The Blog of Death

Waggoner Carr

Waggoner Carr, a former Texas attorney general and state representative, died on Feb. 25 from cancer. He was 85.

Carr graduated from Texas Technological College and was studying for a law degree at the University of Texas Law School when World War II began. He served for three years as an Army Air Corps pilot then returned home to complete his law degree and open a private firm with his brother, Warlick.

Over the next two decades, Carr dedicated his life to public service. He spent two years as the Lubbock assistant district attorney, three years as a Lubbock County attorney and a decade as a state representative. From 1957 to 1961, he was the speaker of the House.

Carr was elected the attorney general of Texas in 1963. On the morning of Nov. 22, he ate breakfast with President John F. Kennedy before flying to the Panhandle for a speaking engagement. While he was en route, President Kennedy was shot and killed. Carr later testified before the Warren Commission, which investigated the assassination.

After two unsuccessful campaigns for the U.S. Senate and governor's office, Carr returned to private practice. In 1971, he was tried on federal fraud and conspiracy charges for the Sharpstown stock fraud scandal, but was eventually acquitted. The author of the 1977 memoir, "Waggoner Carr, Not Guilty," he was writing books on Jesse James and a history of Texas attorneys general when he died.

Carl Anderson

Carl Anderson, a Golden Globe-nominated actor and singer who was best known for his portrayal of Judas Iscariot in "Jesus Christ Superstar," died on Feb. 23 from leukemia. He was 58.

Anderson dropped out of high school in the 11th grade and enlisted in the Air Force. He served for two years as a communications technician, completed his high school studies and moved to Washington D.C., where he formed the rock band, The Second Eagle.

Anderson broke into show business on Palm Sunday. He and the band were performing songs from "Jesus Christ Superstar" at a church service when a talent agent with the William Morris Agency offered him an audition in New York City for the role of Judas on Broadway. Ben Vereen originated the part in 1971, but Anderson took over when Vereen became too sick to perform. In 1973, Anderson was cast in the movie adaptation of the rock opera, and received Golden Globe nominations for most promising newcomer and best musical actor.

When he wasn't on stage, Anderson appeared on several TV shows, including "Another World," "Magnum P.I.," "Hill Street Blues" and "Days of Our Lives." He acted in the 1985 Steven Spielberg film, "The Color Purple," and recorded nine albums. "Friends and Lovers," his duet with soap star Gloria Loring, hit #2 on the Billboard charts in 1986.

Anderson reprised his most famous role in 1992 for a 20th anniversary of the movie tour. He was performing on a national tour of the musical last summer when his illness was diagnosed.

John Randolph

John Randolph, a Tony Award-winning character actor, died on Feb. 24 of natural causes. He was 88.

The New York City native was born Emanuel Hirsch Cohen, but when his mother remarried, he was renamed Mortimer. After attending City College of New York and studying drama with the Federal Theatre Project and Stella Adler, he legally changed his name to John Randolph. He served in the Army Air Forces during World War II, and married actress Sarah Cunningham between the matinee and evening performance of the Orson Welles-produced and directed play, "Native Son." Cunningham died in 1986.

Randolph, who described himself as an "old radical," first became politically active in the 1930s. He rallied for convicted spies Julius and Ethel Rosenberg and fought for the rights of veterans. He and his wife were both called before the House Un-American Activities Committee in 1955, but they refused to testify.

Blacklisted for their beliefs, the couple founded the Ensemble Studio Theatre. Randolph also returned to the New York stage, appearing in the original productions of "The Sound of Music" and "Paint Your Wagon." He also continued demonstrating for issues that mattered to him. During the 1960s, he marched with Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

Randolph was never a household name, but after 60 years of entertaining, he certainly became a familiar face to American audiences. When he was once again allowed to work in Hollywood, he took on character parts in films like "Serpico," "Frances" and "Prizzi's Honor."

In later years, he played Roseanne's father in several episodes of the ABC sitcom "Roseanne," and appeared as Tom Hanks's grandfather in the 1998 film, "You've Got Mail." Randolph also played the "Trotskyite, communist, left-wing grandfather" in Neil Simon's play "Broadway Bound" -- a role that earned him a Tony Award and a Drama Desk in 1987.

• Playlist from IBDb.com

Don Cornell

During his five decades in show business, Don Cornell sold more than 50 million records.

The big band singer scored a string of hits during the 1950s and early '60s, including "It Isn't Fair," "I'm Yours," "Most of All," "Hold My Hand" and "Love Is a Many Splendored Thing." His classic baritone was perfectly suited to the popular crooning of the pre-rock 'n' roll era.

Cornell sang and played guitar with trumpeter Red Nichols and big band leader Sammy Kaye until World War II when he served in the U.S. Air Force. Once his military service ended, Cornell rejoined Kaye and performed on several of the band's minor hits before launching his solo career.

Considered a staple on the club circuit in Atlantic City and Las Vegas, Cornell continued performing into his 80s. In 1963, he received one of the first stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. He was inducted into the Big Band Hall of Fame 30 years later.

Cornell died on Feb. 23 from advanced emphysema and diabetes. He was 84.

Paul Gruchow

Paul Gruchow, a conservationist and author who recently completed the first draft of a book about depression, died on Feb. 22 from a drug overdose at the age of 56. A sufferer of depression, Gruchow spent several years in and out of hospitals for psychiatric treatment, and had attempted suicide four times since 2001.

As a child growing up on a Minnesota farm, Gruchow dreamed of living a religious life. He attended the University of Minnesota and served as editor of the Minnesota Daily newspaper, but dropped out of school to take a job as an aide to Rep. Don Fraser (D-Minn.) in Washington D.C. When he returned to his home state, Gruchow became a news and public affairs director for Minnesota Public Radio, and worked as a reporter and managing editor at the Worthington Daily Globe newspaper.

Gruchow's final years were spent teaching creative writing classes at St. Olaf College and Concordia College, and writing books that championed the rural, Minnesota landscape. He penned "Journal of a Prairie Year," "The Necessity of Empty Places," "Travels in Canoe Country," "Boundary Waters: The Grace of the Wild," "Worlds Within a World" and "Grass Roots: The Universe of Home," which won the Minnesota Book Award. Gruchow also contributed articles to the Utne Reader, The New York Times and The Star Tribune.

Ron O'Neal

Ron O'Neal, an Obie Award-winning actor, died on Jan. 14 from cancer. He was 66.

O'Neal attended Ohio State University for a short time before dropping out to spend several years performing in the interracial, Cleveland acting troupe, Karamu House. In 1967, he moved to New York and gave acting lessons in Harlem to support himself while appearing in summer stock and off-Broadway shows.

O'Neal stepped into the spotlight in 1970 when he was cast in the Pulitzer Prize-winning play, "No Place to Be Somebody." His performance in the Broadway show earned him an Obie Award, a Clarence Derwent Award, a Drama Desk and a Theatre World Award.

The producers of the 1972 blaxploitation film, "Superfly," caught O'Neal's performance and cast him as the movie's lead character -- a hip, cocaine dealer named Youngblood Priest. "Superfly" was a box office hit, but the 30 movies that followed in O'Neal's career were mostly low-budget or straight-to-video fare. He returned to Broadway in 1975 and replaced Cleavon Little in "All Over Town," a play directed by Dustin Hoffman.

Stanislaw Ryniak

As prisoners arrived at the concentration camp in Auschwitz, each inmate was given a number based on order of arrival. The first 30 numbers went to German criminal prisoners who would serve as the camp's guards.

Stanislaw Ryniak was tattooed with #31.

In 1940, the Nazis arrested Ryniak in his hometown of Sanok, Poland, where he worked as an engineer. Accused of being a member of the Polish resistance, the 24-year-old was placed on a train with 727 other Polish political prisoners and sent to the camp. Approximately 1.5 million people, mostly Jews, died at the camp, either in gas chambers or from disease and starvation.

After surviving four years in Auschwitz, he was transported to the Leitmeritz work camp in what is now the Czech Republic. Subjected to hard labor, Ryniak weighed only 88 pounds when he was released at the end of World War II. He eventually graduated from Wrocław Polytechnic in Poland and became an architect.

Ryniak died of unknown causes. No exact date was released, but he was buried on Feb. 20 at the age of 88.

Jordi Casals-Ariet

Dr. Jordi Casals-Ariet, the epidemiologist who spent his life studying dangerous viruses, died on Feb. 10. Cause of death was not released. He was 92.

Born in Spain, Casals served in the Spanish Army then earned a medical degree from the University of Barcelona. He moved to the United States in the mid-1930s and worked at Cornell University Medical College before joining the Rockefeller Institute of Medical Research in Manhattan. He studied and classified samples of viruses sent from scientists all over the world. When the Rockefeller Foundation moved its program to Yale in 1964, Casals became a professor of epidemiology there.

In 1969, Casals's team identified the Lassa fever virus in the blood of three American missionary nurses stationed in northern Nigeria. Lassa is a rare and often fatal viral disease that causes dangerous fevers, muscle aches, mouth ulcers, a skin rash with tiny hemorrhages and pneumonia. Two of the nurses died, but the third one, Lily Pinneo, flew to Columbia-Presbyterian Hospital in New York City and recovered nine weeks later.

Shortly after he started working with the virus, Casals became ill and also checked himself in to Columbia-Presbyterian. As his symptoms worsened, the doctors determined that Casals had been infected with Lassa. The medical team flew Pinneo in from Rochester, N.Y., and used her blood's antibodies to save Casals's life.

