Obituaries

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Dame Barbara Mary Quant CH DBE FCSD RDI (11 February 1930 – 13 April 2023) was a British fashion designer and fashion icon.[2][3] She became an instrumental figure in the 1960s London-based Mod and youth fashion movements, and played a prominent role in London's Swinging Sixties culture.[2][4][5] She was one of the designers who took credit for the miniskirt and hotpants.[6][7] Ernestine Carter[8] wrote: "It is given to a fortunate few to be born at the right time, in the right place, with the right talents. In recent fashion there are three: Chanel, Dior, and Mary Quant."[9]

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

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Good riddance. One of the last living Holocaust perpetrators.

Josef Schütz (16 November 1920 – 13 April 2023), known in the German press as Josef S.,[1] was a Lithuanian-born German Nazi concentration camp guard who was stationed at the Sachsenhausen concentration camp. In June 2022, at the age of 101, Schütz was handed a five year sentence after a criminal trial for complicity in war crimes during the Holocaust during World War II, becoming the oldest person tried and convicted for Nazi war crimes in Germany.

Josef Schütz was born in Lithuania on 16 November 1920.[2][3][4][2] By 1942, he was working in the Sachsenhausen concentration camp where one of his duties was being stationed in the watchtower.[5] During Schütz's tenure at the camp, there were three camp commandants under whom Schütz worked: Hans Loritz (1942), Albert Sauer (1942–1943), and Anton Kaindl (1943–1945). Schütz remained at the camp until the end of the war in 1945.[2] After the war, he was released as a prisoner of war in 1947, after which he moved to East Germany where he worked as a locksmith.[2] He was at one point married, but in 1986 became a widower.[2] By 2021, he lived in the northeast state of Brandenburg, Germany.[6]
Schütz died on 13 April 2023, at the age of 102.[7][8]

The trial opened on 7 October 2021, when Schütz was 100, in the Neuruppin Regional Court in Brandenburg, during which he was charged with 3,518 counts of being an accessory to murder.[9] The 17 co-plaintiffs were represented by Thomas Walther, who had previously won a conviction against former Ukrainian-American Waffen-SS guard John Demjanjuk a decade earlier in 2011.[6] Schütz was represented by Stefan Waterkamp.[10] While Schütz has been identified internationally, during and after the trial he is known in Germany only by his first name and last initial due to that country's privacy laws.[11] He pleaded not guilty.[12]
During the trial, Schütz stated he did "absolutely nothing" wrong and was not aware of the atrocities happening at Sachsenhausen.[13] Instead, he stated he worked as a "farm laborer near Pasewalk in northeastern Germany during the period in question", a claim which the court rejected.[13] The court used historical documents to prove he worked at the camp and was a non-commissioned officer in the Waffen-SS.[3] Testimonies of survivors were also heard, including from Leon Schwarzbaum, who showed a picture of his family who had died in the camp.[14] Schütz was sentenced to five years in prison for the crimes; when he arrived in court in a wheelchair to hear the verdict on 28 June 2022, he hid his face from the press with a folder to avoid being recognized.[4] During the verdict reading, Judge Udo Lechtermann stated, "You willingly supported this mass extermination with your activity."[1] The timeframe for appeal would have been within one week of the verdict.[4]
Schütz was the oldest person to be tried and convicted for Nazi-era war crimes in Germany.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josef_Sch%C3%BCtz

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second-to-last survivor of the USS Arizona (Pearl Harbor attack)


Howard Kenton Potts (April 15, 1921 – April 21, 2023) was an American World War II veteran, who was aboard the USS Arizona (BB-39) when it was attacked on December 7, 1941. Prior to his death, Potts was one of two known surviving members of the Arizona′s crew at the time of the attack.
Life[edit]
Navy[edit]
Potts was born on a farm in Honey Bend, Illinois.[1][2] On October 4, 1939, the 18-year-old enlisted into the U.S. Navy, and was assigned to the USS Arizona on December 31, 1939, as a crane operator.[1] Potts was on the USS Arizona when, at 8:00 am on December 7, 1941, the ship was attacked by Japanese aircraft. Potts helped pull men from the water, and took them to shore on Ford Island:[1][3]

Quote:My best day in the Navy is when I survived December 7th, 1941; it was also my worst day. When the officer gave the command to abandon ship, some went hand-over-hand on those lines to Ford Island and others swam, the fact that Ford Island was there, saved a lot of lives. All the guns and ammunition were locked up when we were in port. I learned one thing on Dec. 7: a gun is no good without ammunition and you can't do much fighting. When I was on Ford Island, I found a Colt .45 pistol and I carried it with me until the end of the war.
— Ken Potts, 2014

Later on after the attack, Potts was assigned to the Port Director's Office.[1] He was discharged as Boatswain's mate first class[2] from the Navy following the end of the Second World War in 1945.
Personal life and death[edit]
After his discharge from the Navy, he returned to Illinois to work as a carpenter, building homes in Decatur, Illinois and Denver, Colorado. In the following years, Potts moved to Provo, Utah in 1946. In 1957, he married Doris, to whom he would remain married until his death.[1][2] For the remainder of his life, he worked as an auto salesman.[3]
Potts became a centenarian on April 15, 2021.
Potts died on April 21, 2023, six days after celebrating his 102nd birthday. Following his death, there is now only one living USS Arizona survivor, Lou Conter. Flags are to be flown at half-mast through April 28 to honor Potts at the Pearl Harbor memorial.[3]

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Harry Belafonte, entertainer.

