The RIP Famous Person Thread

[S Landreth]

• Paula Murphy, Once ‘the Fastest Woman on Wheels,’ Dies at 95

Paula Murphy, a leading female car racer in an era when land speed records thrilled the American public, died on Thursday at an assisted living facility in Prescott, Ariz. She was 95.

Her death was confirmed by her son, Dan Murphy, who said her health had declined after she broke her femur in May.

Ms. Murphy gained attention in the 1960s and ’70s when she set records for women in drag racing, in stock car racing, in U.S. transcontinental driving, on a closed-course track and on the Bonneville Salt Flats, the Utah staging ground where land speed records were broken. Craig Breedlove’s exploits on the salt flats inspired a 1963 Beach Boys song named after his jet-powered car, “Spirit of America.”

In the late 1970s and ’80s, Shirley Muldowney became known for winning drag races against men; in the 2000s, Danica Patrick won a race in the IndyCar Series. Ms. Murphy was never as prominent as either of them, but she was notable for proving in an earlier era that women had the nerve and the skill to race very fast cars.

She first made national news in 1964 when she became the first woman to zoom across the salt flats in a jet-engine car, setting a speed record for women.

Her vehicle was built by Walt Arfons, who was in the thick of competing against his half brother, Art, and Mr. Breedlove. It spewed a 10-foot flame; its engine screamed; it could be controlled not by steering so much as by the deployment of parachutes.

The car was designed for a man, and when Ms. Murphy got into the cockpit, she could not reach the brake pedal. A big pillow was stuffed behind her back, which raised her up in the seat, exposing her upper body to the full blast of the wind. Before taking off, she said later, she had not received many instructions beyond being told where the accelerator was.

Her sponsor, the racing promoter Andy Granatelli, said he would pay her expenses plus $10 for every mile per hour she achieved.

Ms. Murphy had to contend with wet conditions. Her vehicle fishtailed for about 1,000 feet and came to a stop in four inches of water. She achieved an average speed of 226.37 m.p.h., breaking her own woman’s land speed record of 161.29, set the previous year.

“I feel I’m doing what not too many women do,” she told The Akron Beacon Journal in 1964. “It’s kind of a pioneer spirit. And I get a thrill from the speed. It’s the idea of being in control of this big machine.”

In 1975, The New York Times reported that she was known as “the fastest woman on wheels.” By then, she was a racer full time.

“I’m an oddity, a rarity, and that helps,” she told The Anniston Star of Alabama in an interview during her successful years. “I have 60 to 70 bookings every year.”

Being presented as the world’s inaugural female racecar driver was not always pleasant. “She prepares to sit down in the most unusual office ever occupied by a pretty young lass in a miniskirt,” one TV newscaster said over footage of her approaching her car. In 1964, Sports Illustrated referred to her as a “girl” and a “29-year-old brunette.” She was actually 36, and divorced.

In 1963, she became the first woman to drive laps at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. “They had me putting on lipstick and patting my hair and giving everyone goo-goo eyes for all the cameras,” Ms. Murphy told the author Erik Arneson for his book “The Fastest Woman on Wheels: The Life of Paula Murphy,” which was published in August. “I did what I was asked to do.”

Interviewers frequently asked Ms. Murphy about what in the 1970s was called “women’s lib.” She tended to reply the same way: “I was doing my own thing before those two words were ever uttered.”

Paula Muhlhauser was born on June 16, 1928, and grew up in Cleveland. Her father, Paul, was a tool designer who built his own sailboats and raced them in his spare time. Her mother, Libbie (Kuchenbecker) Muhlhauser, was an X-ray technician who became a homemaker.

As a girl, Paula competed in speedskating and sailboat racing and in equestrian shows.

She graduated from the University of Cincinnati in 1949 with a degree in health and physical education. She got a job in human resources at General Electric and married a colleague, Dan Murphy. In 1953, she gave birth to her son.

The couple moved to Southern California for the sake of Mr. Murphy’s career in aerospace sales, but they divorced in 1956. By the time Danny was 10, the family did not even know where Mr. Murphy was, leaving Ms. Murphy to raise him on her own, with the help of her father.

She worked at Marquardt, an aerospace engineering firm in North Hollywood. Friends at work took her to car races. She was fond of saying that her first impression was that they were about as interesting as watching grass grow. Her views changed when she got the chance to race herself.

