Archive: July 2009
Corazon Aquino Dies
Corazon Aquino, the unassuming widow whose "people power" revolution toppled a dictator, restored Philippine democracy and inspired millions of people around the world, has died at the age of 76. She served as president of the Philippines from 1986 to 1992, the first woman to hold that position. She was...
By Matt Schudel | July 31, 2009; 5:57 PM ET | Comments (1)
The Daily Goodbye
Morning, all. Welcome to Friday. Have you had the yen to run away to the sea? Warren Titus made that possible, even if just for a week or 10 days. He was one of the fathers of the modern cruise concept; he helped convert staid British liners into cruise ships,...
By Patricia Sullivan | July 31, 2009; 8:18 AM ET | Comments (0)
Last Survivor of Esquimalt
Post Mortem welcomes occasional submissions by other obit reporters and experts. Vancouver-based obit writer Tom Hawthorn writes: The deaths of two Canadian seamen in recent weeks leaves Joseph Wilson as the last living survivor of the sinking of the Esquimalt. The minesweeper was on patrol in the approaches to Halifax...
By Adam Bernstein | July 30, 2009; 3:00 PM ET | Comments (1)
Death of a Princess
A fabulously wealthy, stunningly beautiful Indian princess, married to a fabulously wealthy, stunningly handsome maharaja, is not someone we usually write about in the obit pages of The Washington Post, but Gayatri Devi, was so intriguing and her life so exotic that we just couldn't resist. Her grandfather, Elizabeth Bumiller...
By Joe Holley | July 30, 2009; 10:34 AM ET | Comments (0)
The Daily Goodbye
Good morning, readers. It's high summer in the sultry, humid portion of the Northern Hemisphere but instead of languishing by a pool with a cool drink and uncounted millions, we (and you) soldier on. Reverend Ike, who preached the blessings of material prosperity to nationwide television and radio audiences, has...
By Patricia Sullivan | July 30, 2009; 8:12 AM ET | Comments (0)
George Russell
George Russell, who died this week, was an immensely important figure in music history who is totally unknown to the general public. Russell was a jazz composer, occasional bandleader and theoretician. I'm not surprised if you've never heard of him, but if you're aware of any musical expression deeper than...
By Matt Schudel | July 29, 2009; 11:23 AM ET | Comments (0)
'Giving Up The Ghost'
Some years ago, I'd begin my workday by walking down the marble halls of a historic pink-granite building, settling in before my computer in a stately, high-ceilinged office and assuming my identity as a white-haired woman in late-middle age with a distinctive Texas twang and a salty wit known to...
By Joe Holley | July 29, 2009; 10:28 AM ET | Comments (0)
The Daily Goodbye
Good morning (and isn't it a wonder how having a houseguest will get you up and going early? I propose a new Twitter hashtag: #NoExcusesWednesday.) You may not remember a time when people found jobs via newspaper want ads, but way back in the 1960s, children, you looked for work...
By Patricia Sullivan | July 29, 2009; 8:05 AM ET | Comments (0)
Obit as Equalizer
NYT columnist Frank Rich wrote last Sunday that the often-friendly relationship between the press and the Washington establishment has caused too few reporters to speak truth to power. He wrote that The Washington Post's obituary of former Defense Secretary Robert McNamara, "... pointedly or not, included a photo of a...
By Adam Bernstein | July 28, 2009; 1:17 PM ET | Comments (0)
The Daily Goodbye
Merce Cunningham's obit, from three sources: Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, New York Times -- which one works best? Seriously, we'd love to hear your thoughts. A World War II escape and evasion adventure marked the life of Virgil R. Marco. After he got home, he went into insurance but...
By Patricia Sullivan | July 28, 2009; 8:13 AM ET | Comments (1)
Choreographer Merce Cunningham Dies
Merce Cunningham, the avant-garde choreographer whose unorthodox approaches and discoveries throughout a six-decade career [starting in 1942] made him one of the most important artists of the 20th century, influencing filmmakers and directors as well as choreographers worldwide, died Sunday night, the Merce Cunningham Dance Foundation said. He was 90....
By Patricia Sullivan | July 27, 2009; 10:41 AM ET | Comments (4)
The Daily Goodbye
Good morning, all (and is it already Monday again?). A music critic who helped teach audience how to listen to symphonies, concertos and choral works, Michael Steinberg died of colon cancer Sunday at N.C. Little Hospice in Edina, Minn. Jim King, a Florida legislator who gave Floridians the right to...
