DEATHS ; Notable Passings; The Thread to Pay Last Respects

[Sefton]

Two essential LPs to listen to and remember the genius of Isaac Hayes: Hot Buttered Soul and Live at the Sahara Tahoe which has the incredible 11+ minute version of "Ain't No Sunshine". Such a huge talent.

 

[Story]

*Sigh*

 

[MrBern]

A league of her own

RIP

Dottie Collins, 84, Star Pitcher of Women’s Baseball League, Dies

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/17/sports/baseball/17collins.html

She had a career record of 117-76 and an earned run average of 1.83.

“I pitched and won both games of a doubleheader once pitching underhand,” she told Susan E. Johnson in “When Women Played Hardball.”

“I think I could have pitched a doubleheader overhand, too,” she said. “I don’t think it would be that hard. Nowadays, the men can’t do it, but hell, they can’t do nothin’.”

 

[SamMarlowPI]

RIP Jerry Reed (1937-2008)...

Jerry Reed died Monday of complications from emphysema at the age of 71...
i didn't see this anywhere on here so...
for all those who do not know, Jerry Reed was a country/rocknroll artist from the '50s through the '80s and maybe most famous for his roll as "Snowman" in the 1977 blockbuster Smokey And The Bandit...

 

[HoosierDaddy]

When you're hot you're hot...when you're not you're not..!
RIP JR
HD

 

[Rufus]

Very sad...

He wrote some of my favourite Elvis songs... and his own versions are superb, a real characterful delivery.

Good bye Guitar man....

:-(



Rufus

 

[warbird]

His career actually started in the 50's and became big in the 60's. He was an incredible guitar player. Chet Atkins said Reed was better than he was saying, "he can do things I cannot do". He started out as a banjo player. F you know anything about banjo, you know your picking hand does most of the work and your fretting hand does much less. It is the opposite on a guitar. Reed combined both, and developed a style everyone referred to as a clawhammer, for some of the most complex guitar work outside of classical music, yet as laid back and fun as country and southern swing.

He was a man of great character and enormous heart and he will be missed by many here in our town.

 

[Foofoogal]

http://www.auctionbytes.com/cab/abn/y08/m09/i04/s02

Ralph Kovel. A giant in the antiques and collectibles field.
My best to his family. Very sad to me.

 

[GeniusInTheLamp]

http://www.comingsoon.net/news/movienews.php?id=48458

Bill Melendez, who worked on classic animation with Disney and Warner Brothers before producing those great Peanuts TV specials, passed away at the age of 91. Like most people, I grew up with those Peanuts specials, so I feel as if another small piece of my past has left me.

 

[Foofoogal]

I just saw that about the Peanuts creative genius. Snoopy will always have a special place in my heart.
When our daughter was born in 1981 my son was 4 at the time. I gave him a Snoopy to have as his baby. It had clothing outfits and when I took care of our daughter he took care of his Snoopy. I totally believe it made him the great father he is today. His daughters adore him. lol

 

[Pip]

Don Blakeslee.

Wartime commander of US 4th Fighter Group.

September 11, 1918 - September 3rd 2008

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Blakeslee

R.I.P Colonel Blakeslee

 

[KittyT]

Eric Laufer, lead singer for the modern rockabilly band the Two Timin' Three was killed in a hit and run motorcycle accident in Austin, TX. He was 25 years old. His baby face and sweet, melancholy, lilting voice will be missed.

 

[Miss_Bella_Hell]

RIP, Eric. Click here to see bandmates Shane and Jeff remember him. http://www.myfoxaustin.com/myfox/ (click on Police searching for hit and run driver)

 

[LawnFlamingo]

I just heard about Eric on another site... there is nothing to even say.

 

[Feraud]

'Peanuts' animator Bill Melendez dies at 91
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080904/ap_on_en_tv/obit_melendez

Thu Sep 4, 6:53 AM ET



Bill Melendez, the animator who gave life to Snoopy, Charlie Brown and other "Peanuts" characters in scores of movies and TV specials, has died. He was 91.

