“(CNN) -- Kara Kennedy, daughter of the late Sen. Ted Kennedy, died of a heart attack on Friday, a family aide told CNN Saturday. She was 51…”
“MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO/AP) – Eleanor Mondale, daughter of former Vice President Walter Mondale and a former WCCO Radio show host and WCCO-TV reporter, died early Saturday morning at age 51.
Mondale had been battling brain cancer since 2005…”
“(CNN) -- Former college and pro football star Charles Aaron "Bubba" Smith, who went on to an acting career after his retirement from sports, was found dead at his home, the Los Angeles County Coroner's Office said Wednesday. He was 66.
Police and fire officials were called to Smith's home after "he was found unresponsive" and pronounced him dead, said Ed Winter, assistant chief of operations and investigation for the coroner..”
“(CNN) -- Betty Ford, the widow of late President Gerald Ford and a co-founder of an eponymous addiction center in California, has died at the age of 93, according to the director of the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library and Museum.
Ford died Friday evening with family at her bedside, according to a family member.
Elaine Didier, the director of the Grand Rapids, Michigan, museum, confirmed Ford's death to CNN.
No other details were immediately available. The family is expected to release a statement later Friday or Saturday, Didier said…”
“CNN -- Actor Peter Falk, who rose to fame on a shambling manner and a rumpled raincoat as the TV detective Lt. Columbo, has died. He was 83.
Falk died peacefully at his Beverly Hills home Thursday evening, according to a statement released by his friend, attorney Larry Larson. The cause of death was not released.
Though he was a renowned movie and stage actor -- he earned two Oscar nominations in the early '60s and won an Obie (an off-Broadway honor) for his performance in Eugene O'Neill's "The Iceman Cometh" -- he is best remembered for the polite, raincoat-wearing, Peugeot-driving Los Angeles police detective who always wanted to know "just one more thing."
That line -- which usually meant that the seemingly absent-minded detective was about to outwit his perfect-crime-committing suspects -- became so popular that Falk used it as the title of his memoir.”
I loved that show. At some point I did get tired of it. Because it was the same thing over and over again but he was great in that part.
Peter Falk – Wikipedia
If you were to ask me who Andrew Gold was I would have had no idea. Or if you asked me who wrote the songs that he wrote I would have had no idea.
“Andrew Gold, the singer-songwriter best known for 1977's "Lonely Boy" single, died Friday in his sleep from a heart attack. He was 59.
That song was heard in films such as Boogie Nights and Water Boy. Another song, "Thank You for Being a Friend," was heard on TV each week for almost a decade as the theme song for The Golden Girls…” www.people.com
“Andrew Maurice Gold (August 2, 1951 – June 3, 2011)[1] was an American singer, musician and songwriter. His works include the Top 10 single "Lonely Boy" (1977), as well as the singles "Thank You for Being a Friend" (1978), and "Never Let Her Slip Away" (1978).
His rendition of the theme from the television series Mad About You, entitled "Final Frontier," was used as the wake-up call for theMars Pathfinder space probe in 1996.[2]
Gold was a prolific multi-instrumentalist as artist, producer, film composer, session musician, actor, painter, and singer…” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Gold
“(CNN) -- Former "Gunsmoke" actor James Arness, who played Marshal Matt Dillon in the western TV series for 20 years, died Friday from natural causes, according to his website. He was 88.
Over the two decades of "Gunsmoke" episodes from 1955 to 1975, Arness worked with hundreds of actors, some of them just up-and-comers such as Harrison Ford, Burt Reynolds and Charles Bronson. He also worked with Bette Davis.
Arness left behind a letter to his fans, which was posted on his website after his death:
"I had a wonderful life and was blessed with some many loving people and great friends. The best part of my life was my family, especially my wife, Janet. Many of you met her at Dodge City so you understand what a special person she is," Arness wrote.
"I wanted to take this time to thank all of you for the many years of being a fan of 'Gunsmoke,' 'The Thing,' 'How the West Was Won' and all the other fun projects I was lucky enough to have been allowed to be a part of. I had the privilege of working with so many great actors over the years.
EW: Why Arness was greatest TV Western lawman
"I was honored to have served in the army for my country. I was at Anzio during WWII and it makes you realize how very precious life is," Arness wrote.