By Patricia Sullivan | July 27, 2009; 8:27 AM ET | Comments (0)
Death of an Enfant Terrible
Among the more interesting obits in the news today is that of Dash Snow, a star-crossed artist who died of a drug overdose at age 27 in a New York hotel room. A New York Times article reported that detectives found the following items in his room: an empty can...
By Joe Holley | July 26, 2009; 5:18 PM ET | Comments (0)
Author E. Lynn Harris Dies at 54
E. Lynn Harris, a pioneer of gay black fiction and a literary entrepreneur who rose from self-publishing to best-selling status, died Thursday night after being stricken at the Peninsula Hotel in Beverly Hills. He was just 54. An improbable and inspirational success story, Harris worked for a decade as an...
By Patricia Sullivan | July 24, 2009; 4:01 PM ET | Comments (3)
The Daily Goodbye
Good morning readers and scanners. I could fill up the post this morning just with good obits from the Washington Post itself. Check 'em out: Mollie D. Somerville who got her start as a writer and researcher working for Eleanor Roosevelt in the White House. Rebecca Lipkin, a globe-trotting producer...
By Patricia Sullivan | July 24, 2009; 8:21 AM ET | Comments (0)
Yo Quiero Taco Bell
Gidget died this week -- no, not the teen surf girl played by Sandra Dee in the movies and Sally Field on TV, but Gidget the chihuahua. Gidget became famous in the late 1990s as the star of a series of Taco Bell commercials, in which she said (in a...
By Matt Schudel | July 23, 2009; 5:29 PM ET | Comments (0)
The Daily Goodbye
Good morning, readers. Yet another celebrity death: Gidget, the bug-eyed, big-eared Chihuahua, star of 1990s Taco Bell commercials, died of a stroke at the age of 15. John Dawson, founder and lead singer of the psychedelic country-rock group "New Riders of the Purple Sage" with the Grateful Dead's Jerry Garcia,...
By Patricia Sullivan | July 23, 2009; 8:10 AM ET | Comments (0)
The Daily Goodbye
Simple rewards -- a hug, a word of praise -- have power beyond reckoning. That's the insight Sidney W. Bijou applied to treating troubled children. His insight and techniques helped establish modern behavioral therapy for childhood disorders like autism and attention deficit disorder. He died on June 11 at his...
By Patricia Sullivan | July 22, 2009; 8:18 AM ET | Comments (0)
The Daily Goodbye
A master potter, Otto Heino who reformulated a lost-to-the-ages Chinese glaze that made him a multimillionaire, died last week of acute renal failure. He was 94 and still threw 30 pots a day, packed and shipped all his orders. Good video attached. Like duct tape, WD-40 is one of those...
By Patricia Sullivan | July 21, 2009; 8:08 AM ET | Comments (0)
Cronkite's 'Awful Day'
Michael Ramey, an IT guru here at The Post and a fellow Texan, reminds me that Walter Cronkite covered his first big story at age 20, when he was one of the first reporters on the scene of a horrendous school explosion that killed nearly 300 children in the small...
By Joe Holley | July 20, 2009; 2:40 PM ET | Comments (1)
A Good Life Is...
What makes a life a good life? Is it career success, monetary wealth, power? Is it winning the race, winning the woman or man, winning at any of the jousts that life offers? Or is it simply enjoying fulfilling relationships? The Atlantic magazine's June issue had a cover story headlined...
By Patricia Sullivan | July 20, 2009; 1:14 PM ET | Comments (0)
The Daily Goodbye
Morning, all. I guesss you've heard by now that Frank McCourt, who wrote the deeply sad but lyrical memoir, "Angela's Ashes," about his Irish boyhood, died yesterday in New York. Through it, he said, "I learned the significance of my own insignificant life." Dr. Yury Verlinsky, who died of colon...
By Patricia Sullivan | July 20, 2009; 8:05 AM ET | Comments (0)
'Angela's Ashes' Author Frank McCourt Dies at 78
Frank McCourt, the Irish-American author of the acclaimed memoir, "Angela's Ashes," has died at age 78. Read The Post's obituary by Matt Schudel here. McCourt was in his mid-60s when he published "Angela's Ashes" in 1996, and it became a huge bestseller and an instant classic of the modern memoir....
By washingtonpost.com Editor | July 19, 2009; 8:02 PM ET | Comments (3)
Walter Cronkite
The big news today, of course, is the death of Walter Cronkite, the CBS news anchor who led the most respected broadcast jouranalism team of the 1960s and '70s. Cronkite was 92 and, in many ways, outlived his time. He retired -- somewhat against his will -- from the CBS...
