Archive: August 2009
RIP Summer of Obits
Farewell to the summer of big obits. Much has been said about the spate of deaths this summer -- including how much attention obits should give to human flaws that border on criminality -- but we're here to give you just the facts ma'am. So here's my list, with the...
By Patricia Sullivan | August 31, 2009; 10:38 AM ET | Comments (5)
The Daily Goodbye
Good Monday morning, everyone. Thanks to Hollywood, we're used to thinking of test pilots as daredevils. Lew Wallick sounds like anything but that. He was Boeing's chief test pilot and was pilot or co-pilot on the first flights of the Boeing 727, 737, 747SP, 757 and 767. Terri Schiavo's father,...
By Patricia Sullivan | August 31, 2009; 8:11 AM ET | Comments (1)
Just in Case
Alas the secret is out. Christopher Beam, writing for Slate in the wake of Sen. Edward Kennedy's death, notes that most of the major papers prepare obits in advance for certain people. That includes The Washington Post, although we don't have nearly as many prepared as we'd like to have....
By Joe Holley | August 30, 2009; 4:41 PM ET | Comments (1)
Emily Dao's Death at 20
T. Rees Shapiro, a 2009 graduate of Virginia Tech, is a copy aide at The Washington Post. He has become a prolific contributor to the obituary page and wrote today's Local Life story about Emily Dao, whom he first met in college when he began chronicling her unlikely bout with...
By Adam Bernstein | August 30, 2009; 3:00 AM ET | Comments (5)
John Jay Daly, PR Wizard
Everyone on the Obituaries desk has gotten to know John Jay Daly over the years. He took it upon himself to let us know when neighbors and local residents had died and drafted many obituaries that he sent our way. The time has come, unfortunately, for Mr. Daly's obituary to...
By Matt Schudel | August 29, 2009; 7:34 PM ET | Comments (0)
Spotlight: DJ AM
Celebrity deejay DJ AM, whose real name was Adam Michael Goldstein, was found dead earlier today in his SoHo apartment from an apparent drug overdose, according to the New York Post. He was 36. He may have been best known for working the celebrity club scene, dating starlets including Nicole...
By Lauren Wiseman | August 28, 2009; 9:02 PM ET | Comments (14)
The Daily Goodbye
Good morning! And what a week for obits, eh? The end of August used to the quiet time, when obit writers worked on advance pieces, polished feature stories, considered what needed to be done. I took three days off in the middle of this week and my colleagues handled the...
By Patricia Sullivan | August 28, 2009; 9:00 AM ET | Comments (1)
Ellie Greenwich, Songwriter
I have to confess that I had never heard of Ellie Greenwich before she died this week at 68. But I've certainly heard of the songs she wrote in the 1960s with her husband, Jeff Barry: "Be My Baby," "Chapel of Love," "River Deep, Mountain High" and, of course, the...
By Matt Schudel | August 28, 2009; 6:51 AM ET | Comments (0)
Deadline
Like most newspapers that take obituaries seriously, The Post started working on an advance obit for Sen. Ted Kennedy shortly after he was diagnosed with brain cancer in May 2008. We were ready when the senator's death was confirmed in the early hours of Wednesday morning, although we continued revising...
By Joe Holley | August 27, 2009; 11:38 AM ET | Comments (0)
Dominick Dunne, 83; updated
Dominick Dunne, the irrepressible Vanity Fair reporter who became a journalist and novelist late in life, died Aug. 26 at his home in Manhattan. He died right on deadline for morning newspapers, but fortunately I had prepared an obituary several months earlier, which I updated and reworked and managed to...
By Matt Schudel | August 26, 2009; 5:39 PM ET | Comments (0)
Kennedy's Gift
I first met Ted Kennedy in the early 1980s in San Antonio, where he was attending a reception at the downtown law offices of Pat Maloney, a wealthy and influential trial lawyer and old-line Democratic fundraiser. It was early evening, in the summer, on the beautiful rooftop patio of the...