Publicity about the virus discovery and the subsequent laboratory accidents ushered in a new era of safety procedures. After he recovered from the virus, Casals flew to Sierra Leone to help study and combat a Lassa fever outbreak in that country. He also built a World Health Organization reference center for certain viral diseases and taught at Mount Sinai School of Medicine.

William Coates

William Coates, who was believed to be the oldest man in America, died on Feb. 24 of natural causes. He was 114.

Born in 1889, Coates may have been the second-oldest man in the world, but he didn't have a birth certificate to authenticate the claim. During his long life, he worked on a commercial tobacco farm and helped build roads for the state of Maryland.

The supercentenarian had nine children, 21 grandchildren and 37 great-grandchildren.

Patrick McSorley

Patrick McSorley, one of the most outspoken Boston clergy sex abuse victims, died on Feb. 23. Cause of death was not released. He was 29.

One of the first victims to go public, McSorley appeared at several news conferences in recent years to criticize how the Boston Archdiocese handled its abusive priests. Although the church knew Father John Geoghan was a pedophile, Catholic authorities shuffled him from parish to parish whenever sexual allegations were reported. Almost all of Geoghan's victims were grammar school boys; one was only 4 years old.

In 1986, McSorley said Geoghan visited his home to offer condolences after his father committed suicide. Geoghan took McSorley out for ice cream and sexually abused him in the car. At the time, Patrick was 12 years old. A troubled life followed the incident. McSorley spent many years in and out of drug rehabilitation centers to overcome his substance abuse problem. Last June, he nearly drowned in the Neponset River. A month later, he was arrested on drug charges.

McSorley was one of hundreds of Geoghan victims who sued the archdiocese. The church settled with him and more than 80 plaintiffs for $10 million in 2002. Last summer, Geoghan was murdered in prison.

"Patrick was certainly courageous in his willingness to go on the record very publicly to tell what it was like to be abused, as it turns out, by one of the most notorious molesters in the priesthood. For any young male victim, that takes a lot of courage, and Patrick McSorley was able to do it day after day after day," said Phil Saviano, founder of the New England chapter of the Survivors Network.

• Spotlight Investigation: Abuse in the Catholic Church

Frank del Olmo

During his 33 years at the Los Angeles Times, Frank del Olmo became a voice for the Hispanic community.

The Los Angeles-native earned a journalism degree from California State University Northridge, then landed an internship with the Times in 1970. He rose through the newspaper's ranks, doing stints as a staff writer, an editorial writer, a deputy editorial page editor and an assistant to the editor before becoming an associate editor in 1998. During his tenure, he wrote thousands of stories and was the first Latino to be listed on the publication's masthead.

Del Olmo was a longtime op-ed columnist for the newspaper, who focused on issues affecting Latinos living in California. In recent years, he also chronicled his son's battles with autism.

Del Olmo won numerous honors, including an Emmy for writing "The Unwanted," a 1975 KNBC-TV documentary about illegal immigration, and a shared Pulitzer in 1984 for meritorious public service. A founding member of the California Chicano News Media Association, Del Olmo was inducted into the Hispanic Journalists Hall of Fame in 2002.

Del Olmo died on Feb. 19 from an apparent heart attack at the age of 55. A scholarship fund and an annual award for outstanding print journalist of the year have been established to honor his journalistic legacy.

• Read Selected Columns by Frank del Olmo

Nicholas Doman

Nicholas Richard Doman, an attorney who spent his entire life fighting for the return of property seized under Nazi and Communist governments in Europe, died on Jan. 25. Cause of death was not released. He was 90.

Doman graduated from the London School of Economics in 1932. He earned a master's degree from the University of Colorado and a law degree from the University of Budapest. During World War II, he served as a first lieutenant in the Army before joining the staff of Robert Jackson, chief U.S. prosecutor, in the Nuremberg war crimes trials.

For the next 50 years, Doman traveled the world, giving lectures on international law, writing wills and reclaiming property that was lost or stolen by the Nazis and Communists. A chair in international law at the University of Colorado is named in his honor, as is a student organization dedicated to fostering interest and increasing the understanding of international and comparative law.

Joe Viterelli

Joe Viterelli, the pug-faced actor known for playing goons in mob movies, died on Jan. 29 from complications of heart surgery. He was 66.

The New York City native originally ran the family business -- of music schools. Viterelli played the classical guitar and spent his youth saving up enough money to see performances at Carnegie Hall and Broadway theaters. He later took on jobs as a truck driver, bar owner and bowling ball driller to feed his family.

Viterelli moved to Los Angeles in the late-1970s and befriended director Leo Penn. Although Joe originally declined to go Hollywood, he changed his mind when actor Sean Penn (Leo's son) requested his presence in the 1990 gangster film, "State of Grace."

Audiences liked what they saw and Viterelli soon received offers to act in other mob movies. He appeared in 40 films, typecast as Joe Profaci ("Mobsters"), Nick Valenti ("Bullets Over Broadway"), Vinnie "The Shrimp" ("Mickey Blue Eyes") and Fat Tony Ragoni ("Cure for Boredom"). He was best known for his performance as the likable henchman Jelly in 1999's "Analyze This" and its 2002 sequel, "Analyze That."

His final performance was in the humorous Staples commercial released on Super Bowl Sunday. It featured Viterelli acting as "muscle" for an office worker whose manager demanded bakery bribes in exchange for office supplies.

Humphry Osmond

Dr. Humphry Osmond is considered a pioneer of the psychiatric community.

During the 1950s and 1960s, Osmond studied the structural similarity between mescalin and adrenaline molecules, and theorized that schizophrenia might be a form of self-intoxication caused by the body mistakenly producing its own hallucinogenic compounds. The British doctor encouraged medical professionals to take the hallucinogenic drug LSD in order to see the world through the eyes of schizophrenic patients.

Osmond coined the phrase "psychedelic," from the Greek for mind ("psyche") and the verb "delein" (to manifest). He also used LSD to treat alcoholics and gave the drug to author Aldous Huxley, whose reactions were later chronicled in the 1954 book, "The Doors of Perception and Heaven and Hell."

Osmond attended Guy's Hospital Medical School, and served as a surgeon-lieutenant in the British Navy during World War II. His ideas about using hallucinogenic drugs in the treatment of psychiatric illness found no footing in Britain, so he immigrated to Saskatchewan, Canada, and began conducting his research at Weyburn Mental Hospital. Osmond later became the director of the Bureau of Research in Neurology and Psychiatry at Princeton University, and a professor at the University of Alabama Medical School. He wrote or co-wrote several books, including "The Chemical Basis of Clinical Psychiatry" with Abram Hoffer, and "Psychedelics" with B. Aaronson.

Osmond died on Feb. 6 from cardiac arrhythmia. He was 86.

• Bibliography

Hitoshi Takagi

Hitoshi Takagi, a Japanese actor known for his voice work in anime films, died on Feb. 11 from heart disease. He was 78.

Takagi spent three decades providing dialogue in numerous anime films, including "Tanpopo," "Galaxy Express 999" and "Dragonball Z: Kiken na futari! Chô senshi wa nemurenai." But he was best known for his voice work in "My Neighbor Totoro," the 1998 Hayao Miyazaki film about rural spirits who befriend two young girls.

Takagi also participated in the Bungakuza theatre group and ran the production company, 81 Produce.

Robert J. McKenna

Dr. Robert J. McKenna, a former president of the American Cancer Society, died on Jan. 13. Cause of death was not released. He was 78.

McKenna was a teenager when he joined the Navy and served in the Pacific during World War II. Upon his return to the states, he graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Cornell Medical College then taught at the University of Southern California for 35 years.

McKenna also spent four decades working with the American Cancer Society. He ran a committee to promote insurance coverage and employment for recovered cancer patients and lobbied for the passage of the federal Rehabilitation Act of 1973.

In 1985, he was named president of the cancer health agency. Although McKenna only spent a year in office, he launched a cancer prevention study with 1.2 million participants and formed an alliance with the American Heart Association and the American Lung Association to seek federal restrictions on tobacco advertising.

A former president of the Society of Surgical Oncology, McKenna published several textbooks, including "Cancer Surgery" and "Fundamentals of Surgical Oncology."

Clark Byers

Clark Byers was not a famous artist, but his paintings were once displayed in 19 states.

In the mid-1930s, Byers was hired to climb atop a barn and paint the slogan: "See Rock City." For the next three decades, he'd repeat the signage work on almost 900 barns and buildings, all advertising Rock City Gardens, a tourist attraction atop Lookout Mountain in Chattanooga, Tenn. Byers did all the lettering freehand.

For tourists who passed the attraction, barns sporting "To miss Rock City would be a pity" signs were sure to come into view along Interstate 24. In exchange for turning barns into billboards, Byers gave farmers Rock City souvenirs or a couple of dollars. Then in 1968, he was nearly electrocuted during a thunderstorm. His injuries required almost a year of hospitalization and recovery, after which he made the decision to hand off touch-up jobs to younger men.

Byers worked in a cotton mill and bottled buttermilk before he was hired to entice motorists into visiting Rock City. After his cross-country painting stint ended, he ran the Sequoyah Caverns and Campground in Alabama, then retired to his Georgia farm where he occasionally painted signs for local churches or schools.

Byers died on Feb. 19. Cause of death was not released. He was 89.

Mary Diaz

When Mary Frances Diaz became the executive director of the Women's Commission for Refugee Women and Children in 1994, she had a staff of four, a $450,000 budget and plans to save the world.