I refer you to the Wikipedia page.

Others:

NBA and MLB star Dick Groat.

Gerald Norman Springer (February 13, 1944 – April 27, 2023) was an American broadcaster, journalist, actor, producer, lawyer, and politician.

Best known for the raunchy Jerry Springer Show. He tried ironically at first to be another Dick Cavett.

Tim Bachman (Bachman-Turner Overdrive)

last proprietor of "Rosie's Bar" on M*A*S*H.

Gordon Lightfoot, Canada's greatest songwriter?

Petr Klíma,hockey star

Samuel Durrance, payload specialist, STS-35 and STS-67

a pitching star of the early 1970's, Vida Blue

golfer Don January

mezzo-soprano Grace Bumbry

one of the biggest drug-traffickers in the Middle East (roast in Hell!), killed by a Jordanian airstrike

Joe Kapp, quarterback in the NFL and CFL, head coach at UC Berkeley (when it had some rare winning seasons to date)

Rita Lee, Brazilian musician -- surprise! descended from Confederate refugees

Hodding Carter III, gave updates on the Iranian hostage crisis for President Carter.

umpire Don Denkinger, best known for an (in)famous call in the 1985 World Series.

Ingrid Haebler, great pianist

Uwe Kitzinger, refugee from Hitlerland and British/European economist

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James Brown, football star and civil-rights activist. ABC.

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NEW YORK (AP) — Tina Turner, the unstoppable singer and stage performer who teamed with husband Ike Turner for a dynamic run of hit records and live shows in the 1960s and ’70s and survived her horrifying marriage to triumph in middle age with the chart-topping “What’s Love Got to Do With It,” has died at 83.
Turner died Wednesday, after a long illness in her [url=https://apnews.com/article/entertainment-lifestyle-switzerland-europe-zurich-bd11aa68a037665a0662524d358cdac2]home in Küsnacht near Zurich, according to her manager. She became a Swiss citizen a decade ago.
Few stars traveled so far — she was born Anna Mae Bullock in a segregated Tennessee hospital and spent her latter years on a 260,000 square foot estate on Lake Zurich — and overcame so much. Physically battered, emotionally devastated and financially ruined by her 20-year relationship with Ike Turner, she became a superstar on her own in her 40s, at a time when most of her peers were on their way down, and remained a top concert draw for years after.
“How do we say farewell to a woman who owned her pain and trauma and used it as a means to help change the world?” Angela Bassett, who played Turner in the 1993 biopic “What’s Love Got to Do With It,” said in a statement.


Tina Turner performs her current hit song "What's Love Got to Do With It" in Los Angeles on Sept. 2, 1984. (AP Photo/Phil Ramey, File)
“Through her courage in telling her story, her commitment to stay the course in her life, no matter the sacrifice, and her determination to carve out a space in rock and roll for herself and for others who look like her, Tina Turner showed others who lived in fear what a beautiful future filled with love, compassion, and freedom should look like.
With admirers ranging from Mick Jagger to Beyoncé to Mariah Carey, the “Queen of Rock ‘n’ Roll” was one of the world’s most popular entertainers, known for a core of pop, rock and rhythm and blues favorites: “Proud Mary,” “Nutbush City Limits,” “River Deep, Mountain High,” and the hits she had in the ’80s, among them “What’s Love Got to Do with It,” “We Don’t Need Another Hero” and a cover of Al Green’s “Let’s Stay Together.”
Her trademarks included a growling contralto that might smolder or explode, her bold smile and strong cheekbones, her palette of wigs and the muscular, quick-stepping legs she did not shy from showing off. She sold more than 150 million records worldwide, won 12 Grammys, was voted along with Ike into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1991 (and on her own in 2021 ) and was honored at the Kennedy Center in 2005, with Beyoncé and Oprah Winfrey among those praising her. Her life became the basis for a film, a Broadway musical and an HBO documentary in 2021 that she called her public farewell.