By Joe Holley | August 26, 2009; 10:21 AM ET | Comments (1)
Short, Nervous Cowboys
Elmer Kelton, the prolific Texas writer who died Aug. 22 at age 83, had a terrific way of describing the ordinary folks he wrote about in his novels about cowboys, Indians, ranchers and frontiersmen. "I can't write about heroes seven feet tall and invincible," he liked to say. "I write...
By Joe Holley | August 24, 2009; 5:48 PM ET | Comments (0)
Battle of Online Death Notices
Intriguing article from Boston Globe yesterday about tributes.com and its effort to challenge legacy.com in scooping up advertising dollars for paid obits. Both Web sites challenge newspapers for dominance in the market for Death Notices, those paid eulogies that have nothing to with the news obits written by reporters. Both...
By Adam Bernstein | August 24, 2009; 1:10 PM ET | Comments (0)
The Daily Goodbye
Good morning, all. In case you missed it, the leading ufologist (I still can't believe that's a word) Richard Hall has died. Love the lead, from our ace intern Rick Rojas: "Richard H. Hall was never abducted by aliens and never saw a UFO with his own eyes. Yet his...
By Patricia Sullivan | August 24, 2009; 7:41 AM ET | Comments (1)
They Came from Other Worlds
Rick Rojas, an intern here at The Post this summer, is a political science major at Texas A&M University, so he's used to hearing jokes and snide remarks about Aggies. I haven't asked him, but maybe that's why Rick was drawn to write about Richard M. Hall, this Sunday's fascinating...
By Joe Holley | August 23, 2009; 5:12 PM ET | Comments (0)
The Daily Goodbye
Good morning, everyone. Cuba's diva, mezzo-soprano Marta Perez, was the first Cuban to sing at Milan's La Scala opera house. You may have seen her on the Ed Sullivan show, unless you run in the La Scala circle. She died this week, at age 85. Here's another musician you may...
By Patricia Sullivan | August 21, 2009; 9:00 AM ET | Comments (0)
Opera Star Behrens Dies
Emily Langer, an opera enthusiast who works in The Post's Outlook section, writes: Hildegard Behrens, one of the finest opera singers of her generation, died at a Tokyo hospital on Tuesday after suffering an aortic aneurysm. The German-born soprano, 72 years old, was still performing--she was in Japan to give...
By Adam Bernstein | August 20, 2009; 5:05 PM ET | Comments (0)
The Daily Goodbye
Good morning, all. What a week for obits -- Don Hewitt, Rose Friedman, Kim Dae-jung, Robert Novak -- and we still have two more working days to go. Presented with a set of data, Daryl S. Gilbert's job was to figure out "the touchy-feely stuff to help explain the numbers"...
By Patricia Sullivan | August 20, 2009; 8:59 AM ET | Comments (0)
Tell Us About Don Hewitt's Legacy
"60 Minutes" creator Don Hewitt died today in New York. Though many associate him with that show, and rightly so, he was a huge force in journalism for 15 years before starting the "newsmagazine" format in 1968. He created many of the techniques of modern TV newscasts, made huge advances...
By Patricia Sullivan | August 19, 2009; 11:48 AM ET | Comments (5)
The Daily Goodbye
Good morning, and let's hope all of yesterday's anger in the online comments section is behind us. What the death of a Nobel Prize-winning president of South Korea and the death of longtime conservative columnist Robert Novak, we must have run out room in newsprint for Rose Friedman, the free-market...
By Patricia Sullivan | August 19, 2009; 8:55 AM ET | Comments (0)
Tell Us: What's Robert Novak's Legacy?
The columnist Robert Novak died today in Washington of brain cancer. Novak was a smart and aggressive reporter, and his memoir, "Prince of Darkness," was one of the most illuminating books about how official Washington works, namely the equal manipulations of journalists and politicians. It was such a good book...