Over the next decade, the tireless advocate dedicated herself and the organization to aiding refugees and internally displaced women and children. She hired 16 more people and generated an operating budget of $4 million, which was then used to provide basic essentials to refugees living in war-torn countries.

During the course of her career, Diaz wrote articles, lobbied governmental bodies, faced landmines and lions and fought for the rights of women and children living in the most horrific conditions. For her efforts, the United Nations High Commissioner Ruud Lubbers gave Diaz the 2003 UNHCR Award for the Promotion of Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Refugee Women.

Diaz studied international relations at Brown University. After graduation, she worked in the production department of Action News at WPVI-TV in Philadelphia and spent her off-hours helping refugees settle in the city. She earned a master's degree in international education from Harvard University in 1988, then dedicated a decade of her life to the Catholic Charities in Boston. She later taught social sciences as an adjunct professor at New York University's School of Continuing and Professional Studies.

Diaz died on Feb. 12 of pancreatic cancer. She was 43.

(To make a memorial contribution to the Mary Diaz Fund for Refugee Girls, click here.)

Steve Neal

Steve Neal, a political columnist for the Chicago Sun-Times, committed suicide on Feb. 18 at the age of 54. According to the Hinsdale Police Department, Neal was found at the wheel of his car in the garage attached to his home. He left behind several notes.

Neal first became interested in politics as a teenage collector of campaign buttons. He earned a bachelor's degree from the University of Oregon and a master's in journalism from Columbia University. His first job in journalism was with the old Oregon Journal. He worked for the Philadelphia Inquirer from 1972 to 1979, then landed a general assignment reporter position at the Chicago Tribune.

Within six months, Neal was transferred to the newspaper's Washington bureau where he covered the White House during Ronald Reagan's first term. The Tribune brought him back to the Windy City in 1984 to cover politics. Three years later, he joined the rival Sun-Times. Neal was also a regular guest on the television show, "Chicago Tonight: The Week in Review," on WTTW-TV Channel 11.

Considered one of the city's most savvy political analysts, Neal's trademark one-line leads introduced opinion pieces that did more than pontificate -- they actually broke news. His encyclopedic knowledge of history and politics led him to write and/or edit 11 books, including the upcoming "Happy Days Are Here Again: The 1932 Democratic Convention, the Emergence of FDR -- and How America Was Changed Forever."

• Read Steve Neal's Final Columns

John Lewis

John William Lewis Jr., a musician who dedicated his professional life to aiding the disabled, died on Feb. 2 from complications of pneumonia. He was 93.

Lewis was only 6 days old when a faulty eye drop formula rendered him totally blind. Undaunted by his handicap, Lewis learned to tune and play the piano. He attended the Juilliard School of Music in New York, and graduated with a master's degree in music education from Columbia University.

In the 1940s, he returned to Macon, Ga., and took a job with the Georgia Department of Education helping handicapped people find employment. He spent a decade working as a counselor for the disability unit of the Social Security Administration before retiring in 1973. He spent his final years teaching music appreciation to senior citizens at Life Enrichment Services of DeKalb County.

Juanita Jackson

For two decades, Granny Jack volunteered with the Foster Grandparent Program in Sacramento, Calif. She spent 20,000 hours teaching kindergarteners how to read and aiding disabled children.

Granny Jack was born in Alabama in 1914, orphaned at 3 years old and widowed twice. While raising her only child, she earned an associate of arts degree in social work and became active in community service organizations. After she retired and moved to Sacramento, Granny Jack became a foster grandmother at Greenhaven Nursing Home, Bear Flag Elementary and Luther Burbank High School.

"My mom was the soul of compassion and generosity. There were no boundaries in her caring and sharing and she will be remembered -- and sadly missed -- by everyone whose lives she touched," her son Gerald Bryant said.

Juanita Jackson (a.k.a. Granny Jack) died on Jan. 16 of complications from a stroke at the age of 89. A scholarship fund has been set up in her honor.

Gene Hughes

Gene Hughes, a country record promoter who first gained fame as the lead singer of the Casinos, died on Feb. 3 of complications from an October car accident. He was 67.

As children, Hughes and his brothers sang on street corners and at their church. They formed a band with friends and adopted the ''doo-wop'' style popular in the 1950s. Hughes dropped out of high school after the 10th grade to join the Army, but he received a medical discharge after about a year and a half. He then returned to Cincinnati and formed the Casinos.

In 1967, the Casinos hit No. 6 on Billboard's pop charts with the song, "Then You Can Tell Me Goodbye." That tune placed the nine-member group in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame's "One Hit Wonders" room. The band's follow-up single, "It's All Over Now," was written by Don Everly of the Everly Brothers, but only reached No. 65.

Hughes spent the past 20 years working as a country music promoter in Nashville. His record promotion company, Gene Hughes Promotion, handled accounts with RCA, MCA, Columbia, Warner Bros. and Capitol.

Zang Kejia

Zang Kejia, a Chinese poet and editor, died on Feb. 5. Cause of death was not released. He was 99.

Born in the Shandong province of east China, Zang attended the Wuhan Branch of the Central Military and Political School and Shandong University. In 1937, he published "Laoyin" (Brand), his first collection of poems, followed by a collection of political ironic verses.

When the Communist Party took power in 1949, he and writer Zhou Zhenfu edited Mao Zedong's book, "Selected Poems of Chairman Mao." From 1957 to 1964, Zang served as the editor-in-chief of Poetry magazine and as the honorary deputy president of the Chinese Writers Association.

• Read "Woman Waer Seller" by Zang Kejia

Jose Lopez Portillo

When the former president of Mexico appeared in public, people mocked him by barking in his direction. He was referred to as "El Perro" (The Dog) and his mansion overlooking Mexico City became known as "Dog Hill."

From 1976 to 1982, Jose Lopez Portillo y Pachecho ruled Mexico. It became the world's fourth largest oil producer during this period, but when oil prices fell in the early '80s, inflation soared. In response, Lopez Portillo promised to defend the peso "like a dog." In 1982, he devalued it by 41.7 percent.

Lopez Portillo presided over an administration known for its nepotism, graft and corruption. He gave political asylum to foreign exiles and offered amnesty to Mexican political prisoners and leftists. At the same time, he allowed suspected dissidents to be persecuted, kidnapped and murdered in what became known as Mexico's "dirty war."

After nationalizing the banking industry, Lopez Portillo left the presidential palace in disgrace, handing over a country in severe economic crisis to his successor Miguel de la Madrid. In his final address to Congress, Lopez Portillo broke down in tears and apologized to the poor people of Mexico.

Born in 1920, Lopez Portillo studied law at the National Autonomous University of Mexico. He practiced for a short time, then returned to his alma mater to teach political science. At 39, he joined the Institutional Revolutionary Party and worked his way up through the administrative ranks. After spending three years as finance minister under former president Luis Echeverria, Lopez Portillo was nominated for the presidency and ran unopposed.

Lopez Portillo died on Feb. 17 from complications of pneumonia. He was 83.

Warren Zimmermann

Warren Zimmermann, the last American ambassador to Yugoslavia before its breakup, died on Feb. 2 from pancreatic cancer. He was 69.

Zimmermann graduated from Yale and was a Fulbright scholar at Cambridge University. He entered the diplomatic corps in 1961, then spent the next three decades serving in France, Austria, Spain, Switzerland, Venezuela and the Soviet Union. He was chairman of the United States delegation to the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe and served as a deputy in negotiations with the Soviet Union over nuclear arms and space.

President George H.W. Bush named Zimmermann ambassador to Yugoslavia in 1989, where he remained until the outbreak of civil war in 1992. The war, which pitted the country's Muslims, Orthodox Christian Serbs and Catholic Croats against each other, lasted until 1995 and killed 260,000 people.

When President Bill Clinton refused to intervene in the war in Bosnia, Zimmermann resigned in protest from the Foreign Service. Clinton later persuaded NATO to bomb Bosnian Serb artillery positions and brought the leaders of the warring parties together to negotiate a peace deal.

Zimmermann received several State Department citations and the Sharansky Award from the Union of Councils of Soviet Jews. His later years were spent teaching international diplomacy at the Johns Hopkins School of International Affairs and Columbia University, and publishing articles for The New York Review of Books and Newsweek. His first book, "Origins of a Catastrophe: Yugoslavia and Its Destroyers," won the American Academy of Diplomacy Book Award in 1997. Zimmermann followed it up with "First Great Triumph: How Five Americans Made their Country a World Power," which received the Academy's Douglas Dillon Award in 2003.

Sam Fullbrook

Samuel Sydney Fullbrook, a famous bushman painter, died on Feb. 3 from cancer. He was 81.

Born in Sydney, Fullbrook joined the Army at 18 and served in the Middle East and New Guinea during World War II. When he returned to Australia, his military service allowed him to study at the Victoria National Gallery School of Art.

Fullbrook spent several years traveling across northern Australia and working in a variety of trades before joining the McLeod Aboriginal co-op at Pilbara to paint Aboriginal life. For the next four decades, he achieved commercial success by painting colorful landscapes and portraits.

Fullbrook exhibited his paintings in Australian and American galleries. He won the Archibald Prize in 1974 for his portrait of jockey Norman Stephens. In 2001, he was named an Australia Day ambassador.

Shirley Strickland de la Hunty

Shirley Strickland de la Hunty was the first woman to win back-to-back Olympic titles in track and field events.