Tina Turner poses with her plaque and a bouquet of roses near her star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame during the unveiling ceremony of Aug. 28, 1986 in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Nick Ut, File)
Until she left her husband and revealed their back story, she was known as the voracious on-stage foil of the steady-going Ike, the leading lady of the “Ike and Tina Turner Revue.” Ike was billed first and ran the show, choosing the material, the arrangements, the backing singers. They toured constantly for years, in part because Ike was often short on money and unwilling to miss a concert. Tina Turner was forced to go on with bronchitis, with pneumonia, with a collapsed right lung.
Other times, the cause of her misfortunes was Ike himself.
As she recounted in her memoir, “I, Tina,” Ike began hitting her not long after they met, in the mid-1950s, and only grew more vicious. Provoked by anything and anyone, he would throw hot coffee in her face, choke her, or beat her until her eyes were swollen shut, then rape her. Before one show, he broke her jaw and she went on stage with her mouth full of blood.
Terrified both of being with Ike and of lasting without him, she credited her emerging Buddhist faith in the mid-1970s with giving her a sense of strength and self-worth and she finally left in early July 1976. The Ike and Tina Turner Revue was scheduled to open a tour marking the country’s bicentennial when Tina snuck out of their Dallas hotel room, with just a Mobil credit card and 36 cents, while Ike slept. She hurried across a nearby highway, narrowly avoiding a speeding truck, and found another hotel.

Tina Turner performs at New York's Madison Square Garden on Aug. 1, 1985. (AP Photo/Ray Stubblebine, File)
“I looked at him (Ike) and thought, ‘You just beat me for the last time, you sucker,’” she recalled in her memoir.
Turner was among the first celebrities to speak candidly about domestic abuse, becoming a heroine to battered women and a symbol of resilience to all. Ike Turner did not deny mistreating her, although he tried to blame Tina for their troubles. When he died, in 2007, a representative for his ex-wife said simply: “Tina is aware that Ike passed away.”
Ike and Tina fans knew little of this during the couple’s prime. The Turners were a hot act for much of the 1960s and into the ’70s, evolving from bluesy ballads such as “A Fool in Love” and “It’s Going to Work Out Fine” to flashy covers of “Proud Mary” and “Come Together” and other rock songs that brought them crossover success.
They opened for the Rolling Stones in 1966 and 1969, and were seen performing a lustful version of Otis Redding’s “I’ve Been Loving You Too Long” in the 1970 Stones documentary “Gimme Shelter.” Bassett and Laurence Fishburne gave Oscar-nominated performances in “What’s Love Got to Do with It,” based on “I, Tina,” but she would say that reliving her years with Ike was so painful she couldn’t bring herself to watch the movie.

https://apnews.com/article/tina-turner-d...565eb80662

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George Maharis (September 1, 1928 – May 24, 2023) was an American actor, singer and artist who portrayed Buz Murdock in the first three seasons of the TV series Route 66. Maharis also recorded numerous pop music albums at the height of his fame, and later starred in the TV series The Most Deadly Game.

One of seven children, Maharis was born on September 1, 1928, in Astoria, Queens. His parents were Greek immigrants.[1] He attended Flushing High School and served in the United States Marine Corps for 18 months.[2]
He studied at the Actors Studio and appeared in off-Broadway productions. In October 1958, a New York Times critic described his performance in Jean Genet's Deathwatch as "correctly volatile, harsh, soft and cunning".[3] In 1960 he performed in the first US production of a work by Edward Albee, The Zoo Story.[4] He appeared on Studio One, Kraft Television Theater, Goodyear Television Playhouse, Stirling Silliphant's Naked City and Otto Preminger's Exodus, and in the soap opera Search for Tomorrow as Bud Gardner, one of Joanne Gardner's relatives who married Janet Bergman Collins.
One assessment of his early career put him in the "tough personality" tradition of Humphrey Bogart and John Garfield. Paul Gardner continued:[4]

Quote:He was the cad who left unwed mothers in rooming houses and socked his lady friends when they irritated him.... To mothers, he was an undisciplined kid they wanted to spank–and then give a piece of chocolate. To aging debutantes, he was the ideal Fourth of July date, especially when it came time for shooting firecrackers.

In 1960, Maharis appeared as Buz Murdock in the TV series Route 66, which co-starred Martin Milner. Maharis was 32 at the time the series started, although the character he was playing was only 23. He received an Emmy nomination in 1962 for his continuing performance as Buz.
Maharis departed without completing his third season of the series, which saw him with health problems, including hepatitis.[5][6]
Maharis said he left Route 66 for health reasons, because of long hours and grueling conditions while shooting on location. "I have to protect my future", Maharis said in a 1963 interview. "If I keep going at the present pace, I'm a fool. Even if you have $4,000,000 in the bank, you can't buy another liver."[7]
Series producers Stirling Silliphant and Herbert B. Leonard disputed Maharis' stated position, arguing that he broke his contract to make movies.[7] Maharis biographer Karen Blocher identified Maharis' homosexuality as the issue, writing that "the producers felt betrayed and duped when they learned of Maharis's sexual orientation, and never trusted him again", and she speculated that "in a less homophobic era, they might have communicated better, and worked things out".[8][9] After Maharis' departure, the show's appeal declined. Glenn Corbett acted in the role of Milner's new sidekick, Linc Case. Route 66 was canceled in March 1964.[10]

