Obituaries for 2016

[musiclady]

Didn't realize Melvin Laird was still around.   Rest in peace.

I was thinking the exact same thing.  He was defense secretary a lot of years ago, and he wasn't young then!

[Machiavelli]

'Drift Away' songwriter Mentor Williams has died

Mentor Williams, a longtime Taos resident and nationally known singer-songwriter, died at 6:15 a.m. Wednesday (Nov. 16), according to a family source.

Williams was best known for writing "Drift Away", a middle-of-the-road playlist classic performed by Dobie Gray in 1973. He is the brother of songwriter-actor Paul Williams, according to an online biography.

More

Wikipedia


"Drift Away" performed by Dobie Gray

[Sanguine]

'Drift Away' songwriter Mentor Williams has died
More

Wikipedia


"Drift Away" performed by Dobie Gray

Well, heck, I didn't realize that Dobie Gray had died.  5 years ago.  Loved his voice.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E3kG8eNU3Eg

[jmyrlefuller]

'Drift Away' songwriter Mentor Williams has died
More

Wikipedia


"Drift Away" performed by Dobie Gray

He was Lynn Anderson's longtime boyfriend (Lynn passed away just last year) IIRC.

[Machiavelli]

Dr. Denton Cooley, pioneer of heart transplants, dies at 96

Dr. Denton Cooley, a Houston native and a pioneer of heart transplants, died Friday. He was 96.

Born in 1920, Cooley graduated with highest honors from the University of Texas Austin and earned his medical degree from Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in 1944.

Cooley performed the first transplant of a human heart in the United States in 1968. The following year, he became the first surgeon to implant an artificial heart in a human.

More

Wikipedia

[Smokin Joe]

Dr. Denton Cooley, pioneer of heart transplants, dies at 96
More

Wikipedia

Prayers up for a pioneer in the field.

[jmyrlefuller]

Soul singer Sharon Jones dies at 60



A former corrections officer by trade, Jones was discovered in 1996 by Gabriel Roth, who backed her career for the next 20 years. Roth's various independent record labels used a decidedly retro style and recording technique for which Jones and her soul stylings were particularly well-suited; backed by The Dap-Kings, her music, while she never cut a hit single per se, managed to see significant appearance in popular culture, including an appearance in the 2013 Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.

Jones had battled cancer since 2013.

Obituary from Variety

Wikipedia

Jones performs "100 Days, 100 Nights:"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ouI5KcyHfE

[Smokin Joe]

Soul singer Sharon Jones dies at 60



A former corrections officer by trade, Jones was discovered in 1996 by Gabriel Roth, who backed her career for the next 20 years. Roth's various independent record labels used a decidedly retro style and recording technique for which Jones and her soul stylings were particularly well-suited; backed by The Dap-Kings, her music, while she never cut a hit single per se, managed to see significant appearance in popular culture, including an appearance in the 2013 Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.

Jones had battled cancer since 2013.

Obituary from Variety

Wikipedia

Jones performs "100 Days, 100 Nights:"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ouI5KcyHfE

Sad, to go so young from such a devastating disease. She could belt it out.
Prayers up!

[uglybiker]

Soul singer Sharon Jones dies at 60


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ouI5KcyHfE

This is the reason I avoid the FM dial on my radio. You wouldn't stand a snowball's chance in Hell hearing this on an FM station.

And don't even get me started on that overdubbed/auto-tuned garbage that's labeled as 'soul' music these days.

[Smokin Joe]

This is the reason I avoid the FM dial on my radio. You wouldn't stand a snowball's chance in Hell hearing this on an FM station.

And don't even get me started on that overdubbed/auto-tuned garbage that's labeled as 'soul' music these days.

I just found out the CD player in my last-century suburban still works. Off to the pawn shop tomorrow to dig out tunes...

[Neverdul]

This is the reason I avoid the FM dial on my radio. You wouldn't stand a snowball's chance in Hell hearing this on an FM station.

And don't even get me started on that overdubbed/auto-tuned garbage that's labeled as 'soul' music these days.

Do yourself a favor and look for a FM station in your area with an “adult album alternative” format. 

The one I listen to where I live is WXPN out of the University of Philadelphia. I don’t like everything they play but their playlist is certainly eclectic and is never boring.  The worst part is that being a listener supported public station, is putting up with the quarterly pledge drives.  The plus is not too many commercials.

