Well-loved singers; Enola Gay pilot
Robert Goulet, the handsome, big-voiced baritone whose Broadway debut in "Camelot" launched an award-winning stage and recording career, has died. He was 73. The singer died Tuesday morning at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center while awaiting a lung transplant, said his spokesman, Norm Johnson. He was diagnosed last month with a rare form of pulmonary fibrosis. The Massachusetts-born Goulet, who spent much of his youth in Canada, gained stardom in 1960 with "Camelot," the Lerner and Loewe musical that starred Richard Burton as King Arthur and Julie Andrews as his Queen Guenevere. Goulet played Sir Lancelot, the French knight who falls in love with Guenevere. He became a hit with American TV viewers with appearances on "The Ed Sullivan Show" and other programs. Sullivan labeled him the "American baritone from Canada," where he had already been a popular star in the 1950s, hosting his own TV show called "General Electric's Showtime." Goulet won a Grammy Award in 1962 as best new artist and made the singles chart in 1964 with "My Love Forgive Me." He won a Tony award in 1968 for best actor in a musical for his role in "The Happy Time." His other Broadway appearances were in "Moon Over Buffalo" in 1995 and "La Cage aux Folles" in 2005, plus a "Camelot" revival in 1993 in which he played King Arthur.
Country legend Porter Wagoner died Sunday after a battle with lung cancer. His death at 80 capped a remarkable late-career revival that won him a new generation of fans. The Missouri-born Wagoner signed with RCA Records in 1955 and joined the Opry in 1957, "the greatest place in the world to have a career in country music," he said in 1997. His showmanship, suits and pompadoured hair made him famous. He had his own syndicated TV show, "The Porter Wagoner Show," for 21 years beginning in 1960. It was one of the first syndicated shows to come out of Nashville and set a pattern for many others. In 2002, he was elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame. To many music fans, Wagoner was best known as the man who boosted Parton's career. He had hired the 21-year-old singer as his duet partner in 1967, when she was just beginning to gain notice through songs such as "Dumb Blonde."
Paul Tibbets, who etched his mother's name -- Enola Gay -- into history on the nose of the B-29 bomber he flew to drop the atomic bomb over Hiroshima, has died. He was 92. Tibbets died Thursday at his Columbus home after a two-month decline caused by a variety of health problems, said Gerry Newhouse, a longtime friend. Throughout his life, Tibbets seemed more troubled by other people's objections to the bomb than by him having led the crew that killed tens of thousands of Japanese in a single stroke. The attack marked the beginning of the end of World War II. Tibbets grew tired of criticism for delivering the first nuclear weapon used in wartime, telling family and friends that he wanted no funeral service or headstone because he feared a burial site would only give detractors a place to protest. And he insisted he slept just fine, believing with certainty that using the bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki saved more lives than they erased because they eliminated the need for a drawn-out invasion of Japan.
One-time drug warlord Khun Sa, variously described as among the world's most wanted men and as a great liberation fighter dies a week ago Friday. He was 74. Khuensai Jaiyen, a former secretary of Khun Sa who works with ethnic Shan minority guerrilla groups, said his former boss died in the Myanmar capital of Yangon, according to his relatives. The cause of death was not immediately known, but Khun Sa had long suffered from diabetes, partial paralysis and high blood pressure. At the height of his notoriety, Khun Sa presided over a veritable narcotics kingdom complete with satellite television, schools and surface-to-air missiles in the drug-producing Golden Triangle region where Myanmar, Thailand and Laos meet.
Sam Dana, who was the oldest living former NFL player and once played football alongside Lou Gehrig at Columbia, has died. He was 104. Dana died in his sleep Monday night of complications from an infection, his family said. He had been living with his son, Bob Dana, in Buffalo before spending his final two years at an assisted-living seniors center where he would regularly watch his beloved Buffalo Bills on television. Pro Football Hall of Fame spokesman Joe Horrigan said he and his staff are still researching to determine who is now the oldest living former NFLer.
Bernice Lavin, who co-founded the beauty products business Alberto-Culver Co. alongside her husband, has died. She was 81. Lavin died Monday after a long illness, company officials said. In 1955, Lavin and her husband, Leonard, a salesman, purchased a West Coast beauty supply company, discontinuing most of its products to focus on the Alberto V05 Conditioning Hairdressing line. They transferred the business to Chicago and renamed it Alberto-Culver. With the help of a handful of employees, the company had sales of $100,000 in the first year. Today, the publicly traded company is based in the Chicago suburb of Melrose Park and makes TRESemme, Alberto VO5 and Nexxus hair products, as well as the St. Ives skin care line. Lavin was vice president, treasurer, a director and corporate secretary until she retired in 2003.
