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Ornette Coleman, the alto saxophonist and composer who was one of the most powerful and contentious innovators in the history of jazz, died on Thursday morning in Manhattan. He was 85. The cause was cardiac arrest, a representative of the family said.

Jim Ed Brown, a member of the country music trio The Browns and a star of the Grand Ole Opry for more than a half-century, died Thursday. He was 81. Brown, who was elected into the Country Music Hall of Fame in March with his sisters Maxine and Bonnie, died at Williamson Medical Center in Franklin, Tenn. He was diagnosed with lung cancer in September. The Browns’ 1959 crossover smash “The Three Bells” topped Billboard’s country chart for 10 straight weeks, and it spent four weeks atop Billboard’s all-genre singles chart.

Wrestling legend Dusty Rhodes died Thursday morning, the WWE confirmed on Twitter. He was 69. The pro wrestler, whose real name was Virgil Runnels was famously known as "The American Dream." The cause of death is unknown.

'Actor Ron Moody, who played Fagin in the hit film version of Oliver!, has died aged 91, his family says. The British character actor was nominated for an Oscar and won a Golden Globe for his performance in the 1968 Charles Dickens adaptation. He appeared in EastEnders as Edwin Caldecott, an old nemesis of Jim Branning, and played wizard Merlin in Disney's A Kid in King Arthur's Court. His widow Therese said he would be "greatly missed". "He brought joy to his family and to the hearts of many and will be greatly missed. He was singing until the end,"...

James Last had career composing big band music spanning five decadesHad 52 hit records in Britain alone, a total only topped by Elvis PresleyComposed 190 tracks and at his peak was producing two albums a monthDied in Florida after a short illness surrounded by family, promoters said 

Famed former prosecutor and author Vincent Bugliosi has died of cancer at age 80, family members said Monday night. Bugliosi was best known for successfully prosecuting Charles Manson and three followers for the 1969 murders of actress Sharon Tate and six other. He later co-wrote the book “Helter Skelter” detailing the Tate-LaBianca murder trial. Born in Hibbing, Minnesota, Bugliosi moved to LA in the 1960s, where he earned his law degree from UCLA. During his time with the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s office, he successfully secured convictions in 105 of 106 felony jury trials, including 21 murder cases. Bugliosi...

LOS ANGELES – Vincent Bugliosi, a prosecutor who parlayed his handling of the Charles Manson trial into a career as a bestselling author, has died, his son said Monday night. He was 80 years old. Bugliosi, who had struggled with cancer in recent years, died Saturday night at a hospital in Los Angeles, his son, Vincent Bugliosi Jr., told The Associated Press. Bugliosi Jr. said his father had "an unflagging dedication to justice" in everything he did.

Millions of people who can read today owe an enormous debt of gratitude to Samuel L. Blumenfeld (shown), America’s foremost apostle of phonics over the past half century, who died on June 1, one day after his 89th birthday. I was privileged to know him, as a friend and colleague, for more than 30 years.I first became acquainted with Sam Blumenfeld’s writings in the early 1970s. I was a college student at the time and had switched my course of study from pre-veterinary medicine to psychology and education. The “reading controversy” that had been launched in 1955 with the...

To the memory of Free Republic’s “Kenny Bunk.” Continue to love each other like brothers, and remember always to welcome strangers, for by doing this, some people have entertained angels without knowing it. Hebrews 13, 1-2 Our FRiend Kenny Bunk passed away this weekend. He had many compatriots and admirers here, and so I thought I would tell you a little more about him, in order that you might in a small way celebrate his life as I do. Kenny knew the classics (or the western canon, generally) inside and out, and was a focused, passionate student of ancient and...

From a very good friend of Teresa (Arasina): "Got the terrible news I'd been half expecting. Early this morning Teresa (arasina @Free Republic) has passed on to be with the Lord due to complications with what was an acute case of cystic fibrosis. Her lungs simply would not respond. Even with her oxygen machine she could not quite get enough oxygen. All that could be done at that point was sedation. On Saturday I'd called but she immediately said she couldn't speak. Yesterday I regrettably didn't reach out...and this AM Teresa's niece left the message of the bad news. The...

