Tag Archives: obituary

What a shocker. Soul Train creator Don Cornelius has apparently committed suicide at the age of 75. Here’s what little is known so far. “Soul Train” creator Don Cornelius was found dead at his Sherman Oaks on home Wednesday morning. Law enforcement sources said police arrived at Cornelius’ home around 4 a.m. He apparently died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound, …

Such a tough and terrible ending, but what a legacy. The powerhouse singer, known as “Miss Peaches,” lived an eventful life. She first hit the charts as a teenager, taking “The Wallflower (Roll With Me, Henry)” — an “answer record” to Hank Ballard’s “Work With Me, Annie” — to No. 1 on the R&B charts in 1955. She joined Chess …

Funk and disco legend Jimmy Castor has died of heart disease at the age of 71. Castor scored half a dozen pop and disco chart smashes, including his 1972 classic Troglodyte, the first five seconds of which is arguably the most-sampled line in the history of rap and house music. Troglodyte also introduced the recurring character of Bertha Butt, the …

The founder of the Cracker Barrel restaurant chain has died. The New York Times launches into his legacy in the very first sentence of their obit. Danny Evins, who created Cracker Barrel Old Country Store, a restaurant heavy on grits and nostalgia, expanded it into a $2 billion chain and then fought a losing battle to discriminate against gay employees, …

Well-known San Diego activist Mike Tidmus has died of AIDS-related cancer at the age of 60. Mike was a longtime JMG commenter and regular news tipster. His passing was disclosed yesterday by his brother via an email sent to Mike’s list of Facebook contacts. His friend and GOP presidential candidate Fred Karger said via email: Mike was an early leader …

GOP Assembly leader Alex DeCroce dropped dead in the men’s room of the New Jersey statehouse late last night. This may delay tomorrow’s planned start of the 2012 session during which marriage equality was to be the first bill considered. Gov. Christie is expected to deliver some remarks about DeCroce on the Assembly floor later today.

John Geddes Lawrence, the man whose court battle resulted in the decriminalization of gay sex, has died at the age of 68. Chris Geidner reports at Metro Weekly: In the facts underlying the Supreme Court case, Lawrence v. Texas, Lawrence and Tyron Garner were arrested under Texas’s Homosexual Conduct Law after police entered Lawrence’s home on Sept. 17, 1998, and …

The world’s worst (arguably) living dictator has died at the age of 69. Kim, 69, died at 8:30 a.m. Saturday, state media reported. A broadcaster reported that Kim died due to “overwork” after “dedicating his life to the people.” Kim died of “great mental and physical strain” while in a train during a “field guidance tour,” North Korea’s state-run KCNA …

Famed atheist, author, and curmudgeon Christopher Hitchens has died of cancer at the age of 62. Hitchens was diagnosed with advanced esophageal cancer in June 2010, when his memoir, “Hitch-22,” hit the bestseller lists. He wrote and spoke unflinchingly of his grim prognosis and acknowledged that years of heavy smoking and drinking had placed him at high risk for the …

Ed Watson, above left, has died at the age of 78. Watson made national news this year when he expressed his hope that he would be allowed to marry before Alzheimer’s Disease robbed him of the ability to recognize Derence, his partner of 40 years. Gay rights activists lamented Watson’s death as a reminder of the harm inflicted on same-sex …

You probably know him best as Col. Sherman T. Potter. Unless you’re my age, in which case he’s Detective Bill Gannon. Morgan’s ability to play a variety of roles, dramatic and comedic, made him an actor in demand for half a century. He starred in about a dozen U.S. TV series starting in the 1950s and appeared in movies with …

Flamboyant comedian Alan Sues died yesterday at the age of 85. Sues and his over-the-top campy characters had their peak in the 60s and 70s and today his fellow Laugh-In cast member Ruth Buzzi tweeted on his passing.The New York Times notes that Sues never formally came out, which may surprise those who remember his screamingly queeny persona. He tended …

The openly gay adopted son of infamous anti-abortion activist Randall Terry has been killed in a Georgia car accident. When Jamiel Terry first came out five years ago, his father publicly denounced him with cruel scriptural references about eternal damnation and a life doomed to an early and gruesome end from AIDS. Today the senior Terry issued a press release …

Former porn star Andrea True, who had a second act in the mid-70s as a minor disco star, has died at the age of 68. True referenced her porn career in her first international smash, More, More, More, which included the lyrics “Get the cameras rolling, get the action going.” That song, which peaked on Billboard’s pop chart at #4 …

I accidentally met Heavy D at a 1993 Brand New Heavies concert at Manhattan’s Marquee Ballroom when he turned to apologize for stepping on my foot. (It was a night of heavies.) TMZ reports that he was found dead at his home today from causes presently unknown.

The New York Times reports: Joe Frazier, the former heavyweight champion whose furious and intensely personal fights with a taunting Muhammad Ali endure as an epic rivalry in boxing history, died Monday night. He was 67. His business representative, Leslie Wolff, told The Associated Press in early November that Frazier had liver cancer and that he had entered hospice care.

The New York Times reports: Andy Rooney, whose prickly wit was long a mainstay of CBS News and whose homespun commentary on “60 Minutes,” delivered every week from 1978 until 2011, made him a household name, died Friday in New York City. He was 92 and lived in Manhattan, though he kept a family vacation home in Rensselaerville, N.Y., and …

Infamously anti-gay North Carolina state Rep. James Forrester has died unexpectedly at the age of 74. On Friday, Forrester and family members went to the mountains near Valle Crucis where he suffered a weakness in his legs. They came home and he was admitted to Gaston Memorial Hospital for tests, reports The Charlotte Observer’s Joe DePriest. Beach said family members …

Mere weeks after he stepped down as the long-running CEO of Apple due to health reasons, computer icon Steve Jobs has died. I’ll add to this post when further details are available. [Image credit: Apple.com]