band singer Charlie Wilson.

Robert Wilson had been touring over the past few weeks, including a stop in his hometown in Tulsa, Okla. The Tulsa World reported that he died in Los Angeles on Sunday.

Wilson provided the bass backbone for the trio, which also included another brother, Ronnie. They rocketed to stardom in the 1980s with hits like "Outstanding," "You Dropped a Bomb On Me" and "Yearning for Your Love"

[jag]

Jazz singer Abbey Lincoln dies at 80
Entertainer also known as civil rights activist
by The Washington Post


The Associated Press
Jazz singer Abbey Lincoln, seen in 2005, died Saturday in New York at age 80. Known for her independent and uncompromising style, Lincoln made records and acted in films in the 1950s and '60s, then saw her career surge again in the 1990s when she found herself as a songwriter.AdvertiserAbbey Lincoln, a jazz singer and actress of unshakable integrity who transformed her image from that of a slinky chanteuse to an oracle of hard-won wisdom, died Aug. 14 in New York. She had been in precarious health since having open-heart surgery in 2007, but the precise cause of death could not be learned. She was 80.

Lincoln found early fame as a sex-kitten supper-club singer and made a cameo appearance in the campy 1956 teen film "The Girl Can't Help It," starring Jayne Mansfield. After meeting and later marrying jazz drummer Max Roach, she became one of the first entertainers to make civil rights and racial pride an overt cause. She was a noted film actress in the 1960s, then retreated to obscurity before staging a remarkable comeback in the 1990s as a singer, songwriter and spiritual elder.

"Certain people inside the African-American experience . . . act as griots, bearers of the culture," singer Cassandra Wilson told Newsweek magazine in 1992. "Paul Robeson was something like that. And so is she."

Soon after making "The Girl Can't Help It," in which she appeared in a sparkly dress previously worn by Marilyn Monroe, Lincoln abandoned her come-hither style and the form-fitting gowns that went with it. She even burned the dress in an incinerator, she said, as a symbol of personal emancipation.

She stopped straightening her hair and in 1959 released one of her most memorable early albums, "Abbey Is Blue." In 1960, she and Roach made the then-radical recording "We Insist! Max Roach's Freedom Now Suite," which has been called the first outright protest album. It included Roach's thundering drums and Lincoln's occasional shrieks and moans, representing oppression and hardship.

"That was one of the most thrilling experiences I ever had," the album's producer, Nat Hentoff, said Saturday. "Everything was at a high level of intensity."

Other critics, however, derided Lincoln for introducing a political element to jazz, and her opportunities to record began to dwindle. Turning to acting, she starred with Ivan Dixon in the 1964 racial drama "Nothing but a Man" and as a maid opposite Sidney Poitier in "For Love of Ivy" (1968). The films were among the first Hollywood depictions of mature, loving relationships between black women and black men.

After her eight-year marriage to Roach ended, Lincoln spent the 1970s caring for her mother in Los Angeles. She taught acting, traveled in Africa and concentrated on writing songs. In the early 1980s, she settled in New York and returned to performing, with a distinctly fresh approach.

"I don't scream anymore," she said. "I sing about my life."

She drew inspiration from one of her idols, Billie Holiday, paring her singing to an unembellished minimum. Unlike many jazz singers, Lincoln indulged in little improvisation or scatting, the singing of wordless syllables in rapid sequence.

"I learned from Billie," she told The Washington Post in 2006. "It isn't about showing how good your voice is. It's about saying something."

Lacking the elastic vocal range of her early years, Lincoln found a new emotional depth in such later recordings as "The World Is Falling Down" (1990), "Devil's Got Your Tongue" (1993), "A Turtle's Dream" (1995) and "Who Used to Dance" (1996).

[David Paleg]

Famed home run hitter Bobby Thomson dead at 86
Yahoo! News

NEW YORK (AP)—Bobby Thomson, who hit the famed “Shot Heard ‘Round the World” that won the 1951 National League pennant for the New York Giants, has died. He was 86.

Thomson’s death was confirmed Tuesday by the funeral home in Savannah, Ga., that is handling the arrangements. He had been in failing health for several years and died at home nearby Monday night, funeral director Joe Wall said.

Thomson connected off Brooklyn ace Ralph Branca for a three-run homer in the bottom of the ninth inning at Polo Grounds in the decisive game of a best-of-three playoff.

The homer and broadcaster Russ Hodges’ ecstatic call of “The Giants win the pennant!” remain one of the signature moments in major league history.

A three-time All-Star as an infielder and outfielder, Thomson hit .270 with 264 career home runs and 1,026 RBIs from 1946-60 with several teams.

[David Paleg]

'Cannibal' band member Richard Lopez dies at 65
Aug 19, 1:28 PM (ET)

LOS ANGELES (AP) - Richard Lopez, an original member of the band Cannibal & the Headhunters which scored a 1965 hit with "Land of 1,000 Dances," has died. He was 65.

Gene Aguilera, the group's manager during a comeback a decade ago, says Lopez died of lung cancer July 30 at a convalescent hospital in Garden Grove, Calif.

Lopez and three other East Los Angeles high school students formed the band in the 1960s. Lopez was nicknamed "Scar," and "Cannibal" was Frank Garcia, who sings the iconic phrase "Naa na na na naa" on "Land of 1,000 Dances." It spent 14 weeks on Billboard's Top 100, reaching No. 30.

