The Blog of Death

Terri Schiavo

Theresa Marie Schiavo, the woman at the center of a protracted legal battle in Florida, died on March 31, nearly two weeks after doctors removed her feeding tube. She was 41.

Born and raised in Pennsylvania, Schiavo moved to St. Petersburg, Fla., in the early 1980s and worked in an administrative capacity for an insurance company. Described by friends as happy, compassionate and quick to smile, Terri was 26 years old in 1990 when she suddenly collapsed. The cause of the collapse is still in debate, but her doctors credit a cardiac arrest induced by a potassium imbalance. For the past 15 years, the severely brain-damaged woman has lived in hospital or hospice care, unable to speak or feed herself.

Her husband, Michael Schiavo, was named her legal guardian. On Terri's behalf, he filed a malpractice lawsuit and won $300,000 for his loss of consortium. Terri was awarded $700,000, which was placed in a medical trust fund to be used for her care, at her husband's discretion.

Since 1998, Michael Schiavo has dated another woman and fathered two children. He became estranged from Terri's family for repeatedly petitioning the courts to have Terri's feeding tube removed. Michael Schiavo claims Terri once told him that she would want to be taken off life support if she was unable to communicate her own decisions on life sustaining or life support procedures. Terri left no living will, stating her end-of-life preferences.

Her parents, Mary and Bob Schindler, have continuously fought Michael Schiavo in court, and demanded her feeding tube be reinserted. Medical experts hired by the Schindlers dispute that Terri is in a "persistent vegetative state," and thus deserves nourishment and physical therapy.

In 2002, Judge George W. Greer of Pinellas-Pasco Circuit Court in Florida ruled that Terri had no hope of recovery, and ordered her feeding tube removed. The Schindlers appealed and managed to hold off the procedure until Oct. 14, 2003. That day, a Florida appeals court refused to block the removal of Terri's feeding tube and her doctors completed the procedure. A week later, the Florida Legislature passed a bill that allowed Florida Gov. Jeb Bush to intervene on her behalf. "Terri's Law" dismissed the court's ruling and ordered the feeding tube be reinserted. Her doctors complied with the state's request.

Last September, Florida's Supreme Court declared "Terri's Law" to be an unconstitutional encroachment on the judiciary. The case was then sent back to Judge Greer, who again ruled in Michael Schiavo's favor and ordered the removal of Terri's feeding tube. The procedure was delayed pending appeal.

In recent months, the Schiavo case transformed from a private family matter to a national controversy. Protesters, carrying crosses and candles, camped out in front of the hospice where Terri stayed. Many brought their children to the demonstrations as well. Politicians and pundits made appearances on TV news shows to discuss right-to-life issues, the nature of "family" and the spiritual ramifications of starvation. An Illinois man was even arrested for allegedly robbing a gun store in Seminole, Fla., as part of a plan to "rescue Terri Schiavo."

The U.S. Supreme Court rejected a request to consider arguments in the case, and Terri's feeding tube was removed on March 18. Amidst protests and continuing media coverage, the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives responded on March 21 by passing the "Compromise Bill," which ordered the case to be reviewed by a federal court. That same night, President George W. Bush interrupted his vacation in Crawford, Texas, to return to the White House and sign the bill into law.

After reviewing the case, U.S. District Judge James Whittemore ruled that Terri's "life and liberty interests" had been protected by Florida courts and denied the Schindlers' request to reinsert her feeding tube. In a 2-1 vote, the 11th Circuit Court agreed with Judge Whittemore's decision.

On March 24, the U.S. Supreme Court denied the Schindlers' application for a stay of enforcement of the Florida judgment. In response, Gov. Bush threatened to send state agents to the hospice and force the reinsertion of Terri's feeding tube. Judge Greer then issued an emergency order barring the state from "taking possession of Theresa Marie Schiavo." Subsequent requests to the federal appeals court and the U.S. Supreme Court failed to overrule the lower courts' decisions.

After 13 days without food or water, Terri Schiavo died.

• Timeline of the Schiavo Case

Paul Hester

Paul Newell Hester, the former drummer of the pop/rock band Crowded House, committed suicide on March 26. He was 46.

The Melbourne native was born to Mulga Mike Hester, a legendary bushman, and Ann Hester, a jazz drummer who taught him how to play percussion instruments at an early age. Hester's passion for music overrode any interest in education, and he dropped out of school to pursue a career in show business.

Hester joined the New Zealand New Wave group Split Enz in 1983. Although the band dissolved less than a year later, Hester and the group's singer/songwriter Neil Finn soon hooked up with bass player Nick Seymour and guitarist/keyboardist Craig Hooper to form the Mullanes. When Hooper left the band in 1985, the trio moved to Los Angeles, signed a record contract with Capitol Records and changed the band's name to Crowded House.

One of Australia's most successful bands of the late 1980s and early 1990s, Crowded House found international fame with the hits "Don't Dream It's Over" and "Something So Strong." Hester quit the band in 1994, citing declining motivation and the pressures of a grueling tour schedule. The band released four studio albums before breaking up in 1996.

In recent years, Hester played with several bands, including Rose Amongst Thorns, the Chris Bailey Combo, Ultrasound, Largest Living Things and Tarmac Adam. He hosted The Music Max Sessions, a series of intimate concerts featuring top-shelf music acts, for Australia's cable music channel Music Max, and enjoyed a recurring role as Chef Paul on the children's TV show, "The Wiggles." Two weeks ago, he appeared on the SBS music quiz show, "RockWiz."

Hester took his two dogs for a walk on Friday and hanged himself from a tree in Elsternwick Park near his home in Melbourne. His body was found the next day. Hester is survived by his two daughters, aged eight and 10.

Download MP3s by Crowded House

Wanda Alston

Wanda Renita Alston, the director of the Washington, D.C. Mayor's Office of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) Affairs, was murdered in her home on March 16. She was 45.

Born in Newport News, Va., Alston earned a bachelor's degree in mass communications from Norfolk State University in Virginia and a master's degree in international management from Southeastern University in Washington, D.C. She overcame an addiction to cocaine and dedicated herself to becoming a feminist and a leader in the LGBT community.

In the early 1990s, Alston served as the executive assistant to Patricia Ireland, the former president of the National Organization for Women (NOW), and acted as the staff liaison to Rev. Jesse Jackson's National Rainbow Coalition. As NOW's special projects director, Alston helped organize four national marches on Washington and a Fight the Right March in San Francisco. In 1995, she lead a NOW delegation to the World Conference on Women in Beijing, China.