By Matt Schudel | July 18, 2009; 10:53 AM ET | Comments (0)
Video: Three Classic Cronkite Broadcasts
On the Assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.: On the Assassination of John F. Kennedy: On the First Manned Mission to the Moon:...
By Mike McPhate | July 17, 2009; 9:07 PM ET | Comments (6)
Looking Back at Cronkite
I just heard confirmation about the death of Walter Cronkite, longtime anchor of the CBS evening news, who is credited with changing the face of television news. Trying to think about what Cronkite might mean to adults of my generation who were not yet born when he began to make...
By Lauren Wiseman | July 17, 2009; 8:50 PM ET | Comments (0)
Cronkite, Out of Character
On the afternoon of Nov. 22, 1963, I was sitting in a school library in Waco, Tex., trying to stay awake during study hall, when a shirt-sleeved Walter Cronkite glanced at a clock on the wall, removed his black-rimmed glasses and announced, with an obvious catch in his throat, that...
By Joe Holley | July 17, 2009; 5:07 PM ET | Comments (1)
Conductor's Assisted Suicide
In Friday's paper, we have a wire obituary of British conductor Edward Downes, who died this week at the age of 85. He was a conductor of modest renown but his obituary has become a huge story in England because of the manner in which he died. Downes and his...
By Matt Schudel | July 17, 2009; 11:48 AM ET | Comments (2)
The Daily Goodbye
Happy Friday everyone. As we close the week out, here's a look at some interesting people who passed away. The L.A. Times today has an obituary on Julius Shulman, a photographer of modern architecture. You might not recognize his name but you may have seen his photographs of the homes...
By Lauren Wiseman | July 17, 2009; 8:18 AM ET | Comments (1)
Spotlight: Frank McCourt
Renowned author, Frank McCourt, is in a New York hospice and not expected to recover, according to his brother. The 78-year-old writer and teacher contracted meningitis two weeks ago. Recently he was treated successfully for melanoma, a deadly form of skin cancer. McCourt received the Pulitzer Prize and the National...
By Lauren Wiseman | July 16, 2009; 2:24 PM ET | Comments (0)
The Daily Goodbye
Another day on the obituary news desk and we have a few interesting tales to share. Michael Klefner, a former Atlantic Records music executive whose credits include transforming the Blues Brothers, Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi, from a "Saturday Night Live" skit into Grammy Award-nominated recording artists, has died. Their...
By Lauren Wiseman | July 16, 2009; 8:07 AM ET | Comments (0)
Internet Obituary Hoax
Last week former Washington Post Pentagon reporter Thomas Ricks forwarded an e-mail to us about a promising subject for an obituary. He had received a message about the death of a neglected hero, with this lament: "Michael Jackson dies and it's 24/7 news coverage. A real American hero dies and...
By Matt Schudel | July 15, 2009; 5:59 PM ET | Comments (1)
The Daily Goodbye
Morning folks. Let's jump right in. You may have heard his voice but will not recognize his face. Voice actor Dallas McKennon, who is best known for his extensive work as a voice for various animated movies such as "Sleeping Beauty," "Lady and the Tramp" and "101 Dalmations," among others,...
By Lauren Wiseman | July 14, 2009; 10:56 PM ET | Comments (0)
The Daily Goodbye
Good morning folks. Hope you are enjoying another cool summer morning. Below are some highlights of obituaries around the net. Sir Edward Downes, a conductor emeritus of the BBC Philharmonic and former associate music director of the Royal Opera House in London, and his wife, Lady Downes, a former ballet...
By Lauren Wiseman | July 14, 2009; 10:00 AM ET | Comments (0)
Spotlight: Tierney and Dole
Maura Tierney, whose role as Dr. Abby Lockhart on the medical drama, "ER," ended last year, is undergoing medical evaluation for an unspecified illness, according to NBC. The actress was set to star in a new NBC drama, "Parenthood," slated to premiere on Sept. 23. The network has ceased production...
By Lauren Wiseman | July 13, 2009; 1:00 PM ET | Comments (0)
The Daily Goodbye
Good morning readers. Last week it was Steve McNair who was shot to death by his lover. This week, Arturo Gatti, a retired boxer and former junior welterweight champion, was found dead at a Brazilian seaside resort. His Brazilian wife, Amanda Rodrigues, 23, is accused in the killing. The 37-year-old...
By Lauren Wiseman | July 13, 2009; 8:14 AM ET | Comments (0)
Remarkable People, Despite the Odds
Occasionally, surprising coincidences occur in obituaries, and today The Washington Post and Los Angeles Times have a rare convergence of three stories about people who were blind or had limited eyesight. Joe Holley has a heartwarming Local Life feature in The Post about John "Buck" Buckley, a star high school...
