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Jul 22, 2007 7:48 AM CDT

Tammy Faye Messner Dies at 65

Famed evangelist and media figure struggled with drugs, scandal

(Newser) - Televangelist and Christian entertainer Tammy Faye Messner died Friday morning, CNN reports. She had struggled with drug addiction throughout her life and finally died of cancer. Messner had recently been a guest on Larry King Live, appearing precariously ill, claiming she could no longer swallow food and weighed only 65...

Tenor Jerry Hadley Dies at 55

Jul 19, 2007 4:44 AM CDT

Tenor Jerry Hadley Dies at 55

Jerry Hadley, 55, was known for his bright voice and brash energy

(Newser) - Lyric tenor Jerry Hadley, 55, died yesterday, eight days after shooting himself in the head in his home near Poughkeepsie, NY. Hadley, who suffered from depression, was known for his bright, warm voice, brash energy on stage and adventurous choice of repertory, the New York Times reports.

Lady Bird Johnson Mourned

Jul 14, 2007 10:01 PM CDT

Lady Bird Johnson Mourned

(Newser) - A heady mix of past presidents and past and current first ladies paid their respects to Lady Bird Johnson, whose funeral was held in Austin, TX, today, after more 12,000 people filed past her coffin at the top of a marble staircase at the Johnson Library. She died Wednesday...

Lady Bird Johnson Dead at 94

Jul 11, 2007 5:20 PM CDT

Lady Bird Johnson Dead at 94

Former first lady fought for civil rights

(Newser) - Lady Bird Johnson, wife of former president Lyndon Johnson, is dead today at 94. Johnson was a vociferous—if always graceful—campaigner for the beautification of the country and, during one of the most turbulent presidencies of all time, for civil rights and the betterment of the poor.

Cartoonist Killed in Car Crash

Jul 11, 2007 4:30 AM CDT

Cartoonist Killed in Car Crash

Kudzu creator Doug Marlette dead at 57

(Newser) - The Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial cartoonist and creator of Kudzu died yesterday when a car he was riding in hydroplaned in heavy rain and crashed into a tree in Mississippi. Doug Marlette, 57, worked for a series of newspapers, including the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, and was known for his dead-on caricatures...

Opera Star Beverly Sills Dead at 78

Jul 3, 2007 4:44 AM CDT

Opera Star Beverly Sills Dead at 78

Soprano captured America's heart

(Newser) - Soprano Beverly Sills, whose ebullient personality and brilliant singing voice not only made her a star but helped demystify opera in America, died Monday night in her Manhattan home from inoperable lung cancer, the New York Times reports. She was 78. Sills spent much of her singing career with the...

Captain America Dead at 66

Jul 1, 2007 7:42 AM CDT

Captain America Dead at 66

(Newser) - In an issue of its comic book coming out July 5, Marvel Comics kills off superhero Captain America. In "Fallen Son" Captain America is killed by an assassin on the steps of the federal courthouse in New York. He was there after refusing to register his true...

Movie Critic
Joel Siegel
Dead at 63

Jun 30, 2007 10:26 AM CDT

Movie Critic Joel Siegel Dead at 63

GMA's long-time reviewer succumbs to colon cancer

(Newser) - Joel Siegel, the veteran film critic for Good Morning America known for concision and wit, died yesterday after a long battle with colon cancer. Siegel's good humor and enthusiasm for movies didn't stop him from delivering a well-aimed pan. "No one had more fun writing about a bad...

Liz Claiborne Dead at 78

Jun 28, 2007 5:03 AM CDT

Liz Claiborne Dead at 78

Designer was first woman to found Fortune 500 company

(Newser) - Designer Liz Claiborne, whose styles aimed at career women revolutionized everyday fashion sense in America and brought feminine new looks to the workplace, is dead at 78. She was the first woman founder of a Fortune 500 company. Claiborne died Tuesday in New York, after a lengthy battle with bone...

Rod Beck Found Dead at 38

Jun 25, 2007 4:00 AM CDT

Rod Beck Found Dead at 38

Long-haired, hard-living closer was a favorite around the league

(Newser) - Rod Beck, a closer with the Giants, Cubs, Red Sox, and Padres who nailed down 286 saves, died yesterday in his home in Phoenix at 38. Police do not suspect foul play. Beck led a colorful life, drinking and carousing with fans after games; his final season was cut short...

