The Rest In Peace & Remembrance Thread #2

AP source: Disc jockey DJ AM found dead in NYC

NEW YORK – DJ AM, the sought-after disc jockey who became a celebrity in his own right with high-profile romances and a glamorous lifestyle, was found dead Friday at his apartment, which had drug paraphernalia in it, a law enforcement official said.

Paramedics had to break down the door to his Manhattan apartment before they found his body at about 5:20 p.m., the official told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because family hadn't been notified. There was no evidence of foul play, the official said.

DJ AM, whose real name was Adam Goldstein, had talked openly about past addictions to crack cocaine, Ecstasy and other drugs, but he claimed he had been drug-free for years.

He died nearly a year after surviving a South Carolina plane crash that killed four people and seriously injured rock musician Travis Barker.

Goldstein, 36, was a deejay for hire who performed at Hollywood's most exclusive parties and was admired by music aficionados. He also was famous for past relationships with the reality TV star Nicole Richie, the daughter of singer Lionel Richie, and with actress-singer Mandy Moore
 
Pakistan reality TV contestant drowns in challenge
Aug 30, 3:22 PM (ET)
By KAY JOHNSON

ISLAMABAD (AP) - A contestant on a Pakistani reality TV show drowned while performing a challenge for the program, a spokeswoman for the show's sponsor said Sunday.

Pakistani contestant Saad Khan, 32, was swimming across a lake while wearing a 15-pound (7-kilogram) backpack when he called out for help and then disappeared underwater, according to Fareshte Aslam, information officer for Unilever Pakistan, the show's sponsor.

Horrified co-contestants and crew rushed to try to save him but could not find him in the murky waters of the lake in the Thai capital of Bangkok, where the show was being filmed, according to Aslam, who was recounting reports of those on the scene.

Divers later recovered the body of Khan, she said.

The death came during filming of the show's 10th episode on Aug. 19, but it was not publicized until Khan's body was returned home to the southern Pakistani city of Karachi.
 
1940s gospel legend Marie Knight dies in NYC at 84
Aug 31, 11:48 PM (ET)

NEW YORK (AP) - Gospel legend Marie Knight has died in New York City at age 84. She came to prominence while touring with Sister Rosetta Tharpe in the 1940s and singing hits such as "Beams of Heaven."

Her manager, Mark Carpentieri, says she died Sunday at a Harlem nursing home of complications from pneumonia.

Knight was raised in Newark, N.J. She began touring the national gospel circuit with evangelist Frances Robinson.

In 1946, she partnered with Tharpe. The two became the most popular gospel artists of the 1940s with hits including "Didn't it Rain" and "Up Above My Head." They toured throughout the 1950s.

Knight began a comeback in 2002, working on a tribute to Tharpe. In 2007, her manager's M.C. Records company released "Let Us Get Together," her first full-length album in more than 25 years.
 
Hollywood gossip writer Army Archerd dies at 87

Tue Sep 8, 10:54 pm ET:
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Gossip columnist Army Archerd, who wrote upbeat stories about movie stars for the Hollywood trade paper Daily Variety for more than 50 years, died in a Los Angeles hospital on Tuesday, a spokeswoman said. He was 87.
Archerd died of a rare form of mesothelioma cancer, thought to be the result of exposure to asbestos when he served in the U.S. Navy during World War II, said spokeswoman Michelle Bega.


For more see the link listed above. or AP: Columnist Army Archerd Dies At 87.
 
World's oldest person dies in Los Angeles at 115

LOS ANGELES – Gertrude Baines, who lived to be the world's oldest person on a steady diet of crispy bacon, fried chicken and ice cream, died Friday at a nursing home. She was 115.

Baines, who remarked last year that she enjoyed life so much she wouldn't mind living another 100 years, died in her sleep, said Emma Camanag, administrator at Western Convalescent Hospital.

The centenarian likely suffered a heart attack, said her longtime physician, Dr. Charles Witt. An autopsy was scheduled to determine the cause of death.

Born in 1894 in Shellman, Ga., Baines claimed the title of the world's oldest living person when a 115-year-old woman, Maria de Jesus, died in Portugal in January. Baines outlived her entire family, including her only daughter, who died of typhoid.

