We Hardly Knew Ye - People We Lost in July, 2007

David Ritcheson, 18, American hate crime victim, suicide by jumping.

Hy Zaret. 99 (August 21, 1907 – July 2, 2007) was an American lyricist and composer best known as the co-author of the 1955 hit "Unchained Melody", one of the most recorded songs of the 20th century.

James "Jimmy" Walker, 63 (April 8, 1944 – July 2, 2007) was an American professional basketball player. A 6'3" (1.90 m) guard, he played nine seasons (1967–1976) in the NBA as a member of the Detroit Pistons, Houston Rockets, and Kansas City Kings.Walker was a two-time All-Star who scored 11,655 points in his career. He was also th e father of former NBA player Jalen Rose, though he abandoned Rose's mother prior to his birth and took no part in the child's upbringing. Walker died on July 2, 2007, at the age of 63, from complications related to lung cancer.

Beverly Sills roles in operas around the world and on recordings. After retiring from singing in 1980, she became the general manager of the , 78 (May 25, 1929 – July 2, 2007) was perhaps the best-known American opera singer in the 1960s and 1970s. She was famous for her performances in coloratura sopranoNew York City Opera. In 1994, she became the Chairman of Lincoln Center and then, in 2002, of the Metropolitan Opera, stepping down in 2005. Sills lent her celebrity to further her charity work for the prevention and treatment of birth defects, lung cancer.

James David Street (b. 15 September 1993, London, England, UK - d. 4 July 2007, Thousand Oaks, California) was a young voice actor who voiced "Huckleberry Pie" in the 2003 Strawberry Shortcake cartoons. He also voiced "Pepito" in the "Madeline" cartoons. He died, tragically, at the age of 13, from a skateboarding accident. He hit his head on the pavement after falling from his skateboard while skating near his home; he did not wear a helmet.

Bill Pinkneyk, 81 (August 15, 1925 – July 4, 2007) was an American performer and singer. Pinkney is often incorrectly said to be the last surviving original member of The Drifters, who achieved international fame with numerous hit records. This is technically untrue, as he was not a member of the original lineup of the group. He did, however, join the group at an early stage, before it achieved great fame. He was chiefly responsible for its sound throughout the decades. The Drifters have had a strong influence on soul, rhythm and blues, and rock and roll music, probable heart attack.

Kerwin Mathews, 81 (January 8, 1926 – July 5, 2007) was an American actor. He is best known for playing Sinbad in the 1958 Ray Harryhausen stop-motion animation feature The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad, where he engaged in a sword fight with animated skeletons.

Charles Gerstle Levison - better known as Charles Lane, 102 (January 26, 1905 - July 9, 2007)^[1] was an American character actor seen in many movies and TV shows, and at the time of his death was the oldest living American actor.^[2] Lane appeared in many Frank Capra films, including Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, Arsenic and Old Lace and It's a Wonderful Life.

Rod Lauren, 67, (March 20, 1940 – July 11, 2007) was an American actor and singer.
As an actor, he worked mostly in television, appearing in single episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents and Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C. amongst others during the 1960s. Lauren's most notable film is The Crawling Hand (1963) which achieved latter-day notoriety when it was featured on Mystery Science Theater 3000. As a singer, Lauren is a one-hit wonder who hit #31 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart with the song "If I Had a Girl" in 1960 and performed twice on The Ed Sullivan Show, suicide by jumping.

Jerry Hadley, 55, (June 16, 1952 – July 18, 2007) was an American operatic tenor, who was a protegé of famous soprano Dame Joan Sutherland and her husband, conductor Richard Bonynge. He received three Grammy awards for his vocal performances in the recordings of Jenufa (2004 Grammy Award for Best Opera Recording), Susannah (1995 Grammy Award for Best Opera Recording, and Candide (1992 Grammy Award for Best Classical Album), suicide by gunshot.

Tamara "Tammy" Faye Messner, 65, (March 7, 1942 – July 20, 2007) was an American Christian singer, evangelist, entrepreneur, author, talk show host, and television personality. She was the former wife of televangelist, and later convicted felon, Jim Bakker, and she co-hosted with him on The PTL Club from 1976 to 1987. She was known for her tendency to wear heavy makeup, particularly mascara and false eyelashes, and her eyebrows were tattooed on.^[1] She was a participant in the 2004 season of the reality show, The Surreal Life, metastatic colon cancer.

Ronald Norman Miller, 74, (c. 1933 - July 23, 2007^[1]) was an American popular songwriter ("Touch Me in the Morning", "For Once in My Life")and record producer, who attained many Top 10 hits with ballads written for Motown artists in the 1960s and 1970s, cardiac arrest.
Jesse Marunde, 27, (September 14, 1979 - July 25, 2007) was an American strongman athlete who placed second in the 2005 World's Strongest Man competition, heart attack.


Jake until his retirement because of cancer in , 12, (1995 – July 25, 2007) was a well known American black labrador who served as a search and rescue dog following the September 11 attacks and Hurricane Katrina. Jake served as a rescue dog from 19972006.








George Edward "Skip" Prosser, 56, (November 3, 1950 - July 26, 2007) was an American college basketball coach who was head basketball coach at Wake Forest University at the time of his death. He was the only coach in NCAA history to take three separate schools to the NCAA Tournament in his first year coaching the teams. In 21 years as a collegiate coach, he made 18 postseason appearances, heart attack.

Tom Snyder, 71, (May 12, 1936 - July 29, 2007) was an American television personality, news anchor, and radio personality best known for his late night talk shows The Tomorrow Show, on the NBC television network in the late 1970s and '80s, and The Late Late Show, on the CBS television network in the 1990s, complications of leukemia.

William Ernest "Bill" Walsh head , 75, (November 30, 1931 – July 30, 2007) was an Americanfootball coach of the San Francisco 49ers and Stanford University, and popularized the West Coast Offense. Walsh went 102-63-1 with the 49ers, winning ten of his fourteen postseason games along with six division titles, three NFC Championship titles, and three Super Bowls. He was named the NFL's coach of the year in 1981 and 1984, leukemia.