Obituaries

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Carrie Mae Pittman Meek (April 29, 1926 – November 28, 2021) was an American politician from Florida. A member of the Democratic Party, she served from 1979 to 1982 as a representative to the Florida house of representatives, from 1982 to 1992 as a senator to the Florida senate, and, from 1993 to 2003, as a representative to the United States House of Representatives, representing Florida's 17th congressional district.

Carrie Mae Pittman[1] was born on April 29, 1926, in Tallahassee, Florida,[2] where she was raised, the youngest of 12 children of Willie and Carrie Pittman.[3] She was the daughter of a sharecropper and granddaughter of a slave.[4]
Meek was a graduate of Lincoln High School. She remained in north Florida for college and was graduated from Florida A&M University (then known as Florida A&M College for Negroes) in 1946, where she also lettered in track and field.[3] At that time, African Americans were not admitted to graduate schools in Florida, so Meek enrolled in the University of Michigan and received her master of science degree in 1948.[2]
After graduation from the University of Michigan, Meek was hired as a teacher at Bethune-Cookman University in Daytona Beach, Florida. Following that, she taught at her alma mater, Florida A&M University.[2]
Meek moved to Miami in 1961 to serve as special assistant to the vice president of Miami-Dade Community College.[2] Largely due to Meek's integral role in the administration of the college during the push for its integration, the college was desegregated in 1963.[5]
Throughout her years as an educator, Meek was also active in community projects in the Miami area.[6]

When state representative Gwen Cherry, Florida's first woman African American legislator, died in a car crash in 1979,[7][8] Meek decided to run in the special election to succeed her. She was elected to the Florida House as a Democrat.[9] As a state representative, she introduced a bill criminalizing stalking.[2] She served until 1982.[9]

In 1982, Meek ran for a newly drawn state senate seat based in northern Dade County. She became the first African American woman elected to the Florida Senate.[3] As a state senator, Meek served on the education appropriations subcommittee. Her efforts in the legislature led to the construction of thousands of affordable rental housing units.[5]

In 1992, a court-ordered congressional redistricting plan drew three districts with a substantial African American population that were designed to elect black candidates of choice to comply with the federal Voting Rights Act. Meek ran for one of those seats, the 17th district, which was based in northern Dade County. Along with Corrine Brown and Alcee Hastings, Meek became the first black member of Congress from Florida since Post-Civil War Reconstruction Era.[10]
Upon taking office, Meek faced the task of helping her district recover from Hurricane Andrew's devastation. Her efforts helped to provide $100 million in federal assistance to rebuild Dade County.[11] Also while in the House, Meek successfully focused her attention on issues such as economic development, health care, education, and housing. She led legislation through Congress to improve Dade County's transit system, airport, and seaport; to construct a new family and childcare center in northern Dade County; and to fund advanced aviation training programs at Miami-Dade Community College. Meek emerged as a strong advocate for Haitian immigrants and senior citizens.[12]

Meek believed that her district was undercounted in the 1990 Census and that the votes of her constituents were not represented correctly in the 2000 presidential election. Meek and other members of the U.S. House of Representatives objected to the 25 electoral votes from Florida that George W. Bush narrowly won after a contentious recount. Because no U.S. senator joined her objection, it had to be dismissed during the certification of the votes of the Electoral College by Vice President Al Gore while he was overseeing the recount that was his vice presidential role in the senate. Gore had been Bush's opponent in the race.[13] Later, Meek declined to attend a meeting between legislators and newly elected President George W. Bush in February 2001.[citation needed]
Meek never lost a race for reelection to the U.S. House of Representatives.[11] She retired from the House at the end of her term in 2003. Her son, Kendrick Meek, ran for her vacated seat and succeeded her.[10][14]

Meek was married twice. Her husbands were Lucius Davis and Harold Meek. Both marriages ended in divorce.[3][15] She had three children, two daughters, Lucia Davis-Raiford and Sheila Davis, and a son, Kendrick Meek.[11] After her retirement from politics, she spent much of her time running the Carrie Meek Foundation, which she had founded in 2001 to provide resources and opportunities in her Miami-Dade community; she stepped down for health reasons in 2015.[11] She died at her home in Miami on November 28, 2021, at the age of 95.[4][10]
Awards and honors[edit]

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Representative Carrie Meek in the Florida House chamber in 1980

The Carrie Meek - James N. Eaton, Sr. Southeastern Regional Black Archives Research Center and Museum in Tallahassee, Florida, on the campus of [url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Florida_A%26M_University]Florida A&M University, was co-named in Meek's honor.[16]
She was a member of Delta Sigma Theta sorority, and an honorary member of Iota Phi Lambda sorority.[17]
Meek was also awarded honorary degrees by a number of institutions, including Florida A&M University, University of Miami, Barry University, Florida Atlantic University, and Rollins College.[1

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

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Robert Lee Elder (July 14, 1934 – November 28, 2021) was an American professional golfer. In 1975, he became the first African-American to play in the Masters Tournament, where he missed the cut.[1][2] Elder was invited to the tournament after he won the 1974 Monsanto Open.

