Notable deaths last week

• Former Illinois Rep. Lane Evans, a Vietnam War-era Marine who fought for veterans' rights during his 24 years in the U.S. House, has died after a long fight with Parkinson's disease.He was 63.

"In the early days of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, Lane was one of the first members of Congress to take on issues like PTSD and TBI," said Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America CEO Paul Rieckhoff, referring to the acronym for traumatic brain injury. "He helped put our issues on the map."

Evans joined the Marines at age 17, and had orders for Vietnam. But he served in Okinawa, Japan, as a security guard because his older brother was already deployed in the war.

As a congressman, he fought for the rights of veterans and became the senior Democrat on the House Veterans' Affairs Committee. He pushed legislation to help those exposed to Agent Orange and to give former service members rights to judicial review in pursuing benefits claims.

He also campaigned for veterans grappling with post-traumatic stress disorders and other health problems, as well as those having trouble finding employment.

Evans was first elected from his western Illinois district in 1982, when he was a 31-year-old attorney, and went on to serve 12 terms. He worked for more than a decade after his Parkinson's diagnosis, but announced in 2006 that he wouldn't seek re-election because of his deteriorating health.

• S. Donald Stookey is no household name, but his best-known invention truly is: CorningWare, the durable, heat-resistant ceramic glass used since the 1950s to make millions upon millions of baked lasagnas, tuna casseroles and other potluck-dinner dishes.

The scientist, who died at 99, created a type of glass so strong that the military used it in guided missile nose cones. His space-age material found a home in most American kitchens in the form of white dishes decorated with small blue flowers.

"He was one of the great glass scientists in the history of the world," said Steve Feller, a physics professor at Coe College in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, where Stookey earned an undergraduate degree in chemistry and mathematics and remained active in alumni activities. "Virtually everyone has had CorningWare at some point in time, and there were all sorts of spinoff applications from his fantastic work."

CorningWare was celebrated for its versatility. It was strong enough to withstand minor kitchen mishaps, and it gave home cooks the ability to bake and serve food in the same dish. The dishes could go straight from the oven to the dinner table and then into the refrigerator or freezer.

You could also put them in a microwave, and some types could be heated atop a stove. They were a common sight at family gatherings, potlucks and holiday celebrations across the county.

Stookey joined Corning Glass Works in New York in 1940, the same year he graduated with a doctorate in physical chemistry from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He immersed himself in research, studying the complex chemistry of oxidation and its effects on glass, according to a company biography.

In 1952, he placed a plate of glass into an oven to heat it, but the oven malfunctioned. Instead of heating to about 1,100 degrees Fahrenheit, the oven shot up to more than 1,600 degrees. Stookey expected to find a molten mess. Instead, he found an opaque, milky-white plate. As he was removing it from the oven, his tongs slipped, and the plate fell to the floor. But instead of shattering, it bounced.

He had discovered glass ceramics, which Corning patented as Pyroceram. By the end of the 1950s, the work led to CorningWare, one of the company's most successful product lines.

• Tom Magliozzi, a Boston-area mechanic and MIT graduate who became an unlikely radio star as part of the brother duo that hosted "Car Talk," one of public radio's most popular show's ever, died of complications from Alzheimer's disease. He was 77 years old.

On "Car Talk," Tom and his younger brother, Ray, dispensed sound advice about repairing cars mixed generously with sharp one-liners, self-deprecating humor and off-topic digressions on philosophy and other mysteries of life.

"I like to drive with the windows open. I mean, before you know it, you're going to spend plenty of time sealed up in a box anyway, right?" Tom once quipped on-air.

"Car Talk" reached more than 4 million people a week on more than 600 radio stations across the country at its peak. It continued to be a top-rated show even after the brothers stopped taping live shows in 2012 and the network began airing reruns and archived materials.

"He and his brother changed public broadcasting forever," Doug Berman, Car Talk's executive producer said in a statement. "Before Car Talk, NPR was formal, polite, cautious ...even stiff."

• Flamenco guitarist Manitas de Plata, who sold nearly 100 million records worldwide and broke boundaries for Gypsy musicians, has died in southern France. He was 93.

De Plata sold around 93 million records in a career that spanned over half a century. Despite acquiring a fortune as one of France's best-selling recording artists, he died practically penniless - spending his fortune on "roulette, fancy cars, going out and beautiful women," according to his great nephew, Ricao Bissiere.

"He loved life. He was a character," Bissiere added.

Born Ricardo Baliardo in a caravan in southern France in 1921 to a French Gypsy family, De Plata first mastered the guitar at age 9, without even being able to read music.

He went on to wow crowds with his flamenco strumming in French Riviera cafes, watched by artists Salvador Dali and Pablo Picasso, writer Jean Cocteau and actress Brigitte Bardot.

• Former major league pitcher Brad Halsey has died in a recreational climbing accident. He was 33.

Police in Comal County said an investigation was still ongoing into Friday's accident in the Texas Hill Country area.

Halsey went 14-19 in 88 games with the New York Yankees, Arizona and Oakland from 2004-06. The left-hander most recently pitched in the minors for the Yankees in 2011.

