Free Republic

SIERRA VISTA — Fon B. Huffman, the last survivor from the international Panay Incident of 1937, died Thursday, his family announced. Huffman, born in 1913, celebrated his 95th birthday on Aug. 19. He died peacefully in his sleep at noon in Hacienda Rehabilitation and Care Center. His daughter, Nancy Ferguson, was by his side. Advertisement Fon Huffman is pictured on Dec. 26, 2007, at his daughter Nancy’s home in Sierra Vista where he lived out his last days. File photo/Mark Levy•Herald/Review The Iowa farm boy who joined the Navy at age 16 was a 24-year-old sailor aboard the USS Panay...

SIERRA VISTA — Fon B. Huffman, the last survivor from the international Panay Incident of 1937, died Thursday, his family announced. Huffman, born in 1913, celebrated his 95th birthday on Aug. 19. He died peacefully in his sleep at noon in Hacienda Rehabilitation and Care Center. His daughter, Nancy Ferguson, was by his side. The Iowa farm boy who joined the Navy at age 16 was a 24-year-old sailor aboard the USS Panay when it was attacked near Nanking, China, on Dec. 12, 1937, by Imperial Japanese warplanes. In those days, the American gunboat, part of the U.S. Asiatic Fleet,...

Ike Pappas, a longtime CBS newsman who reported the shooting death of presidential assassin Lee Harvey Oswald on the radio as it was happening, has died at age 75. Pappas died Sunday in a hospital in Arlington, Virginia, of complications of heart disease, his family said. Pappas was among the reporters at the Dallas police station waiting for Oswald to be moved two days after President Kennedy was assassinated. Pappas had just asked him, "You have anything to say in your defense?" when a shot rang out. "Oswald has been shot!" Pappas said on the air, adding, "Mass confusion here,...

can only post a link to story:

Voiceover Master Don LaFontaine has died. He was 68. LaFontaine, known as the "King of Voiceovers," died Monday afternoon at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. LaFontaine's agent, Vanessa Gilbert, tells ET that he passed away following complications from Pneumothorax, the presence of air or gas in the pleural cavity, the result of a collapsed lung. The official cause of death has not yet been released. Over the past 25 years, LaFontaine cemented his position as the "King of Voiceovers." Aside from being the preeminent voice in the movie trailer industry, Don also worked as the voice of Entertainment Tonight...

Don LaFontaine, the voiceover king whose "In a world ..." phrase on movie trailers was much copied -- and much parodied -- has died, according to media reports. He was 68. Don LaFontaine was featured as "that voiceover guy" on a recent Geico commercial. LaFontaine died Monday at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, California, according to ETOnline, "Entertainment Tonight's" Web site. He died from complications from pneumothorax, a collapsed lung that causes air to build in the pleural cavity, his agent, Vanessa Gilbert, told "ET." LaFontaine, who was born in Duluth, Minnesota, began as a voice actor in the...

You may not recognize the name Don LaFontaine but you definitely know the voice. LaFontaine, who passed away Monday at the age of 68, was THE voice of movie trailers for almost 30 years.

EVERETT, Mass. -- Pro wrestling pioneer Walter "Killer" Kowalski has died from a heart attack. He was 81. Kowalski died Saturday after being taken off life support at a hospital in Everett, Mass. He had a heart attack on Aug. 8. The death was announced on Kowalski's Web site. Kowalski, a 6-foot-7, 285-pound wrestler, earned his nickname in 1954 by dropping Yukon Eric during a match in Montreal. He became famous for various moves, including a grip called the "Killer Clutch." Kowalski was inducted into several wrestling halls of fame, including the World Wrestling Federation Hall of Fame and the...

Jeannette Eyerly, one of the first writers for young adults to deal with themes like unwanted pregnancy, alcoholism and drugs, died on Aug. 18 at her home in Des Moines. She was 100. The death was confirmed by her grandson Josh Pichler. In books like “Drop-Out,” “A Girl Like Me” and “Escape From Nowhere,” Mrs. Eyerly moved beyond the pretty-in-pink world of dates and sock hops to focus on more serious problems confronting young girls. In addition to facing the usual troubles with school and boyfriends, her heroines dealt with their parents’ failing marriages, or with peer pressure to take...

