The Blog of Death

Alex Madonna

Alex Madonna, the owner of the landmark Madonna Inn in San Luis Obispo, Calif., died on April 22 of a heart attack. He was 85.

The California native opened his own construction company before he graduated from high school. During World War II, Madonna served in the Army Corps of Engineers, building roads and landing strips in the South Pacific. When he returned to the states, Madonna's construction firm built or repaved most of Highway 101 and constructed the bridge above the Twitchell Reservoir. In 1958, Bridges magazine named it the most beautiful bridge in the country.

That same year, Madonna and his wife Phyllis opened the Madonna Inn, a kitchy, Swiss chalet-style hotel. The central coast establishment, which was known for offering 109 rooms decorated in different themes, advertised its presence to travelers with a flashing, hot pink neon sign.

Tourists with a fetish for red leather walls often reserved the blood-colored "Tack Room." A gigantic waterwheel moved dancing Bavarian figurines along one wall of the Old Mill room. And the Caveman Room, with its solid rock floors and walls, appealed to those looking to indulge their Neanderthal tendencies. A cafe made entirely from copper and a waterfall urinal in the men's restroom also drew crowds.

Besides the inn, the "host from the coast" owned a shopping center in Santa Maria, several thousand acres of property and cattle and horse ranches in California and Oregon.

Bill Brundige

Southern California sports fans may not recognize Bill Brundige's face, but they certainly recall his voice.

For four decades, Brundige was a fixture on radio and television, hosting sports talk shows on several local channels. He called Southern California football and basketball games, and filled in for legendary announcer Chick Hearn to offer play-by-play coverage of L.A. Lakers games. Brundige also called games for the Chicago Cubs, Philadelphia Phillies, Washington Senators and the Detroit Lions.

The Tennessee native served as West Coast sports director for the Armed Forces Radio Network during World War II. He received the Helms Athletic Foundation award for his entertainment contributions to military personnel serving in the Pacific.

The owner and operator of a glass replacement shop in Brea, Calif., Brundige appeared in several episodes of "Dragnet," "Perry Mason" and "The Donna Reed Show." Twice honored with the Golden Mike award for radio broadcasters, he was inducted into the Southern California Sports Broadcasters Hall of Fame in 1994.

Brundige died on April 23 of heart failure. He was 89.

Anna Bradshaw

Anna V. Bradshaw, the former correspondence supervisor at the White House, died on April 22 from a heart ailment. She was 88.

Bradshaw began her professional secretarial career as a stenographer and typist for Lansburgh's Furniture Store and St. Thomas Episcopal Church in Washington D.C. In the 1930s, she was hired to work at the White House.

Beginning with Franklin D. Roosevelt, Bradshaw took dictation and replied to letters sent to the chief executive for seven presidential administrations. She worked in the White House correspondence section until her retirement in 1977.

Winson Hudson

Winson Hudson, a civil rights pioneer and author, died on April 24. Cause of death was not released. She was 87.

The Mississippi native spent her whole life working to correct injustices. She and her sister, Dovie Hudson, joined forces with Medgar Evers in 1963 to establish the Leake County, Miss., chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. After more than 25 years of rejection and enforced literacy tests, Winson became one of the first blacks to be allowed to vote.

In 1964, Dovie filed a lawsuit that helped desegregate Leake County schools. When area banks retaliated against civil rights activists by foreclosing on their homes and farms, Winson invited the Farmers Housing Administration to survey the situation and testified before the U.S. Civil Rights Commission.

For these efforts, their homes were fire bombed by the Ku Klux Klan.

Winson Hudson co-wrote the 2002 book, "Mississippi Harmony: Memoirs of a Freedom Fighter," with Constance Curry, and spent many years working to improve local health care and early childhood education services. She received the NAACP's Freedom Award for Outstanding Community Service and the 2003 Second Congressional District Unsung Hero Award. A Head Start center in Leake County is also named in her honor.

Lori Witmer

Lori Witmer helped raise thousands of dollars to fight breast cancer.

Diagnosed with the disease when she was four months pregnant, Witmer underwent a mastectomy and chemotherapy then gave birth to her daughter, Sarah. Between cancer treatments, the Marietta, Ga., resident participated in the Avon Walk for Breast Cancer, and received more than $50,000 in donations.

In 2001, her husband Steve nominated Witmer to be an Olympic torchbearer. She was selected by the U.S. Olympic Committee and carried the flame at the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics. Witmer also appeared in a national ad for Coca-Cola that featured heroic Americans.

Six years after it was first detected, the cancer metastasized to Witmer's bones and brain. She died on April 21 at the age of 36.

Julie Rannazzisi

Julie Rannazzisi, the New York bureau chief for CBS MarketWatch, died on April 10 of cancer. She was 35.

Rannazzisi studied technical analysis and investment strategy at New York University, and graduated with an economics degree from the University of Palermo in Italy. She worked as an assistant trader at The Bank of Yokohama in New York before launching her journalism career.

Rannazzisi spent two years as a markets reporter for Dow Jones & Co., then became a senior markets reporter for The Bond Buyer. In 1998, she joined CBS MarketWatch as one of its first New York-based financial journalists. Rannazzisi originally covered the bond and currencies markets, but was eventually tapped to head the New York bureau and write the news organization's daily stock-market column. Under her guidance, the column became the most popular story on the Website.

"She had a job that required the utmost sense of accuracy. Make a mistake and you risk costing readers -- investors -- lots of money. Plus, the beat reporter has to be fast. It's a tough job. She did it with a unique measure of grace and good humor," said Jon Friedman, media editor for CBS.MarketWatch.com.

Mary McGrory

Mary McGrory, the first woman to win a Pulitzer Prize for commentary, died on April 21. Cause of death was not released. She was 85.

The Boston native graduated with a bachelor's degree from Emmanuel College and began her career in journalism as a secretary to the book editor of The Boston Herald. In 1947, she moved to Washington D.C. to work as a book reviewer for The Washington Star. Her first stab at national commentary came in 1954 when she was assigned to cover the Army-McCarthy hearings.

Over the next half century, McGrory became a leading liberal voice in American media and political circles. She wrote about the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, the Vietnam War, the Three Mile Island nuclear reactor accident and nearly every presidential campaign since 1956.

A fixture on Capitol Hill, McGrory's coverage of the Watergate scandal in 1975 earned her a Pulitzer Prize for commentary and a spot on President Richard M. Nixon's "enemies list." President George H.W. Bush also complained about McGrory's columns in his private journal, noting: "She has destroyed me over and over again."

During his eulogy to McGrory, Boston Globe columnist Brian McGrory recounted some of his second cousin's favorite things. "She loved congressional hearing rooms. She loved the White House briefing room. She loved packed news conferences. She loved anywhere and anyplace that she could watch politicians perform in all their fullness and pinpoint their inevitable weakness," he said.

McGrory remained with the Star until it went out of business in 1981, then joined The Washington Post. Until 2002, her columns appeared on Page 2 of the Post and in the Sunday Outlook section. McGrory was also syndicated in 125 newspapers around the country, including The Boston Globe and the New York Post.

For her "relentless pursuit of truth, her incisive wit and her tangible compassion," McGrory won the John Chancellor Award for Excellence in Journalism. She also received the National Press Club's Fourth Estate Award, and a Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Society of Newspaper Columnists.

• Listen to a Tribute From NPR

• Read a Tribute From Maureen Dowd

• Read McGrory's Final Columns in The Washington Post

Kit Magid

Elizabeth "Kit" MacKethan Magid, a World War II pilot and poet, died on March 23 of cancer. She was 86.

Magid was one of only 1,074 who earned their wings as Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP). Because women were not allowed to fly in combat, she was assigned to ferry planes needing repairs between U.S. military bases.

The WASP program was deactivated in 1944, and Magid became as a White House aide. She married "Skid" Magid, a fellow Air Force pilot, raised a son and spent many years working as a freelance writer for magazines like Family Circle and Boys' Life.

Thirty-eight female pilots and trainees died during World War II, including Magid's best friend Marie Michell Robinson. To honor her memory, Magid wrote the poem, "Celestial Flight," which has become a staple at funerals for WASP veterans. She read the piece for "Women of Courage," a 1993 PBS documentary about the WASP program.

José Giovanni

José Giovanni, a former Parisian death-row inmate who became a famous director and crime writer, died on April 24 from a brain hemorrhage. He was 80.

Giovanni was a member of the French resistance during World War II, then joined a criminal gang run by his Corsican uncle. He was only 22 years old when he and his older brother were arrested for burglarizing a house in Paris. The homeowner died during the commission of the robbery, and the siblings were arrested and sentenced to death. His brother escaped from prison only to be killed in a fight. After many requests by his father, the French government commuted Giovanni's sentence to life imprisonment and pardoned him eight years later.

In the late 1950s, Giovanni launched his movie career as a screenwriter. He penned "Du rififi chez les femmes" (The Riff Raff Girls) for director Alex Joffe, and adapted his debut novel, "Le Trou," (The Hole) into a 1960 film of the same name.

Giovanni also spent 30 years directing films. In 1972, he turned his novel, "La Scoumoune" (The Hitman) into a popular gangster movie. He followed that up with "Deux hommes dans la ville" (Two Men in Town), a drama about an ex-bank robber whose past catches up with him. His final movie, "Mon père, il m'a sauvé la vie" (My Father Saved My Life), which focuses on his father's tireless efforts to free him from prison, was completed in 2001.

Hubert Selby Jr.

Hubert Selby Jr., an acclaimed author and educator, died on April 26 from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. He was 75.

The New York City native was still a teenager when he joined the Merchant Marines. He was diagnosed with lung disease at 18, and spent a decade in and out of hospitals before doctors sent him home to die. Instead of giving in to this decree, however, Selby decided to write.

For six years, he chronicled life in his Brooklyn neighborhood into a novel that was published in 1964. "Last Exit to Brooklyn" received rave reviews and blistering critiques, was the subject of an obscenity trial in Britain and eventually inspired a cult following. It became the basis of a movie by the same name in 1989, which featured a cameo of the author.

Heroin addiction was the main focus of Selby's 1978 book, "Requiem for a Dream," which was adapted to the screen in 2000 by director Darren Aronofsky. Although Selby spent years battling addictions, he was always sober when he wrote. Over the course of his four-decade career, Selby published "The Room" (1971), "The Demon" (1976), "Song of the Silent Snow" (1986), "The Willow Tree" (1998) and "Waiting Period" (2002). He also released two spoken word albums: "Blue Eyes and Exit Wounds" (with Nick Tosches) and "Live in Europe 1989" (with Henry Rollins).

For the past two decades, Selby taught as an adjunct professor at the University of Southern California and worked on screenplays. Most days, he would write for five hours in a West Hollywood apartment, always leaving the last line unfinished so he'd have a place to start the following morning. Selby was writing an autobiographical novel, tentatively titled, "Seeds of Pain, Seeds of Love," when he died.