Baines worked as a maid in Ohio State University dormitories until her retirement and has lived at the Western Convalescent Hospital in Los Angeles for more than 10 years.
 
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32805955/ns/entertainment-television/

Larry Gelbart, the award-winning writer whose sly, sardonic wit helped create such hits as Broadway’s “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum,” the films “Tootsie” and “Oh, God!” and television’s “M*A*S*H,” is dead.

Gelbart died at his Beverly Hills home Friday morning after a long battle with cancer, said Creative Artists Agency, which represented him. He was 81.

(Source: The above link).

So sad. I'm a big fan of M*A*S*H. RIP, Larry.
 
Charleston Police officer killed in line of duty
Shot on Quick Road after pursuing suspect
by Charleston Daily Mail staff reports
Sunday September 13, 2009

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- A 27-year-old Charleston police officer died from a gunshot wound after a chase early this morning.

Jerry Jones was identified as the officer killed in the line of duty.

The shooting happened on Quick Road in the Quick area. The officer was taken to CAMC General where he later died.

"We definitely lost one of our most treasured officers," Chief Brent Webster said during a news conference early Sunday morning. "Our thoughts and prayers go out to his family. We will do the best we can to cherish and honor him."

The tragedy happened after midnight when the officer was pursuing a vehicle that had been involved in several suspicious activities in the area.

"At some point, there was an encounter and deadly circumstances presented themselves," Webster said. "Jerry Jones, our officer, was shot and killed. The suspect who drove the vehicle being pursued was also killed."

The suspect's name had not been released this morning.

Jones had recently completed his third year with the department and was recently married.

It has been twenty eight years since a Charleston officer was shot and killed. In the summer of 1981, Patrolman Eddie Duncan and Lt. Delbert Roush were both shot and killed by Antoine Hickman during a traffic stop. Hickman was later convicted of the murders and sentenced to serve the rest of his life at Mount Olive prison.
 
Nobel Prize winner Norman Borlaug dies at 95
Called father of ‘green revolution,’ he’s credited with saving millions of lives

DALLAS - Agricultural scientist Norman Borlaug, the father of the "green revolution" who won the Nobel Peace Prize for his role in combating world hunger and saving hundreds of millions of lives, died Saturday in Texas, a Texas A&M University spokeswoman said. He was 95.

Borlaug died just before 11 p.m. Saturday at his home in Dallas from complications of cancer, said school spokeswoman Kathleen Phillips. Phillips said Borlaug's granddaughter told her about his death. Borlaug was a distinguished professor at the university in College Station.

The Nobel committee honored Borlaug in 1970 for his contributions to high-yield crop varieties and bringing other agricultural innovations to the developing world. Many experts credit the green revolution with averting global famine during the second half of the 20th century and saving perhaps 1 billion lives.

Thanks to the green revolution, world food production more than doubled between 1960 and 1990. In Pakistan and India, two of the nations that benefited most from the new crop varieties, grain yields more than quadrupled over the period.

"He has probably done more and is known by fewer people than anybody that has done that much," said Dr. Ed Runge, retired head of Texas A&M University's Department of Soil and Crop Sciences and a close friend who persuaded Borlaug teach at the school. "He made the world a better place — a much better place. He had people helping him, but he was the driving force."
 
Cossette, father of the Grammy Awards, dies at 85
Sep 12, 11:54 AM (ET)

TORONTO (AP) - Pierre Cossette, who founded the modern Grammy Awards and produced the globally televised music awards ceremony for 35 years, died of congestive heart failure at a Montreal hospital. He was 85.

The Canadian producer's death was announced late Friday in Santa Monica, Calif., by the Recording Academy.

"It is with a heavy heart that we say goodbye to our dear friend and father of the Grammy Awards, Pierre Cossette," Academy president and CEO Neil Portnow said.

Cossette, a native of Valleyfield, Quebec, was an accomplished television and theater producer who managed some of American pop music's most influential early bands. But he is best known for guiding the Grammy Awards from its early days as a stuffy, unsuccessful production to the industry institution it has become.

In its early years, the Grammy show was an hourlong compilation of recorded performances, and it was not a commercial success. When the production rights became available in 1971, Cossette already had a successful career in the music business as a producer and manager.