In 1973, when she was racing a rocket-powered car called the Pollution Packer at the Sears Point Raceway (now the Sonoma Raceway) in Northern California, her parachutes came off her car. She flew off the end of the track at about 300 m.p.h., gained about 70 feet of altitude and crashed. She broke her neck.

At the time, fatal crashes were disturbingly common in racing. Jessi Combs, whose 522.783 m.p.h. is the current woman’s land speed record, crashed and died in 2019 when she decelerated on a dry lake bed in Oregon.

Ms. Murphy retired from racing in the late 1970s and became a buyer for Rocketdyne, a rocket engine company in Los Angeles.

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/26/s...rphy-dead.html

Paula Murphy - American Hot Rod Foundation

[harrybarracuda]

A man with his heart in the right place.


As far as I know

Did some admirable work, especially related to Cambodia.

But his Putin arselicking towards the end tarnished his legacy somewhat.

[S Landreth]

Architect of modern EU Jacques Delors dies aged 98

Former European Commission President Jacques Delors - described as the architect of the modern EU - has died aged 98, his daughter says.

He helped create the single market allowing the free movement of people, goods and services within the bloc.

Serving from 1985 to 1995, Delors also laid the groundwork for the single European currency, the euro.

But for those sceptical of integration, especially in the UK, he was seen as a symbol of Brussels meddling.

A headline by British tabloid The Sun once famously shouted: "Up Yours, Delors."

Delors' daughter Martine Aubry said he had died in his sleep on Wednesday morning in his Paris home.

French President Emmanuel Macron praised Delors, who also served as French finance minister from 1981-84, as a "statesman with a French destiny" and "inexhaustible craftsman of our Europe".

"His commitment, his ideals and his righteousness will always inspire us," he said. "I salute his work and his memory and share the pain of his loved ones."

He served three terms as European Commission president, longer than anyone else.

Ursula von der Leyen, who currently holds the post, said he was "a visionary who made our Europe stronger".

European Council President Charles Michel described him as a "great Frenchman and a great European" who had "entered history as one of the builders of our Europe".

A French Socialist, he was a firm believer in post-war integration.

As well as the single market and the euro, his tenure at the top of the EU saw the creation of the Schengen agreement for travel and the Erasmus programme for student exchanges.

But for the UK's ruling Conservative Party under Margaret Thatcher, moves towards a federal Europe were seen as anathema.

Thatcher described the 1989 Delors report calling for economic and monetary union as unacceptable, because it would wrest many economic policies from the hands of the British Parliament.

Lord Clarke of Nottingham, who as Kenneth Clarke served in Thatcher's cabinet, told BBC Radio 4's PM programme she shared Delors' vision of a single market, but suspected him of also wanting a political union, which she was against.

"The truth was that Jacques Delors and Margaret Thatcher deeply disliked each other personally, they hated each other for personal and political reasons," he added.

Former UK opposition leader Neil Kinnock told the programme he was a "very polite, calm, highly intelligent man, a problem-solver" and not a "fanatical federalist" as Thatcher tried to portray him.

On leaving his post in 1995, Delors declined to stand for the French presidency, despite a huge lead in the polls.

He remained true to his federalist ideals. More recently, he warned of the dangers of populism in Europe, calling for bold moves in the wake of Brexit.

[malmomike77]

Batman is dead. Quite frankly there is no smoke without fire and she was protected by some very high profile vested interests


Camila Batmanghelidjh, founder of controversial Kids Company, dies aged 61


Charity leader ‘dedicated her life to advocating for Britain’s most vulnerable children’, her family says


The Iranian-Belgian social justice campaigner, who started the charity in south London in 1996 to support deprived and vulnerable children and young people living in cities, is said to have died on New Year’s Day after a lengthy illness.


She was forced to step down from Kids Company in 2015 following allegations that money awarded to children was spent on designer clothes, alcohol and drugs. She was later cleared of wrongdoing.


A bid to bar her from running other organisations was thrown out by the High Court.


Despite proceedings being brought at the High Court in London by the Official Receiver against her and seven of its former trustees, in a ruling in 2021, Mrs Justice Falk concluded that no disqualification order should be made against either Batmanghelidjh or the trustees.