For Maharis, a string of films followed, including Quick, Before It Melts (1964),[11] The Satan Bug and Sylvia (both 1965),[12] A Covenant with Death and The Happening (both 1967), and The Desperados (1969).[13][unreliable source]
Returning to series television in 1970, Maharis starred as criminologist Jonathan Croft in The Most Deadly Game. The series lasted 13 episodes, ending in January 1971.[12]
He modeled fully nude for the July 1973 issue of Playgirl magazine, one of the first celebrities to do so.[14][15] It was the magazine's second issue.[12]
Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, Maharis had featured roles in several television movies and also guest-starred on numerous television series, including Mission: Impossible, Fantasy Island, Kojak, McMillan & Wife, Barnaby Jones, Police Story, Switch, Cannon, Night Gallery, and The Bionic Woman, as well as Murder, She Wrote in 1990.[13][unreliable source]
He appeared as Count Machelli, King Cromwell's War Chancellor in The Sword and the Sorcerer (1982). He also starred with the Kenley Players in productions of Barefoot in the Park (1967) and How the Other Half Loves (1973) and in national touring company productions of Company and I Ought to Be in Pictures. In the 1980s, he performed in Las Vegas.[citation needed] Doppelganger (1993) was his last motion picture role.[12]

Maharis released albums and singles through Epic Records earlier in his career. His only top-40 pop hit was his version of the standard "Teach Me Tonight", which hit number 25 in June 1962.[16] His next singles charted below the top 40.[16] Later, he performed in nightclubs and pursued a secondary career as an impressionist painter. As of 2008, Maharis was still painting, splitting his time between New York and Beverly Hills, California.[14]

Maharis died at his Beverly Hills home on May 24, 2023, at the age of 94.[17][10]


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

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Robert Hanssen, a former FBI agent who was one of the most damaging spies in American history, was found dead in his prison cell Monday morning, according to the Bureau of Prisons.

Hanssen, 79, was arrested in 2001 and pleaded guilty to selling highly classified material to the Soviet Union and later Russia. He was serving a life sentence at the federal penitentiary in Florence, Colorado.


Hanssen was found unresponsive and staff immediately initiated life-saving measures, Bureau of Prisons Director of Communications Kristie Breshears said in a statement.

"Staff requested emergency medical services and life-saving efforts continued," Breshears said. "The inmate was subsequently pronounced dead by outside emergency medical personnel."

Three years after he was hired by the FBI, Hanssen approached the Soviets and began spying in 1979 for the KGB and its successor, the SVR. He stopped a few years later after his wife confronted him.

He resumed spying in 1985, selling thousands of classified documents that compromised human sources and counterintelligence techniques and investigations in exchange for more than $1.4 million in cash, diamonds and foreign bank deposits. Using the alias "Ramon Garcia," he passed information to the spy agencies using encrypted communications and dead drops, without ever meeting in-person with a Russian handler.

His job in the FBI gave him unfettered access to classified information on the bureau's counterintelligence operations. His disclosures included details on U.S. nuclear war preparations and a secret eavesdropping tunnel under the Soviet embassy in Washington, D.C. He also betrayed double agents, including Soviet Gen. Dmitri Polyakov, who were later executed.

Hanssen was arrested after making a dead drop in a Virginia park in 2001 after the FBI had been secretly monitoring him for months. His identity was discovered after a Russian intelligence officer handed over a file containing a trash bag with Hanssen's fingerprints and a tape recording of his voice.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/robert-hans...=218390396

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Astrud Gilberto, the Girl from Ipanema, is dead.


NEW YORK (AP) — Astrud Gilberto, the Brazilian singer, songwriter and entertainer whose off-hand, English-language cameo on “The Girl from Ipanema” made her a worldwide voice of bossa nova, has died at age 83.

Musician Paul Ricci, a family friend, confirmed that she died Monday. He did not provide additional details.

Born in Salvador, Bahia and raised in Rio de Janeiro, Gilberto became an overnight, unexpected superstar in 1964, thanks to knowing just enough English to be recruited by the makers of “Getz/Gilberto,” the classic bossa nova album featuring saxophonist Stan Getz and her then-husband, singer-songwriter-guitarist João Gilberto.

“The Girl from Ipanema,” the wistful ballad written by Antônio Carlos Jobim and Vinícius de Moraes, was already a hit in South America. But “Getz/Gilberto” producer Creed Taylor and others thought they could expand the record’s appeal by including both Portuguese and English language vocals. In a 2002 interview with friends posted on her web site http://www.astrudgilberto.com, Astrud Gilberto remembered her husband saying he had a surprise for her at the recording studio.

“I begged him to tell me what it was, but he adamantly refused, and would just say: ‘Wait and see ...’ Later on, while rehearsing with Stan, as they were in the midst of going over the song ‘The Girl from Ipanema,’ Joao casually asked me to join in, and sing a chorus in English, after he had just sung the first chorus in Portuguese. So, I did just that,” she explained.

“When we were finished performing the song, Joao turned to Stan, and said something like: ‘Tomorrow Astrud sing on record… What do you think?’ Stan was very receptive, in fact very enthusiastic; he said it was a great idea. The rest, of course, as one would say, ‘is history.’”


