Notable deaths last week

Karen Black, the prolific actress who appeared in more than 100 movies and was featured in such counterculture favorites as “Easy Rider,” “Five Easy Pieces” and “Nashville,” has died in Los Angeles.

Known for her full lips and thick, wavy hair that seemed to change color from film to film, Black often portrayed women who were quirky, troubled or threatened. Her breakthrough was as a prostitute who takes LSD with Dennis Hopper and Peter Fonda in 1969’s “Easy Rider,” the hippie classic that helped get her the role of Rayette Dipesto, a waitress who dates — and is mistreated by — an upper-class dropout played by Jack Nicholson in 1970’s “Five Easy Pieces.”

Cited by The New York Times as a “pathetically appealing vulgarian,” Black’s performance won her an Oscar nomination and Golden Globe Award. She would recall that playing Rayette really was acting: The well-read, cerebral Black, raised in Park Ridge, Ill., had little in common with her relatively simple-minded character.

Art Donovan, the lineman whose hilarious stories about his football career enabled him to maintain his popularity long after his election into the Pro Football Hall of Fame, has died at 89.

Donovan made a name for himself as a feisty defensive tackle for the Baltimore Colts, helping the team to world championships in 1958 and 1959. He also spent single seasons with the New York Yanks and Dallas Texans in a career that lasted from 1950 through 1961.

Jody Payne, a guitarist who toured with Willie Nelson for more than three decades, has died. He was 77.

According to a 2011 profile in The Mobile Press-Register, Payne toured with Nelson from 1973 to 2008. He retired to Stapleton, Ala., with his wife Vicki. There he continued playing music, teaching the guitar at a local music store.

William Lynch, a deputy to then-New York Mayor David Dinkins who for 40 years played an active role in city, state and national politics and was influential in Nelson Mandela’s historic visit, died Friday at age 72.

Dinkins, who was mayor in the early 1990s, said Lynch “will be fondly remembered by many.”

“I hope that the city, the country really, remembers that it was because of Bill Lynch that I ran for mayor in the first place and would not have succeeded had it not been for him,” Dinkins said.

Johnny Logan, a four-time All-Star shortstop who helped the Milwaukee Braves win the 1957 World Series, has died. He was 86.

Jerry Wolman, who owned the Philadelphia Eagles from 1963-69, has died. He was 86.

One of the founding members of the renowned salsa band El Gran Combo de Puerto Rico has died.

A daughter of Eddie Perez said he died Friday at a Puerto Rico hospital from a blood infection following a foot amputation.

Mariel Perez said her father made his debut at age 13 and had played the saxophone for more than 60 years. She did not provide his age.

Larry W. Stephens, who helped The Associated Press usher in a new era of technology from old-style teletype machines to modern-day satellite dishes and high speed delivery, died Friday after a battle with cancer.

Stephens, 71, was the longtime chief of communications for AP in Washington.

Entertainer Marilyn King, who spent decades singing with the King Sisters and also worked as a songwriter and actress, has died at 82.

King began her singing career at 13, eventually joining her sisters’ quartet, which released more than 150 albums in the 1940s, ’50s and ’60s. She went on to appear with her sisters on The King Family Show, an ABC variety program in the 1960s.

Jacqueline Gingrich , the ex-wife of former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich has died in Atlanta at age 77.

Her divorce from the Republican politician was final in 1981 and six months later, he married his second wife, Marianne. Their marriage ended in divorce in 2000.

“Cowboy” Jack Clement, a producer, engineer, songwriter and beloved figure who helped birth rock `n’ roll and push country music into modern times, has died at 82.

His death came just months after he learned he would be joining the Country Music Hall of Fame, a fitting tip of the hat to the man whose personal story is entwined with the roots of modern music like few others. He was to be inducted at a ceremony this fall.

A man who made history when he publicly exchanged vows with well-known gay partner and AIDS activist Pedro Zamora in the 1990s has died. Sean Sasser was 44.

In what was then an unprecedented act, Sasser exchanged vows with Zamora in a 1994 commitment ceremony on MTV’s seminal reality TV show “The Real World.” Zamora died of AIDS later that year, and Sasser became an AIDS activist.

AIDS United’s board of trustees chairman Douglas Brooks says the Detroit native died of mesothelioma, a form of lung cancer.

Margaret Pellegrini, one of the original Munchkins from the 1939 classic movie “The Wizard of Oz,” has died. She was 89.

With her death, only two of the original 124 Munchkins in the movie are still alive.

Pellegrini has said she was 16 when “The Wizard of Oz” was filmed. She played one of the “sleepy head” kids and wore a flowerpot on her head in the movie.

Barbara Mertz, a best-selling mystery writer who wrote dozens of novels under two pen names, has died. She was 85.

Mertz wrote more than 35 mysteries under the name Elizabeth Peters, including her most popular series about a daring Victorian archaeologist named Amelia Peabody. She also wrote 29 suspense novels under the pen name Barbara Michaels, and under her own name, she wrote nonfiction books about ancient Egypt.

Born Barbara Louise Gross, Mertz grew up in small-town Illinois during the Depression and went to the University of Chicago on scholarship, where she wrote on her website, “I was supposed to be preparing myself to teach — a nice, sensible career for a woman.”

In 1998, Mertz received the grandmaster lifetime achievement award from the Mystery Writers of America, the top award from the mystery writers group.

Western cartoonist and author Stan Lynde, creator of the nationally syndicated “Rick O’Shay” comic strip, had died of cancer in Montana. He was 81.

His “Rick O’Shay” comic strip began in 1958 and ran for 20 years with an average daily readership of about 15 million people. In 1979, he launched another comic strip, “Latigo,” which ran through 1983.

Cosmo Allegretti, who created and voiced puppet characters like Grandfather Clock and Dancing Bear on the children’s television show “Captain Kangaroo,” has died. He was 86.

George Duke, a Grammy-winning keyboardist who crossed musical boundaries to play with entertainers as diverse as Michael Jackson, Frank Zappa and Miles Davis and who became a successful producer of pop-oriented rhythm-and-blues records in the 1980s, has died in Los Angeles at 67.

The cause was chronic lymphocytic leukemia, his family said.

As a musician, Duke made forays into the avant-garde rock of Zappa, Brazilian jazz and urban funk. His long string of recording credits included keyboard work on Jackson’s 1979 “Off the Wall” album and records by jazz saxophonist Sonny Rollins and trumpeter Davis.

Shawn Burr, who played 16 years in the NHL, mostly with the Detroit Red Wings, has died at 47.

Dave Goetze, a friend of Burr’s, says Burr was making progress in a fight against leukemia, but he died from brain trauma after a fall at his Detroit-area home.

Burr was a first-round draft pick by the Red Wings in 1984. He made his NHL debut in 1984-85 and was with the Red Wings until 1995. He also played for the Tampa Bay Lightning and San Jose Sharks.

Dmytro Groisman, a pioneering Ukrainian rights advocate, has died after years of battling heart disease, his colleague said. He was 41.

John Palmer, who told television viewers the story of their nation and world during 40 on-air years with NBC News and whose best-remembered scoop concerned the aborted U.S. mission in 1980 to rescue American hostages in Iran, has died at 77.

Adm. John “Sandy” Woodward, who led the Royal Navy task force during the 1982 Falklands War, has died. He was 81.