  Last female veteran of the First World War dies aged 109 Last updated at 20:19pm on 29.08.08    Gladys Powers, 109, died this month in Canada. She was thought to be the last female veteran from WW1. The last female First World War veteran has died aged 109.British-born Gladys Powers died at her home in British Columbia, Canada, on August 14, the Ministry of Defence said.She was born in Lewisham, south London and joined the Women's Auxiliary Corps aged 15, after fibbing about her age and later served with the Women's RAF.  All but a few of the...

** EXCERPT ** The story, marked “Hold for release – Do not use”, was sent in error to the news service’s thousands of corporate clients. The stock obituary was published "momentarily" after a routine update by a reporter, and was "immediately deleted", Bloomberg said. Jobs was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2003, but there is no suggestion that the news wire has recent news on his health. Most media organisations regularly update their pre-prepared obituaries of newsworthy figures. The obituary contained blank spaces for Jobs’s age and cause of death to be inserted.

An obituary of very-much-alive Apple founder Steve Jobs has been accidentally published by the respected Bloomberg business news wire. The story, marked “Hold for release – Do not use”, was sent in error to the news service’s thousands of corporate clients. The stock obituary was published "momentarily" after a routine update by a reporter, and was "immediately deleted", Bloomberg said. Jobs was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2003, but there is no suggestion that the news wire has recent news on his health. Most media organisations regularly update their pre-prepared obituaries of newsworthy figures. The obituary contained blank spaces for...

The co-author of the popular travel adventure book "100 Things to do Before You Die" has died. Dave Freeman passed away on Aug. 17 after a fall in his Venice home, the 47-year-old writer's father confirmed to the Los Angeles Times. The "100 Things" theme inspired countless readers to do things like attend the Academy Awards and travel to exotic locales.

Jabir Herbert Muhammad — son of Nation of Islam founder Elijah Muhammad and former manager of boxing great Muhammad Ali — died Monday afternoon at the University of Illinois at Chicago Medical Center.Mr. Muhammad, 79, had undergone open-heart surgery last week, said Joseph Morris, a Muhammad family attorney. Mr. Muhammad had been in the news last year because of a lawsuit he filed against convicted political fund-raiser Tony Rezko to stay in his South Side mansion, a home built by the late Elijah Muhammad.In an interview with the Chicago Sun-Times last year, Mr. Muhammad said Rezko had “embezzled” him out...

Tuskegee Airman dies in Virginia Growing up, Lt. Col. Howard Lee Baugh knew he wanted to fly airplanes. For years, he was told he couldn't because of his race. But when the Army began accepting applications from blacks who wanted to join, he jumped at the chance. The Petersburg native enlisted in 1942 and was part of the original Tuskegee Airmen, a fighter group consisting entirely of black men who trained at the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama. The first time he was in a plane, he was the one flying. By the time he retired, Lt. Col. Baugh logged more...

NEW YORK (TICKER) —NFL.com is reporting that Gene Upshaw, a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame and executive director of the NFL’s Players Association, died early Thursday morning after a bout with pancreatic cancer. He was 63. Upshaw, a former left guard for the Oakland and Los Angeles Raiders, was named an All-Pro 11 times in his 16-year career. He also was selected to seven Pro Bowls between 1967 and 1981 and was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1987 - his first year of eligibility. Upshaw was a member of the Oakland team that won the...

Congressional Medal of Honor recipient Ed Freeman of Boise died Wednesday morning, according to a friend of the Freeman family. He was 80 years old. -- SNIP -- As a flight leader and second in command of a 16-helicopter lift unit, he supported a heavily engaged infantry battalion at Landing Zone X-Ray in the la Drang Valley.

Maudie White Hopkins, who grew up during the Depression in the hardscrabble Ozarks and married a Confederate army veteran 67 years her senior, has died. She was 93.

