Obituaries for 2025

[jmyrlefuller]

A running thread for deaths of notable people or animals who died, or whose deaths were first reported, in calendar year 2025.

Previous threads:

• 2024
  
• 2023
  
• 2022
  
• 2021
  
• 2020
  
• 2019
  
• 2018
  
• 2017
  
• 2016
  
• 2015
  
• 2014
  

[bigheadfred]

 

[Cyber Liberty]

[Wingnut]

"Generalissimo Francisco Franco is still dead"

[bigheadfred]

"Generalissimo Francisco Franco is still dead"

The biggest update of 2025.

[bigheadfred]

‘Catwoman’ Jocelyn Wildenstein, known for extreme plastic surgery addiction, dead at 84

Jocelyn Wildenstein, the New York socialite nicknamed “The Catwoman,” has died. She was 84.

Her partner, Lloyd Klein, reportedly told AFP that Wildenstein died of a pulmonary embolism in a Parisian palace on Tuesday, per Daily Mail.

https://nypost.com/2025/01/01/entertainment/catwoman-jocelyn-wildenstein-dead-at-84/

[Polly Ticks]

‘Catwoman’ Jocelyn Wildenstein, known for extreme plastic surgery addiction, dead at 84

Wow, I had no idea she was that old. That poor lady obviously had some serious mental issues; hopefully she is finally at peace.

[mountaineer]

‘Catwoman’ Jocelyn Wildenstein, known for extreme plastic surgery addiction, dead at 84

I had seen some recent (I suppose) photos, and just couldn't fathom how someone would do that to herself. Poor thing.

[Wingnut]

I had seen some recent (I suppose) photos, and just couldn't fathom how someone would do that to herself. Poor thing.

In a thousand years, if they dig her up, people will say, Aliens.

[Timber Rattler]

This is kind of a gut punch since I remember his live coverage of 9/11...it was his first day at CNN.

Aaron Brown, former KING 5 and CNN anchor, dies

https://www.king5.com/article/news/nation-world/aaron-brown-former-king-5-cnn-anchor-dies/281-640cbe4b-11c6-406e-90b2-4cfeca3294d9

Aaron Brown, a former CNN anchor who got his start at KING 5 in Seattle, has died.

CNN, citing a statement from Brown's family, reported that he died Sunday. A cause of death was not given. He was 76.

Brown rose to prominence for his coverage of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, where he narrated the events from a rooftop in Manhattan.

He got his start in TV journalism at KING 5, where he started as an assignment editor in 1976 and then worked as a reporter and news anchor. Politics was one of Brown’s beats at KING, including coverage of President Jimmy Carter’s visit to Seattle after the eruption of Mount St. Helens in June 1980. Brown left KING 5 in 1986 to anchor at KIRO 7.

EXCERPT

https://www.cnn.com/2024/12/31/us/aaron-brown-death-cnn-anchor-hnk/index.html

[deb]

Wow, I had no idea she was that old. That poor lady obviously had some serious mental issues; hopefully she is finally at peace.

If you can find photos of her pre-surgery, she was very pretty.

What evil, money-loving “doctor” would agree to perform surgery after surgery after surgery? Hippocratic oath anyone?

[Lando Lincoln]

‘Catwoman’ Jocelyn Wildenstein, known for extreme plastic surgery addiction, dead at 84

Jocelyn Wildenstein, the New York socialite nicknamed “The Catwoman,” has died. She was 84.

Her partner, Lloyd Klein, reportedly told AFP that Wildenstein died of a pulmonary embolism in a Parisian palace on Tuesday, per Daily Mail.

https://nypost.com/2025/01/01/entertainment/catwoman-jocelyn-wildenstein-dead-at-84/

I wonder if she used a litter box.

[bigheadfred]

I wonder if she used a litter box.

She claimed her looks were from her Swiss heritage. Swiss cheese maybe.

[mountaineer]

Singer Wayne Osmond Dead at 73
by Alana Mastrangelo
2 Jan 2025
Breitbart

Wayne Osmond — who was one of the members of The Osmonds, a musical group popular in the 1960s and 1970s that consisted of siblings — has died at the age of 73.

Osmond, who was born on August 28, 1951, in Ogden, Utah, and was the second-oldest of the original Osmond Brothers singers, died surrounded by wife and five children, his family said in a joint statement released Thursday.  ...

 

[jmyrlefuller]

The Osmonds are one of my favorite music groups. Snicker as people may, but they are grossly disrespected... and say what you will about the Latter-Day Saints but they were darn fine ambassadors for their church.

[MeganC]

"Generalissimo Francisco Franco is still dead"

But doctors say his condition is stable! 