One of ten children, Elder was born in Dallas, Texas, to Charles and Almeta Elder. He was nine years old when his father was killed in Germany during World War II, and his mother died three months later. At the age of 12, Elder found himself moving from one ghetto to another before being sent to Los Angeles, California, to live with his aunt. Elder frequently cut classes to work as a caddie, and after two years at Manual Arts High School he dropped out.
Elder met his first wife, Rose Harper, at a golf tournament in Washington, D.C. The two married in 1966. After getting married, Rose gave up her golfing career to become his manager. They later divorced.
Elder died on November 28, 2021, in Escondido, California at the age of 87.[3][4][5]
Professional career[edit]
Life before the PGA Tour[edit]
Elder did not play a full round of 18 holes until he was 16. He took jobs in pro shops and locker rooms, in addition to caddying where he developed his game by watching his clients, and playing when he had the opportunity. Elder's game developed sufficiently for him to start hustling. His career took a big step after playing a match with heavyweight boxer Joe Louis, which led to Louis’s golf instructor, Ted Rhodes, taking Elder under his wing for three years. Under the tutelage of Rhodes, Elder was able to polish his game and he began playing in tournaments.
In 1959, Elder was drafted into the Army, and was sent to Fort Lewis, Washington. While at Fort Lewis, Elder had the good fortune to be under the command of Colonel John Gleaster who was an avid golfer. Gleaster put Elder in a Special Services unit, which allowed him the opportunity to play golf on a steady basis.
Elder was discharged from the army in 1961, and joined the United Golf Association Tour (UGA) for black players (at the time they were excluded from the Professional Golfers' Association of America (PGA) which was only "for members of the Caucasian race").[6] He had a dominant stretch in which he won 18 of 22 consecutive tournaments, but this tour did not have large prizes, often in the range of $500.
The PGA Tour[edit]
The PGA lifted its color barrier in 1961, meaning non white players could become members.[6] In 1967 Elder raised enough money to attend qualifying school for the PGA Tour. He finished 9th out of a class of 122 and gained his tour card for 1968. That year, he placed 40th on the money list, bringing in approximately $38,000. The highlight of Elder's rookie season was a memorable playoff loss to Jack Nicklaus at the American Golf Classic. Elder lost to Nicklaus on the fifth hole of sudden death.
In 1971 Elder accepted a personal invitation from Gary Player to participate in the South African PGA Championship in Johannesburg, South Africa. The event marked the first integrated tournament in the country’s history. The country had apartheid policies in effect at the time, but he agreed to participate after the South African government agreed not to subject him or spectators to the usual segregation requirements. He also played in a number of other tournaments in Southern Africa plus he won the Nigerian Open in 1971.
In 1974, Elder earned his first win on the PGA Tour at the Monsanto Open, which gained him entry to the Masters Tournament in Augusta, Georgia the following year. This marked the first time that Augusta National invited an African American who had qualified for the Masters since the tournament began forty-one years earlier in 1934, which coincidentally was Elder's year of birth. He was the first African American because of the clubs refusal to invite previously qualified players like Charlie Sifford a two time tour winner in the 1960s. Elder shot a 74 on day one and a 78 on day two of the 1975 Masters, missing the cut, but the impact of his presence in the field was clear.
In 1979 he became the first African American to qualify for play in the Ryder Cup. In 1984 at the age of 50, Elder joined the Senior PGA Tour.

In 1975, Elder became the first African American to play in the Masters.[6] Leading up to the tournament, he received substantial amounts of hate mail. Fearing for his safety, during the week of the tournament he rented two houses in town and kept moving between them, and always had people around him when he went to eat.
At the Monsanto Open in 1968 in Pensacola, Florida, the same tournament at which he claimed his first PGA Tour victory six years later to qualify for the Masters, Elder and other black players on tour were forced to change their clothes in the parking lot because members of the club would not allow African Americans in their clubhouse. While playing in a tournament in Memphis, Tennessee, a spectator picked up Elder's ball on a hole and threw it in a hedge. The incident was witnessed by another pro golfer, and Elder was given a free drop.
Elder tried to stay focused on the game, but unlike the majority of players on tour he was constantly bothered by unruly fans, frequently receiving hate mail and threatening phone calls.

Elder and his then wife, Harper, set up the Lee Elder Scholarship Fund in 1974. This fund was developed to offer monetary aid to low-income young men and women seeking money for college.
In 1986 he protested to the PGA governors for allowing four American golfers to play in a tournament in Sun City, Bophuthatswana, a small area set up by the apartheid regime of South Africa that surrounds it.
In 1990, Elder spoke out against country clubs that still excluded Black golfers from membership. Elder has actively promoted Summer Youth Golf Development Programs, raised money for the United Negro College Fund, and served on the advisory boards of Goodwill Industries.
In April 2021, Elder took part in the traditional ceremonial start to the Masters.[7]

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

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Arlene Carol Dahl (August 11, 1925 – November 29, 2021) was an American actress and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer star, who achieved notability during the 1950s. She had three children, the eldest of whom is actor Lorenzo Lamas.

She was one of the last surviving stars from the Classical Hollywood cinema era.