Foxnews Alert Stephanie Tubbs dies

<p>Breaking on Fox News Live: Stephanie Tubbs Jones passed away this morning as a result of an aneurysm.</p>

A founding member of long-running Virginia jam band the Dave Matthews Band has passed away, a rep for the band has revealed in a statement released to Access Hollywood. He was 46 years old. “LeRoi Moore, saxophonist and founding member of Dave Matthews Band, died unexpectedly Tuesday afternoon, August 19, 2008, at Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center in Los Angeles from sudden complications stemming from his June ATV accident on his farm near Charlottesville, Virginia,” the rep stated. “Moore had recently returned to his Los Angeles home to begin an intensive physical rehabilitation program.” Moore, who played flute and pennywhistle in...

Dolores Aguilar 1929 - Aug. 7, 2008 Dolores Aguilar, born in 1929 in New Mexico, left us on August 7, 2008. She will be met in the afterlife by her husband, Raymond, her son, Paul Jr., and daughter, Ruby. She is survived by her daughters Marietta, Mitzi, Stella, Beatrice, Virginia and Ramona, and son Billy; grandchildren, Donnelle, Joe, Mitzie, Maria, Mario, Marty, Tynette, Tania, Leta, Alexandria, Tommy, Billy, Mathew, Raymond, Kenny, Javier, Lisa, Ashlie and Michael; great-grandchildren, Brendan, Joseph, Karissa, Jacob, Delaney, Shawn, Cienna, Bailey, Christian, Andre Jr., Andrea, Keith, Saeed, Nujaymah, Salma, Merissa, Emily, Jayci, Isabella, Samantha and Emily....

Music industry legend Jerry Wexler, who kick-started his career as a Billboard journalist in the late 1940s and went on to cultivate the careers of Ray Charles, Aretha Franklin and Led Zeppelin while a partner at Atlantic Records, has died at the age of 91 at his home in Siesta Key, Fla. Wexler was born on Jan. 10, 1917, into a Jewish family in the Bronx. After graduating from the school now known as Kansas State University and spending a stint in the Army, he was hired in 1947 at BMI, writing continuity copy for radio stations and plugging the...

Isaac Hayes, the pioneering singer, songwriter and musician whose relentless "Theme From Shaft" won Academy and Grammy awards, died Sunday, the Shelby County Sheriff's Office said. He was 65.

Soul singer and arranger Isaac Hayes, who won Grammy awards and an Oscar for the theme from the 1971 action film "Shaft," has died, sheriff's officials in Memphis, Tennessee, reported Sunday. Relatives found Hayes, 65, unconscious in his home next to a still-running treadmill, said Steve Shular, a spokesman for the Shelby County Sheriff's Department. Paramedics attempted to revive him and took him to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead shortly after 2 p.m., the sheriff's department said.

<p>Issac Hays passed away this morning, comfirmed by Shelby County Sherrif's office. More later when article is posted.</p> <p>He had a stroke earlier this year, per news reports.</p>

Comedian Bernie Mac died at Northwestern Memorial hospital early Saturday morning, according to Sun-Times Columnist, Stella Foster. He was 50. Though the cause of death has not been confirmed, Mac had been hospitalized recently for pneumonia. Foster said that she received calls early Saturday morning from a close friend of the Mac family, confirming the reports of Mac's death. On Friday, a spokeswoman for the actor, whose real name is, Bernard McCullough, said that he had been responding well to treatment for the illness. Mac made waves last month with off-color jokes during a fundraiser for Democratic presidential candidate Barack...

Anthony J. Russo, a Rand researcher in the late 1960s who encouraged Daniel Ellsberg to leak the Pentagon Papers and stood trial with him in the Vietnam War-era case that triggered debates over freedom of the press and hastened the fall of a president, has died. He was 71.

Eric “Digger” Dowling, who forged passports, made maps and helped to dig the one tunnel that the Germans did not discover before the Great Escape from Stalag Luft III, has died, aged 92. On March 24, 1944, 250 prisoners lined up to await their turn to crawl through the tunnel to freedom. Many of them were equipped with documents that had been forged by Mr Dowling, who learnt to speak five languages fluently during his three years in the prison.

A businessman nicknamed 'God's Postman' after giving millions away to the poor died in a car crash after taking cocaine, an inquest heard. Benzion Dunner, 45, had been under the influence of the drug while he drove two of his sons and a family friend to a holiday home. The accident happened two days after the father of nine had handed £2million to the needy. His funeral was attended by 3,000 mourners.