[PeteS in CA]

"Generalissimo Francisco Franco is still dead"

But he still votes Democrat.

[Cyber Liberty]

The Osmonds are one of my favorite music groups. Snicker as people may, but they are grossly disrespected... and say what you will about the Latter-Day Saints but they were darn fine ambassadors for their church.

I came to appreciate the talent the Osmonds had. It took me awhile to come to that...

[libertybele]

The Osmonds are one of my favorite music groups. Snicker as people may, but they are grossly disrespected... and say what you will about the Latter-Day Saints but they were darn fine ambassadors for their church.

True story -- we were on vacation -- and in the swimming pool that we were using, Donny and Marie were swimming right along with us. I was oblivious to who they were until someone in the pool pointed them out.  No big deal to me, I didn't know they were celebrities till my parents informed me of who they were.  Still...I could have cared less.  To me they were just kids swimming in a pool.

[libertybele]

I came to appreciate the talent the Osmonds had. It took me awhile to come to that...

Meh ... never became a fan. 

[jmyrlefuller]

I came to appreciate the talent the Osmonds had. It took me awhile to come to that...

True story: I had kind of treated them as a joke, they came to the next town over in the early 2010s and I never bothered to see them (I think it was Wayne's final tour before a different stroke stopped him from playing and touring).

Then one morning, I was listening to an American Top 40 rerun from 1973, as I had been for a while, and an Osmonds song came on. It was "Let Me In," the Prodigal Son-inspired song from their missionary album The Plan. I thought... these guys are a whole lot better than they get credit for, why don't the oldies stations play them? I hear "One Bad Apple" ad nauseam but that was just a Jackson 5 knockoff record; this stuff... this was talent. And their live performances as adults, when they grew into their voices, was even better than even that.

I started listening to their rock-era songs and was hooked ever since.

[libertybele]

True story: I had kind of treated them as a joke, they came to the next town over in the early 2010s and I never bothered to see them (I think it was Wayne's final tour before a different stroke stopped him from playing and touring).

Then one morning, I was listening to an American Top 40 rerun from 1973, as I had been for a while, and an Osmonds song came on. It was "Let Me In," the Prodigal Son-inspired song from their missionary album The Plan. I thought... these guys are a whole lot better than they get credit for, why don't the oldies stations play them? I hear "One Bad Apple" ad nauseam but that was just a Jackson 5 knockoff record; this stuff... this was talent. And their live performances as adults, when they grew into their voices, was even better than even that.

I started listening to their rock-era songs and was hooked ever since.

I will have to listen to them again ...

[PeteS in CA]

Many record companies in the 60s and 70s fostered the sex, drugs, and rock 'n' roll scene, even though some rock stars were killed by it. The Osmonds were too squeaky clean to be respected by that culture. Larry Norman beat his head against that wall, unsuccessfully, Michael Omartian's original label, ABC, moved his "White Horse" album over to their religious subsidiary as soon as they bought that label. After doing his album with Glass Harp, Phil Keaggy decided not to bother with secular labels. Barry McGuire may also have done "Seeds" on Myrrh because of that bias, but then again he may have burned too many bridges in his "Just a-getting higher" days.

[verga]

Singer Wayne Osmond Dead at 73
by Alana Mastrangelo
2 Jan 2025
Breitbart

That  is a shame. Very wholesome act.

[Gefn]

Singer Wayne Osmond Dead at 73
by Alana Mastrangelo
2 Jan 2025
Breitbart

Wow. Anyone else feels old?
Rest in peace and thank you for the music-

[Cyber Liberty]

Wow. Anyone else feels old?
Rest in peace and thank you for the music-

I was born in the same year as Donny....

[verga]

Mike Rinder, Leah Remini: Scientology and the Aftermath Co-Host, Dead at 69 — Read His Parting Words
https://tvline.com/news/mike-rinder-dead-scientology-and-the-aftermath-cause-of-death-1235395973/

[Gefn]

Mike Rinder, Leah Remini: Scientology and the Aftermath Co-Host, Dead at 69 — Read His Parting Words
https://tvline.com/news/mike-rinder-dead-scientology-and-the-aftermath-cause-of-death-1235395973/

I liked him on that show. RIP

[Gefn]

World’s oldest person Tomiko Itooka dies at 116

TOKYO — The world’s oldest person, Japanese woman Tomiko Itooka, has died at the age of 116, the city of Ashiya where she lived announced on Saturday, January 4.