Dahl was born on August 11, 1925, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, to Norwegian immigrants Idelle (née Swan) and Rudolph Dahl, a Ford Motor dealer and executive.[3] She cited her year of birth as 1928,[4] although her birth record (1925-43442), available through the Minnesota Historical Society, shows she was born on August 11, 1925.[1] An August 13, 2014, article in the New York Social Diary by David Patrick Columbia, entitled "Losses and Gains", references her 89th birthday celebration with her husband, children, and family.[2]
As a child, Dahl took elocution and dancing lessons and was active in theatrical events at Margaret Fuller Elementary School, Ramsey Junior High School, and Washburn Senior High School. After graduating from high school, she held various jobs, including performing in a local drama group and briefly working as a model for department stores. Dahl's mother was involved in local amateur theatre. Dahl briefly attended the University of Minnesota.[5]


A year after graduation from high school, Dahl went to Chicago, where she worked as a buyer for Marshall and Brown. She then traveled to New York and worked as a model for the Walter Thornton Modeling Agency,[6] where she successfully auditioned for a part in the musical Mr. Strauss Goes to Boston in 1945. This led to her getting the lead in another play, Questionable Ladies, which was seen by a talent scout from Hollywood.[5]

Dahl had an uncredited bit part in Life with Father (1947). She was promoted to leading lady in My Wild Irish Rose (1947) with Dennis Morgan, a big hit that led to an offer from MGM for a long-term contract.[5]


Dahl went to MGM to play a supporting role in The Bride Goes Wild (1948). She remained there to play the female lead in the Red Skelton comedy A Southern Yankee (1948).
Eagle-Lion hired her to star as the female lead in Reign of Terror (1949). Then at MGM she acted opposite Van Johnson in Scene of the Crime (1949); Robert Taylor in Ambush (1950); Joel McCrea in The Outriders (1950); Fred Astaire and Skelton in Three Little Words (1950), playing Eileen Percy; and Skelton again in Watch the Birdie (1950). Except for The Outriders, all these movies were profitable for MGM.[7]
MGM gave Dahl the lead in several B movies, such as Inside Straight (1951) and No Questions Asked (1951), both of which flopped.[8]

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Arlene Dahl and Fernando Lamas, by Virgil Apger, 1954

Dahl was hired by Pine-Thomas Productions to a multi-picture contract. She was cast in Caribbean Gold (1952), a swashbuckler starring John Payne.[9]
She went to Universal to co-star with Alan Ladd in a French Foreign Legion story, Desert Legion (1953); then Pine-Thomas used her again in Jamaica Run (1953) and Sangaree (1953). The latter starred Fernando Lamas, whom Dahl would marry.
She supported Bob Hope in the comedy Here Come the Girls (1953). Dahl and Lamas reunited on The Diamond Queen (1953) at Warner Bros.[10]

In 1953, Dahl played Roxanne on stage in a short-lived revival of Cyrano de Bergerac opposite Jose Ferrer.
Dahl played the ambitious Carol Talbot in Woman's World (1954) at Fox, and she was Rock Hudson's leading lady in Universal's adventure war film Bengal Rifles (1954).

She began writing a syndicated beauty column in 1952,[11] and opened Arlene Dahl Enterprises in 1954, marketing cosmetics and designer lingerie.[12]

Dahl began appearing on television, including episodes of Lux Video Theatre (including a 1954 adaptation of Casablanca, wherein she played Ilsa) and The Ford Television Theatre.[13]
Dahl was both a mystery guest (April 25, 1954) and a panelist on the CBS game show What's My Line?. In 1953, she hosted ABC's anthology series The Pepsi-Cola Playhouse.

John Payne and Dahl were reunited in a film noir, Slightly Scarlet (1956), alongside Rhonda Fleming, another red-haired star.
Dahl made some films in England for Columbia: Wicked as They Come (1956) and Fortune Is a Woman (1957). In 1957, she sued Columbia for $1 million, saying the film's advertisements for Wicked as They Come were "lewd" and "degraded" her. A judge threw out the suit.[14][15] 

Dahl hosted the short-lived television series Opening Night (1958) and had the female lead in the adventure movie Journey to the Center of the Earth (1959), opposite James Mason and Pat Boone. She was injured on set making the latter,[16] but it turned out to be one of her most successful films.
 
In 1960, she played the role of Lucy Belle in "That Taylor Affair," an episode of the TV series Riverboat, alongside Darren McGavin. The same year, she married Texas oilman Christian Holmes and announced her retirement from acting. The marriage did not last, but Dahl increasingly diversified her work to become a lecturer and beauty consultant while she continued acting.[17]
She had a supporting role in Kisses for My President (1964) and appeared in Land Raiders (1969), The Pleasure Pit (1969), and the French film Du blé en liasses.[18] She also appeared on TV in Burke's Law and Theatre of Stars.
Her focus by now was on business. After closing her company in 1967, she began serving as vice president at the ad agency Kenyon and Eckhardt that same year.[12] In a 1969 interview, she said her old films were "such an embarrassment".[19]
 
Dahl began working at Sears Roebuck as director of beauty products in 1970, earning nearly $750,000 annually, but she left in 1975 to found a short-lived fragrance company, Dahlia.[11][12][20] 

Dahl also returned to Broadway in the early 1970s, replacing Lauren Bacall in the role of Margo Channing in Applause.
On television, she had a role on the soap opera One Life to Live and guest-starred on Love, American Style, Jigsaw John, Fantasy Island, and The Love Boat. She also made a TV movie, The Deadly Dream (1971). "I like acting," she said in 1978, "but I had better like business better or I'll lose my shirt."[21]
 

Dahl in 2000

In 1981, Dahl declared personal bankruptcy, with liabilities of almost $1 million and assets of only $623,970. Her chief creditor was the [url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._Small_Business_Administration]U.S. Small Business Administration, which guaranteed a $450,000 loan for her as an executive in a cosmetic firm. She had lost $163,000 from burglaries of jewelry and furs from her Manhattan apartment, and she earned only $11,367 in 1980 and $10,517 in 1979.[22]

Dahl appeared on ABC's soap opera One Life to Live from 1981 to 1984 as Lucinda Schenck Wilson. The character was planned as a short-term role (she guest-starred from late 1981 to early 1982 and in late 1982), but Dahl later was offered a one-year contract to appear on the series from September 1983 to October 1984. In 1988 she starred in the film A Place to Hide.
Her last feature film role, which followed a hiatus of more than two decades, was in Night of the Warrior (1991). It co-starred her son Lorenzo Lamas.