The group opened for The Beatles and other groups. Lopez left before the band broke up in 1967. It reunited in 1996.

[genlock]

LONDON — Bill Millin, a Scottish bagpiper who played highland tunes as his fellow commandos landed on a Normandy beach on D-Day and lived to see his bravado immortalized in the 1962 film “The Longest Day,” died on Wednesday in a hospital in the western England county of Devon. He was 88.


The cause was complications from a stroke, his family said.

Mr. Millin was a 21-year-old private in Britain’s First Special Service Brigade when his unit landed on the strip of coast the Allies code-named Sword Beach, near the French city of Caen at the eastern end of the invasion front chosen by the Allies for the landings on June 6, 1944.

By one estimate, about 4,400 Allied troops died in the first 24 hours of the landings, about two-thirds of them Americans.

The young piper was approached shortly before the landings by the brigade’s commanding officer, Brig. Simon Fraser, who as the 15th Lord Lovat was the hereditary chief of the Clan Fraser and one of Scotland’s most celebrated aristocrats. Against orders from World War I that forbade playing bagpipes on the battlefield because of the high risk of attracting enemy fire, Lord Lovat, then 32, asked Private Millin to play on the beachhead to raise morale.

When Private Millin demurred, citing the regulations, he recalled later, Lord Lovat replied: “Ah, but that’s the English War Office. You and I are both Scottish, and that doesn’t apply.”

[jag]

Stone Poneys' Kenny Edwards dead at 64


LOS ANGELES — Kenny Edwards, an original member of the Stone Poneys country-rock band and longtime collaborator with singer-songwriters Linda Ronstadt and Karla Bonoff, has died in California at age 64.

A statement on his website says he died Wednesday.

The Los Angeles Times reports Edwards was hospitalized earlier this month in Denver after collapsing while on tour with Bonoff. He was airlifted to a hospital near his home in Santa Barbara where he died.

After the Stone Poneys disbanded after their 1967 breakthrough hit "Different Drum," Edwards formed the folk-rock band Bryndle with singer-songwriter Wendy Waldman, Bonoff and Andrew Gold.

He also was a supporting guitarist and singer for Stevie Nicks, Don Henley, Brian Wilson, Art Garfunkel, Vince Gill and others.

[genlock]

JACK HORKHEIMER (1938-2010): Jack Horkheimer, Public Television's "Star Gazer" and the director of Miami's Space Transit Planetarium,' died Friday, August 20th, at the age of 72. Jack was a giant of astronomy outreach, bringing the heavens down to Earth for millions of people from all walks of life. Among them was the author of this web page as a young student in Florida so many years ago. Jack's loss is keenly felt. Farewell, Jack Horkheimer, and "keep looking up!"

[David Paleg]

Longtime CBS News Correspondent Harold Dow Dies at 62
Aug 21, 2010 09:00 PM ET
by Gina DiNunno

Longtime CBS News correspondent Harold Dow died suddenly Saturday morning, according to the network's website. He was 62.

The five-time Emmy Award winner was best known for his work on 48 Hours, to which he contributed since the program's launch in January 1988. He was also a contributor to the critically acclaimed 1986 documentary, 48 Hours on Crack Street, which led to the creation of the weekly news magazine.

"CBS News is deeply saddened by this sudden loss," CBS News and Sports President Sean McManus said in a statement. "The CBS News family has lost one of its oldest and most talented members, whose absence will be felt by many and whose on-air presence and reporting skills touched nearly all of our broadcasts. We extend our deepest condolences to his wife Kathy and their children Joelle, Danica and David."

Dow covered many of the most important stories of his time, including 9/11, where he barely escaped one of the falling Twin Towers. He also covered the return of prisoners of war from Vietnam, the movement of American troops into Bosnia, the Pan Am Flight 103 disaster, and the kidnapping of Patricia Hearst, who he interviewed exclusively in 1976. He also conducted the first network TV interview with O. J. Simpson after the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman.

In addition to his five Emmys, Dow was honored with a Peabody Award for his 48 Hours report on runaways and a Robert F. Kennedy Award for a report on public housing. He was also recently recognized by the National Association of Black Journalists for his report about civil rights activist Medgar Evers, which was featured in a CBS News special about the inauguration of President Barack Obama.

Prior to beginning his work for CBS News in 1972, Dow was an anchor at Theta Cable TV in Santa Monica, Calif. He was also the first African American television reporter in Omaha, Neb., where he served as co-anchor and talk-show host for KETV Omaha.

Dow's cause of death was not immediately released.

[DJSHOCKLEY]

R.I.P. Michael Been, Lead Singer for The Call!

On Thursday, Michael Been, frontman for the U.S. group The Call, died of an apparent heart attack during the Pukkelpop Festival in Hasselt, a town in eastern Belgium. The 60-year-old was working as the soundman for his son's band, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club.

[Scott Reppert]

A small tribute to Michael Been. Still one of the greatest rock and roll songs EVER...



And from my personal YouTube files...



And if you have never heard "We Know Too Much", look it up on iTunes or your other favorite music site. He will be missed...

[Bob Campbell]

We used to use "Let The Day Begin" as show opening music when I worked at Super 102. The Call were one of the great cult bands of all time.