JANUARY
Claiborne Pell, 90. Six-term Rhode Island senator, force behind Pell college grants. Jan. 1.
Cornelia Wallace, 69. Gov. George Wallace's wife, who threw herself over him when he was shot in 1972. Jan. 8.

Preston Gomez, 85. Managed Padres, Astros, Cubs during long baseball career. Jan. 13.
Ricardo Montalban, 88. Actor in splashy MGM musicals; Mr. Roarke in Fantasy Island. Jan. 14.

Andrew Wyeth, 91. Artist whose portraits and landscapes combined realism, modern melancholy. Jan. 16.

John Updike, 76. Pulitzer-winning novelist, essayist. Jan. 27.
Ingemar Johansson, 76. Swede who knocked out Floyd Patterson in 1959, stunning boxing world. Jan. 30.

FEBRUARY
Millard Fuller, 74. Founded Habitat for Humanity. Feb. 3.

Jack Cover, 88. Invented Taser stun gun. Feb. 7.

Paul Harvey, 90. Radio news, talk pioneer; one of nation's most familiar voices. Feb. 28.

MARCH
Horton Foote, 92. Playwright (The Trip to Bountiful), screenwriter (To Kill a Mockingbird). March 4.

Ron Silver, 62. Won Tony as tough Hollywood producer in David Mamet's Speed-the-Plow. March 15.

Natasha Richardson, 45. Heiress to British acting royalty (Patty Hearst). March 18. Skiing accident.

George Kell, 86. Hall of Fame third baseman; Tigers broadcaster. March 24

John Hope Franklin, 94. Towering scholar of African-American studies. March 25.

Jack Dreyfus, 95. Mutual fund pioneer. March 27.

APRIL
Dave Arneson, 61. Co-created Dungeons & Dragons fantasy game. April 7.

Mark “The Bird” Fidrych, 54. Colorful Detroit Tigers pitcher; captivated fans in '70s. April 13. Accident.

Bea Arthur, 86. Her sharp delivery propelled Maude, The Golden Girls; won Tony for Mame. April 25.

MAY
Jack Kemp, 73. Quarterback turned politician who crusaded for lower taxes, was Bob Dole's running-mate. May 2.

Dom DeLuise, 75. Portly actor with offbeat style (The Cannonball Run). May 4.

Chuck Daly, 78. Hall of Fame basketball coach; led Dream Team to 1992 Olympic gold. May 9.

George Tiller, 67. Physician who performed later-term abortions at his Kansas clinic, making him focus of protests. May 31. Shot to death.

Millvina Dean, 97. Last survivor of Titanic sinking; was nine weeks old. May 31.

JUNE
Koko Taylor, 80. Regal, powerful singer known as “Queen of the Blues.” June 3.

David Carradine, 72. Actor (Kung Fu, Kill Bill). June 4.

Omar Bongo, 73. He ruled Gabon for 42 years, making him world's longest-serving president. June 8.

John Houghtaling, 92. Invented “Magic Fingers Vibrating Bed” for hotels. June 17.

Dr. Jerri Nielsen FitzGerald, 57. She treated her breast cancer before dramatic rescue from South Pole in 1999. June 23. Recurrence of cancer.

Ed McMahon, 86. Ebullient Tonight show sidekick who bolstered Johnny Carson. June 23.

Farrah Fawcett, 62. 1970s sex symbol, star of Charlie's Angels. June 25.

Michael Jackson, 50. The King of Pop. June 25.

Billy Mays, 50. Burly, bearded television pitchman. June 28. Heart disease.

JULY
Karl Malden, 97. Oscar-winning actor; a star despite his plain looks (A Streetcar Named Desire). July 1.

Steve McNair, 36. Popular Tennessee Titans quarterback. July 4. Shot to death.

Bela Kiraly, 97. A leader of Hungary's short-lived anti-Soviet revolution in 1956. July 4.

Robert S. McNamara, 93. Pentagon chief who directed escalation of Vietnam War despite private doubts. July 6.

Walter Cronkite, 92. Premier TV anchorman of networks' golden age. July 17.

Frank McCourt, 78. He gained post-retirement fame, and a Pulitzer, for Angela's Ashes. July 19.