By Matt Schudel | July 12, 2009; 11:53 AM ET | Comments (0)
The Daily Goodbye
Feeling a little sluggish this morning? Wishing you could just loll about? You may have a case of the mid-summer lazies, but probably not chronic fatigue syndrome, which Theodore Van Zeist helped define, after a notable career in soils testing. Since you don't have CFS, maybe you just need a...
By Patricia Sullivan | July 10, 2009; 8:13 AM ET | Comments (0)
Six Lessons from the Dead
This nice photo slide show comes from our friend, the fine obit writer at the Boston Globe, Bryan Marquard -- Six Life Lessons from the Dead. Some are expected, others less so, but all worth considering. Then come back and tell us what lessons have you learned from obits?...
By Patricia Sullivan | July 9, 2009; 12:24 PM ET | Comments (7)
The Daily Goodbye
I've been looking for a good obit of Oscar G. Meyer all morning, but no one seemed to take advantage of the opportunity. So here's a straightforward version, at least. (Good luck getting the "I wish I were an Oscar Meyer weiner" ditty out of your head this morning.) Australia's...
By Patricia Sullivan | July 9, 2009; 8:09 AM ET | Comments (0)
Only in Florida
I spent way too many years in Florida, which is by far the strangest, most violent state in the country -- and, therefore, a great place to be a journalist. I began to collect what I called "Weird Florida" stories about all the crazy things that were all too common...
By Matt Schudel | July 8, 2009; 2:33 PM ET | Comments (0)
The Daily Goodbye
Anyone who's ever picked up a Fender Telecaster or Stratocaster has handled George Fullerton's work. Fender, the genius of electric guitar innovation, turned to Fullerton to make his instruments practical for mass production in their factory that opened in the late 1940s. Riverboat gambling has overtaken my old hometown and...
By Patricia Sullivan | July 8, 2009; 8:17 AM ET | Comments (0)
Justlikethat
Writing the obit yesterday for Texas sharpshooter Joe Bowman, who could hit a playing card edgewise at 20 paces and plug a 50-cent piece three times in one five-thousandth of a second, reminded me immediately of the wonderfully idiosyncratic poem by e e cummings about one of Bowman's idols. Here's...
By Joe Holley | July 7, 2009; 2:03 PM ET | Comments (0)
Funeral Whistleblower Fired
A National Funeral Home employee who publicly supported allegations that the company was mishandling bodies at its Falls Church facility was fired last week for speaking to the media, the Washington Post's Josh White reports. The same day he was fired, the business issued a public denial of the allegations,...
By Patricia Sullivan | July 7, 2009; 12:58 PM ET | Comments (0)
The Daily Goodbye
The lead guitarist of the wonderfully campy rock group Paul Revere and the Raiders has died. Drake Levin and the band had quite a back story -- and is likely the only rock group to have come out of Boise, Idaho. Just for his prodigious memory alone, Joseph B. Codd...
By Patricia Sullivan | July 7, 2009; 8:31 AM ET | Comments (0)
Spotlight: Allen Klein
Former Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara was not the only controversial figure to make obituary headlines today. On Saturday, music executive Allen Klein, who once managed the Beatles and the Rolling Stones, and was later sued by his clients for his shrewd business acumen, died Saturday in Manhattan. He was...
By Lauren Wiseman | July 6, 2009; 6:00 PM ET | Comments (0)
Robert S. McNamara -- His Words, Your Forum
It would be hard to think of a more controversial figure from the Vietnam War era than Defense Secretary Robert S. McNamara who died this morning. He was the longest-serving defense secretary in the U.S. He was one of the original Whiz Kids, a corporate chieftain and later World Bank...
By Patricia Sullivan | July 6, 2009; 9:10 AM ET | Comments (124)
The Daily Goodbye
Good morning, readers. Robert S. McNamara, 93, Secretary of Defense under Presidents Kennedy and Johnson during the Vietnam War, and later the president of the World Bank, died this morning. You read it here first. Togo W. Tanaka, a former journalist and businessman whose reports on life inside the Manzanar...
By Patricia Sullivan | July 6, 2009; 8:11 AM ET | Comments (2)
McNair Update
Nashville police are saying that former NFL quarterback Steve McNair's shooting death was a homicide, the Associated Press was reporting Sunday afternoon. They stopped short of saying it was a murder-suicide committed by the 20-year-old girlfriend found dead by his side. Post sportswriter Mark Maske, who reported the story in...