Alston then worked with the Office of Human Rights and the Department of Employment Services. She helped establish sensitivity training for all government agencies and encouraged family court judges in the District of Columbia to create a mentoring program for children in foster care who self-identified as LGBT. Alston received numerous community service awards for her efforts, including the 1994 Welmore Cook Award from Black Pride, Inc., the 1995 National Welfare Rights Union community award, the 1995 D.C. Coalition of Black Lesbians, Gay Men and Bisexuals community service award and the 2004 Trust Servant Award from the Transgender Health Empowerment organization. In 1997, she established her own political consulting firm, Alston Consulting Services, Inc.

From 2001 to 2004, Alston served as a special assistant to D.C. Mayor Anthony Williams on LGBT issues. Last September, the passionate advocate was appointed director of the newly formed Office of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Affairs. Her goal in the Cabinet-level position: "To ensure that the district's lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender residents are fully integrated into the city's civil and economic life." In an effort to bridge the diversity gap in queer political culture, Alston recently organized the first citywide LGBT summit, which will be held on April 30.

"Wanda Alston's contributions to the people of this city were beyond measure. She was a passionate, energetic woman who often spoke for those who were not able to speak for themselves and who cared for those who could not care for themselves. She was someone to admire; she was someone to learn from; and she was someone we loved. This is a huge loss for me personally, but beyond that, this is a huge loss for our city. My heart is broken," Mayor Williams stated on his Website.

Alston was stabbed to death, allegedly by a neighbor who knocked on her door looking for money to buy crack. William Martin Parrott Jr., 38, was arrested less than 24 hours after Alston's girlfriend, Stacey Long, found her body. Parrott has been charged with first-degree murder.

[Update - July 30, 2005: William Parrot, 38, has pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in the stabbing death of gay activist Wanda Alston. On July 29, D.C. Superior Court Judge Judith E. Retchin sentenced him to 24 years in prison, the maximum term under sentencing guidelines.]

Clemente Dominguez

Clemente Dominguez y Gómez, an insurance accountant who declared himself the true leader of the Catholic Church, recently died. The exact date and cause of his death were not released. He was 59.

In 1968, four girls claimed they saw visions of the Virgin Mary on a bush in the southern Spanish town of El Palmar de Troya. Hundreds of pilgrims, including Dominguez, traveled to the village to see this miracle. Within a month, however, Dominguez claimed he had visions of the Virgin Mary, as well as conversations with her. He also said he experienced spontaneous bleeding from his hands, a condition known as stigmata which signifies the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. The combination of these wounds and his charming personality turned Dominguez into a cult figure.

Dominguez was ordained as a priest by a renegade archbishop in 1975, and founded his own religious sect known as the Order of the Last Times (The Carmelites of the Holy Face). Based out of a walled, cathedral-like complex in Seville, Spain, the order's adherents dress as nuns and priests and believe the Vatican is controlled by the Devil. A few months after forming the order, a car accident blinded Dominguez, but the injury didn't halt his religious aspirations.

Dominguez then took on the name Father Ferdinand and elevated himself to the rank of bishop. For such hubris, the Roman Catholic Church excommunicated him and his entire congregation.

When Pope Paul VI died in 1978, Dominguez proclaimed himself Pope Gregory XVII and named El Palmar de Troya as the new papal seat. During the course of his two-decade rule of the secretive sect, Dominguez traveled the world as a missionary and conducted his religious rituals in Latin. He also canonized Spanish dictator Francisco Franco and excommunicated the Spanish royal family.

Paul Henning

Paul Henning, the screenwriter who created "The Beverly Hillbillies" and "Petticoat Junction," died on March 25 of natural causes. He was 93.

The Missouri native was the youngest of 10 children. Born on a farm and raised in Independence, he was working at the local drugstore when a county official named Harry S. Truman advised him to seek a career as a lawyer. Truman later became president of the United States.

Henning graduated from Kansas City School of Law, but decided against working in the legal field. Instead, he took a job at KMBC radio in Kansas City and became a radio writer. Henning contributed to several programs, including "Fibber McGee and Molly" and "The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show." He then moved to Hollywood, landed an agent and began working in the new medium of television. From 1955 to 1961, Henning wrote and/or produced episodes of "The Bob Cummings Show," "Love That Bob," "The Real McCoys," "Ford Startime" and "The Andy Griffith Show."

Henning's first original program, "The Beverly Hillbillies," debuted on CBS in 1962. The series, which starred Buddy Ebsen as a poor mountaineer who strikes it rich and moves his eccentric family to California, was based on Henning's encounters with people he had met in the Ozarks as a child. Henning penned the words and music to "The Ballad of Jed Clampett," the theme song to the show, as well. "The Beverly Hillbillies" shot to No. 1 within three weeks of its debut; the comedy continued to reside in the top 20 until its cancellation in 1971. A feature film adaptation was produced two decades later.

Henning later created the "Hillbillies" spin-off, "Petticoat Junction," and helped cast and produce the rural comedy, "Green Acres." He also co-wrote the Oscar-nominated screenplay, "Lover Come Back," (1961) with Stanley Shapiro.

Download "The Ballad of Jed Clampett"

John DeLorean

John Zachary DeLorean, an engineer and entrepreneur who developed several cars for top automakers before branching off on his own, died on March 19 of complications from a stroke. He was 80.

DeLorean was the eldest son of a Ford Motor Company foundry worker. The Detroit native attended the Lawrence Institute of Technology on a music scholarship, served three years in the U.S. Army during World War II and earned a master's degree in automotive engineering from the Chrysler Institute. He worked for the Chrysler Corporation until 1952, then was named head of research and development at Packard.

In the 1960s, DeLorean developed the Catalina and Bonneville for General Motors' Pontiac division. He encouraged the automaker to offer smaller, sleeker models and helped produce the Tempest, Pontiac's first compact car. DeLorean also premiered the Pontiac GTO, a souped-up hotrod with a V-8 engine, and marketed it to young, affluent men. Dubbed "The Goat," it was widely acknowledged as one of the first "muscle cars."

Although DeLorean's success at GM seemed virtually guaranteed to take him into the higher echelons of the company, he resigned in 1973 to launch the DeLorean Motor Car Co. in Northern Ireland. In the hopes of generating 2,000 new jobs, the British government sank $120 million into the $200 million project. Eight years later, DeLorean's unpainted, stainless steel sports car hit the streets. The gull-winged DeLorean DMC-12 became a household name after it was featured as a time travel machine in the "Back to the Future" films, but poor reviews and quality control issues kept consumers from buying the vehicle.