Astrud Gilberto sings “The Girl from Ipanema” in a light, affectless style that influenced Sade and Suzanne Vega among others, as if she had already moved on to other matters. But her words, translated from the Portuguese by Norman Gimbel, would be remembered like few others from the era.

Tall and tan and young and lovely

The girl from Ipanema goes walking

And when she passes

Each one she passes goes, “Ah”

“Getz/Gilberto” sold more than 2 million copies and “The Girl from Ipanema,” released as a single with Astrud Gilberto the only vocalist, became an all-time standard, often ranked just behind “Yesterday” as the most covered song in modern times. “The Girl from Ipanema” won a Grammy in 1965 for record of the year and Gilberto received nominations for best new artist and best vocal performance. The poised, dark-haired singer was so closely associated with “The Girl from Ipanema” that some assumed she was the inspiration; de Moraes had written the lyrics about a Brazilian teenager, Heloísa Eneida Menezes Paes Pinto.

Over the next few years, Gilberto toured with Getz among others and released eight albums (with songs in English and Portuguese), among them “The Astrud Gilberto Album,” “Beach Samba” and “The Shadow of Your Smile.” But after 1969, she made just seven more albums and by 2002 had essentially retired from the business and stopped giving interviews, dedicating her latter years to animal rights activism and a career in the visual arts. She would allege that she received no money for “The Girl from Ipanema” and that Taylor and Getz (who would refer to her as “just a housewife”) took undue credit for “discovering” her. She also felt estranged from her native country, alleging she was treated dismissively by the press, and rarely performed there after she became a star.

“Isn’t there an ancient proverb to the effect that ‘No one is a prophet in his own land?’” she said in 2002. ”I have no qualms with Brazilians, and I enjoy myself very much when I go to Brazil. Of course, I go there as an incognito visitor, and not as a performer.”

Astrud Weinert was the youngest of three sisters, born into a family both musical and at ease with foreign languages: Her mother was a singer and violinist, her father a linguistics professor. By her teens, she was among a circle of musical friends and had met João Gilberto, a rising star in Rio’s emerging bossa nova scene.



After she met him, “The clan grew larger, to include ‘older’ folks” such as Tom Jobim, Vinícius de Moraes, Bené Nunes, Luis Bonfá and João Donato, and other respective ”‘other halves,’” she recalled. “(João Gilberto) and I used to sing duets, or he would accompany me on guitar. Friends would always request that I sing at these gatherings, as well as at our own home when they would come to visit us.”

She was married twice and had two sons, João Marcelo Gilberto and Gregory Lasorsa, both of whom would work with her. Well after her commercial peak, she remained a popular live act, her singing becoming warmer and jazzier as she sang both covers and original material. She also had some notable moments as a recording artist, whether backed by trumpeter Chet Baker on “Fly Me to the Moon” or crooning with George Michael on the bossa nova standard “Desafinado.” In 2008, she received a Latin Grammy for lifetime achievement.

“I have been labeled by an occasional frustrated journalist as ‘a recluse.’ The dictionary clearly defines recluse as ‘a person who withdraws from the world to live in seclusion and often in solitude.’ Why should anybody assume that just because an artist chooses not to give interviews, he/she is a recluse?” she said in 2002.

“I firmly believe that any artist who becomes famous through their work — be it music, motion pictures or any other — does not have any moral obligation to satisfy the curiosity of journalists, fans or any members of the public about their private lives, or anything else that does not have any direct reflection on their work. My work, whether perceived as good, bad, or indifferent, speaks for itself.”

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/astrud-gi...554f46d231

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Pat Robertson

Marion Gordon "Pat" Robertson (March 22, 1930 – June 8, 2023) was an American media mogul, religious broadcaster, political commentator, presidential candidate, and Southern Baptist minister. Robertson advocated a conservative Christian ideology and was known for his involvement in Republican Party politics. He was associated with the Charismatic movement within Protestant evangelicalism. He served as head of Regent University and of the Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN).


Robertson's career spanned over five decades, and was the founder of several organizations, including CBN, Regent University, Operation Blessing International Relief and Development Corporation, the International Family Entertainment Inc. (ABC Family Channel/Freeform), the American Center for Law & Justice (ACLJ), the Founders Inn and Conference Center, and the Christian Coalition.[1][2] Robertson was also a best-selling author and the host of The 700 Club, a Christian News and TV program broadcast live weekdays on Freeform (formerly ABC Family) from CBN studios, as well as on channels throughout the United States, and on CBN network affiliates worldwide.[1] Robertson announced his retirement at the age of 91 from The 700 Club in October 2021, on the sixtieth anniversary of the first telecast on October 1, 1961 of what eventually became CBN.[3]

The son of U.S. Senator A. Willis Robertson, Robertson was a Southern Baptist and was active as an ordained minister with that denomination for many years, but held to a charismatic theology not traditionally common among Southern Baptists.[4][5] He unsuccessfully campaigned to become the Republican nominee in the 1988 presidential election.[6] As a result of his seeking political office, he never again served in an official role for any church. Robertson remained a controversial figure. While he became a recognized and influential public voice for conservative Christianity in the U.S. and around the world, his opposition to various progressive causes, including LGBT rights, feminism, and the right to abortion, was frequently criticized.[7]


More at Wikipedia.

