Free Republic

With a career that spanned both generations and genres, Charlie Daniels will be remembered for his musical genius and his freedom-loving heart. >Charlie Daniels, singer, songwriter, country music legend, and pioneer of Southern rock, died Monday at the age of 83. Musically, Daniels was best known for his song, “The Devil Went Down to Georgia,” but beyond his legendary musical talent, he was an outspoken patriot, veterans advocate, and man of faith. Doctors said Daniels died of a hemorrhagic stroke in Hermitage, Tenn. Monday morning.Born and raised in rural North Carolina before moving to Nashville, Daniels started his career as...

When Ravi Zacharias was a cricket-loving boy on the streets of India, his mother called him in to meet the local sari-seller-turned-palm reader. “Looking at your future, Ravi Baba, you will not travel far or very much in your life,” he declared. “That’s what the lines on your hand tell me. There is no future for you abroad.” By the time a 37-year-old Zacharias preached, at the invitation of Billy Graham, to the inaugural International Conference for Itinerant Evangelists in Amsterdam in 1983, he was on his way to becoming one of the foremost defenders of Christianity’s intellectual credibility. A...

Geno Silva, the character actor perhaps best known for playing The Skull, the hitman who takes out Al Pacino's Tony Montana in the explosive climax of Scarface, has died. He was 72. Silva died May 9 at his home in Los Angeles of complications from frontotemporal degeneration, a form of dementia, his family announced. During his four-decade career, Silva also could be seen in Luis Valdez's Zoot Suit (1981) — he was in the 1979 Broadway production opposite Edward James Olmos — Robert Towne's Tequila Sunrise (1988); Steven Spielberg's Amistad and The Lost World: Jurassic Park, both released in 1997;...

Mary Pratt was a pitcher with the Rockford Peaches in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League, which was featured in the hit 1992 movie “A League of Their Own.” Teacher and pitcher Pratt was teaching physical education in Quincy, Massachusetts when the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League formed in response to World War II taking so many young men away from Major League Baseball. Pratt joined the league as a pitcher, playing first on the Rockford Peaches and later joining the Kenosha Comets. She played professional baseball from 1943 to 1947, pitching a no-hitter in 1944 with the Comets. After...

NASHVILLE, Tennessee -- Little Richard, the flamboyant singer, songwriter, and musician known for a string of rock and roll hit songs and fiery showmanship, has died, according to his pastor. He was 87. The cause of death was not known Saturday.

(CNN)Bollywood star Irrfan Khan, known internationally for his roles in "Life Of Pi" and "Slumdog Millionaire," died Wednesday, his representatives confirmed. He was 53. "It's saddening that this day, we have to bring forward the news of him passing away," read a statement from Khan's PR agency, Hardly Anonymous Communications. "Irrfan was a strong soul, someone who fought till the very end and always inspired everyone who came close to him." Khan, one of India's best-known and most beloved actors, revealed in March 2018 that he had been diagnosed with a rare neuroendocrine tumor -- an abnormal growth that begin...

Linda Tripp, whose secret conversations with former White House intern Monica Lewinsky led to the impeachment of President Bill Clinton in 1998, died on Wednesday, according to a report. She was 70. Tripp has been seriously ill and on her deathbed Tuesday night, according to a Facebook posting by her daughter. The Daily Mail reported on Wednesday afternoon that she had passed........."

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) - Emmitt Peters, Sr., the 1975 Iditarod Champion know as the "Yukon Fox," passed away Thursday in Ruby. He was 79 years old. Peters won the Last Great Race on Earth in 1975 as an Iditarod rookie, the most recent first-time racer to do so. He would not win a second title, but finished in third in 1978 and took the runner-up position in 1979. Along with his race crown, Peters' Iditarod accolades were numerous. After becoming champion and Rookie of the Year at the same time in 1975, he would go on to win the Golden...

Tomie DePaola’s children’s stories have sold more than 25 million copies and been translated into more than 20 languages. We said goodbye to him this week, but his legacy lives on.In a town in Calabria, a long time ago, there lived an old lady named Strega Nona, which meant “grandma witch.” If you were born after 1975 in the United States, you are probably familiar with these words, which come from the children’s book “Strega Nona,” first published that year. It won a Caldecott Honor the very next year, and was named one of the “Top 100 Picture Books” of...

Senator Tom Corburn passed away today after battling cancer for years after stepping down as a United States Senator from the state of Oklahoma. When it comes to national politics, there are elected officials who vote pro-life and do the right thing. Then there are lawmakers who actively carry the banner and lead the charge to protect unborn babies from the travesty of abortion. That was Tom Coburn, who frequently sponsored legislation and amendments to stop abortions and protect Americans from having to fund abortions. As a doctor by training, Coburn stood up for the conscience rights of medical professional...