The daughter of a professional sprinter, Strickland made her debut representing Australia in the 1948 Olympic Games in London, where she won a silver medal in the 400-meter relay and a bronze in the 100- and 80-meter hurdles. She won the 80-meter hurdles at Helsinki in 1952 before taking time off to have a baby. Four years later, she returned to defend her title at the 1956 Melbourne Games.

Australian Olympic Committee President John Coates described Strickland as "one of our greatest-ever Olympians." Renowned for her will and determination to succeed, she won seven Olympic medals: three gold, one silver and three bronze.

Off the track, Strickland worked as an assistant manager with the Australian Olympic Team, and lectured on physics, calculus and environmental science at the university level. She was also active in various environmental campaigns, including the preservation of the Swan River.

Strickland was made a member of the Order of the British Empire in 1957 and became an Officer in the Order of Australia in 2001. She was inducted into the Athletics Australia Hall of Fame in 2000 and carried the Olympic torch in the opening ceremony of the Sydney Games. On the 50th anniversary of the Helsinki Games in 2002, she received the Olympic Order.

Strickland died on Feb. 17. Cause of death was not released. She was 78.

Frank Mantooth

Frank Mantooth, a Grammy-nominated jazz pianist and composer, died on Jan. 30 of natural causes. He was 56.

Mantooth followed in his pianist mother's footsteps by taking up the instrument as a child. By the time he was 14, he was giving concerts to the public. He graduated from North Texas State University with a degree in music, then spent four years creating arrangements for the Air Force Academy. He moved to Austria in 1973 and earned a piano degree from the Hochschule für Musik.

Upon his return to the states, Mantooth was commissioned by Doc Severinsen, the Kansas City Symphony and the Madison Symphony Orchestra to write music. He published more than 165 works, recorded five albums of his own and earned 11 Grammy nominations.

Mantooth published five volumes of "The Best Chord Changes for the World's Greatest Standards" for the Hal Leonard Corp. Since the early 1990s, he had been a faculty member of the New York State Summer School of the Arts.

Charlie Fox

Charles Francis Fox, the National League Manager of the Year in 1971, died on Feb. 16 from complications of pneumonia. He was 82.

In 1942, Fox went 3-for-7 in three games as a catcher for the New York Giants. He served in the U.S. Navy during World War II, then became a coach for the San Francisco Giants. For the next four decades, he led several baseball teams in the National League.

A traditionalist known for his fiery temper, Fox managed the San Francisco from 1970 to 1974, leading the team to a NL West title in 1971. He did two short stints as manager of the Montreal Expos and Chicago Cubs, before ending his career in professional baseball as a scout for the Houston Astros.

• Statistics From Baseball-Almanac.com

Jan Miner

Janice Miner was known all over the world for her portrayal of Madge, the wisecracking manicurist in Palmolive commercials. For 27 years, the ads featured Miner praising the gentleness of the dish detergent: "It softens hands while you do the dishes."

Miner studied at the Vesper George School of Art in Boston and trained for the stage with acting coach Lee Strasberg. She made her stage debut in 1945 in the Boston performance of "Street Scene." Three years later, she moved to New York City, and began a four-decade career acting on- and off-Broadway. She frequently shared the stage with her husband, actor/screenwriter Richard Merrell, who died in 1988.

During the late 1940s, Miner appeared on several radio programs, including the popular, syndicated series, "Boston Blackie." In film, she acted with Dustin Hoffman in "Lenny," and in "Mermaids" with Cher. She also made numerous guest appearances on television, including a recent performance on the NBC drama, "Law and Order."

Miner died on Feb. 15. Cause of death was not released. She was 86.

• Watch Miner in a Classic Palmolive Commercial

Marco Pantani

Marco Pantani, a cyclist who won the Tour de France and the Giro d’Italia in 1998, died on Feb. 14 from a cocaine overdose. He was 34.

After turning professional in 1992, Pantani won eight Tour de France stages and eight Giro stages. A member of the Carrera team, he wore the yellow jersey as Tour leader in six stages and donned the Giro's pink jersey 14 times.

Italy's most popular cyclist, Pantani was called "The Pirate" for the bandanna and earring he wore during races. His best season was 1998, when he won both the Tour de France and the Giro. Many considered him one of the greatest climbers of his generation. In all, he registered 36 victories.

Five years ago, Pantini's career went into a freefall when he was repeatedly accused of illegal drug use. In 1999, he failed a random blood test and was ejected from the Giro. He received a three-month suspended prison sentence in 2000 after being found guilty of sporting fraud by an Italian court.

A syringe containing traces of insulin was found in his hotel room during a 2001 police raid. Although Pantani claimed the syringe had been planted, he was suspended from professional cycling for eight months. Then in 2003, Pantani won an appeal against the sporting fraud conviction. He also spent several weeks at a health clinic that specialized in treating depression and drug addiction.

Johan Sermon

Johan Sermon, a Belgian cyclist with the Daikin team, died on Feb. 13 from an apparent heart attack. He was 21.

In preparation for an eight-hour training ride, Sermon had gone to bed early on Thursday night. His mother found his body the next morning. Ernest De Vuyst, team manager and the former president of the Belgian Cycling Federation, said Sermon had recently undergone a complete cardiovascular check-up.

Since January 2003, eight riders have died from heart attacks.

Robert Harth

When Robert Harth arrived in New York City on Sept. 8, 2001, he never expected his first decision as the new executive and artistic director of Carnegie Hall would be to plan a concert of remembrance. But then terrorists attacked America on Sept. 11, and former Carnegie Hall president and famed violinist Isaac Stern died.

After having metal detectors installed in the hall's front entrance, Harth gave a musical voice to the city's grief, then led America's premier classical music venue into an adventurous era. He spearheaded an eclectic blend of programming at the new 644-seat Judy and Arthur Zankel Hall, adding jazz and rock bands and new classical compositions to the schedule. He also launched the Weill Music Institute, an ambitious music education program.

The son of conductor-violinist Sidney Harth and violinist Teresa Testa Harth, Robert was a trained violinist, flutist and composer who spent his youth playing guitar in the Indian Band, a folk/rock group. The Kentucky native graduated from Northwestern University with a bachelor's degree in English literature, and was only 19 when he became the production manager of the Chicago Symphony's 1975 summer series.

For the next 10 years, Harth served as vice president and general manager of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, where he was also responsible for the management of the Hollywood Bowl. Before moving to New York, he was president and CEO of the Aspen Music Festival and School in Colorado.

Harth died on Jan. 30 from a heart attack. He was 47.

Robert Bruce

Dr. Robert Bruce, the University of Washington cardiologist who developed the first treadmill test to diagnose heart disease, died on Feb. 12 from leukemia and spinal stenosis. He was 87.

Developed in the early 1960s, the treadmill test allowed patients to run in place so physicians could evaluate heart function under exercise conditions. It became known worldwide as the "Bruce Protocol." Before the test was adopted, physicians used the Master's two-step, a test that called for patients to undergo an EKG while resting after doing 90 seconds of step aerobics.

Bruce's first studies, which were published in 1949, analyzed the minute-to-minute changes in respiratory and circulatory function of adults who took a single-stage treadmill test. Fourteen years later, he updated his research to develop the multistage test he described in a 1963 paper.

Bruce earned his undergraduate degree from Boston University, and received his medical degree from the University of Rochester in New York. He became the University of Washington's first director of cardiology in 1950 -- a position he held for 32 years -- and helped turn the school into a national center for heart research.

Syd Solomon

Syd Solomon, an Abstract artist whose paintings hang in the Guggenheim Museum in New York, died on Jan. 28 after a long battle with Alzheimer's disease. He was 86.

The Pennsylvania native studied at the Art Institute of Chicago. He served in the Army during World War II, and earned the Bronze Star for his efforts in the Battle of the Bulge. After he returned to the states, he and his wife, Annie, moved to Sarasota, Fla. There he began to paint in earnest, drawing inspiration from the seascapes surrounding their home.

During the 1950s, Solomon helped make Sarasota a nationally known artists' colony, one frequently visited by writers and directors such as John D. MacDonald, Elia Kazan, Betty Friedan and Kurt Vonnegut Jr. He also taught art at the city's New College and served as director of its Fine Arts Institute since 1964.

Solomon's bold, colorful abstracts hang in numerous venues, including the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, the Corcoran Gallery in Washington, D.C. and Israel's Tel Aviv Museum.

Jozef Lenart

Jozef Lenart, the former Czechoslovak prime minister who supported the Soviet occupation in 1968, died on Feb. 11 after undergoing heart surgery. He was 80.

Lenart served as prime minister of Czechoslovakia from 1963 to 1968, and headed the Slovak Communist Party until the regime collapsed in 1988. A year later, he and ex-Communist Party boss Milos Jakes were brought up on charges of high treason for attending a meeting at the Soviet Embassy in Prague on the day after the 1968 Warsaw Pact invasion that squelched a popular anti-communism uprising. Known as the Prague Spring, the incident involved Soviet tanks rolling through the city's streets. About 100 Czechs were killed.

Prosecutors also claimed the two high-ranking party apparatchiks attempted to establish a legal basis for the invasion by discussing the creation of a new "workers' and farmers'" government. Though the pro-invasion government never took shape, it successfully undermined then-President Alexander Dubcek's administration.

Lenart acquired Czech citizenship after Czechoslovakia split into the Czech Republic and Slovakia in 1993. He was acquitted in 2002 of all charges, on the basis of insufficient evidence.

Jose Luis Castillo-Puche

Jose Luis Castillo-Puche was a young man when he met Ernest Hemingway in Spain during the late 1950s. The two developed an enduring friendship that led Castillo-Puche to become the Spanish authority on the Nobel laureate.