Fashionista Ferre Dies at 62

Jun 18, 2007 5:13 AM CDT

Fashionista Ferre Dies at 62

Italian was known as the "architect of fashion"

(Newser) - Italian designer Gianfranco Ferre died in Milan yesterday of a brain hemorrhage, at age 62. Ferre became the top designer for Parisian fashion powerhouse Christian Dior, an honor almost exclusively reserved for French designers, in 1989. He left Dior in 1996 to build his own lines, which became some of...

Ex-UN Head Waldheim
Dead at 88

Jun 15, 2007 6:50 AM CDT

Ex-UN Head Waldheim Dead at 88

Military service under Nazis shadowed Austrian president

(Newser) - Haunted by his World War II German army service to the end, former UN secretary-general Kurt Waldheim died yesterday at 88. Reports that he served in a German army unit that committed atrocities during the war emerged in 1985, during his successful campaign for the Austrian presidency; at his death,...

Ruth Graham Dead at 87

Jun 15, 2007 4:14 AM CDT

Ruth Graham Dead at 87

Motorcycle-riding evangelist's wife recalled as spirited, opinionated

(Newser) - Ruth Graham, wife of Billy Graham, stayed in the background of the legendary evangelist's ministry but was far from obscure. The missionary's daughter was at once demure, feisty, independent, and unpredictable, the LA Times reports. Graham, who died yesterday at 87, was also an accomplished poet and parent to five...

Philosopher Richard Rorty Dies at 75

Jun 11, 2007 6:21 AM CDT

Philosopher Richard Rorty Dies at 75

Influential thinker blasted the existence of truth, espoused patriotism

(Newser) - Richard Rorty, a celebrated intellectual whose ponderous body of work spanned the gamuts of philosophy, politics, and literary theory, died of pancreatic cancer Friday, at 75. Rorty was known both as a resplendent thinker and as on old lion of the left. “At 12, I knew that the point...

Sen. Craig Thomas Dies
of Leukemia

Jun 5, 2007 5:41 AM CDT

Sen. Craig Thomas Dies of Leukemia

Conservative stayed aloof from Washington in-fighting

(Newser) - Craig Thomas, GOP Senator from Wyoming, died yesterday of leukemia at age 74. The popular conservative congressman began his Senate career in 1994; he was in the hospital when he was reelected by 70% of the vote last year, and announced his diagnosis shortly afterward.

NASCAR's 'Genial Dictator' Dead at 74

Jun 5, 2007 4:17 AM CDT

NASCAR's 'Genial Dictator' Dead at 74

Bill France Jr. transformed NASCAR into a national pastime

(Newser) - Bill France Jr., the NASCAR chairman who took a Southern pastime and transformed it into a national mania, died at 74 on Monday. Sickly in his final years, the godfather of stock car racing from 1972 to 2000 was nonetheless fiery and irascible until the end. France's father had founded...

Televangelist Falwell Dead
at 73

May 15, 2007 1:09 PM CDT

Televangelist Falwell Dead at 73

Controversial conservative mixed religion, politics

(Newser) - The Rev. Jerry Falwell, who founded the Moral Majority and mixed evangelism with conservative social criticism, died today after collapsing in his office at Liberty University in Lynchburg, Va. He was 73. A lightning rod for controversy, Falwell once called AIDS "the wrath of a just God against homosexuals"...

Ex-Boxing Champ Dies in Crash

May 8, 2007 7:16 AM CDT

Ex-Boxing Champ Dies in Crash

(Newser) - Diego "Chico" Corrales, a former boxing world champion, died last night in a Las Vegas motorcycle crash. Two years to the day before his death at 29, Corrales unified lightweight titles with a come-from-behind knockout of Jose Luis Castillo. "That fight with Jose Luis Castillo will be remembered...

Astronaut
Wally Schirra Dies at 84

May 3, 2007 2:14 PM CDT

Astronaut Wally Schirra Dies at 84

Schirra the third American to orbit the earth, the fifth in space

(Newser) - Astronaut Wally Schirra, a reporter once said, geared up for space flight with "the ease of preparing for a family picnic." The third American to orbit the earth and the fifth ever to fly into space, Shirra died today. He was 84.

Cardinals Pitcher Killed In Crash

Apr 29, 2007 10:33 PM CDT

Cardinals Pitcher Killed In Crash

St. Louis reliever Josh Hancock drove into tow truck, died immediately

(Newser) - Josh Hancock, a Cardinals middle reliever who helped the team attain a championship last season, was killed after driving into a tow truck late at night. The death comes five years after St. Louis pitcher Darryl Kile died in his hotel room of coronary artery blockage. It is not...