SARASOTA - Lou Teicher, half of the famed pianist duo of Ferrante & Teicher, died unexpectedly Sunday of heart failure at his summer home in Highlands, N.C. He was 83.

Sources close to the family said 68-year-old Skip Caray, the Voice of the Braves, died Sunday evening. According to AtlantaBraves.com, The 2007 Major League Baseball season marks Skip Caray's 32nd calling games for the Atlanta Braves on TBS. In addition, Caray is also the voice of the Braves on WGST-AM (640), WUBL-FM (94.9) and the Braves Radio Network which includes WDUN News/Talk 550 in Gainesville. In 2004, Caray was inducted into the Atlanta Braves Hall of Fame, along with fellow Braves announcer Pete Van Wieren. In 2000, Atlanta Mayor Bill Campbell declared July 30th “Skip Caray and Pete Van Wieren...

The Atlanta Braves are sad to report the passing of longtime broadcaster and friend, Skip Caray. Caray died in his sleep earlier today at his Atlanta home. "Our baseball community has lost a legend today," said Braves President John Schuerholz. "The Braves family and Braves fans everywhere will sadly miss him. Our thoughts are with his wife Paula and his children." This season marked the 33rd year Caray had been calling games for the Atlanta Braves, a majority of which were for TBS, which gave Caray a national audience and fan base. Caray came to broadcasting naturally as the son...

Russian writer Alexander Solzhenitsyn, who exposed Stalin's prison system in his novels and spent 20 years in exile, has died near Moscow at the age of 89. The author of The Gulag Archipelago and One Day In The Life of Ivan Denisovich, who returned to Russia in 1994, died of either a stroke or heart failure..... Russian President Dmitry Medvedev sent his condolences to the writer's family, a Kremlin spokesperson said. French President Nicolas Sarkozy described as "one of the greatest consciences of 20th Century Russia." "His intransigence, his ideals and his long, eventful life make of Solzhenitsyn a storybook...

For any of you who may have known Kenneth Roger Gregg, who was prominent for some years in libertarian intellectual circles: I received word from Ken's wife, Debbie Gregg, that Ken passed away in his sleep early this morning. Pam Maltzman

'Alexander Solzhenitsyn, the Nobel prize winner for literature who was exiled from the Soviet Union and graphically portrayed life in Soviet labour camps, was dead at age 89, the news agency Interfax reported early Monday. The agency quoted literary circles in the Russian capital. The world famous writer and historian had not been seen in public for months. He died from the aftermath of a stroke, according to unconfirmed information.'

US professor Randy Pausch, who shot to global fame because of the inspirational "Last Lecture" he delivered just weeks after learning he had terminal cancer, died Friday, the university where he taught said. "He died today," Alyssa Mayfield, a spokeswoman for Carnegie Mellon University, where Pausch had taught computer science since 1997, told AFP. Pausch was 47. Celebrated in his chosen field and praised as an inspirational teacher, Pausch sprang to worldwide fame for his "Last Lecture," delivered at Carnegie Mellon on September 18 last year after he learned he was dying of pancreatic cancer and had months to live....

Randy Pausch, the Carnegie Mellon University computer science professor whose final lecture inspired millions, has died of pancreatic cancer. Dr. Pausch, 47, who turned the lecture into a book, said that no one would have been interested in his words of wisdom were he not a man in his 40s with a terminal illness, leaving behind a wife and three young children. According to Dr. Pausch's Web site, a biopsy last week revealed that the cancer had progressed further than expected, based on recent PETscans.

Dinko Sakic arrived at the concentration camp known as the “Auschwitz of the Balkans” riding a white horse, wearing a tailored black uniform with polished black boots and carrying a whip and a submachine gun, survivors remembered. His brazenness continued even after Croatia went down to defeat with Nazi Germany, its ally. He fled to Argentina, where he lived for a half century under his real name, making no attempt to hide. In his last decade of freedom, he gave interviews saying he was proud of what he had done and would gladly do it again......