Betsy Palmer, the veteran character actress who achieved lasting, though not necessarily sought-after, fame as the murderous camp cook in the cheesy horror film "Friday the 13th," has died at age 88.

Robert S. Wistrich, who died suddenly last week, was considered the foremost scholar of anti-Semitism, which he called “the longest hatred,” one that appears to be metastasizing in the current era. Writing about Nazi anti-Semitism ruffles no feathers within academia and other elite circles. Mr. Wistrich, however, had been warning that “anti-Semitism has undergone a process of growing ‘Islamicization,’ linked to the terrorist holy war against Jews and other non-Muslims with its truly lethal consequences.” This “new” anti-Semitism,” he added, targetsIsrael, the only state with a Jewish majority: “the collective Jew.” “New” is a relative term: It was 40 years...

WHEN Hitler’s forces marched into Warsaw in September 1939, Wladyslaw Bartoszewski’s parents told him not to panic. They had experienced German occupation during the last war. There would be inconvenience, disorder and even looting. He should be careful. But it would not be too bad—the Germans were, after all, west Europeans—and by next year, the British and French would arrive. The Bartoszewskis could hardly have given their teenage son worse advice. The Western allies never came; instead the Soviets joined in the Nazi attack. Hitler not only wiped Poland off the map, but aimed to obliterate its language, culture and...

Marcus Belgrave, a jazz trumpeter who graced stages and studios with Ray Charles, Aretha Franklin, Dizzy Gillespie, Joe Cocker and Motown artists galore, died Sunday. He was 78. Belgrave died at an Ann Arbor care facility and the cause of death was heart failure, said Hazelette Crosby-Robinson, a cousin of Belgrave's wife Joan. Belgrave remained active on the Detroit and international jazz scenes up until his death. Born into a family of musicians in Chester, Pennsylvania, he started playing professionally at 12 and joined The Ray Charles Band in the late 1950s — what he once described as "the beginning...

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Actress and comedian Anne Meara has died. She was 85. Her husband, Jerry Stiller, and son Ben Stiller say Meara died Saturday. No other details were provided

Mathematician John Nash, 86, has been killed in a taxi crash on the New Jersey Turnpike along with his wife Alicia, 82 The pair were not wearing seltbelts and were ejected from the vehicle when their driver allegedly lost control and hit the guard rail Nash was widely regarded as one of the great mathematicians of the 20th century He was best known for his work on game theory and his struggle with paranoid schizophrenia The Nobel Prize winner was famously portrayed by Russell Crowe in the 2001 Hollywood movie A Beautiful Mind which won four Oscars

Marques Haynes, the legendary Harlem Globetrotters showman often called the greatest dribbler in basketball history, has died. He was 89. He died Friday in Plano, Texas, of natural causes, the Globetrotters said. CEO Kurt Schneider said “basketball has lost one of its most iconic figures.” Haynes made the Basketball Hall of Fame in 1998, the first Globetrotter to be so honored. He had two stints with the touring team — from 1947-53 and 1972-79.

US mathematician John Nash, whose life story was turned into the Oscar-winning film A Beautiful Mind, has died in a car crash, local media has reported. Nash, 86, and his wife Alicia were both killed when their taxi crashed in New Jersey, the reports said. The mathematician is renowned for his work in game theory, winning the Nobel Prize for Economics in 1994. His breakthroughs in maths - and his struggles with schizophrenia - were the focus of the film.

Happy Rockefeller, the socialite whose 1963 marriage to Gov. Nelson A. Rockefeller of New York, soon after both had been divorced, raised a political storm in a more genteel time and may have cost him the Republican presidential nomination in 1964, died on Tuesday at her home in Tarrytown, N.Y. She was 88. The family said in a statement that she died after a brief illness.

Several veterans opened food stands to supplement their student incomes on the GI Bill after World War II, but Maurie Berman wanted something different. "He wanted to open something more noteworthy," said his son, Scott Berman, 64. "A building, a tower, something with some identity." So was born the friendly, family-run Northwest Side vintage drive-in Superdawg, with its order booth that looks like an airport control tower and its two 12-foot-tall papier-mache hot dogs designed in 1948 that stand on its roof. Mr. Berman died Sunday, May 17, of heart problems at 89, his son said.