She entered the field of astrology in the 1980s, writing a syndicated column and later operating a premium phoneline company.[12] Dahl wrote more than two dozen books on the topics of beauty and astrology.[23]
Dahl guest-starred on episodes of shows starring her son, Renegade and Air America.

In the early 1950s, Dahl met actor Lex Barker; they wed on April 16, 1951, and divorced the following year (Barker later married Lana Turner). Dahl went on to marry another matinee idol, Fernando Lamas. In 1958, Dahl and Lamas had their only child, Lorenzo Lamas. Shortly after giving birth to Lorenzo, Dahl slowed and eventually ended her career as an actress, although she still appeared in films and on television occasionally. Dahl and Lamas divorced in 1960, and Dahl later remarried.[citation needed]
In addition to Lorenzo Lamas, Dahl has two other children: a daughter Christina Carole Holmes by third husband Christian R. Holmes, and a second son, Rounsevelle Andreas Schaum, by her fifth husband, Rounsevelle W. "Skip" Schaum. She has six grandchildren (including AJ Lamas and Shayne Lamas) and two great-grandchildren.[citation needed]
Dahl was married to Marc Rosen, a packaging designer, from 1984 until her death.[11] She divided her time between New York City and West Palm Beach, Florida.[citation needed]

She died in her Manhattan apartment on November 29, 2021, at the age of 96.[24][25][26]

More at Wikipedia

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Not many people live to age 110.


Eileen Ash (née Whelan; 30 October 1911 – 3 December 2021) was an English cricketer who played primarily as a right-arm medium bowler. She appeared in seven Test matches for England between 1937 and 1949.[1][2] Ash, a supercentenarian,[3] was the oldest lived international cricketer,[4][5] and died at the age of 110.[6]

Whelan played Test cricket both before and after the Second World War, making her debut against Australia at Northampton in June 1937,[7] and playing her last game against New Zealand in Auckland in March 1949. A specialist bowler, she took 10 Test wickets at an average of 23.00. Whelan also played domestic cricket for the Civil Service, Middlesex and South of England.[1][2]

Outside of playing cricket, Ash was employed by the Civil Service from the age of 18. She was seconded to MI6 during World War II, and went on to work with the organisation for eleven years.[8] Ash and her husband eventually retired to Norwich. She took up golf in later life, only quitting at the age of 98.[9]
In 2011, Ash became the first female test cricketer to live to 100 years old. She was made an honorary life member of the Marylebone Cricket Club to mark the occasion.[9] Writing for the BBC in February 2017, Heather Knight, England's captain, said,

Quote:I had the absolute privilege of meeting Eileen Ash, the oldest living Test cricketer (male or female) for some filming before I left for Australia, and she is easily one of the most extraordinary ladies I've ever met. She's 105, does yoga every week and I've met teenagers who have a lot less energy than she does! It was amazing to hear some of her experiences of playing cricket for England, especially the boat trips they used to have to take to play in Australia, and she also took me through her yoga routine. My pride, and a number of my muscle groups, are still in tatters after being put to shame by a 105-year-old.[10]

In July 2017, aged 105, Ash rang the bell at Lord's to signal the start of play at the 2017 Women's World Cup Final, which England won.[11] She passed her driving test at the age of 105, a feat covered on the ITV reality show 100-Year-Old Driving School.[12] To mark her 106th birthday, she was taken for a flight in a Tiger Moth.[12] In November 2018, she opened a sports hall named in her honour at The Hewett Academy in Norwich.[13] In January 2021, at the age of 109, she became one of the oldest people in the UK to receive a COVID-19 vaccine.[14] Ash celebrated her 110th birthday on 30 October 2021 at the Norwich care home in which she resided.[15]
Ash died on 3 December 2021, at the age of 110.[16]

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

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Bob Dole, former US Senator; Republican nominee for President in 1996.

Do your own research, folks.

[Eric the Green]

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

Robert Joseph Dole (July 22, 1923 – December 5, 2021) was an American politician and attorney who represented Kansas in the United States Senate from 1969 to 1996. He was the Republican Leader of the Senate during the final 11 years of his tenure, including three nonconsecutive years as Senate Majority Leader. Prior to his 27 years in the Senate, he served in the United States House of Representatives from 1961 to 1969. Dole was also the Republican presidential nominee in the 1996 election and the vice presidential nominee in the 1976 election.

Dole was born and raised in Russell, Kansas, where he established a legal career after serving with distinction in the United States Army during World War II. Following a stint as Russell County Attorney, he won election to the House of Representatives in 1960. In 1968, Dole was elected to the Senate, where he served as chairman of the Republican National Committee from 1971 to 1973 and chairman of the Senate Finance Committee from 1981 to 1985. He led the Senate Republicans from 1985 to his resignation in 1996, and served as Senate Majority Leader from 1985 to 1987 and from 1995 to 1996. In his role as Republican leader, he helped defeat Democratic President Bill Clinton's health care plan.