At the same time, DeLorean faced serious legal troubles. In 1982, he was arrested in Los Angeles and accused of conspiring to sell 55 pounds of cocaine -- worth $24 million -- to salvage his business. DeLorean claimed he was the victim of entrapment and fought the charges in court. Despite the existence of a videotape on which he accepted the delivery of a suitcase full of cocaine, DeLorean was acquitted by a jury in 1984. His company eventually collapsed after producing less than 9,000 cars. DeLorean was cleared of defrauding the company's investors, as well, yet his legal entanglements forced him to declare bankruptcy in 1999.

During his hey day, DeLorean was known for his playboy lifestyle and flamboyant personality. A workaholic, he reportedly slept for only four hours a night. After his arrest, DeLorean settled down and became a born-again Christian. The former automobile industrialist lived his final years on social security and occasional consulting fees. To honor the automaker, 25 owners of DeLoreans parked their cars in front of the Royal Oak, Mich., funeral home where his memorial service was held.

Mark Devlin

Mark D. Devlin, a homeless man who published a critically acclaimed memoir, died on March 10. Cause of death was not released. He was 56.

The Boston native was frequently beaten by his alcoholic father. At 7, Devlin was deemed a ''stubborn child," and locked up. Under an archaic state law, a stubborn child was defined as one who "stubbornly refused to submit to the lawful and reasonable commands of a parent or guardian."

Original provisions allowed the court to whip or incarcerate disobedient children. But during the 19th century and most of the 20th century, the stubborn-child law in Massachusetts was used to remove troubled and abused children from their homes. Placed in reformatories and detention centers, these children were then subjected to strict discipline, verbal and physical abuse, a prisonlike regimentation, little or no health care and minimal educational opportunities.

Devlin spent the rest of his childhood in state institutions. He later told the press that growing up in the juvenile justice system turned him into a criminal.

As a young adult, Devlin fell in love with a former girlfriend of one of his cell-block mates. They decided to move to a different state and start a new life together, but en route, Devlin was arrested for driving a stolen Porsche across state lines. He spent three years in a federal reformatory in Petersburg, Va., then married his girlfriend while on parole. Their first child, a son, was placed up for adoption; their second child, a daughter, was raised in several foster homes before being adopted by Devlin's sister. The couple later divorced.

Unable to find a job and ill prepared to function in society, this self-described "road scholar" decided to become a writer. While living on the streets, Devlin's worldly possessions consisted of a bag filled with clothes, a dictionary, a thesaurus, pencils and a few reams of paper. His first publishing success was a letter to the editor of the Real Paper. The editor was so impressed that he published Devlin's letter as an article in the now-defunct alternative weekly.

When Devlin's dark memoir, ''Stubborn Child," was published in 1985, it received national attention. He kept in touch with his publisher using public telephones and gave interviews from park benches. Two years later, the movie rights were sold to director William Friedkin for $10,000, but the film was never produced.

For the next three decades, Devlin slept in homeless shelters and wandered the streets of Boston and Cambridge. He suffered from numerous health problems, including bipolar disorder, diabetes and heart disease, and occasionally sought alcohol rehabilitation. His body was found in a motel room in Braintree, Mass.

Danny Joe Brown

Danny Joe Brown, the original lead singer of the Southern rock band Molly Hatchet, died on March 10 of renal failure and pneumonia. He was 53.

The Jacksonville, Fla., native graduated from high school, spent two years in the U.S. Coast Guard then made a living as an insurance salesman. His passion, however, was music and in 1974, he joined Molly Hatchet, a hard-rockin' six-piece band that was named after a 17th century prostitute who allegedly beheaded and mutilated her clients.

Brown served as the frontman and lone vocalist for the group, and lent his deep, gravelly voice to the songs "Dreams I'll Never See" and "Gator Country." Molly Hatchet's self-titled debut went platinum in 1978. A year later, the band released its sophomore effort, "Flirtin' With Disaster," which sold over 2 million copies.

Citing diabetes and exhaustion from constant touring and partying, Brown left the band in 1980. He created a short-lived side project -- The Danny Joe Brown Band -- before rejoining Molly Hatchet in 1982 to record the albums "No Guts...No Glory" and "The Deed Is Done."

Molly Hatchet disbanded several times in the 1980s, but reunited for a reunion tour in 1996. When Brown's diabetes worsened, vocalist Phil McCormack replaced him. His musical career ended in 1998 after he suffered a debilitating stroke.

Download MP3s by Molly Hatchet

Jerry Lippman

Jerome Lippman, the inventor of heavy-duty, waterless hand soap, died on March 2. Cause of death was not released. He was 92.

The son of Eastern European immigrants, Lippman was just a teenager when he began running his own laundry business. The Buffalo, N.Y., native dropped out of high school in the 11th grade then moved to Akron, Ohio. During World War II, Lippman and his first wife, Goldie, worked in area factories -- he at the Goodyear Aircraft plant and she at the Miller Tire Co.

The work was repetitious and dirty. Although Lippman didn't mind so much, Goldie disliked coming home covered in sticky black carbon. At the time, only borax or benzene could remove the grime and both cleansers were rough on her skin. So Lippman joined forces with Kent State University chemistry professor Clarence Cook to develop a strong, grease-cutting soap that could be used with or without water.

The cleanser was such a hit that Lippman was able to quit his factory job and open his own company, GOJO Industries Inc. Soon he was spending his nights making the heavy-duty hand cleaner and his days selling the product from the back of his car. When local garage and factory owners complained about the costs of the soap, he invented a portion-controlled dispenser for their employees to use.

Over the next half century, GOJO Industries became a leader in the heavy-duty hand cleaner market. Today the company employs hundreds of workers and sells a wide range of skin care products -- including the successful Purell hand sanitizer -- to automotive, food service and healthcare facilities all around the world. In 1996, Lippman received the American Eagle Award from the American Supply and Machinery Manufacturers Association for outstanding entrepreneurial leadership.

Lippman was also a dedicated philanthropist who supported charities for the poor and victims of violence. He had a keen interest in helping children obtain an education, and put up the first $1,000 for what became known as the Jerome Lippman Jewish Community Day School. In recent years, his company established a scholarship in his honor for nontraditional students pursuing a degree at Summit College in Akron.

Art Tokle

Arthur Emil Tokle Sr., an Olympic ski jumper and coach, died on March 3. Cause of death was not released. He was 82.

The Norwegian-born ski jumper donned his first pair of skis when he was only 3 years old. He won his first national championship as a teenager and served in the Kings Guard before immigrating to America in 1947.

A U.S. jumping champion in 1951 and 1953, Tokle competed at the 1952 Olympic Games in Oslo and placed 18th off the large hill. He carried the flag for the U.S. team at the 1958 world championships in Finland, and competed in Squaw Valley, Calif., with the 1960 Olympic team.

