Obituaries

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One of the last surviving members of the last Detroit Lions' last championship season (1957 -- longest drought at the championship level now in effect, as the Detroit Lions have never made any of the 52 Super Bowls and haven't gotten close):

Dorne Allen Dibble (April 16, 1929 – March 1, 2018) was a former American football wide receiver for the Detroit Lions (1951, 1953–1957). He attended Michigan State.

Dibble was the Lions’ third-round draft pick in 1951 after starring at Michigan State where he earned All-America honors as a defensive end his senior year. The Lions converted him to receiver and the switch paid instant dividends. Dibble tied Doak Walker’s record for the most touchdown receptions by a rookie with six TD catches in 1951. Dibble also set the Lions’ rookie record for yards per catch average that season at 20.4 – 30 catches for 613 yards.
Dibble served the 1952 season in the military, but came back to star for the Lions from 1953–1957 and helped the Detroit win the NFL Championships in 1953 and 1957. The Lions also went to the title game in 1954, the year Dibble led Detroit receivers and ranked fifth in the NFL with 46 receptions for 768 yards and six touchdowns.
In his career, Dibble had 146 receptions for 2,552 yards – a 17.5 yards-per-catch average – and 19 TDs.
Dibble died in Northville, Michigan on March 1, 2018 of pneumonia at the age of 88.[1]


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dorne_Dibble

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David Ogden Stiers, actor best known as the snobbish Dr. Charles Emerson Winchester III on the TV series M*A*S*H

David Ogden Stiers (October 31, 1942 – March 3, 2018) was an American actor, voice actor and musician, noted for his role on the television series M*A*S*H as Major Charles Emerson Winchester III and the supernatural fiction drama The Dead Zone as Reverend Gene Purdy. He gained prominence earlier in his career for the role of District Attorney Michael Reston in several Perry Mason TV movies.

Stiers was born in Peoria, Illinois, the son of Margaret Elizabeth (née Ogden) and Kenneth Truman Stiers.[1] He attended Urbana High School as a freshman; one of his classmates was Roger Ebert.[2] Stiers moved to Eugene, Oregon, where he graduated from North Eugene High School and briefly attended the University of Oregon.[3] He later moved to San Francisco, where he performed with the California Shakespeare Theater, San Francisco Actors Workshop, and the improv group The Committee, whose members included Rob Reiner, Howard Hesseman and Peter Bonerz. Stiers studied at the Juilliard School (Drama Division Group 1: 1968–1972).[4] During his studies, Stiers was mentored by actor John Houseman, whose City Center Acting Company he later joined.[5]

Stiers first appeared in the Broadway production The Magic Show in 1974 in the minor role of Feldman. Subsequent early credits include The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Kojak, and Rhoda. Stiers also appeared in the pilot of Charlie's Angels as the team's chief back-up.[6]

In 1977, Stiers joined the cast of the CBS-TV sitcom M*A*S*H. As Major Charles Emerson Winchester III, Stiers filled the void created by the departure of actor Larry Linville's Frank Burns character. In contrast to the buffoonish Burns, Winchester was a well-spoken and talented surgeon who presented a different type of foil to Alan Alda's Hawkeye Pierce and Mike Farrell's B.J. Hunnicutt. Burns usually served as the butt of practical jokes instigated by Pierce or Hunnicutt, was frequently inundated by insults for which he had no comebacks, and his surgical skills were often harshly criticized. Winchester, however, presented a challenge to his colleagues' displays of irreverence because his surgical skills could match or even outshine their own, and when it came to pranks and insults, he could give as good as he got; his aristocratic manner and aversion to puerile behavior served as the target for his fellow surgeons' barbs and jokes. At times, however, Winchester could align himself with Pierce and Hunnicutt and, a few tantrums aside, he held considerable admiration for his commanding officer, Harry Morgan's Col. Sherman T. Potter. For his portrayal of the pompous but nonetheless multifaceted Boston aristocrat, Stiers received two Emmy Award nominations.

After M*A*S*H completed its run in 1983, Stiers expanded his work on television with regular guest appearances on North and South; Star Trek: The Next Generation; Murder, She Wrote; Matlock; Touched by an Angel; Wings; and Frasier, along with a recurring role in Season 1 of Two Guys and a Girl as Mr. Bauer. In 1984, he portrayed United States Olympic Committee founder William Milligan Sloane in the NBC miniseries The First Olympics: Athens 1896. Beginning in 1985, Stiers made his first of eight appearances in Perry Mason made-for-TV movies as District Attorney Michael Reston. He had guest appearances on ALF and Matlock. He appeared in two unsuccessful television projects, Love & Money and Justice League of America (as the Martian Manhunter). In 2002, Stiers started a recurring role as the Reverend Purdy on the successful USA Network series The Dead Zone with Anthony Michael Hall. In 2006, he was cast as the recurring character Oberoth in Stargate Atlantis.

More at Wikipedia.

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Sir Roger Bannister, first person to run a four-minute mile:


Sir Roger Gilbert Bannister, CH, CBE (23 March 1929 – 3 March 2018) was a British middle-distance athlete, doctor and academic, who ran the first sub-four-minute mile.


In the 1952 Olympics in Helsinki, Bannister set a British record in the 1500 metres and finished fourth. This strengthened his resolve to be the first 4-minute miler. He achieved this feat on 6 May 1954 at Iffley Road track in Oxford, with Chris Chataway and Chris Brasher providing the pacing. When the announcer, Norris McWhirter, declared "The time was three...", the cheers of the crowd drowned out Bannister's exact time, which was 3 minutes 59.4 seconds. Bannister's record lasted just 46 days. He had reached this record with minimal training, while practising as a junior doctor.

Bannister went on to become a distinguished neurologist and Master of Pembroke College, Oxford, before retiring in 1993. When asked whether the 4-minute mile was his proudest achievement, he said he felt prouder of his contribution to academic medicine through research into the responses of the nervous system. Bannister was patron of the MSA Trust. He was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease in 2011.[2]



On the 50th anniversary of running the sub-4-minute mile, Bannister was interviewed by the BBC's sports correspondent Rob Bonnet. At the conclusion of the interview, Bannister was asked whether he looked back on the sub-4-minute mile as the most important achievement of his life. Bannister replied to the effect that no, he rather saw his subsequent forty years of practising as a neurologist and some of the new procedures he introduced as being more significant. His major contribution in academic medicine was in the field of autonomic failure, an area of neurology focusing on illnesses characterised by certain automatic responses of the nervous system (for example, elevated heart rate when standing up) not occurring.

For his efforts, Bannister was also made the inaugural recipient of the Sports Illustrated Sportsman of the Year award in 1955 (he was given the award as the 1954 Sportsman of the Year, but it was awarded in January 1955) and is one of the few non-Americans recognised by the American-published magazine as such.


In a UK poll conducted by Channel 4 in 2002, the British public voted Bannister's historic sub-4-minute mile as number 13 in the list of the 100 Greatest Sporting Moments.[19]

Bannister is the subject of the ESPN film Four Minutes (2005). This film is a dramatisation, its major departures from the factual record being the creation of a fictional character as Bannister's coach, who was actually Franz Stampfl, an Austrian, and secondly his meeting his wife, Moyra Jacobsson, in the early 1950s when in fact they met in London only a few months before the Miracle Mile itself took place. Bannister was portrayed by Jamie Maclachlan.