The organisation was given a substantial grant for the year before being awarded a further £3 million by David Cameron’s government, despite it being deemed not value for money. It was also reported that Batmanghelidjh was paying herself a £90,000 salary.


Police looked into the allegations of mismanagement but found there was no evidence of wrongdoing.


Later that year, the charity collapsed following unsubstantiated reports of sexual abuse.


In a 2015 interview with The Telegraph, Batmanghelidjh said: “I know that some people feel disappointment and hatred towards me. But I think that’s part of the journey too. I have to carry it with grace and be prepared to be hated with grace.”


The charity attracted backers including Lord Cameron, Coldplay, the artist Damien Hirst and the comedian Michael McIntyre.


Camila Batmanghelidjh was successful in courting powerful supporters for her charitable efforts, including David Cameron ...
Camila Batmanghelidjh was successful in courting powerful supporters for her charitable efforts, including David Cameron ... CREDIT: PA
... and the future King, with whom she is pictured in 1998
... and the future King, with whom she is pictured in 1998 CREDIT: PA
Kids Company reportedly received more than £40 million of government funding over 15 years, including £3 million days before it collapsed.


A postgraduate student who worked for several months as an intern at the charity’s London headquarters said Batmanghelidjh’s office looked like an “Aladdin’s den, with a tree in the middle, it was bizarre.


“I was so pro-Kids Company, but even on day one I just couldn’t believe the waste. The ethos is great and when she first started I think she was very well-intentioned, but having the attention of celebrities around her, her ego seems just to have got bigger and bigger.


“I feel that the charity may have become caught up in the attention of the media and powerful politicians, as well as becoming overzealous when hiring staff.”


In a statement on Tuesday, Batmanghelidjh’s family said: “It is with great sadness that the family of Camila Batmanghelidjh announce her passing. She died peacefully in her sleep the night of Jan 1, following a birthday celebration with her family.


“Camila dedicated her life to advocating for Britain’s most vulnerable children. She was the founder of two groundbreaking charities, Place2Be and Kids Company, which pioneered new therapeutic and clinical models to achieve a singular goal: ‘To see children and young people become safe and able to realise their potential.’”


Paying tribute on Tuesday night, her friend Steve Chalke wrote on X, formerly Twitter,: “My dear friend Camila Batmanghelidjh has died today. I’ll forever be grateful for her wisdom and depth of love for children.”


Harriet Harman, the Labour MP for Camberwell and Peckham, wrote: “Such a sad loss. So many children and young people benefitted from her big heart. RIP.”


Batmanghelidjh, who became known as the “Angel of Peckham” after setting up Kids Company, went on to work for a number of charities including Oasis Community Learning, now one of the largest multi-academy trusts in England, and vulnerable families.


She went on to write the book Child Protection in Britain, which looks at a range of abuse, including rape and sustained childhood violence.


She was named alongside JK Rowling and Theresa May as one of the most 100 powerful women in Britain in a 2013 list by BBC Radio 4 and was also awarded a CBE.

Camila Batmanghelidjh, Kids Company founder, dies aged 61

[harrybarracuda]

Glynis Johns dead: Tony-winning actress dies at 100



Actress Glynis Johns, known as Mrs. Banks in Mary Poppins, died Thursday at the age of 100.
Johns was living at an assisted living facility in Los Angeles, California, at the time of her death. She died of natural causes.

"Today’s a sad day for Hollywood," Johns's manager Mitch Clem said. "She is the last of the last of old Hollywood."

Johns had roles in the 1999 movie Superstar, While You Were Sleeping in 1995, and The Court Jester in 1955. However, she was also a Broadway actress, and she debuted Stephen Sondheim's "Send in the Clowns" from the musical A Little Night Music. She won her only Tony for the performance.

Sondheim wrote the song with Johns in mind, but it earned further fame when Frank Sinatra covered it in 1973, and the song subsequently went gold. Just two years later, Judy Collins would record her own cover, which remained on the Billboard Hot 100 Songs for 11 consecutive weeks. Olivia Newton-John and Barbara Streisand would also record their own versions.

Throughout her career, Johns was nominated for an Academy Award and an Oscar for her movie performances.
Johns is survived by one grandson and three great-grandchildren.

