Obituaries for 2020

[jmyrlefuller]

A running thread for deaths in calendar year 2020.

Previous threads:

• 2019
  
• 2018
  
• 2017
  
• 2016
  
• 2015
  
• 2014
  

[Applewood]

Thank you @jmyrlefuller for setting up and maintaining/monitoring these yearly Obituaries threads.   

[corbe]

   Yes, Thank You @jmyrlefuller

[Cyber Liberty]

Thank you much for this, Myrle!

[Ghost Bear]

Thanks to @jmyrlefuller and everyone else who regularly post updates to this thread.

I think it's a sign of my advancing age that the Obituaries thread is the one thread that I read most regularly.

 

[Gefn]

Thank you @jmyrlefuller for setting up and maintaining/monitoring these yearly Obituaries threads.   

Thank you @jmyrlefuller

[Gefn]

Former NBA Commissioner David Stern Dies at 77, Weeks After Emergency Brain Surgery

Published 4 mins ago   â€¢ Updated 1 min ago
Former NBA Commissioner David Stern has died three weeks after he was hospitalized due to a “sudden brain hemorrhage,” according to the NBA. He was 77.

Stern was at a Manhattan restaurant when he collapsed on Dec. 12. The league said that he suffered a hemorrhage "for which he underwent emergency surgery. Our thoughts and prayers are with his family.”

Stern served exactly 30 years as the NBA's longest-tenured commissioner before Adam Silver replaced him on Feb. 1, 2014. Stern has remained affiliated with the league with the title of commissioner emeritus and has remained active in his other interests, such as sports technology.

https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/sports/former-nba-commissioner-david-stern-dies-at-77/2241128/

[Gefn]

Former NBA Commissioner David Stern Dies at 77, Weeks After Emergency Brain Surgery

Published 4 mins ago   â€¢ Updated 1 min ago
Former NBA Commissioner David Stern has died three weeks after he was hospitalized due to a “sudden brain hemorrhage,” according to the NBA. He was 77.

Stern was at a Manhattan restaurant when he collapsed on Dec. 12. The league said that he suffered a hemorrhage "for which he underwent emergency surgery. Our thoughts and prayers are with his family.”

Stern served exactly 30 years as the NBA's longest-tenured commissioner before Adam Silver replaced him on Feb. 1, 2014. Stern has remained affiliated with the league with the title of commissioner emeritus and has remained active in his other interests, such as sports technology.

https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/sports/former-nba-commissioner-david-stern-dies-at-77/2241128/

First obit of the year. RIP

[verga]

BKMK

[dfwgator]

Stern was as much an NBA icon as Magic, Bird and Jordan. 

Arguably the greatest Commissioner of any sport, ever.

[EasyAce]

Don Larsen, who pitched only perfect game in World Series history, dies at 90
By Bill Madden
New York Daily News

By his own admission, Don Larsen was a most imperfect fellow and therefore about the unlikeliest man to ever pitch the only perfect game in World Series history. But pitch it he did, on October 8, 1956, a 97-pitch, 2-0 gem in Game 5 that gave the Yankees a 3-2 lead in the Series against the Dodgers and set them up for winning their sixth world championship in eight years under manager Casey Stengel.

Larsen, 90, died Wednesday in hospice in Hayden, Idaho, of esophageal cancer, a party guy to the end who achieved baseball immortality that one sun-splashed autumn afternoon at Yankee Stadium despite an otherwise mediocre 81-91 pitching career with seven different major league teams from 1953-67 . . .

RIP Mr. Larsen. Yogi's waiting up there for you to leap into his arms again . . .

[TomSea]

Former Bengals, Bucs coach Sam Wyche dies at 74
Posted by Charean Williams on January 2, 2020, 3:59 PM EST

He led the Bengals to the Super Bowl in 1988 but perhaps is best known for taking the field microphone during a game against the Seahawks in 1989. With Bengals fans pelting the field with snowballs after an official’s call went against the home team, Wyche yelled over the PA system, “Will the next person that sees anybody throw anything onto the field, point them out, and get them out of here. You don’t live in Cleveland! You live in Cincinnati!”