• Listen to Selby Read an Excerpt From "Song of the Silent Snow"

• Listen to a 1990 NPR Interview

Karl Hass

Karl Hass, an SS officer and spy who was convicted for his participation in one of Italy's worst World War II massacres, died on April 21 from a heart attack. He was 92.

Born in Kiel, Germany, Hass joined the Sicherheitsdienst, the Nazi Party's intelligence service, in 1934. He was sent to Rome to set up a network of Italian radio operators and saboteurs behind enemy lines. While stationed in Italy, Hass invited Princess Mafalda of Savoy, the daughter of King Victor Emanuel III, to the Germany embassy with claims that she could telephone her husband, who was in Berlin. The princess was arrested when she arrived, and later died in the Buchenwald concentration camp.

Italian resistance fighters killed 33 German soldiers during a 1944 bomb attack. The Nazis retaliated by rounding up 335 Italian men and boys and transporting them to the Ardeatine caves outside of Rome. There Hass and his fellow officers executed them. Three years later, Hass was captured by the Allies and recruited by the U.S. Army Counter Intelligence Corps to spy on the Russians and train other German agents for espionage missions in eastern Europe.

In 1996, Hass returned to Italy to testify against SS Captain Erich Priebke, the German officer who led the Ardeatine massacre. Although Hass was originally offered immunity for his testimony, he allegedly experienced second thoughts about speaking out against his former comrade. On the night before his testimony, the 84-year-old was in the process of escaping from his hotel room when he fell from his balcony onto a row of flowerpots, breaking his pelvis and damaging his spine.

Testifying from his hospital bed, Hass admitted to shooting two civilians in the back of the head. But he also argued he was simply following orders. The military court didn't buy it, and Hass was sentenced in 1998 to life in prison. Because he was in poor health, Hass was detained in a retirement home instead of a prison. Priebke was also convicted for the wartime killings, and is currently serving a life sentence under house arrest in Rome.

Harry Holt

Harry Holt, an influential Disney animator, died on April 14. Cause of death was not released. He was 93.

In 1936, Holt applied for an artist position with Disney. During his try-out period, he wrote and illustrated stock Disney characters into comic strip storyboards. The company was so impressed with his talent that Holt was hired as an apprentice. He eventually worked his way up to designing several legendary scenes in "Snow White and the Seven Dwarves" and "Lady and the Tramp."

After 20 years with Disney, Holt took a brief hiatus to work in television production and art direction in Chicago. He returned to Los Angeles a few years later and joined Hanna-Barbera Studios to animate "Flintstones" and "Tom and Jerry" cartoons.

In the 1960s, Holt rejoined Disney as a designer of sculptural forms. He sculpted the original models of characters for the Country Bear Jamboree and Haunted Mansion rides at Walt Disney World, and developed attractions at Epcot and Disneyland in California and Japan. Until his retirement in the early 1990s, Holt greeted guests and signed drawings at the Disney/MGM Studio Preview Center in Orlando.

Estée Lauder

Josephine Esther Mentzer started a small business making beauty products in her kitchen and turned it into an international cosmetics empire worth $10 billion.

The Queens, N.Y., native was always called "Esty" by her family. A school administrator once spelled it "Estee," and the new name stuck. She wed businessman Joseph Lauter (later changed to Lauder) in 1930, and joined forces with her uncle John Schotz to create her first make-up products. Soon Estée began experimenting with her own blends of creams, ointments, perfumes and powders.

In 1939, Estée and Joseph divorced. They reconciled and remarried in 1942, then went into business together. Joseph handled the administration of the cosmetics company, and Estée worked as the product creator and saleswoman.

Estée Lauder gave free demonstrations at beauty salons for women waiting under hair dryers, and hawked her wares to women walking down Fifth Avenue in New York City. Then in 1948, she persuaded a buyer at Saks Fifth Avenue to place an order. She and her husband cooked up all the creams and delivered them to the department store. Within two days, Saks sold out.

Several department stores, including Bloomingdale's, Marshall Field, Neiman-Marcus, Harrods in London and Galeries Lafayette in Paris, placed orders for Lauder's cosmetics. Lauder traveled to each new store to design her counters and personally trained the saleswomen. Because she couldn't afford an advertising campaign, she gave away a free gift with each cosmetic purchase and hoped word-of-mouth would spread.

By 1953, Estée Lauder was a household name. Over the next 50 years, Lauder created 2,000 new products, such as White Linen and Cinnabar perfumes, the Clinique line of allergy-tested products and the Aramis line of men's toiletries.

The Lauders' two sons joined the business as well. Leonard A. Lauder took over as CEO in 1982, just after his father died, and nearly quadrupled annual sales by 1995. Ronald S. Lauder left his position as chairman of Lauder International to serve in defense and ambassador posts during the Reagan administration. After a failed bid for New York City mayor, he returned to the family business. This year, Forbes magazine estimated the net worth of Lauder's sons at $5.1 billion.

When the company went public in 1995, she was given the title of founding chairman. Last year, Estée Lauder sold its products in more than 130 countries and controlled 45 percent of the cosmetics market in U.S. department stores.

Lauder received France's Legion of Honor in 1978. The astute businesswoman published her autobiography, "Estée: A Success Story,'' in 1985, and spent her final years giving parties and contributing to various philanthropic causes. She was the only woman listed on Time Magazine's 20 most influential business geniuses of the 20th century.

Lauder died on April 24 from cardiopulmonary arrest. She was 97.

Art Devlin

Art Devlin Sr., a former U.S. Olympic ski jumper and sports broadcaster, died on April 22 of brain cancer. He was 81.

Raised in Lake Placid, N.Y., Devlin qualified for the U.S. Olympic ski teams from 1940 to 1960. He took a break from competition during World War II to serve in the military, flying 50 combat missions over Europe as a B-24 bombardier. For his efforts and bravery, he received the Distinguished Flying Cross and Purple Heart.

Devlin returned to the states after the war, attended Syracuse University and hit the slopes. He set the North American distance record of 307 feet and the ski flying record on the 120 meter hill at Oberstdorf, Germany. Devlin competed in two Winter Games, finishing 15th in the 90-meter jump in the 1952 Oslo Games, and 21st at the 1956 Olympics in Cortina, Italy. He was inducted into the U.S. Ski Hall of Fame in 1963.

Devlin used his athletic background to land a TV sports commentator position at CBS in 1960. He joined ABC two years later, and spent more than two decades on the air as the "voice of ski jumping." The long-time owner of the Art Devlin's Olympic Motor Inn in Lake Placid, he also served as the vice president of the Lake Placid Olympic Organizing Committee for the 1980 Winter Games.

Huib Drion

Huib Drion, a retired Dutch supreme court justice who prompted the legalization of euthanasia in the Netherlands, died on April 20. Cause of death was not released. He was 87.

Drion was a professor of civil law at the University of Leiden when he founded "De Geus," a resistance newspaper published during the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands during World War II. The publication included black lists of university employees who collaborated with the Germans. At the time, students were executed for printing anti-Nazi leaflets.

From 1969 to 1984, Drion served as a member, and later vice-president, of the country's supreme court. But once he retired from the bench, he published several essays on social and legal matters. One such paper, "Voluntary Death for Old People," sparked a national debate in 1991.

Drion wrote that elderly people who were incurably sick should be able to visit their doctor and receive medication to end their lives. Known in the media as the "Last Wish Pill" or "Drion Pill," the doctor-prescribed drug would be available for free to people over the age of 70. Drion also suggested that patients receive a combination of two pills to be ingested in one- or two-day intervals so the patient would have enough time to change his or her mind.

In 2002, the Netherlands became the first country to legalize euthanasia for certain terminally ill patients. The Dutch law on doctor-assisted suicide requires patients over the age of 12 to show their decision to die is rational and reasoned, and that they're subject to "unremitting and unbearable suffering." A doctor must also be present during the suicide.

Harry Babbitt

Harry Babbitt, a big band singer who once voiced the laugh of Woody Woodpecker, died on April 9 from age-related causes. He was 90.

Known as "Handsome Harry," Babbitt served in the Navy during World War II. When he wasn't on duty, however, his smooth voice accompanied the Kay Kyser Band at the Waldorf-Astoria in New York, the Aragon Ballroom in Chicago and the Hollywood Canteen, a USO club.

The St. Louis native sang on several hits, including "The White Cliffs of Dover," "Three Little Fishies," "(Lights Out) 'Til Reveille" and "The Umbrella Man." He provided the distinctive laughter of Woody Woodpecker on Kyser's 1948 novelty tune of the same name.

Babbitt appeared in seven movies that starred Kyser, and on the NBC quiz show, "Kay Kyser's Kollege of Musical Knowledge." As a solo artist, he recorded "Frosty the Snowman" and "All I Want for Christmas Is My Two Front Teeth," complete with a childish lisp. He also spent a decade performing on the weekday CBS radio program, "The Second Cup of Coffee Club," and briefly hosted the musical TV show, "Glamour Girl."

In 1964, Babbitt retired from show business. He spent 20 years working in real estate, but returned to performing in 1985 when Kyser died. Babbitt obtained the rights to the band's name and its song library from Kyser's widow and toured the country until the mid-1990s. An interview with Babbitt will appear in the upcoming documentary, "Kay Kyser, the Ol' Professor of SWING!"

• Listen to a Tribute From NPR

Pat Tillman

Pat Tillman was entering his fourth NFL season when terrorists hijacked several planes and crashed them into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and a Pennsylvania field on Sept. 11, 2001. Instead of signing a three-year, $3.6 million contract as a safety with the Arizona Cardinals, Tillman turned in one uniform for another.

He enlisted in the Army. His brother, is brother Kevin Tillman did so as well.

As Pat trained to become an Army Ranger, he made no statements to the press. Privately, he told colleagues he felt the need to "pay something back" for the life he had been afforded. His brother Kevin, a former minor league baseball prospect in the Cleveland Indians organization, also signed up.

Assigned to the 75th Ranger Regiment, an elite light infantry force, Tillman was reportedly stationed with the 173rd Airborne Brigade in Iraq in March 2003. He was later transferred to Afghanistan, where his battalion participated in "Operation Mountain Storm," the U.S. campaign to hunt down Osama bin Laden and members of his Al Qaeda terrorist group along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border. Tillman was killed in action on April 22 at the age of 27. Apparently shot in a friendly fire incident, he was posthumously awarded the Silver Star for combat valor.

In 1994, he arrived at Arizona State University on the school's last remaining football scholarship. Four seasons later, Tillman was named Pac-10 Conference Defensive Player of the Year. He also earned a 3.84 grade point average and graduated with a degree in marketing in 3.5 years.