President Gerald Ford chose Dole as his running mate in the 1976 election after Vice President Nelson Rockefeller withdrew from seeking a full term. Ford was defeated by Democrat Jimmy Carter in the general election. Dole sought the Republican presidential nomination in 1980, but quickly dropped out of the race. He experienced more success in the 1988 Republican primaries but was defeated by Vice President George H. W. Bush. Dole won the Republican presidential nomination in 1996 and selected Jack Kemp as his running mate. The Republican ticket lost in the general election to Clinton, making Dole the first unsuccessful major party nominee for both president and vice president. He resigned from the Senate during the 1996 campaign and did not seek public office again after the election.

Dole remained active after retiring from public office. He appeared in numerous commercials and television programs and served on various councils. In 2012, Dole unsuccessfully advocated Senate ratification of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. He initially supported Jeb Bush in the 2016 Republican primaries, but later became the only former Republican presidential nominee to endorse Donald Trump in the general election. Dole was a member of the advisory council of the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation and special counsel at the Washington, D.C., office of law firm Alston & Bird.[3] Dole was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal on January 17, 2018. He was married to former U.S. Senator Elizabeth Dole of North Carolina.

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Thank you, Eric, for showing that you care about this thread. I had the impression that I was being ignored.

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Marjorie Louise Tall Chief was born October 19, 1926 in Denver, Colorado while her parents, Alexander Tall Chief and his wife, Ruth (née Porter), were on a family vacation with her older siblings, brother Gerald and sister Maria.[3] She grew up in Fairfax, Oklahoma[3] until 1933, when her family moved to Los Angeles so she and her sister could train in ballet dancing. She trained with Bronislava Nijinska and David Lichine.[1][2] Her father was a member of the Osage Nation, while her mother was of Scottish-Irish descent.[4]

After completing her training in Los Angeles, Tallchief began performing for several dance companies. In the book American Indian Ballerinas, Lili Cockerille Livingston wrote that Tallchief had her professional debut with Lucia Chase and Richard Pleasant's Ballet Theatre as a first year soloist, in 1944. According to the Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture, these included: "the American Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo (1946–47), the Grand Ballet du Marquis de Cuevas (1948–55), Ruth Page's Chicago Opera Ballet (guest artist, 1958–62), and the Harkness Ballet (prima ballerina, 1964–66). Her most acclaimed roles were performed in Night Shadow (1950), Annabel Lee (1951), Idylle (1954), Romeo and Juliet (1955), and Giselle (1957)."[1]
Tallchief was the first American and Native American to be "première danseuse étoile" of the Paris Opera Ballet and performed with the Grand Ballet du Marquis de Cuevas.[5] During her career she also performed for dignitaries such as U.S. Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson, and French President Charles de Gaulle.[6] Tallchief taught at Dallas Civic Ballet Academy, later known as the Dallas Ballet.[7] After her retirement from the stage, she acted as a dance director for the Dallas Ballet, the Chicago Ballet School, and the Harid Conservatory until 1993.[5][8] She and her sister Maria also co-founded the Chicago City Ballet in 1980.[3]

In 1991, Tallchief was inducted into the Oklahoma Hall of Fame.[9] In October 1997, she and her elder sister Maria, along with Moscelyne Larkin, Rosella Hightower, and Yvonne Chouteau, were named Oklahoma Treasures at the Governor's Arts Awards.[10]

Tallchief had two children with her husband, the late director and choreographer George Skibine, whom she married in 1947.[3] She latterly lived in Boca Raton, Florida,[2] where she died on November 30, 2021, at the age of 95.[6]


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

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One never knows the consequences of a disaster that kills key people in the armed forces of a superpower:


On 8 December 2021, a Mil Mi-17 V5 transport helicopter operated by the Indian Air Force (IAF) crashed between Coimbatore and Wellington in Tamil Nadu, after departing from Sulur Air Force Station. The helicopter was carrying Chief of Defence Staff General Bipin Rawat and 13 others, including his wife Madhulika Rawat and staff. All people on board except one, an air force officer, were killed in the crash.

The Russian-built[2] Mi-17 medium-lift helicopter was one of the first batch of 80 of its type built for the IAF under the terms of a 2008 contract.[3] Delivered to the IAF in 2013, the helicopter had flown over 26 hours without incident since its most recent servicing.[4]
Wing Commander Prithvi Singh Chauhan, the CO of 109 Helicopter Unit, was the pilot in command,[5] with co pilot Squadron Leader Kuldeep Singh and two junior warrant officers comprising the rest of the crew.[6]

The passengers had boarded the flight around 11:45 AM local time. At 11:48 AM local time, the helicopter took off with 10 passengers and 4 crew members from Sulur Air Force Station, headed to the Defence Services Staff College (DSSC) in Wellington, Tamil Nadu.[7][5] General Rawat, his wife and his staff were travelling to the DSSC, where Rawat was to address the college's faculty and student officers.[8] The flight was scheduled to arrive at Wellington by 12:15 PM.