The line is repeated often in Cincinnati.

Wyche died Thursday at his home in Pickens, South Carolina, after a short battle with metastatic melanoma, Peter King of NBC reports. Wyche was 74.

Read more at: https://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2020/01/02/former-bengals-bucs-head-coach-sam-wyche-dies-at-74/

Does this make 3 for 3 passings from the world of sport! I remember Sam...

[mountaineer]

Billionaire Businessman Ronald Burkle's Son Andrew Found Dead at 27 in His Beverly Hills Home
The producer will be remembered as a "young man full of life," his family tells PEOPLE
By Robyn Merrett, Ashley Boucher, Chelsea White and Melody Chiu
 January 07, 2020 02:10 AM

Andrew Burkle — the son of billionaire businessman Ronald Burkle — has been found dead in his Beverly Hills home, PEOPLE confirms.

Andrew was confirmed dead on Monday by authorities and will be remembered as a “young man full of life,” his family said in a statement to PEOPLE. He was 27.

“It is with the deepest regret and sadness that we announce the death of Andrew C. Burkle on January 6, 2020 in Beverly Hills, California,” his bereaved family said. “He is deeply loved by his family and friends and will be greatly missed.”

Andrew was known as a young man full of life and entrepreneurial energy. Everyone he met commented on his humble demeanor and hard work,” the statement continues. ...

People magazine

Related?

What did Ron Burkle get out of his relationship with the Clintons? An education, he says
By Evan Halper Staff Writer
Jan. 7, 2016
1:44 PM

Befriending Bill and Hillary Clinton — and giving them access to his private 757 jet — gave Ron Burkle more insight into world affairs than any graduate program might have.

At one point the billionaire businessman was on half of all the trips the former president made abroad. Burkle says he met 47 world leaders in 47 countries. There was a private meeting Clinton held with Nelson Mandela that went on for hours; Burkle was in the room.  ...

Burkle talked about the experiences during an expansive interview with the Los Angeles Times this week, in which he also expressed ambivalence about Hillary Clinton’s candidacy, reflected on his now-dissolved $15-million business partnership with Bill Clinton and explained why he is cohosting a fundraiser for Republican presidential candidate John Kasich.  ...

Burkle’s ambivalence about Hillary Clinton’s candidacy is puzzling to other Democratic power players.

The Clintons are well known to value loyalty. And Burkle may ultimately test whether he can step back in the inner circle after stepping so far out of it. ...

Just sayin'.    Full story at L.A. Times

[Applewood]

Oh here we go.  The young man isn't even cold yet and the conspiracy theories have already started. 

So we know about the old man was a partner of the Clintons, but what do we know about the son?  Did he have drug/alcohol addictions?  Did he have a history of depression or other mental illness? 

This conspiracy chit is getting old.

[mountaineer]

It was a joke, kind of in the "Epstein didn't kill himself" vein.

[Applewood]

It was a joke, kind of in the "Epstein didn't kill himself" vein.

@mountaineer

Not unhappy with you, but it seems that the death of anyone with even the most remote connection to the Clintons is the subject of the "Clintons killed him" conspiracy theories.  These days, even dead people who never met the Clintons are being added to the Clintons' supposed body counts. 

Sadly, those who subscribe to these conspiracy theories are serious about them.  Epstein's death is but one example.

[Smokin Joe]

@mountaineer

Not unhappy with you, but it seems that the death of anyone with even the most remote connection to the Clintons is the subject of the "Clintons killed him" conspiracy theories.  These days, even dead people who never met the Clintons are being added to the Clintons' supposed body counts. 

Sadly, those who subscribe to these conspiracy theories are serious about them.  Epstein's death is but one example.

Conspiracy theories are an attempt to explain patterns or events observed. Sure seems like a lot of people who have been associated with the Clintons end up dead, and many under readily questionable or unusual circumstances.