Tillman was the Cardinals' 226th draft pick in 1998. He became Arizona's starting strong safety, and set the team record with 224 tackles in 2000. The 5-foot-11, 202-pound athlete declined a five-year, $9 million contract offer from the St. Louis Rams in 2001 because he felt the Cardinals deserved his loyalty for taking a chance on him when he was still a rookie.

Last July, Pat and Kevin Tillman were honored with the Arthur Ashe Courage Award during the annual ESPY Awards telecast. The award, which is presented to individuals whose contributions transcend sports, was accepted by their younger brother Richard Tillman.

• Complete Coverage From the Arizona Republic

[Update - Dec. 4, 2004: After reviewing witness statements, e-mails, investigation findings, logbooks, maps and photographs of the incident, The Washington Post concluded that Tillman died unnecessarily "after botched communications, a mistaken decision to split his platoon over the objections of its leader, and negligent shooting by pumped-up young Rangers ... who failed to identify their targets as they blasted their way out of a frightening ambush."

[Update - March 5, 2006: The Defense Department inspector general has ordered the Army to open a criminal inquiry into the shooting death of Cpl. Pat Tillman. The new inquiry, which follows three other military investigations, will be conducted by the Army Criminal Investigation Command. Previous investigations into Tillman's death found a series of crucial errors made by his fellow Rangers in the heat of combat, but no criminal wrongdoing.]

[Update - March 27, 2007: A Pentagon investigation has concluded that Army officers violated regulations and misled members of Cpl. Pat Tillman’s family by failing to disclose promptly in 2004 that he had been accidentally killed by other American soldiers. Investigators also recommended that the nine officers, four of them generals, be subjected to disciplinary action. In response, the Tillman family released this statement: "The characterization of criminal negligence, professional misconduct, battlefield incompetence, concealment and destruction of evidence, deliberate deception, and conspiracy to deceive are not 'missteps.' These actions are malfeasance. In our opinion, this attempt to impose closure by slapping the wrists of a few officers and enlisted men is yet another bureaucratic entrenchment."]

Yoda

Yoda, the oldest genetically modified dwarf mouse, died on April 22. He was four years and 12 days old, or 136 in human years.

Researchers at the University of Michigan have been studying genetic mutations to determine if altered hormone levels can slow the aging process. Yoda was an integral part of this ongoing lifespan research. His pituitary and thyroid glands were affected by the genetic mutations, which scientists suspect played a significant role in his longevity.

Smaller than his cage mate, Princess Leia, Yoda is only the second lab mouse to make it to his fourth birthday without the rigors of a severe calorie-restricted diet. He also did not suffer the traditional adverse effects of aging like arthritis, cataracts and cancer. The average lab mouse only lives for two years.

Frank Morrison

Frank Brenner Morrison, the former three-term governor of Nebraska, died on April 19 of cancer. He was 98.

Born in Colorado and raised in Kansas, Morrison broke from family tradition and became a Democrat during the Great Depression. He graduated from Kansas State University and the Nebraska College of Law, taught for a short period then entered politics in 1934 as a county attorney. After several unsuccessful bids for the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate, Morrison decided to run for the governorship of Nebraska.

At the time, Nebraska was predominantly a Republican state. But Morrison's charismatic personality and oratory skills won the voters' confidence. From 1961 to 1967, the Democratic governor was best known for building the state's tourism industry. President Lyndon B. Johnson persuaded him to not seek a fourth term and run for the Senate instead. Morrison followed this advice and lost the election.

In later years, Morrison practice law with his son and volunteered as an anti-war activist. He also discussed his opposition to capital punishment in front of the state's Judicial Committee. His autobiography, "One Man's Trip Through the 20th Century," was published in 2001.

• Watch a Video Tribute From KETV

Peggy DeCastro

Peggy DeCastro was the eldest member of The DeCastro Sisters. The Latin singing group, which consisted of Peggy and her siblings Cherie and Babette, first gained attention in Cuba for their flamboyant nightclub act.

When they moved to Miami in 1945, the sisters became protégées of Brazilian singer Carmen Miranda, who put them in the film, "Copacabana." The DeCastro Sisters performed their three-part harmony on the first live broadcast of the Los Angeles television station KTLA, following an introduction by Bob Hope. They hit the big time when their 1954 song, "Teach Me Tonight," sold more than 5 million copies.

Over the years, the ''Cuban Andrews Sisters," built a library of songs, including "Boom Boom Boomerang," "Too Late Now," "Snowbound for Christmas" and "Cowboys Don't Cry." They provided many of the bird and animal voices in Walt Disney's "Song of the South," and became a popular singing act in Las Vegas nightclubs and hotels.

In 1997, the trio performed on KTLA's 50th anniversary show, although Babette (who died in 1993) was replaced by their cousin Olgita DeCastro Marino. Three years later, The DeCastro Sisters were inducted into the Casino Legends Hall of Fame as "Las Vegas Living Legends."

Peggy DeCastro, who was known as the funny member of the group, died on March 6 of lung cancer. She was 82.

Will Fowler

William Randolph Fowler was the first reporter on the scene of the infamous Black Dahlia murder.

It was January 1947, and he was working for the Los Angeles Examiner. Fowler heard about the crime on a police radio. When he arrived at the vacant lot, he saw the body of 22-year-old Elizabeth Short. The unemployed cashier/waitress/actress was severed at the waist and drained of blood. Although the case was never solved, it inspired numerous books and movies.

Fowler covered crime at Los Angeles newspapers from the mid-1940s to the early 1950s. He included the Black Dahlia case in his 1991 autobiography, "Reporters: Memoirs of a Young Newspaperman.''

The son of author and journalist Gene Fowler, Will served in the Coast Guard during World War II before joining the Examiner staff as a cub reporter. When Gene died in 1960, Will published a biography of him ("The Young Man From Denver"). He later wrote of his experience following in his famous father's footsteps in "The Second Handshake."

Fowler never attended college, but he received his "Ph.D. in the city rooms and on the streets of L.A.'' He withdrew as a cofounder of the Greater Los Angeles Press Club in 1947 when famed female city editor Agness Underwood was denied membership.

Fowler later managed the Southern California public relations campaign for Senator Barry Goldwater's 1964 presidential run, wrote for "The Red Skelton Show" and worked in public relations. He died on April 14 of prostate cancer at the age of 81.

Rex Simpson Hardy

Rex Simpson Hardy, one of Life magazine's original photographers, died on April 7 of cancer. He was 88.

Hardy was only 21 and a senior at Stanford University when the publication hired him in 1936. He made $30/week taking pictures of Hollywood stars like James Stewart, Bing Crosby, George Gershwin, Tyrone Power and Clark Gable. Three of his photographs appeared on the cover of Life: Ginger Rogers dancing with Fred Astaire, journalist bon vivant Lucius Beebe and comedian Harpo Marx posing like a Roman emperor.

Hardy left the publication in 1939 and enlisted in the Naval Reserve. He was a junior officer on the Saratoga after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. During World War II, Hardy trained as a naval pilot. He was sent to the South Pacific and served as the commander of a B-24 bomber designed for reconnaissance.

When he returned to the states, Hardy spent the rest of his life in aviation, working for Northrop, Lockheed and NASA. For his military service, he received the Distinguished Flying Cross and an Air Medal with a Gold Star.

Ray Condo

Ray Condo, a popular Canadian rockabilly singer, died on April 15 from an apparent heart attack. He was 53.

Born Ray Tremblay, Condo was raised on the music of Elvis and Hank Williams. At 16, he released his first album as a member of the British Invasion group, the Peasants. He performed with the punk band, The Secret Vs, before finding his niche in rockabilly and western swing music.

Condo spent 11 years playing with the hillbilly garage band, Ray Condo & His Hardrock Goners. The group became a staple in Montreal clubs, and was known as Canada's premier rockabilly act.

In the 1990s, the singer, guitarist and saxophone player moved to Vancouver and formed Ray Condo & The Ricochets. The Ricochets released several albums and toured all over the world.

Norris McWhirter

Norris Dewar McWhirter, the co-founder of the Guinness Book of Records, died on April 19 from a heart attack. He was 78.

The London native did minesweeping duty during World War II as a member of the Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve, and earned a law degree from Oxford University in 1948. A former track star, McWhirter spent the next three years working as a sports correspondent for London's Observer newspaper then joined the British Broadcasting Corp. as a sports commentator. From 1952 to 1972, he covered numerous athletic competitions for the BBC, including Olympic track and field events.

McWhirter and his twin brother, Ross, wrote and edited the first Guinness Book of Records in 1955. Published by the Guinness brewery as a way to officially end trivia disputes in pubs, the book became a worldwide success. The 2002 edition, which was published in 37 languages, spent 20 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list, making Guinness World Records the highest-selling copyright book of all time. For 30 years, McWhirter edited the annual anthology of extraordinary feats; he remained on staff as the book's advisory editor until 1996.

McWhirter also produced "The Guinness Book of Amazing Animals," "Guinness: The Stories Behind the Records" and "Norris McWhirter's Book of Millennium Records." In his spare time, he contributed articles on athletics to the Encyclopedia Britannica and regularly appeared on the British television show, "Record Breakers."

Ross McWhirter was murdered in 1975 after offering a reward of £50,000 for information leading to the arrest of Irish Republican Army bombers. A few months after his assassination, Norris published his memoir, "Ross, The Story of a Shared Life."

Phil Sokolof

For two decades, Nebraska industrialist Phil Sokolof encouraged people to live healthier lives.

Known as "America's No. 1 Cholesterol Fighter," Sokolof spent about $15 million of his own money on a crusade against high-fat foods. He appeared on over 100 network and cable programs and mailed thousands of letters to officials in the food industry. He bought full-page ads in newspapers across the country, and ran commercials during the Super Bowl to encourage Americans to take cholesterol-lowering drugs and avoid subsisting on a diet of greasy foods.

Sokolof's efforts paid off. Several fast-food chains switched to vegetable oil to cook French fries. Large food processors stopped using highly saturated coconut and palm oil in crackers and cookies. Federal legislation was passed to require the inclusion of nutritional labels on all packaged foods. And Congress designated April as "National Know Your Cholesterol Month."

Born in Omaha, Sokolof graduated from high school and traveled the country as a song-and-dance man for four years. When superstardom failed to arrive, he returned home and focused his energies on producing affordable construction components. He opened the Phillips Manufacturing Company in 1955, and built a multimillion-dollar empire.

In 1966, Sokolof survived a near-fatal heart attack at the age of 43. As his body healed, he started to learn more about healthy eating habits. Sokolof founded the National Heart Savers Association in 1985. The nonprofit organization offers free cholesterol screenings and informs the public about cardiovascular health. Then in 1992, he sold his business to give Heart Savers his full attention.

Sokolof died on April 15 from heart failure. He was 82.

Joseph Iadone

Joseph Iadone, a master lutenist, died on March 23. Cause of death was not released. He was 89.

