Rolling Obituary Thread: 2018

Ntozake Shange
http://www.startribune.com/obituary-ntozake-shange-pioneering-playwright-poet-and-novelist/498795391/

Damn - Sassafras, Cypress & Indigo is one of my favourite novels

Three today: Shange, saxophonist Sonny Fortune (played with McCoy Tyner and Miles Davis, among others), and guitarist Todd Youth, who somehow managed to be a member of Agnostic Front, Warzone, Murphy's Law, D Generation, Danzig, and (very briefly) Motörhead. The dude got around. He was 47.

Wow at that resume! Damn

Pedal steel legend Herbie Remington, 91. He played with Bob Wills among others. And country singer Freddie Hart, also 91 (1971's "Easy Loving" is his best-known song.

http://m.doctorwhonews.net/2018/10/derrick-sherwin-1936-2018.html

Derrick Sherwin, Doctor Who writer and producer of The War Games and Spearhead From Space. Came up with the idea that the Third Doctor should be stranded on Earth, and created UNIT while writing The Invasion as a seed plot.

Whitey Bulger killed in a WV prison the day after being transferred there, it sounds like...

https://www.wvnews.com/news/wvnews/union-official-prisoner-slain-at-hazelton-west-virginia-prison-soon/article_7c8443ca-ea29-5bf6-9036-8a7f32ba6121.html

RIP Sonny Fortune. I met him in a Toronto bar in '91 while he was playing with Elvin Jones and he was really approachable (though he didn't give me a spontaneous unsolicited hug, as Elvin did)

https://www.theonion.com/inmates-scrambling-to-replace-whitey-bulger-in-prison-p-1830113508

baseball Hall of Famer Willie McCovey

https://www.mlb.com/news/hall-of-famer-willie-mccovey-dies/c-300075672

RIP, Willie. pic.twitter.com/74rWxrtnvg

— Jack Womack (@jwomack) November 1, 2018

(i have no idea what that's about but it came up in my twitter feed)

Just over seven years later, McCovey stood at the plate, one of the game’s biggest and most beloved stars, in San Francisco in Game 7 of the World Series—two out, the go-ahead run Willie Mays standing at second. With the fate of the Giants’ championship hopes now resting in his hands, he rocketed a ball towards right field—only to have it snagged by Yankees second baseman Bobby Richardson. The game was over, the final score still 1-0. The Yankees won the Series. The Giants made only one other postseason appearance during McCovey’s career. He never got that ring. Giants fans would have to spend the decades wondering, as Charlie Brown said in a Peanuts strip on December 22, 1962: “Why couldn’t McCovey have hit the ball just three feet higher?”

Mario Segale, namesake of Nintendo's Mario

https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2018/11/mario-segale-namesake-for-nintendos-mascot-dies-at-84/

Legendary Ohio guitarist Glen Schwartz (James Gang, Pacific Gas and Electric, The Arcs), 78.

Trumpeter Roy Hargrove, cardiac arrest at 49. In addition to his jazz albums, he worked a lot with D'Angelo and Erykah Badu - he's on Voodoo, Black Messiah, Mama's Gun, Worldwide Underground, and New Amerykah Vol. 1.

:(

oh no :(. RIP

aw damn :((((

The literary critic Christopher Lehmann-Haupt has died at 84. He wrote some 4,000 reviews and analyses for The New York Times over three decades. https://t.co/Plpn7arJtp

— New York Times Books (@nytimesbooks) November 8, 2018

Forgot about him. RIP

Glen Schwartz shoulda been a household name, but an early encounter with a Christian cult derailed him and his career. Was infamous for gigs in which he would scream weird hateful evangelical stuff and then burn everyone down with brilliant guitar playing -- his work with the All-Saved Freak Band is worth checking out, as is Jeff Stevenson's book about him and the cult, Fortney Road.

Glen Schwartz shoulda been a household name, but an early encounter with a Christian cult derailed him and his career.

same

you are a household name though

ah but am i happy

Francis Lai, film composer of "A Man and a Woman" and "Love Story"

http://www.latimes.com/local/obituaries/la-me-francis-lai-20181109-story.html

Douglas Rain, Stratford Festival actor and voice of HAL in 2001: A Space Odyssey, dies at 90

https://kitchener.ctvnews.ca/douglas-rain-stratford-festival-actor-and-voice-of-hal-in-2001-a-space-odyssey-dies-at-90-1.4172564

"Stop... I'm afraid"

Wow

Marvel's Stan Lee

'Nuff said.

STAN LEE IS DEAD, ALL HAIL CGI STAN LEE!

excelsior

RRRRRRIP!

Even though I have zero interest in comic books, comic book culture, superhero movies etc etc, I've still got to shout it, RIP STAN THE MAN!

He was a triv question just now on Tipping point, the contestant got the answer wrong but hey.

I got to thinking it was quite cool that the creator of Spiderman was still around.

He still is!</controvery>

It's kind of hilarious that comic book guys seem to hate him when he's the only comic book guy non-comic book guys have ever heard of.

He still is!</controvery>

― Always noble, with stunning good looks and genious IQ (Old Lunch)

Ditto died in June.

xp

it's like non-music guys and the Beatles

Well, same as.

"You like rock music wow? You must like Ozzy"

*Ditko*

it's like non-music guys and the Beatles

Not really, because the Beatles are unfortunately popular with music guys too.

Dude, it's me

Fuck stan lee btw

(xp) lol

Forgot about Ditko dying! Please stop dying, comics people!

As I alluded to in another thread, there are plenty of legit reasons to criticize Stan, but he seemed like a pretty amiable dude and, if nothing else, he was a solid cheerleader for that little corner of the comics world to the broader world beyond.

I'm cool with people in their 90s dying. #challopcelsior

Local Cleveland writer and journalist Nikki Delamotte. Not someone well-known, obviously, but she was a casual friend of mine (I just saw her right before Halloween) and was a much-beloved booster of the Cleveland music, arts, food and culture scenes. She was shot and killed over the weekend, apparently while visiting family in Toledo. Details are still somewhat sketchy. She was just the nicest, sweetest person, a terrific writer and a wonderful chronicler of Northeast Ohio. As it happens she once rounded up a bunch of her own favorite pieces at

This year, I had the chance to tell stories about so many Clevelanders that make me really proud to live here. A few of my favorites in this thread.

— nikki delamotte (@nikkidelamotte) December 31, 2017

thanks for sharing, Eliza, I will def check those pieces out. RIP