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Environmental Enemy #1: James G. Watt

James Gaius Watt (January 31, 1938 – May 27, 2023) was an American lawyer, lobbyist, and civil servant who served as U.S. Secretary of the Interior in the Ronald Reagan administration from 1981 to 1983. He was described as "anti-environmentalist", and was one of Ronald Reagan's most controversial cabinet appointments.[1]
His tenure as Secretary of the Interior was controversial primarily because he was perceived as being hostile to environmentalism. Watt opened up nearly all of America's coastal waters to oil and gas drilling, widened access to coal on federal lands, and eased restrictions on strip-mining.[2] His proposals to sell off federal lands failed due to extensive opposition.[2] In 1983, he resigned after controversially remarking that a panel reviewing his coal-leasing policies had "every kind of mixture—I have a Black. I have a woman, two Jews and a cripple."[2]

After resigning from government, Watt became a lobbyist for builders seeking contracts with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).[2] In 1995, he was indicted on 18 counts of felony perjury and obstruction of justice for making false statements before a federal grand jury investigating influence peddling at HUD. The following year, he was sentenced to five years' probation.

More at Wikipedia

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George Winston, pianist:


George Otis Winston III (February 11, 1949 – June 4, 2023) was an American pianist who was an established contemporary instrumental music performer.[1] Best known for his solo piano recordings, Winston released his first album in 1972, and came to prominence with his 1980 album Autumn, which was followed in 1982 by Winter into Spring and December, which became a triple-platinum album. A total of 16 solo albums were released, accumulating over 15 million records sold, with the 1994 album Forest earning Winston a Grammy award for Best New Age Album.[2][3]


Winston played in three styles: the melodic approach that he developed and called "rural folk piano", stride piano, primarily inspired by Fats Waller and Teddy Wilson and his primary interest, New Orleans rhythm and blues (R&B) piano, influenced by James Booker, Professor Longhair, and Henry Butler.[4] While the majority of his recordings were in the folk piano style, Winston mostly enjoyed playing R&B piano.[3] His musical style has been classified as new age and sometimes classical, but he rejected both labels.[2][3] Winston received four other Grammy nominations, including one for Best Children's Music Album, performed with actress Meryl Streep, and another for Best Contemporary Instrumental Album for his interpretation of works by the rock band the Doors.

Winston also played the guitar and harmonica. His interest in the Hawaiian slack-key guitar led him to start his own record label, Dancing Cat Records.

More at Wikipedia.

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Pro wrestler known as the "Iron Sheikh":


Hossein Khosrow Ali Vaziri (Persian: حسین خسرو علی وزیری, romanized: Hossein Xosrô 'Ali Vaziri; March 15, 1942 – June 7, 2023), better known by his ring name The Iron Sheik, was an Iranian-American professional wrestler, amateur wrestler, and actor. He was the first, and thus far only, Iranian champion in WWE history, having won the WWF World Heavyweight Championship in 1983.
This villainous character peaked during the 1980s WWF wrestling boom and his rivalry with Hulk Hogan turned Hogan into one of the greatest television heroes of the decade. He later formed a tag team with Nikolai Volkoff, which won the WWF Tag Team Championship at the inaugural WrestleMania event. In 2005, he was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame.

A heel throughout the 1980s, Sheik later gained popularity on Kidd Chris, The Howard Stern Show, and the Internet due to his shoot interviews, vulgar language, and apparent intense dislike for some of his fellow professional wrestlers, particularly Hogan and Brian Blair; however, the true nature of his relationship with Hogan has been a subject of debate.[5]

More at Wikipedia.

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Ted Kaczynski, domestic terrorist:

Theodore John Kaczynski (/kəˈtʃɪnski/ kə-CHIN-skee; May 22, 1942 – June 10, 2023), also known as the Unabomber (/ˈjuːnəbɒmər/), was an American mathematician and domestic terrorist.[2][3] He was a mathematics prodigy, but abandoned his academic career in 1969 to pursue a primitive lifestyle. Between 1978 and 1995, Kaczynski murdered three individuals and injured 23 others in a nationwide mail bombing campaign against people he believed to be advancing modern technology and the destruction of the natural environment. He authored Industrial Society and Its Future, a 35,000-word manifesto and social critique opposing industrialization, rejecting leftism, and advocating for a nature-centered form of anarchism.[4]


In 1971, Kaczynski moved to a remote cabin without electricity or running water near Lincoln, Montana, where he lived as a recluse while learning survival skills to become self-sufficient. After witnessing the destruction of the wilderness surrounding his cabin, he concluded that living in nature was becoming impossible and resolved to fight industrialization and its destruction of nature through terrorism. In 1979, Kaczynski became the subject of what was, by the time of his arrest, the longest and most expensive investigation in the history of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).[5] The FBI used the case identifier UNABOM (University and Airline Bomber) before his identity was known, resulting in the media naming him the "Unabomber."