Largely self-taught, Iadone studied Elizabethan techniques he found in historical treatises. He received bachelor's and master's degrees from the Yale School of Music, and joined Yale's Collegium Musicum, a group that performed classical music on historical instruments from the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

An ancestor of the guitar, the lute was a popular instrument in 18th century Europe. By the 20th century, however, recordings and concerts featuring the lute were rare. Iadone brought the lute's unique sound back to modern audiences by performing with the New York Pro Musica, the Renaissance Quartet and his own Iadone Consort. He also recorded several albums, including "The Art of the Lute" and "Love Songs in Shakespeare's Time."

In the 1960s, Iadone co-founded one of the country's first early-music workshops at Windham College in Vermont. He trained an entire generation of lute players until the program ended in 1978. Iadone spent the next 22 years teaching at the University of Hartford. In 2003, he donated his four lutes to Yale and Quinnipiac universities.

Soundarya

Soundarya, a South Indian movie star, died on on April 17 in a plane crash near Bangalore. She was 32.

Soundarya recently joined the Bharatiya Janata Party, which is seeking another term in national elections. She was traveling to the adjoining state of Andhra Pradesh to campaign for the party when the four-seater Cessna 180 caught fire and crashed minutes after takeoff from a Jakkur airstrip. Her brother Amarnath, BJP worker Ramesh Kadam and pilot Joy Phillips were also killed.

The daughter of the Bangalore-based producer/director Satyanarayana, Soundarya gave up a career in medicine to become an actress. She adopted only one name and made her first film in 1992. Over the next 12 years, Soundarya appeared in nearly 100 movies. Although she avoided racy roles, Soundarya worked opposite leading actors like Amitabh Bachchan and Rajnikant.

In 2003, Soundarya won the Nandi Award, the most prestigious prize in Telugu cinema.

Dorothy Tate

Dorothy E. Tate cared for 680 children.

Born in Evans, Colo., Tate dropped out of high school and married James A. Tate Sr., in 1937. After several moves, they settled into a farmhouse near Denver. The couple had a son and a daughter, but in 1956, they decided to become foster parents. Over the next 23 years, they accepted hundreds of children from various backgrounds into their home.

Some of the youths stayed for a night, others remained for more than 12 years. It was not always an easy enterprise -- a few of the troubled children robbed the Tates or threatened to kill them -- but most reveled in their stable and loving home.

Dorothy's husband died in 1999. Their son, James Tate Jr. and his wife Sharon continue the family's tradition of helping others; they've already taken in 200 foster children.

Tate died on March 23. Cause of death was not released. She was 84.

Peter Elvins

Peter Elvins, a world-renowned opera singer, died on April 8 from esophageal cancer. He was 70.

As a child growing up in St. Louis, Elvins developed a passion for opera. At 15, he landed a chorister position with the prestigious Chautauqua Opera Company in New York. Elvins graduated with an English degree from Harvard University in 1955. He enlisted in the military and was one of the original members of the U.S. Army Chorus.

In 1957, Elvins married opera singer and voice teacher Anna Gabrieli, and became a professional performer. After appearing in lead roles in Spain, Austria, Germany, Italy and Belgium, Elvins and his wife moved back to the United States. He sang in New York, San Francisco and Connecticut productions, and spent nine years as a regular cast member with the Boston Lyric Opera.

When he wasn't sharing his elegant, low bass with audiences, Elvins taught voice lessons and courses in opera. He also wrote opera news and reviews for La Scala, the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Italian magazine.

Jim Cantalupo

James Richard Cantalupo, the CEO and chairman of McDonalds, died on April 19 from an apparent heart attack. He was 60.

The Windy City native studied architecture at the University of Illinois in Chicago. After a few years, Cantalupo switched his major to accounting and transferred to the school's Champaign, Ill., campus. For eight years, he worked at Arthur Young & Co., an accounting firm that later became Ernst & Young.

Cantalupo joined the McDonalds Corp. in 1974 as a controller. He spent 28 years with the fast food giant, climbing the corporate ladder as a district manager in Chicago, a zone manager for the northeastern portion of the United States and vice chairman of McDonald's International. Cantalupo retired in 2001 with plans to spend time relaxing at his lake house. But on Jan. 1, 2003, he was appointed chairman and chief executive of the hamburger chain.

During his 15-month tenure as CEO, Cantalupo launched several initiatives to improve operations. He closed hundreds of restaurants, increased sales with the release of new products and ordered the debut of healthier menu options to combat America's rising obesity rates. These actions helped turn around the fortunes of the world's largest restaurant chain.

Cantalupo was an honorary member of the board of trustees of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society and the past president of the International Federation of the Multiple Sclerosis Societies. He also served on the board of directors of Sears, Roebuck and Co., and the Chicago Council on Foreign Relations.

Jack Smith

Jack Prescott Smith was an Army veteran who became an Emmy Award-winning journalist.

The son of the late ABC News anchor Howard K. Smith, Jack attended the Georgia Institute of Technology for a short time, then enlisted in the Army to make something of himself. Serving with the 7th Cavalry in Vietnam, he earned a Bronze Star for valor and a Purple Heart. When he returned to the U.S., his father interviewed him for a program called "A Father, a Son and War."

Smith earned a history degree from Carnegie Mellon University and a master's degree from Oxford. He joined ABC News as an intern in the 1970s, landed an assignment as the network's Paris correspondent and covered the invasion of Cambodia. In 1980, he transferred to the Washington bureau, where he contributed stories to "World News Tonight" and "Nightline."

Smith spent nine years as a principal correspondent for "This Week With David Brinkley," and covered both the White House and the State Department for "Good Morning America." In the 1990s, he tracked the ups and downs of Silicon Valley for the "Cutting Edge" segment of "World News Tonight With Peter Jennings."

During his 26-year broadcast journalism career, Smith won two Emmys and a Peabody Award. He hosted "Biography" on A&E and narrated The Learning Channel's award-winning documentary, "Vietnam: The Soldiers' Story," which incorporated his own experiences in the war. In 2000, Smith moved to California to launch the Jack Smith Media Group, a consulting business that teaches clients how to prepare for television appearances.

Smith died on April 7 from pancreatic cancer and a stroke. He was 58.

Abdel Aziz Rantisi

Dr. Abdel Aziz Rantisi, the interim leader of the Palestinian militant group Hamas, was assassinated on April 17. He was 56.

Less than a month after Israeli forces killed top Hamas official, Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, a missile strike was launched against his successor. Rantisi's car was about a block from his Gaza City home when two Israeli helicopters opened fire. Rantisi died from massive head wounds. Two of his bodyguards were killed and five pedestrians were also wounded.

Rantisi was born in the town of Yebna, just south of Tel Aviv. His family fled to the Gaza Strip in 1948 when the establishment of the state of Israel sparked the first Arab-Israeli war. He grew up in a refugee camp and attended American schools in Khan Younis, where he learned to speak fluent English.

After graduating from a medical school in Alexandria, Egypt, and earning a master's degree in infants' therapy, Rantisi became a physician at Nasser Hospital. He taught at the Islamic University of Gaza, and was a member of the Gaza Islamic society Al Mujama'a, the Arab Doctors Association and the Palestinian Red Crescent Society.

In 1987, Rantisi helped found Hamas as an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood. Hamas, which provides education and health care to impoverished Palestinians, is also responsible for scores of suicide bombings and other deadly attacks on Israelis. The militant group rejects the existence of Israel and seeks to establish an Islamic state in Israel, Gaza and the West Bank. Known as a vocal hardliner, Rantisi was deported to Lebanon in 1992. Upon his return in 1993, he was locked up for four years in an Israeli jail. Palestinian Authority security forces also incarcerated Rantisi for 21 months.

Israel decided to kill Rantisi after he rejected the U.S.-backed road map to peace. Last June, an assassination attempt failed when an Israeli helicopter fired a missile into his car. Rantisi and his teenage son were wounded; his driver and two innocent civilians died in the attack.

Leonard Reed

Leonard Reed, the co-creator of the famous Shim Sham Shimmy dance routine, died on April 5 from congestive heart failure. He was 97.

Born in a tepee in Lightning Creek, Okla., Reed's mother was half-Choctaw Cherokee Indian and half-black; she died of pneumonia when he was two years old. A child of rape, Reed never knew his father. Instead, he was reared by relatives and foster parents in Kansas City, Mo., until he was adopted by his high school principal.

At 15, Reed took a job selling popcorn and candy at a local theater. He learned to tap and do the Charleston by watching other performers, and was soon good enough to win area dance contests. He visited Cornell University, with every intention of attending, but opted to pursue a dance career instead.

In the 1920s, Reed found an ideal dance partner in comedian Willie Bryant. Together they formed a vaudeville act called "Brains as Well as Feet," and choreographed a flashy finale that was called the Shim Sham Shimmy. The routine, which was ideally suited to the line dance, is often referred to as the anthem of tap.

When his racial origins were discovered, the fair-skinned Reed was forced to stop dancing in white revues. For the next four decades, he worked in other areas of the entertainment industry. He produced shows at the Cotton Club in Chicago, entertained the troops during World War II, ran his own nightclub in Los Angeles and spent 20 years as the master of ceremonies at the Apollo Theater in New York. Reed helped launch Dinah Washington's singing career and choreographed dances for Motown stars.

Reed is also credited with breaking the color barrier in the Professional Golfers' Association. Golf officials in San Diego mistakenly assumed Reed was white and issued him a PGA card in 1951. This led to the abolition of the all-Caucasian rule, and opened the way for black golfers such as Tiger Woods.

In 2000, Reed received a Living Treasure in American Dance Award from Oklahoma City University, and a lifetime achievement award from the American Music Awards.

• Watch Reed Perform at the Orpheum Theatre

Pat Pateman

When Yvonne "Pat" Pateman told her family she wanted to become a pilot, they thought she was crazy.

It was 1942, and Pateman had no interest in being what she called "a ground-bounder or waffle-butt." So she budgeted $10 out of each paycheck she earned at the Western Electric factory in New Jersey, and began taking flying lessons.

With a mere six hours of flight time under her belt, Pateman answered Uncle Sam's call for female pilots. Out of more than 25,000 applicants, she was one of only 1,074 who earned their wings as Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASPs). During World War II, Pateman ferried planes from Fort Erie, Canada to Newark, N.J., and performed "check rides" on aircraft that had undergone repair.

The WASPs were deactivated in 1944 and Pateman was told she could return to her job at the factory, but she didn't find that option very appealing. Determined to work in aviation, Pateman moved to California and landed a job pumping gas at an airport. She was hired by Aero Trans Inc. to fly civilian aircraft from factories to buyers, and became a flight instructor in Culver City.