That is where I first heard Sharon Jones & The Dap Kings and a lot of other really great "new" artists who write, record and play “real music” or “throwback” or “roots” style music like Leon Bridges, Lake Street Dive, Amos Lee, The Tedeschi Trucks Band, J.D. McPherson, Pokey LaFarge, Mumford & Sons, Carolina Chocolate Drops, Old Crow Medicine Show ….. along with some classic rock, alternative, alternative country, 80’s new wave, blues, soul, funk, punk, jazz, they even throw a complete curve ball and play Tony Bennett or Frank Sinatra and also give airplay to some very good local artists.

http://www.xpn.org/playlists/xpn-playlist

A sampling from today:

01:53 pm Linda Ronstadt - Willing
01:47 pm Margo Price - Hands of Time
01:41 pm New Order - Age Of Consent
01:35 pm Pulp - Common People
01:31 pm Dawes - Roll With The Punches
01:28 pm Warren Zevon - Hasten Down The Wind
01:22 pm Smokey Robinson - Crusin'
01:18 pm Mayer Hawthorne - Someone Like You
01:13 pm Bon Iver - Calgary
01:10 pm Maggie Rogers - Alaska
01:06 pm Beastie Boys - Fight For Your Right
01:02 pm New York Dolls - Personality Crisis
12:59 pm Patti Smith - Ask The Angels
12:56 pm Sharon Jones And The Dap-Kings - Natural Born Lover
12:50 pm Prefab Sprout - Appetite
12:46 pm The xx - On Hold
12:42 pm New Radicals - Someday We'll Know
12:36 pm Tears For Fears - Sowing The Seeds Of Love
12:32 pm Rag 'N' Bone Man - Human
12:28 pm Solange - Cranes In The Sky
12:25 pm Frank Ocean - Pink + White
12:17 pm The Beatles - Hey Jude
12:13 pm Mondo Cozmo - Shine
12:05 pm Bob Seger - Bo Diddley
12:02 pm Kiss - Detroit Rock City
11:58 am Wilco - Heavy Metal Drummer
11:54 am John Prine - Hello In There
11:51 am Brent Cobb - Solving Problems
11:44 am James Brown - Get Up Get Into It And Get Involved
11:38 am Elton John - Bennie and the Jets
11:35 am A Tribe Called Quest - Solid Wall Of Sound
11:29 am Donald Fagen - The Goodbye Look
11:27 am Mose Allison - Seventh Son
11:22 am The Clash - Look Here
11:20 am Chuck Berry - Maybellene
11:17 am The National - Fake Empire
11:13 am Hope Sandoval & The Warm Inventions - Let Me Get There (feat. Kurt Vile)
11:07 am Bash & Pop - On The Rocks
11:04 am Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers - Listen To Her Heart
10:59 am The Allman Brothers - Southbound
10:55 am Childish Gambino - Redbone
10:51 am The Killers - Mr. Brightside
10:47 am Milky Chance - Cocoon
10:43 am Beth Orton - Stars Seem To Weep
10:38 am Sampha - Timmy's Prayer
10:34 am Led Zeppelin - Going To California
10:30 am Dawg Yawp - Lost At Sea
10:26 am Sharon Jones And The Dap-Kings - Signed, Sealed, Delivered I'm Yours
10:22 am Sharon Jones And The Dap-Kings - I Learned The Hard Way
10:18 am Sharon Jones And The Dap-Kings - 100 Days 100 Nights
10:08 am Marvin Gaye - Right On
10:04 am Eric Burdon & War - Spill The Wine
10:00 am The Doobie Brothers - There's A Light
09:59 am Auld String Theory - Waiting for Hannah
09:56 am Gwen Hughes - I Take Your Hand
09:50 am David Mauk - October & November
09:43 am Tom Waits - Time
09:41 am Leon Redbone - Please Don't Talk About Me when I am Gone
09:34 am Leon Redbone - Champagne Charlie
09:30 am The Nordic Fiddlers Bloc - Nodaret
09:28 am Tom Caufield - Evening Smile
09:21 am David Crosby - By the Light of Common Day
09:15 am Murray McLauchlan - Home from the Forest
09:12 am Gordon Lightfoot - Oh, Linda
09:06 am Tonny Bennett - You Don't Know What Love Is
09:04 am The Alonzo Spirit Band - You Oughta Know
08:58 am Brett Dennen - Strawberry Road
08:52 am Lang Lang featuring Madeleine Peyroux - Moon River
08:45 am Charlotte Day Wilson - Where Do You Go
08:37 am Stanley Cowell - November Mood
08:33 am Leyla McCalla - Minias Azaka
08:28 am The Furious Seasons - Glad It's Mine
08:25 am 2 Cellos - Candle in the Wind
08:21 am Sean Carey - Supermoon
08:13 am Four Wishes - Il Ballerino & Morning Bells
08:06 am Wynton Marsalis - My Romance & Everything Happens to Me
08:02 am Bruce Cockburn - Ribbon of Darkness
07:56 am Super XX Man - September/November
07:52 am Gary Schocker - November Song
07:49 am Dennis Caraher - To Tune A Guitar
07:41 am Blackmore's Night - Long, Long Time
07:39 am Kenny White - Lights Over Broadway ***
07:30 am Ray Benson - In the Blink of an Eye
07:27 am John McKone - Too Late