Bannister: Everest on the Track, The Roger Bannister Story is a 2016 TV documentary about his childhood and youth in WWII and postwar Britain and the breaking of the 4 minute mile barrier, with interviews of participants and witnesses to the 1954 race, and later runners inspired by Bannister and his achievement, including Phil Knight who says that Roger Bannister inspired him to start Nike.[20]

In the 1988 television mini-series The Four Minute Mile, about the rivalry between Bannister, John Landy and Wes Santee to be first to break the 4 minute mile mark, Bannister was portrayed by actor Richard Huw.
The 50th anniversary of Bannister's achievement was marked by a commemorative British 50-pence coin. The reverse of the coin shows the legs of a runner and a stopwatch (stopped at 3:59.4).

Bannister, arguably the most famous record-setter in the mile, is also the man who held the record for the shortest period of time, at least since the IAAF started to ratify records.

In 1996, Pembroke College, University of Oxford named the Bannister Building to honour the achievements of Sir Roger, a former Master of the college. The building, an 18th-century townhouse in Brewer Street, was converted to provide accommodation for graduate students. Following extensive refurbishments during 2011 and 2012, it became part of the building complex surrounding the Rokos Quad, and became used as undergraduate accommodation.[21]
In 2012, Bannister carried the Olympic flame at the site of his memorable feat, in the Oxford University track stadium now named after him.

Much more at Wikipedia.

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Count Hubert James Marcel Taffin de Givenchy (pronounced [ybɛʁ də ʒivɑ̃ʃi]; 21 February 1927[2] – 10 March 2018[3]) was a French fashion designer who founded the house of Givenchy in 1952. He was famous for having designed much of the personal and professional wardrobe of Audrey Hepburn and clothing for Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy. He was named to the International Best Dressed List Hall of Fame in 1970.[4]


Givenchy's first designs were done for Jacques Fath in 1945.[6][9] Later he did designs for Robert Piguet and Lucien Lelong (1946) – working alongside the still-unknown Pierre Balmain and Christian Dior.[6][9] From 1947 to 1951 he worked for the avantgarde designer Elsa Schiaparelli.[6][9]



Silk blouse and skirt ensemble designed by Givenchy for Givenchy Haute Couture, circa 1985.

In 1952, he opened his own design house at the Plaine Monceau in Paris.[6][7] Later, he named his first collection "Bettina Graziani" for Paris's top model at the time.[6] His style was marked by innovation, contrary to the more conservative designs by Dior. At 25, he was the youngest designer of the progressive Paris fashion scene. His first collections were characterized by the use of rather cheap fabrics for financial reasons, but they always piqued curiosity through their design.[citation needed]

Audrey Hepburn, later the most prominent proponent of Givenchy's fashion, and Givenchy met in 1953 during the shoot of Sabrina.[10][11] He went on to design the black dress she wore in Breakfast at Tiffany's.[10][11]
He also developed his first perfume collection for her (L'Interdit and Le de Givenchy).[6][7] Audrey Hepburn was the face of that fragrance. This was the first time a star was the face of a fragrance's advertising campaign, and probably the last time that it was done for free, only by friendship.[12]

At that time, Givenchy also met his idol, Cristóbal Balenciaga.[7][13] Although a renowned designer, Givenchy not only sought inspiration from the lofty settings of haute couture but also in such avant-garde environments as Limbo, the store in Manhattan's East Village.[14]

Clients have included Donna Marella Agnelli, Lauren Bacall,[5] Ingrid Bergman, Countess Mona von Bismarck, Countess Cristiana Brandolini d'Adda, Sunny von Bülow, Renata Tebaldi, Maria Callas, Capucine, Marlene Dietrich,[5] Daisy Fellowes, Greta Garbo, Gloria Guinness, Dolores Guinness, Aimee de Heeren, Audrey Hepburn,[10] Jane Holzer, Grace Kelly,[10] Princess Salimah Aga Khan, Rachel Lambert Mellon, Jeanne Moreau, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis,[10] Empress Farah Pahlavi, Babe Paley, Lee Radziwill, Comtesse Jacqueline de Ribes, Nona Hendryx, Baroness Pauline de Rothschild, Frederica von Stade, Baroness Gaby Van Zuylen van Nijevelt, Diana Vreeland, Betsey Cushing Roosevelt Whitney, Baroness Sylvia de Waldner, the Duchess of Windsor, and Jayne Wrightsman.
In 1954, Givenchy's prêt-à-porter collection debuted.[7][13]

Givenchy created the iconic 'Balloon coat' and the 'Baby Doll' dress in 1958.[15][16]

In 1969,[17] a men's line was also created.[7] From 1976 through 1983, the Ford Motor Company offered a Givenchy Edition of its Continental Mark series of luxury automobiles beginning in 1976 with the Continental Mark IV coupe and ending with the 1983 Continental Mark VI coupe and sedan. In 1988, he organized a retrospective of his work at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel in Beverly Hills, California.[9]

The House of Givenchy was split in 1981, with the perfume line going to Veuve Clicquot, while the fashion branch was acquired by LVMH in 1989.[18] As of today, LVMH owns Parfums Givenchy as well.[6]

More at Wikipedia.

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Physicist (and in his way, pop culture icon) Stephen Hawking, or as the cartoon figure Homer Simpson called him when encountering his gross ignorance on science "that wheelchair guy".

Stephen Hawking dies aged 76


Nick Higham looks back at Professor Stephen Hawking's life

World renowned physicist Stephen Hawking has died at the age of 76.

He died peacefully at his home in Cambridge in the early hours of Wednesday, his family said.
The Briton was known for his work with black holes and relativity, and wrote several popular science books including A Brief History of Time.

At the age of 22 Prof Hawking was given only a few years to live after being diagnosed with a rare form of motor neuron disease.



The illness left him in a wheelchair and largely unable to speak except through a voice synthesiser.
In a statement his children, Lucy, Robert and Tim, said: "We are deeply saddened that our beloved father passed away today.

"He was a great scientist and an extraordinary man whose work and legacy will live on for many years."
They praised his "courage and persistence" and said his "brilliance and humour" inspired people across the world.

"He once said, 'It would not be much of a universe if it wasn't home to the people you love.' We will miss him forever."



Prof Hawking was the first to set out a theory of cosmology as a union of relativity and quantum mechanics.

He also discovered that black holes leak energy and fade to nothing - a phenomenon that would later become known as Hawking radiation.

Through his work with mathematician Sir Roger Penrose he demonstrated that Einstein's General Theory of Relativity implies space and time would have a beginning in the Big Bang and an end in black holes.

The scientist gained popularity outside the academic world and appeared in several TV shows including The Simpsons, Red Dwarf and The Big Bang Theory.


He was portrayed in both TV and film - recently by Oscar winner Eddie Redmayne in The Theory of Everything, which charted his rise to fame and relationship with his first wife, Jane.

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Factfile: Stephen Hawking

• Born 8 January 1942 in Oxford, England
  
• Earned place at Oxford University to read natural science in 1959, before studying for his PhD at Cambridge
  
• By 1963, was diagnosed with motor neurone disease and given two years to live
  
• Outlined his theory that black holes emit "Hawking radiation" in 1974
  
• Published his book A Brief History of Time in 1988, which has sold more than 10 million copies
  
• His life story was the subject of the 2014 film The Theory of Everything, starring Eddie Redmayne
  

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Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the web, was one of the first people to pay tribute to Prof Hawking.
"We have lost a colossal mind and a wonderful spirit. Rest in peace, Stephen Hawking," he said.
Skip Twitter post by @NASA

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Apple's co-founder Steve Wozniak said: "Stephen Hawking's integrity and scientific dedication placed him above pure brilliance,"Satya Nadella, Microsoft chief executive, said: "We lost a great one today. Stephen Hawking will be remembered for his incredible contributions to science - making complex theories and concepts more accessible to the masses.