Then in 1949, Pateman received a U.S. Air Force Reserve commission as a first lieutenant. She was called to active duty during the Korean War, and assigned to the 78th Fighter-Interceptor Wing at Hamilton Air Force Base. Because women were not allowed to fly in combat, Pateman served as an intelligence officer in the Philippines and Japan.

During the Vietnam War, she served as chief of the 7th Air Force Warning Division at Tan Son Nhut Air Base in Saigon. Pateman was the chief of the China Air and Missile Section of the Defense Intelligence Agency when she retired from the service as a lieutenant colonel in 1971.

In the final years of her life, Pateman spoke at aviation and military women's organization events. She wrote the 1996 book, "Women Who Dared: American Female Test Pilots, Flight Test Engineers & Astronauts," and produced the documentary, "We Were WASP." She also spent 10 years as the WASP chair for Military and Veterans Affairs, and was a national president of the Women Airforce Service Pilots Association. WASPs were accorded veteran status by Congress in 1977.

Pateman died on April 4 of a stroke. She was 84.

Denny Dent

Wearing a paint-splattered tuxedo and holding up to three brushes in each hand, Denny Dent would attack the canvas. In a frenzied motion, he'd outline faces, blend colors and dance in front of crowds who gathered to watch him paint.

From a sidewalk or stage, Dent would turn on some music and create instant masterpieces of Tina Turner, Jimi Hendrix, Bruce Springsteen, Aerosmith and Miles Davis on 6-foot-high canvases. He performed his trademark "two-fisted art attack" in front of 300,000 people at Woodstock '94 and painted a portrait of Beethoven during a Colorado Symphony Orchestra concert.

Born in Oakland, Calif., Dent dropped out of high school and spent his early adulthood mired in drugs and alcohol. A year after John Lennon was murdered, Dent brought an easel to a memorial and began to paint an image of the singer. A few nights later, he was hired to open for Steppenwolf in Los Angeles.

Dent spent the 1980s entertaining college students with his artistic performances, and the 1990s working the art festival circuit. Despite his speed and obvious skill, he turned down an offer to be listed as the world's fastest painter in the Guinness Book of World Records.

Dent died on March 29 of multiple organ failure. He was 55.

• Watch Dent Work

Murray J. Gart

Murray J. Gart, a correspondent for Time and the last editor-in-chief of the Washington Star, died on March 31 from complications of heart surgery. He was 79.

The Boston native served in the Army during World War II. He earned a bachelor's degree from Northeastern University then hopped on a ship to see the world. When the boat stopped in Hawaii, Gart got off and took a job as a reporter with the Honolulu Star-Bulletin.

Gart's decision to join the media was a perfect match for his wanderlust. In the early 1950s, he worked as an editor at the Weekly Independent Record in Cape May County, N.J., and covered agriculture for newspapers in Wichita, Kan. Time magazine hired Gart as a correspondent and sent him to Toronto, Boston, Chicago and London.

Gart wrote articles on the Watergate scandal and the withdrawal of American forces from Vietnam. He interviewed more than 55 world leaders, including Saddam Hussein, Yassir Arafat and five U.S. presidents. For nine years, he served as the magazine's chief of correspondents in New York City.

Time Inc. purchased the Washington Star in 1978 and handed Gart the top editorial position. He ran the financially struggling afternoon newspaper for three years until circulation problems and a lack of advertising revenue caused it to fold. Instead of moving on to the next city, however, Gart remained in Washington as a senior correspondent and consultant for Time. He retired from journalism in 1990.

Keith Cylar

AIDS activist Keith Cylar died on April 5 of cardioarrhythmia. He was 45.

Born in Norfolk, Va., Cylar earned a bachelor's degree in psychology from Boston University and a master's degree in social work from Columbia University. During the 1980s, he worked as a therapist and social worker at Creedmoor Psychiatric Hospital, the Lower East Side Service Center and Montefiore Medical Center in New York City.

Cylar was diagnosed with AIDS in 1989. For the next 15 years, he dedicated himself to helping other AIDS patients. He created the housing arm of the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power, and lobbied for the development of federal legislation to create and fund HIV/AIDS service programs. In 1990, Cylar joined forces with his partner Charles King and lawyer Virginia Shubert to found Housing Works, one of the largest AIDS self-help efforts in the United States.

Housing Works provides social services like health and mental care, and finds shelter for thousands of homeless New Yorkers living with HIV and AIDS. Cyler helped the Rand Corporation research the cost-effectiveness of HIV services. He also labored as an investigator with the Beth Israel Medical Center to provide minority patients with better access to AIDS clinical trials.

Micheline Charest

Micheline Charest, a co-founder of the CINAR animation company, died on April 14 from complications of plastic surgery. She was 51.

Born in Britain and raised in Quebec City, Charest dropped out of college and spent five years traveling through Europe. She attended the London Film School and met Roland Weinberg. They married, moved to New York and formed CINAR as a small film and television distribution company.

In 1984, the couple moved the company to Montreal. Within a few years, CINAR began producing award-winning cartoons that both educated and entertained millions of children. From 1987 to 1999, Charest served as the executive producer on 17 animated films and TV shows, including "Arthur," "Emily of New Moon" and "Mona the Vampire." At the time, the Hollywood Reporter ranked her as one of the most powerful women in the entertainment business.

Then in 2000, a financial scandal erupted at the animation company. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police began investigating allegations that CINAR had illegally benefited from federal tax credits by claiming Canadians wrote scripts that were actually penned by Americans. The authorities also examined claims that Charest and Weinberg had invested $122 million in Bahamian hedge funds without the permission of the board of directors.

Although Charest and Weinberg denied these charges, they were ousted from the company. In March, the Quebec Securities Commission fined them $1 million each. The couple was also barred from managing any Canadian company for five years.

Leonard Safon

Dr. Leonard E. Safon was once described as "the greatest obstetrician in the entire world."

During his 40-year career, "Doc" Safon delivered more than 10,000 babies, including some of the students he later taught at Harvard Medical School. He was also the former president of the Obstetrical Society of Boston.

After serving in the Navy, Safon graduated from Northeastern University, received his master's degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and earned a medical degree from Boston University School of Medicine. He was a surgical intern for two years at Boston City Hospital and a resident in obstetrics and gynecology at Boston Lying-in Hospital and Free Hospital for Women.

From 1963 to 1997, Safon ran his own practice. Known for wearing casual beach clothes and gold chain necklaces, the physician was a comforting presence to thousands of Boston-area parents. He retired from medicine in 1998 and joined the faculty of Harvard Medical School. A lectureship fund in clinical obstetrics has been established in his honor.

Safon died on March 28. Cause of death was not released. He was 78.

Carlos E. Cisneros

Carlos Enrique Cisneros, the former president of the Cisneros Television Group, died on April 10 from a drug overdose. His death is being investigated as a possible suicide by the Los Angeles County Coroner's Office. He was 38.

The nephew of media mogul Gustavo Cisneros, Carlos was born in Venezuela and attended private schools in Brazil and the United States. He earned a bachelor's degree in political science from American University, then moved to Madrid, where he developed foreign markets for the family business, the Cisneros Group of Companies (CGC).

Cisneros founded the Cisneros Television Group as an offshoot of CGC in 1996, and gained a reputation as a sharp entrepreneur for building a portfolio of a dozen Latin American pay-TV channels. Three years later, he was named a World Economic Forum ''Global Leader for Tomorrow.''

Cisneros, who served on the board of directors of Univision Communications Inc., El Sitio Inc., Univoz Inc. and OneSoft Corp., dedicated his free time to philanthropic ventures. He served two years as the president of the board of trustees for the Miami Art Museum, and raised funds for the United Foundation for AIDS.

In 1999, Miami Metro Magazine named Cisneros one of its 100 sexiest people. The Miami Beach Chamber of Commerce named him "Citizen of the Year" in 2001.

Joel Feinberg

University of Arizona professor emeritus Joel Feinberg refused to add technology to his writing practice. When his colleagues switched from typewriters to word processors to computers, he continued to pen college-level textbooks using only a fountain pen and a pad of yellow notebook paper.

Despite these Luddite tendencies, Feinberg's books about morality and how it relates to law became standard reading in many college courses. A leading political and social philosopher, his well-respected series, "The Moral Limits of the Criminal Law," tackled many ethical issues, including capital punishment, the treatment of the mentally ill, civil disobedience, obscenity and pornography.

Feinberg enlisted in the Army in 1944, and served in an officer training program. When he left the service, he earned bachelor's, master's and doctorate degrees from the University of Michigan. He spent 20 years teaching classes at Brown, Princeton and Rockefeller universities before joining the University of Arizona faculty in 1977. Feinberg retired in 1994 as a Regents Professor of law and philosophy. An award to financially support undergraduate philosophy majors has been established in his honor.

Feinberg died on March 29 from complications of Parkinson's disease. He was 77.

Gareth Steele

Gareth E. Steele, the inventor of the Ampufin, died on April 10. Cause of death was not released. He was 49.

Although he was born in Chicago, Steele's family moved to South Florida when he was six years old. On Dec. 3, 1974, Steele was riding his new motorcycle when a teenaged driver ran a stop sign and broadsided him. The accident left Steele so severely injured that his left leg had to be amputated.

Undaunted, Steele graduated from Florida Atlantic University. He learned to run the 50-yard dash, roller-skated and developed the Ampufin, a device to help him swim in the ocean.

For the past 19 years, Steele negotiated rights of way for major roads in Broward, Miami-Dade and Palm Beach counties as a review appraiser for the Florida Department of Transportation. A founding member of the Center for Independent Living in Fort Lauderdale, Steele also led a support group for new amputees and volunteered as a swim instructor for the sports clinic at the United Amputee Association.

Omar Blair

Omar Blair, the first black president of the Denver Board of Education, died on March 25 of congestive heart failure. He was 85.

When he took office, Blair was charged with desegregating the schools using court-ordered busing. At the time, 37 buses were bombed and pro-busing board members received constant threats. But Blair saw the court order as an opportunity to integrate school resources as well as student populations. From 1972 to 1984, he presided over the board, and earned praise for his calming presence and community service.

Blair was a straight-A student at Albuquerque High School. Although he was one of six black students in the class of '36, Blair was not allowed to sit with his classmates at the graduation ceremony. Forty-three years later, the school named him one of its most distinguished alumni.

Blair spent two years studying at the University of California at Los Angeles, then joined the Tuskegee Airmen, the pioneering military unit that shattered racial misconceptions about the quality of black pilots. A captain in the 322nd Squadron of the Army Air Corps, Blair spent World War II flying combat planes over Europe.

In 2003, the Blair-Caldwell African American Research Library was named after Blair and Elvin Caldwell, Denver's first black councilman.

Anna Grudziecke

Anna Grudziecke was only six years old, but she made medical history. Last month, the Houston girl became the first patient in the world to receive a DeBakey child heart pump.