[TomSea]

Oh, she is an American, anyway,

Elizabeth Wurtzel: Prozac Nation author dies aged 52

Elizabeth Wurtzel, author of the best-selling 1994 memoir Prozac Nation which detailed her struggles with depression and addiction, has died aged 52.

Her husband, Jim Freed, told US media she died at a New York hospital after a long battle with cancer.

Published when she was in her 20s, Prozac Nation divided critics. Some praised Ms Wurtzel for her candor while others said she was self-absorbed.

More: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-51024913

Sounds like an interesting book to me. Rest in peace, sad, she battled cancer.

[Gefn]

Rip Ms. Wurtzel.

Your book was in my library.

[TomSea]

That prozac nation sounds like a good book. I know nobody here, has probably gone through real depression.

I've already heard, this fellow was a Cuban American:

Silvio Horta, 45, ‘Ugly Betty’ creator, found dead
By Stuart Oldham, Variety

Silvio Horta, creator of ABC’s popular series “Ugly Betty,” was found dead in a Miami motel room on Tuesday. He was 45.

A representative for Horta confirmed his death, but declined to comment on the nature of it.

The American version of “Ugly Betty,” which starred America Ferrera, ran for four seasons on ABC from 2006 to 2010 and was adapted from the hit Colombian telenovela “Yo soy Betty, la fea.” Horta served as showrunner and head writer on the comedy-drama.

More at: https://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/ct-ent-silvio-horta-ugly-betty-dead-20200108-73dkwnywknbw7pq7kz7cgaile4-story.html

That show was a rage.

[Gefn]

That prozac nation sounds like a good book. I know nobody here, has probably gone through real depression.

I've already heard, this fellow was a Cuban American:

That show was a rage.

@TomSea I’m going to respectfully disagree. Just because no one here has talked about it, doesn’t mean they suffer from Churchill’s black dog.

[bigheadfred]

@TomSea I’m going to respectfully disagree. Just because no one here has talked about it, doesn’t mean they suffer from Churchill’s black dog.

I agree.

[Smokin Joe]

@TomSea I’m going to respectfully disagree. Just because no one here has talked about it, doesn’t mean they suffer from Churchill’s black dog.

We all have our low points. Some lower than others. Never give up. There is a light at the end of the tunnel (see avatar).

[EasyAce]

That prozac nation sounds like a good book. I know nobody here, has probably gone through real depression.

@TomSea

Look before you leap---the pool may be empty, and the headache on landing is murder.

I didn't get to read Prozac Nation (RIP Ms. Wurtzel) but I've dealt with depression most of my life. And it wasn't until I came to live in Las Vegas that I finally got the right diagnosis for my condition, an anxiety disorder with a degree of clinical depression (I was mis-diagnosed as full-blown manic depressive long enough ago, and I'm pretty certain that a couple of the medications I was prescribed---for the record, Prozac wasn't one of them---probably screwed me and my chemistry up even more than I was already screwed up) and have since been on a very good program of vitamin therapy. My only regret is that I didn't get the right diagnosis far, far sooner, I might not have screwed up as much of my life as I did or hurt as many people I loved as I did. I've been in a better place the last twelve years than I'd ever been before as far as that goes

It's not easy to talk about. It never really has been. And I suspect that there are a few among us here who deal with one or another degree of depression, have done so for long enough, and simply choose not to discuss it on the forum even in those couple of outlets where we're encouraged to do so. We don't wear sandwich boards saying, "Hi! I'm a clinical depressive!" and we don't advertise our conditions otherwise, we live and deal with them each in our own ways. And for myself, though I'm sure anyone else here dealing with anything similar, I thank God for every day I live and for those who remain in my life.

[EasyAce]

We all have our low points. Some lower than others. Never give up. There is a light at the end of the tunnel (see avatar).

@Smokin Joe

I have to admit when I first saw your avatar I thought it was a subway tunnel with a train whistling in toward the next station!