AUGUST
Corazon Aquino, 76. Former Philippines president who swept away a dictator with 1986 “people power” revolt. Aug. 1.

John Hughes, 59. Writer-director of youth-oriented comedies (Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Home Alone). Aug. 6. Heart attack.

Eunice Kennedy Shriver, 88. Founded Special Olympics to bring new opportunities to mentally disabled. Aug. 11.

Les Paul, 94. Guitar virtuoso; invented solid-body electric guitar and multitrack recording. Aug. 13.

Kim Dae-jung, 85. Dissident who became South Korean president; won Nobel Peace Prize for efforts to reconcile with North Korea. Aug. 18.

Robert Novak, 78. Combative conservative pundit who loved “making life miserable for hypocritical, posturing politicians.” Aug. 18.

Don Hewitt, 86. TV news pioneer who created 60 Minutes, produced it for 36 years. Aug. 19.

Stanley H. Kaplan, 90. His company helped young people boost college admissions test scores. Aug. 23.

Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, 77. Senate's liberal lion and haunted bearer of the Camelot torch. Aug. 25.

Adam “DJ AM” Goldstein, 36. Celebrity disc jockey; also a reality TV figure who attempted to help fellow drug addicts. Aug. 28. Overdose.

SEPTEMBER
Army Archerd, 87. His Daily Variety column kept tabs on Hollywood doings for more than a half-century. Sept. 8.

Jim Carroll, 60. Poet, punk rocker; wrote The Basketball Diaries. Sept. 11. Heart attack.

Larry Gelbart, 81. Slyly witty writer for stage and screen (Tootsie, M*A*S*H ). Sept. 11.

Norman Borlaug 95. Iowa farm boy who became acclaimed scientist, developed a type of wheat that helped feed the world. Sept. 12.

Patrick Swayze, 57. Dancer turned movie superstar in Dirty Dancing, Ghost. Sept. 14. Pancreatic cancer.

Jody Powell, 65. President Jimmy Carter's press secretary, top adviser. Sept. 14.

Melvin Simon, 82. Billionaire mall developer; owned Indiana Pacers. Sept. 16.

Mary Travers, 72. One-third of 1960s folk trio Peter, Paul, and Mary (“If I Had a Hammer”). Sept. 16.

Susan Atkins, 61. Member of Charles Manson “family”; killed actress Sharon Tate. Sept. 24.

William Safire, 79. Pulitzer-winning New York Times columnist. Sept. 27.

OCTOBER
Marek Edelman, 90. Last surviving leader of ill-fated 1943 Warsaw ghetto revolt against Nazis. Oct. 2.

Howard Unruh, 88. He killed 13 in 1949 Camden, N.J., shooting spree, nation's worst mass murder at the time. Oct. 19.

Soupy Sales, 83. Rubber-faced comedian whose career was built on thousands of pies to the face. Oct. 22.

John O'Quinn, Flamboyant Texas lawyer; won billions in verdicts. Oct. 29.

Claude Levi-Strauss, 100. French intellectual who was considered father of modern anthropology Oct. 30.

NOVEMBER
Francisco Ayala, 103. Spanish novelist, sociologist; in exile during Franco dictatorship. Nov. 3.

Vitaly Ginzburg, 93. Nobel-winning Russian physicist, helped develop Soviet hydrogen bomb. Nov. 8.

Abe Pollin, 85. Washington Wizards owner who brought an NBA championship to nation's capital. Nov. 24.

DECEMBER
Jack Pitchford, 82. Air Force fighter pilot; survived seven years in North Vietnam's notorious “Hanoi Hilton.” Dec. 2.

Richard Todd, 90. Acclaimed British actor (The Longest Day). Dec. 3.

Paula Hawkins, 82. Former Florida senator, first woman elected to a full Senate term without family political connection. Dec. 4.

Thomas Hoving, 78. Former director of New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art who championed the “blockbuster” exhibit. Dec. 10.

Paul Samuelson, 94. Economist who won a Nobel prize, helped shape JFK's tax policy and wrote a textbook read by millions. Dec. 13.

Dale R. Wright, 86. Noted black journalist who was the first reporter to integrate the newsroom at the old New York World-Telegram and Sun newspaper. Dec. 13.