• Jack Broughton, the decorated Air Force fighter pilot who flew more than 200 missions in Korea and Vietnam and later became an outspoken critic of the White House and military leaders, has died at age 89.

As a star pilot beginning in the 1940s, Col. Jack Broughton received the Air Force Cross and two Silver Star citations. He was hailed for his bravery and tactical cunning, and seemed well on his way to becoming a general.

But his career was ended after a high-profile court-martial during the Vietnam War. In 1967, Broughton was accused of covering up the strafing of a Soviet freighter in the North Vietnamese port of Cam Pha by a pilot under his command.

Broughton and two of his pilots were court-martialed. All were acquitted of the most serious charges, conspiracy to violate Air Force rules of engagement that ruled certain targets off limits.

The court-martial was later expunged, but Broughton retired.

After leaving the Air Force, Broughton weighed heavy criticism on President Lyndon Johnson and Defense Secretary Robert McNamara for mismanagement of the military during the war. He blasted the restrictions Washington placed on bomber pilots out of fear that the Soviet Union or China could be drawn into the conflict.

"We were poorly utilized, we were hopelessly misdirected and restricted, and we were woefully misused by a chain of stagnant high-level civilian and military leadership that didn't have the (courage) to fight the war that they ineptly micromanaged," Broughton wrote in his 2007 memoir, "Rupert Red Two: A Fighter Pilot's Life From Thunderbolts to Thunderchiefs."

• An Associated Press photographer in Cuba, Franklin Reyes Marrero, has died in a car accident while returning from an assignment west of Havana.

Reyes, 39, was driving from the port of Mariel on Monday after working on a story about the Cuban economy. He apparently hit a patch of gravel and lost control of his car, which crossed into oncoming traffic and collided with another vehicle, police and medical officials said. They said he died at the scene.

The two occupants of the other car died later.

Reyes is the fourth AP journalist killed on assignment this year. In April, photographer Anja Niedringhaus was shot and killed by a police commander in Afghanistan. And in August, video journalist Simone Camilli and translator Ali Shehda Abu Afash were killed by an explosion of leftover ordnance in the Gaza Strip.

"Franklin Reyes was a vibrant and enthusiastic member of our team in Cuba, and proud to be working for AP," said the news cooperative's president and chief executive officer, Gary Pruitt.

"He was an integral part of AP's team in Cuba. His passion and professionalism were exemplary and his energy, talent and good company will be deeply missed," said AP Director of Photography Santiago Lyon.

• An 81-year-old Democrat in the race for a U.S. House seat in eastern Oklahoma died from injuries he sustained in a car accident, police said.

Earl Emmitt Everett, a retired school teacher and Korean War Veteran, was a decided underdog in his race against first-term Republican U.S. Rep. Markwayne Mullin for the 2nd District seat that stretches across 26 eastern Oklahoma counties, from the foothills of the Ozark Mountains in the northeast to the Red River border with Texas in the south.

• Mark Helmke, a longtime aide to former U.S. Sen. Richard Lugar, has died at age 62.

Mark Helmke worked for Lugar during much of the Republican's six Senate terms, including as a spokesman and senior aide. Lugar says in a statement that Helmke "contributed compelling communications and diplomatic savvy" in the fights against apartheid in South Africa, for democracy in Latin America and to create a new government in post-Soviet Ukraine.

• Former Yugoslav Gen. Veljko Kadijevic, who was accused of war crimes in Croatia and who fled to Russia to avoid testifying at a U.N. tribunal, has died. He was 88.

Kadijevic became defense minister in 1988, shortly before the communist-run ex-federation of Yugoslavia dissolved along ethnic lines, triggering Europe's worst carnage since World War II.

• Tom Sneddon, the former district attorney who sought twice to try Michael Jackson on child molestation charges, has died at 73.

Sneddon investigated Michael Jackson on child sexual abuse allegations in 1993 and again a decade later. The first case fell apart after a young boy's family accepted a multimillion dollar settlement from Jackson and declined to testify against him.

The probe closed with no charges. Jackson shot back in a thinly disguised swipe at the prosecutor in a song called "D.S." on the "HIStory" album. The song contains the lyrics, "Dom Sheldon is a cold man."

A second set of allegations against Jackson made by a young cancer survivor resulted in a televised trial in 2005 which ended with Jackson being acquitted.

Jackson's defense attorney, Thomas Mesereau Jr., painted Sneddon as an overzealous prosecutor who had a "personal vendetta" against Jackson after the first case fell apart.

Sneddon continued to insist that he believed Jackson could be a danger to children and said he would have considered a conviction tragic, considering Jackson's accomplishments.

• English clarinet player Acker Bilk, who beat the Beatles and other British rockers to the top of the U.S. music charts with the instrumental "Stranger on the Shore," has died at the age of 85.

• Wayne Static, the frontman for the metal band Static-X, has died at age 48.

Static was the lead vocalist, keyboardist and guitarist for Static-X, whose "Wisconsin Death Trip" went platinum. He also released a solo album, "Pighammer," in 2011.