Notable deaths last week
Ewald-Heinrich von Kleist, the last surviving member of the German resistance group that tried unsuccessfully to kill Adolf Hitler, has died. He was 90.
As a 21-year-old lieutenant, von Kleist accepted Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg’s personal request to make an attempt on Hitler’s life. The young officer planned to conceal two hand grenades under his coat and to detonate them in the Fuehrer’s presence at a demonstration of military uniforms in February 1944. The suicide mission never took place because Hitler was unable to attend. It was one of at least 40 known attempts to kill Hitler.
Von Kleist then joined his father — who had endorsed his son’s assassination plan — in the “Operation Valkyrie” plot led by von Stauffenberg and Major General Henning von Tresckow. On July 20, 1944, the group of senior officers and supporters, disillusioned by the mass killings of Jews and others in Eastern Europe, staged a synchronized coup with the backing of a reserve army.
Von Stauffenberg failed to kill Hitler with a bomb that exploded at the Wolf’s Lair headquarters in East Prussia, and the conspirators were quickly rounded up by the Gestapo.
About 600 people were arrested and about 150 were executed for their roles in the plot.
Jack Greene, a longtime Grand Ole Opry star whose song “There Goes My Everything” won single of the year from the Country Music Association in 1967, has died. He was 83.
His other hits, most recorded in the late 1960s, included “All the Time,” “Are My Treasure,” “Until My Dreams Come True,” “What Locks the Door” and “Statue of a Fool.”
Booth Gardner, a two-term Democratic governor who later in life spearheaded a campaign that made Washington the second state in the country to legalize assisted suicide for the terminally ill, has died after a long battle with Parkinson’s disease. He was 76.
Former Argentina economy minister Jose Alfredo Martinez de Hoz has died at age 87 while awaiting sentencing for human rights abuses during the military dictatorship.
The film producer and director whose credits included “The Magnificent Seven” and “West Side Story has died. Robert E. Relyea was 82.
Relyea’s career spanned over 40 years. He worked with stars such as John Wayne on “The Alamo” and Elvis Presley on “Jailhouse Rock.”
He collaborated with Steve McQueen on several films, including “Bullitt,” “Le Mans” and “The Reivers.”
Dr. Jacquelin Perry, a world-renowned orthopedic surgeon who pioneered treatments to help polio patients regain movement, has died at age 94 in California.
Ieng Sary, the foreign minister of the brutal Khmer Rouge regime in Cambodia and brother-in-law to the late despot Pol Pot, has died in Phnom Penh while standing trial for genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes. He was 87.
Jack Curran spent more than a half century compiling records in high school basketball and baseball that might never be toppled.
The 82-year-old coaching great from New York’s Archbishop Molloy High School died Thursday, the school said.
Clive Burr, former drummer with heavy metal icons Iron Maiden, has died. He was 56 and had been suffering from multiple sclerosis.
The United States Trotting Association announced that Rocknroll Hanover has been euthanized after developing a gastric impaction. The death of the 2005 harness horse of the year at age 11 occurred earlier this week. It came just a year after the horse was inducted into the harness racing hall of fame.
The woman Richard Burton left to marry Elizabeth Taylor has died. Theater producer and nightclub founder Sybil Christopher was 83.
A character actor who had minor roles in “Tootsie,” “Taxi Driver” and dozens of other films has died. Willy Switkes was 83.
John J. Byrne Jr., the chairman and chief executive of Geico who was credited with leading the insurance giant from near-bankruptcy to profitability in the late 1970s — an achievement that remains one of the celebrated turnarounds in modern business history —has died at his home in Etna, N.H. He was 80.
She was one of the better kept secrets of Sweden’s royal household: a commoner and divorcee whose relationship with Prince Bertil was seen as a threat to the Bernadotte dynasty.
In a touching royal romance, Welsh-born Princess Lilian and her Bertil kept their love unofficial for decades and were both in their 60s when they finally received the king’s blessing to get married.
Lilian died in her Stockholm home at age 97.