By Adam Bernstein | August 18, 2009; 12:21 PM ET | Comments (248)
The Daily Goodbye
Good morning, ardent believers in the end of the recession. Remember, once you've lost your job, your house, your car, you can always sell your cemetery plot. If you're looking for breaking obit news, here it is: Former South Korean president Kim Dae-jung, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, has...
By Patricia Sullivan | August 18, 2009; 8:59 AM ET | Comments (0)
The Daily Goodbye
Good morning, all you stay-cationers, essential employees/employers and those otherwise unoccupied with the commerce of the world. Nancy A. Cahill, who died Aug. 4, made her work into others' play. As a historic guide for Philadelphia's Centipede Tours, she dressed in a colonial costume and led visitors through the streets...
By Patricia Sullivan | August 17, 2009; 8:10 AM ET | Comments (0)
Wish I Was In Dixie
So is there a quintessential movie about the American South? One you'd recommend to your visitors from New Zealand who might have expressed an interest in the land of kudzu and barbecue? "To Kill a Mockingbird" maybe? "Gone With the Wind"? "Deliverance"? The question came to mind when I was...
By Joe Holley | August 16, 2009; 4:44 PM ET | Comments (1)
Kenneth Bacon, 64
Kenneth H. Bacon died Aug. 15 at the age of 64. He may not have been well known to the general public, but he was a gentle-voiced Washington insider who quietly worked in the city's higher reaches of journalism, government service and international charity. For most of the eight years...
By Matt Schudel | August 15, 2009; 12:30 PM ET | Comments (2)
The Daily Goodbye
Good morning! My desk may be a mess, but I'm looking at leafed-out flowering trees and blue skies. Life is worth living, as friends and relatives of any of the following people will tell you, as will the Spanish businessman who faked his own death to avoid heavy debts. Blossom...
By Patricia Sullivan | August 14, 2009; 8:04 AM ET | Comments (2)
Les Paul Dies at 94; updated
Les Paul, the long-lived musician who invented the solid-body electric guitar and multi-track recording, has died at 94. Check out Adam Bernstein's obituary here. He became famous in the 1960s for the eponymous Les Paul guitar, a solid-body electric with a distinctive rounded shape that powered many of the popular...
By Matt Schudel | August 13, 2009; 12:17 PM ET | Comments (4)
A Dying Generation
Sadly, the world's best kept records of the Nazi atrocities committed during World War II are withering away. Holocaust survivors, once an abundance around the world, are dying in their old age, leaving us with less people to offer first-hand accounts of what they experienced. Today, we featured an obituary...
By Lauren Wiseman | August 13, 2009; 10:53 AM ET | Comments (1)
The Daily Goodbye
Good morning, readers. Michael Viner, a publisher who specialized in audio books and earned a reputation for quick hits with sensational stories, including O.J. Simpson trial figure Faye Resnick's book about Nicole Brown Simpson, died of cancer Saturday at his Beverly Hills home. He was 65. You have to respect...
By Patricia Sullivan | August 13, 2009; 8:08 AM ET | Comments (2)
The Daily Goodbye
Good morning. Eunice Kennedy Shriver's death yesterday seems to have sucked the air right out of the obitsphere; it will be short report today. New York City skateboarding legend Andy Kessler died of an allergic reaction to a wasp sting. One of his buddies said he was responsible for getting...
By Patricia Sullivan | August 12, 2009; 8:11 AM ET | Comments (0)
Remembering Eunice Kennedy Shriver
For many years, Eunice Kennedy Shriver and her family lived in the Washington area, where she established a summer camp for children with disabilities at her family's home in Rockville. She was a common presence in the halls of power in Washington, lobbying for the rights of the intellectually disabled...
By Patricia Sullivan | August 11, 2009; 8:55 AM ET | Comments (36)
The Daily Goodbye
Good morning and farewell to Eunice Kennedy Shriver, who proved that you don't have to be president of the United States to make a difference in millions of lives, now and in the future. Florence Foster had the courage of her convictions and when she spotted something at her tiny...
