Rolling Obituary Thread: 2015

I got through to Joe Franklin once, as a teenager in the mid- or late-'70s. He must have been syndicated, because I'm pretty sure it was a station out of Cleveland that you could pick up in Toronto. Zero recollection of what we talked about.

(Check that--think it was this guy instead: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pete_Franklin.)

VERY DIFFERENT GUY.

I interviewed Joe in his office in 1980. (The OLD office, not the neater one below.) Papers and folders and God-knows-what stacked floor-to-ceiling. He was yakking on the phone about "Gore Vidal's Caligula" ("It's terrible, people are asking for their $10 back").

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kr2s7K8Qmdk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HFXsMTS9MS4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bpf1j0cA5Hg

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-30984851

Demis Roussos. I suspect he might get his own thread, or the Aphrodite's Child one.

:((((((((

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=321JxxzlGio

rod mckuen

can't understand it anymore

Colleen McCullough, author of The Thorn Birds: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-31036362

What not to do. Seriously, what NOT TO DO:

http://www.crikey.com.au/2015/01/30/why-the-oz-called-colleen-mccullough-fat-and-ugly-in-her-obituary/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rose_Marie_McCoy

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=100823151

Prolific songwriter who had songs recorded by Big Maybelle, Elvis Presley, Little Jimmy Scott, Nat King Cole, Ike & Tina Turner and others died on January 20th at age 92 according to Wiki and a Yahoo Southern Soul group email listserv thing I get. She was a New Jersey-based independent songwriter who rejected offers to join well-known house songwriting operations at Stax, Motown and elsewhere

Edward Saylor one of the surviving Doolittle Raiders (three left)
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/31/us/edward-j-saylor-airman-who-took-fight-to-japan-with-the-doolittle-raiders-dies-at-94.html

navy ace alexander vraciu, who once shot down six japanese bombers in eight minutes

NY Times now has obit of songwriter McCoy

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/01/arts/music/rose-marie-mccoy-a-songwriter-for-rock-pop-and-jazz-legends-dies-at-92.html?_r=1

http://oregonmusicnews.com/2015/02/02/don-covay-soul-singer-songwriter-dead-76/

He had been in ill health for awhile after a stroke. No larger outlets are reporting this yet. Reports of the death have also been on facebook

more online tributes starting to show up

RIP Don

Geraldine McEwan, star of theatre, television and film

http://www.theguardian.com/stage/2015/feb/01/geraldine-mcewan-from-mrs-malaprop-to-miss-marple

LA based saxophonist Zane Musa, at 36.

http://www.laweekly.com/music/la-jazz-scene-reels-from-untimely-death-of-zane-musa-5367964

prolific churchill/holocaust/war historian martin gilbert

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-31129677

Sandy Socolow, key CBS News editor/producer of the Cronkite era

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/joe-peyronnin/broadcast-news-icon-sandy_b_6590202.html

pianist aldo ciccolini

Suzette Haden Elgin

http://io9.com/r-i-p-suzette-haden-elgin-author-poet-verbal-self-d-1684006640

Mary Healy, singer who teamed with her hubby on records, Vegas, radio and movies including The 5,000 Fingers of Dr T

http://www.broadwayworld.com/article/Stage-and-Screen-Actress-Mary-Healy-Dies-at-96-20150204

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wyf_A3dUI-E

Stewart Stern, screenwriter of Rebel without a Cause and The Last Movie

http://variety.com/2015/film/news/stewart-stern-dies-writer-of-rebel-without-a-cause-obituary-1201426670/

Buddy Holly & The Crickets bassist Joe B. Mauldin

http://lubbockonline.com/local-news/2015-02-07/crickets-bassist-joe-b-mauldin-remembered-gentle-soul#.VNcTTPnF-So

Dean Smith:

http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/story/_/id/12296176/dean-smith-former-north-carolina-tar-heels-coach-dies-age-83

Rik Mayall

http://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2014/jun/09/rik-mayall-dies-comedian-actor

Fuck, nevermind. Didn't notice taht was old.