Castillo-Puche wrote the biography, "Hemingway in Spain: A Personal Reminiscence of Hemingway's Years in Spain by His Friend," as well as numerous TV and movie screenplays after Earnest committed suicide in 1961.

Born in Yecla, Spain, Castillo-Puche grew up to become a prolific author in his own right. He penned more than a dozen novels and won several awards, including two National Literature Prizes. During the Franco dictatorship, he became a journalist, reporting for the Spanish daily "Ya" and later for "ABC."

Castillo-Puche died on Feb. 2 from pneumonia. He was 84.

Ryszard Kuklinski

In Poland, Col. Ryszard Kuklinski is considered a traitor by many of his countrymen. George Tenet, the director of the Central Intelligence Agency, calls Kuklinski "a true hero of the Cold War."

"This passionate and courageous man helped keep the Cold War from becoming hot, providing the CIA with precious information upon which so many critical national security decisions rested. He did so for the noblest of reasons -- to advance the sacred causes of liberty and peace in his homeland and throughout the world," Tenet stated.

Kuklinski was born in Warsaw in 1930. He joined the Polish army at the age of 17, and worked his way through the ranks to become a liaison officer between the Polish military and the Soviet Army. When the Communist regime ordered the Polish army to take part in the bloody, military crackdown on Czechoslovakia's pro-democracy movement in 1970, Kuklinski became disillusioned and sent an offer of cooperation to American intelligence officials in Bonn, Germany.

From 1976 to 1981, he spied on his country for the CIA, passing 35,000 pages of Warsaw Pact secrets from behind the Iron Curtain. These documents exposed the government's plan to launch a crackdown on the Solidarity movement. Just before martial law was imposed in 1981, Kuklinski and his family defected to America.

Back in Poland, the government seized his house and property, and sentenced him to death for his espionage activities and desertion. Because threats were made on his life, the Kuklinskis went into hiding, living under assumed names. Both of his sons later died in mysterious accidents. Kuklinski did manage to visit his homeland once more in 1998. After 17 years in exile, he regained his citizenship and military rank when a Polish court cleared him of treason charges.

Kuklinski received a Distinguished Service medal from the CIA for his years as an East Bloc intelligence asset. He's also the subject of the Benjamin Weiser book, "A Secret Life: The Polish Officer, His Covert Mission, and the Price He Paid to Save His Country."

Kuklinski died on Feb. 10 from a stroke. He was 73.

Marvin E. Klein

Dr. Marvin E. Klein, a dermatologist who developed 45 skin care products, died on Jan. 29 from lung cancer. He was 67.

A native of Detroit, Klein dropped out of high school and joined the Marines so he could play the clarinet in the Marine Band. When the military realized he was underage, however, the government shipped him home.

Klein attended night school and won a full scholarship to the University of Michigan for undergraduate and medical school. He set up his practice in Bloomfield Hills, Mich., and treated dermatology patients for more than 40 years.

During the course of his career, Klein also patented skin care products used by dermatologists and plastic surgeons in more than 30 countries. Utilizing skin care agents based on the amino acids that occur naturally in skin, Klein created exfoliating masks, clay peels, moisturizing creams and cleansers.

His love for music also never waned. In the 1970s and '80s, Klein served as the principal clarinetist of the Dearborn Symphony Orchestra.

Edward A. Lane

Edward A. Lane, a photographer who shot pictures of the atomic bomb tests on Bikini Atoll, died on Jan. 9. Cause of death was not released. He was 96.

Abandoned at birth in Connecticut, Lane was raised by a foster family. He dropped out of high school and spent the 1920s working on riverboats and riding freight trains.

Lane learned the mechanics of photography when he enlisted in the Army in 1929. After mastering his craft and establishing a photojournalism school at Lowry Air Force Base in Denver, the military stationed him in the Marshall Islands. There he documented two atomic bomb tests in 1946 by shooting pictures from an airplane that flew over the mushroom clouds. When he returned to America, Lane brought the film back in a briefcase, handcuffed to his wrist.

"He was always very affected by the vision of that bomb and the destructive power of it. I think it sort of changed him for a long time. It caused him to really seek the serenity of the mountains," said his daughter Barbara Volpe.

In the private sector, Lane worked as a freelance photographer. His pictures appeared in numerous publications, including The Saturday Evening Post, Collier's and Country Gentleman.

Julie Schwartz

"Here Lies Julius Schwartz. He met his last deadline." --Schwartz's pre-written epitaph

This fitting farewell inscription will certainly attract attention, but for those who knew Schwartz, it barely captures the imprint he made in the publishing and comic book industries.

The New York City-native described himself as a "library kid." He graduated from the City College of New York, and launched the science fiction fanzine, The Time Traveller, in 1930 with Mort Weisinger and Forrest J. Ackerman. In 1934, he and Weisinger founded Solar Sales Service, the first literary agency to specialize in science fiction and fantasy. Their roster of clients included H.P. Lovecraft, Robert Heinlein and an unknown writer named Ray Bradbury.

Schwartz began editing comics in 1944 for All-American Comics, shortly before it merged with DC Comics. He worked on numerous titles, from "Hopalong Cassidy" and "Rex the Wonder Dog" to "Mystery in Space" and "Strange Adventures." After World War II ended, he helped revive the superhero genre by joining forces with writer Gardner Fox and artist Carmine Infantino, and recreating the Flash. The new Flash became a hit for DC Comics in 1956.

Schwartz then went on to modernize the Green Lantern, the Justice League of America and several other Golden Age characters. In the 1960s and '70s, he increased sales of the Batman and Superman lines by updating their stories and adding new characters. Although he gradually relinquished his day-to-day editorial duties, Schwartz continued editing through the 1980s, working on graphic novels based on the stories of Harlan Ellison, Larry Niven and Robert Silverberg. Since his retirement in 1987, he has served as editor emeritus of DC Comics at numerous comic book conventions.

For his contributions to the publishing and comic book industries, Schwartz received the First Fandom Hall of Fame Award, the Shazam, the Eagle, the Forry, the Alley, the Inkpot and the Jules Verne awards. In 1998, DragonCon established the Julie Award, which is given to artists and writers for universal achievement in multiple genres.

Schwartz died on Feb. 8 from pneumonia. He was 88.

Jerry Zorthian

Jirayr H. "Jerry" Zorthian, a bohemian sculptor, architect and painter, died on Jan. 6 from congestive heart failure. He was 92.

Born in Turkey, Zorthian's family fled to Europe when he was 10 years old. He immigrated to the United States in 1923 and earned a master of fine arts degree at Yale, then received the Winchester Fellowship, which allowed him to study painting at the American Academy in Rome.

Upon his return to America, Zorthian became a professional artist. He painted more than three dozen murals, including 11 for the Tennessee state capitol. During World War II, he served stateside in Army intelligence and painted "The Phantasmagoria of Military Intelligence Training," the mural he considered his masterpiece. In later years, Zorthian's paintings focused on the beauty of the human body, particularly the naked female form, and sold for tens of thousands of dollars.

Zorthian also taught at the California Institute of Technology and Pasadena City College, and built a small house on a 45-acre hilltop ranch in Altadena, Calif. Each Spring, the artist would throw a "primavera" birthday party, complete with roasted pig, free-flowing alcohol and nude models. Pasadena residents named Zorthian the Best Artist and Most Eccentric Person in the 1989 "Best of…" issue of Pasadena Weekly.

Ally McLeod

Ally McLeod, the soccer coach who led Scotland to the 1978 World Cup finals in Argentina, died on Feb. 1. Cause of death was not released. He was 72.

The charismatic left-winger did his military service with the Royal Scots, then played for the Blackburn Rovers and Hibernian. He was appointed manager of Ayr United in 1966, and led the team from the Scottish second division to the top flight before moving to Aberdeen in 1975, where he won the League Cup.

When McLeod succeeded Willie Ormond as Scotland's manager in 1977, he promised his countrymen the team would "bring back a medal" from the 1978 World Cup. Although the Tartan Army made it to Argentina, and the British team didn't, the World Cup campaign was a dismal failure. In the first round, the Scots beat Holland 3-2 before facing a 3-1 defeat to Peru and a 1-1 draw with Iran. Midfielder Willie Johnston was also kicked out of the competition and sent home when he failed a drug test.

After the poor showing in Argentina, McLeod returned to Scotland to coach Motherwell, Airdrie, Ayr and Queen of the South.

• Lyrics to "Ally's Tartan Army"

Rambling Rudy Phillips

Rudolph Washington Phillips, one of the best-known hobos to ride the rails during the Great Depression, caught ''the westbound to heaven'' on Jan. 9. He was 91.

Phillips was only 14 years old in 1925 when he left his home in East Prairie, Mo., and started traveling around the country. Over the next seven years, Rambling Rudy visited 48 states, and spent time in 27 different jails.

When he finally disembarked in 1932, Phillips opened Rudy's BBQ restaurant and Rudy's Hobo Museum in Shawneetown, Ill. The following year, the chamber of commerce in Britt, Iowa, began sponsoring the National Hobo Convention, an annual event that was launched in 1900 by a group of hobos from Chicago who called themselves Tourists Union No. 63. Phillips was heralded as the King of the Hobos at the convention in 1986, and crowned with an empty coffee can.

Rambling Rudy Phillips was married seven times, experiences he once described as "shipwrecks on the Sea of Matrimony." His last marriage to his wife Hazel, endured for more than 30 years, until her recent death.