Itooka, who had four children and five grandchildren, died on December 29 at a nursing home where she resided since 2019, the southern city’s mayor said in a statement.

https://www.msn.com/en-ph/society-culture-and-history/social-issues/world-s-oldest-person-tomiko-itooka-dies-at-116/ar-AA1wYtCH?ocid=TobArticle

[Gefn]

Jeff Baena, writer-director married to Aubrey Plaza, dead at 47

Jeff Baena, an independent filmmaker best known for directing “Life After Beth” and co-writing “I Heart Huckabees,” died Friday, according to the Los Angeles County medical examiner. He was 47.

Baena had been married to actor Aubrey Plaza since 2021. The couple collaborated on several films, including in 2014’s “Life After Beth,” in which Plaza had a starring role.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/jeff-baena-aubrey-plaza-husband-dead-rcna186237

[mountaineer]

Mike Rinder, Leah Remini: Scientology and the Aftermath Co-Host, Dead at 69

He did good work, trying to expose that group's many crimes.

My Friend, My Hero: Mike Rinder
Yashar Ali
Jan 05, 2025

I am heartbroken to share the news that my friend Mike Rinder has passed away after a nearly two-year battle with cancer.

Mike was not only my friend; he was one of my heroes, and I will always be grateful to my dear friend Leah Remini for introducing me to Mike eight years ago.

For those of you who have never watched Leah’s series on A&E, Leah Remini: Scientology and the Aftermath, or seen Mike in other documentaries, Mike was a top official in Scientology for decades before escaping in 2007. ...

When he was in Scientology, no one received more abuse at the hands of David Miscavige than Mike. He endured dozens of beatings by Miscavige himself. For years, he was kept in “The Hole,” a prison that David Miscavige set up on a Scientology base where he held Scientology officials he wanted to torture. Mike lived in The Hole for years, where he endured harsh interrogations and ate slop (literally) from a bucket.

After enduring dozens of beatings, being held prisoner, and undergoing psychologically devastating interrogations and threats, Mike fled Scientology with nothing but his passport and a briefcase. ...

https://www.thereset.news/p/my-friend-my-hero-mike-rinder

[jmyrlefuller]

Folk singer Peter Yarrow dies at 86.

More to come...

[Gefn]

Peter Yarrow of folk-music trio Peter, Paul and Mary dies at 86

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Peter Yarrow, the singer-songwriter best known as one-third of Peter, Paul and Mary, the folk-music trio whose impassioned harmonies transfixed millions as they lifted their voices in favor of civil rights and against war, has died. He was 86.

Yarrow, who also co-wrote the group’s most enduring song, “Puff the Magic Dragon,” died Tuesday in New York, publicist Ken Sunshine said. Yarrow had bladder cancer for the past four years.

“Our fearless dragon is tired and has entered the last chapter of his magnificent life. The world knows Peter Yarrow the iconic folk activist, but the human being behind the legend is every bit as generous, creative, passionate, playful, and wise as his lyrics suggest,” his daughter Bethany said in a statement.

https://apnews.com/article/peter-yarrow-dies-paul-mary-767c223e40c243199b0d0875e29a5efc

[jmyrlefuller]

Curiously absent from that eulogy is the part where he had a 14 year old girl do things for him not fit for putting her.

[GrouchoTex]

I liked him on that show. RIP

I did too

[MeganC]

I rather loathe "folk music". It's almost always pro-Communist, the singers are mostly feminists and eunuchs, and the fans are mostly pathetic touchy-feely liberals.

[Timber Rattler]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z15pxWUXvLY


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uKOrpyO0z48

[mountaineer]

Curiously absent from that eulogy is the part where he had a 14 year old girl do things for him not fit for putting her.

Here's that part of the story:

After recording their last No. 1 hit, a 1969 cover of John Denver's "Leaving on a Jet Plane," the trio split up the following year to pursue solo careers.

That same year Yarrow had pleaded guilty to taking indecent liberties with a 14-year-old girl who had come to his hotel room with her older sister to ask for autographs. The pair found him naked when he answered the door and let them in. Yarrow, who resumed his career after serving three months in jail, was pardoned by President Jimmy Carter in 1981. Over the decades, he apologized repeatedly.

"I fully support the current movements demanding equal rights for all and refusing to allow continued abuse and injury — most particularly of a sexual nature, of which I am, with great sorrow, guilty," he told The New York Times in 2019 after being disinvited from a festival over the sentence.

AP via WTAE

[PeteS in CA]

I rather loathe "folk music". It's almost always pro-Communist, the singers are mostly feminists and eunuchs, and the fans are mostly pathetic touchy-feely liberals.

That is true of much 1960s music. Whether malicious or clueless, much damage was done. It's the music with which I grew up and enjoyed, so some of it is painful to hear, as I've worked with refugees and children of refugees from Vietnam.

[verga]

Folk singer Peter Yarrow dies at 86.