John R. Walsh, who toured professionally as the figure skating partner of Olympic champion Sonja Henie, died Thursday from complications following a stroke. Walsh began competitive figure skating at age 13 and became a featured performer in ice revues of the Skating Club of Lake Placid. After serving as an Army glider pilot during World War II, Walsh stopped in New York City on his way home from military discharge in 1946 to audition for professional figure skating shows. He was immediately signed as a principal for the shows being co-produced by Henie.
John Woodruff, who joined Jesse Owens as black Americans who won gold medals in the face of Adolf Hitler and his "master race" agenda at the 1936 Berlin Olympics, has died. He was 92. Woodruff died Tuesday at an assisted living center near Phoenix, said Rose Woodruff, his wife of 37 years. Nicknamed "Long John" for his lengthy stride, Woodruff was a lanky 21-year-old freshman at Pittsburgh when he sailed to the Olympics and into a racially-charged scene. On Aug. 4, 1936, he won the 800 meters using one of the most astonishing tactics in Olympic history. Boxed in by the pack of slow-paced runners, he literally stopped in his tracks, then moved to the third lane and passed everyone.
Alexander Feklisov, the Soviet-era spy chief who oversaw the espionage work of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg and helped mediate the 1962 Cuban missile crisis, died Oct. 26. He was 93. The death was confirmed by Sergei Ivanov, a spokesman for the Foreign Intelligence Service, one of the successor agencies to the KGB. He gave no cause of death. Born March 9, 1914, in Moscow to a railroad signalman's family, Feklisov was trained as a radio technician and was recruited into the American department of the KGB's predecessor, the NKVD, according to his official biography posted on the Foreign Intelligence Service's Web site. He arrived in New York in 1941 and during his five-year stint "completed a series of crucial tasks aimed at acquiring secret scientific-technical information including in the areas of electronics, radiolocation and jet aircraft technology." Feklisov said Rosenberg was a Soviet sympathizer who handed over secrets on military electronics, but not the atomic bomb. He said Ethel Rosenberg played no part in spying -- claims that were consistent with declassified U.S. intercepts of Soviet spy communications.
Igor Moiseyev, who transformed folk dance into a legitimate genre of choreographic art that won worldwide acclaim, died Friday. He was 101. He had been unconscious for the past three days and died in a Moscow hospital, said Yelena Shcherbakova, director of the Moiseyev Dance Company, the ITAR-Tass news agency reported. Moiseyev, called the king of folk dance, attracted the West to Russian culture at a time of deep political hostility and won standing ovations around the world. He brought traditional folk dance onto the professional stage by combining ethnic moves with classic ballet. His numbers -- from the Russian peasant girl dance to the Greek Sirtaki -- were hailed as promoting peace and tolerance by showing that each culture is unique. He amazed Americans with his take on rock 'n' roll and square dance.
Carrie Rozelle, the widow of NFL commissioner Pete Rozelle, died Monday at her home in Rancho Santa Fe, Calif. She was 70. Carrie Rozelle founded the National Center for Learning Disabilities in 1977 to promote education and develop skills for families with learning-disabled children. Pete Rozelle died in 1996.
Friedman Paul Erhardt, a German-born cook known as "Chef Tell" who was one of America's pioneering television chefs, has died. He was 63. Erhardt died last Friday of heart failure at his home in Upper Black Eddy, about 25 miles east of Allentown, his family said. Erhardt's jolly personality, thick German accent and wit made him a fixture on TV shows such as "Regis and Kathie Lee" and comedy skits on "Saturday Night Live." He was also said to be the inspiration for the Swedish chef on "The Muppet Show." Born in Stuttgart, the son of a newspaper owner, Erhardt earned the nickname "Tell" after playing William Tell in a school play.
Freddie Jefferson, the first black woman to sit on the editorial board of The Palm Beach Post, has died. She was 71. Jefferson, who wrote a column under the name Stebbins Jefferson, using her maiden name as her first name, died Saturday of complications from heart surgery, friends and relatives said. She was born and raised in Arcadia, Fla., and moved to Palm Beach County in 1957, where she took a teaching job at Lake Shore High School in Belle Glade. Jefferson later taught at John F. Kennedy High School, Lake Worth High School and Palm Beach Community College. She joined the Post as a columnist in 1989, writing largely about race relations. Five years later, Jefferson joined the editorial board, where she spent the next decade.
Thomas J. Meskill, a Connecticut Republican who overcame early political losses to become a respected congressman, governor and federal judge, has died. He was 79. Meskill died early Monday of a heart attack in Florida, said his wife, Mary Meskill. He had the blood disorder myelodysplasia and had gone to Bethesda Memorial Hospital in Boynton Beach, Fla., on Sunday to have blood drawn, she said. Meskill was elected to Congress in 1966, representing northwestern Connecticut, and served until 1970. He won the election for governor that year and became the state's 82nd chief executive in January 1971, the first Republican to hold the office in 16 years. In 1975, President Gerald Ford named him a judge on the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York. He served full-time until 1993, and was chief judge in his last year.