(Sorry---I grew up in and around New York City and I'll always have sweet memories of how much fun I had on the subways in those years, whether it was catching one off the Long Island Rail Road terminal in Manhattan to head up back to the Bronx to visit my grandparents or roaming around the city hunting things like a couple of museums, a couple of book and music stores I loved, the Fillmore East and one or two jazz clubs, and Shea Stadium . . . )

[Smokin Joe]

@Smokin Joe

I have to admit when I first saw your avatar I thought it was a subway tunnel with a train whistling in toward the next station!

(Sorry---I grew up in and around New York City and I'll always have sweet memories of how much fun I had on the subways in those years, whether it was catching one off the Long Island Rail Road terminal in Manhattan to head up back to the Bronx to visit my grandparents or roaming around the city hunting things like a couple of museums, a couple of book and music stores I loved, the Fillmore East and one or two jazz clubs, and Shea Stadium . . . )

Although cities aren't my bag, to each their own!

Actually, it is sunlight shining in the west end of the Allegheny Tunnel on I-70 in PA, image taken by my granddaughter.

I'm glad it reminded you of happy times, though, wherever you were!

[Applewood]

That prozac nation sounds like a good book. I know nobody here, has probably gone through real depression.

,,,

@TomSea

I went through a major depression when my Dad died.  At the time, I saw a therapist, who prescribed Prozac.  Prozac helped at first -- evened me out -- but eventually, it just made me sleepy and no longer helped the depression.  I ditched the meds and changed to a grief counselor.  That gal was wonderful and helped me a lot.  I didn't need meds. 

I still go through a seasonal downer every winter, but I solved that by heading to Florida twice during the season.   

[Cyber Liberty]

@TomSea

I went through a major depression when my Dad died.  At the time, I saw a therapist, who prescribed Prozac.  Prozac helped at first -- evened me out -- but eventually, it just made me sleepy and no longer helped the depression.  I ditched the meds and changed to a grief counselor.  That gal was wonderful and helped me a lot.  I didn't need meds. 

I still go through a seasonal downer every winter, but I solved that by heading to Florida twice during the season.   

I fixed it 40 years ago when I moved to Phoenix. 

[Applewood]

I fixed it 40 years ago when I moved to Phoenix. 

Smart fellow.  I keep telling my friends and family that if I had the dough, I would get a condo in Clearwater Beach and become a part-time resident for several months out of the year.  Alas, I'm not wealthy, don't know any rich person who will leave me a bundle and I suck at playing the lottery.  So I stay in western PA.  LOL

[Gefn]

Buck Henry, screenwriter of The Graduate, Get Smart co-creator, and SNL legend, is dead at 89

Over a long and storied career in TV and film, Buck Henry co-created the TV show Get Smart with Mel Brooks, wrote the screenplay for The Graduate (1967), played Tina Fey's father on 30 Rock, and hosted Saturday Night Live 10 times in its first five seasons, playing several memorable roles. Henry died Wednesday at age 89. His wife, Irene Ramp, said the cause was a heart attack.

Henry, born Henry Zuckerman in 1930, was the son of a prominent stockbroker and silent film star Ruth Taylor. The Graduate, directed by his childhood friend Mike Nichols, was Henry's first screenwriting job. It got him the first of two Oscar nominations, followed by a directing nod for the 1978 Warren Beatty movie Heaven Can Wait. Henry also wrote scripts for 1968's Candy, Nichols' 1970 adaptation of Catch-22, the hit Barbra Streisand comedy What's Up, Doc? (1972), and 1995's To Die For, starring Nicole Kidman. He won a writing Emmy in 1967 for a double episode of Get Smart.

Nichols wrote himself small roles in many of his movies and often played wry straight men on TV, as in his recurring SNL role alongside John Belushi's Samurai character.

https://theweek.com/speedreads/888452/buck-henry-screenwriter-graduate-smart-cocreator-snl-legend-dead-89

[Applewood]

Buck Henry did some great stuff.  Rest in peace. 

The Cone of Silence:


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[verga]

Buck Henry, screenwriter of The Graduate, Get Smart co-creator, and SNL legend, is dead at 89

RIP he was a genius.