"He'll also be remembered for his spirit and unbounded pursuit to gain a complete understanding of the universe, despite the obstacles he faced."
Image copyright AFP/Getty Images Image caption Stephen Hawking arrives on the red carpet with former wife Jane Hawking (l) and daughter Lucy Hawking ®.

In his 2013 memoir he described how he felt when first diagnosed with motor neurone disease.
"I felt it was very unfair - why should this happen to me," he wrote.
"At the time, I thought my life was over and that I would never realise the potential I felt I had. But now, 50 years later, I can be quietly satisfied with my life."

[url=http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-43396008]From the BBC.

His memory will surely never go into any black hole.

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Expert on babies, T. Berry Brazelton

Thomas Berry Brazelton (May 10, 1918 – March 13, 2018) was an American pediatrician, author, and the developer of the Neonatal Behavioral Assessment Scale (NBAS). Brazelton hosted the cable television program What Every Baby Knows, and wrote a syndicated newspaper column. He wrote more than two hundred scholarly papers and twenty-four books.


Brazelton was born in Waco, Texas. He graduated in 1940 from Princeton and in 1943 from the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York City, where he accepted a medical internship at Roosevelt Hospital. From 1945, after war service in the U.S. Navy, he completed his medical residency in Boston Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) before undertaking pediatric training at Children's Hospital of Boston.

He entered private practice in 1950, in Cambridge, Massachusetts. His interest in child development led to training in child psychiatry at MGH and the James Jackson Putnam Children's Center. He subsequently served as a Fellow with Professor Jerome Bruner at the Center for Cognitive Studies at Harvard University, then combined his interests in primary care pediatrics and child psychiatry and in 1972 established the Child Development Unit, a pediatric training and research center at Children's Hospital in Boston. Since 1988, he has been Clinical Professor of Pediatrics Emeritus at Harvard Medical School.

Brazelton was president of the Society for Research in Child Development (1987–1989), and of the National Center for Clinical Infant Programs (1988–1991). He has appeared many times before Congressional committees in support of parental and medical leave bills, and continues to work with the Alliance for Better Child Care for a more comprehensive day care bill. He is a co-founder of Parent Action and serves on the National Commission on Children.
Brazelton has appeared several times on The Oprah Winfrey Show and the Ellen DeGeneres Show.

Brazelton's foremost achievement in pediatrics and child development has been to increase pediatricians' awareness of, and attention to, the effect of young children's behavior, activity states, and emotional expressions on the ways their parents react to, and thereby affect them. For example, one of his first publications in the field of psychology was a study with Kenneth Kaye of the interaction between babies' sucking at breast or bottle and the mother's attempts to maintain it, the earliest form of human "dialogue". The Brazelton Neonatal Behavioral Assessment Scale (NBAS) assesses not only the physical and neurological responses of newborns, but also their emotional well being and individual differences.[1]

The Neonatal Behavioral Assessment Scale (NBAS) looks at a wide range of behaviors and is suitable for examining newborns and infants up to two months old. By the end of the assessment, the examiner has a behavioral "portrait" of the infant, describing the baby's strengths, adaptive responses and possible vulnerabilities. The examiner shares this portrait with parents to develop appropriate caregiving strategies aimed at enhancing the earliest relationship between babies and parents. It evaluates a wide range of 38 behaviors to build a behavioral profile of an infant up to 2 months old. The Scale contains 28 behavioral and 18 reflex items. It assesses the baby's capabilities across different developmental areas (autonomic, motor, state and social-interactive systems) and describes how infants integrate these areas as they adapt to their new environment .This approach was innovative for recognizing that a baby is a highly developed organism, even when just newly born. The profile describes the baby's strengths, adaptive responses and possible vulnerabilities.

The NBAS is based on several key assumptions. First, infants, even ones that seem vulnerable, are highly capable when they are born. "A newborn already has nine months of experience when she is born," Dr. Brazelton notes. "She is capable of controlling her behavior in order to respond to her new environment." Second, babies "communicate" through their behavior, which, although it may not always seem like it, is a rational language. Not only do infants respond to cues around them, like their parents' faces, but they also take steps to control their environment, such as crying to get a response from their caregivers. Third, infants are social organisms, individuals with their own unique qualities, ready to shape as well as be shaped by the caregiving environment.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T._Berry_Brazelton

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Zdeněk Mahler (7 December 1928, Batelov – 17 March 2018)[1] was a Czech writer, musicologist, pedagogue and screenwriter. He was a distant relative of the composer Gustav Mahler.

As a student of Faculty of Arts in Prague Mahler cooperated with Student magazines and also with Československý rozhlas where he get regular job after finishing his studies. Since 1960 he worked as a freelance writer. He published several books, such as Search for golden age (1965, translated to English in 1966) and biographies of famous persons, such as Masaryk, Dvořák or Destinová.[2]

As a screenwriter Mahler contributed to the creation of several successful films, such as Nebeští jezdci (1968), Den sedmý, osmá noc (1969), The Divine Emma (1978), Amadeus (1984), Goya's Ghosts (2007), Lidice (2011) and many other films or TV documentaries.[2][3]

More at Wikipedia.

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Sudan, the last living male northern white rhinoceros. The species is apparently doomed to extinction now.

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Charles Lazarus, who founded Toys "R" Us 70 years ago, died Thursday, a week after the company announced it will be forced to shut down its U.S. operations.

Lazarus, 94, no longer held a stake in the chain. He started the company in 1948 when he was 25, anticipating that the post-war baby boom would create demand for baby supplies and toys. He remained CEO until 1994.

"He was the father of the toy business," said Michael Goldstein, who succeed him as CEO. "He knew the toys and loved the toys and loved the kids who would shop in the stores. His face lit up when he watched kids playing with toys."

His death was confirmed by the company.


"There have been many sad moments for Toys "R" Us in recent weeks, and none more heartbreaking than today's news about the passing of our beloved founder," Toys "R" Us said in a statement. "He visited us in New Jersey just last year, and we will forever be grateful for his positive energy, passion for the customer and love for children everywhere. Our thoughts and prayers are with Charles' family and loved ones."

He started selling baby furniture in a store called Children's Bargain Town in Washington, D.C. But he quickly expanded to selling toys.

http://money.cnn.com/2018/03/22/news/com...index.html

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Winner of the first (1956) Eurovision song contest

In 1956 she was the winner of the very first Eurovision Song Contest, in which she sang for Switzerland.[2] She had also been in the German national final of that year and returned to the contest again for Switzerland in 1957 and 1958.[2]

In September 2011, Assia entered her song "C'était ma vie" written by Ralph Siegel and Jean Paul Cara into the Swiss national selection for the Eurovision Song Contest 2012 in Baku, Azerbaijan.[3][4] The song, however, only came eighth in a closely fought national selection. She attended the event in Baku as a guest of honour.[5]

In 2012, Assia again entered the Swiss national selection Die grosse Entscheidungs Show to represent Switzerland in Malmö at the Eurovision Song Contest 2013 with the song "All In Your Head" featuring the hip-hop band New Jack.[6] There were rumours of Assia representing San Marino, however it was announced on 30 January 2013 that Valentina Monetta would represent San Marino.[7]


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lys_Assia

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Wayne Huizenga, founder of Waste Management and sports impresario


Harry Wayne Huizenga (/haɪˈzɛŋɡə/, born December 29, 1937 – March 22, 2018) was an American businessman and entrepreneur. He was the owner of Blockbuster Video, AutoNation, Waste Management, Inc., the Miami Dolphins of the National Football League, the Florida Panthers of the National Hockey League, and the Florida Marlins of Major League Baseball.


