AP Features, September 6th, 2007
Jennifer Dunn
WASHINGTON (AP) _ Former Rep. Jennifer Dunn, who became the most powerful Republican woman in Washington state history during six terms representing Seattle's east-side suburbs, died Wednesday. She was 66.
Dunn a favorite of both Bush White Houses, was Washington state's ranking Republican in Congress when she retired in 2004. She told The Associated Press at the time that she was pursuing a new career as a policy adviser and planned to enjoy time with her new husband and baby granddaughter.
She died after developing a blood clot while at her Virginia home, her family said in a statement.
Dunn was known for her work on tax issues, promoting women-owned businesses and sponsoring the Amber Alert bill for locating missing children.
Dunn's political career was a series of firsts: first woman to chair the Washington State Republican Party; first freshman woman to win a place in the House Republican leadership team; and the highest ranking Republican woman in the GOP leadership as the vice chairman of the Conference.
Dunn was an influential senior member of the House Republican caucus, serving as a member of the Ways and Means Committee, vice chairwoman of the Homeland Security Committee and a member of the caucus campaign team. She was a frequent spokeswoman for the House, once giving the Republican response to a State of the Union Address by President Clinton. She helped run three Republican national conventions.
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Edward Gramlich
WASHINGTON (AP) _ Edward Gramlich, a former member of the Federal Reserve board who raised warnings about the housing boom, died Wednesday, current Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke confirmed. He was 68.
He died of leukemia.
A distinguished economics professor and the former dean of the School of Public Policy at the University of Michigan, Gramlich was appointed to the seven-member Fed board in 1997 by President Clinton. He served until August 2005 when he resigned to return to the University of Michigan, where he served as an acting provost in 2005 and 2006.
In June, Gramlich published "Subprime Mortgages: America's Latest Boom and Bust," a book that is likely to serve as a blueprint for Washington policymakers seeking to find ways to stem a rising tide of mortgage delinquencies and the steepest slump in housing in 16 years.
Gramlich had fallen ill during a trip to Africa in March. He was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia, an advanced cancer of the white blood cells. It was his second bout with cancer. While at the Fed in 2002, he was diagnosed with acute lymphocytic leukemia, a more treatable form of blood cancer.
In a statement, Bernanke praised Gramlich for his "leadership in consumer protection issues" and his work in helping to restructure the way the Fed's discount loan window operates. Bernanke, who had served on the Fed board with Gramlich, said, "Those who knew him will miss not only his penetrating insight and shining intelligence but also his great wit and warmth."
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Marcia Mae Jones
WOODLAND HILLS, Calif. (AP) _ Marcia Mae Jones, who starred as a child in such films as "The Champ" and "Heidi" and maintained an adult career in television Westerns and sitcoms, died Sunday. She was 83.
Her son, Tim Chic, said his mother died of pneumonia, which developed into a serious infection Friday. She had long suffered from bouts of pneumonia, he said. Jones died at the Motion Picture and Television Hospital.
Although she never achieved the stardom of Shirley Temple and Mickey Rooney, Jones played important roles in such films as "The Garden of Allah," "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer" and "These Three."
She started acting in films at age 2. Her son said she was proud of the fact that she was a founding member of the Screen Actors Guild at age 6.
Jones played teenage roles in such films as "Let's Go Collegiate" and "Secrets of a Co-Ed." As a grown-up, she acted in television sitcoms and in Westerns such as "Wild Bill Hickok." Her last major film appearance was in 1973's "The Way We Were."
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D. James Kennedy
MIAMI (AP) _ The Rev. D. James Kennedy, a pioneering Christian broadcaster and megachurch pastor whose fiercely conservative worldview helped fuel the rise of the religious right in American politics, died Wednesday. He was 76.
Kennedy died at his home in Fort Lauderdale from complications of a heart attack he suffered on Dec. 28, according to Kristin Cole, a spokeswoman for Kennedy's Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church. He had not been seen publicly since the heart attack, and his retirement was announced Aug. 26.
Kennedy was influential in the founding of the religious right, but did so more often from behind the scenes, as attention focused on his allies, the Revs. Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell.
In 1959, the pastor started his congregation with about 45 members, eventually expanding into a megachurch that claims 10,000 members today.