[jmyrlefuller]

Edd Byrnes
1950s teen idol dies at 87



Byrnes was best known for playing the role of hipster investigator Gerald "Kookie" Kookson, who always had the word on the street, on the hit detective drama 77 Sunset Strip. His career took a nosedive after that as Byrne was typecast; he kept afloat through working on spaghetti westerns in the 1960s. In 1974, Byrnes's drunkenness and inability to remember his vowels cost him the hosting gig for Wheel of Fortune. His last major role came as Vince Fontaine, the fast-talking DJ from Grease, when it was made into a film (the musical had written the role as a 19-year-old but, eager to exploit 50s nostalgia, was written as an older character to allow old 50s stars like Byrnes to be cast). Minor film and television roles dotted the rest of his career.

Obituary from The Hollywood Reporter

Wikipedia

IMDB


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[truth_seeker]

"Kookie, Kookie, Lend Me Your Comb."

[EasyAce]

Edd Byrnes, the man who introduced "hair power" to television, got the teenyboppers of the time hooked but good, and helped put ABC on the map as a television network (along with such stuff as Maverick and The Donna Reed Show) after spending most of the 1950s in search of an audience that mostly preferred copping Zs to ABC.

RIP Kookie.

[EasyAce]

Edd Byrnes with Beaver Cleaver's favourite teacher from a 77 Sunset Strip episode . . .

[dfwgator]

"Kookie, Kookie, Lend Me Your Comb."

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[Millee]

Rush drummer Neil Peart dead at 67

Brain cancer. 

https://www.cbc.ca/news/entertainment/neil-peart-obit-1.5422806?fbclid=IwAR3P01SdgT5X3ufGwB0xqIGCPEm25FZ6ZjJoO8dJ5FqQg5lx-MA9eVTAGEk

[Gefn]

Rush drummer Neil Peart dead at 67

Brain cancer. 

https://www.cbc.ca/news/entertainment/neil-peart-obit-1.5422806?fbclid=IwAR3P01SdgT5X3ufGwB0xqIGCPEm25FZ6ZjJoO8dJ5FqQg5lx-MA9eVTAGEk

Oh s**t. 
Rest In Peace.

@EasyAce

[Applewood]

 

Rest in peace. Mr. Peart.

[skeeter]

Rush drummer Neil Peart dead at 67

Brain cancer. 

https://www.cbc.ca/news/entertainment/neil-peart-obit-1.5422806?fbclid=IwAR3P01SdgT5X3ufGwB0xqIGCPEm25FZ6ZjJoO8dJ5FqQg5lx-MA9eVTAGEk

Oh man this is an unpleasant surprise. RIP to an awesome musician and tragic figure.

[catfish1957]

Rush drummer Neil Peart dead at 67

Brain cancer. 

https://www.cbc.ca/news/entertainment/neil-peart-obit-1.5422806?fbclid=IwAR3P01SdgT5X3ufGwB0xqIGCPEm25FZ6ZjJoO8dJ5FqQg5lx-MA9eVTAGEk

This is the most  awful of news. Rush has forvever been my favorite band....   3 Rock deaths have blindsided me....

Lennon in '80, Tom Petty a few years ago, and now this.

[Gefn]

This is the most  awful of news. Rush has forvever been my favorite band....   3 Rock deaths have blindsided me....

Lennon in '80, Tom Petty a few years ago, and now this.

@catfish1957

Did you read my mind? Exact feelings, but I think Lennon was the most shocking because of how he died.

Putting on my “Vapor Trails” cd. 

[Cyber Liberty]

Rush drummer Neil Peart dead at 67

Brain cancer. 

https://www.cbc.ca/news/entertainment/neil-peart-obit-1.5422806?fbclid=IwAR3P01SdgT5X3ufGwB0xqIGCPEm25FZ6ZjJoO8dJ5FqQg5lx-MA9eVTAGEk

This one hurts.

[catfish1957]

@catfish1957

Did you read my mind? Exact feelings, but I think Lennon was the most shocking because of how he died.

This clip sums up alot of Rush fans. 