By Patricia Sullivan | August 11, 2009; 7:58 AM ET | Comments (1)
Remembering 'Libba'
I had never heard of the remarkable Elizabeth "Libba" Cotten until I wrote the obit today for musician Mike Seeger, who died Aug. 7 of cancer in Lexington, Va. His older half-brother, Pete Seeger, is better known, but Mike Seeger, who was 75 when he died, was an accomplished and...
By Joe Holley | August 10, 2009; 4:58 PM ET | Comments (1)
Spotlight: Eunice Kennedy Shriver
Eunice Kennedy Shriver, 88, founder of the Special Olympics and sister to her more famous brothers, Jack, Bobby and Ted, is in critical condition at a Cape Cod, Mass., hospital after suffering a series of strokes. Mrs. Shriver, whose daughter and son-in-law are Maria Shriver and California governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger,...
By Lauren Wiseman | August 10, 2009; 12:55 PM ET | Comments (0)
Duck and Play
Navy bandleader Frank Forgione hoped he had seen the last of conflict when he survived Pearl Harbor -- every day after that was a gift, he told people -- but here he was on an October day in Cordoba, Argentina, nearly 25 years later under attack again. His assailant was...
By Joe Holley | August 10, 2009; 10:08 AM ET | Comments (0)
The Daily Goodbye
Good Monday morning, everyone. So little time, so many worlds unknown. Here are a few lives from worlds that are outside my range of knowledge. A punk rock pioneer has died, say those who know punk. Willy DeVille, who founded the punk group Mink DeVille and was known for his...
By Patricia Sullivan | August 10, 2009; 8:03 AM ET | Comments (0)
"Helter Skelter"
This summer marks the 40th anniversary of some monumental events, both good and bad. In 1969, we saw the first moon landing followed by the hippie music festival, Woodstock, which helped define a generation. Senator Edward Kennedy saw scandal with the Chappaquiddick incident and the Stonewall riots in NYC marked...
By Lauren Wiseman | August 9, 2009; 6:00 AM ET | Comments (5)
The Daily Goodbye
Good morning, readers. How could you possibly be expected to handle school (work, chores) on a day like this? Have you voted yet on which of John Hughes' films (cough... Ferris Bueller... cough) was his greatest? Robert M. Takasugi was what we all seek in a federal judge: compassion for...
By Patricia Sullivan | August 7, 2009; 8:09 AM ET | Comments (1)
Which John Hughes Film was Best?
John Hughes, 59, director, screenwriter and producer of films such as "The Breakfast Club," "Ferris Bueller's Day Off," "Planes, Trains and Automobiles" and "Home Alone", who died in Manhattan yesterday of a heart attack, created films that centered on teenage angst, and defined a generation. So in honor of the...
By Lauren Wiseman | August 6, 2009; 4:59 PM ET | Comments (2)
John Hughes Movie Clips
Just because we loved his films so much, here are some clips we wanted to share of our favorite John Hughes' movie moments. Of course there are more. These are just a sampling we thought you would enjoy. Ferris Bueller's Day Off: Sixteen Candles: National Lampoon's Vacation...
By Lauren Wiseman | August 6, 2009; 4:45 PM ET | Comments (0)
This Budd's For You
Screenwriter and novelist Budd Schulberg, who died yesterday at 95, was one of the finest writing talents of his generation, and his work stands up remarkably well. He was old, but did not, as has been written, outlive his fame. One reason was the contemporary feel and tone of much...
By Adam Bernstein | August 6, 2009; 2:45 PM ET | Comments (0)
The Daily Goodbye
Good morning, fans and newcomers. Last night, perhaps after you shut down your electronic devices, came word that screenwriter Budd Schulberg died. Who was he, you ask? Really famous in the 1950s for writing "On the Waterfront," "A Face in the Crowd" and "What Makes Sammy Run?" and for being...
