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TOMS RIVER, N.J. (AP) -- Chris Connor, a smoky-voiced jazz vocalist who had numerous hits during a career that spanned more than 50 years, has died. She was 81.

CINCINNATI – Erich Kunzel, the award-winning conductor who headed the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra since it was founded three decades ago and who won international fame through sales of more than 10 million recordings, has died. He was 74. Kunzel was diagnosed with liver, colon and pancreatic cancer in April, but continued conducting while undergoing treatment. He died Tuesday morning at a hospital near his home in Swan's Island, Maine, said Chris Pinelo, a spokesman for the Cincinnati Pops. On July 4, Kunzel conducted a concert at the U.S. Capitol with Aretha Franklin. He had led the National Symphony on the...

Charles R. Bond Jr., a retired Air Force major general and one of the last surviving Flying Tigers, died Aug. 18 of dementia at Presbyterian Village North, an assisted living community in Dallas. He was 94. In September 1941, he left the Army Air Forces to volunteer for service in China as part of a secret program, the American Volunteer Group, nicknamed the Flying Tigers, under Gen. Claire Chenault. Made up of about 400 pilots and ground personnel and based in Burma, the Flying Tigers protected military supply routes between China and Burma and helped to get supplies to Chinese...

Terri Schiavo's Father Robert Schindler Dies, Pro-Life Group Mourns His Death St. Petersburg, FL -- Robert Schindler, the father of Terri Schiavo, whose former husband subjected her to a painful 13-day starvation and dehydration death, died overnight. Schindler, 72, had been battling health issues and he died of apparent heart failure. http://www.LifeNews.com/bio2943.html

MOSCOW – Sergei Mikhalkov, who wrote the lyrics to the Soviet and Russian national anthems, persecuted dissident writers and fathered two noted film directors, has died at age 96. Mikhalkov died in Moscow on Thursday, said Denis Baglai, a spokesman for director Nikita Mikhalkov. He said he did not immediately have further details. In 1943, Sergei Mikhalkov, a young author whose poems were favored by Soviet dictator Josef Stalin, was commissioned to write lyrics for the new Soviet anthem designed to inspire Red Army soldiers in the midst of World War II. Mikhalkov's lyrics, co-written with journalist El Registan and...

[Note: This is a lengthy, blunt, factually correct obituary of Ted written by a liberal British newspaper. It is also another perfect example of foreigners doing jobs Americans won't touch.] Senator Edward 'Ted' Kennedy stood for sleaze. Bloated and drunken, he used his standing in the Kennedy clan to chase vulnerable women - which brought his dream of reaching the White House to a shameful end. He was the youngest of the four Kennedy brothers, and by far the longest lived. [Snip] As he entered the Senate, Kennedy was admired for his commanding 6ft 2in stature and the good looks...

NEW YORK (AP) - Author Dominick Dunne, who told stories of shocking crimes among the rich and famous through his magazine articles and best-selling novels such as "The Two Mrs. Grenvilles," died Wednesday at his home in Manhattan. He was 83. Actor-director Griffin Dunne said in a statement released by Vanity Fair that his father had been battling bladder cancer for some time. But the cancer did not prevent Dunne from working and socializing, his twin passions.

<p>WASHINGTON - Rosemary Kennedy, the oldest sister of President John F. Kennedy and the inspiration for the Special Olympics, died Friday. She was 86.</p> <p>Kennedy, the third child of Rose and Joseph Kennedy, was born mentally retarded and underwent a lobotomy when she was 23. She lived most of her life in a Jefferson, Wis., institution, the St. Coletta School for Exceptional Children.</p>

Sen. Edward Moore Kennedy, the youngest Kennedy brother who was left to head the family's political dynasty after his brothers President John F. Kennedy and Sen. Robert F. Kennedy were assassinated, has died at age 77.

Senator Ted Kennedy has died.