In Fort Lauderdale, he started a garbage hauling business, as his grandfather had done in Chicago in 1894.[2] In 1962, he started the Southern Sanitation Service by borrowing US$5,000 from his father and sweet-talking with a rival trash hauler into selling him used trucks.[6] Beginning with a single garbage truck in 1968, and pursuing customers in an aggressive manner,[14] he created Waste Management, Inc., an entity that would eventually become a Fortune 500 company. Huizenga purchased many independent garbage hauling companies; by the time he took the company public in 1972, he had completed the acquisition of 133 small-time haulers. In the early 1980s, he had grown Waste Management into one of the largest waste-disposal companies in the United States.[15] In 1984, he left the company and soon again, he was buying companies including suppliers of portable toilets and water bottles for home coolers.[5]
Huizenga repeated the process with Blockbuster Video, acquiring a handful of stores in 1987,[16] with the company becoming the leading movie-rental chain in the U.S. by 1994. After a process of building and acquiring auto dealerships, in 1996, he formed AutoNation, which became the nation's largest automotive dealer.[17]

In 2004, he sold Boca Resorts, a group of hotels that included The Hyatt Pier 66 Hotel[18] and the Radisson Bahia Mar Hotel & Marina[19] in Fort Lauderdale, The Boca Raton Resort & Club in Boca Raton, Florida, and several others in Naples, Florida and Arizona to private equity firm Blackstone as part of a $1.25 billion deal.[18]

In 2010, Huizenga along with Steve Berrard, former CEO of Blockbuster Video and AutoNation, took on a majority stake in Swisher Hygiene, after paying $8.1 million to founder Patrick Swisher and his wife, Laura.[20] Swisher Hygiene went on to be traded on the NASDAQ and the Toronto Stock Exchange via a 2010 reverse takeover deal in which the company acquired the publicly traded CoolBrands International, a Canada-based frozen food and dessert manufacturer. CoolBrands had divested its core businesses in 2007, leaving little more than a corporate shell.[citation needed]


Huizenga was notable for introducing both baseball and ice hockey to the South Florida area as the creator and initial owner of the Florida Marlins and Florida Panthers.[6] Also he bought the cable television channel SportsChannel Florida in 1996 to air his teams' games in the region.
He was criticized for naming the two teams for the state of Florida rather than the city of Miami. As an advocate for the city of Fort Lauderdale, he explained that his goal was to include Broward County and Palm Beach County in his teams' fan base.[citation needed]
In 1994, Huizenga's brother-in-law attempted to purchase the NBA's Miami Heat,[21] but was unsuccessful.

Football

In 1990, during a period of financial hardship for the franchise, Huizenga purchased 15% of the National Football League club Miami Dolphins and its sports venue in Miami Gardens, Florida. Long-time owner Joe Robbie had died, and his family found it difficult to keep the team afloat. In turn, Huizenga bought the remaining shares of the team for $115 million to obtain total ownership in 1994.[22] He changed the name of Joe Robbie Stadium, selling the naming rights to Fruit of the Loom brand Pro Player for $2 million per year for 10 years.[23] It has since been renamed many times - as Dolphins Stadium, Dolphin Stadium, Land Shark Stadium, Sun Life Stadium, as well as a few other corporate names, such as Fruit of the Loom, and Hard Rock Stadium.[24]

In 2008, Huizenga sold 50% of the team and 50% of the stadium to Stephen M. Ross, chairman of The Related Companies. Huizenga remained the managing general partner of the franchise until January 2009, when he sold another 45% of the team and as much of the stadium to Ross. Thus, Ross became managing general partner with 95% ownership of the Dolphins and the stadium, and Huizenga retained a 5% share of both club and stadium.[25] Huizenga remained the proprietor of 50% of the land.[25][26]
In the early 1990s, Huizenga served a two-year probationary period with the National Football League as an owner, with the stipulation that he not buy another team.[20]

Baseball

In the 1996 off-season period, and only four years after the Marlins' first expansion appearance in the Major League, Huizenga and General Manager Dave Dombrowski spent more than $89 million in transfers, the amount surprising the rest of the league.[27] The Marlins strengthened its pitching staff by luring Alex Fernandez to Miami and brought over third baseman Bobby Bonilla, outfielder Moisés Alou, reliever Dennis Cook and outfielders John Cangelosi and Jim Eisenreich.[28] In the 1997 season, the team made the playoffs for the first time in its history and went on to win the World Series, defeating the Cleveland Indians in seven games.[28]

In the next off season, Huizenga, claiming a financial loss of approx. $34 million running the team that year,[29] a claim subsequently disputed by Smith College economist Andrew Zimbalist in an essay,[30] ordered the $54 million players-payroll to be cut, which led to an exodus of most of the Marlin's championship players.[29] In November 1998, the year after it won the World series, the Marlins were sold for a reported amount of approx. $150 million to commodities trader John Henry,[31] who would go on to sell the franchise in order to finance his 2002 acquisition of the Boston Red Sox. In 2017, the Marlins was sold by owner Jeffrey Loria to a group of investors for a reported sum of $1.2 billion.[32]

While his sale of the Marlins was characterized as "one of the worst moves in the franchise's history"[29] and Huizenga subsequently expressed regret over his final years with the club and wished he had instead chosen to "go one more year",[33] the analysts of the Baseball Prospectus, through statistical work, claimed that by both winning the sport's ultimate trophy and selling the club immediately after that win for a substantial profit, Wayne Huizenga proved to be a "genius."[28]

When he sold the Marlins, Huizenga, who still owned the Pro Player Stadium, retained the rights to skybox tickets and club seat customers, as well as 62.5% of parking revenue, and 30% of concessions.[34] Economist Andrew Zimbalist commented that "Huizenga made a killing when he sold the team for $150 million [in 1998] and had the lease for this stadium that enabled him to keep just about all the stadium revenue."[34]

Hockey

Huizenga operated the Florida Panthers as a public holding company, buying numerous real estate properties in the name of his Panthers Holding Group. Capitalizing on the team's 1996 drive to the Stanley Cup finals, he sold shares to the public, whose enthusiasm for the club drove civic leaders in Broward County to use public money to build a new arena for the team. Huizenga used the hockey team's stock as currency to begin building yet another diversified enterprise, buying two resort hotels owned partly by Huizenga and other Panthers officials. His original investment in the Panthers had nearly tripled in total value to $150 million.[35]
In 2001, he sold the Panthers to pharmaceutical businessman and friend Alan Cohen and Cohen's partner, former NFL quarterback Bernie Kosar, for approximately $100 million.[36] In December 2017, 25 years after he created the club, the Panthers retired the no. 37 shirt in honor of Huizenga. His family chose the number because it was his "birth year and lucky number."[37]

More at Wikipedia.

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Linda Brown, the literal "Brown" inin the landmark 1954 US Supreme Court case Brown vs. Board of Education:

(CNN)Linda Brown, who as a little girl was at the center of the Brown v. Board of Education case that ended segregation in American schools, has died, a funeral home spokesman said.

Brown, 75, died Sunday afternoon in Topeka, Kansas, the spokesman said.

Brown was 9 years old in 1951 when her father, Oliver Brown, tried to enroll her at Sumner Elementary School, then an all-white school near her Topeka home. When the school blocked her enrollment her father sued the Topeka Board of Education. Four similar cases were combined with Brown's complaint and presented to the Supreme Court as Oliver L. Brown et al v. Board of Education of Topeka, Shawnee County, Kansas, et al.

While her name will forever be a part of American civil rights history, her contributions to the community after the case are part of her legacy, too, longtime friend Carolyn Campbell said.

Much more at CNN.