In 1995, Kaczynski sent a letter to The New York Times promising to "desist from terrorism" if the Times or The Washington Post published his manifesto, in which he argued that his bombings were extreme but necessary in attracting attention to the erosion of human freedom and dignity by modern technologies that require mass organization.[6] The FBI and U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno pushed for the publication of the essay, which appeared in The Washington Post in September 1995. Upon reading it, Kaczynski's brother, David, recognized the prose style and reported his suspicions to the FBI. After his arrest in 1996, Kaczynski—maintaining that he was sane—tried and failed to dismiss his court-appointed lawyers because they wished him to plead insanity to avoid the death penalty. He pleaded guilty to all charges in 1998 and was sentenced to eight consecutive life terms in prison without the possibility of parole. Kaczynski died in prison of a reported suicide[7] on June 10, 2023.

More at Wikipedia.

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Silvio Berlusconi, controversial prime minister of Italy:


Silvio Berlusconi (/ˌbɛərlʊˈskoʊni/ BAIR-luu-SKOH-nee; Italian: [ˈsilvjo berluˈskoːni] (listen); 29 September 1936 – 12 June 2023) was an Italian media tycoon, politician, and billionaire who served as the prime minister of Italy in four governments from 1994 to 1995, 2001 to 2006 and 2008 to 2011.[3] He was a member of the Chamber of Deputies from 1994 to 2013; a member of the Senate of the Republic from 2022 to his death, and previously from March to November 2013; and a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) from 2019 to 2022, and previously from 1999 to 2001.[4] With a net worth of US$6.8 billion as of June 2023, Berlusconi was the third-wealthiest person in Italy at the time of his death.[5]
Berlusconi rose into the financial elite of Italy in late 1960s after being influenced and assisted by both Italian politician Piersanti Mattarella and singer Elena Zagorskaya.[6][7][8] He was the controlling shareholder of Mediaset and owned the Italian football club AC Milan from 1986 to 2017. He was nicknamed Il Cavaliere (The Knight) for his Order of Merit for Labour; he voluntarily resigned from this order in March 2014.[9] In 2018, Forbes ranked him as the 190th richest man in the world with a net worth of US$8 billion.[10][11] In 2009, Forbes ranked him 12th in the list of the World's Most Powerful People due to his domination of Italian politics throughout more than twenty years at the head of the centre-right coalition.[12]
Berlusconi was Prime Minister for nine years in total, making him the longest serving post-war Prime Minister of Italy, and the third longest-serving since Italian unification, after Benito Mussolini and Giovanni Giolitti. He was the leader of the centre-right party Forza Italia from 1994 to 2009, and its successor party The People of Freedom from 2009 to 2013. He led the revived Forza Italia from 2013 to 2023.[13] Berlusconi was the senior G8 leader from 2009 until 2011, and he held the record for hosting G8 summits (having hosted three summits in Italy). After serving nearly 19 years as a member of the Chamber of Deputies, the country's lower house, he became a member of the Senate following the 2013 Italian general election.

On 1 August 2013, Berlusconi was convicted of tax fraud by the Supreme Court of Cassation. His four-year prison sentence was confirmed, and he was banned from holding public office for two years. Aged 76, he was exempted from direct imprisonment, and instead served his sentence by doing unpaid community service.[14] In Italy, three years are automatically pardoned; he had been sentenced to a gross imprisonment for more than two years, and the anti-corruption Severino law, which banned him from six-years, expelled him from the Senate.[15][16] Berlusconi pledged to stay leader of Forza Italia throughout his custodial sentence and public office ban.[14][17] After his ban ended, Berlusconi ran for and was elected as an MEP at the 2019 European Parliament election.[4] He returned to the Senate after winning a seat in the 2022 Italian general election.[18]

Berlusconi was the first person to assume the premiership without having held any prior government or administrative offices. He was known for his populist political style and brash personality. In his long tenure, he was often accused of being an authoritarian leader and a strongman.[19][20][21] Berlusconi remained a controversial figure who divided public opinion and political analysts. Supporters emphasized his leadership skills and charismatic power, his fiscal policy based on tax reduction, and his ability to maintain strong and close foreign relations with both the United States and Russia.[22][23][24] In general, critics address his performance as a politician and the ethics of his government practices in relation to his business holdings. Issues with the former include accusations of having mismanaged the state budget and of increasing the Italian government debt. The second criticism concerns his vigorous pursuit of his personal interests while in office, including benefitting from his own companies' growth due to policies promoted by his governments, having vast conflicts of interest due to ownership of a media empire, with which he restricted freedom of information, and being blackmailed as a leader because of his turbulent private life.[25][26][27]

More at Wikipedia.