NEW YORK (CBS News) "60 Minutes"spokesman Kevin Tedesco confirmed 86-year-old Don Hewitt has died. Earlier this year, Hewitt was diagnosed with a small, contained tumor. Hewitt was already a veteran CBS newsman in 1968 when he created "60 Minutes," pioneering the TV newsmagazine format. He served as executive producer of the program until his retirement in 2004. Hewitt has been honored with the second annual Lifetime Achievement Emmy presented by the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. In 1995, he was awarded the Founders Emmy by the International Council of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. He's...

As most everyone has heard, Bob Novak, an original Evil Conservative, passed away today from brain cancer. Greg Gutfeld, of Fox's Redeye, wrote an excellent obituary memorializing a man whose common-sense conservatism and individuality made him a fixture in the political arena.

Rose Friedman, widow of renowned economist Milton Friedman, passed away in Washington, D.C. today. Records do not clearly indicate her date of birth, but she was deemed to have been 98. Her husband passed away in November 2006. Education experts in Pennsylvania and beyond lauded the work she and her late husband performed to popularize efforts to allow parents to choose schools for their children. “Rose Friedman was an extremely powerful voice in promotion of freedom. In addition to being a vocal supporter of human liberty, her work helped to discredit government management of the economy,” Andrew T. LeFevre, executive...

The family of legendary conservative journalist Robert Novak has announced that he passed away earlier today at his home after a long battle with brain cancer. Novak was 78. I have long admired Robert Novak. He was conservative, but he was not afraid to report the truth about Democrats and Republicans alike. I did not always agree with him, but I greatly respect him. Novak wrote the story of his life as a reporter in Washington in the outstanding book, Prince of Darkness. I wrote a review of that book after reading it and posted it here back in November...

...Bob was Illinois and early in life was most at home in sports bars and, throughout his years in Washington, at unfashionable University of Maryland basketball games.... By day, however, Novak worked political sources like no other reporter. That is why so many people would be astonished when his political sources would become known. It was stunning when Novak revealed that the Democratic senator who dismissed the McGovern for President campaign as being about little more than “amnesty, abortion and acid” was none other than Thomas Eagleton, who McGovern would later (albeit briefly) choose as his vice presidential nominee. Who...

Chicago Sun-Times columnist Robert Novak, one of the nation’s most influential journalists, who relished his “Prince of Darkness” public persona, died at home here early Tuesday morning after a battle with brain cancer. “He was someone who loved being a journalist, love journalism and loved his country and loved his family, Novak’s wife, Geraldine, told the Sun-Times on Tuesday. Novak’s remarkable and long-running career made him a powerful presence in newspaper columns, newsletters, books and on television. On May 15, 1963, Novak teamed up with the late Rowland Evans Jr. to create the “Inside Report” political column, which became the...

Les Paul has died at age 94. His electric guitar designs and innovations were central to the development of rock guitar artistry beginning in the early 1950s and continuing to this day. He was playing to the very end, too, in small groups in New York clubs. So long to a great one...

Karl Von Hess, who died this morning at the age of 90, after a long battle with Alzheimer's disease, made his name heading to the ring in a full-scale Nazi guise in the uneasy years after World War II.

Eunice Kennedy Shriver Dies at 88 By KRISTINA PETERSON Eunice Kennedy Shriver, a member of the famed Kennedy clan who devoted much of her life to children's charities, including founding the Special Olympics, died at the age of 88. Known for her devotion to the mentally disabled community and in particular her mentally disabled sister Rosemary, Ms. Kennedy Shriver founded the Special Olympics in 1968. For years before, she had invited mentally disabled children to a summer camp held in the backyard of her Maryland home. From the first group of 35 children, the Special Olympics grew into an organization...

Dr. Antonio De la Cruz, a renowned neurotologist at the House Ear Clinic in Los Angeles who performed cochlear implant surgery on conservative radio talk-show host Rush Limbaugh, has died. He was 65. De la Cruz, who also was the director of education at the House Ear Institute, died July 31 of complications of lymphoma at St. Vincent Medical Center in Los Angeles, an institute spokeswoman said. An associate of the House Ear Clinic since 1975, De la Cruz was in the news in 2001 when he successfully performed cochlear implant surgery on Limbaugh. A cochlear implant is an electronic...