Glynis Johns dead: Tony-winning actress dies at 100 | Washington Examiner

[S Landreth]

• Cale Yarborough, Hall of Fame NASCAR Driver, Dies at 84 - The New York Times

Cale Yarborough, who won three consecutive NASCAR Winston Cup Series championships and whose 83 victories tied him for sixth place on the winners’ list, died on Sunday. He was 84.

He had been battling a rare genetic disorder, his family told The Associated Press.

At the peak of his success, Yarborough won nine races in 1976, nine in 1977 and 10 in 1978, capturing the points championship each time. His feat wasn’t equaled until 2008, when Jimmie Johnson matched it. Yarborough was also the series championship runner-up in 1973 and 1974, and again in 1980.

He won the Daytona 500 four times (1968, 1977, 1983 and 1984), second only to Richard Petty’s seven victories.

But for all his achievements, Yarborough was remembered especially for a race he didn’t win, the Daytona 500 in February 1979, the first NASCAR event to be televised in its entirety to a national audience.

Yarborough and Donnie Allison, the brother of Bobby Allison, another of NASCAR’s greatest names, thumped each other several times on the backstretch while vying for the lead. Both Yarborough and Donnie Allison lost control of their cars near the finish, went spinning off the track and wound up unhurt in a grassy area while Richard Petty zoomed to victory.

Moments later, Yarborough and Bobby Allison, who had been out of contention, engaged in a fistfight. The eastern United States had been hit by a Sunday snowstorm, leaving thousands without much to do but watch TV. Most of these viewers had presumably never seen a major stock-car race and tuned in to the CBS network out of curiosity.

The fight between two good old boys from down South — Yarborough, a native of South Carolina, and Bobby Allison, from Alabama — provided an entertaining few minutes for viewers who had only modest interest in the race itself.

That fight transformed NASCAR from a niche sport in the South to a national attraction.

“It put NASCAR on the nationwide map,” Petty told The Tampa Bay Times in 2019. “People thought racing was a Southern sport deal, and they saw the rednecks come out there at the end. It was the perfect storm, the snowstorm, everybody watching, how the race ended.”

Remembering his duel for the lead with Donnie Allison some 30 years later, Yarborough said: “I had the fastest car and had it set up to where I could slingshot him on the last lap. That may have been a mistake on my part. I should maybe have gone on and passed him, gone on and won the race handily. I was trying to make a show out of it. Unfortunately, it really came out to be a show. It was one of the best things ever happened in NASCAR.”

Yarborough said that he reconciled with the Allisons the next day.

William Caleb Yarborough was born on March 27, 1939, in the tiny community of Sardis, S.C., near Timmonsville, the oldest of three sons of Julian Yarborough, a tobacco farmer, and his wife, Annie. His father was killed in a private airplane crash when Cale was 10 years old or so. A year or two later, Cale got his first taste of auto racing when he attended the Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway in South Carolina. While a teenager, he lied about his age so he could race there.

Yarborough was a football star at Timmonsville High School and received an athletic scholarship to Clemson University, whose team was coached by Frank Howard, who would spend 30 years with the Tigers. But Yarborough told Howard that he had to delay his arrival on campus to race in a NASCAR event.

“He said: ‘If you go back, pack your clothes, don’t come back. You either go and race or play football,’” Yarborough quoted Howard as saying in a 2008 interview with The New York Times. “So I packed my clothes and left. Of course, he kept calling. I said: ‘You told me to pack my clothes, and that’s what I did. I’m going to make racing my career.’”

At the peak of his success, Yarborough won nine races in 1976, nine in 1977 and 10 in 1978, capturing the points championship each time.Credit...ISC Archives/CQ-Roll Call Group, via Getty Images

He made his NASCAR debut in 1957, driving in the Southern 500 and finishing 42nd. His first victory came in 1965 at a 200-lap race in Valdosta, Ga. His last victory came at the Atlanta Journal 500 in 1988, his final season.

Yarborough had career winnings of slightly more than $5 million. While continuing to live in Sardis, where he had a farm, he owned a Honda dealership in Florence, S.C.

He was inducted into the NASCAR Hall of Fame in 2012 and the Motorsports Hall of Fame in 1994.

“He would not quit,” Junior Johnson, Yarborough’s car owner during his championship seasons, once told the publication Autoweek. “I think if he was in a situation where he had to get out of a racecar because of his stamina, it would be the most embarrassing thing that ever happened to him.”