By Joe Holley | July 5, 2009; 4:36 PM ET | Comments (1)
Remembering Major Jack
Not long ago I wrote about the amazing stories that come to light when yet another World War II veteran passes (now at the rate of more than a thousand daily). Here's yet another, from the Telegraph of London. Fighting in Italy in December 1944, then-Lt. Jack Bazzard and his...
By Joe Holley | July 5, 2009; 4:10 PM ET | Comments (0)
Steve McNair Found Dead
Steve McNair, former quarterback for the Tennessee Titans and Baltimore Ravens, was found shot dead in downtown Nashville, according to a report on ESPN.com. At the end of the 1999 football season he led the Titans to Super Bowl XXXIV, the only appearance in the franchise's history. McNair orchestrated a...
By Lauren Wiseman | July 4, 2009; 5:24 PM ET | Comments (0)
The Daily Goodbye
Herbert G. Klein, a newspaperman and longtime Nixon aide, died after a heart attack Thursday in La Jolla, Calif. at age 91. He worked for Nixon through many elections and was his White House communications director through part of the Watergate scandal, leaving in 1973. You can achieve your mark...
By Patricia Sullivan | July 3, 2009; 8:17 AM ET | Comments (0)
Just Michael and Me
Ok, I never interviewed Michael Jackson, never met him, never attended an MJ concert -- although my music-producer daughter worked with him a few times. That's as close as I can get to being a part of the goofy journalistic phenomenon Jack Shafer explores in his "Press Box" column for...
By Joe Holley | July 2, 2009; 3:02 PM ET | Comments (2)
Boxer Alexis Arguello, updated
Alexis Arguello, the great Nicaraguan boxing champion of the 1970s and 1980s, died July 1 in Managua, Nicaragua, of an apparent suicide. Last November, he was elected mayor of Nicaragua's capital city and had recently come under fire for allegations of corruption. But Arguello (pronounced ar-GWAY-yo) was a true national...
By Matt Schudel | July 2, 2009; 11:42 AM ET | Comments (0)
The Daily Goodbye
We have a double compare-and-contrast game this morning. Karl Malden's obit in the Washington Post, New York Times and Los Angeles Times. And then there's boxer-politician Alexis Arguello from your favorite news organization, or the Grey Lady or the Left Coast. Comments, critiques, collective dismissals are up to you. After...
By Patricia Sullivan | July 2, 2009; 8:10 AM ET | Comments (0)
Six Feet Under?
The aftermath of Michael Jackson's death is so intriguing. I have to admit, I just can't get enough. It's becoming addicting and I promise, I will focus on something else soon. In the meantime though, People.com has reported that Colony Capital, the investment firm with a 50 percent stake in...
By Lauren Wiseman | July 2, 2009; 6:00 AM ET | Comments (0)
Karl Malden dies at 97; Alexis Arguello dead at 57
Karl Malden, the actor who won an Academy Award for best supporting actor his performance as Mitch in the 1951 film version of "A Streetcar Named Desire" and who was nominated for an Oscar as a priest in "On the Waterfront" (1954), has died at the age of 97. Malden...
By Matt Schudel | July 1, 2009; 3:45 PM ET | Comments (3)
Spotlight: Corazon Aquino
She wasn't known for her fancy shoe collection, like her predecessor's wife. She was more humble than that. Rather, she was a widowed housewife turned people's president. And today, her beloved country is praying for her health. Corazon Aquino, 76, the first woman president of the Philippines who held that...
By Lauren Wiseman | July 1, 2009; 1:32 PM ET | Comments (0)
Federal Employee Spokesman Dies
News from the Federal Eye blog here at the Post: Richard N. Brown, president of the National Federation of Federal Employees and a leading spokesperson for federal employee issues, died unexpectedly yesterday at his Arlington apartment, according to a statement released today by the union. Richard Brown. "Federal employees have...
By Patricia Sullivan | July 1, 2009; 12:04 PM ET | Comments (1)
The Daily Goodbye
Good morning, and welcome to July. The world's only one-handed, one-hooked piano player, as Michael Deutsch billed himself, died of cancer. He was a bass guitar player until he lost his left hand in a machine shop accident, then switched to piano and used his problem-solving skills to adapt the...
By Patricia Sullivan | July 1, 2009; 8:05 AM ET | Comments (2)
Poor Farrah
Since last Thursday it's been all Michael Jackson all the time. The sudden, unexpected news of his death has riveted the public. Newspapers, magazines, websites, and the 24-hour news networks are overloaded with all things MJ. Yes we know, he was the King of Pop. He transformed the music video....
By Lauren Wiseman | July 1, 2009; 6:10 AM ET | Comments (7)