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Black Lives Matter activist Muhiyidin Moye shot dead in New Orleans

'He loved Charleston and loved fighting for what's right. I've never met anyone more committed and hardworking than him,' says activist's niece

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world...00561.html

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Russian fraudster Sergei Mavrodi, operator of one of the biggest scams in history (the MMM pyramid scheme).

Sergei Panteleevich Mavrodi (Russian: Серге́й Пантеле́евич Мавро́ди; 11 August 1955 – 26 March 2018[1]) was a Russian financial fraudster and previously a deputy of the State Duma. He was the founder of the МММ series of pyramid schemes.

In 2007 Sergei Mavrodi was convicted in a Russian court of defrauding 10,000 investors out of 110 million rubles ($4.3 million).[2][3][4] Mavrodi claimed he was not the beneficiary of the donations and that he was not used to a flamboyant lifestyle. The charge of which he was later convicted was tax fraud[5] though he claimed that the MMM scheme was not a business, but instead a mutual donation program which there is no law against.[6] There were interviews after his release where he claimed MMM Global was behind the bitcoin price rally.[7]


In 1989 Mavrodi founded MMM.[9][10][11]

He was then elected as deputy of State Duma obtaining parliamentary immunity. Mavrodi declared MMM bankrupt on 22 December 1997, then disappeared, and was on the run until his arrest in 2003.[12]

In 1998 Mavrodi created Stock Generation,[13][14] allegedly a classic pyramid scheme presented as a "virtual stock market game".[2] The website ran from 1998 to early 2000. The Massachusetts district court initially found that U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission was unable to cite Stock Generation's founders and owners for securities violations. However, the United States Court of Appeals reversed this decision in 2001, concluding that the SEC alleged sufficient facts to state a triable claim.[15] In 2003 the SEC obtained permanent injunctions against SG Ltd. and relief defendants SG Perfect and SG Trading, which profited from the disbursement of funds fraudulently gained by SG Ltd.[16][17]

On 28 April 2007, a Moscow court sentenced him to four and a half years in a penal colony. The court also fined him 10,000 rubles ($390).[12]

In January 2011, Mavrodi launched another pyramid scheme called MMM-2011, asking investors to buy so-called Mavro currency units. He frankly described it as a pyramid, adding "It is a naked scheme, nothing more ... People interact with each other and give each other money. For no reason!"[18] Mavrodi said that his goal with MMM-2011 was to destroy the current financial system, which he considered unfair, which would allow something new to take its place. MMM-2011 was able to function openly as Ponzi schemes and financial pyramids are not illegal under Russian law.[19] In May 2012 he froze the operation and announced that there would be no more payouts.[20]

In 2011 he launched a similar scheme in India, called MMM India, again stating clearly that the vehicle was a pyramid.[21] He has also launched MMM in China.[22] He was reported to be trying to expand his operations into Western Europe, Canada, and Latin America.[19] As of September 2015 it had spread rapidly in South Africa with a claimed 1% per day or 30% per month interest rate scheme[23] and warnings from both the South African and Russian Communist Parties for people not to participate in it.[24] In early 2016, he continued the same model in Zimbabwe (the accounts were frozen in September 2016), and later, in Nigeria (accounts frozen in December 2016).[25][26] MMM Nigeria resumed activities on 13 January 2017.[27]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sergei_Mavrodi

Good riddance.

[pbrower2a]

Baseball star Rusty Staub

Daniel Joseph "Rusty" Staub (April 1, 1944 – March 29, 2018)[1] was an American professional baseball right fielder, designated hitter, and first baseman. He played in Major League Baseball for 23 years with five different teams. He was an original member of the Montreal Expos and that team's first star; though the Expos traded him after only three years, his enduring popularity led them to retire his number in 1993.



Staub signed his first professional contract with the expansion team Houston Colt .45s organization in 1961.[2] He spent the 1962 season in the Class B Carolina League, and at season's end he was named one of the league's all-stars.[3] Following that season, Staub was signed to a US$100,000 Major League contract under the Bonus Rule.[4] In his first season, at only 19 years of age, Staub played regularly, splitting time between first base and the outfield, but hit only .220. He became only the second major league rookie since 1900 to play 150 games as a teenager; the first had been Bob Kennedy, also 19, with the Chicago White Sox in 1940.[5] The following season, he hit only .216 for the Colts and was sent down to the minor leagues at one point.[6] His statistics steadily improved in the 1965 season for his team, which had been renamed the Astros, and he had a breakout 1967 season, when he led the league in doubles with 44 and was selected to the All-Star team. He repeated as an All-Star for the Astros in 1968.[citation needed]

Staub was traded to the Expos before the start of their inaugural season in 1969 as part of a deal for Donn Clendenon and Jesús Alou.[2] The trade became a source of controversy as Clendenon refused to report to the Astros and attempted to retire; the deal had to be resolved by Commissioner of Baseball Bowie Kuhn who ruled that the deal was official, but that Clendenon was to stay with the Expos. Montreal eventually dealt Jack Billingham, Skip Guinn, and $100,000 as compensation.[7]

He was embraced as the expansion team's first star, and became one of the most popular players in their history. Embraced by French Canadians because he learned their language,[8] he was nicknamed "Le Grand Orange" for his red hair (his more common nickname of "Rusty" has the same origin). The #10 worn by Staub during his first stint in Montreal was the first number retired by the Montreal Expos organization. He is also the franchise's career leader in on-base percentage (.402), among players with 2,000 or more plate appearances with the franchise.[9] He is also the first player to have won the Expos Player of the Year award.[citation needed]

In his three seasons with the team, he played in 480 total games, garnering 508 hits, 281 runs, 78 home runs and 270 RBIs with a .296 batting average.[citation needed]


After three seasons in Montreal, the New York Mets made a blockbuster trade for Staub in 1972 in exchange for first baseman-outfielder Mike Jorgensen, shortstop Tim Foli, and outfielder Ken Singleton.[2] He was batting .313 for the Mets until June 3 of that year, when he was hit by a pitch from future teammate George Stone of the Atlanta Braves,[10] fracturing his right wrist. He played through the pain for several weeks until X-rays revealed the broken bone.[11][12] Surgery was required and as a result, he went on the disabled list and didn't return to the line-up until September 18, 1972.


Staub circa 1973
The injury never quite healed right and to make matters worse, he was hit by a pitch from Ramón Hernández of the Pittsburgh Pirates (on the left hand this time) early in the 1973 season.[citation needed] But he still led the team in RBIs. In the National League Championship Series against the Cincinnati Reds, Staub hit three home runs and had five runs batted in.[citation needed] In Game 4 he made an outstanding play defensively, when he robbed Dan Driessen of an extra-base hit in the 11th inning. But while making the catch in right field, he crashed into the fence and separated his right shoulder.[13] The injury forced him out of the lineup for Game 5. The Mets went on to beat the heavily favored Reds to win the National League Pennant in 5 games. In the World Series the shoulder injury forced him out of Game 1.[citation needed] But he returned to the lineup for Game 2, but had to throw underhanded and weakly for the remainder of the World Series.[13] Despite the injury, he batted .423 against the Oakland Athletics including a home run and six runs batted in. For the 1973 postseason he batted .341 with 4 home runs and 11 runs batted in.[citation needed]

In 1974 he had an injury free season and led the Mets in hits, runs batted in, and at bats.[citation needed]
In 1975, he set a Mets record with 105 runs batted in—the first Met player to surpass 100 RBIs—which was not matched until 1986, when it was tied by Gary Carter, and not surpassed until 1990 when Darryl Strawberry recorded 108.[14]


Before the 1976 season, he was traded to the Detroit Tigers with pitcher Bill Laxton for pitcher Mickey Lolich and outfielder Billy Baldwin.[2]

In his three plus seasons with the Tigers, Staub hit .277 with 70 home runs and 358 runs batted in.[15] He was voted to start the 1976 All-Star Game, where he went 2-for-2.


