Free Republic

Bernardo Álvarez Herrera, a longtime ambassador to the United States who led Hugo Chávez’s diplomats in defending Venezuela’s socialist revolution to skeptical foreign governments, died on Thursday in Caracas. He was 60. President Nicolás Maduro of Venezuela announced the death but did not give the cause.

Cuba's former leader Fidel Castro has died aged 90, state TV announces This breaking news story is being updated and more details will be published shortly. Please refresh the page for the fullest version.

The tear-filled eulogies from the violent U.S. leftists commence in 3… 2… 1… HAVANA (AP) — Former President Fidel Castro, who led a rebel army to improbable victory in Cuba, embraced Soviet-style communism and defied the power of 10 U.S. presidents during his half century rule, has died at age 90. Castro’s reign over the island-nation 90 miles from Florida was marked by the U.S.-backed Bay of Pigs invasion in 1961 and the Cuban Missile Crisis a year later that brought the world to the brink of nuclear war. The bearded revolutionary, who survived a crippling U.S. trade embargo as...

FULL TITLE: Brady Bunch 'mom' Florence Henderson dies aged 82: Beloved actress who played Carol Brady passes away on Thanksgiving The Brady Bunch's Florence Henderson has died from heart failure late on Thanksgiving Day, aged 82. Henderson, who spent decades in the iconic role of Carol Brady, died surrounded by family and friends at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, her manager Kayla Pressman said. She was admitted to hospital on Wednesday. TV's favorite sitcom mom, the actress was best known for The Brady Bunch which first aired in 1969 and continued in one form or another right up to...

If not for one unforgettable fastball, hurled Oct. 3, 1951, pitcher Ralph Branca of the Brooklyn Dodgers might have faded from baseball memory. In a dozen big-league seasons, he won 88 games and lost 68, a workmanlike record, a ticket to obscurity. But for an autumn afternoon long ago. Facing the New York Giants with a 4-2 lead and the National League championship at stake, he threw a high fastball in the ninth inning to the Giants’ Bobby Thomson, a dangerous hitter.

Willie N. Rogers was an American hero, and at age 101, he was a living example of the nation's history. He was a member of the "Greatest Generation," which defeated the Axis powers in World War II, doing his part as a master sergeant in the all-black Tuskegee Airmen during the era of racial segregation in the U.S. military. The longtime St. Petersburg resident died Friday from complications of a stroke. He was the oldest surviving member of that original legendary 100th Fighter Squadron. Mr. Rogers' nephew, Clinton Glover, said his uncle deserves to be celebrated for his contributions to...

Freddie Mercury’s mother, Jer Bulsara, passed away on Nov. 13 at the age of 94. Kashmira Cooke, Mercury’s sister, confirmed the news of her mother’s death on Sunday (Nov. 20) in a statement to the press, saying that she died in her sleep.

Dr. Denton Cooley, a Houston native and a pioneer of heart transplants, died Friday. He was 96. Born in 1920, Cooley graduated with highest honors from the University of Texas Austin and earned his medical degree from Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in 1944. Cooley performed the first transplant of a human heart in the United States in 1968. The following year, he became the first surgeon to implant an artificial heart in a human.

Mentor Williams, a longtime Taos resident and nationally known singer-songwriter, died at 6:15 a.m. Wednesday (Nov. 16), according to a family source. Williams was best known for writing "Drift Away", a middle-of-the-road playlist classic performed by Dobie Gray in 1973. He is the brother of songwriter-actor Paul Williams, according to an online biography.

Former Wisconsin congressman and defense secretary Melvin Laird has died at age 94, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Laird, a Marshfield native, was a decorated sailor in World War II, state senator, U.S. congressman and secretary of defense. He reached the pinnacle of his power as U.S. defense secretary for Richard Nixon in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Laird was also the driving force behind the Laird Center for Medical Research – a $35 million facility at the Marshfield Clinic.

Holly Dunn, a well-known voice in country music in the 1980s and ’90s, has died following a battle with a rare, very aggressive type of ovarian cancer. She was 59 years old. Nashville TV station WSMV reported the news of Dunn’s death around 7:30AM ET on Tuesday (Nov. 15), noting that Dunn had passed away in the early morning hours. According to the news outlet, funeral arrangements have yet to be announced. Born on Aug. 22, 1957, Holly Suzette Dunn — the sister of Nashville songwriter Chris Waters — performed in bands during high school and college, then moved to...

