Deaths - May 2012

1st
Harold K. Hoskins, 85, American pilot, Tuskegee Airman, Congressional Gold Medal winner, complications from a fall.
Greg Jackson, 60, American basketball player (New York Knicks, Phoenix Suns), heart attack.
Charles Pitts, 65, American soul musician, guitarist for Isaac Hayes, lung cancer.
Harriet Presser, 76, American sociologist and demographer.
Earl Rose, 85, American medical examiner, attempted to autopsy President Kennedy after assassination, Parkinson's disease.

2nd
J. T. Ready, 39, American border militia leader, former neo-Nazi, suicide by gunshot.
Junior Seau, 43, American football player (San Diego Chargers, Miami Dolphins, New England Patriots), suicide by gunshot.
Digby Wolfe, 82, British actor and screenwriter (Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In), cancer.

3rd
Peter K. Cullins, 83, American admiral, first commander of the Naval Data Automation Command, complications from hepatitis B.
John Miles Foley, 65, American folklorist and literary scholar.

4th
Charlotte Hawkins Flowers, 112, American supercentenarian, kidney failure.
Crawford Hallock Greenewalt, Jr., 74, American archaeologist.
Mort Lindsey, 89, American orchestra leader and composer.
Bob Stewart, 91, American television game show producer (Password, To Tell the Truth, The Price Is Right), natural causes.
Adam Yauch, 47, American musician (Beastie Boys) and film director (Gunnin' for That No. 1 Spot), salivary gland cancer.

6th
Michael Burks, 54, American blues musician, heart attack.
Pat Frink, 67, American basketball player (Cincinnati Royals), automobile accident.
James Isaac, 51, American film director (Jason X) and special effects supervisor, blood cancer.
George Lindsey, 83, American actor (The Andy Griffith Show, Mayberry R.F.D., Hee Haw), after brief illness.
Yale Summers, 78, American actor (Daktari).

7th
Dennis E. Fitch, 69, American pilot (United Airlines Flight 232), brain cancer.

8th
Nicholas Katzenbach, 90, American lawyer, United States Attorney General (1965–1966).
Everett Lilly, 87, American bluegrass musician (The Lilly Brothers).
Stacy Robinson, 50, American football player (New York Giants), cancer.
Maurice Sendak, 83, American author and illustrator (Where the Wild Things Are, Little Bear), complications of a stroke.

9th
Carl Beane, 59, American sports broadcaster and public address announcer (Fenway Park), heart attack.

11th
Frank Wills, 53, American baseball player (Toronto Blue Jays, Kansas City Royals, Cleveland Indians).

12th
Ruth Foster, 92, American actress (Little House on the Prairie).
Harold Arthur Poling, 86, American businessman, CEO and Chairman of Ford Motor Company (1990–1993).
Sam Porcello, 76, American food scientist, created the Oreo cookie filling.
Ken Selby, 76, American businessman, founder of Mazzio's, complications from lung cancer.

13th
Donald "Duck" Dunn, 70, American bass guitarist (The Blues Brothers, Booker T. & the M.G.'s).
Nolan Richardson III, 47, American college basketball coach (Tennessee State University).
Don Ritchie, 85, Australian volunteer, rescued 160 people from suicide.
Bill Walsh, 84, American football player (Pittsburgh Steelers).

14th
Mitchell Guist, 48, American reality series cast member (Swamp People), natural causes.
Belita Woods, 63, American funk singer (Brainstorm, Parliament-Funkadelic), heart failure.

15th
Henry Denker, 99, American novelist and playwright, lung cancer.
Jean Craighead George, 92, American children's author (Julie of the Wolves, My Side of the Mountain), heart failure.

16th
Patricia Aakhus, 59, American novelist, cancer.
Chuck Brown, 75, American singer and musician ("Bustin' Loose"), multiple organ failure.
Ernie Chan, 71, Filipino-born American comic book artist.
Doug Dillard, 75, American bluegrass musician (The Dillards) and actor (The Andy Griffith Show), lung infection.
Kevin Hickey, 56, American baseball player (Chicago White Sox, Baltimore Orioles), complications of a seizure.
Thad Tillotson, 71, American baseball player (New York Yankees, Nakai Hawks).

17th
Ron Shock, 69, American stand-up comedian, urethral cancer.
Donna Summer, 63, American singer ("Bad Girls", "Hot Stuff", "Last Dance", "I Feel Love"), lung cancer.

19th
Bob Boozer, 75, American Olympic gold medal-winning (1960) basketball player (New York Knicks, Chicago Bulls), brain aneurysm.

20th
Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, 60, Libyan terrorist, convicted of bombing Pan Am Flight 103, prostate cancer.
Louis F. Burns, 92, American tribal and Osage Nation historian.
Robin Gibb, 62, British singer and songwriter (Bee Gees), liver and kidney failure.
Eugene Polley, 96, American engineer, inventor of the wireless TV remote control.

21st
Otis Clark, 109, American evangelist, oldest known survivor of the 1921 Tulsa race riot, and butler (Clark Gable, Charlie Chaplin, Joan Crawford), natural causes.
Bill Stewart, 59, American football coach (West Virginia University), apparent heart attack.

22nd
Wesley A. Brown, 85, American naval officer, first African-American graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy, cancer.
Janet Carroll, 71, American singer and actress (Risky Business, Married... with Children, Murphy Brown), brain tumor.

23rd
Joseph Lesniewski, 91, American World War II veteran, member of Easy Company.

24th
Mark McConnell, 50, American drummer (Sebastian Bach, Blackfoot), multiple organ failure.
William Rathje, 66, American archaeologist.
Lee Rich, 93, American television executive and producer (The Waltons, Dallas), co-founder of Lorimar Television, lung cancer.

27th
Dee Caruso, 83, American television writer (Get Smart, The Monkees), pneumonia.

28th
Judith Nelson, 72, American opera singer.
Harry Parker, 64, American baseball player (St. Louis Cardinals, New York Mets, Cleveland Indians).
Matthew Yuricich, 89, American special effects artist (Field of Dreams, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Blade Runner).

29th
Dick Beals, 85, American voice actor (Davey and Goliath, Speedy Alka-Seltzer).
Jim Paratore, 58, American television producer (TMZ, The Ellen DeGeneres Show, The Rosie O'Donnell Show), heart attack.
Doc Watson, 89, American folk and bluegrass musician, complications following surgery.

30th
John Fox, 55, American comedian, colon cancer.
Buddy Freitag, 80, American Broadway theatre producer (Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Catch Me If You Can), brain tumour.
Mr. Imagination, 64, American outsider artist, blood infection.
Jack Twyman, 78, American Hall of Fame basketball player (Rochester/Cincinnati Royals), blood cancer.

31st
Christopher Challis, 93, British cinematographer (Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, Top Secret!, Mary, Queen of Scots).
Paul Sussman, 45, British journalist (CNN), archaeologist, and author, ruptured aneurysm.
Orlando Woolridge, 52, American basketball player (Chicago Bulls) and coach (Los Angeles Sparks), heart disease.