Tuesday, December 25, 2007

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

Oliver Hill, 100, American lawyer, lead attorney on the Brown v. Board of Education case.

Gato Del Sol, 28, American racehorse, won 1982 Kentucky Derby, euthanized.

Clarence "Tex" Walker, 61, (24 January 19468 August 2007) was a prominent rhythm and blues musician who was the lead singer with Bill Pinkney's Original Drifters and The Coasters. After touring Europe with Big Joe Turner, Walker appeared at the prestigious Bishopstock Blues Festival, before forming his own group in London, The Walker Street Blues Band, and recording "Blues in Black," which was released to critical acclaim in Britain. Walker died of a heart attack on August 8, 2007. He had the attack in the King's Arms Hotel at Woodstock, Oxfordshire and died four days later.

Henry Cabot Lodge Bohler, 82, American civil rights campaigner, member of Tuskegee Airmen, brain injuries following a fall.

Merv Griffin, 82, American talk show host, real estate tycoon, creator of Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune, prostate cancer.

Phil Rizzuto, 89, American baseball player, Hall of Fame inductee and sports broadcaster, pneumonia.

Brian "Crush" Adams, 44, American professional wrestler, accidental overdose of pain killersanti-depressants.

Maxwell Lemuel "Max" Roach, 83, (January 10, 1924 – August 16, 2007) was a bebop/hard bop percussionist, drummer, and composer. He worked with many of the greatest jazz musicians, including Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, Duke Ellington, Charles Mingus, Sonny Rollins and Clifford Brown. Roach also led his own groups, and made numerous musical statements relating to the civil rights movement of African-Americans. He is generally considered to be one of the most important drummers in history.

John Blewett III, 33, American NASCAR driver, racing crash.

Max Hodge, 91, American television writer, creator of Mr. Freeze on the 1960s Batman series.

Eddie Griffin, 25, American former Seton Hall, Rockets and Timberwolves basketball player, car accident.

Jon Lucien, 65, American smooth jazz singer/songwriter, respiratory failure and complications of kidney surgery.

Michael Deaver, 69, American Deputy White House Chief of Staff (1981–1985), pancreatic cancer.

Leona Helmsley, 87 (July 4, 1920August 20, 2007) was a billionaire New York City hotel operator and real estate investor. She was a flamboyant personality and had a reputation for tyrannical behavior that earned her the nickname "Queen of Mean." The image of Helmsley was sealed when a former housekeeper testified that she heard Helmsley say: "We don't pay taxes. Only the little people pay taxes." She was convicted of federal income tax evasion and other crimes in 1989 and served 19 months in prison (and two more months in house arrest), after receiving an initial sentence of 16 years, heart failure.

Robert Symonds, 80, (December 1, 1926August 23, 2007) was an American actor. He was the associate director of the Repertory Theatre of Lincoln Center from 1965 through 1972, prostate cancer.

Aaron Russo, 64 (February 14, 1943 – August 24, 2007) was an American entertainment businessman, film maker, and libertarian political activist, cancer.

Arthur A. Jones, 80 (November 22, 1926 – August 28, 2007)was the founder of Nautilus, Inc. and MedX, Inc. and the inventor of the Nautilus exercise machines, including the Nautilus pullover, which was first sold in 1970. He was born in Arkansas, and grew up in Seminole, Oklahoma.

David Garcia, 63 (1944? - August 28, 2007) was a broadcast journalist for ABC News. Garcia had the distinction of becoming one of the first Hispanic news correspondents for a major American television network in the early 1970s, complications of a liver condition.

Richard Jewell, 44, American security guard wrongly accused of the Atlanta Olympics bombing, diabetes.

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