Budd Schulberg, who wrote the award-winning screenplay for “On the Waterfront” and created a classic American archetype of naked ambition, Sammy Glick, in his novel “What Makes Sammy Run?,” died on Wednesday. He was 95 and lived in the Brookside section of Westhampton Beach, N.Y.

The sky grew dimmer on Sunday, as another great ray of light from the Sun Records roster, Billy Lee Riley, died. Riley, who'd been battling cancer since May, died at St. Bernards Medical Center in Jonesboro, Ark., after being admitted on Saturday. He was 75. Although Riley had been diagnosed with stage four colon cancer, which had spread to his bones, his wife, Joyce Riley, said the singer was feeling optimistic. "We weren't thinking the end was coming so soon," said Joyce. "He was actually feeling better lately. So the very end was unexpected. But, he went peacefully." One of...

The Rev. Frederick J. Eikerenkoetter II, the flamboyant minister better known as the Reverend Ike, who preached the blessings of material prosperity to a large congregation in New York and to television and radio audiences nationwide, died Tuesday in Los Angeles, where he had lived since 2007. He was 74. “This is the do-it-yourself church,” he proclaimed. “The only savior in this philosophy is God in you.” Along with Jim Bakker, Jimmy Swaggart and Pat Robertson, he was one of the first evangelists to grasp the power of television. At the height of his success, in the 1970s, he reached...

Bruce Rossmeyer, known for building a Harley Davidson empire with 15 dealerships, died Thursday in a motorcycle accident. Rossmeyer and a group of friends were on their way to the Sturgis motorcycle rally in South Dakota when the accident happened. Rossmeyer was riding on a Wyoming Highway 28 when he attempted to pass a truck pulling a camper as it turned left. The 66-year-old, who was not wearing a helmet, struck the driver’s side door. Rossmeyer was pronounced dead at the scene.

Former Philippines President Corazon Aquino has died at the age of 76, her family has said. She had been suffering from colon cancer for more than a year and recently announced she was refusing further treatment. Her family had said she was leaving her fate to God, prompting church services offering prayers for her health. Mrs Aquino became president when the 1986 "people power" uprising deposed former dictator Ferdinand Marcos. "Our mother peacefully passed away at 0318 [1918 GMT Friday] of cardio-respiratory arrest," Mrs Aquino's son, Senator Benigno Aquino Jr, told the media. "She would have wanted us to thank...

Thousands of mourners gathered yesterday for the funeral of Gayatri Devi, one of India’s last queens and a former MP who was listed by Vogue as among the ten most beautiful women in the world. Gayatri Devi at Rambagh Palace in Rajasthan Devi, who was Maharani of the northwestern desert kingdom of Jaipur, died in a private hospital on Wednesday after being treated for stomach problems and a chest infection. She was 90. India mourned the death of one of its most glamorous and controversial royals, who was cremated at a state funeral. The Bollywood star Amitabh Bachchan called her...

----- , July 28, 2009 8:42 AM We're hearing a lot today about big splashy memorial services. I want a nationwide memorial service for Darrell "Shifty" Powers. Shifty volunteered for the airborne in WWII and served with Easy Company of the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, part of the 101st Airborne Infantry. If you've seen Band of Brothers on HBO or the History Channel, you know Shifty. His character appears in all 10 episodes, and Shifty himself is interviewed in several of them. I met Shifty in the Philadelphia airport several years ago. I didn't know who he was at the...

Here is a video report on the death of Harry Patch, the last known British World War I veteran. Patch died today at the age of 111. He fought in the ghastly trench warfare that was the trademark of World War I fighting. Below is a video describing what it was like in the trenches . . . . . . (Watch Videos)

LONDON, England (CNN) -- Harry Patch -- the last surviving British soldier from World War I -- died Saturday at the age of 111, Britain's Ministry of Defence said. Patch died peacefully at his care home in the southwestern English city of Wells, the ministry announced. His death came a week after fellow British World War I veteran Henry Allingham died at the age of 113. Patch was the last surviving soldier to have witnessed the horrors of trench warfare in the first World War He fought and was seriously wounded in Ypres, Belgium, in 1917 at the Battle of...

