Bobby "Boris" Pickett died Wednesday night, April 25, at the West Los Angeles Veterans Hospital. Pickett, a horror movie fan in his childhood, had developed an impression of Boris Karloff as Frankenstein that he used while performing with his band, the Cordials, in a nightclub act. When a bandmate convinced Pickett he should cut a song showcasing the impression, Pickett wrote the Halloween-themed novelty song "Monster Mash." The single was released (featuring Leon Russell on piano) in 1962 and hit No. 1 on the Billboard chart a week before Halloween. It charted again in August 1970 and May 1973 and has sold over 4 millions copies. On the "Monster Mash" website, Frank Sinatra is quoted, describing the song as "the grandaddy of rap records," while Elvis Presley supposedly declared it the "dumbest thing I ever heard." In an interview with the Associated Press, radio host Dr. Demento recalled Pickett's positive attitude to his one-hit success: "As he loved to say at oldies shows, 'And now I'm going to do a medley of my hit.'" Pickett was 69.

Sources: Associated Press, themonstermash.com

George Leoni Chesnut Jr. died Friday, April 20, of pneumonia at Virginia Hospital Center in Arlington County. Born in Waco and raised in Dallas, Chesnut was working on his doctorate when, on the eve of World War II, he joined the Foreign Broadcast Information Service to monitor German radio transmissions to South America in Spanish and Portuguese. He was in Naval Intelligence during the war, then joined the National Security Agency. He served again during the Korean War, then returned to the NSA and worked there until 1979 as a civilian director of the agency's analytic section. In his free time and in retirement, Chesnut spent many hours translating children's poetry, movie scripts, and dictionaries into various languages. He conducted seminars in biblical Greek for northern Virginia churches and taught Spanish part time at George Washington University. He was fluent in over 50 languages, including French, Chinese, Spanish, Portuguese, Dinka, and Russian. Chesnut was 89.

Sources: Washington Post, Wikipedia, wdbj7.com

Warren Avis died Tuesday, April 24, of natural causes at his farm in Ann Arbor, Michigan. A decorated World War II pilot, Avis formed a car rental company in 1946 after flying as a civilian pilot and being unable to find ground transportation at airports. With an investment of $85,000, Avis opened Avis Rent A Car at Willow Run Airport in Ypsilanti, Michigan, followed by another in Miami, with two employees and fewer than 200 cars. The company expanded to Canada, Mexico, and Europe in 1953. Avis sold his interest in the business to Boston financier Richard S. Robie for $8 million in 1954 after making it the world's largest car rental system. Another company, Hertz, would eventually claim the title after many years of competition. Avis was 92.

Sources: avis.com, Associated Press

Brant Parker died Sunday, April 15, at a nursing facility in Lynchburg, Virginia, from complications of Alzheimer's disease and a stroke he suffered last year. Parker met cartoonist Johnny Hart in 1950 and the two eventually collaborated on "The Wizard of Id," a cultural satire set in the fictional kingdom of Id. Hart, the creator of the comic strip "B.C.," died Saturday, April 7, of a stroke at age 76. Parker drew and Hart wrote "The Wizard of Id" together from 1964 until Parker handed the illustrating over to his son, Jeff, in 2001. During their lives, Hart and Parker were both recipients of the National Cartoonist Society's highest honor, the Reuben Award for Cartoonist of the Year. Parker was 86 and Hart was 76.

Sources: reuben.org, Associated Press, gocomics.com

Taylor McKenzie died at Presbyterian Hospital in Albequerque, New Mexico, on Friday, April 13. McKenzie was a 1954 graduate of Wheaton College, and earned his medical degree from Baylor in 1958. He interned for a year at Pontiac General Hospital in Michigan, and completed his surgery residency at the hospital over the subsequent four years. From 1964 to 1995, McKenzie was a member of the United States Public Health Service Commissioned Corps on the Navajo Nation. He continued his practice part-time, then became the nation's vice president from 1999 to 2003. In 2005, he was appointed the first Navajo medical officer. He was also a founding member of the Association of American Indian Physicians. McKenzie is the recipient of the New Mexico Distinguished Public Service Award, and the Distinguished Service Medal from the U.S. Public Health Service. Navajo Nation President Joe Shirley, Jr. in the Gallup Independent: "He loved his people and he dedicated his life and career to them. We all need to pay homage to his leadership." Dr. McKenzie was 76.