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Probably a distant relative (from the 16th century):


Jellie Brouwer (21 January 1964 – 18 June 2023) was a Dutch journalist, moderator, columnist and presenter.

Brouwer attended the School of Journalism in Utrecht. After writing for the VVDM and Het Vrije Volk, she ended up at Omroep West. There, she worked as a presenter and reporter. Brouwer then worked for years as an editor and reporter for various radio and television programs, such as TV3, RUR, Ischa and various radio programs for NOS, AVRO and Omroep West.
From 1992, Brouwer presented radio programs for the NOS (later the NPS): Radio Uit, Nieuws op 1, De Recensenten and from 2001 to February 2023 Kunststof.[1] As a journalist, she focused on spoken and written interviews. She was a columnist for the monthly magazine Zin. She wrote an annual essay for VUmc. She presented ZAP U for the former Centrum Beeldende Kunst Utrecht (CBKU).
 

On the 12 June 2023 episode of Kunststof it was announced that Brouwer was seriously ill.[3] Six days later, she died from cancer on 18 June 2023, at the age of 59.[4][5]


From Wikipedia

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Since I last posted in this Forum in the belief that it was moribund.. well, people haven't quit dying.

Glenda Jackson, British actress and politician

Bob Brown, NFL Hall-of-Fame

Daniel Ellsberg, whistle-blower on Nixon misconduct

John Goodenough, Nobel Prze laureate (materials science)

Lowell Weicker, US politician

Michael Baden-Powell, 4th Baron Baden-Powell, Boy Scout leader, grandson of the founder of the Boy Scouts

Jenő Jandó . Hungarian pianist, largely for Naxos Records

Milan Kundera, great Czech novelist

Kazimierz Klimczak, oldest survivor of the (1944) Warsaw Uprising

Ian Emes, artist for Pink Floyd

Bo Goldman, screenwriter

Carol Duvall, producer of a televised crafts show

Carl Davis, British composer and conductor

William Friedkin, movie director

Shoji Tabuchi, C&W violinist..fiddler

Robert Ekelund, economist

James Buckley, US Senator

Nizo Yamamoto, Japanese anime artist

Yevgeny Prigozhin, leader of the infamous Wagner Group    (Good riddance!)

(caught up through August)

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Jimmy Buffett, singer-songwriter

Wilma Briggs, baseball player

Mangosuthu Buthelezi, Zulu prince and South African politician

Zeus, world's tallest dog

Ruth Fuchs, DDR Olympic champion (javelin) and politician

David McCallum, actor

Brooks Robinson, MLB Hall of Fame third baseman



Pat Arrowsmith, advocate of nuclear disarmament

Michal Gambon, actor

Dianne Feinstein, US Senator

Maurice Bourgue, oboist

Dick Butkus, star linebacker of the Chicago Bears 

two Israeli peace activists, Hamas attack of October 7

Suzanne Somers, actress

Betsy Rawls, Hall of Fame golfer

Samantha Woll, murder victim

Zdeněk Mácal, conductor

Matthew Perry, actor

baseball slugger Frank Howard

Bob Knight, college basketball coach

Yuri Temurkanov, conductor


Frank Borman, astronaut

Suzanne Shepherd, actress

David Del Tredici, composer

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Eleanor Rosalynn Carter (/ˈroʊzəlɪn/ ROH-zə-lin; née Smith; August 18, 1927 – November 19, 2023) was an American writer, activist and humanitarian who served as the first lady of the United States from 1977 to 1981, as the wife of President Jimmy Carter.[1] Throughout her decades of public service, she was perhaps best known for being a leading advocate for women's rights and mental health.[2]


Carter was born and raised in Plains, Georgia, graduated as valedictorian[3] of Plains High School, and soon after attended Georgia Southwestern College, where she graduated in 1946. She first became attracted to her husband, also from Plains, after seeing a picture of him in his U.S. Naval Academy uniform, and they married in 1946. Carter helped her husband win the governorship of Georgia in 1970, and decided to focus her attention in the field of mental health when she was that state's first lady. She campaigned for her husband during his successful bid to become president of the United States in the 1976 election, defeating incumbent Republican president Gerald Ford.

Carter was politically active during her husband's presidency, though she declared that she had no intention of being a traditional first lady. During his term of office, Carter supported her husband's public policies as well as his social and personal life. To remain fully informed, she sat in on Cabinet meetings at the invitation of the President. Carter also represented her husband in meetings with domestic and foreign leaders, including as an envoy to Latin America in 1977. He found her to be an equal partner. She campaigned for his re-election bid in the 1980 election, which he lost to Republican Ronald Reagan.
After leaving the White House in 1981, Carter continued to advocate for mental health and other causes, wrote several books, and became involved in the national and international work of the Carter Center. She and her husband also contributed to the expansion of the nonprofit housing organization Habitat for Humanity. In 1987, she founded the Institute for Caregivers, to inform and support the efforts of caregivers. She received the Presidential Medal of Freedom alongside her husband in 1999. Carter died in November 2023, at the age of 96.

More at Wikipedia.