After retiring from competition, Tokle served as a U.S. Olympic coach for the 1964 Innsbruck and 1968 Grenoble Winter Games. At the 1980 Winter Games in Lake Placid, N.Y., Tokle was a technical director of the U.S. team.

Tokle died 60 years to the day after his brother, ski jumping champion Torger Tokle, was killed in action while serving with the U.S. Army's 10th Mountain Division in Italy. Torger was inducted to the U.S. Ski Hall of Fame in 1959. Arthur earned his own spot in the Hall of Fame in 1970 and co-authored "The Complete Guide to Cross Country Skiing and Touring" with Martin Luray. He took his last trip down the slopes at 80.

Tokle is survived by Oddfrid, his wife of 56 years, his daughter Vivian Lynch and his son, longtime jumper and ski official Art Tokle Jr.

Brandenn E. Bremmer

Brandenn E. Bremmer, a 14-year-old musical prodigy from Nebraska, sustained a gunshot wound to the head on March 15. The boy died the following day at Children's Hospital in Denver. Authorities suspect he committed suicide.

Bremmer taught himself to read when he was 18 months old. He began playing the piano at 3 and was home-schooled from kindergarten on. At 10, Bremmer became the youngest person to graduate through the Independent Study High School conducted by the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Described by friends and family as a bright young man who smiled often, Bremmer dressed up like Harry Potter -- one of his favorite literary characters -- for his graduation picture.

Bremmer was only 11 when he began studying piano improvisation at Colorado State University at Fort Collins, Colo. Last year, he released his debut album, "Elements," and gave concerts in Colorado and Nebraska. The day his body was found, Bremmer had just completed the artwork for the cover of his second CD, which features meditative, New Age piano music.

Like most kids, he loved watching cartoons, playing video games, riding his bike and catching fish. In January, Bremmer enrolled in a biology class at Mid-Plains Community College in North Platte, Neb. He planned to graduate from the University of Nebraska's medical school by the time he was 21 and become an anesthesiologist.

His mother, mystery writer Patricia Bremmer, said he showed no signs of depression and didn't leave a suicide note. Bremmer's kidneys were donated to two people. His liver went to a 22-month-old and his heart to an 11-year-old boy.

Chris LeDoux

Chris LeDoux, a world champion bareback rider and country music star, died on March 9 from complications of liver cancer. He was 56.

The son of an Air Force major, LeDoux lived in France, New York, Texas and Pennsylvania before moving to Cheyenne, Wyo. He developed an interest in rodeo in his teens and was soon roping calves and riding bulls, saddle broncs and bareback broncs. In high school, LeDoux twice won the state title for bareback riding. He received a rodeo scholarship after graduation and won the national title in his third year of competition. In 1976, LeDoux was named the world bareback champion by the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association.

LeDoux's other passion was music. He taught himself to play the guitar and harmonica, and used his talents to pay his way from one rodeo to another. The singer/songwriter once described his music as a "combination of western soul, sagebrush blues, cowboy folk and rodeo rock 'n' roll." Each song he performed offered an autobiographical look at life on the rodeo circuit, the experiences of modern cowboys and the love he felt for his family.

LeDoux independently released 22 albums -- mostly cassettes he sold at concerts and rodeos from the back of his pick-up truck. But his music found a wider audience in 1989 when Garth Brooks mentioned his name in the hit song, "Much Too Young (To Be This Damn Old)."

LeDoux signed a recording contract with Capitol Records Nashville in 1990. Two years later, he and Brooks joined forces on the song "Whatcha Gonna Do With a Cowboy," which became a top 10 hit and was nominated for a Grammy Award. LeDoux sold more than 6 million albums during his singing career. He was best known for the songs "Hooked on an 8 Second Ride," "Copenhagen," "This Cowboy's Hat," "Even Cowboys Like a Little Rock and Roll," "Riding for a Fall" and "Honky Tonk World."

LeDoux was inducted into the Cheyenne Frontier Days Hall of Fame in 2003. His life was chronicled in the biography, "Gold Buckle Dreams - The Rodeo Life of Chris LeDoux," by David G. Brown. A week after his death, Wyoming Gov. Dave Freudenthal declared July 30, 2005 as "Chris LeDoux Day."

• Listen to an Interview With "Saturday Night Country"

Download MP3s by LeDoux

Andre Norton

Andre Norton, the grand dame of science fiction and fantasy, died on March 17 of congestive heart failure. She was 93.

Born Alice Mary Norton, she studied history at the Flora Stone Mather College of Western Reserve University. Norton left school during the Depression to help support her family, but later took night classes in journalism and writing at Cleveland College.

For the next 21 years, she worked as a librarian at the Nottingham Branch Library in Cleveland, Ohio, as a special librarian to the Library of Congress and as the owner of a small bookstore and lending library in Mount Ranier, Md. In 1934, Norton published her first fantasy novel, "The Prince Commands," and legally adopted a more masculine moniker to appeal to speculative fiction's typically male audience.

Over the next 70 years, the prolific author published more than 130 books, wrote nearly 100 short stories and edited numerous science fiction, fantasy, mystery and western anthologies. An old-fashioned storyteller, Norton was best known for her "Witch World" series, which details life on an imaginary planet that is reachable through metaphysical gateways. The 30-title series began in 1963 with a Hugo-nominated book of the same name and became a fixture on library and bookstore shelves.

Norton established The High Hallack Genre Writer's Research and Reference Library in Nashville, Tenn., in 1999. (High Hallack is the name of a country in the "Witch World" series.) Before closing in 2004, the library served as a retreat for authors looking to research ancient religions, weaponry, mythology and history.

In 1977, Norton became the first woman to receive the Grand Master of Fantasy Award from the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA). She won the Nebula Grand Master Award, the Fritz Leiber Award and the Jules Verne Award, and was inducted into the Ohio Women Hall of Fame and the Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame. The SFWA recently named an award in her honor; it will be presented in 2006 and recognize outstanding science fiction and fantasy novels written for young adults.

Her latest novel, "Three Hands of Scorpio," is scheduled for publication next month. Knowing she was very ill, her publisher, Tor Books, rushed an advance copy to her last week. Norton has requested that she be cremated with a copy of her first and last books.

• Bibliography

Jack Muller

Jack Muller, a retired Chicago police officer who was once known for his uncompromising law-and-order attitude, died on March 11 of kidney failure. He was 81.

Born to Hungarian and Polish immigrants, Muller played football and studied law at the University of Michigan. He dropped out of school to enlist in the U.S. Navy and spent World War II serving in the Pacific theatre aboard the USS Sheldrake as a minesweeping specialist.