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

*** check this guy out - Kenny White


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4pTqBDPICrU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XxMngH0A8sA


When I was living in Baltimore I listed to WRNR which had a very similar eclectic format but was not a listener supported “public” station.

RIP Sharon – thanks for the great music.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aw3FERP5djE

[verga]

Florence Henderson, 'The Brady Bunch' actress, dies at 82
LOS ANGELES –  Florence Henderson, the wholesome actress who went from Broadway star to television icon when she became Carol Brady, the ever-cheerful matriarch of "The Brady Bunch," has died, her manager and her publicist said. She was 82.

Henderson died Thursday night at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, after being hospitalized the day before, said her publicist, David Brokaw. Henderson had suffered heart failure, her manager Kayla Pressman said in a statement.

Family and friends had surrounded Henderson's hospital bedside, Pressman said.

[Gefn]

R.I.P.

Mrs. Brady.  She seemed like a very nice lady in every thing I ever saw her in.

[mountaineer]

Although she's known primarily for "The Brady Bunch," her show biz resume was impressive:

... Before the series, Ms. Henderson had built an impressive reputation with stage work. She starred in “Fanny” on Broadway in the mid-1950s, when she was in her early 20s; “The King and I” at the Los Angeles Music Center; “South Pacific” at Lincoln Center; national tours of “Oklahoma!” and “The Sound of Music”; and “The Girl Who Came to Supper” (1963), Noël Coward’s last original Broadway musical.

Theater roles had led her to television in its early days, mostly as a singer. On “The Ed Sullivan Show” in 1955, she and John Raitt sang a duet, “People Will Say We’re in Love,” as part of a two-hour television tribute to Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II.

In the 1950s and ’60s she appeared on music-driven series like “The Bell Telephone Hour,” “Oldsmobile Music Theater” and “The Dean Martin Show.” She also appeared on a 1958 audience participation series, “Sing Along,” and game shows like “The Match Game” and “Password.”

She was a frequent guest on “The Tonight Show” during both Jack Paar’s and Johnny Carson’s eras as host. And in 1962, after Paar left and before Carson arrived, she became the first woman to be the show’s guest host. ...

She lived at the Three Arts Club, an Upper West Side women’s hotel, and studied at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts for a year before being cast in “Wish You Were Here,” a musical comedy about a summer camp for grown-ups, in 1952. The show was a hit, but Ms. Henderson left early when she was cast as the female lead, Laurey, in the national tour of “Oklahoma!” The movie role went to Shirley Jones, but her theater and television careers took off from there. And Ms. Jones turned up as a sitcom mom with five children on “The Partridge Family” at the same time the Bradys were on the air. ...

More at NY Times.

[jmyrlefuller]

Although she's known primarily for "The Brady Bunch," her show biz resume was impressive:More at NY Times.

I've always been fascinated with the careers of the typecast, and few were more typecast than Henderson.

The most fascinating for me was that she did God Bless America at the Indianapolis 500 for over a decade. It wasn't as well-known of a tradition as Jim Nabors was, but it was just one of those "did you know" kind of moments.

[mountaineer]

The most fascinating for me was that she did God Bless America at the Indianapolis 500 for over a decade. It wasn't as well-known of a tradition as Jim Nabors was, but it was just one of those "did you know" kind of moments.

I just saw that on Facebook. She was a proud Hoosier.

[dfwgator]

Florence Henderson, 'The Brady Bunch' actress, dies at 82
LOS ANGELES –  Florence Henderson, the wholesome actress who went from Broadway star to television icon when she became Carol Brady, the ever-cheerful matriarch of "The Brady Bunch," has died, her manager and her publicist said. She was 82.

Henderson died Thursday night at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, after being hospitalized the day before, said her publicist, David Brokaw. Henderson had suffered heart failure, her manager Kayla Pressman said in a statement.

Family and friends had surrounded Henderson's hospital bedside, Pressman said.