The DeBakey ventricular assist device, which is named after famed heart surgeon Dr. Michael DeBakey, helps weakened hearts pump blood through the body by supplementing the pumping ability of the left ventricle. Adult patients have been known to survive up to a year with the device.

Four weeks ago, Anna was diagnosed with cardiomyopathy. Her heart muscle had enlarged to the point where it would stiffen instead of pump blood, and had begun to deteriorate. The doctors at Texas Children's Hospital gave her a scaled-down model of the DeBakey pump on March 26 to keep her alive while she waited for a heart transplant.

It didn't arrive in time. Anna Grudziecke died on April 11.

Gene Klavan

Gene Klavan, one-half of the 1960s morning radio show "Klavan and Finch," died on April 8 from complications of multiple myeloma. He was 79.

The Baltimore native was studying at Johns Hopkins University when World War II started. Klavan quit school and enlisted in the Army Air Corps. He served in the Pacific campaign and later entertained the troops.

When the war ended, Klavan launched his radio career in Baltimore and Washington. He moved to New York in 1952 and joined straight man Dee Finch on the WNEW-AM morning show. For the next 14 years, the duo improvised the popular four-hour program, which featured wacky characters like Mrs. Wes Chester, Sy Kology, Trevor Traffic and Victor Verse.

Finch retired in 1968, but Klavan continued to entertain listeners on "Klavan in the Morning." He moved to WOR-AM in 1977 and remained on the air for three more years as the voice of the afternoon drive time. Finch died in 1983.

After he retired from radio, Klavan hosted for American Movie Classics and worked as a columnist for Newsday. He also published two books: "We Die at Dawn" and "Turn That Damn Thing Off." Klavan fathered four sons: Ross, Scott, Laurence and best-selling author Andrew Klavan.

Fred Olivi

Frederick J. Olivi, the copilot of the plane that dropped the atomic bomb on Nagasaki during World War II, died on April 8. Cause of death was not released. He was 82.

The Chicago native enlisted in the Air Force after Japan attacked Pearl Harbor. On Aug. 6, 1945, the Enola Gay dropped the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima. Three days later, Olivi co-piloted the B-29 bomber "Bock's Car" over Nagasaki and dropped the atomic bomb that killed 73,800 people.

"While thousands died, I feel sure the bomb had to be dropped because if the Americans had been forced to invade Japan, it would have been a bloodbath," Olivi told the Chicago Sun-Times in 1995.

Olivi served in the Air Force Reserve out of Chicago's O'Hare International until 1971 when he retired as a lieutenant colonel. He also worked as a manager of bridge operations and maintenance for the city of Chicago. The final years of his life were spent promoting his self-published book, "Decision at Nagasaki: The Mission That Almost Failed."

Joshua Eilberg

Joshua Eilberg, a former Democratic congressman from Philadelphia, died on March 24 of Parkinson's disease. He was 83.

Eilberg graduated from the University of Pennsylvania and Temple Law School, and served in the Naval Reserve during World War II. He spent two years working as an assistant district attorney before entering politics as a state representative.

In 1966, Eilberg was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives. As House Immigration subcommittee chairman, he aided Asian refugees and Soviet Jews emigrating to the U.S. and Israel. Eilberg also sat on the House Judiciary Committee during President Richard M. Nixon's impeachment hearings.

Three months after he lost his congressional seat to Republican Charles Dougherty in 1979, Eilberg pleaded guilty to conflict of interest charges in connection with money he received to obtain a federal grant for Hahnemann Hospital in Philadelphia. He was sentenced to five years probation and a $10,000 fine.

When he regained the right to practice law in 1985, Eilberg opened offices in Philadelphia and Jenkintown, Pa. He later became the executive director of Brith Sholom, a Jewish fraternal organization.

Johnny Bristol

John William Bristol, a singer and former Motown producer, died on March 21 of natural causes. He was 65.

The North Carolina native was serving in the Air Force when he met singer Robert "Jackey" Beavers in the late 1950s. They formed the doo-wop duo Jackey & Johnny, and played shows in the Detroit area. In 1961, they recorded several singles, including the tune "Someday We'll be Together." Diana Ross & the Supremes remade the song in 1969, with Bristol singing background vocals.

Bristol spent most of the 1960s as a producer and songwriter for Motown Records. There he worked with some of the label's biggest acts: Marvin Gaye, Smokey Robinson, Michael Jackson, Gladys Knight & the Pips, the Four Tops and Stevie Wonder. Bristol also married and divorced Iris Gordy, the niece of Motown founder Berry Gordy. He later married Maude Bristol Perry, Battle Creek, Mich.'s first woman mayor.

Bristol left Motown in 1973 and launched his solo career. He signed record deals with MGM and Atlantic and released numerous singles. The song, "Hang On In There Baby," reached number two on the R&B charts and number eight on the pop charts. He continued recording music through the 80s and early 90s. At the time of his death, Bristol was finalizing plans to tour Britain and complete a gospel album.

• Listen to 2 Bristol Songs

Victor Argo

Victor Argo, a veteran character actor, died on April 7 of lung cancer. He was 69.

Born in the Bronx to Puerto Rican parents as Víctor Jiménez, he changed his last name in the mid-1960s to gain access to more acting opportunities. As he auditioned for parts, Argo sold jewelry, drove a cab and worked as a printer.

Argo began his dramatic career on stage, taking roles in regional theater and off-Broadway productions. He moved to Nashville and briefly attempted to launch a career as a guitarist and country singer, but acting proved more lucrative.

Over the next four decades, Argo played a wide array of small parts in more than 70 films. He worked with director Martin Scorsese in "Mean Streets," "Taxi Driver" and "The Last Temptation of Christ." Woody Allen directed him in "Crimes and Misdemeanors" and "Shadows and Fog." He also made guest appearances on the TV shows "Kojak," "Miami Vice" and "Law & Order."

Last year, Argo returned to the stage as the owner of a cigar factory in the Pulitzer Prize-winning play "Anna in the Tropics." The Broadway show ended its run in February. His final film, "Luster," will be released in Aug. 2005.

Ben DeFelice

Benedetto DeFelice's job was to help in times of crisis.

As the chief of the CIA's casualty affairs branch, DeFelice was the official liaison to families of missing, killed or captured employees. For 20 years, his duties involved sharing information, taking care of finances and consoling families of agents. He worked with the Red Cross and the State Department to get food delivered to captive CIA employees and arrange for family visits.

DeFelice aided the families of Richard G. Fecteau and John T. "Jack" Downey, two CIA employees who were shot down over Manchuria by the Chinese government during the Korean War. Fecteau was sentenced to 20 years for espionage; Downey received a life term. When Downey returned to the states in 1973, DeFelice was there to greet him.

The Rhode Island native served in the Army during World War II. He graduated from the foreign service school at Georgetown and earned a law degree from the university's law school.

DeFelice joined the spy agency in 1953. For 20 years, he headed the Ad Hoc Committee on Prisoners, and spent a decade as deputy director of personnel. He was also instrumental in creating a program that provided retirement, health and life insurance benefits to U.S. citizens contracted by the agency. DeFelice retired in 1987 as director of information services. For his many years of dedication, he received a "trailblazer" award for being one of the 50 officers who most helped shape the CIA.

DeFelice died on April 5 of cancer. He was 79.

Warren Pfaff

Warren Pfaff wrote the lyrics to the McDonald's ad that was named the top jingle of the 20th century by Advertising Age. Perhaps you've heard it?

"You deserve a break today… at McDonald's."

Although he started as a copywriter with J. Walter Thompson, the biggest advertising agency in New York City at that time, Pfaff eventually became the firm's senior vice president and creative director. He worked on ad campaigns for Pan American World Airways ("Get out of the country, get into this world."), the Metropolitan Opera ("Strike a blow for civilization.") and Rolls-Royce Motors ("The heart and soul of a masterpiece."). Pfaff was also known for collaborating with Sid Woloshin on the "We're looking for a few good men'' campaign for the U.S. Marine Corps. Woloshin died in 2000.

A one-time minor league baseball player and actor, Pfaff earned a bachelor's degree in English from Dartmouth College and spent a year studying painting as a Reynolds Fellow at the DuChamps studio in Paris. The Great Neck, N.Y.-native served as a lieutenant in the Navy during the Korean War. He opened his own agency, Warren Pfaff Advertising, in 1971 and ran the company until 1990 when it merged with McCaffrey Ratner Gottlieb & Lane.

Pfaff died on March 10 of lung cancer. He was 74.

Niki Sullivan

Niki Sullivan, a member of the band Buddy Holly and the Crickets, died on April 6. Cause of death was not released. He was 66.

Sullivan was born in California but raised in Lubbock, Tex. He served in the Navy for a short period then returned home and became a professional musician. He played rhythm guitar and sang backup with Buddy Holly and the Crickets on 27 of the 32 songs Holly recorded before his death. Sullivan was known in the press as the "other one with glasses."

The Crickets' first record sold 50,000 copies. The band appeared on "American Bandstand" and "The Ed Sullivan Show," and shared the stage with early rock 'n' roll legends such as Chuck Berry, Little Richard, The Drifters, the Everly Brothers and Paul Anka. Sullivan quit the group in 1957 to take a break from the hectic touring schedule. In 1959, a plane carrying Holly, J.P. "The Big Bopper" Richardson and Ritchie Valens crashed, killing everyone on board.

Sullivan recorded a single as a solo artist that attained modest regional success, but he stopped performing in the 1970s. His final years were spent living near Kansas City and working at Sony Electronics. He was inducted into the Buddy Holly Walk of Fame in 1986.

Herbert Choy

Herbert Young Cho Choy, the first Asian American to serve on the federal bench, died on March 10 of complications from pneumonia. He was 88.

Born on Kauai to Korean immigrants, Choy graduated from the University of Hawaii in 1938. He earned his law degree from Harvard University then became the first lawyer of Korean ancestry to gain admission to the bar.

After the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor in December 1941, Choi enlisted in the U.S. Army. He began his military career as a lieutenant and left as a captain, serving in both Japan and Korea. When he retired from the military in 1947, Choy moved to Honolulu and went into private practice with Katsuro Miho and Hiram Fong, who later became a U.S. senator. In 1957, Choy was named the attorney general for the Territory of Hawaii -- the first person of Korean descent to hold such a post.

President Richard M. Nixon appointed Choy to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in 1971. The court hears cases originating in nine western states and two Pacific Island jurisdictions. The legal pioneer achieved senior status when he retired in 1984, but continued to work on cases for the San Francisco-based court.

Joan Richman

Joan Richman, the first woman to become an executive producer of network news, died on April 2 from lung cancer. She was 64.

Born in St. Louis, Richman graduated from Wellesley College. Determined to work in television, she moved to New York City and took a job as an archivist in the CBS News research library. In 1968, Richman was promoted to a producer position. Working with Walter Cronkite, she covered the first trip to the moon and won two Emmy Awards -- one in 1971 for covering Apollo 13 and Apollo 14, and another in 1972 for covering Apollo 15.