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[EasyAce]

@catfish1957

Did you read my mind? Exact feelings, but I think Lennon was the most shocking because of how he died.

Putting on my “Vapor Trails” cd. 

@Gefn

A sad number of music legends have been murdered. Including but not limited to:

Robert Johnson---blues legend, poisoned, 1938 I believe.
Chanzo Pozo---percussionist who helped bring Afro-Latin rhythms to jazz with Dizzy Gillespie in the 1940s.
John Lee Williamson (aka Sonny Boy Williamson I)---shot to death, 1948.
Scrapper Blackwell---bluesman, shot to death, 1962.
Sam Cooke---murdered with an ice pick, 1964.
Bobby Fuller ("I Fought the Law")---found dead and assumed murdered, crime never solved, 1964.
James (Shep) Sheppard, Shep & the Limelites ("Daddy's Home")---murdered in 1970; his body was left in his car on the Long Island Expressway after he was attacked during a robbery; like Fuller, his murder remains unsolved otherwise.
King Curtis---R&B saxophonist; stabbed to death, 1971.
Lee Morgan---jazz trumpeter ("The Sidewinder"); shot to death, 1972.
Al Jackson, Jr.---R&B drummer (anchored Booker T. & the MGs and boatloads of sessions for Stax/Volt and Hi Records in Memphis); stabbed to death but the killer was never found.
Felix Pappalardi---producer (most famously for Cream); bassist-composer (Mountain); shot to death in 1983.
Marvin Gaye---R&B giant; shot to death, 1983.
Jaco Pastorius---jazz bassist; beaten to death, 1987.
Tupac Shakur---rapper; shot to death, 1996.
Biggie Smalls (The Notorious B.I.G.)---rapper; shot to death, 1997.
Jaki Byard---jazz pianist; shot to death, unsolved, 1999.
Dimebag Darrell (Darrell Abbott)---guitarist/songwriter, Pantera/Damageplan; shot to death on stage, 2004.

[Free Vulcan]

Peart and Rush were very intwined with my teenage and college years.

One of, if not the best drummer that ever lived.

RIP, and thanks for all the memories.

[Neverdul]

This is song that introduced me to Rush way back in 1978. And I have a big fan ever since. Neal Peart was not only one of the greatest drummers of all time but also a brilliant lyricist.


www.youtube.com/watch?v=8_D0wkLyCXE

There is unrest in the forest
There is trouble with the trees
For the maples want more sunlight
And the oaks ignore their pleas
The trouble with the maples
And they're quite convinced they're right
They say the oaks are just too lofty
And they grab up all the light
But the oaks can't help their feelings
If they like the way they're made
And they wonder why the maples
Can't be happy in their shade?
There is trouble in the forest
And the creatures all have fled
As the maples scream 'oppression!'
And the oaks, just shake their heads
So the maples formed a union
And demanded equal rights
'The oaks are just too greedy
We will make them give us light'
Now there's no more oak oppression
For they passed a noble law
And the trees are all kept equal
By hatchet,
Axe,
And saw

[TomSea]

Moderate, you can see, he met with Netanyahu, Netanyahu was invited to Oman.


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The Sultan of Oman, Qaboos bin Said al Said, has died, state media says
Saturday 11 January 2020 00:31, UK


The Sultan of Oman has died

The Sultan of Oman, Qaboos bin Said al Said, has died, according to the country's state media.

The 79-year-old was the longest serving leader in the Middle East, having ruled the country since 1970 after taking over the leadership in a peaceful coup.

There had been concern over his health in recent weeks, and had reportedly been in Belgium for treatment.

State media said that Sultan Qaboos passed away early on Saturday morning.

Continued at: https://news.sky.com/story/the-sultan-of-oman-qaboos-bin-said-al-said-has-died-state-media-says-11905873

[dfwgator]

Peart and Rush were very intwined with my teenage and college years.

One of, if not the best drummer that ever lived.

RIP, and thanks for all the memories.

We've lost two the best drummers of all time in the past few months: Neil and Ginger Baker.