Still shocking, but yeah.

Architect Jon Jerde.

http://www.latimes.com/local/obituaries/la-me-jon-jerde-20150209-story.html#page=1

60 Minutes's Bob Simon:

http://nypost.com/2015/02/11/60-minutes-bob-simon-killed-in-car-crash/

Jerry Tarkanian; wow, these assholes are droppin' like flies

http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/story/_/id/12309861/jerry-tarkanian-was-hall-fame-coach-battled-ncaa

Steve Strange, of Visage:

http://www.vanyaland.com/2015/02/12/report-steve-strange-new-romantic-electronic-music-pioneers-visage-dead-55/

Oh fuck, and Moebius!

http://io9.com/5892148/legendary-french-artist-moebius-the-man-who-made-the-abyss-alien-and-tron-even-weirder-is-dead-at-73

Er, except that (Moebius) is from a few years ago. Never mind.

David Carr:

http://mobile.nytimes.com/2015/02/13/business/media/david-carr-media-equation-columnist-for-the-times-is-dead-at-58.html?_r=0

jesus… really loved his work.

http://variety.com/2015/tv/news/gary-owens-announcer-of-laugh-in-fame-dies-at-80-1201433731/

Brilliant voice

Indeed. RIP.

THIS STUPID WEEK.

cupping my ear in tribute

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-5lhQ4Ejpmqg/UrwibzLVcnI/AAAAAAAAG-g/2TJgbCqIrf8/s1600/gary+owens+glasses.jpg

Alison Gordon, who covered the Jays from '79-84 for the Toronto Star--first female ever to cover a team full-time.

http://www.thestar.com/sports/baseball/2015/02/12/pioneering-toronto-star-baseball-writer-alison-gordon-dead-at-72.html

"We had four or five guys that really rallied around not letting her in the clubhouse, but I don't think Alison gave a damn, to tell you the truth," Lloyd Moseby said. "She could have very easily taken the words that a lot of guys said and took it to heart and went back to her bosses and said, 'I'm not doing this. I don't get paid to take abuse.' But she never did. She kept showing up. And it was amazing, really. I’m just proud to have known Alison."

Lizabeth Scott

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/07/movies/lizabeth-scott-film-noir-siren-dies-at-92.html

Sam Andrew, guitarist w/Big Brother & The Holding Company and Janis Joplin

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/big-brother-and-the-holding-companys-sam-andrew-dead-at-73-20150214

One of the big theatre companies here put on a production of "Love, Janis" about 7-8 years ago and Andrew was brought in as the music director. To promote the show, he did an evening signing meet & greet thing at the just-reopened Cactus Music. It was late into the appearance when I showed up with my dad--a big Janis fan--and the crowd (if any) had thinned considerably. Andrew signed several LPs we brought in addition to the then-new "Love Is The Song We Sing" San Francisco Nuggets box. That one he actually signed twice--once in his usual place of the picture on the page with the write up for "Down On Me" (complete with an arrow running from his signature to his picture), and the other in my requested spot on the inside front cover, a photo of Big Brother posing alongside The Dead, Jefferson Airplane, Quicksilver, and The Charlatans at Golden Gate Park in 1967.

While looking at the later pic, he remarked about wanting to a reunion version of that photo, but "There's not as many of us now."

RIP

Nice story.

Michele Ferrero, richest living Italian, (apparently) inventor of Nutella, Kinder Surprise, Tic Tac, Ferrero Rocher.

http://torino.repubblica.it/cronaca/2015/02/14/news/e_morto_michele_ferrero_l_inventore_della_nutella_e_dei_tic_tac-107329807/

i didn't know anyone invented tic tacs, just thought they occurred naturally

lol.

RIP

Louis Jourdan

http://variety.com/2015/film/news/louis-jourdan-star-of-octopussy-gigi-dies-at-93-1201434557/

rip Louis

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dKc7wRLA-Z8