Harry Patch

The last British survivor of the World War I trenches, Harry Patch, has died at the age of 111. Mr Patch was conscripted into the Army aged 18 and fought in the Battle of Passchendaele at Ypres in 1917 in which more than 70,000 British soldiers died. He was raised in Coombe Down, near Bath, and had been living at a care home in Wells, Somerset. The oldest WWI veteran Henry Allingham, who served in the Royal Navy and the RAF, died at the age of 113 a week ago.

Legionnaire Frank is the second Vet and dear friend of the Olney Patriots to pass away this summer. Clyde passed away in early May and now Frank. Frank passed away this past Tuesday after a blood disorder finally got the best of him. Thankfully he passed away quickly and in comfort, with his family around him. The last time Frank was out supporting the troops was June 6th, D-Day. He is shown BELOW with his sign special made for Olney. That’s Lurker Bill next to him and Glenn, our WWII Iwo Jima Marine in the back ground.. This is his...

Frank McCourt, a former New York City schoolteacher who turned his miserable childhood in Limerick, Ireland, into a phenomenally popular, Pulitzer Prize-winning memoir, Angela’s Ashes, died in Manhattan on Sunday.....

Oldest WWI veteran dies aged 113 Henry Allingham was the last surviving founding member of the RAF Henry Allingham, the world's oldest man and one of the last surviving World War I servicemen, has died at the age of 113, his care home has said. Mr Allingham served with the Royal Naval Air Service in WWI, later transferring to the Royal Air Force at the time of its creation. Bosses at his Brighton care home said everybody was "saddened by Henry's loss and our sympathy goes to his family". Last month, Mr Allingham, born in 1896, became the world's oldest...

Broadcast journalist Walter Cronkite has died at age 92, The New York Times reports.

Dallas R. McKennon, the voice of Gumby, Archie and dozens of other animated characters, died Tuesday at the Willapa Harbor Care Center in Raymond. He had been living in the Raymond area for the past few years. McKennon, 89, moved to the area to be close to three of his daughters, who live in Pacific County. He provided extensive voiceover acting for nearly every major animation studio in Hollywood starting in the 1950s and continuing for the next 40 years. His daughter Barbara Porter of Raymond said McKennon was officially credited with more than 160 character voices, although he probably...

U.S. President Barack Obama speaks with the use of one teleprompter after the other fell and broke at the Urban and Metropolitan Policy Roundtable at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building on the White House complex in Washington, July 13, 2009.

As Ed "Too Tall" Freeman lay ill in a Boise hospital over the past few weeks, many came to pay their respects to the 80-year-old national war hero and former helicopter pilot. One unexpected visitor offered a very personal thank you to Freeman, a veteran of three wars and recipient of the highest military award -- the Congressional Medal of Honor -- for his actions on Nov. 14, 1965, at Landing Zone X-Ray, Ia Drang Valley, Vietnam.

Oscar G. Mayer, retired chairman of the Wisconsin-based meat processing company that bears his name, has died at the age of 95. Mayer's wife, Geraldine, said he died of old age Monday age at Hospice Care in Fitchburg. He was the third Oscar Mayer in the family that founded Oscar Mayer Foods, which was once the largest private employer in Madison. His grandfather, Oscar F. Mayer, died in 1955 and his father, Oscar G. Mayer Sr., died in 1965.

WAR veteran Ted Kenna made an outstanding contribution to the nation and will be remembered for his courage, Acting Prime Minister Julia Gillard has said. Mr Kenna, Australia's last surviving Victoria Cross winner from World War II, died yesterday, aged 90. His death was a sad day for the nation, Ms Gillard said in a joint statement with Veterans Affairs Minister Alan Griffin. "Ted Kenna was a great Australian," they said, adding his story of bravery in New Guinea in 1945 was "extraordinary". "Private Kenna made an outstanding contribution to the nation and he will be remembered for his courage."...

The German great, Waldo von Erich, died suddenly last night at Grand River Hospital in Kitchener. He was 75.