Upon his return to the states, Muller joined the Chicago Police Department. As a rookie cop, he was shot in the head during a shootout. The bullet deflected off the police shield on his hat and lodged in his skull, where it remained for the rest of his life.

In the 1950s and 1960s, Muller developed a reputation for his ticketing practices. He patrolled Rush Street on a three-wheel motorcycle and strictly enforced all traffic laws. Fame, fortune and status didn't matter. If a citizen broke the law, Muller was there to write him up.

"He wrote lots of tickets," his son Kurt Muller said.

The newspapers loved to write about the honest cop, particularly when he issued tickets to Mayor Richard J. Daley, Cubs broadcaster Jack Brickhouse and mobsters Tony Accardo and Sam Giancanna. When Chicago Sun-Times gossip columnist Irv Kupcinet's car was illegally parked in front of the Esquire Theatre, Muller had it towed. Even actor Jack Webb couldn't avoid Muller's determined pen. While Webb played straight-laced Sgt. Joe Friday on the TV show "Dragnet," Muller ticketed him for being drunk and disorderly.

But Muller's actions didn't sit well with the higher-ups back at headquarters. For doing his job and being a good cop, he was demoted to the cemetery beat. Then, to save face, the city made him a detective. Detectives, after all, don't write tickets. Unable to turn a blind eye to lawbreakers, however, Muller continued his efforts to rid the city of crime.

In the early 1970s, Muller worked a number of cases involving the theft of high-end tires. His investigation led to the arrest of several high-ranking police officials. For speaking out about the case on the local news, he received a written reprimand from police administrators. Muller fought the disciplinary action all the way to the U.S. Court of Appeals, and won. The reprimand was eventually expunged from his record.

After nearly four decades on the force, Muller retired in 1981. He moved to Benedict Lake, Wis., took up fishing, wrote his autobiography ("I, Pig: Or, How the World's Most Famous Cop, Me, Is Fighting City Hall") and won $1.6 million in the lottery. He was also the subject of the biography, "Cycle Cop: The True Story of Jack Muller, the Chicago Giant-Killer Who Feared No Evil," by Paul G. Neimark.

Rod Roach

Rodney William Roach, a champion banjo player known as "the gentle giant," died on Feb. 23 of brain cancer. He was 63.

Roach was just a boy when he took up the ukulele and the guitar. He continued to experiment with string instruments, teaching himself to play the mandolin, fiddle and dobro. After hearing bluegrass legends Flatt and Scruggs play the five-string banjo, however, Roach made the instrument his own.

The 6-foot-7 musician attended Middlebury College in Vermont and played with numerous bluegrass bands, including the Otter Creek Ramblers, Apple Country, Tasty Licks, Stoney Lonesome and Eel River Bog Trotters. He was named the New England 5-String Banjo Champion in 1971 and 1972.

Roach made a living as a senior insurance claims adjuster for Encompass Insurance in Quincy, Mass., but his passion for music never waned. In recent years, he taught banjo workshops and performed with The Back Eddy Bluegrass Band. A prolific songwriter, Roach was best known for writing a song to commemorate Massachusetts' observance of the U.S. bicentennial in 1976.

Teresa Wright

Teresa Wright, an Academy Award-winning actress who eschewed the glamorous trappings of celebrity, died on March 6 of a heart attack. She was 86.

Born Muriel Teresa Wright, the native New Yorker decided to become an actress after seeing Helen Hayes in the play "Victoria Regina." At 19, she apprenticed at the Wharf Theatre in Provincetown, Mass., and served as the understudy to Martha Scott in the 1938 Broadway production of "Our Town." A year later, Wright dropped her first name and originated the role of Mary Skinner in the long-running Broadway comedy, "Life With Father."

Producer Samuel Goldwyn was so impressed with Wright's performance that he signed her to a $5,000-a-week contract. She soon made her mark in Hollywood as the only actor to earn Academy Award nominations for her first three films: "The Little Foxes" (in which she played Bette Davis' daughter), "The Pride of the Yankees" (as Lou Gehrig's wife) and the wartime saga "Mrs. Miniver." She won the Oscar for "Mrs. Miniver," which also starred Greer Garson.

The independent actress preferred to showcase her talents rather than her beauty. She refused to take cheesecake photos or sit for press interviews with gossip magazines in order to promote her films. Frustrated by the starlet's demands, Goldwyn fired her in 1948 for being "uncooperative." Over the next decade, Wright made more than a dozen movies -- but received much less money for her work. Her final film was the 1997 adaptation of the John Grisham novel, "The Rainmaker."

Wright returned to Broadway in 1957 to play Pat Hingle's wife in "The Dark at the Top of the Stairs." She later appeared in the 1968 production "I Never Sang for My Father," which was written by her second husband Robert Anderson, the 1975 revival of Arthur Miller's "Death of a Salesman" and the 1980 revival of Paul Osborn's "Morning's at Seven." Her marriages to Anderson and screenwriter Niven Busch both ended in divorce.

On television, Wright received Emmy nominations for her portrayal of Annie Sullivan in "The Miracle Worker," as the famous photographer in "The Margaret Bourke-White Story" and for a guest appearance on the 1989 CBS series, "Dolphin Cove." She was inducted into the Theatre Hall of Fame in 1999, and has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, one for motion pictures at 1680 Vine St., and one for television at 6405 Hollywood Blvd.

George Atkinson

George William Atkinson, a businessman who opened the first video rental store, died on March 3 from complications of emphysema. He was 69.

Born in Shanghai to an English father and a Russian mother, Atkinson immigrated to America when he was 14 years old. During World War II, his family was forced to endure more than two years in a Japanese internment camp. Atkinson graduated with a degree in English literature from the University of California, Los Angeles in 1958, served two years in the U.S. Army, accepted bit parts in a couple of TV shows in the late-1960s then ran a small company renting Super 8 movies and projectors.

Convinced consumers would pay to rent tapes of feature films as well, Atkinson opened Video Station in 1977. At the time, VCRs cost $1,000. Yet after advertising his video rental concept in The Los Angeles Times, hundreds of people agreed to rent the videos he kept in stock.

That first storefront on Wilshire Boulevard in West Los Angeles offered an inventory of 50 movie titles in both Betamax and VHS versions. Atkinson charged $50 for an annual rental membership and $100 for a lifetime membership. Individual rentals cost $10 a day. Over the next two decades, more than 550 Video Station franchises opened in the United States and Canada.

