AP Features, November 18th, 2007
Harold Alfond
AUGUSTA, Maine (AP) — Harold Alfond, founder of the Dexter shoe business and a philanthropist who donated tens of millions of dollars, has died. He was 93.
Gov. John Baldacci's office announced Alfond's death. A spokesman said the governor spoke to Alfond's family after his death Friday morning.
A native of Swampscott, Mass., Alfond was in Maine to be treated for cancer at the time of his death. He was planning to return home to Palm Beach, Fla.
Alfond shared his wealth from the Dexter Shoe Co. with the University of Maine, to which he gave more than $8 million, and other causes from college and community athletic centers to a cancer treatment center in Augusta that bears his name.
The Harold Alfond Foundation has given more than $100 million to charitable causes, said Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine. In 2005, it had more than $50 million in assets, according to the New York-based Foundation Center.
Alfond started Dexter Shoe in 1958 after buying an old woolen mill in the town of Dexter. At its peak, the company manufactured 7.5 million pairs of shoes annually.
The company thrived by offering a high-quality shoe for a reasonable price, but gradually foreign competition affected business.
In 1993, Berkshire-Hathaway Inc. agreed to buy Dexter Shoe for stock worth about $420 million. A few years later, the company's manufacturing plants in Maine began closing, and by 2001 all Dexter shoes were being made in other countries.
In June 2007, Payless ShoeSource Inc. became the exclusive U.S. seller of Dexter brand shoes, which include casual and athletic footwear, boots, golf and bowling shoes, and accessories.
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John H. Cross Jr.
ATLANTA (AP) — The Rev. John H. Cross Jr., who dug through the rubble of his Alabama church looking for survivors of a bombing, then presided over a funeral for some of the youngest victims of civil rights-era violence, has died. He was 82.
Cross, who had been in failing health since a series of strokes, including internal bleeding and other medical problems, died Thursday at DeKalb Medical at Hillandale, his daughter, Barbara, said in a telephone interview Saturday.
In 1962, he became pastor of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, which had become a haven for civil rights activities. On Sept. 15, 1963, a bomb went off during preparations for a youth service.
Barbara Cross, who was 13 at the time of the bombing and was inside the church but not seriously injured, remembers that her father started digging through the debris right after the explosion.
The elder Cross later presided over a mass funeral for three of the four girls killed by the blast. The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered the eulogy.
In the years after the bombing, Cross focused on reconciliation among people of all races. Three ex-Klansmen were convicted in the bombing.
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Wayne Dehoney
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — The Rev. Wayne Dehoney, who was president of the Southern Baptist Convention for two terms in the 1960s and later became pastor of Louisville's oldest Baptist church, has died. He was 89.
Dehoney, ill since a serious stroke in 1996, died Thursday, daughter Kathy Dehoney Evitts said.
He began an 18-year ministry at Walnut Street Baptist Church in downtown Louisville in 1967, leading the church into its television ministry and the development of nearly an entire city block surrounding the church.
His moderate stance on theological and social issues helped Dehoney become president of the Southern Baptist Convention for two consecutive years. There were 10 million members during his first term and 10.5 million members by his second year as president, the largest Protestant denomination in the country. He was pastor of the 2,000-member First Baptist Church of Jackson, Tenn., at the time.
Dehoney went on missionary tours around the world and had been president of the Southern Baptist Pastors Conference and a leader in the Baptist World Alliance, which focused on missions, human rights and religious freedom.
Upon his retirement from Walnut Street in 1985, Dehoney was named a senior professor at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. He also had been a trustee of the seminary.
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Martha Kostyra
HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — Martha Kostyra, whose daughter Martha Stewart credits her with teaching her many domestic tricks and techniques, has died at a hospital near her home in Weston. She was 93.
Stewart announced her mother's death Saturday on her blog, and Weston selectman Glenn Major confirmed the death.
Kostyra, a retired teacher whose family long ago nicknamed her "Big Martha," died Friday at Norwalk Hospital of undisclosed causes, according to a notice published Saturday in local newspapers.
Kostyra and her husband, the late Edward Kostyra, raised the future domestic doyenne and her five siblings in Nutley, N.J., where, Stewart said, she learned many tricks of what later turned into her trade.
In an appearance together in December 2003 on CNN's "Larry King Live," Kostyra described herself as "very proud" of her daughter's accomplishments.
Until recently, Martha Stewart lived in a Colonial-era estate in Westport, not far from her mother's Weston home. Stewart put the estate on the market and now lives primarily in Katonah, N.Y., about 20 miles away.
Some of Stewart's siblings still live near Kostyra's Weston home, including a sister who lives in town and was often spotted on errands with the matriarch.
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Robert E. McNair
COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — Former Gov. Robert E. McNair, who helped guide the state through a turbulent era of race relations, including the deadly clash between state troopers and black college students known as the Orangeburg Massacre, has died. He was 83.
McNair, who was found to have brain cancer in September, died in Charleston early Saturday, said O. Wayne Corley, senior shareholder at the McNair Law Firm.
The Democrat was elected lieutenant governor in 1962. He became governor in April 1965 and was elected to a full term in 1966, serving until January 1971.
During his time in office, McNair was considered a moderate on civil rights. He appointed more blacks to state commissions and boards than any of his predecessors.
Still, he encountered criticism after highway patrolmen opened fire on a civil rights protest at the former South Carolina State College in Orangeburg, killing three students and wounding 27 others on Feb. 8, 1968.
Many blamed the governor for not having better control of the situation at the historically black school, which is now known as South Carolina State University. McNair refused to speak about the subject for years. But in a biography published in 2006, he took full responsibility.
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Masakazu Yoshizawa
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Masakazu Yoshizawa, a musician whose mastery of traditional Japanese flutes graced the soundtracks of "Memoirs of a Geisha," "The Joy Luck Club" and other films, has died. He was 57.
Yoshizawa died Oct. 24 of stomach cancer at his San Gabriel home, his family said.
Yoshizawa was asked by composer John Williams to play a bamboo flute called the shakuhachi and other Japanese instruments for the "Geisha" soundtrack.
The Oscar-nominated score was later adapted by Williams into a concert suite that featured Yoshizawa and Yo-Yo Ma on cello.
Yoshizawa played on soundtracks for dozens of films, including "Jurassic Park," "Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story" and the "Karate Kid" sequels. He also played the shakuhachi on the 1980 miniseries "Shogun."
Born in Takayama, Japan, Yoshizawa played the accordion, piano, Western woodwinds and the shakuhachi as a child. By 19, he was performing with orchestras in Tokyo and as a studio musician.
After studying at Tokyo National University of Fine Arts & Music in the early 1970s, he moved to Los Angeles and worked as a musician.