At 12:08 PM local time, the helicopter lost contact with the Sulur Air force base.[7] It crashed near a residential colony of private tea estate employees on the outskirts of the hamlet of Nanjappachatiram, Bandishola panchayat, in the Katteri-Nanchappanchathram area of Coonoor taluk, Nilgiris district.[5][9][10] The crash site was 10 km from the flight's intended destination.[11][12] According to an eyewitness, he "saw the helicopter coming down... it hit one tree and was on fire. There were plumes of smoke when I ran over. In minutes, the fire was higher than my house." Villagers threw water over the fire in attempt to put it out.[13]

Initial reports of the crash emerged around 12:20 PM, with a search-and-rescue operation launched at 12:25 PM. The IAF officially confirmed General Rawat's presence on the flight in a tweet sent at 1:53 PM.[14] Rescue operations continued until 3:25 PM.[5] Fire and Rescue Services personnel who managed to reach the crash site after some difficulty, as the site was 500 meters from a major road, reported the crash victims had been burnt beyond 

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India's first [url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chief_of_Defence_Staff_(India)]Chief of Defence Staff General Bipin Rawat died in the crash.

The ten passengers on board the flight included Chief of Defence Staff General Bipin Rawat, his wife Madhulika Rawat, liaison officer Group Captain Varun Singh and two members of the general's personal staff, and five NCOs.[15] Following the crash, the IAF released statements at 18:03 confirming the death of 13 of the 14 people on board, including General Rawat and his wife.[16][17] As of 21:30 local time, all 13 of the bodies had been recovered from the crash site.[18]
Group Captain Varun Singh, a Directing Staff at DSSC, was the sole survivor of the crash, and was taken to the military hospital in Wellington, Tamil Nadu, for surgery.[19][20] Having sustained burns over 45% of his body and in critical but stable condition, he was subsequently transferred to the Command Hospital in Bengaluru for further treatment.[21]

The Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) met on the evening of the disaster to decide on a further course of action. The CCS was headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The Minister of Defence Rajnath Singh made a formal announcement in Parliament on December 9 regarding the incident.[7] The Opposition suspended its protests in Parliament for one day as a tribute to those who lost their lives in the crash.[22] The flight data recorder was recovered on the morning of 9 December.[23] A tri-service commission of inquiry was established by the IAF, headed by Air Marshal Manvendra Singh, the AOC-in-C Training Command.[24]

[pbrower2a]

Al Unser, four-time winner of the Indianapolis 500.

Alfred Unser (May 29, 1939 – December 9, 2021) was an American automobile racing driver, the younger brother of fellow racing drivers Jerry and Bobby Unser, and father of Al Unser Jr. He was the second of four men (A. J. Foyt, himself, Rick Mears and Hélio Castroneves) to have won the Indianapolis 500-Mile Race four times (1970, 1971, 1978, 1987), the fourth of five to have won the race in consecutive years, and won the National Championship in 1970, 1983, and 1985. The Unser family has won the Indy 500 a record nine times. He was the only person to have both a sibling (Bobby) and child (Al Jr.) as fellow Indy 500 winners (coincidentally, all three captured their final Indy 500 wins racing for Team Penske). Al's nephews Johnny and Robby Unser have also competed in that race.

After his son Al Unser Jr. joined the national championship circuit in 1983, Unser was generally known by the retronymic name of "Al Unser Sr." or "Big Al."

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

[pbrower2a]

If your TV show is going to have your name attached to it, then it had better be good. The Cara Williams Show was apparently dreadful, and it was cancelled within a year. Her career sank like a brick of depleted uranium in a body of water.

More at Wikipedia.

[pbrower2a]

Robert Michael Nesmith (December 30, 1942 – December 10, 2021) was an American musician, songwriter, actor, producer, and novelist. He was best known as a member of the pop rock band the Monkees and co-star of the TV series The Monkees (1966–1968). His songwriting credits include "Different Drum", which became a hit for Linda Ronstadt and the Stone Poneys.


After the break-up of the Monkees, Nesmith continued his successful songwriting and performing career, first with the seminal country rock group the First National Band, with whom he had a top-40 hit, "Joanne", and then as a solo artist. He often played a custom-built Gretsch 12-string electric with the Monkees and afterwards.

In the early 1980s, he was asked to help produce and create MTV, but had prior commitments with his production company. In 1981, he won the first Grammy Award for Video of the Year for his hour-long television show, Elephant Parts.[1] He was also an executive producer of the film Repo Man (1984).

More at Wikipedia.

[pbrower2a]

Anne Rice[1] (born Howard Allen Frances O'Brien; October 4, 1941 – December 11, 2021) was an American author of gothic fiction, Christian literature, and erotic literature. She was best known for her series of novels The Vampire Chronicles. Books from The Vampire Chronicles were the subject of two film adaptations—Interview with the Vampire (1994) and Queen of the Damned (2002).


Born in New Orleans, Rice spent much of her early life there before moving to Texas, and later to San Francisco. She was raised in an observant Catholic family but became an agnostic as a young adult. She began her professional writing career with the publication of Interview with the Vampire in 1976, while living in California, and began writing sequels to the novel in the 1980s. In the mid-2000s, following a publicized return to Catholicism, Rice published the novels Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt and Christ the Lord: The Road to Cana, fictionalized accounts of certain incidents in the life of Jesus. Several years later she distanced herself from organized Christianity, citing disagreement with the Catholic Church's stances on social issues but pledging that faith in God remained "central to [her] life." However, she later considered herself a secular humanist.[2]
Rice's books have sold over 150 million copies, making her one of the most popular and best-selling authors of all-time.[3][4] While reaction to her early works was initially mixed, she became more popular with critics and readers in the 1980s. Her writing style and the literary content of her works have been analyzed by literary commentators. She was married to poet and painter Stan Rice for 41 years, from 1961 until his death from brain cancer in 2002 at age 60.[5][6] She and Stan had two children, Michele, who died of leukemia at age five, and Christopher, who is also an author.