Samuel M. Rubin

The tantalizing smell of freshly made popcorn filling a movie theatre is something you can thank Sam the Popcorn Man for.

Samuel M. Rubin first saw popcorn being made in Oklahoma City around 1930. When he returned to New York, he began selling the buttery treat at concessions stands he ran at the Empire State Building, Central Park and the Westbury Music Fair on Long Island.

Although popcorn became a staple snack at movie theaters during the Great Depression, Rubin was one of the first to sell fresh popcorn inside the theatres because he thought the warm, salty smell would entice buyers. For the next 60 years, he and his partner Marty Winter provided the concession stand refreshments to the major movie chains in the New York metropolitan area, including RKO, Brandt and Loews.

Rubin was always interested in snack food. He sold pretzels at age 6 and took a job filling vending machines in movie theaters when he was 12. He developed movie-size candy bars and boxes, which could be sold for $1.50 instead of $0.35. Rubin also served in the Army during World War II, survived a murder attempt by a rival in his company and lived through an armed robbery in which the thief put a gun to his head.

Rubin died on Feb. 5. Cause of death was not released. He was 85.

Helmut Werner

Helmut Eberhard Werner, the former chairman of Mercedes-Benz, died on Feb. 6. Cause of death was not released. He was 67.

Born in Germany, Werner earned a business degree from the University of Cologne in 1961. He held several sales positions at Englebert & Co. before learning the art of management at Uniroyal Europe and Continental Tire.

Werner moved to the Stuttgart-based Mercedes-Benz in 1987, and ran its heavy truck division for six years. When he was promoted in 1993 to run the company's luxury automobile side, Mercedes-Benz was deeply in debt. By cutting jobs and implementing clever marketing, Werner turned the company around and built the first American Mercedes factory in Tuscaloosa, Ala.

Werner left the company in 1997 and was replaced by Jurgen Hubbert. He also served as the chairman of Expo 2000 in Hanover, and sat on the boards of Alcatel Alsthom, I.B.M. Germany, J.P. Morgan Germany and BASF.

Adella Wotherspoon

Adele Martha "Tiby" Liebenow Wotherspoon, a retired teacher who is believed to be the last survivor of the deadly 1904 fire and sinking of the General Slocum ferry, died on Jan. 26. Cause of death was not released. She was 100.

Wotherspoon was only 6 months old when the excursion ferry caught fire on June 15, 1904. The 264-foot-long steamboat was taking members of St. Mark's Evangelical Lutheran Church up the East River to the Locust Grove Picnic Ground on Long Island when straw in a forward storage room was accidentally set ablaze by an errant cigarette.

The lifeboats on board the ferry were old and glued to the deck with layers of paint. Life preservers filled with disintegrated cork were wired down. And the inexperienced crew, which had never practiced a single fire drill, followed the orders of the captain, William Van Schaick, who refused to steam to shore.

When the boat finally docked, 1,021 of the approximately 1,300 people on board had perished. Until Sept. 11, 2001, the General Slocum fire was New York City's deadliest tragedy, and one of the worst maritime disasters in American history. Schaick, who sold fire extinguishers after the ferry incident, was convicted of negligence and served three years of a 10-year sentence in Sing Sing.

Wotherspoon's mother, Anna Libenow, was on fire when she jumped into the water, carrying her infant daughter. The left side of Anna's body was badly burned. Her father, Paul Libenow, also escaped. Although he was severely injured, Paul spent weeks searching area hospitals for his missing daughters. The other members of Wotherspoon's family -- two sisters, three aunts, an uncle and two cousins -- did not survive.

Wotherspoon attended Plainfield High School, then studied education at Trenton Normal School, now known as the College of New Jersey. From 1925 to 1961, she taught business administration at her high school alma mater. The remaining years of her life were spent in retirement, and occasionally giving interviews or attending events to memorialize the General Slocum tragedy.

Jason Raize

Jason Raize Rothenberg, the entertainer who played Simba in the Broadway musical "The Lion King," committed suicide on Feb. 3. The 28-year-old actor was in Yass, Australia when he died.

A New York native, Raize decided to become an actor when he was still in middle school. He studied drama at the American Musical & Dramatic Academy in New York City and the Perry-Mansfield School for Performance Art in Colorado. He performed in numerous stage productions, including "La Cage aux Folles," "Oklahoma!," "The King and I," "West Side Story" and "Twelfth Night" before landing roles in the national tours of "Jesus Christ Superstar" and "Miss Saigon." Then in 1997, he took on the part of the adult Simba, a role he played on Broadway for almost three years.

Raize signed a contract with Universal Records and recorded his debut album, "NYC," with writer/producer Desmond Childs for Deston Records, but it was never released. His cover of the song, "The Sounds of Silence," was included on the 1998 compilation, "The Paul Simon Album: Broadway Sings the Best of Paul Simon."

In 2003, Raize provided the voice of Denahi, an Ice Age boy who does battle with a bear in the Disney movie, "Brother Bear." It was recently nominated for an Academy Award for Best Animated Feature Film. When he wasn't singing or acting, Raize worked as a Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations Environment Program.

James Jordan Jr.

James Jordan Jr., a Madison Avenue advertising executive with a talent for branding, died on Feb. 4 while snorkeling in the Virgin Islands. Cause of death was not released. He was 73.

For five decades, Jordan peddled products with some of advertising's most memorable slogans. Using nameonics, he was able to link a product's brand name with its qualities or benefits. Some of his best known slogans included: "Delta is ready when you are," "Quaker Oatmeal, it's the right thing to do," "Zest-fully clean" and "Wisk beats ring around the collar."

Jordan graduated from Amherst College in Massachusetts, and became a copywriter at Batten, Barten, Durstine & Osborn in New York City. Over the next 25 years, he rose through the agency's ranks to become its creative director and president.

In 1978, he left the firm to start his own company, which later merged with another to become Jordan, McGrath, Case & Taylor. When Gerald Ford ran for president in the mid-1970s, Jordan served as his communications adviser.

Jerry Lederer

Jerome Fox Lederer knew that flying could be a risky venture, so he spent his entire life trying to minimize that risk.

Lederer earned bachelor's and master's degrees in mechanical engineering from New York University, and became an aeronautical engineer in the plane maintenance department of the U.S. Postal Service in 1926. At that time, flying airmail routes was considered extremely dangerous; 31 of the first 40 pilots died in airplane crashes. To break this pattern, he developed film crash tests and redesigned each plane's exhausts stacks to keep fuel from spilling out of the plane's tank onto the hot exhaust manifold.

When Charles Lindbergh decided to make his solo flight across the Atlantic Ocean in 1927, he asked Lederer to inspect his plane, the single-engine Spirit of St. Louis.

Lederer spent 11 years as the chief engineer for Aero Insurance Underwriters before accepting an appointment as director of the Civil Aeronautics Board's Bureau of Air Safety. One of his first tasks was to add blinking anticollision lights to DC-3s. He also ordered all planes to add flight data recorders (black boxes), a move that was initially opposed by the Air Line Pilots Association. During World War II, he served as the director of the Airlines War Training Institute, then organized the Flight Safety Foundation, a nonprofit international organization for the global exchange of information on aircraft accident prevention.

When astronauts Roger Chaffee, Virgil Grissom and Edward White II were killed in the 1967 Project Apollo space capsule fire, NASA asked Lederer to head its Office of Manned Space Flight Safety. In 1970, he was named director of safety for all of NASA.

More than 100 honors were bestowed on Lederer for his contributions to the aviation safety industry, including the Edward Warner Award, one of civil aviation's highest honors from the International Civil Aviation Organization. Lederer was inducted into the International Space Hall of Fame. And the International Society of Air Safety Investigators named its annual award for achievement and technical excellence after him.

Lederer died on Feb. 6 from congestive heart failure. He was 101.

Sexcilia

Reynaldo Pagan Rivera, who transformed himself into the drag queen legend known as Sexcilia, died on Jan. 14 from complications of AIDS. He was 33.

Rivera grew up in Puerto Rico and graduated from college with a degree in fashion design. In the early 1990s, he moved to Miami, came out of the closet and delved into the drag queen scene on South Beach.

A headliner in drag shows at Warsaw and Crobar, Sexcilia was known for wearing disco-era fashions, flashy make-up and wigs and spiked high heels. On stage, Rivera impersonated many celebrities, including Cher, Eartha Kitt and Celia Cruz. One of his most famous routines involved recreating the interrogation scene from "Basic Instinct" in full monty fashion.

These performances entertained Madonna, the late Gianni Versace and thousands of SoBe revelers. Sexcilia also appeared in the film, "Let's Talk About Sex," directed by Troy Beyer.

Baby Rebeca

Rebeca Martinez, an infant born with a second head, died on Feb. 7 from complications of surgery. She was eight weeks old.

A medical team of 18 surgeons, nurses and doctors at the CURE International Center for Orthopedic Specialties in Santo Domingo performed the complex surgery on Feb. 6 to remove an undeveloped conjoined twin that was attached to Martinez's head. Without the operation, the pressure from the second head would have kept her brain from developing. CURE International, a Pennsylvania-based charity that gives medical care to disabled children in developing countries, paid $100,000 for the operation.

Although the surgery was a success, the baby lost a lot of blood during the procedure, which caused her to suffer a series of heart attacks and massive hemorrhaging. After undergoing a second surgery to stop the bleeding, Martinez died early this morning.