In 1978, Staub became the first player to play in all 162 regular-season games exclusively as a designated hitter.[16] Not playing the field at all proved beneficial, as Staub finished second in the Major Leagues with 121 RBI and finished fifth in American League Most Valuable Player voting. He was selected to the Sporting News American League All-Star team at the end of the season as the designated hitter.[17]

Staub held out to start the 1979 season.[7] In the 1979 season, he played for the Tigers in 68 games, getting 246 at-bats with 58 hits, 9 home runs and 40 RBIs on a .236 batting average before being traded to the Montreal Expos on July 20 for a player to be named later and cash, with Randall Schafer being sent to complete the trade. He played in 38 games with the Expos, getting 23 hits along with three home runs and 14 RBIs on a .267 batting average.[citation needed] On March 31, 1980, he was traded to the Texas Rangers for Chris Smith and La Rue Washington.[2]


Staub played 109 games with the Rangers, with 102 hits in 388 plate appearances while having nine home runs and 55 RBIs for a .300 batting average (which was his first since 1971).[citation needed] He was granted free agency on October 23, and he signed with the New York Mets on December 16. Staub served as a player-coach in 1982. In 1983, he tied a National League record with eight straight pinch-hits and tied the Major League record of 25 RBIs by a pinch hitter.[13] In his five seasons with the Mets, he played in a combined total of 418 games (with 112 in 1982 being his most), making 702 plate appearances while hitting successfully 169 times and getting 13 home runs and 102 RBIs with a .276 batting average.[citation needed] Fittingly, his final game was against the Expos, pinch hitting for Ronn Reynolds in the bottom of the ninth inning.[citation needed] In his last plate appearance, he grounded out to end the game. [18]


Staub's career ended at the age of 41 in 1985. He was only 284 hits shy of the 3000 hit milestone. He was the only major league player to have 500 hits with four different teams.[13] He, Ty Cobb, Alex Rodriguez and Gary Sheffield share the distinction of being the only players to hit home runs before turning 20 years old, and after turning 40 years old.[19][20] Staub was on the Hall of Fame ballot for seven years from 1991 to 1997. He never received more than 7.9%, and he dropped off the ballot after receiving 3.8% in 1997.[21]

Staub was inducted into the New York Mets Hall of Fame in 1986. In 2004, he received an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree from Niagara University.[22] Jesuit High School, where Rusty graduated, annually gives the Rusty Staub Award to the leader of the varsity baseball team.[23] In 2006, Staub was inducted into the Texas Sports Hall of Fame [20] and six years later, in 2012, he was inducted into the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame.[24] On May 26, 2012, the New York Mets featured a Rusty Staub promotional giveaway bobblehead as part of their 50th anniversary celebration.[25]

On April 4, 1986, Staub established the Rusty Staub Foundation to provide educational scholarships for youth and fight hunger.[26][27]

In 1986, Staub founded the New York Police and Fire Widows' and Children's Benefit Fund, which supports the families of New York City police officers, firefighters, Port Authority police, and emergency medical personnel who were killed in the line of duty.[28] During its first 15 years of existence, the fund raised and distributed $11 million for families of policemen and firefighters killed in the line of duty.[29] Since September 11, 2001, Staub's organization has received contributions in excess of $112 million,[29] and it has played a vital role in helping many families affected by the attack.

Staub went on to work as a television announcer for Mets' ballgames from 1986 to 1995.[30]

Staub owned and ran two restaurants in Manhattan. Rusty Staub's opened in 1977, and Rusty Staub's on Fifth in 1989.[31] Both have since closed.


In July 2006, Staub teamed with Mascot Books to publish his first children's book, Hello, Mr. Met.[citation needed]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rusty_Staub

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Brutal war criminal, Guatemalan dictator Efraín Ríos Montt

[url= https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Efra%C3%AD...ADos_Montt]From Wikipedia[/url]

(Just read the Wikipedia biography, as his rule is particularly disgusting. He can roast in Hell!)

[pbrower2a]

TV writer and producer Stephen Bochco:

Steven Ronald Bochco (December 16, 1943 – April 1, 2018) was an American producer and writer. He developed a number of television series, including Hill Street Blues, L.A. Law, Doogie Howser, M.D., and NYPD Blue.

Bochco went to work for Universal Pictures as a writer and then story editor on Ironside, Columbo, McMillan & Wife, and the short-lived Lorne Greene and Ben Murphy series, Griff, as well as Delvecchio and The Invisible Man. He wrote the story and teleplay for Columbo: Murder by the book (1971) and the teleplay only for several other episodes. He wrote the screenplay for the 1968 television movie The Counterfeit Killer and worked on Silent Running (1972) and Double Indemnity (1973). He left Universal in 1978 to go to MTM Enterprises where he had greater scope for producing. His first effort there was the short-lived CBS police drama Paris, notable as the first series on which James Earl Jones played a lead role.

He achieved major success for NBC with the police drama Hill Street Blues. It ran from 1981 to 1987 and Bochco was credited as co-creator and also wrote and produced. The series also garnered considerable critical acclaim and many awards, and was nominated for a total of 98 Emmy Awards throughout its run. Bochco was fired from MTM in 1985 following the failure of Bay City Blues (1983).
Bochco moved to 20th Century Fox where he co-created and produced L.A. Law (1986–1994) which aired on NBC. This series was also widely acclaimed and a regular award winner and achieved far higher ratings success than Hill Street Blues had enjoyed.
In 1987, Bochco co-created the half-hour dramedy Hooperman which starred John Ritter but was canceled after two seasons, despite Bochco offering to take over direct day-to-day control of a third season. Hooperman was part of a lucrative deal with ABC in 1987 to create and produce ten new television series, which prompted Bochco to form Steven Bochco Productions.[4] From this deal came Doogie Howser, M.D. (1989–1993) and 1990's Cop Rock, which combined straight police drama with live-action Broadway singing and dancing. It was one of his highest-profile failures. In 1992, Bochco created an animated television series, Capitol Critters, along with Nat Mauldin and Michael Wagner.

After a lull, Bochco co-created NYPD Blue (1993–2005) with David Milch. Initially controversial at the time, the series was created with the express intention of changing the nature of network one-hour drama to compete with the more adult fare broadcast on cable networks. Other projects in this period that failed to take off include Murder One (1995–1997), Brooklyn South (1997), City of Angels (2000), Philly (2001), and Over There (2005). All five shows failed to match Bochco's earlier success though Murder One and Over There garnered critical praise.

In 2005, Bochco took charge of Commander in Chief (2005–2006) which was the creation of Rod Lurie and brought in a new writing team. However, in spring 2006, he left the show because of conflicts with ABC, and shortly afterward the program was canceled. Bochco described his experience on the show as "horrible".[5] In 2006 Bochco produced a pilot ABC show, Hollis & Rae,[6] and was reported at the same time to be developing a baseball drama and another legal drama for ABC in partnership with Chris Gerolmo.[7]
It was announced in March 2007 that he has taken his first steps into internet TV with the 44-episode Cafe Confidential, each episode being 60-seconds of unscripted "confessions" by members of the public.[8] Yet another legal drama entitled Raising the Bar was produced for TNT, this time in partnership with David Feige, although it was cancelled in December 2009 during the second season.[9][10]
According to an interview with Bochco published in September 2007, he is now winding down his involvement with network television, feeling that his tastes and current fashions in TV drama no longer coincide.[5] "The network executives stay the same age and I keep getting older and it creates a different kind of relationship. When I was doing my stuff at NBC with Brandon (Tartikoff) and Hill Street, we were contemporaries," says Bochco.[11] "When I sit down (now), they're sitting in a room with someone who's old enough to be their father and I'm not sure they want to sit in a room with their fathers."[11]

In 2008, Bochco argued that the new home for quality prime time drama is cable, where "the atmosphere is far friendlier and the creative environment more conducive to doing original work", and that "most of what's passing for primetime drama these days isn't very good".[12]

Prior to Hill Street Blues it was rare for American straight drama series to have story arcs, i.e. several stories running over many episodes (with the exception of prime time soap operas such as Dallas). It was also rare to have a large regular cast. The structure of the modern "ensemble" television drama can be traced to Bochco, who many regard as having changed the "language" of television drama.[citation needed]

From 2014 to its cancellation in 2016, he wrote and executive produced Murder in the First, a series drama which he co-created with Eric Lodal.[13]

More at Wikipedia.