In addition to her vampire novels, Rice authored books such as The Feast of All Saints (adapted for television in 2001) and Servant of the Bones, which formed the basis of a 2011 comic book miniseries. Several books from The Vampire Chronicles have been adapted as comics and manga by various publishers. Rice has also authored erotic fiction under the pen names Anne Rampling and A. N. Roquelaure, including Exit to Eden, which was later adapted into a 1994 film.

More at Wikipedia

[Eric the Green]

(12-07-2021, 09:43 AM)pbrower2a Wrote: Thank you, Eric, for showing that you care about this thread. I had the impression that I was being ignored.

I was surprised when I looked at the views stat. This thread has more views than any other except the "Let's Make Fun of Donald Trump" thread, and it seems to be gaining on it. So, it's a valuable thread for people.

[pbrower2a]

NEW YORK (AP) — bell hooks, the groundbreaking author, educator and activist whose explorations of how race, gender, economics and politics were intertwined made her among the most influential thinkers of her time, has died. She was 69.

In a statement issued through William Morrow Publishers, hooks’ family announced that she died Wednesday in Berea, Kentucky, home to the bell hooks center at Berea College. Additional details were not immediately available.

“She was a giant, no nonsense person who lived by her own rules, and spoke her own truth in a time when Black people, and women especially, did not feel empowered to do that,” Dr. Linda Strong-Leek, a close friend and former provost of Berea College, wrote in an email to The Associated Press. “It was a privilege to know her, and the world is a lesser place today because she is gone. There will never be another bell hooks.”

Starting in the 1970s, hooks published dozens of books that helped shape popular and academic discourse. Her notable works included “Ain’t I a Woman? Black Women and Feminism,” “Feminist Theory: From Margin to Center” and “All About Love: New Visions.” Among her most famous expressions was her definition of feminism, which she called “a movement to end sexism, sexist exploitation and oppression.”

hooks was born Gloria Jean Watkins and gave herself the pen name bell hooks in honor of her maternal great-grandmother.

https://apnews.com/article/arts-and-ente...13585756cd

[pbrower2a]

Roland Hemond (October 26, 1929 – December 12, 2021) was an American professional baseball executive who worked in Major League Baseball. He served as the scouting director of the California Angels, general manager of the Chicago White Sox and Baltimore Orioles, senior executive vice president of the Arizona Diamondbacks, executive advisor to the general manager of the White Sox, and special assistant to the president for the Arizona Diamondbacks.

After graduating from high school, Hemond served in the United States Coast Guard for four years. In 1951, he took a job with the Hartford Chiefs, a Minor League Baseball team. After two months, he was hired by the Boston Braves, and stayed with the team when it relocated to Milwaukee.[1] In 1961, the Los Angeles Angels hired him as their scouting director.[2]

Both Hemond and Chuck Tanner joined the Chicago White Sox from the Angels on September 4, 1970, when general manager Stu Holcomb hired them as director of player personnel and manager respectively.[3] Hemond was promoted to special assistant to the chairman of the board and president when Ken Harrelson replaced him as executive vice president of baseball operations on October 2, 1985.[4] He resigned from the White Sox on April 29, 1986, and became Commissioner of Baseball Peter Ueberroth's consultant for special projects seventeen days later on May 16.[5]
The Baltimore Orioles hired Hemond as their general manager in 1988,[6] and he served in the role until 1995. From 1996 to 2000, he was the senior executive vice president of the Arizona Diamondbacks. He returned to the White Sox between 2001 and 2007 as an executive advisor.[7][8] In 2007, Hemond returned to the Arizona Diamondbacks as special assistant to the president.[9]

Hemond is also credited with the original idea for the Arizona Fall League, an off-season developmental league owned and operated by Major League Baseball. The league features the top prospects from each of the MLB teams, with all games played in the spring training stadiums in and around Phoenix, Arizona. He was the former president of the Association of Professional Ball Players of America (APBPA), a non-profit that provides anonymous financial assistance and college scholarships to current and former players, scouts, and others connected with any level of professional organized baseball.[9][10] Hemond was a long-time member of the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR) and a regular presenter and panelist at the Society's conferences; the Arizona chapter of SABR was renamed in his honor on January 28, 2017.[11][12]
Hemond is credited with mentoring Dave Dombrowski, Walt Jocketty, Doug Melvin, and Dan Evans.[13]

[/url]
Hemond in 2009

Hemond is a two-time winner of Major League Baseball's [url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sporting_News_Executive_of_the_Year_Award]Executive of the Year award (1972, 1989), as well as winner of the United Press International Executive of the Year Award in 1983.[14] In 2001, he was named the King of Baseball.[15] Hemond won the Branch Rickey Award in 2003.[16]

In February 2011, the Baseball Hall of Fame announced that Hemond would become the second person to receive the Buck O'Neil Lifetime Achievement Award recognizing "the profound impact he has had on the game, for his baseball intelligence as a keen talent evaluator and in building winning teams, to the universal respect he has earned for mentoring generations of baseball executives, past and present."[17] The award was presented to him on July 23.[18]