Dennis James Kennedy was born Nov. 3, 1930, in Augusta, Ga., and his family moved in 1936 to Chicago and in 1945 to Tampa. Kennedy's father was a traveling salesman whom he described as "long suffering," and his mother was an alcoholic. They were not churchgoers.
Kennedy dropped out of college to become an Arthur Murray dance instructor, but eventually returned to earn multiple degrees, including a doctorate from New York University. He met his future wife, the former Anne Lewis, while teaching dance.
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Max McNab
NEWARK, N.J. (AP) _ Max McNab, who won the Stanley Cup as a player with the Detroit Red Wings in 1950 and later served as the general manager of two NHL teams in a nearly 50-year hockey career, died Sunday. He was 83.
McNab suffered a massive stroke in Las Vegas on Saturday and died on Sunday, Peter McNab, his son and a former NHL player, said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press.
Max McNab joined the Red Wings in 1948 and as a rookie centered a line with Hall of Famers Gordie Howe and Ted Lindsay. His championship came two years later when the Red Wings won the Stanley Cup in double overtime of Game 7 against the New York Rangers.
After a back injury shortened his playing career, McNab got his first coaching job in 1952-53 with New Westminster of the WHL. He later coached in the league at San Francisco and Vancouver before becoming a coach-general manager for the San Diego Gulls.
McNab served two seasons as the president of the Central Hockey League before returning to the NHL as the general manager of the Washington Capitals from 1975-81. He joined the New Jersey Devils as vice president of hockey operations the following season and served as general manager from 1983-87. He served as executive vice president from 1987-1994, when he retired.
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Luciano Pavarotti
ROME (AP) _ Luciano Pavarotti, whose vibrant high C's and ebullient showmanship made him the most beloved and celebrated tenor since Caruso and one of the few opera singers to win crossover fame as a popular superstar, died Thursday. He was 71.
His manager, Terri Robson, said in an e-mailed statement that Pavarotti died at his home in Modena, Italy, at 5 a.m. local time. Pavarotti had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer last year and underwent further treatment in August.
For serious fans, the unforced beauty and thrilling urgency of Pavarotti's voice made him the ideal interpreter of the Italian lyric repertory, especially in the 1960s and '70s when he first achieved stardom. For millions more, his charismatic performances of standards like "Nessun Dorma" from Puccini's "Turandot" came to represent what opera is all about.
The son of a baker who was an amateur singer, Pavarotti was born Oct. 12, 1935, in Modena, Italy.
In 1961, Pavarotti won a local voice competition and with it a debut as Rodolfo in Puccini's "La Boheme."
He became a true media star in the mid-1970s, appearing in television commercials and mega-concerts outdoors and in stadiums around the world. Soon came joint concerts with pop stars. A concert in New York's Central Park in 1993 drew 500,000 fans.
Pavarotti's recording of "Volare" went platinum in 1988.
Instantly recognizable from his charcoal black beard and tuxedo-busting girth, Pavarotti teamed with Placido Domingo and Jose Carreras and toured as the "Three Tenors."
He starred in a film called "Yes, Giorgio" (though its failure scuttled his hopes for a Hollywood career) and appeared in a filmed version of "Rigoletto." He wrote an autobiography, "I, Luciano Pavarotti," and made more than 90 recordings.
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James Philomena
YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio (AP) _ James Philomena, a former Mahoning County prosecutor who was convicted of taking bribes to fix cases, died Sunday. He was 60.
Philomena died in hospice care after battling prostate cancer, said a business partner and restaurant owner, Anthony Pellegrini.
Philomena served as county prosecutor from 1989 until 1997, when he was defeated in a re-election bid by Paul Gains, who was subsequently shot and wounded by a man connected with local mobsters.
Philomena pleaded guilty in 1999 to conspiracy to violate the federal racketeering statute, making him one of the highest-ranking officials to be convicted as part of a U.S. Justice Department probe of organized crime in northeast Ohio. Two years later, Philomena pleaded guilty to state charges of bribery and perjury.
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Jimmy Lee Sudduth
FAYETTE, Ala. (AP) _ Jimmy Lee Sudduth, a folk artist known for painting with mud, berries and other elements to create compelling images of people, buildings and his dog, Toto, died Sunday. He was 97.
