June 2007

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Janis Joplin's keyboardist dead at 61

Keyboardist and songwriter Richard Bell died Friday, June 15, after a long battle with multiple myeloma. The son of Canadian conductor, musician, and educator, Dr. Leslie Bell, Richard began playing piano at age four, and studied at Canada's Royal Conservatory of Music. Bell joined Janis Joplin's Full Tilt Boogie Band in 1970 and appeared on her posthumously-released album Pearl which featured "Me and Bobby McGee" and "Mercedes Benz." Later he joined The Band and performed on three of their albums. As a studio musician, Bell played with artists such as Bob Dylan, Bonnie Raitt, Joe Walsh, and the Cowboy Junkies on over 400 albums. He played on John Sebastian's album Welcome Back, which included the hit theme song for the sitcom Welcome Back, Kotter. Bell recently played with the Toronto jazz/blues/roots group Pork Belly Futures and on the Burrito Deluxe comeback album this spring. He was 61.

Sources: theglobeandmail.com, Yahoo! News, thestar.com

Posted by Corey Anderson at June 27, 2007 11:08 AM | Comments (0)

 

Swiss expedition member who forged path for Hillary's Mt. Everest ascent dead at 95

Ernest Hofstetter died at his French chalet on Friday, June 1. In 1952, Hofstetter and his climbing friends, meeting for their weekly gathering in a Geneva square, hatched a plan climb Mt. Everest. With legendary Sherpa Tenzing Norgay, the friends made their way 23,620 feet up the mountain. Tenzing and another climber, Raymond Lambert, continued to climb, with Hofstetter and others remaining at camp, ready to attempt the rest of the journey if the pair failed. Tenzing and Lambert camped at 27,560 feet without sleeping bags, and reached 28,380 feet when fatigue and bad weather forced them back down the mountain. They had climbed to within 650 feet of the summit without the use of oxygen, as their Swiss-designed devices had failed. The following year, Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay followed the path forged by Hofstetter and his group to successfully reach the 29,035-foot peak. Hillary's telegram to the Swiss friends stated "To you goes half the glory." The same path to the peak is still used today. Hofstetter was 95.

Sources: Associated Press, tenzing-norgay.com

Posted by Corey Anderson at June 26, 2007 5:58 AM | Comments (1)

 

First poet to write Arabic poetry in free verse dead at 85

Iraqi poet Nazek al-Malaika died Wednesday, June 20, of old age at a hospital in Cairo, where she had lived in self-imposed exile since 1990. Al-Malaika was born in Baghdad in 1922 and wrote her first poem at age 10. She graduated from the College of Arts in Baghdad in 1944 and received a master's degree in comparative literature from the University of Wisconsin. Influenced by William Shakespeare and Percy Bysshe Shelley, al-Malaika published her first book of poetry entitled Night's Lover in 1947. Between 1949 and 1968, al-Malaika published three more volumes of her work. After 40 years of teaching Arabic and literature in Iraqi schools and universities, she left Iraq in 1970 after spending two years under Saddam Hussein's oppressive regime. Al-Malaika lived in Kuwait until Saddam's 1990 invasion drove her to Cairo, Egypt. A group of Iraqi intellectuals recently wrote the government, protesting the negligence of "Iraq's greatest surviving symbol of literature." Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Al Maliki has released a statement expressing his condolences to "the family of the late poet, the dear daughter of Iraq, and all Iraqi poets and intellectuals." Al-Malaika was 85.

Sources: gulfnews.com, Associated Press, jehat.com

Posted by Corey Anderson at June 25, 2007 4:14 PM | Comments (0)

 

Choreographer of "The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas," "Nine," and "My Favorite Year" dead at 57

Thommie Walsh died Saturday, June 16, after a long battle with lymphoma. Walsh enrolled at the Irma Baker School of Dance when he was five years old. He made his Broadway debut in 1973 dancing in the chorus of the musical "Seesaw." The show also featured Tommy Tune, with whom he'd collaborate on numerous occasions. Walsh created the role of Bobby in hit musical "A Chorus Line" in 1975. Walsh and Tune co-choreographed "The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas" in 1978 and won Tony Awards and Drama Desk Awards for their work in 1980's "A Day in Hollywood/A Night in the Ukraine." The pair also worked together on "Nine," and "My One and Only" which starred Tune and Twiggy. Walsh's résumé also includes staging for "The 1940s Radio Hour" (1979), "Do Patent Leather Shoes Reflect Up?" (1982) and "My Favorite Year" (1992). Walsh was 57.

sources: Yahoo! News, thommiewalsh.com

Posted by Corey Anderson at June 22, 2007 3:45 PM | Comments (0)

 

First man to cross the frozen surface of the Arctic Ocean on foot dead at 72

Sir Wally Herbert died at a hospital in Inverness, Scotland, on Tuesday, June 12, having suffered from diabetes and heart trouble. Herbert was born in York, England, on Oct. 24, 1934 and served with the Royal Engineers in the Middle East from 1951-54 where he developed his surveying skills. While exploring the Antarctic in the late 1950s and early 1960s, Herbert mapped on foot approximately 45,000 square miles of new country and came within 200 miles of reaching the South Pole. He's retraced the routes of famed explorers Shackleton, Scott, Cook, and Amundsen in the Antarctic, and Peary and Sverdrup in the Arctic. Over 16 months during 1968-69, Herbert traveled on foot from Alaska to the Norwegian island of Spitsbergen, covering 3,720 miles, reaching the North Pole on April 6, 1969. This was the first surface crossing of the Arctic Ocean. Herbert's exploring career spanned almost 50 years, 15 of which spent travelling over 23,000 miles in the wilderness regions of the polar world. He was 72.