Melendez died of natural causes Tuesday at St. John's Health Center, according to publicist Amy Goldsmith.

Melendez's nearly seven decades as a professional animator began in 1938 when he was hired by Walt Disney Studios and worked on Mickey Mouse cartoons and classic animated features such as "Pinocchio" and "Fantasia."

He went on to animate TV specials such as "A Charlie Brown Christmas" and was the voice of Snoopy, who never spoke intelligible words but issued expressive howls, sighs and sobs.

Melendez was born in 1916 in Hermosillo in the Mexican state of Sonora. He moved with his family to Arizona in 1928 and then to Los Angeles in the 1930s, attending the Chouinard Art Institute.

Melendez took part in a strike that led to the unionization of Disney artists in 1941, and later moved to Warner Bros., where he worked on Bugs Bunny, Porky Pig and Daffy Duck shorts.

In 1948, Melendez left Warner Bros. and over the next 15 years worked as a director and producer on more than 1,000 commercials and movies for United Productions of America, Playhouse Pictures and John Sutherland Productions.

At UPA, he helped animate "Gerald McBoing-Boing," which won the 1951 Academy Award for best cartoon short.

Melendez met "Peanuts" creator Charles M. Schulz in 1959 while creating Ford Motor Co. TV commercials featuring Peanuts characters.

The two became friends and Melendez became the only person Schulz authorized to animate his characters.

Melendez founded his own production company in 1964 and with his partner Lee Mendelson went on to produce, direct or animate some 70 "Peanuts" TV specials, four movies and hundreds of commercials.

The first special was 1965's "A Charlie Brown Christmas." The show reportedly worried CBS because it broke so much new ground for a cartoon: It lacked a laugh track, used real children as voice actors, had a jazz score and included a scene in which Linus recited lines from the New Testament.

However, the show was a ratings success and has gone on to become a Christmastime perennial.

Melendez created Emmy-winning specials based on the cartoon characters Cathy and Garfield, and was involved in animated versions of the Babar the elephant books and the C.S. Lewis book, "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe."

He also was co-nominee for an Academy Award in 1971 for the music for "A Boy Named Charlie Brown."

In all, his productions earned some 19 Emmy nominations, including six awards.

Melendez is survived by his wife Helen; sons Steven Melendez and (Ret.) Navy Rear Adm. Rodrigo Melendez, six grandchildren and 11 great-grandchildren.

 

[RIOT]

So sad. RIP Eric

 

[Warbaby]

Silent film star Anita Page died yesterday at the age of 98.

 

[metropd]

Two essential LPs to listen to and remember the genius of Isaac Hayes: Hot Buttered Soul and Live at the Sahara Tahoe which has the incredible 11+ minute version of "Ain't No Sunshine". Such a huge talent.

:eusa_clap :eusa_clap :eusa_clap :eusa_clap :eusa_clap :eusa_clap :eusa_clap :eusa_clap :eusa_clap :eusa_clap

 

[MrBern]

Martin K. Tytell, Typewriter Wizard, Dies at 94

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/12/nyregion/12tytell.html

Mr. Tytell worked on typewriters that could reproduce dozens of different alphabets appropriate for as many as 145 different languages and dialects — including Farsi and Serbo-Croatian, Thai and Korean, Coptic and Sanskrit, and ancient and modern Greek. He often said that he kept 2 million typefaces in stock.

He made a hieroglyphics typewriter for a museum curator, and typewriters with musical notes for musicians. He adapted keyboards for amputees and other wounded veterans. He invented a reverse-carriage device that enabled him to work in right-to-left languages like Arabic and Hebrew. An error he made on a Burmese typewriter, inserting a character upside down, became a standard, even in Burma.

“I’m 83 years old and I just signed a 10-year lease on this office; I’m an optimist, obviously,” Mr. Tytell told the writer Ian Frazier in a 1997 article in The Atlantic Monthly, commenting on the likelihood that typewriters weren’t going to last in the world much longer. “I hope they do survive — manual typewriters are where my heart is. They’re what keep me alive.”

 

[Warbaby]

R.I.P. Paul Newman

Hard to believe he was 83.