He had the ambitious idea to turn the show into a grand musical showcase full of live performances, but he had difficulty selling networks on his vision. Executives were particularly skeptical that there was an audience for a performance-based TV show. But Cossette - nicknamed "Showbiz" - persevered.

The Grammy Museum, which opened in December 2008, is called the Pierre Cossette Center and contains a corner exhibit dedicated to him.

In an interview before the 2009 Grammy Awards, Cossette said the acknowledgment served as validation of his life's work.

"I was thrilled," he said. "I could only think back to when we first started it, in ballrooms and dance halls and hotel rooms, and (then it) finally growing up to this monster thing. And all the trials, tribulations of getting there. Booking the places then having to cancel because either the Academy or the record industry wouldn't support it. My part of it, proving them wrong, was exciting for me."

Cossette produced the Grammy Awards until 2005, when his son took over the job for Cossette Productions.

Before working on the Grammys, Cossette served as personal manager for Ann-Margret, Vic Damone, Dick Shawn, and Rowan & Martin. He is credited with pioneering the Las Vegas lounge act format. Soon, Cossette struck out on his own by founding Dunhill Records, where the roster included the Mamas and the Papas, Steppenwolf, Johnny Rivers and Three Dog Night.

He later sold the label and became a TV producer. He got his start with Johnny Mann's "Stand Up and Cheer," and expanded his roster to include "The Glen Campbell Show," Sammy Davis's "Sammy and Company,""Salute,""ShaNaNa," and "The Andy Williams Show."
Funeral arrangements have not been announced.
 
Inspiration for movie 'Norma Rae' dies at 68

RALEIGH, N.C. – Crystal Lee Sutton, whose fight to unionize Southern textile plants with low pay and poor conditions was dramatized in the film "Norma Rae," has died. She was 68.

Sutton died Friday in a hospice after a long battle with brain cancer, her son, Jay Jordan, said Monday."She fought it as long as she could and she crossed on over to her new life," he said.Actress Sally Field portrayed a character based on Sutton in the movie and won a best-actress Academy Award.

Field said in a statement Sutton was "a remarkable woman whose brave struggles have left a lasting impact on this country and without doubt, on me personally. Portraying Crystal Lee Sutton in 'Norma Rae,' however loosely based, not only elevated me as an actress, but as a human being."

In 1973, Sutton was a 33-year-old mother of three earning $2.65 an hour folding towels at J.P. Stevens when a manager fired her for pro-union activity.

In a final act of defiance before police hauled her out, Sutton, who had worked at the plant for 16 years, wrote "UNION" on a piece of cardboard and climbed onto a table on the plant floor. Other employees responded by shutting down their machines.

"Crystal was an amazing symbol of workers standing up in the South against overwhelming odds — and standing up and winning," Raynor said Monday. "The fact that Crystal was a woman in the '70s, leading a struggle of thousands of other textile workers against very powerful, virulently anti-union mill companies, inspired a whole generation of people — of women workers, workers of color and white workers."

Sutton's son said his mother kept a photo of Field in the movie's climactic scene on her living room wall at her home in Burlington, about 20 miles east of Greensboro. But despite what many people think, she got little profit from the movie or an earlier book written about her, he said. "When they find out she lived very, very modestly, even poorly, in Burlington, they're surprised," he said.

Jordan said his mother spent years as a labor organizer in the 1970s. She later became a certified nursing assistant in 1988 but had not been able to work for several years because of illnesses.
"She never would have been rich. She would have given it to anyone she called the working class poor, people that were deprived," Jordan said. Sutton donated her letters and papers to Alamance Community College in 2007. She said: "I didn't want them to go to some fancy university; I wanted them to go to a college that served the ordinary folks."
 
No news link yet, but they just ran an announcement on the news that Patrick Swayze has lost his battle with pancreatic cancer. The doctors gave him 6 months. He lived two years.

I hope his family finds some peace in this time of grief.

Oops, look like you posted while I was writing this. I loved "Dirty Dancing" too, *lisasimpson*. No one puts Baby in a corner!
 
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I just saw that on MSN, how sad :( Here is a link
I loved Dirty Dancing too, it's a fantastic movie. I just went to tell my family about it and they don't believe me.

But I guess he lived longer than anyone believed he would. Our thoughts are with his family. :(
 
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