AP News, May 6th, 2007
Prince Abdul-Majid bin Abdul-Aziz
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (AP) _ Prince Abdul-Majid bin Abdul-Aziz, the governor of the Islam's holy city of Mecca, died Saturday after a long illness, a Saudi Arabian royal statement said. He was 65.
Abdul-Majid, who was the half brother of Saudi King Abdullah, was flown to the United States where he died after sudden health deterioration, the statement said.
The brief statement did not provide other details about the cause of death or say exactly where the prince died in the U.S. It said he had undergone a surgery earlier and had traveled back to Saudi Arabia, but was flown back to the U.S. when his condition worsened.
Abdul-Majid was the 33rd son of the kingdom's founder, the late King Abdul-Aziz, who had 36 sons.
In 1985, the late King Fahd appointed Abdul-Majid, who has one son, Faisal, as governor of the holy city Medina. Fifteen years later, he became the governor of Mecca.
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Russell W. Kruse
AUBURN, Ind. (AP) _ Russell W. Kruse, the founder of Kruse International and whose company has grown into one of the world's leading collector car auction firms, died Friday. He was 85.
Kruse died at Lutheran Hospital in Fort Wayne of a massive stroke, Dave Feller, the president of the Feller and Clark Funeral Home in Auburn, said.
In 1952, Kruse established an Auburn real estate and auction business with his father-in-law, Lester Boger.
During the past 55 years, it's grown into a premier collector car auction company, selling more than 13,000 cars each year at events that draw crowds eager to see and bid on classic cars and everyday vehicles owned by celebrities.
Those have included a 1975 Ford Escort GL that Pope John Paul II used when he was a cardinal in Poland and the 1962 Ford ambulance that carried a mortally wounded Lee Harvey Oswald after he was wounded by Jack Ruby following the assassination of President Kennedy in Dallas.
For decades, Kruse, who had a good singing voice, would croon "Back Home Again in Indiana" before every auction at the auction house in Auburn, about 20 miles north of Fort Wayne.
Russell Kruse had slowed down in recent years after a stroke eight years ago, but he still enjoyed hunting and fishing. He went on a Canadian fishing trip last summer and had his bags packed for the trip the December before, his son joked.
Despite his aversion to cleaning fish, Kruse was an avid outdoorsman who raised excellent coyote-hunting dogs and loved being in nature, said Auburn attorney Donald Stuckey, a hunting and fishing partner.
