Jade Walker

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Simon V. Muzenda

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Categories: Politicians

Simon Vengayi Muzenda, a vice president of Zimbabwe, died on Sept. 20 from a kidney ailment. He was 80.
The former teacher and carpenter rose to power in 1980 when he and other rebel leaders won Zimbabwe’s independence from Britain. Although he was often mocked for his lack of political savvy, Muzenda became a loyal aide and adviser to President Robert G. Mugabe.
A co-founder of the ZANU-PF party, Muzenda served as foreign minister and deputy vice president before becoming one of the nation’s two vice presidents in the mid-1980s. The remaining vice president, Joseph Msika, remains in power.
Muzenda’s plan to seize the last of the white-owned farms in Zimbabwe and redistribute the farmland to black citizens was placed on hold when he took ill last year. He was further stymied by the European Union’s decision to place him on a list of Zimbabwean officials banned from foreign travel. His overseas assets were also frozen.

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Don Cox

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Categories: Media

Don Cox, a disc jockey who reached two generations of South Florida listeners, died on Sept. 15. Cause of death was not released. He was 55.
Off the air, Cox had problems with drugs and alcohol. He served four months in jail in 1980 for cocaine trafficking, and had his driver’s license suspended in 1991 when he was arrested for drunken driving.
But over the airwaves, he was known as “Cox on the Radio.” His gravelly voice and bawdy on-air persona made him a star DJ on Y-100 FM, a pop station in Miami. In 1986, he aired his first live show for contemporary hit radio station, Power 96 FM, from atop the Coppertone billboard in North Miami Beach. Cox ended his broadcasting career last year at country music station, 99.9 KISS FM, in West Palm Beach.

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Gordon Jump

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Categories: Actors

gjump.jpgGordon Jump, a television actor and advertising icon, died on Sept. 22 from pulmonary fibrosis. He was 71.
A native of Dayton, Ohio, Jump began his acting career in Kansas playing a children’s TV show host on “WIB the Clown.” In 1963, he moved to Hollywood to appear in episodes of “Get Smart” and “Green Acres.”
Jump’s big break came in 1978 when he landed the part of Arthur Carlson, the befuddled radio station manager on TV’s “WKRP in Cincinnati.” The show aired on CBS until 1982, but when it wrapped, Jump found steady work making appearances on shows like “Growing Pains,” “Murder She Wrote,” “Baywatch” and “Seinfeld.”
He was best known for spending 14 years as the Maytag repairman, “Ol’ Lonely,” in print and television ads.

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Bernard Manischewitz

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Categories: Business

Bernard Manischewitz, the last generation to run his family’s kosher foods empire, died on Sept. 20 from heart disease. He was 89.
Manischewitz was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, the place where his grandfather founded the kosher foods company, B. Manischewitz, in 1888. Rabbi Dov Behr Manischewitz built a small bakery where he baked matzo, the unleavened bread Jews eat at Passover based on a 5,000-year-old recipe. By 1932, the business had expanded to a second plant in Jersey City, N.J., which eventually became the company’s base of operations.
Bernard Manischewitz graduated from New York University and joined the family business in the 1940s. Although his father initially put him on the production line, Manischewitz worked his way up to president and chief operating officer by the time he was 29. He expanded the company’s line of foods beyond basic kosher products, then sold the business in 1991 for $124 million.

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C.H. Sisson

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Categories: Writers/Editors

C.H. Sisson, a prolific British poet, novelist and critic, died on Sept. 5. Cause of death was not released. He was 89.
Sisson graduated from Bristol University then joined the Ministry of Labor in 1936. During World War II, he served with the British army on India’s northwest frontier. He returned to civil service after the war to work as the director of occupational safety and health in the Department of Employment.
Although he published his first anthology, “The London Zoo,” in 1961, Sisson did not become well-known for his poetry until 13 years later when he released, “The Trojan Ditch.” He also published the novels, “Christopher Homm” and “An Asiatic Romance,” as well as two books of criticism and half a dozen poetry collections.

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Ron Burton

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Categories: Sports

Ron Burton, the first player ever drafted by the New England Patriots, died on Sept. 13 from bone cancer. He was 67.
“Touchdown Ron” was an All-American at Northwestern when the Boston Patriots snapped him up in the 1959 American Football League draft. In his six seasons with the Patriots, the running back caught 111 passes and scored 19 touchdowns.
After retiring from football in 1965, Burton became an executive consultant for the John Hancock Life Insurance Co. In his spare time, he devoted himself to philanthropy by giving motivational speeches and founding the Ron Burton Training Village, a summer camp in Hubbardston, Mass., for inner-city kids.
Burton was elected to the College Football Hall of Fame in 1990, and received the “Heroes Among Us” community service award from the Boston Celtics in 2001. This past summer, the New England Patriots’ Ron Burton Community Service Award was established to honor players who make an impact on the New England community.

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Jay Morton

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Categories: Artists

Jay Morton, a game designer and writer, died on Sept. 6 of a brain aneurysm. He was 92.
Morton studied art at the Pratt Institute in New York, received a master’s degree from the L’Institut de Montparnasse in Paris, then moved to Miami to write and draw the animated cartoon, “Superman,” for Fleischer Studios.
He was responsible for writing more than 20 episodes and describing the Man of Steel as “Faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a locomotive, able to leap tall buildings in a single bound.” He also coined the phrase, “Look!…up in the sky!…it’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s a man…it’s Superman!”
When Fleischer was bought out by Paramount Pictures, Morton left the studio to draw Felix the Cat, Betty Boop and Popeye. Later he co-founded the Home News in Hialeah, Fla., and developed the board games, ”Winning on Wall Street” and “Fairway Frolic.”

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Gisele MacKenzie

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Categories: Actors, Hollywood, Writers/Editors

Gisele MacKenzie, a singer and actress who became a star on the TV show, “Your Hit Parade,” died on Sept. 5 of colon cancer. She was 76.
Born Gisele Marie-Louise Marguerite LaFleche, she studied piano and violin at the Royal Conservatory in Toronto. For appearing on her own CBC radio show, ”Meet Gisele,” she became known as Canada’s first lady of song.
In 1951, MacKenzie changed her name and moved from Winnipeg to Los Angeles. After touring with Jack Benny and recording songs for Capitol Records, MacKenzie joined ”Your Hit Parade,” a TV show where the cast sang the seven most popular songs of the week. She was the first Hit Parader to top the charts when her own song, “Hard to Get,” stayed at number one for 13 weeks.
MacKenzie headlined her own variety program, ”The Gisele MacKenzie Show,” in 1957 and made regular appearances on ”The Sid Caesar Show.” For the next 30 years, she showcased her talents on television by acting in a wide variety of shows, including ”Murder, She Wrote,” ”MacGyver” and ”Boy Meets World.” Her star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame is located at 1601 Vine St.

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