Sources: gallupindependent.com, Associated Press

Barry Nelson died on Saturday, April 7, while traveling in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. Nelson was signed to MGM Studios in 1941, after graduating from the University of California, Berkeley. He was featured in a number of pictures in 1942, then entered the Army, performing the Moss Hart wartime play "Winged Victory," for troops fighting in World War II. Nelson continued to act in a string of movies following the war. In 1954, he played James Bond in a one-hour TV adaptation of Ian Fleming's first 007 novel, "Casino Royale." The British spy moved to the big screen eight years later, with Sean Connery as the lead in Dr. No. Nelson acted on stage in the 60s and 70s, and appeared on film in Airport, Pete 'n' Tillie, and The Shining. Nelson's TV work included spots on The Twilight Zone, Ben Casey, Battlestar Galactica, Taxi, Dallas, and Fantasy Island. He was 89.

Sources: Yahoo! News, IMDB.com, ianflemingcentre.com

Hawaii-born Danny Barcelona died April 1 of cancer in a nursing facility near his home in Monterey Park, California. Barcelona started his own sextet, the Hawaiian Dixieland All-Stars, in the early 1950s. The group toured Hawaii and Japan for a number of years. In 1958, after relocating to New York City, he joined Louie Armstrong's All-Stars. He traveled the world with the group and played on more than 130 recording sessions. Barcelona played on some of Armstrong's biggest hits, including "Hello, Dolly" and "What a Wonderful World." The group disbanded upon the death of Armstrong in 1971, and Barcelona joined the Bernie Halmann Group, playing at the Hilton Hawaiian Village in Honolulu. Barcelona moved to California in 1979. He was 77.

Sources: Yahoo! News, vervemusicgroup.com

Ed Charon, a retired pastor at Umpqua Trinity Fellowship in Sutherlin, Oregon, collapsed and died following Sunday services on April 8. Charon visited inmates in numerous states, spreading a positive message about making changes in their lives, but became known for ripping apart phone books with his enormous hands (his ring size was 16½). Last September, Charon tore through 56 Portland white directories, each 1,006 pages long, in three minutes, claiming a Guinness World Record for the fifth time. After watching someone ripping phone books while living in Branson, Missouri, in 1998, Charon saw it as a way reach children and prisoners while teaching principles of good behavior. It's estimated Charon ripped 65,000 books (sometimes 100 books a day) to work his way up to the thousand-pagers. He was 71.

Sources: Associated Press, washingtonpost.com

Laurence "Laurie" Baker, who died April 1, was working with a medical team in remote parts of China in 1945. Upon returning to his Birmingham, England, home, Baker visited India and a year later, answered an advertisement placed by a Christian charity group called Mission to Lepers who were looking for architects to build hospitals there. Baker used inexpensive materials to create ecologically sound and affordable housing for the poor in a fashion that became known as the Laurie Baker style. He co-founded the Center of Science and Technology for Rural Development, which caters to the housing needs. In 1990, the government of India awarded Baker the Padma Shri, the nation's fourth highest civilian award for his meritorious service. His final designs were two slum rehabilitation projects that will provide over 1,000 homes to poor people in Trivandrum, the capital of Kerala, where he had made his home since 1970. Baker was 90.

Sources: Associated Press, flonnet.com, Wikipedia

Ian Tapson died Sunday, March 31, at Settler's Park, a retirement complex in the South African coastal town of Port Alfred. Tapson was a lieutenant in the South African Air Force flying Kittyhawk fighter-bombers during the Second World War. Tapson crash-landed in Tunisia when anti-aircraft fire crippled his plane. He was captured and sent to Stalag Luft III at Sagan, Silesia, near the Polish border. Another South African, Roger Bushell, a squadron leader, organized an escape plan where the prisoners would dig a tunnel beyond the perimeter fence to safety. Tapson was one of the team members that assisted in the digging, but after drawing lots, was not chosen to participate in the escape. Seventy-six of the prisoners escaped through the finished tunnel before an alarm sounded. Only three reached safety, and 50 of the escapees were shot in a field by the Gestapo. Author Paul Brickhill wrote a book about the endeavor entitled The Great Escape, which was turned into a 1963 movie starring Steve McQueen, James Garner, Charles Bronson, James Coburn, and Richard Attenborough. Tapson was 84.

Sources: Associated Press, imdb.com, fictionwise.com, Wikipedia