Martinez was born Dec. 10 in the Dominican Republic connected to the undeveloped head of her twin, an extremely rare condition known as craniopagus parasiticus. She was only the eighth documented case in the world; all of the other infants with this condition died before birth.

John Hench

John Hench, a senior vice president at Walt Disney Imagineering, died on Feb. 5 from heart failure. He was 95.

Hench joined the company in 1939 as a sketch artist. He did the coloring and background art for several Disney classics, including "Fantasia," "Dumbo," "Peter Pan" and "Cinderella." In 1955, his team won an Academy Award for special effects for the film, "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea." He also painted the official portraits of Mickey Mouse for the character's 25th, 50th, 60th and 70th birthdays.

In the 1960s, Walt Disney enlisted Hench's help in creating the Disneyland amusement park in Anaheim, Calif. He designed "It's a Small World" and the Space Mountain roller coaster, and oversaw the creation of Disney theme parks in Florida, Paris, Tokyo and Hong Kong.

Hench attended the Otis Art Institute in Los Angeles and the California School of Fine Arts in San Francisco. He researched motion picture color processes at Vitacolor Studios and designed sets for Republic Pictures before launching his six-decade career at Disney.

Hench shared his principles of theme park design and use of color in the book, "Designing Disney: Imagineering and the Art of the Show." The longest tenured employee at The Walt Disney Company, he was presented with the prestigious Disney Legend award in 1990. The International Animated Film Society will honor him on Saturday with the Winsor McCay Award for lifetime achievement in the art of animation.

Amir Abdullah Khan Niazi

Lt. Gen. Amir Abdullah Khan Niazi, one of Pakistan's most decorated soldiers, died on Feb. 2 from cardiac arrest. He was 89.

Niazi was commissioned in the United Indian Army in 1942, serving as a junior officer during World War II. When Pakistan won independence from Britain in 1947, he joined the Pakistan Army and worked his way through the ranks.

As chief of the Pakistan army command in what was then called East Pakistan, Niazi and his forces fought Bangladeshi separatists and Indian forces in a bloody civil war. For nine months, the fighting ensued and led to the deaths of 3 million people. Then in 1971, the city of Dhaka fell and Niazi surrendered his 90,000 troops to the Indian Army. The defeat, which was considered a national humiliation, allowed residents of East Pakistan to secede and form an independent Bangladesh.

Niazi later became a strong critic of the Pakistan Army. After an unsuccessful bid to enter politics, he published the 1999 book, "The Betrayal of East Pakistan."

Annie Miller

Alligator Annie, the Cajun naturalist and professional snake handler, has given her last tour of the Louisiana swamps.

Born on the Bayou Black River, Miller grew up in a family of trappers. She continued the trade after marrying Eddie Miller and raising two boys, sometimes catching up to 200 snakes a day to sell to zoos and laboratories. The couple also tamed otters, two of which were later sold to Walt Disney Productions and featured in the films "An Otter in the Family" and "A Day in Teton Marsh."

In 1979, the Millers founded the state's first swamp boat tour business. Annie's nickname was born from her knowledge and love of alligators. During tours, she'd call the creatures to the boat and point out each animal's special markings.

Her work on the swamps earned her an award from the Louisiana Department of Culture, Recreation and Tourism, and led officials in Terrebonne Parish to declare sections of the marsh and bayous as alligator preserves. In 1991, she was named the state's Minority and Woman Business Person of the Year. "Alligator Annie, The Biography of Annie Miller," by Deborah Rose Burton, was published last year.

Annie Miller died on Feb. 2 from heart disease. She was 89.

Andy Kuehn

Movie trailer mogul Andrew J. Kuehn, the founder and head of Kaleidoscope Films, died on Jan. 29 from complications of lung cancer. He was 66.

A Chicago native, Kuehn first learned about movie trailer production working for an advertising agency while attending the University of Miami. Upon graduation, he moved to New York and landed a job as a writer for the National Screen Service, the leading provider of movie trailers at that time.

After running the audiovisual advertising, promotion and publicity department at MGM, Kuehn founded Kaleidoscope Films in 1968. There he transformed the movie trailer into a stand-alone piece of entertainment. Using smart writing, music and a sharp editing style, his previews became the benchmark in the industry.

Kaleidoscope developed trailers for the original "Jaws," the "Indiana Jones" trilogy, "E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial," "Schindler's List," "The Sting," "Star Wars," "Aliens," "Top Gun" and "Back to the Future." Keuhn himself wrote the memorable tagline for "Jaws 2" ("Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water..."). He also directed and produced the documentaries "Get Bruce," "The Great American Songbook" and "Terror in the Aisles."

Thomas H. Moorer

Adm. Thomas H. Moorer, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff during the Vietnam War, died on Feb. 5. Cause of death was not released. He was 91.

The Alabama native played football for three years at the U.S. Naval Academy before receiving his commission as an ensign in 1933. A naval aviator, Moorer piloted fighter planes off the first American aircraft carriers. He was stationed at Pearl Harbor when Japan attacked on Dec. 7, 1941.

Four months later, Moorer participated in the Dutch East Indies campaign in the Southwest Pacific. He was flying a PBY patrol plane over the waters north of Darwin, Australia, when it was shot down by Japanese aircraft. He and his co-pilot crash-landed into the water and were rescued by a ship that was sunk by the Japanese later the same day. For his service in World War II, Moorer received a Silver Star for gallantry, a Purple Heart and a Distinguished Flying Cross.

The straight-talking combat veteran spent the next 20 years working his way up the ranks. During this period of his life, he commanded the Navy's Seventh Fleet, the Pacific Fleet, NATO's Allied Command - Atlantic and the U.S. Atlantic Fleet. In 1967, he was awarded the Gold Star and appointed by President Lyndon B. Johnson to serve as chief of naval operations. Moorer was reappointed two years later by President Richard M. Nixon, and promoted to chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. As the military's senior uniformed officer, he was in charge of supervising the U.S. troop withdrawal from South Vietnam.

After the 41 years of service, Moorer retired from active duty in 1974. He became an outspoken military expert who made numerous appearances in the media. A middle school in Eufaula, Ala., is named in his honor.

M.M. Kaye

Mary Margaret Kaye, the novelist best known for writing "The Far Pavilions," died on Jan. 29. Cause of death was not released. She was 95.

Kaye's father, Sir Cecil Kaye, was a cipher expert in the Indian Civil Service. She spent much of her youth in Simla, a town near the Himalayas, playing with the Indian servants, visiting bazaars and listening to local storytellers. At 10, she was shipped off to boarding school in England, but the moment she graduated, Kaye returned to the one place she always called home: India.

In 1935, Kaye's father died. She moved back to England and began her writing career, penning greeting cards and children's books under the name Mollie Kaye. Within five years, she'd saved up enough money to return to India, where she met and married Maj. Gen. Goff Hamilton, who served with Queen Victoria's Own Corps of Guides. The couple would move 27 times during their marriage, and each location provided Kaye with fodder for her books.

Kaye wrote the "Death" detective series ("Death Walks in Berlin," "Death Walks in Cyprus"), and several historical novels ("Shadow of the Moon," "Trade Wind"). She then spent 15 years working on "The Far Pavilions," a 1,000-page, historical romance novel that was published in 1978. The sweeping saga of forbidden love sold millions of copies and was adapted into a six-hour TV miniseries starring Ben Cross and Amy Irving. The book was so popular that travel agents created personalized trips to India that featured visits to locations from the story.

During the remaining years of her life, Kaye edited several volumes of poetry by Rudyard Kipling and wrote her autobiography, which was published in three volumes.

• Bibliography

Eddie Clontz

Eddie Clontz specialized in telling tales of Elvis sightings, Atlantis discoveries and alien encounters. The former editor of the Weekly World News, he spent 20 years entertaining millions of readers with outlandish stories.

The North Carolina native dropped out of high school and launched his journalism career as a copy boy on a small, local newspaper. He edited wire stories for eight years at the now defunct Evening Independent in Florida before joining the Weekly World News in 1981 as a desk editor. Clontz worked his way up to the top editor slot, then reveled in publishing stories based on questionable sources and facts.

Clontz was crowned the king of the supermarket tabloids in 1988 when his front-page headline -- Elvis Is Alive!: King of Rock 'N' Roll Faked His Death and Is Living in Kalamazoo, Mich.! -- sold over a million copies of the paper and launched a nationwide rash of Elvis sightings. The tabloid also published reports of a half-bat, half-human creature with razor-sharp teeth that was "discovered" in a West Virginia cave. Bat Boy was such a popular story that it was adapted into an Off-Broadway musical.

"I think every American journalist, with the possible exception of Bob Woodward, secretly envied Eddie Clontz. I know I did. Here was a man who simply refused, as a matter of principle, to allow truth to get in the way of a great story," Washington Post writer Gene Weingarten stated.

Harold E. Clontz died on Jan. 26 from liver and kidney disease and complications of diabetes. He was 56.

Kalevi Sorsa

Kalevi Sorsa, Finland's longest-serving prime minister, died on Jan. 16. Cause of death was not released. He was 73.

Sorsa studied journalism and political science, but dropped out of school before graduating. He became a reporter for Social Democratic Party-affiliated newspapers then worked as an editor at Tammi Publishers. In 1959, Sorsa joined the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) as a program specialist in Paris. There he gained both linguistic skills and international experience that would serve him well in the political arena.

Sorsa was elected to Parliament in 1970 and named chairman of the Parliamentary Foreign Affairs Committee. Within five years, he became Prime Minister of Finland and the head of his party. From 1972 to 1989, Sorsa held the post of Foreign Minister three times, and that of Prime Minister four times.