United States Army Corporal Matthew Britten Phillips, age 27, of Cumming, GA, died Sunday, July 13, 2008 while bravely and proudly serving his country at a forward operating base in eastern Afghanistan’s Kunar province. Cpl. Phillips was one of nine soldiers to die that day; just days before his unit was scheduled to leave the base. "We feel angry, even bitterly so, because our young men lived better lives, had higher hopes and more perfect love, than their attackers," Chaplain (Lt. Col.) Stevan Horning said during a memorial service held in Vicenza, Italy. "Please help us to not become...

Estelle Getty, the diminutive actress who spent 40 years struggling for success before landing a role of a lifetime in 1985 as the sarcastic octogenarian Sophia on TV's "The Golden Girls," has died. She was 84. Getty, who suffered from advanced dementia, died at about 5:30 a.m. Tuesday at her Hollywood Boulevard home, said her son, Carl Gettleman of Santa Monica. "She was loved throughout the world in six continents, and if they loved sitcoms in Antarctica she would have been loved on seven continents," her son said. "She was one of the most talented comedic actresses who ever lived."...

FORMER Victorian Liberal premier Lindsay Thompson, who has died at the age of 84, was praised yesterday for his humility and decency, but most of all for his bravery. Mr Thompson, who held the top job for just nine months in the early 1980s, was chiefly remembered for his heroics in two kidnap dramas while he was education minister in the 1970s. Liberal and Labor politicians also paid tribute yesterday to his integrity, decency and commitment to education. A war veteran who rose from humble beginnings, Mr Thompson served as state education minister from 1967 to 1979, establishing a reputation...

Squadron Leader Frank Day Last Squadron Leader Frank "Fearless" Day, who has died aged 91, came close to freedom during the Great Escape from Stalag Luft III; he was near the end of the tunnel when the exit was discovered, by which time 76 airmen had broken free, but he was forced to retreat and was soon in solitary confinement. In the spring of 1943 the escape committee decided to construct three tunnels and make a mass breakout. Day volunteered to assist but his health did not allow him to go underground as a digger. He became one of a...

Jo Stafford, who died yesterday, is mostly forgotten now, save by those who were young a half-century ago, but back then she was one of the most popular singers in America, a wholesome beauty with a smooth, perfectly produced voice who sold millions and millions of records. Some of them were silly novelties, others bland period ballads, but when she had a good song to sing, nobody sang it better. Stafford dealt in reassurance, a commodity much appreciated during World War II and in the Age of Anxiety that followed it, which may explain why she is not so nearly...

I have the sad news of reporting that also succumbing to cancer on Saturday was Patricia “Trish” Bozell, beloved sister of WFB. Our sympathies to our good friend Brent and the entire Bozell family, to Priscilla, Jim, and Reid Buckley, and all friends and family. I read this from Philippians (1:12) as if St. Paul wrote it from Heaven: “To me life is Christ, and death is gain.” It's hard not to read it today as if a message from Tony and Trish, as if to say: Do not be afraid. We’re in good shape. Make sure you come and...

Hiroaki "Rocky" Aoki, founder of Benihana, died on July 10.

Dr. Michael Ellis DeBakey, internationally acclaimed as the father of modern cardiovascular surgery — and considered by many to be the greatest surgeon ever — died Friday night at The Methodist Hospital in Houston. He was 99. Methodist officials said DeBakey died of natural causes. They gave no additional details. Medical statesman, chancellor emeritus of Baylor College of Medicine, and a surgeon at The Methodist Hospital since 1949, DeBakey trained thousands of surgeons over several generations, achieving legendary status decades before his death. During his career, he estimated he had performed more than 60,000 operations. His patients included the famous...

Fox News is announcing that Tony Snow has died. Heartbreaking news.

Tony Snow, Former White House Press Secretary and FOX News Anchor, Dies at 53 July 12, 2008 Tony Snow, the former White House press secretary and conservative pundit who bedeviled the press corps and charmed millions as a FOX News television and radio host, has died after a long bout with cancer. He was 53. A syndicated columnist, editor, TV anchor, radio show host and musician, Snow worked in nearly every medium in a career that spanned more than 30 years. Snow joined FOX in 1996 as the original anchor of FOX News Sunday, and hosted Weekend Live and a...