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Violist Michael Tree, best known for some well-renowned recordings of chamber music:


Michael Tree (February 19, 1934 – March 30, 2018), born Michael Applebaum, was an American violist.



Tree was born in Newark, New Jersey. His principal studies were with Efrem Zimbalist on violin and viola at the Curtis Institute of Music. Zimbalist insisted that Tree change his name from Applebaum to advance his career.[2] Subsequent to his Carnegie Hall recital debut at the age of 20, Tree appeared as violin and viola soloist with major orchestras, including the Philadelphia, Baltimore, Los Angeles, and New Jersey. As a founding member of the Marlboro Trio and Guarneri Quartet, he played throughout the world and recorded more than 80 chamber music works. Prominent among these were ten piano quintets and quartets with Artur Rubinstein. Tree served on the faculty of the Curtis Institute of Music, The Juilliard School, Bard College Conservatory of Music, Manhattan School of Music, University of Maryland School of Music and Rutgers University, and regularly performed at the Marlboro Music School and Festival.
Tree played a circa 1750 Domenicus Busan viola from Venice, Italy. He also played violas of the modern Japanese-American luthier Hiroshi Iizuka. During his early years with the Guarneri Quartet, Tree played on a viola made by mid 20th-century luthier Harvey Fairbanks of Binghamton, New York.[3]

Michael Tree received an honorary degree from Binghamton University.[4]

Tree's father, Samuel Applebaum, was a nationally known violin pedagogue who wrote many articles and books about music and composed or edited extensive teaching materials.

Outside of the chamber music recordings with the Guarneri Quartet, Tree recorded:

Beethoven Serenade for Flute, Violin, and Viola with Eugenia and Pinchas Zukerman (on Columbia)
Bolcom "Let Evening Come" with Benite Valente and Cynthia Raim (on Centaur Records)
Brahms Viola Sonatas with Richard Goode (on Nonesuch) [1981]
Brahms Horn Trio with Myron Bloom and Rudolf Serkin (on Sony Classical)
Brahms G major Viola Quintet with Isaac Stern, Cho-Liang Lin, Jaime Laredo, and Yo-Yo Ma
Brahms Sextets (on Sony) with Isaac Stern, Cho-Liang Lin, Jaime Laredo, Yo-Yo Ma, and Sharon Robinson
Mendelssohn Octet with Jaime Laredo, Alexander Schneider, Arnold Steinhardt, John Dalley, Samuel Rhodes, Leslie Parnas, and David Soyer
Mozart Violin and Viola Duos (on Nonesuch) with Violinist Toshiya Eto
Mozart Concertone with Jaime Laredo, violin, and Alexander Schneider conducting the Marlboro Festival Orchestra (on Columbia)
Schmidt Quintet (on Sony Classical) with Leon Fleisher, Joel Smirnoff, Joseph Silverstein and Yo-Yo Ma

From Wikipedia

[Eric the Green]

South African Anti-Apartheid Campaigner Winnie Mandela Dies at 81



JOHANNESBURG — South Africa's Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, an anti-apartheid stalwart and wife to Nelson Mandela when he was imprisoned on Robben Island, died on Monday, her personal assistant Zodwa Zwane said. She was 81.

Zwane gave no further details but said a statement would be released later.

Hailed as mother of the 'new' South Africa, Madikizela-Mandela's legacy as an anti-apartheid heroine was undone when she was revealed to be a ruthless ideologue prepared to sacrifice laws and lives in pursuit of revolution and redress.

Her uncompromising methods and refusal to forgive contrasted sharply with the reconciliation espoused by her husband for 30 years, Nelson Mandela, as he worked to forge a stable, pluralistic democracy from the racial division and oppression of apartheid.

The contradiction helped kill their marriage and destroyed the esteem in which she was held by many South Africans, although the firebrand activist retained the support of radical black nationalists to the end.

In her twilight years, Madikizela-Mandela had frequent run-ins with authority that further undermined her reputation as a fighter against the white-minority regime that ran Africa's most advanced economy from 1948 to 1994.


During her husband's 27-year incarceration, Madikizela-Mandela campaigned tirelessly for his release and for the rights of black South Africans, suffering years of detention, banishment and arrest by the white authorities.

She remained steadfast and unbowed throughout, emerging to punch the air triumphantly in the clenched-fist salute of black power as she walked hand-in-hand with Mandela out of Cape Town's Victor Vester prison on Feb. 11, 1990.

For husband and wife, it was a crowning moment that led four years later to the end of centuries of white domination when Mandela became South Africa's first black president.

But for Madikizela-Mandela, the end of apartheid marked the start of a string of legal and political troubles that, accompanied by tales of her glamorous living, kept her in the spotlight for all the wrong reasons.

As evidence emerged in the dying years of apartheid of the brutality of her Soweto enforcers, the "Mandela United Football Club" (MUFC), her soubriquet switched from 'Mother of the Nation' to 'Mugger'.

Blamed for the killing of activist Stompie Seipei, who was found near her Soweto home with his throat cut, she was convicted in 1991 of kidnapping and assaulting the 14-year-old because he was suspected of being an informer.

Her six-year jail term was reduced on appeal to a fine.

She and Mandela separated in 1992 and her reputation slipped further when he sacked her from his cabinet in 1995 after allegations of corruption. The couple divorced a year later, after which she adopted the surname Madikizela-Mandela.


Appearing at the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) set up to unearth atrocities committed by both sides in the anti-apartheid struggle, Madikizela-Mandela refused to show remorse for abductions and murders carried out in her name.

Only after pleading from anguished TRC chairman Archbishop Desmond Tutu did she admit grudgingly that "things went horribly wrong".

In its final report, the TRC ruled that Madikizela-Mandela was "politically and morally accountable for the gross violations of human rights committed by the MUFC".

Four years later, she was back in court, facing fraud and theft charges in relation to an elaborate bank loan scheme.

"Somewhere it seems that something went wrong," magistrate Peet Johnson said as he sentenced her to five years in jail, later overturned on appeal. "You should set the example for all of us."

Born on Sept. 26, 1936, in Bizana, Eastern Cape province, Madikizela-Mandela became politicised at an early age in her job as a hospital social worker.

"I started to realise the abject poverty under which most people were forced to live, the appalling conditions created by the inequalities of the system," she once said.


Strikingly attractive and with a steely air - her given name, Nomzamo, means 'one who strives' - the 22-year-old Winnie caught the eye of Mandela at a Soweto bus-stop in 1957, starting a whirlwind romance that led to their marriage a year later.

But with husband and wife pouring their energies into the fight against apartheid, the relationship struggled before being torn apart after six years when Mandela was arrested and sentenced to life in prison.