Budapest - Bela Kiraly, a key figure in Hungary's ill-fated anti-Soviet revolution in 1956, died at the age of 97, the Ministry of Defence told MTI on Saturday. Inaugurated as an officer in 1935, Kadar graduated from the Budapest Military Academy in 1942, then took part in the Second World War. Promoted to general in 1950, he became commander of the Military Academy. A year later, however, he was sentenced to death, later mitigated to life imprisonment, under the trumped-up charge of conspiracy against the state. A key phase of his life was the 1956 revolution and freedom fight when...

VETERAN newspaper columnist and editor Frank Devine has died. He was 77 years old. Friend and former New South Wales Opposition leader Peter Coleman, writing on The Australian website where Devine was a former columnist and editor, described him as the "laughing cavalier of Australian journalism". Devine had been editor of the Chicago Sun-Times and the New York Post, a senior editor at the American edition of Reader's Digest and editor-in-chief of the Australian Reader's Digest.

SAN DIEGO — Herbert G. Klein, the former Nixon aide whose 52 years with Copley Newspapers and active role in civic affairs made him a San Diego icon, died Thursday. Mr. Klein, who lived in La Jolla, was 91. Mr. Klein was the first White House director of communications, in Richard Nixon's embattled administration, until he resigned in July 1973, 13 months before the Watergate scandal forced the president himself to step down. He first tasted the world of politics as a reporter covering Nixon's 1946 congressional campaign. That association with Nixon eventually led him to the White House. Mr....

Retired Marine Corps Col. Kenneth L. Reusser, called the most decorated Marine aviator in history and was shot down in three wars, has died at age 89. Reusser flew 253 combat missions in World War II, Korea and Vietnam and was shot down in all three, five times in all. His 59 medals included two Navy Crosses, four Purple Hearts and two Legions of Merit. In 1945, while based in Okinawa, he stripped down his F4U-4 Corsair fighter and intercepted a Japanese observation plane at a high altidude. When his guns froze, he flew his fighter into the observation plane,...

Farrah Fawcett, who skyrocketed to fame as one of a trio of impossibly glamorous private eyes on TV's Charlie's Angels, has died after a long battle with cancer. She was 62. Fawcett died at 9:28 a.m. PST at St. John’s Heath Center in Santa Monica, Calif. She had recently returned to St. John's for treatment of complications from anal cancer, first diagnosed three years ago. Her longtime partner Ryan O'Neal was at her side throughout her final days. Like so much about Fawcett's life – including her bumpy relationship with O'Neal – her heroic struggle to beat the disease was...

LOS ANGELES – Gale Storm, whose wholesome appearance and perky personality made her one of early television's biggest stars on "My Little Margie" and "The Gale Storm Show," has died at age 87. Storm, who had been in failing health in recent years, died Saturday at a convalescent hospital, said her son, Peter Bonnell. Before landing the starring role in "My Little Margie" in 1952, Storm starred in numerous B movies opposite such stars as Roy Rogers, Eddie Albert and Jackie Cooper. After her last TV series, "The Gale Storm Show," ended in 1960 she went on to a successful...

Sky Saxon, founder of the brilliant ’60s garage band the Seeds, died Thursday morning at St. David’s Hospital. The newly minted Austinite, born Richard Marsh, was hospitalized Monday with what doctors suspected was an infection of the internal organs, but cause of death has not yet been released. Saxon fell ill last Thursday, but performed at Saturday at Antone’s with recent Austin collaborators Shapes Have Fangs. Sky’s wife Sabrina Saxon posted news of his passing on Facebook this morning: “Sky has passed over and YaHoWha is waiting for him at the gate. He will soon be home with his Father....

(CNN) -- Nearly a decade after she was rescued from a remote Antarctic research station after diagnosing herself with breast cancer, Dr. Jerri Nielsen died early Tuesday, her brother said. She was 57. Jerri Nielsen treated herself for breast cancer while stationed at the South Pole in 1999. Jerri Nielsen treated herself for breast cancer while stationed at the South Pole in 1999. Nielsen had been fighting the latest round of cancer for the past five years, brother Eric Cahill said. She died just before 4 a.m. in Massachusetts, surrounded by her family, he said. "She would want to be...