Three annual awards are named in Hemond’s honor: the Roland Hemond Award, presented by the White Sox in honor of those who are dedicated to bettering the lives of others through extraordinary personal sacrifice;[19] the Baseball America Award, presented to the person who has made major contributions to scouting and player development;[20] and the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR) Award, given to the executive who has displayed great respect for scouts.[21] Hemond was the inaugural recipient of both the Baseball America and SABR awards. He received an honorary degree in Humane Letters from the University of Phoenix in July 2006.[22]

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

[beechnut79]

Bill Staines, a prominent member of the folk music community, left this world on December 5 at the age of 74. He was a prostate cancer victim. Among Mr. Staines’ best known songs are “Roseville Fair”, “A Place in the Choir” and “The River”. His songs have been covered by a plethora of other artists including Nanci Griffith, who left us in August. He recorded 22 albums, many of which are still in print.

In addition to songwriting Mr. Staines also published a book titled “The Tour: A Life Between the Lines”, which dealt with life as a traveling musician. Another one of his songs, titled The Logging Song, was featured in an episode of American Dad. He began his recording career in 1966 and usually wore a flat rimmed hat when performing,

[pbrower2a]

former US Senator John Isaksom, R-GA

John Hardy Isakson (December 28, 1944 – December 19, 2021) was an American businessman and politician who served as a United States Senator from Georgia from 2005 to 2019 as a member of the Republican Party. He represented Georgia's 6th congressional district in the United States House of Representatives from 1999 to 2005.


Born in Atlanta, Georgia, Isakson served in the Georgia Air National Guard (1966–1972) and graduated from the University of Georgia. He opened a real estate branch for Northside Realty and later served 22 years as the company's president. After a failed bid for the Georgia House of Representatives in 1974, he was elected in 1976. He served seven terms, including four as minority leader. Isakson was the Republican candidate for governor of Georgia in 1990, but lost. Two years later, he was elected to the Georgia Senate and served one term. He unsuccessfully ran in the Republican primary in the 1996 U.S. Senate election.

After 6th District Congressman and Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich resigned, Isakson ran in the February 1999 special election to succeed him, winning by a 40-point margin. He ran for the U.S. Senate in 2004 after Democratic incumbent Zell Miller opted not to run for re-election. With the backing of much of Georgia's Republican establishment, he won both the primary and general elections by wide margins. He became the senior Senator from Georgia when Saxby Chambliss retired in 2015. On December 31, 2019, midway through his third Senate term, Isakson resigned from the Senate due to health concerns and was succeeded by fellow Republican Kelly Loeffler who was appointed by the Republican Governor of Georgia, Brian Kemp to fill the vacant seat.

[pbrower2a]

Joan Didion, writer


Joan Didion (/ˈdɪdiən/ (December 5, 1934 – December 23, 2021) was an American writer who launched her career in the 1960s after winning an essay contest sponsored by Vogue magazine.[2] Her writing during the 1960s through the late 1970s engaged audiences in the realities of the counterculture of the '60s and the Hollywood lifestyle. Her political writing often concentrated on the subtext of political and social rhetoric. In 1991, she wrote the earliest mainstream media article to suggest the Central Park Five had been wrongfully convicted.[2] In 2005, she won the National Book Award for Nonfiction and was a finalist for both the National Book Critics Circle Award and the Pulitzer Prize for Biography/Autobiography for The Year of Magical Thinking. She later adapted the book into a play, which premiered on Broadway in 2007. In 2017, Didion was profiled in the Netflix documentary The Center Will Not Hold, directed by her nephew Griffin Dunne.


Much more at Wikipedia.

[Eric the Green]

Bishop Desmond Tutu has been a great voice for justice for South Africa and the world. Died at 90 Dec.26th, 2021

JOHANNESBURG (AP) — Desmond Tutu, South Africa’s Nobel Peace Prize-winning icon, an uncompromising foe of apartheid and a modern-day activist for racial justice and LGBT rights, died Sunday at 90. South Africans, world leaders and people around the globe mourned the death of the man viewed as the country’s moral conscience.

Tutu worked passionately, tirelessly and non-violently to tear down apartheid — South Africa’s brutal, decades-long regime of oppression against its Black majority that only ended in 1994.

The buoyant, blunt-spoken clergyman used his pulpit as the first Black bishop of Johannesburg and later as the Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town, as well as frequent public demonstrations, to galvanize public opinion against racial inequity, both at home and globally.....

Tutu’s death on Sunday “is another chapter of bereavement in our nation’s farewell to a generation of outstanding South Africans who have bequeathed us a liberated South Africa,” South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said.

“From the pavements of resistance in South Africa to the pulpits of the world’s great cathedrals and places of worship, and the prestigious setting of the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony, the Arch distinguished himself as a non-sectarian, inclusive champion of universal human rights,” he said.
https://apnews.com/article/desmond-tutu-...550a72479c

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desmond_Tutu
quote:
Desmond Mpilo Tutu OMSG CH (7 October 1931 – 26 December 2021) was a South African Anglican bishop and theologian, known for his work as an anti-apartheid and human rights activist. He was the bishop of Johannesburg from 1985 to 1986 and then the archbishop of Cape Town from 1986 to 1996, in both cases being the first black African to hold the position. Theologically, he sought to fuse ideas from black theology with African theology.