The Rev. Joseph Lowery, a leader in America's civil rights movement, died Friday. He was 98. Lowery's death was confirmed by family representative Imara Canady, who said he died of natural causes. Often called the "dean" of the civil rights movement, he worked hand in hand in the movement's formative years with the Revs. Martin Luther King Jr. and Jesse Jackson.

Robert Levinson, a former FBI special agent who disappeared while traveling on Iran’s Kush Island in 2007, has “died while in Iranian custody,” his family announced Wednesday. ---SNIP--- “Those who are responsible for what happened to Bob Levinson, including those in the U.S. government who for many years repeatedly left him behind, will ultimately receive justice for what they have done,” the announcement said. That’s a reference to President Barack Obama’s administration, which did not secure Levinson’s release despite years of negotiating with Tehran in the lead-up to the implementation of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal.

Kenny Rogers, a longtime star of country music, died Friday night, according to a statement posted by his family. He was 81. Known for such hits as “The Gambler,” “Lady,” “Islands in the Stream,” and “Lucille,” Rogers died peacefully at home of natural causes at 10:25 p.m., the statement said.

Joe Coulombe envisioned a new generation of young grocery shoppers emerging in the 1960s, one that wanted healthy, tasty, high-quality food they couldn’t find in most supermarkets and couldn’t afford to buy in the few high-end gourmet outlets. So he found a new way to bring everything from a then-exotic snack food called granola to the California-produced wines that for flavor compared with anything from France. And he made shopping for them almost as much fun as sailing the high seas when he created Trader Joe’s, a quirky little grocery store filled with nautical themes and staffed not by managers...

Pioneering NASA mathematician Katherine Johnson, whose calculations played a major role in the development of the Space Shuttle program, died Monday at the age of 101, NASA confirmed. Johnson was part of NASA’s “Computer Pool” team in the 1960s, which was largely composed of black women who processed data by hand. They provided the calculations for several of the first successful manned space missions, including Alan Shepard’s in 1961 and John Glenn’s in 1962, when he became the first American to orbit the earth. Johnson also became the first woman to write a technical report in NASA’s flight research division...

BBC- Larry Tesler, an icon of early computing, has died at the age of 74. Mr Tesler started working in Silicon Valley in the early 1960s, at a time when computers were inaccessible to the vast majority of people. It was thanks to his innovations - which included the "cut", "copy" and "paste" commands - that the personal computer became simple to learn and use. =================================================================== RIP Larry Tesler: The Man That Invented Cut, Copy, And Paste On The Computer. Ernie Banks once said "The measure of a man is in the lives he's touched". Which means Larry Tesler is...

Larry Tesler, a pioneer of personal computing credited with creating the cut, copy and paste as well as the search and replace functions, has died. He was 74. Tesler was not nearly as well known as computing giants such as Bill Gates or Steve Jobs. But he played an early, central role in making computers accessible to people without computer engineering degrees, i.e. most of us. Xerox, the company for whom he developed the functions, tweeted out news of his death. "Your workday is easier thanks to his revolutionary ideas," the company's tweet said. Cut, copy and paste and search...

The world knows Kirk Douglas as Spartacus, and as one of the greatest movie stars of the greatest generation. I know him as my hevruta — the Aramaic word for study partner. For almost 25 years I met with Kirk Douglas, born Issur Danielovich, once a week to study Torah. After we read through the Bible and hit up all the greats — “That’s a role I was born to play,” he said of King David — we moved on to other books: the Mishna for rabbinical wisdom; “The Prophet” by Khalil Gibran; Walt Whitman’s poetry; and modern theology from...

LOS ANGELES — Kirk Douglas, renowned actor and father of Michael Douglas, with a decorated career spanning more than six decades, died Wednesday, Feb. 5 at 103, TMZ reported. Kirk Douglas’ health had been in decline. In 1996, he suffered a stroke, but recovered most of his faculties. TMZ reported Wednesday the last time he was seen enjoying life was in April 2019 when he was “camping” in his grandson’s backyard. Douglas appeared in a few minor Broadway productions in the ’40s but then put his career on hold and enlisted in the U.S. Navy in 1941. After several years...

One of the few remaining Navajo Code Talkers who used their native language to confound the Japanese in World War II has died. The family of Joe Vandever Sr. says he died Friday of health complications in Haystack, New Mexico. He was 96. Tribal leaders called him a great warrior and a compassionate family man.  He was among hundreds of Navajos who served in the U.S. Marine Corps transmitting messages using a code based on the Navajo language. It was never broken. His death leaves less than a handful of Navajo Code Talkers still alive.