By Patricia Sullivan | August 6, 2009; 8:16 AM ET | Comments (0)
Budd Schulberg and Fleeting Fame
Sometimes the famous outlive their fame. Take, for example, Budd Schulberg, who died today at age 95. There was a time when most movie fans knew his name. He worked with director John Ford in a documentary project for the Army as World War II was ending, and arrested Leni...
By Patricia Sullivan | August 5, 2009; 10:02 PM ET | Comments (0)
Caissons Rolling
Most everybody knows "The Caisson Song" -- "over hill, over dale, we have hit the dusty trail, and the caissons go rolling along" -- even if they've never hit the trail, dusty or otherwise; grade-school music teachers considered the rousing piece a staple and maybe still do. But as popular...
By Joe Holley | August 5, 2009; 3:17 PM ET | Comments (0)
A Vietnam War That Never Ends
Vietnam still resonates in the American body politic after nearly 40 years. The obit I wrote for today's paper, of Lt. Gen. Julian J. Ewell, is a case in point. Gen. Ewell was a top commander in Vietnam during the 1968-70 period and in the latter half of that period...
By Patricia Sullivan | August 5, 2009; 1:45 PM ET | Comments (0)
Navy Vet's Wartime Movies
In the next few days, we'll have a short obit for Robert C. Woodside, a Navy commander who became an expert in guided missile engineering and later worked as an Army Department personnel specialist. Woodside, 89, died of cancer July 27 at his home in Clarksville. If you have 10...
By Adam Bernstein | August 5, 2009; 12:46 PM ET | Comments (0)
The Daily Goodbye
Eight kids in 11 years -- is there much more about the life of Muriel R. Halliday that you need to know? How about the death of a husband? A full-time job to boot? No car. Church every morning. "Don't think she was the little woman in the shoe. She...
By Patricia Sullivan | August 5, 2009; 8:23 AM ET | Comments (0)
The Daily Goodbye
The first black supermodel, Naomi Sims, died in Newark Saturday. Entrepreneurial skills helped her break into the business and later helped her as she started her own business, which made her rich. Not only can you teach an old dog new tricks, but that dog's brain can grow as he...
By Patricia Sullivan | August 4, 2009; 8:11 AM ET | Comments (0)
Dark Side of Oz
Come across "Dark Side of the Moon" lately? The Pink Floyd album you used to play over and over when your hair was long, your jeans grungy and your ears were still capable of registering subtle nuances of sound? As a memorial salute to classic rock disc jockey George Taylor...
By Joe Holley | August 3, 2009; 1:40 PM ET | Comments (1)
The Daily Goodbye
Good morning! Savor this August heat because the brittle January cold is closer than any of us want to admit. One of the most beautiful places on earth, Big Sur on California's Central Coast, always has that cooling Pacific breeze. Billy Post, a native of the area and a storyteller...
By Patricia Sullivan | August 3, 2009; 8:08 AM ET | Comments (0)
King Corcoran
People often ask me which people are the most remarkable characters I've ever written about. There have been many, but today I have someone new to add to the list. Jim "King" Corcoran is one of the most fascinating and frustrating, charismatic and callous people I have ever had the...
By Matt Schudel | August 2, 2009; 7:24 AM ET | Comments (3)
Bobby Robson & 'The Hand of a Rascal'
Fans of British soccer are mourning the death of Sir Bobby Robson, who played in the World Cup in 1958 and coached the British national team to an excellent run in the 1986 World Cup. His British team was finally undone in the 1986 quarterfinals by Argentina, whose star player...
By Matt Schudel | August 2, 2009; 5:00 AM ET | Comments (0)
Ombudsman's Look at Obits
We generally toil in complete anonymity here on the Obits desk, but every now and then a light breeze of recognition comes our way. This weekend the Post ombudsman, Andy Alexander, takes a look at what we do here in Obits. As Alexander and Obits editor Adam Bernstein point out,...
By Matt Schudel | August 1, 2009; 12:04 PM ET | Comments (0)