Richman spent two years producing the ABC News magazine, "The Reasoner Report," hosted by Harry Reasoner, then returned to CBS News in 1975 to serve as the executive producer of "CBS Sports Spectacular" and the weekend editions of "CBS Evening News." It was the first time a woman had reached such a position at the network level.

A no-nonsense journalist with a penchant for smoking packs of Pall Malls, Richman handled election night coverage in 1976, 1978 and 1980. As vice president and director of special events for CBS News, she ran the network's coverage of major breaking news events from 1981 to 1988. Some of the stories she supervised included the bombing of the U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut in 1982, the U.S. invasion of Grenada in 1983 and the explosion of the space shuttle Challenger in 1986.

Her remaining years were spent teaching media and politics at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.

Luke G. Williams

Need to know the current time and temperature? Well, whenever you see a building featuring a sign with this alternating information, think of Luke and Chuck Williams.

In 1950, the brothers came up with the idea, formed American Sign and Indicator Corp., and hired Ed Schulenberg, president of the Time-O-Matic Co., to build a single panel of lights that would show the time for a few seconds and then the temperature for a few seconds. That sign was posted on the Seattle First National Bank building in Spokane, Wash., and became an instant hit.

Other banks and shops wanted to buy the signs too, but each one cost $12,000, which was more than most businesses could afford. So the Williams brothers decided to lease the technology. In 1981, they sold the company to the Brae Corp. for $20 million. Chuck Williams died in 1993.

Luke Williams then built the American Electronic Sign Co., where he developed giant, electronic scoreboards for sports stadiums. He sold that business to 3M in 2000. Both ventures were chronicled in his 2002 autobiography, "Luke G. Williams: An American Entrepreneur."

Born in Pinecroft, Wash., Williams graduated from high school and served as a torpedo man in the U.S. Navy during World War II. He planned to go to college after the service to become an entomologist, but joined forces with his brother to build the family's sign-making business instead.

Williams chaired the board of directors of the Association of Washington Business from 1967 to 1969, and was the only Washington businessman to chair the National Association of Manufacturers. He also served on the Spokane City Council and founded United for Washington, one of the state's first political action committees.

Williams died on April 5. Cause of death was not released. He was 80.

Nikita Bogoslovsky

Nikita Bogoslovsky, a Soviet-era composer who wrote more than 300 scores, died on April 4. Cause of death was not released. He was 90.

Born in St. Petersburg, Bogoslovsky became one of the Soviet Union's most beloved composers for writing ballads such as "Dark Night," "I Dreamed of You for Three Years" and "Beloved City." During World War II, he traveled to the front lines to give intimate concerts at military hospitals.

When he wasn't composing music for 120 films and 80 shows, Bogoslovsky wrote nine humor books, including the popular "Notes on the Brims of a Hat."

Bogoslovsky was memorialized by astronomers who named a small planet after him. In 1998, a plate was set on the Star Square in Moscow in his honor.

Joseph Zimmermann Jr.

Joseph James Zimmermann Jr. was running his own air-conditioning and heating company in 1948. He couldn't afford to hire a secretary to take calls when he was out of the office, so he invented the answering machine.

Patented in 1949, the Electronic Secretary Model R1 weighed 80 pounds. It featured a box containing a control panel with a 78 rpm record player inside. When the phone rang, the machine would lift the telephone receiver from its cradle and play a recorded greeting. A wire recorder on top of a second box would then tape messages for 30 seconds.

Zimmermann teamed up with George W. Danner to launch Electronic Secretary Industries. By 1957, they had sold more than 6,000 answering machines. General Telephone Corp., which later became GTE, purchased the company and its patent rights that year.

A Milwaukee native, Zimmerman earned an electrical engineering degree from Marquette University. He served in the U.S. Army Signal Corps during World War II, and was one of the first soldiers to land on Omaha Beach in Normandy, France, on D-Day.

When he returned to the states, Zimmerman spent many hours in his basement developing useful inventions. He created a "dial-a-lecture" system that allowed college students to hear prerecorded lessons by phone, a security device that automatically dialed a phone number in case of an emergency and a magnetic recorder used to monitor heart patients.

Zimmermann died on March 31. Cause of death was not released. He was 92.

Lawrence McGrew

Lawrence McGrew, the former NFL linebacker who was once the victim of identity theft, died on April 2. Cause of death was not released. He was 46.

The real Lawrence McGrew played football at Contra Costa College and the University of Southern California, and started in two Rose Bowls. During the second round of the 1980 draft, he was selected by the New England Patriots as an outside linebacker.

McGrew spent the next 11 years in the NFL, playing for the Patriots, the Cleveland Browns and the New York Giants. He helped New England reach the Super Bowl in 1986 and earned a championship ring when New York beat Buffalo in the 1991 Super Bowl.

Last summer, a Colorado thief named Frederick William McGrew III illegally adopted Lawrence's name and career statistics to get a job as an assistant football coach at Gavilan College in California. The impostor was fired five weeks later and arrested. He told police he was Lawrence's nephew and repeated the claim at his initial court appearance, but it was all a lie.

In December, Frederick McGrew was sentenced to three years of supervised probation and 160 hours of community service for stealing Lawrence's identity and for fraudulently using an Ohio woman's Social Security number.

Marshall Frady

Marshall Bolton Frady, an Emmy Award-winning journalist and biographer, died on March 9 from cancer. He was 64.

Frady attended Furman University and the University of Iowa. During the 1960s and 1970s, the Georgia native wrote for Newsweek, the Saturday Evening Post, Harper's and Life Magazine. He covered the civil rights movement and interviewed several civil rights leaders, including the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Frady spent seven years as the host and chief correspondent for the ABC News documentary series, "Close Up." In 1982, he won an Emmy for "Soldiers of the Twilight,” a documentary about mercenaries. He served as a commentator on "Nightline," and freelanced for numerous publications.

Frady reprinted a collection of his magazine profiles in "Southerners: A Journalist’s Odyssey." He also published biographies of King, Jesse Jackson and the Rev. Billy Graham. His best-known book was the 1968 bio, "Wallace," about George C. Wallace, the former Alabama governor who ran for president as a third-party candidate. Frady originally planned to write a novel featuring Wallace, but after spending months with the segregationist, he decided to write a nonfiction book instead.

"Wallace" was adapted by Frady and Paul Monash into a 1997 TV miniseries starring Gary Sinise. The film received eight Emmy nominations and won in the directing, lead actor and supporting actress categories.

Marion Bertram

Marion Elizabeth O'Neal was working as a medical assistant in a South Florida hospital when she married Dr. A.J. Bertram. Her husband was also a pilot and he shared his love of aviation with her.

Bertram took flying lessons and became one of the first members of the Ninety-Nines, Amelia Earhart's female flying club. During World War II, she enlisted in the Army Air Corps, flying cargo shipments and giving flight lessons to male pilots. At the time, women were not allowed to serve in battle.

Dr. Bertram also served in the war. When he returned home, the couple spent their remaining years together in the Florida Keys. He died in 1944.

Marion Bertram moved to Turkey in the 1960s. She befriended a Turkish dance teacher and became an expert ballroom dancer. She also did administrative work for the U.S. Air Force, a job that brought her many awards, including the Sustained Superior Performance Award.

Bertram died of pneumonia on March 4. She was 99.

Zaki Nassif

Zaki Nassif, one of Lebanon's most renowned composers, died on March 11 from a heart attack. He was 88.

Nassif studied music at the American University of Beirut in the 1930s. He launched his show business career as a singer and composer for Radio-Orient and Radio Liban.

An accomplished songwriter, Nassif composed or sang more than 2,000 folk songs during his six-decade career. His music preserved the essence of traditional Lebanese music, and was performed by many famous Lebanese artists, including diva Fairuz and Wadih Safi, the country's most famous singer. He was best known for writing the patriotic anthem, "Rajeh Yittammar Libnan" (Lebanon Will Be Rebuilt), a song that encouraged citizens to reconstruct their country after the 1975-1990 civil war.

In 1995, Nassif composed an album with Fairuz, titled "Fairuz Chante Zaki Nassif" (Fairuz Sings Zaki Nassif). He also served as a judge on the TV talent show, "Studio El Fann" (Art Studio).

• Listen to a MIDI of Nassif Music

Robert D. Orr

Robert Dunkerson Orr, the former governor of Indiana, died on March 10 from complications following kidney surgery. He was 86.

Orr attended Yale University and Harvard Graduate School of Business before enlisting in the Army in 1942. After fighting in the Pacific during World War II, he returned to Indiana to work in the Orr Iron Co., the family business.

Orr entered politics in the late 1960s. He was elected as a Republican to the state Senate and became Indiana's lieutenant governor. In 1981, he ran against John Hillenbrand for governor and beat him by more than 300,000 votes.

In his two-term tenure, Orr energized the economy by luring foreign investment to Indiana. He passed two major tax increases to pay for his education reform bills and to fix the state's budget problems. Orr also sat on the steering committee of the Education Commission of the States, and was the only governor asked to participate on U.S. Department of Education Secretary William Bennett's Study Group on Elementary Education.

Unable to run for a third term, Orr left office in 1989. He spent the next three years as the U.S. ambassador to Singapore, then formed Alliance for Global Commerce, a consulting firm.

The Robert D. Orr Scholarship for Global Studies has been established at the University of Southern Indiana. The Interstate 164 Bypass is also named in his honor.

Frances Schreuder

In 1978, Frances Bernice Schreuder was a New York socialite. She sat on the board of directors of the New York City Ballet, lived in a luxury apartment on Manhattan's Upper East Side and was known to buy $40,000 earrings at Tiffany's.

Her father, Franklin Bradshaw, preferred to live frugally in Utah. Although the Salt Lake City oil and auto-parts magnate was worth at least $10 million, he drove a rusty pickup truck and bought his clothes at thrift stores. When he tired of his daughter's extravagant spending habits and threatened to cut her out of his will, Frances decided to kill him.

At the high-profile trial, her 17-year-old son Marc Schreuder testified that Frances ordered he and his brother Larry to steal $200,000 in cash, checks and stock certificates from their 76-year-old grandfather. Marc also said his mother gave him drugs to poison Bradshaw's oatmeal, but he refused to carry out the plan.

Frances then hired a hit man for $5,000, who also backed out of the deal and disappeared. So she threatened to kick Marc out of the house if he didn't murder Bradshaw. The teen acquiesced, and on July 23, 1978, he shot and killed his grandfather with a .357 Magnum handgun.

The case was chronicled in two true crime books, two TV miniseries and a documentary on Court TV. In 1982, Marc Schreuder was convicted of second-degree murder. He was paroled 12 years later and reconciled with his mother.