Corporate scandal erupted in 1982 when Video Station Inc.'s board of directors issued a news release admitting the company had overstated profits by $1 million. Atkinson resigned the following year and pleaded guilty to filing false financial reports. He was sentenced to three months in a community treatment center, five years of probation and 2,000 hours of community service. His brother, Edward, who was also an executive with the company, was convicted of perjury and securities fraud and sentenced to five years in prison.

In 1991, Atkinson was inducted into the Video Hall of Fame.

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Jeanette Schmid

Jeanette Schmid shall never purse her lips again.

Austria's last professional whistler, Schmid was better known by her stage name: Baroness Lips von Lipstrill. Born a man in Czechoslovakia, Schmid underwent a sex change in Egypt in 1964.

She went into show business after landing a job dancing for the shah of Iran. When her costume was deemed too skimpy, Schmid changed into a more conservative outfit and entertained the monarch by whistling a polka by Johann Strauss Jr.

Schmid whistled professionally for the next four decades and shared the stage with the likes of Frank Sinatra, Marlene Dietrich and Edith Piaf. In recent years, she performed on television and worked the circus and cruise line circuits, entertaining audiences by hitting the high C note.

Schmid died of the flu at the age of 80. The exact day of her death was not released.

Zdzislaw Beksinski

Zdzislaw Beksinski, a Polish artist who created dark and haunting images, was murdered on Feb. 22. He was 75.

Beksinski's body, which sustained multiple stab wounds, was found inside his Warsaw flat. Three days later, police charged two teenagers with the slaying. One suspect, the son of Beksinski's friend and aide, confessed to killing the painter.

Born in Sanok, Poland, Beksinski studied architecture at the Cracow University of Technology. He soon developed a passion for artistic pursuits, such as painting, sculpting, photography and drawing. Working to the strains of classical music, Beksinski created intricately detailed pieces of surreal art. In the 1970s and 1980s, he became popular in fantasy art circles for his nightmarish paintings of cemeteries, alien creatures and apocalyptic scenes.

Although he was often compared to Ernst Fuchs, the Austrian founder of a fantastic-realism school, and Swiss artist H.R. Giger, Beksinski was a contemporary master in his own right. Exhibitions of his always-untitled work appeared in the United States, Europe and Japan, and collectors paid thousands for a single canvas. His book, "The Fantastic Art of Beksinski," was published in 1998.

Prior to moving to Warsaw in 1977, Beksinski burned several of his paintings because they failed to meet his exacting standards or were "too personal." His wife, Zofia, died in 1998. A year later, on Christmas Eve, his son Tomasz committed suicide.

[Update - Nov. 9, 2006: A Warsaw court convicted a man of killing Polish surrealist painter Zdzislaw Beksinski, and sentenced him to 25 years in prison. The defendant, who was identified under Polish privacy laws only as 20-year-old Robert K., was the son of a longtime aide and friend. Robert K.'s teenage cousin, identified as Lukasz K., was convicted of being an accessory to the crime, and sentenced to five years in prison.]

Debra Hill

Debra Hill, a producer and screenwriter who wrote the classic horror film "Halloween," died on March 7 of cancer. She was 54.

Born in Haddonfield, N.J., and raised in Philadelphia, Hill moved to Hollywood in the early 1970s and broke into showbiz as a production assistant on adventure documentaries. After stints as a script supervisor, assistant editor, assistant director and second-unit director, her big break came in 1979 when she and director John Carpenter joined forces to write "Halloween," one of the first slasher films to become a box office hit. The movie, which Hill produced, grossed $60 million worldwide -- a record for an independent picture at that time -- and spawned numerous sequels. She and Carpenter also worked together on the films "Escape From New York" and "The Fog."

"Back when I started in 1974, there were very few women in the industry, and everybody called me 'honey.' I was assumed to be the makeup and hair person or the script person. I was never assumed to be the writer or producer. I took a look around and realized there weren't many women so I had to carve a niche for myself," Hill once said.

In 1986, Hill and producer Lynda Obst formed Hill/Obst Productions, an independent production company that produced the films "Adventures in Babysitting," "Heartbreak Hotel" and "The Fisher King." Two years later, Hill signed a contract with Disney to produce "Gross Anatomy," and several short films for the company's theme parks starring Warren Beatty, Bette Midler, Goldie Hawn, Pee Wee Herman, Mel Gibson, George Lucas, Alan Alda, David Letterman, Rick Moranis and Mel Brooks.

A co-chairman of the PGAwards and the past chairman of the American Film Institute's producing school, Hill received the Women in Film Crystal Award in 2003. One of her final projects was an upcoming film about the Sept. 11th terrorist attacks.

Isabelle Goldenson

Isabelle Goldenson, a co-founder of United Cerebral Palsy, died on Feb. 21 of natural causes. She was 84.

Born Isabelle Charlotte Weinstein, Goldenson attended Barnard College, Columbia University and the Union Theological Seminary. A native New Yorker, she and her husband, ABC chairman Leonard H. Goldenson, had three children. When their eldest daughter Genise was born with cerebral palsy in 1943, the Goldensons joined forces with another couple, Jack and Ethel Hausman, to create a support system for families affected by the developmental disorder. The Goldensons and the Hausmans purchased an ad in The New York Herald Tribune to locate other parents of children suffering from the disease. Hundreds of people responded.

United Cerebral Palsy launched in 1949. More than 50 years later, it is one of the largest health charities in the United States. The organization serves 30,000 people daily and advocates for the 54 million Americans with disabilities.

Isabelle Goldenson also established the National Institute of Neurological Diseases and Stroke and the United Cerebral Palsy Research and Education Foundation. She recruited Dr. Sidney Farber and 14 medical scientists to study and devise methods of preventing cerebral palsy in children. The team eventually discovered a vaccine for German measles and developed fetal heart monitors and light treatments for babies born with jaundice.

In 1971, Goldenson met with officials from NASA, the National Institute of Health and the Veterans Administration. She encouraged them to come up with practical applications of space technology to assist people with disabilities. In response, NASA engineers developed a lightweight wheelchair, medical monitoring equipment, remote control limbs, multi-directional conveyances to help the disabled climb stairs and sensory devices for the blind.

In recent years, the Goldensons lobbied government officials for wheelchair access to sidewalks and restrooms, and donated $60 million to Harvard Medical School to underwrite research on neurological diseases. Genise Goldenson died at the age of 29 in 1973. Leonard Goldenson died in 1999. Isabelle Goldenson is survived by her two daughters, Loreen Arbus and Maxine Goldenson, and her grandson.

Rev. Walter H. Halloran

Rev. Walter H. Halloran, the last surviving Jesuit participant of an exorcism that inspired a bestselling book and numerous films, died on March 1. Cause of death was not released. He was 83.