Madikizela-Mandela later described her marriage as a sham and the birth of their two daughters, Zindzi and Zenani, as "quite coincidental" to her one true love - the struggle against white rule.

"I was married to the ANC. It was the best marriage I ever had," she often said.

Graca Machel, who stepped into her shoes as South Africa's first lady when she married Mandela in 1998, paid tribute to her predecessor in the years after her union.

"It's unfortunate that in our lives we don't interact very easily but I want to state very clearly that Winnie is my hero. Winnie is someone I respect highly," Machel once said.

As the years passed and Madikizela-Mandela's public standing plummeted, her relationship with the party she loved soured. She bore the air of a troublemaker, arriving late at rallies and haranguing comrades, including Thabo Mbeki, Mandela's successor as president.

In 2001, a television camera caught Mbeki brushing Madikizela-Mandela away and knocking off her hat after she arrived an hour late for a rally to commemorate a 1976 anti-apartheid uprising by Soweto schoolchildren and students.


Years later, she clashed with the next president, Jacob Zuma, becoming a political patron of renegade ANC youth leader Julius Malema, who quit the century-old movement to found his own ultra-leftist political party.

Confirming her support for Malema and his calls for seizure of white-owned farms and banks, Madikizela-Mandela revealed her contempt in 2010 for the deal her ex-husband struck with South Africa's white minority nearly two decades before.

In a London newspaper interview, she attacked Mandela, who died in December 2013, saying he had gone soft in prison and sold out the black cause.

"Mandela did go to prison and he went in there as a burning young revolutionary. But look what came out," she said. "Mandela let us down. He agreed to a bad deal for the blacks."

She also dismissed Tutu, post-apartheid South Africa's moral fulcrum, as a "cretin" and rubbished his attempts at national healing as a "religious circus".

"I told him a few home truths. I told him that he and his other like-minded cretins were only sitting here because of our struggle and me - because of the things I and people like me had done to get freedom," she said.

"I am not sorry. I will never be sorry," she concluded. "I would do everything I did again if I had to. Everything."

© 2018 Thomson/Reuters. All rights reserved.

[pbrower2a]

Isao Takahata, Japanese creator of anime films:

Isao Takahata (高畑 勲 Takahata Isao, October 29, 1935 – April 5, 2018) was a Japanese film director, animator, screenwriter and producer who earned critical international acclaim for his work as a director of anime films. Takahata was the co-founder of Studio Ghibli along with long-time collaborative partner Hayao Miyazaki. He directed films such as the grim, war-themed Grave of the Fireflies, the romantic drama Only Yesterday, the ecological adventure Pom Poko, and the comedy My Neighbors the Yamadas. Takahata's last film was The Tale of the Princess Kaguya, which was nominated for an Academy Award in the category Best Animated Feature Film at the 87th Academy Awards. Takahata did not draw and had not worked as an animator before he became a full-fledged director. According to Hayao Miyazaki, "Music and study are his hobbies". He was born in the same town as fellow director Kon Ichikawa, while Japanese film giant Yasujirō Ozu was raised by his father in nearby Matsusaka.


Takahata was born in Ujiyamada (now Ise), Mie prefecture, Japan. On June 29, 1945, at just nine years old, he survived a major US air raid on Okayama City.[1] Later on in life, after seeing a French animated cartoon feature called Le Roi et l'Oiseau (The King and the Mockingbird) he became intrigued by the animation that was used.[citation needed] He graduated from the University of Tokyo French literature course in 1959.[citation needed] While he was job hunting at his university, Takahata was tempted to join Toei Animation by a friend who knew the company wanted an assistant director.[citation needed] He took the company's entrance examination, and was hired. The reason he decided to join the company was his thought that "If it was animation, I can be something interesting, too".[citation needed] Ten people joined the company that same year which made it hard for Takahata competitive wise to later achieve the status of director.[citation needed] Takahata finally directed his first film after he was recommended for the position by his instructor Yasuo Ōtsuka.[citation needed] His directorial debut was Hols: Prince of the Sun which ended up being a commercial failure resulting in his demotion. The remaining staff members who had not been demoted for the failure of Hols went on to work on a different Toei film.[citation needed] Unable to move forward, in 1971 Takahata left Toei Animation along with Yōichi Kotabe, and Hayao Miyazaki to make the animated feature Pippi Longstocking.[citation needed] To make this happen, he transferred to an animation studio called "A Production" (now known as Shin-Ei Animation) which was founded by his former superior Daikichiro Kusube (楠部大吉郎, くすべ だいきちろう).[citation needed] The last thing was to acquire the animation rights and to hunt for locations. Takahata, and Miyazaki travelled to Sweden but were met with a dead end when author Astrid Lindgren turned them away ending their hopes for Pippi.[citation needed] Later in the same year they both requested to direct episodes seven, and onward of the first Lupin III TV series anime as at the time it was suffering from low ratings.[2][3] The offer was accepted by animation director Yasuo Ōtsuka, who was also an old acquaintance. They accepted the offer under the condition that their names were not to be released, and the direction credited to only "A production directors group".[citation needed] Although his directing in the original was well received, he did not participate in the second series leaving Miyazaki to go ahead with the work.[citation needed]

Later in 1971, Zuiyo Enterprise invited Takahata, Kotabe, and Miyazaki to direct an animated series of the novel Heidi to which all three accepted.[citation needed] The resulting series was called Heidi, Girl of the Alps. When the production section of Zuiyo was established as a subsidiary company of the animated cartoon production of Zuiyo Eizo (now known as Nippon Animation), they both joined the company.[citation needed] In 1981, Yasuo Otsuka who belonged to Tokyo Movie Shinsha/Telecom Animation Film Co., Ltd. offered to turn Miyazaki's Jarinko Chie, じゃりん子チエ (meaning Chie the Brat) into an animated cartoon.[citation needed] When he approached his colleague Miyazaki about the idea though he refused, unable to get an answer he then consulted Takahata who also expressed disapproval.[citation needed] Takahata had a change of heart though when he visited Osaka (which was the stage for the story), and felt that the world drawn in the comic was actually there.[citation needed] He left Nippon Animation to take the request, and moved to Telecom.[citation needed] The work was praised which resulted in him being chief director of a spinoff TV animation series.[citation needed] In 1982, Takahata was elected the director of Little Nemo — the work that tried to be produced so that Telecom could move to the United States .[citation needed] He went to America with Miyazaki (who later joined Telecom), and Otsuka, but they were met with discord when it came to Japan-U.S production techniques.[citation needed] The discord resulted in Takahata resignation from Telecom, he was followed by others which included Miyazaki. While the prospect failed, the cultural exchange was born between Japanese animators, and seniors of Disney who had been cooperating in the Little Nemo project.[citation needed]
Takahata was later invited by Miyazaki to join his animation production company Studio Ghibli to which he accepted, this came after the success of Miyazaki's Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind. The first movie directed by Takahata for Ghibli was Grave of the Fireflies. The film was widely acclaimed by film critics, like prominent and influential film critic Roger Ebert who considered it "one of the greatest war films ever made".[4] Takahata went on to do the music direction for Miyazaki when it came to Kiki's Delivery Service. On November 4, 2007, Takahata was awarded the Special Award at the Kobe Animation Awards.[5] After more than ten years in November 2013 his latest movie Kaguya-hime no Monogatari was released, which earned him an Academy Award nomination for Best Animated Feature. Takahata most recently served as an artistic producer for The Red Turtle, the first feature film of Dutch animator and director Michaël Dudok de Wit. The film premiered in September 2016.[6]

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On April 5, 2018 Takahata died at a hospital in Tokyo. He reportedly suffered from lung cancer.[url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isao_Takahata#cite_note-7][7][8]

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