Although she denied any involvement in the crime, Frances Schreuder was convicted of first-degree murder in 1983. She was a model inmate at the Utah State Prison and earned two degrees while incarcerated. She was paroled in 1996. Prior to the murder, Schreuder attended Bryn Mawr College, but was suspended in 1958 for stealing and forging checks.

Schreuder died on March 30 from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. She was 65.

Sidney James

Sidney Lorraine James, the founding editor of Sports Illustrated, died on March 11. Cause of death was not released. He was 97.

James launched his journalism career at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. He freelanced for Time Magazine, and was offered a staff writer position in 1936. Over the next decade, he would serve as the publication's Chicago bureau chief and the chief of its western editorial operations in Los Angeles.

After World War II, James moved to New York, worked his way up the editorial ranks at Life and coordinated the first televised coverage of the Republican and Democratic national conventions in 1948 with NBC. Five years later, Time Inc.'s co-founder Henry R. Luce tapped him to develop a national publication devoted to sports.

Sports Illustrated debuted on Aug. 16, 1954. James spent six years as SI's top editor and five as its publisher. He was also responsible for convincing William Faulkner, Robert Frost, Ernest Hemingway and John Steinbeck to contribute articles.

In the 1970s, James became the chairman of the National Public Affairs Center for Television, and helped coordinate the gavel-to-gavel coverage of Senate Watergate hearings for public television. His memoir, "Press Pass: The Journalist's Tale," was published in 1994.

Joan McCord

Joan McCord, the first female president of the American Society of Criminology, died on Feb. 24 of lung cancer. She was 73.

The New York native received her bachelor's and doctorate degrees from Stanford University and did graduate work at Stanford and Harvard University. She taught sixth graders in Concord, Mass., then spent several years raising her children as a single mom.

McCord joined the faculty of Temple University as a criminal justice professor in 1987. Over the next 17 years, she developed a reputation as an internationally known scholar on the development of criminal behavior by writing, co-writing and editing 12 books and over 120 articles on delinquency, violence in the inner city and alcoholism.

McCord was best known for examining programs aimed at diverting juveniles from crime. After extensive study, she determined that summer camps, Scared Straight prison visitation programs and police-led drug education programs in schools did not always deter at-risk youths from committing crimes or becoming alcoholics.

McCord served as a senior research associate at the Center for Research in Human Development on Education and was the co-chair of the Panel on Juvenile Crime for the National Academy of Sciences. She also received numerous honors, including the American Society of Criminology's Sutherland Award and the Prix Emile Durkheim Award from the International Society of Criminology.

Aaron Bank

Retired Army Col. Aaron Bank, "the father of the Green Berets," died on April 1 of natural causes. He was 101.

The New York native spent his teens working as a lifeguard and swimming instructor. As a young adult, Bank traveled through Europe and learned to speak both French and German. When war became imminent in the late 1930s, he returned to America, joined the Army and volunteered for "special assignments."

In 1943, Bank signed up with the Office of Strategic Services, a top-secret government agency formed to gather intelligence and organize resistance forces behind enemy lines. He was assigned to recruit and train 170 anti-Nazi German POWs and defectors. Their mission was to parachute into the Austrian Alps and capture high-ranking Nazi leaders, including Adolf Hitler. Before its completion, however, "Operation Iron Cross" was scrubbed. Bank then parachuted into the jungles of Indochina to search for Japanese prisoner-of-war camps. His team located and freed 165 French internees in Laos.

The 10th Special Forces Group (Airborne) was approved and formally activated in 1952 in Ft. Bragg, N.C. Bank was a key figure in championing for its creation, and became the unit's first commander. Under his guidance, the elite unit of men became skilled in the art of hand-to-hand combat, stealth tactics, the use of explosives and amphibious warfare. Bank is also credited with writing a memorandum suggesting that Special Forces soldiers be allowed to wear berets as a mark of distinction. Although the Army initially turned down the idea, President John F. Kennedy authorized the apparel in 1962.

Upon his retirement from the service in 1958, Bank became chief of security at a private oceanfront community in California. He published his memoirs, "From Oss to Green Berets: The Birth of Special Forces," in 1986, and co-authored the novel, "Knights Cross," with E.M. Nathanson. To celebrate his 100th birthday, President George W. Bush commended Bank for developing unconventional warfare programs and techniques.

Bob Copper

Bob Copper, a legendary British folk singer, died on March 29. Cause of death was not released. He was 89.

Copper was born on a sheep farm in southern England to a family of folk singers. Inspired by nature and the rhythms of country life, generations of Coppers sang to entertain the relatives and neighbors on long, winter nights.

In 1898, a woman named Kate Lee visited the town of Rottingdean and wrote down the words and music to 50 songs sung by Bob's grandfather, James "Brasser" Copper. Bob's father, Jim Copper, penned the words to dozens more, including "The Banks of the Sweet Primroses," "The Honest Laborer" and "Shepherd of the Downs."

As a teen, Bob Copper served in the Household Cavalry and performed his family's music at pubs and parties during leave. When the British Broadcasting Corp. aired a live performance of Copper and his father singing in a pub garden, Bob's career took off.

For 50 years, Copper was a driving force behind the British folk revival. He immortalized his family's melodies on numerous records and in three songbooks, one of which -- "A Song for Every Season" -- won the 1971 Robert Pitman Literary Prize. In 2001, Copper received a lifetime achievement honor from the BBC's Folk Awards. He was made a Member of the Order of the British Empire a few days before he died.

• Listen to the Copper Family

John Sack

John Sack's first article for Esquire Magazine ran for 33,000 words. It appeared behind an all-black cover bearing the inscription: "Oh My God - We Hit a Little Girl." The story, which followed an infantry company from training at Fort Dix, N.J., to its first battle in Vietnam, remains the longest article the magazine has ever published.

At the time, Sack's writing style was considered New Journalism for it adopted a narrative approach that told the story through the eyes and thoughts of its participants. The infantry company's story was retold by Sack in "M," a book that was nominated by the NYU Department of Journalism as one of the top journalistic works of the 20th century.

Sack was only 15 years old when he launched his journalism career as a stringer for the Mamaroneck Daily Times at the Boy Scouts of America's Camp Siwanoy in New York. He graduated with a bachelor's degree in English from Harvard University in 1951 and volunteered for Army service in Korea. During his enlisted years, he wrote dispatches for the Army newspaper, Pacific Stars and Stripes, and freelanced for both United Press and Harper's.

When he returned to America, Sack started writing humor for The New Yorker. Over the next eight years, he penned more satire for the magazine than anyone except S.J. Perelman and James Thurber. In the 1960s, he worked as a writer, producer and special correspondent for CBS News, served as the CBS bureau chief in Madrid and attended graduate school at Columbia University.

Sack contributed articles to Esquire for 45 years, and covered wars in Iraq, Yugoslavia and Afghanistan. His series of interviews with Lt. William H. Calley Jr., who was convicted of massacring Vietnamese civilians in My Lai, culminated in a legal battle over shield laws and journalistic privilege. Sack was arrested and indicted on federal felony charges for refusing to testify against Calley and for refusing to surrender his notes and tapes to prosecutors. The case was eventually dropped.

Sack was the only journalist to cover every American war for the past 50 years. He also wrote 10 books, including the controversial title, "An Eye for an Eye." The nonfiction book caused an uproar because Sack reported that at the end of World War II, thousands of Jewish Holocaust survivors ran more than 1,200 concentration camps, where they tortured and killed German civilians, including women and children.

Sack died on March 27 of complications from bone marrow cancer. He was 74.

Erick Friedman

Erick Friedman, a violin virtuoso and Yale music professor, died on March 30 of cancer. He was 64.

A child prodigy, Friedman studied at the Juilliard School of Music and made his New York debut when he was only 14. Three years later, he trained under Jascha Heifetz and played at Carnegie Hall.

In 1960, Friedman signed a contract with RCA that allowed him to play with the Boston Symphony, Chicago Symphony and London Symphony. He became a regular guest musician and conductor at music festivals all over the world, and led the Garrett Lakes Summer Festival Orchestra in Maryland for more than a decade.

When an automobile accident injured his left arm and hand in the late 1980s, Friedman became a professor of violin and chamber music at Yale University. He continued teaching there until his death.

Friedman was the recipient of the 2000 Ignace J. Paderewski Award for Distinguished Contributions to Society and Culture. He also won a Grammy Award in 1996 for best historical album for his participation in "The Heifetz Collection."

Paulo Niemeyer

Dr. Paulo Niemeyer, one of Brazil's most renowned neurosurgeons, died on March 10 from complications of heart surgery. He was 89.

Neimeyer was a medical pioneer in Latin America who developed techniques to stop involuntary movements in patients with Parkinson's disease. He also designed a surgical technique that stopped seizures in 50 percent of the epilepsy patients he treated. Unfortunately, when practiced by other physicians, the technique could not reproduce the same successful results.

A long-time member of the National Academy of Medicine, Neimeyer treated many well-known Brazilians, including two of the country's former presidents. He also founded the Brazilian League of Epilepsy.

Michael King

Michael King, a New Zealand author and the leading historian of the indigenous Maori, died on March 30 in an automobile accident. He was 59.

Although he was born in Wellington to parents who relished their Irish and Scottish roots, King was more interested in the native culture of New Zealand. He studied English and history at Victoria University, and earned a master's degree from the University of Waikato.

King taught journalism for a while, then became a reporter for the Waikato Times. There he was assigned to cover Maori issues, a beat that brought him into close contact with the Tainui tribes. Over time, King became fluent in the Maori language and protocol, skills he used to write the books "Moko: Maori Tattooing in the 20th Century" and "Maori: A Photographic and Social History." He also penned "Te Puea" and "Whina" -- biographies of charismatic Maori leaders, Princess Te Puea Heringa and Dame Whina Cooper.

King's ground-breaking book, "Being Pakeha: An Encounter With New Zealand and the Maori Renaissance," was the first to examine the non-Maori ingredients of New Zealand society and culture. It also included what he called a "selective and ethnic autobiography" of his childhood. His professional life was recounted in the 1992 sequel, "Hidden Places: A Memoir in Journalism."

In the 1990s, King developed a reputation as a respected literary biographer for chronicling the lives of authors Frank Sargeson and Janet Frame. His final book, "The Penguin History of New Zealand,'' became a surprise best-seller.

A former president of the New Zealand Society of Authors, King was awarded an Order of the British Empire in 1988 for services to New Zealand literature. He received the first Prime Minister's Award for Literary Achievement for nonfiction in 2003. In December, King was named the New Zealand Herald's New Zealander of the Year. Before the accident that took his life, King was fighting cancer.

His wife, Maria Jungowska, was also killed when their car hit a tree and burst into flames south of Auckland. She was a respected book editor who specialized in New Zealand history, biographies and children's fiction and nonfiction.

• Watch a Tribute to Michael and Maria From ZB News