In 1949, the 27-year-old Minnesota native was working on his master's degree in history at St. Louis University when he was summoned to the psychiatric wing of Alexian Brothers Hospital. There he met with Rev. William S. Bowdern and Rev. William Van Roo, two priests who needed his religious support and strong arms to exorcise a demonic presence from a 14-year-old boy.

The boy came from a Lutheran family in Cottage City, Md. Witnesses said the boy became extraordinarily strong after an experience with a ouija board, and spoke in a voice not his own. His body would twist and form a loop, with his heels touching the back of his head. At night, furnishings in his room allegedly levitated off the ground and moved across the room without any visible assistance. His bed also shook violently and the sounds of footsteps and scratchings emanated from the walls and ceilings of his house.

Unable to stop these occurrences or control the boy's behavior, his parents brought him to St. Louis for a religious intervention. The boy underwent extensive medical and psychological evaluations as well as an examination from Bowdern, who determined the boy was possessed. Over the next 12 weeks, several priests endeavored to save his soul.

Bowdern performed the rites of exorcism as Roo and Halloran prayed and forcibly restrained the boy. Halloran later told the press that he observed the boy shout obscenities during these ministrations, and spit at people four feet away with unerring accuracy. He saw raised symbols and words appear on the boy's body in the form of painful, red welts. During one particularly violent seizure, the boy even broke Halloran's nose.

The exorcism was successful, however, and the boy reportedly went on to lead a normal life.

A three-paragraph article about the incident published in The Washington Post served as the inspiration for William Peter Blatty's 1971 bestselling horror novel, "The Exorcist." Blatty's fictionalized version of events, which featured a girl possessed by the Devil, was adapted two years later into a hit film starring Linda Blair. The movie received 10 Oscar nominations and won for best adapted screenplay and best sound. Hollywood also produced several sequels and one prequel.

After the exorcism, Halloran worked for parishes in Minnesota, California and Wisconsin, and taught history at Marquette University and St. Louis University. At 48, he enlisted in the U.S. Army for chaplain duty during the Vietnam War. The oldest paratrooping chaplain at that time, Halloran received two Bronze Stars for his service.

"I saw more evil in Vietnam than I saw in that hospital bed," Halloran once said.

Edward Patten

Edward Roy Patten, a member of the Grammy Award-winning R&B group Gladys Knight & The Pips, died on Feb. 25 from complications of a stroke. He was 65.

The Atlanta native had music in his soul. He grew up singing in his church and accompanying local doo-wop groups. In 1959, Patten's cousin, Gladys Knight, invited him to join her singing group. Together with her brother Merald "Bubba" Knight, and cousin William Guest, the extended family formed the R&B quartet known as The Pips. Their 1961 debut, "Every Beat of My Heart," hit #1 on the R&B chart and #6 on the pop chart. The following year, however, a small record company encouraged the group to give Gladys' name more prominence.

Gladys Knight & The Pips moved to Detroit in 1966 and became a staple of the Motown line-up. During the late 1960s and early 1970s, the group scored Top 40 hits with "Friendship Train," "It Should Have Been Me," "The End of Our Road," "If I Were Your Woman," "Neither One of Us" and the original version of "I Heard It Through the Grapevine." Patten sang bass and tenor for the group and choreographed many of its stylish dance routines.

In 1973, Gladys Knight & The Pips switched to Buddah Records and attained superstardom on pop and R&B radio stations with "Midnight Train to Georgia," "I've Got to Use My Imagination" and "Best Thing That Ever Happened to Me." The group continued performing into the 1980s and won four Grammy Awards before disbanding. Gladys Knight & The Pips were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1996.

In recent years, Patten co-founded Crew Records. He worked as a back-up vocalist to the label's recording artists until 1995 when a series of strokes robbed him of his ability to sing.

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Randy Caddell

Randall Lee Caddell lost the use of his legs in a 1987 motorcycle accident, but that didn't stop him from finishing the grueling Ironman Triathlon World Championship seven times.

Known as "The Animal," Caddell won in the handcycle division in 2001 and 2002. He competed in more than 30 triathlons all over the world before an arm injury forced him to drop out of a 2004 race. Caddell was also a top finisher in the wheelchair division of the Honolulu Marathon, the Kona Marathon, the Maui Marathon and the Big Sur Marathon.

Born in Lubbock, Texas, Caddell was only 19 years old when a motorcycle accident that was alcohol related left him permanently paralyzed. Depressed and unable to move, he remained in bed for nearly a year before deciding to make the most of his situation. After undergoing years of physical therapy, he began playing wheelchair basketball and competing in triathalons. He also took time out of his busy training schedule to speak to youth groups and schools about the dangers of drinking and driving.

On Feb. 25, Caddell was riding on his hand-powered racing bicycle/wheelchair hybrid on the Queen Kaahumanu Highway in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii, when a motorist attempting to make a left turn accidentally struck him with her minivan. He was not wearing a helmet, and died a few hours later in the hospital. Caddell is survived by his daughter, Jennifer Caddell, and his girlfriend, Carole Jean Bradburn.

Uli Derickson

Uli Derickson, the heroic Trans World Airlines flight attendant who negotiated with terrorist hijackers to save the lives of her passengers, died on Feb. 18 from cancer. She was 60.

Derickson was born Ulrike Patzelt in Aussig an der Elbe, Czechoslovakia, and raised in Bavaria. She worked as an au pair in Britain and Switzerland then immigrated to the United States in 1967 and became a flight attendant for TWA.

Derickson had been on the job for nearly 20 years when TWA Flight 847 was hijacked on June 14, 1985. While en route from Athens to Rome, two Lebanese terrorists took over the airplane and beat the pilot and the flight engineer. She was physically abused as well until one of them realized she could speak in German. At that point, she served as their translator and the passengers' guardian.

Although she was terrified, Derickson maintained her composure. During the 36-hour ordeal, which involved several stops in the Middle East, she managed to persuade the hijackers to release 17 elderly women and two children. Knowing the terrorists would hurt or kill any Jews, she hid the passports of people with Jewish-sounding names. And when the ground crew in Algiers refused to refuel the plane without compensation, Derickson charged $5,500 for 6,000 gallons of jet fuel to her Shell credit card.

Most of the passengers, including Derickson, were released from captivity in Algiers on June 17. However, 39 American remained on the plane for 17 more days until Israel agreed to release 31 Lebanese prisoners. Thanks to her quick thinking and ability to remain calm under extreme pressure, all but one of the 152 passengers and crew survived the hijacking. Robert Dean Stethem, a U.S. Navy diver, was beaten and shot to death by the terrorists. His body was dumped on the tarmac in Beirut. Two other U.S. servicemen -- Navy diver Clinton Suggs and reserve Army officer Kurt Carlson -- were also beaten.