Sudduth, who had been in declining health, died at Fayette Medical Center in the rural west Alabama town where he first gained wide notice in the 1970s and 1980s.
His death was reported Wednesday by The Birmingham News and The Tuscaloosa News. His first name is spelled "Jimmie" in some exhibits.
A prolific, self-taught artist who began painting as a child, Sudduth's work has been exhibited at the Corcoran Gallery and the Smithsonian Institution's Festival of American Folklife, both in Washington, D.C., as well as museums in New Orleans, Birmingham, Montgomery and his home town of Fayette.
Until recent years, Sudduth was a fixture at the Kentuck Festival, which celebrates folk art as well as contemporary and traditional work. He would play harmonica solos and greet visitors with a wide smile.
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Miyoshi Umeki
LICKING, Mo. (AP) _ Actress Miyoshi Umeki, who won an Oscar for her performance as the doomed wife of an American serviceman in "Sayonara" and later starred in the Broadway musical "Flower Drum Song," died Aug. 28. She was 78.
The Japanese-born actress, the first Asian performer to win an Oscar, died at Licking nursing home, said Michael Hood, her son. Umeki died of cancer.
In "Sayonara," the 1957 film version of James A. Michener's best-selling novel, Umeki teamed with Red Buttons in a tragic subplot about a U.S. serviceman and local woman who fall in love in post-World War II Japan. They commit suicide rather than part when he is supposed to return to America.
Both won Oscars for their supporting roles, surprising fans to whom Umeki was unknown and Buttons was a television comedian.
Umeki was born May 8, 1929, in Otaru, Japan. She sang on Japanese radio and television and in the mid-1950s, then left for the United States.
Umeki retired from show business in the early 1970s and moved to Licking, a small town in the Missouri Ozarks, in the 1990s to be closer to her family, her son said. Her second husband, Randall F. Hood, died in 1976.
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Nathaniel "Nat" Washington
BELLINGHAM, Wash. (AP) _ Former state Sen. Nathaniel "Nat" Washington, a distant relative of the nation's first president who found a way to finance two major hydroelectric projects on the Columbia River, died Aug. 18. He was 93.
Washington, a Democrat who spent 30 years in the Legislature and worked across party lines to win funds for farm-to-market roads in his central Washington district, died after a brief illness in Bellingham, where he resided for the past two years, his son, Tom F. Washington of Kirkland, confirmed on Wednesday.
A direct descendant of George Washington's brother John, Nat Washington treasured the family connection and worked to debunk the stuffy reputation of the first U.S. president.
In addition to politics and practicing law, he taught archaeology and political science at Gonzaga University in Spokane and made himself an expert in Grant County history, interviewing tribal elders on their memories of growing up before reservations were established.
Washington served a two-year term in the state House and seven terms in the state Senate, retiring from the Legislature in 1979.
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J.D. Williams
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) _ J.D. Williams, a political scientist whose students included President Bush's adviser Karl Rove, died Monday. He was 81.
Williams, who was stricken with cancer, died at home.
"He was a mentor to thousands, a remarkable individual," Rove said.
Williams was a political scientist at the University of Utah for 40 years.
A Democrat, he was the first director of the school's Hinckley Institute of Politics and riled many conservative contributors when he called for President Richard Nixon's impeachment in 1973.
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Michael Woulfe
LOS ANGELES(AP) _ Hollywood costume designer Michael Woulfe, who created Judy Garland's gown for "A Star is Born" and barely covered Jane Russell for her role in "The French Line," died Aug. 30. He was 89.
Woulfe died of natural causes at the Motion Picture and Television Fund's hospital in Woodland Hills, spokeswoman Jennifer Fagen said Wednesday.
Woulfe began his costume designing career at 25, when he was tapped to dress Sylvia Sidney in the James Cagney production of "Blood on the Sun."
He worked under contract for RKO Studios, serving as head designer on more than 100 films. He designed gowns for Ava Gardner, Janet Leigh, Jean Simmons and Marilyn Monroe. But he was proudest of the dress he designed in 1954 for Garland in "A Star is Born."
Woulfe also designed costumes and dresses for Las Vegas nightclub acts by Garland, Lena Horne, Betty Hutten, Russell and Debbie Reynolds.