More to come...

WOW That is a shame. RIP Great song writer/ singer.

[Cyber Liberty]

That is true of much 1960s music. Whether malicious or clueless, much damage was done. It's the music with which I grew up and enjoyed, so some of it is painful to hear, as I've worked with refugees and children of refugees from Vietnam.

Martin Mull:  Remember the Great Folk Music scare of the 60's and 70's?  We were terrified that crap was going to catch on....

[jmyrlefuller]

Here's that part of the story:AP via WTAE

Oh, it went beyond just letting them in the hotel room while he was naked. He made her touch his nether regions until... well... I'll let the rest speak for itself. And he may have had others.

https://web.archive.org/web/20210517122113/https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2021/05/17/peter-yarrow-carter-pardon-assault/

To date, he is the only sex offender to have received a presidential pardon.

[Cyber Liberty]

Oh, it went beyond just letting them in the hotel room while he was naked. He made her touch his nether regions until... well... I'll let the rest speak for itself. And he may have had others.

https://web.archive.org/web/20210517122113/https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2021/05/17/peter-yarrow-carter-pardon-assault/

To date, he is the only sex offender to have received a presidential pardon.

Nowadays, we just don't charge them in the first place, or hand out ridiculously light sentences.   

[berdie]

Fun Fact: You can two-step to Puff The Magic Dragon.

[Free Vulcan]

Went to one of their concerts in the early 90's. It was so New Age it freaked me out. The atmosphere in there was oppressive.

[Fishrrman]

Peter, Paul & Mary were never favorites of mine.
I did have one of their LP's ("Late Again").

Saw them at Carnegie Hall in the late 60's, I think.
Can't deny that I recall it was a very good show.

[jmyrlefuller]

James Arthur Ray, New Age quack, self-fashioned self-help guru and TV talk show fixture whose "sweat lodges" killed two men in 2009, dies at 67

https://www.12news.com/article/news/local/arizona/james-arthur-ray-self-help-guru-sedona-sweat-lodge-deaths-dies/75-f1d3d765-8afc-4544-b584-1e537c704285

[jmyrlefuller]

Anita Bryant dies at 84



Bryant came to fame most famously for the song "Paper Roses," which would later be covered by Marie Osmond, which she parlayed into regular appearances on Bob Hope's USO tours. It would be her later conservative activism that drew the ridicule and ire of what would later be known as the LGBTQ lobby, which turned Bryant into a persona non grata as revenge against her Save Our Children campaign; the stress from the harassment eventually led to a divorce which alienated her fans on the Christian right, effectively destroying her career. Attempts to relaunch her career following a remarriage in the 1990s were unsuccessful and she died in relative obscurity December 16, 2024, with her death not reported until nearly a month afterward.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/anita-bryant-singer-anti-gay-232037188.html


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ASYEIIBPesw

Official obituary:
https://www.oklahoman.com/obituaries/pokl1052221

[jmyrlefuller]

Edgar Welch, who accidentally disproved Pizzagate, dies in an unrelated confrontation with police

In 2016, following leaks of the Podesta emails, Welch entered Comet Ping Pong—a D.C. pizzeria where Podesta considered hosting a fundraiser for Hillary Clinton—in hopes of finding the basement where Qanon and other online conspiracy theorists had conjectured a child trafficking ring had been operating and liberating it. Welch was armed but fired only one warning shot, eventually leaving when, after examining the restaurant, he discovered that it had no basement. Future Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson sentenced Welch to four years in prison for the incident.

Welch was killed in Kannapolis, North Carolina in an armed confrontation with police officers after a vehicle he was riding in was pulled over for a routine traffic stop and the officers attempted to arrest Welch for a probation violation.

https://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/local/crime/article298247913.html

[Gefn]

Sam Moore, Half of Sam & Dave Duo That Rose to Fame With ‘Soul Man’ and ‘Hold On I’m Comin’,’ Dies at 89

Sam Moore, who had classic hits with the soul duo Sam and Dave in the 1960s, died Friday morning  in Coral Gables, Florida. He was 89. The cause of death was post-surgery complications, according to the singer’s rep.

Moore took the tenor part on perennials that are familiar even to generations not yet born during the duo’s ’60s heyday, including “Hold On, I’m Comin'” (a No. 1 R&B hit in 1966), “Soul Man” (which reached No. 2 on the Hot 100 as well as topping the R&B chart in 1967) and “I Thank You” (a top 10 hit on both charts in 1968).

Sam & Dave were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1992 and received the Recording Academy’s lifetime achievement honor in 2019.

https://variety.com/2025/music/obituaries-people-news/sam-moore-dead-sam-dave-soul-man-1236272201/