Oral Roberts, 91. TV evangelist who built a multimillion-dollar ministry and a university that bears his name. Dec. 15.

Retired Col. Robert Lewis Howard, 70. Most decorated American soldier, according to the funeral home obituary who was awarded Medal of Honor and eight Purple Hearts. Dec. 16.

Jennifer Jones, 90. Oscar-winning actress (The Song of Bernadette). Dec. 17.

Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri, 87. The spiritual father of Iran's reform movement. Dec. 20.

Brittany Murphy, 32. Actress who got her start in the sleeper hit Clueless and rose to stardom in 8 Mile before her movie roles declined in recent years. Dec. 20.

James Gurley, 69. Innovative guitarist who helped shape psychedelic rock's multilayered, sometimes thundering sounds as a member of Big Brother and the Holding Company, the band that propelled Janis Joplin to fame. Dec. 20

Dennis Brutus, 85. South African poet and former political prisoner who fought apartheid in words and deeds and remained an activist well after the fall of his country's racist system. Dec. 21.

Vic Chesnutt, 45. Folk-rocker whose sometimes dark reflections on life were influenced in part by a car wreck that left him paralyzed, has died. Dec. 25.

Percy Sutton, 89. Pioneering civil rights attorney who represented Malcolm X before beginning careers as a political power broker and media mogul. Dec. 26.

>Susan Atkins, 61. Member of Charles Manson “family”; killed actress Sharon Tate. Sept. 24.

>Howard Unruh, 88. He killed 13 in 1949 Camden, N.J., shooting spree, nation's worst mass murder at the time. Oct. 19.


Good to see 2009 wasn't ALL doom and gloom then....

RIP-John "Marmaduke" Dawson- NRPS-July 21, 2009

Sobering list....:( We lost a lot of icons this year. :'(

I guess the biggest or I should say well known is Michael Jackson, Christ, now their coming up with remembering what you did when you heard M.J. died, like it was Kennedy or something, he's big, but he's not that big with me.

Is this the point where we politely applaud,like at the Oscars.

Mustn't forget Willy DeVille.

we lost alot of good punk rockers this year...
RIP Lux Interior

One of my favorites!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=42nMkSNmCzM

Yeah well when your number is up, it's up. Death is part of life, like a newborn baby it just happens every day.

Lucky for us the Stone's are still with us. Sad will be the day when one of our boys makes this list, what will we do then? Carry on endless tributes and shrines, mourning and crying. I dont want to think of it yet but I dread the day we get that news.

Dad.  

This sketch ran for years next to his monthly column in Sports Afield.

---

I'm so sorry, Zach...:(:(

Wonderful sketch. Really.

Zack wrote on Jan 5^th, 2010 at 1:52pm:

Dad.   This sketch ran for years next to his monthly column in Sports Afield.

Sorry about your dad Zack.  That sketch of him is really cool!  

Thanks folks.  It was last January 17 so I've had a good while to deal with it.  

He WAS cool though.  Got me up at 4 a.m. to hunt ducks, ran me down rapids in a canoe counting on my to avoid the rocks, won sailboat racing championships on the Shrewsbury River, caught bonefish in the Bahamas, and shot gazelle in Tanzania.  A real man's man.  

A modern-day Hemingway, who was his hero, of course.

I'm really sorry to hear about that Zack, one's Father is a real loss, that really hurts.

Zack wrote on Jan 6^th, 2010 at 8:40am:

Thanks folks.  It was last January 17 so I've had a good while to deal with it.   He WAS cool though.  Got me up at 4 a.m. to hunt ducks, ran me down rapids in a canoe counting on my to avoid the rocks, won sailboat racing championships on the Shrewsbury River, caught bonefish in the Bahamas, and shot gazelle in Tanzania.  A real man's man.   A modern-day Hemingway, who was his hero, of course.

What a fascinating life! Would make a wonderful book...:)

Zack wrote on Jan 5^th, 2010 at 1:52pm:

Dad.   This sketch ran for years next to his monthly column in Sports Afield.

Sorry about your dad Zack ~ was he a sports writer?  Thats cool!

Outdoor sports, like boating, hunting, and fishing.  Not games.