This was great.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d1EgCAid5O0

[jmyrlefuller]

Cuban dictator Fidel Castro (finally, officially) dies at 90



A son of a wealthy Spaniard farmer and himself a university student (albeit a poor one), Castro fit the mold of what today would be considered a spoiled millennial-style brat. In 1959, he led a coup of the reigning regime in Cuba, establishing a Marxist state and ruling as prime minister, then chair of the state party, then President, from then until approximately 2008.

Castro's Cuba, buoyed by a strong sugar trade and propped up by the Soviet Union, was relatively viable through the 1970s before the Soviet Union's influence began to wane. By the 1990s, Cuba had effectively collapsed; despite this, his dependent masses still cheered him on, as most of his opponents had already fled for Miami. Castro aligned himself with Hugo Chavez, the socialist dictator of Venezuela, in 2000, one that continued until Chavez's death.

Castro's most consistent policy was a foreign policy that vehemently opposed the United States. Castro resigned from office in 2008 and passed on his duties to his younger brother Raul, who (coupled with the rise of Barack Obama to power in the U.S.) softened some of the hostilities between the U.S. and Cuba.

Obituary from the AP

Wikipedia

[verga]

Cuban dictator Fidel Castro (finally, officially) dies at 90



A son of a wealthy Spaniard farmer and himself a university student (albeit a poor one), Castro fit the mold of what today would be considered a spoiled millennial-style brat. In 1959, he led a coup of the reigning regime in Cuba, establishing a Marxist state and ruling as prime minister, then chair of the state party, then President, from then until approximately 2008.

Castro's Cuba, buoyed by a strong sugar trade and propped up by the Soviet Union, was relatively viable through the 1970s before the Soviet Union's influence began to wane. By the 1990s, Cuba had effectively collapsed; despite this, his dependent masses still cheered him on, as most of his opponents had already fled for Miami. Castro aligned himself with Hugo Chavez, the socialist dictator of Venezuela, in 2000, one that continued until Chavez's death.

Castro's most consistent policy was a foreign policy that vehemently opposed the United States. Castro resigned from office in 2008 and passed on his duties to his younger brother Raul, who (coupled with the rise of Barack Obama to power in the U.S.) softened some of the hostilities between the U.S. and Cuba.

Obituary from the AP

Wikipedia

May God have mercy on his soul and forgive me for saying "Good riddance".

[Sanguine]

May God have mercy on his soul and forgive me for saying "Good riddance".

Well said, @verga!

[Cyber Liberty]

Cuban dictator Fidel Castro (finally, officially) dies at 90



A son of a wealthy Spaniard farmer and himself a university student (albeit a poor one), Castro fit the mold of what today would be considered a spoiled millennial-style brat. In 1959, he led a coup of the reigning regime in Cuba, establishing a Marxist state and ruling as prime minister, then chair of the state party, then President, from then until approximately 2008.

Castro's Cuba, buoyed by a strong sugar trade and propped up by the Soviet Union, was relatively viable through the 1970s before the Soviet Union's influence began to wane. By the 1990s, Cuba had effectively collapsed; despite this, his dependent masses still cheered him on, as most of his opponents had already fled for Miami. Castro aligned himself with Hugo Chavez, the socialist dictator of Venezuela, in 2000, one that continued until Chavez's death.

Castro's most consistent policy was a foreign policy that vehemently opposed the United States. Castro resigned from office in 2008 and passed on his duties to his younger brother Raul, who (coupled with the rise of Barack Obama to power in the U.S.) softened some of the hostilities between the U.S. and Cuba.

Obituary from the AP

Wikipedia

A nice Obit, about what I'd expect from AP.  I disagree about something: While he was consistently anti-American he was also consistently anti-Cubans he didn't like, and while he didn't get away with killing many Americans, he got away with wholesale slaughter of Cubans who disagreed with him.

I'm in no position to judge him, but I'll bet @Luis Gonzalez would agree with me he's gone to a warm place.

[Gefn]

Actor Ron Glass died. Best known for "Barney Miller" and "Firefly"

He was 71.

http://variety.com/2016/tv/news/ron-glass-dead-barney-miller-firefly-dies-1201927179/

R.I.P Sgt. Harris.

[mountaineer]

Actor Ron Glass died. Best known for "Barney Miller" and "Firefly"

He was 71.

R.I.P Sgt. Harris.

Too young. I liked that character.

[Cyber Liberty]

Actor Ron Glass died. Best known for "Barney Miller" and "Firefly"

He was 71.

http://variety.com/2016/tv/news/ron-glass-dead-barney-miller-firefly-dies-1201927179/

R.I.P Sgt. Harris.

I really liked his character...and so young.

[Gefn]

I really liked his character...and so young.

I loved Barney Miller too. My favorite cop show besides law and order