After retiring from politics in 1991, Sorsa served as a member of the governing board of the Bank of Finland. His state funeral was attended by President Tarja Halonen, as well as former Presidents Mauno Koivisto and Martti Ahtisaari.

Eleanor Whalen

Eleanor Holm Whalen, a champion swimmer who won two gold medals in the 1932 Olympics, became famous when her scandalous behavior got her kicked off the American swim team.

Whalen was traveling to Europe for the 1936 Games in Berlin when a chaperone turned her in to the president of the American Olympic Committee for shooting dice, carousing, breaking curfew and drinking champagne. These actions cost her a place on the U.S. Olympic team, and kept her from competing at that level ever again.

After the expulsion, Whalen became a glamorous figure in the media. Known as "The Champagne Girl," the saucy swimmer filed reports on the Olympic games for the International News Service, and attended receptions held by Adolf Hitler and other Nazi leaders.

Back in the states, Whalen sang and swam in Billy Rose's "Aquacades," a traveling show that performed at the New York World's Fair. In 1938, she appeared in the film, "Tarzan's Revenge," which starred Glenn Morris, the 1936 Olympic decathlon champion, in the title role.

Previously married to bandleader Art Jarrett, Eleanor wed Rose in 1940. She later divorced him and married retired oil executive Tom Whalen before settling in South Florida. There she played tennis and golf and helped build the International Swimming Hall of Fame in Fort Lauderdale.

Whalen died on Jan. 31 from kidney failure. She was 91.

O.W. Fischer

Otto Wilhelm Fischer, one of the most popular and highest paid actors in post-war Germany, died on Feb. 1. Cause of death was not released. He was 88.

A protégé of theatre director Max Reinhardt, Fischer spent several years working on the Austrian stage before making the leap to German cinema in 1936. His role as the leading man in "Erzherzog Johanns grosse Liebe" (Archduke Johann's Great Love) led to 40 other films, most of which were financially successful. In the 1950s, he and Curd Jürgens were the highest paid actors in Germany.

Known as Europe's answer to Cary Grant, Fischer specialized in romantic roles, starring alongside Maria Schell in seven movies, such as "Der Traumende Mund" (Dreaming Lips) and "Tagebuch einer Verliebten" (The Diary of a Married Woman).

In 1957, he tried to break into Hollywood by starring in the remake of "My Man Godfrey," but differences with director Henry Kosters and Universal Studios eventually cost him his contract. So Fischer returned to Europe, where he acted in films until the 1960s. He was married to Czech actress Anna Usell until her death in 1985.

Barbara Stahl

Barbara Jaffe Stahl, an evolutionary biologist and educator, died on Jan. 16 from metastatic breast cancer. She was 73.

Since her first childhood visits to the American Museum of Natural History in New York, Stahl had a passion for vertebrates. She received a bachelor's degree in zoology from Wellesley College, then earned a master's degree in biology from Radcliffe College and a Ph.D. from Harvard University.

Stahl began teaching biology and anatomy at Saint Anselm College in New Hampshire in 1954. Over the next half century, she would guide the careers of thousands of future physicians, dentists and veterinarians.

Stahl was an internationally renowned paleoichthyologist, researcher and author who made several important contributions to the study of vertebrate evolution and paleontology. Her book, "Vertebrate History: Problems in Evolution," remained in print for more than two decades. She also spent 12 years traveling around the world, studying the fossils of prehistoric fish in order to write her volume in "The Handbook of Paleoichthyology" series, which is considered a standard in the field.

In 2003, a species of extinct chimaeroid fish was named Callorhinchus stahli in her honor.

Vasili Mitrokhin

When KGB archivist Vasili Nikitich Mitrokhin defected from the Soviet Union in 1992, he gave six trunks, full of incriminating files, to the British Secret Intelligence Service.

As a young adult, Mitrokhin attended the Higher Diplomatic Academy in Moscow, then joined the Soviet secret service in 1948. He worked as the chief archivist for the FCD, the foreign-intelligence arm of the KGB, for 30 years and spent 12 of those smuggling documents out of the office in his shoes. At home, he copied the files longhand and hid them in milk containers secreted under the floorboards of his home and in the back garden.

Disillusioned with his life, Mitrokhin contacted the CIA for help in 1995, offering 25,000 classified documents as his ticket out of the Soviet Union. The Americans didn't believe his claims, so he turned to the British for aid. The Secret Intelligence Service accepted him as an MI6 agent, and flew him to Britain where he and his family received a home, a pension and new identities.

The copied KGB files formed the basis of the 1999 book, "The Sword and the Shield: The Mitrokhin Archive and the Secret History of the KGB," which was co-written by Cambridge University historian Christopher Andrew. Its tales of covert operations and assassination attempts were also serialized in The Times of London. The excerpts named several Britons as Soviet spies, including two former lawmakers, a Scotland Yard policeman and grandmother Melita Norwood. Norwood later acknowledged she'd been revealing nuclear secrets to the KGB for four decades.

Mitrokhin, who spent 14 years living in Britain under a false name and with police protection, died on Jan. 23 from pneumonia. He was 81.

Kiharu Nakamura

Kiharu Ihara Nakamura, the Japanese geisha who wrote a best-selling book about her experiences, died on Jan. 5. Cause of death was not released. She was 90.

Born to a privileged and educated family, Nakamura decided to become a geisha when she was 15 years old. Although Japanese culture embraces the artistic entertainment provided by geisha, her parents resisted this plan. The following year, however, she entered the Shimbashi Geisha Association, an elite geisha sect, and studied the arts of dance, repartee, music and song. She learned English as well, which made her a favorite of foreign dignitaries who visited the tea houses of Tokyo.

In the course of her career, Nakamura entertained scores of men, including Charlie Chaplin, William Randolph Hearst and Babe Ruth. Her experiences were later chronicled in the 1983 biography, "Edokko Geisha Ichidai-ki" (Biography of a Tokyo Geisha), a best-seller that was translated into eight languages.

During World War II, Nakamura was asked to spy on one of her foreign clients. Instead she married Japanese diplomat Shintaro Ota and moved to Calcutta, India. They later divorced, and when a second marriage to photographer Masaya Nakamura ended, Kiharu immigrated to America, and settled in Queens, N.Y.

For the next 30 years, Nakamura taught music students to play the samisen, a Japanese stringed instrument. She also consulted on movies and theater productions, such as "M. Butterfly" and "Pacific Overtures." Author Arthur Golden included her in the acknowledgments of his 1997 bestseller, "Memoirs of a Geisha." And Jean Cocteau made her his muse when he wrote the poem, "Geisha."

Jeff Forker

Jeff Forker, a champion of heating, ventilation, air conditioning and refrigeration contractors, died on Jan. 22 from cancer. He was 60.

Forker, whose father was a sheet metal contractor, joined the staff of Air Conditioning & Refrigeration Business magazine in 1971. He worked in the production and editorial departments of several magazines at Penton Media, Inc., before becoming the publisher, then vice president of its Mechanical Systems/Construction group. In this position, he oversaw Contracting Business, HPAC Engineering and Contractor magazines.

"Jeff was the contractor's best friend and the industry's guardian angel. He quietly ended feuds that hurt the contractor and hindered the industry. He subtly steered manufacturers away from courses of action that would harm the contractor and damage the industry. He built bridges between people and groups. He watched over the industry like a father watches his children at the playground," said Matt Michel, CEO and president of The Service Roundtable.

Forker received numerous accolades, including the Lennox Special Recognition Award and the Air Conditioning Contractors of America Spirit of Independence Award, the industry's highest honor. In 2003, he was inducted into the Contracting Business Hall of Fame.

Harry Fleetwood

Harry Fleetwood, the late-night host of two classical music radio programs in New York City, died on Jan. 18. Cause of death was not released. He was 86.

Fleetwood majored in education at Temple University in Philadelphia, and earned a master's degree in Romance languages from the University of Pennsylvania. During World War II, he served with the United States Army in Europe, then remained in France after the war ended to attend the Sorbonne in Paris.

Back in the states, Fleetwood became a radio announcer. His early shows in Philadelphia and Camden, Pa., featured poetry, folk songs and interviews with interesting people, including opera diva, Maria Callas. He also did voice-overs and commercials on French and Belgian television.

In 1953, the deep-voiced, New Jersey-native applied for a commentator position in New York City. Out of more than 1,500 applicants, he was hired to host WNBC's "Music Through the Night" program, which aired weeknights from 12 a.m. to 5:30 a.m. Fleetwood stayed with the show for 22 years before switching to WNCN, where he hosted the evening classical music program until the late 1980s.

Professor Horn

For 60 years, George L. Horn entertained Maryland residents with his puppet and ventriloquist act.

Horn dropped out of school to work in his father's painting business. He decided to become a magician after watching Howard Thurston, "America's Greatest Illusionist," give a performance.

In the 1930s, Horn changed his focus to puppeteering. He apprenticed with James Edward Ross, whose stage name was Professor Rossella. Each Sunday, Rossella would perform his "Royal London Punch and Judy Show," while Horn learned the story lines of the two fractious puppets. When Rossella died, Horn took over the Punch and Judy act.

Horn performed a novelty act seven nights a week at the original Club Charles in Baltimore, using a one-way mirror and audience tips from the bartenders. During the day, families, festivals and civic groups hired him to give shows starring Punch and Judy, and the ventriloquist figures, Oscar and Henry.

Horn died on Jan. 16 from a urinary infection. He was 98.