"Thank you again for all the many letters, cards, emails and gifts we received from you over the years. You are and always have been truly appreciated," he concluded…”
I watched a lot of “Gunsmoke” shows over the years. The year 1955 was the year I went into high school. I am not sure how long I watched the show but I watched for many years. It was a great show.
“Dr. Jack Kevorkian, the Michigan pathologist who put assisted suicide on the world's medical ethics stage, died early Friday, according to a spokesman with Beaumont Hospital. He was 83.
The assisted-suicide advocate had been hospitalized in Michigan for pneumonia and a kidney-related ailment, his attorney Mayer Morganroth has said.
The music of Johann Sebastian Bach, Kevorkian's favorite musician, was put on the intercom so he could hear the music as he was dying, Morganroth said.
The 83-year-old former pathologist had struggled with kidney problems for years and had checked into a hospital earlier this month for similar problems, his lawyer, Mayer Morganroth, told CNN last month. He checked back into Beaumont Hospital in the Detroit suburb of Royal Oak on May 18 after suffering a relapse, Morganroth said…” CNN
I was no fan of “doctor death” and I think his death came about 83 years to late.
This post was after he got out of prison for murder in 2007: Jack Kevorkian – “Doctor Death”
Here is another post 2007: University of Florida to give Jack Kevorkian $50K
Here is a post from 2006: Kevorkian and Red Buttons
My problem is not with the right of a sick and in pain person to ease their pain. My problem was with “doctor” Kevorkian. I think he had major mental problems and should not have been a doctor and I think he took some sick twisted joy in killing people. So my problem was with him.
Here is a story by Rick Perlstein published in The New York Times opinion pages.
“JANUARY was the 100th anniversary of Ronald Reagan’s birth, and the planet nearly stopped turning on its axis to recognize the occasion. Today is the 100th anniversary of Hubert H. Humphrey’s birth, and no one besides me seems to have noticed.
That such a central figure in American history is largely ignored today is sad. But his diminution is also, more importantly, an impediment to understanding our current malaise as a nation, and how much better things might have been had today’s America turned out less Reaganite and more Humphreyish…”
Hubert Horatio Humphrey, Jr. (May 27, 1911 – January 13, 1978), served under President Lyndon B. Johnson as the 38th Vice President of the United States. Humphrey twice served as a United States Senator from Minnesota, and served as Democratic Majority Whip. He was a founder of the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party and Americans for Democratic Action. He also served as Mayor of Minneapolis, Minnesota, 1945–1949. In 1968, Humphrey was the nominee of the Democratic Party in the 1968 presidential election but lost to the Republican nominee, Richard Nixon.
A friend sent me the link. An old liberal progressive like me that remembers Hubert Humphrey. It is sad that someone like him is forgotten.
It does go to show that being Vice President just does not mean very much.
( John Nance Garner described the Vice-Presidency as being “not worth a bucket of warm piss.”) Garner should know he was Vice President from 1933 to 1941.
I don’t know anything about Garner but Hubert Humphrey was a great man and it is sad that he has been so forgotten.
“Jeffrey Charles William Michael Conaway (October 5, 1950[1] – May 27, 2011[2]), known by his stage name Jeff Conaway, was an American actor, best known for his roles in the movie Grease and the US television series Taxi andBabylon 5. He also directed the 1992 film Bikini Summer II.[3]..”
“SYDNEY (AP) — The last known combat veteran of World War I was defiant of the tolls of time, a centenarian who swam in the sea, twirled across dance floors, and published his first book at 108. He also refused to submit to his place in history, becoming a pacifist who wouldn't march in parades commemorating wars like the one that made him famous.
Claude Stanley Choules, a man of contradictions, humble spirit and wry humor, died in a Western Australia nursing home on Thursday at the age of 110. And though his accomplishments were many — including a a 41-year military career that spanned two world wars — the man known as "Chuckles" to his comrades in the Australian Navy was happiest being known as a dedicated family man.
"We all loved him," his 84-year-old daughter Daphne Edinger told The Associated Press. "It's going to be sad to think of him not being here any longer, but that's the way things go."
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