Survivors include his wife, Betty Jo, and his daughters, Julie, Kelley and B.J.

Howard, the coach at Clemson, became a fan of Yarborough, who certainly did not “starve.”

“I’ll never forget that he was at Talladega when I won a race there,” Yarborough once said. “He was in the winner’s circle. He walked up to me and put his hands on my shoulder. He said, ‘Boy, I ain’t never been wrong many times in my life, but I want you to know I was wrong this time.’”

[harrybarracuda]

They really pioneered the slide across the car bonnet.

David Soul, the actor who portrayed the blond half of TV’s ‘Starsky & Hutch,’ dies at 80

https://www.boston.com/news/celebs/2024/01/05/david-soul-the-actor-who-portrayed-the-blond-half-of-tvs-starsky-hutch-dies-at-80/

[S Landreth]

• Bob Pardo, Vietnam War pilot famous for Pardo’s Push maneuver, dies at 89

Bob Pardo, who left his mark in Air Force history for using an unorthodox maneuver, Pardo’s Push, to save his wingmen’s lives during a bombing mission over Vietnam, died Dec. 5. He was 89.

On March 10, 1967, Pardo and weapons officer 1st Lt. Steve Wayne were on a bombing run on an enemy steel mill north of Hanoi in an F-4C Phantom, flying alongside Capt. Earl Aman and 1st Lt. Robert Houghton.

The target — North Vietnam’s only steel mill dedicated to war materiel — was heavily guarded by anti-aircraft guns and artillery.

During the mission, ground fire damaged both Pardo’s and Aman’s Phantoms, causing both to lose fuel. However, Aman lost too much to return safely to base, and Pardo knew he had to act quickly, according to a 2007 recounting of the mission by Gen. T. Michael Mosely, then the chief of staff of the Air Force.

“I knew if I didn’t do anything, they would have to eject over North Vietnam into enemy territory, and that would have resulted in their capture for sure,” Pardo said in a 2015 interview for the Air Force Veterans in Blue program. “At that time, if you were captured by civilians, you were probably going to be murdered on the spot.”

Pardo decided to push Aman’s plane using the nose of his aircraft against Aman’s tailhook, a retractable hook on the underside of the plane used for arrested landings.

He managed to decrease the rate of descent of Aman’s jet by 1,500 feet per minute, and they successfully reached friendly territory. Both air crews safely ejected over the Laotian border and were rescued by friendly forces.

The Air Force at first reprimanded Pardo for further damaging his aircraft. Twenty years later, he received the Silver Star for his actions in the aerial rescue.

Pardo was born in 1934 in Herne, Texas, and began his Air Force career in 1954 at age 19. After flight school, he flew the Phantom during the Vietnam War, logging 132 flying missions.

He retired as a lieutenant colonel in 1974. In addition to the Silver Star, his awards include the Distinguished Flying Cross with Oak Leaf Cluster, Purple Heart, Air Medal with twelve Oak Leaf Clusters and the Meritorious Service Medal.

Pardo is survived by his wife, Kathryn, whom he married on March 7, 1992, five children and 10 grandchildren.

[harrybarracuda]

Cindy Morgan, ‘Tron’ and ‘Caddyshack’ Star, Dies at 69



Cindy Morgan, the actor best known for playing Lacey Underall in “Caddyshack” and Lora/Yori in Disney’s original “Tron” film, has died. She was 69.
The Palm Beach County Sheriff’s office in Florida confirmed the news to the Los Angeles Times, saying Morgan died of natural causes. Officials were not able to specify when she died.
Morgan gained notoriety for her performance as blonde bombshell Lacey in the 1980 sports comedy “Caddyshack,” starring Bill Murray, Chevy Chase and Rodney Dangerfield.
“‘Caddyshack’ was my first film and I’ll say that the end product was so completely different, it was originally about the caddies,” Morgan said in a 2012 interview. “So at first, I had nothing to lose to audition. It was fun. All I did was focus on making the person sweat. Look ’em in the eye, do that thing many women know how to do.”