In the years following the hijacking, Derickson received numerous death threats from extremist groups. Some threatened her for not doing enough to shield the Jewish passengers; others wished her harm because they felt she did too much to help them. She also testified in West Germany against Mohammed Ali Hamadi, one of the hijackers who murdered Stethem. He was convicted and received a life sentence.

Derickson continued to fly until her retirement in 2003, and was the first woman to receive the Silver Cross for Valor. Her harrowing experience was also recounted in the 1988 TV movie "The Taking of Flight 847: The Uli Derickson Story." Lindsay Wagner played Derickson in the film, which received five Emmy nominations.

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Jef Raskin

Jef Raskin, an author, educator and computer interface expert who was known as the "Father of the Macintosh," died on Feb. 26 of cancer. He was 61.

The New York native studied mathematics and philosophy at the State University of New York at Stony Brook and earned a master's degree in computer science at Pennsylvania State University. He enrolled in the graduate music program at the University of California at San Diego, then spent four years teaching art, photography and computer science there.

In 1978, Apple hired Raskin to run its publications department. At the time, computers were mostly used by scientists and academics, but Raskin believed the machines should make tasks easier for ordinary people to use. With this vision in mind, he assembled the initial development team that created the first Macintosh computer, which was named after Raskin's favorite variety of apple. He wrote the manual for the Apple II, pioneered the use of the word "font" and helped invent the "click and drag" method of manipulating icons on the screen.

But when the first Macintosh debuted in 1984, Raskin was no longer with the company. In fact, he'd quit two years earlier after his relationship with Apple co-founder Steve Jobs went sour.

Raskin later designed the Canon Cat, a small computer that used a text-based user interface, and published the landmark computer book, "The Humane Interface: New Directions for Designing Interactive Systems." He also wrote and/or edited for Forbes ASAP, Wired, Mac Home Journal, Pacifica Tribune and Model Airplane News. In recent years, Raskin worked on The Humane Environment, a revolutionary software system that incorporates open source elements with his own user interface concepts.

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Samuel Alderson

Samuel W. Alderson was no dummy. But he designed one that saved countless lives.

Born in Cleveland and raised in Southern California, Alderson graduated from high school at 15 and attended four colleges: Reed College, the California Institute of Technology, the University of California Berkeley, and Columbia University. His education was interrupted several times during the Depression when he would return home to help out in his father's sheet metal shop.

During World War II, Alderson improved missile guidance systems for the U.S. military and developed a special coating that helped enhance vision on submarine periscopes. He then formed Alderson Research Labs, a company that designed an anthropomorphic test device later known as the crash test dummy. Weighing approximately the same as humans, these mechanical surrogates were used by the military and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration to test ejection seats, parachutes and exposure to radiation.

The first crash test dummies for the automobile industry were cadavers. Since the bodies deteriorated quickly during repeat trials and had no uniformity in size or shape, automakers began seeking a new way to test its safety features. Alderson built the first automobile test dummy in 1960, but few took notice until five years later when former presidential candidate and consumer advocate Ralph Nader published the book, "Unsafe at Any Speed: The Designed-In Dangers of the American Automobile." In 1966, the National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act passed, which authorized the government to set and regulate safety standards for motor vehicles and highways.

Alderson's dummy, which was built specifically for automotive testing, resembled an average-sized adult man. It had a nearly featureless face, a steel rib cage, articulated joints and a flexible neck and lumbar spine. Instruments designed to collect data during crashes were implanted inside the dummy's head, chest and thighs.

In 1973, Alderson formed Humanoid Systems, another company that designed and produced test dummies. Humanoid Systems and Alderson Research Labs competed against each other until 1990, when they merged to form First Technology Safety Systems. Today, Alderson's original dummy has been improved and expanded into a high-tech family that includes women, children and infants.

Alderson died on Feb. 11 from complications of myelofibrosis and pneumonia. He was 90.

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Bubba

Bubba, a 22-pound lobster who survived the 660-mile trip from the coast of Massachusetts to Pennsylvania, died on March 2 at the Pittsburgh Zoo & PPG Aquarium. His exact age was unknown, but marine biologists estimate he was between 30 and 50 years old.

After avoiding fisherman his entire life, Bubba was finally caught in the waters off Nantucket, Mass. The huge crustacean spent a week on display at Wholey's Market in Pittsburgh, where he became a star attraction and media celebrity. The People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals sent a letter to the store's owner, and offered to release the lobster back into the Atlantic Ocean. In contrast, a group known as People Eating Tasty Animals requested the opportunity to purchase and eat him.

Bubba was transferred to the zoo earlier this week and placed in quarantine. Once a health exam was completed, the three-foot-long lobster was scheduled to become a permanent exhibit at the Ripley's Aquarium in Myrtle Beach, S.C. Although cause of death has not yet been determined, a zoo spokesperson said the stress of moving was a likely factor.

The largest lobster on record was caught off Nova Scotia in 1977 and weighed 44 pounds 6 ounces.

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Rachel Bissex

Rachel Bissex, an award-winning folk singer and songwriter, died on Feb. 20 from complications of breast cancer. She was 48.

Raised in Newton, Mass., Bissex was 13 when her mother gave her a $35 guitar. Using instruction books penned by Joan Baez and Peter, Paul and Mary, she taught herself to play the instrument and write music. Bissex earned a bachelor's of fine arts degree from Johnson State College in 1982, then moved to Burlington, Vt. She delved into the town's burgeoning music scene and founded the Burlington Coffee House, a local venue for contemporary folk artists, and the Burlington Discover Jazz Festival.

Over the next two decades, Bissex developed a loyal following on the folk festival circuit. She recorded five albums, opened for artists such as Joan Armatrading, Ray Charles and Shawn Colvin, and played at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. Her latest record, "In White Light," featured orchestral arrangements of her music performed by the Vermont Youth Orchestra. Bissex won the Kerrville New Folk Songwriting Award and the Wildflower Songwriting Contest. In 2001, she was a finalist in the Telluride Troubadour Contest and received an honorable mention in the Billboard Song Competition.

In recent years, Bissex delved into other creative pursuits. She acted in the 2004 film "Nothing Like Dreaming," and directed the play "Sun Spot: The Crime of the Need to Be Right," which was written by her husband, playwright Stephen Goldberg. Bissex is survived by Goldberg and their two children, Emma and Matt.

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