Leon Russell, who emerged in the '70s as one of rock'n'roll's most dynamic performers and songwriters after playing anonymously on dozens of pop hits as a much-in-demand studio pianist in the 1960s, died on Sunday at the age of 74, according to his website... Russell recorded more than 35 albums and also excelled as a songwriter for other performers. His "A Song for You" was recorded by Joe Cocker, the Carpenters, the Temptations, Neil Diamond, Lou Rawls, Dusty Springfield, Ray Charles, Aretha Franklin and his good friend Willie Nelson. The Carpenters, Reddy, Shirley Bassey, Robert Goulet and George Benson all...

Actor Robert Vaughn, best known as the secret agent Napoleon Solo in The Man from UNCLE, has died aged 83. Vaughn was also famous for his role as Lee in the Magnificent Seven, and television roles in Hustle and Coronation Street. The iconic actor died after a battle with acute leukaemia, his manager, Matthew Sullivan, told the BBC. Vaughn died in New York on Friday morning surrounded by his family, he said. David McCallum, from the hit TV show NCIS, who as Illya Kuryakin starred alongside Vaughn in The Man From UNCLE, told TVLine.com he was "utterly devastated" by the...

Actor Robert Vaughn, best known for playing Napoleon Solo on the NBC spy drama “The Man From U.N.C.L.E.,” died surrounded by his family after battling acute leukemia, his manager Mathew Sullivan tells FOX411. He was 83. “Mr. Vaughn passed away at 7:30 this morning,“ Sullivan said, calling Vaughn “a great human being and a great actor.” “The Man from U.N.C.L.E.” aired from 1964-68 and made Vaughn one of TV’s biggest stars. …

Actor Robert Vaughn has died at the age of 83 after a short battle with leukaemia. The star, best known for his role as Napoleon Solo in The Man From U.N.C.L.E., died surrounded by his family, his manager said today.

Janet Reno, the first woman to serve as U.S. attorney general and the epicenter of several political storms during the Clinton administration, has died. She was 78. Reno died early Monday from complications of Parkinson’s disease, her goddaughter Gabrielle D’Alemberte said. D’Alemberte said Reno spent her final days at home in Miami surrounded by family and friends. Reno, a former Miami prosecutor who famously told reporters “I don’t do spin,” served nearly eight years as attorney general under President Bill Clinton, the longest stint in a century.

The country's first female attorney general, Bill Clinton-appointee Janet Reno, died Monday morning after a decades-long fight against Parkinson's disease, her sister Maggy Hurchalla told CNN. Reno, who passed away at 78, served in the Clinton Administration from 1993 to 2001. The Department of Justice pursued a series of noteworthy convictions while she was in office, including for "Unabomber" Ted Kaczynski; Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols for the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing; and Sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman for bombing the World Trade Center in 1993. Her tenure was marked some significant controversies, including a decision during her first days in office...

Kay Starr, the self-described hillbilly singer who crisscrossed jazz, country, pop, blues and rock ’n’ roll in the 1950s with hits like “Wheel of Fortune” and “Rock and Roll Waltz,” died on Thursday at her home in Los Angeles. She was 94. The cause was complications of Alzheimer’s disease, her daughter and only immediate survivor, Katherine Yardley, said. Ms. Starr, whose career began when she was a teenager and continued into her 80s, was a rarity: a singer who blossomed in the big-band era of the 1930s and 1940s, hit it big as a pop and country artist, and scored...

Natalie Babbitt, author of the beloved children's novel Tuck Everlasting, has died after battling cancer. She was 84. Babbitt, who also was an illustrator, had been diagnosed with lung cancer recently and died at her home in Hamden, Conn., on Monday, said her husband, Samuel Fisher Babbitt.

Tammy Grimes, the throaty actress and singer who conquered Broadway at the age of 26, winning a Tony Award for her performance in "The Unsinkable Molly Brown," and went on to a distinguished stage career, died on Sunday in Englewood, N.J. She was 82... Ms. Grimes made films, including "Play It as It Lays," "The Last Unicorn" and "Slaves of New York," and appeared in dozens of television movies and series (including her own short-lived sitcom, "The Tammy Grimes Show," in 1966). But the starring role in the film version of "Molly Brown" (1964) went to Debbie Reynolds, who had...