Sources: channel4.com, Associated Press, sirwallyherbert.com

Posted by Corey Anderson at June 21, 2007 2:13 PM | Comments (0)

 

British air force's most decorated gunner in World War II dead at 87

Wallace McIntosh died Monday, June 4, at the Aberdeen Royal Infirmary of lung cancer. McIntosh, born in 1920 at Tarves, Aberdeenshire, flew in the Royal Air Force from February 1943 to June 1944. Initially turned down by the RAF, McIntosh joined the air force in a junior capacity and trained as an air gunner. The Scotsman flew 55 sorties as a rear gunner and is believed to hold the record for most enemy kills (eight confirmed and one "probable"). On June 7, 1944, McIntosh was credited with downing three German fighter planes in his Lancaster bomber during a single D-Day advance mission. For his achievement, McIntosh received one of only three congratulatory telegrams ever sent by Air Chief Marshall Sir Arthur "Bomber" Harris. McIntosh was awarded the Distinguished Flying Medal after 32 missions and twice received the Distinguished Flying Cross, the RAF's most vaunted medal for bravery. He was 87.

Sources: Yahoo! News, news.scotsman.com

Posted by Corey Anderson at June 20, 2007 11:04 AM | Comments (0)

 

Only Chinese nurse who cared for the famous "Flying Tigers" dead at 95

Rita Wong died Tuesday, June 5, in Kunming in the southwestern Yunnan province of China. Wong was born in Guangdong in southern China and attended the University of Hong Kong. She graduated in 1941 with a nursing degree. Wong began an internship at Hong Kong hospital when Japanese troops attacked and took over on Christmas Day, 1941. The Japanese declared no doctor or nurse was to leave Hong Kong, lest they be captured and killed. Wong and her brother escaped one night by floating away on a sampan. The brother and sister traveled 600 miles from Macau to Chongqing where Wong applied to the headquarters of Allied Forces, who were seeking English-speaking nurses. Stationed at the hospital of the U.S. 14th Air Force in Kunming, Wong cared for the "Flying Tigers," U.S. airmen who defended the Burma supply line to China over the Himalayas during World War II. Wong wrote in her diary that the flights were so dangerous that there were plane crashes every day, with many servicemen never found. During Wong's later years, she visited former Flying Tigers and their descendents in the United States. Wong was 95.

Sources: Reuters, nzherald.co.nz, Associated Press

Posted by Corey Anderson at June 19, 2007 6:13 AM | Comments (0)

 

Cheez Whiz developer, first McDonald's owner to hire women dead at 91

Edwin Traisman died Tuesday, June 5, at the University of Wisconsin Hospital and Clinics following a heart attack. Traisman was born in 1915 to Latvian immigrants. The only one of six children to complete high school, Traisman earned a bachelor's degree in chemistry from the University of Illinois in 1937. During his tenure at Kraft Foods in the 1950s, he was on the teams that created Cheez Whiz and individually packaged cheese slices. Traisman also opened five McDonald's franchises after meeting owner Ray Kroc, who was sweeping the floor of a suburban Chicago restaurant when Traisman walked in. Traisman opened the first McDonald's in Madison, Wisconsin, in 1957 and developed and patented a process for partially cooking French fries and then freezing them. This allowed McDonald's to serve French fries when Idaho potatoes weren't in season. Traisman was the first McDonald's restaurant owner to hire women, violating the fast-food company's rules. Traisman was 91.

Sources: Associated Press, kraft.com, mcdonalds.com

Posted by Corey Anderson at June 18, 2007 11:48 AM | Comments (0)

 

Developer of the flavor coating for Cap'n Crunch cereal dead at 79

Pamela Low died Friday, June 1, at New London, New Hampshire, hospital. Low was a flavorist for the Arthur D. Little consulting firm in Boston for over 30 years where she experimented with flavors for Almond Joy and Mounds. She was asked to develop a flavor coating for a corn-and-oat cereal and relied on a recipe from her grandmother to achieve it. The cereal, named Cap'n Crunch, was introduced in 1963 by the Quaker Oats Company. Forty-four years later, Cap'n Crunch is the #1 pre-sweetened kids cereal in the U.S. Low was 79.

Sources: Associated Press, Wikipedia, quakeroats.com

Posted by Corey Anderson at June 4, 2007 5:34 PM | Comments (0)

 

"Keeper of the Oscars" dead at 57

Patrick Stockstill died of complications following a heart transplant on Thursday, May 24. Stockstill was a historian for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and originated the database that attempts to record the whereabouts of the more than 2,500 Oscars presented since 1929. He became an assistant librarian at the motion picture academy's Margaret Herrick Library in 1982. The following year, he was named academy historian. In 1989, he began overseeing the administration of several categories, and was the backstage "keeper" of the Oscars, distributing the awards during the annual ceremony. Stockstill was 57.

Sources: Yahoo! News, oscars.org

Posted by Corey Anderson at June 1, 2007 10:11 AM | Comments (0)

 

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