After guesting on such series as “The Love Boat,” “Vega$” and “Chips,” she starred in 1982’s “Tron” as computer programmer Lora Baines and Yori, her alter-ego in the sci-fi film’s computer-generated world. She returned to the “Tron” world as the voice of Ma3a in the video game “Tron 2.0,” which was released in 2003.
Morgan appeared on multiple television series throughout the ’80s and early ’90s, including “Bring ‘Em Back Alive,” “Hawaiian Heat,” “Masquerade,” “The Fall Guy,” “Tough Cookies,” “Beverly Hills Buntz,” “Falcon Crest,” “Matlock,” “Mancuso, FBI,” “Hunter” and “The Larry Sanders Show.” She also worked on TV movies such as “The Midnight’ Hour” (1985), “Solomon’s Universe” (1985), “Dead Weekend” (1995), “Amanda & the Alien” (1995) and “Out There” (1995).
Along with “Caddyshack” and “Tron,” Morgan’s film credits include 1979’s “Up Yours,” 1995’s “Galaxis” and 2006’s “Open Mic’rs.” Her most recent role was voicing Mason’s Mother in the 2022 indie film “Face of the Trinity.”

Cindy Morgan Dead: 'Caddyshack' Star Was 69

[S Landreth]

• Former Australian spy Alisdair Putt dies during ‘World’s Toughest Row’ across the Atlantic

A former Australian spy and war crimes investigator has died skippering a rowing boat in a race across the Atlantic Ocean.

Alisdair Putt, who had planned to spend his 62nd birthday on the boat, suffered a heart attack while competing in the Talisker Whisky Atlantic rowing race from the Canary Islands to Antigua.

Race organisers confirmed he died on 4 January, despite the efforts of his crewmates to save him.

“It is with heartfelt sadness that we must convey the news of the death of Alisdair Putt – skipper of the four-person team, Aussie Old Salts,” competition organisers said in a statement.

Organisers said Putt had a cardiac-related event while on deck, but his death would be investigated.

“Despite the rest of the crew’s continuous efforts, resuscitation was not successful. Next of kin have been informed,” they said.

Putt’s crewmates – Stuart Moore, Andreas Koenig and Alastair Horton – were onboard a safety vessel heading back to land.

“This tragedy will of course also have a profound impact on the other 37 teams we have still racing across the Atlantic,” race organisers said.

“Our most sincere condolences are wholeheartedly offered to the families, friends and supporters of the Putt family, and the whole of the Aussie Old Salts team.

“The family of Alisdair have asked for understanding and support in respecting their privacy during this period of mourning.”

The Old Salts were the only Australian team entered in the 4,800km race, billed as the World’s Toughest Row. The crew was raising money for a military veterans’ transition centre and an Indigenous women’s crisis centre in Kununurra. Three of the crew were former or serving members of the Royal Australian Navy or Australian Army.

Putt, from Mount Hawthorn in Perth, had previously worked for the Australian Security and Intelligence Organisation (Asio), and as a war crimes investigator in Darfur, the former Yugoslavia, and in Rwanda.

Speaking to the Department of Defence before he left, Putt described the mission to row across the Atlantic – two hours on, two hours off, 24 hours a day, for six weeks – as “a bit daunting”.

“There have been more people who have climbed Mount Everest than rowed across the Atlantic,” Putt said.

“The team managed to achieve the necessary time out on the water whilst in the UK to qualify for the race, despite the inconsistent British summer weather, which frequently saw four seasons in a day.”

Offshore sailor and rower Liz Wardley posted a tribute from onboard her vessel. She said news of Putt’s death was “pretty raw”.

“It’s an unimaginable situation, I imagine it’s touched the whole fleet,” she said in a video posted online.

“He was such a great guy, he always had time for a chat, a laugh, a beer … it’s such a sad day.”

https://twitter.com/LizWardley/statu...58384823550413

[malmomike77]

A bit more of my youth disappears.... RIP JPR, what a player, a hard one too.

JPR Williams obituary: The Wales and Lions full-back who never took a backward step

Not many people are known simply by their initials. Not many people played rugby like JPR.


The legendary Wales and British and Irish Lions full-back, John Peter Rhys Williams, was one of those special sporting stars.


Williams, who has died aged 74, was a fearless competitor and daring attacker.


He was an icon of Wales' dominance of the 1970s, winning three Five Nations Grand Slams.


Instantly recognisable with his flowing hair and sideburns, he won 55 caps between 1969 and 1981.


Williams was also a part of the Lions' historic winning tours of New Zealand in 1971 and South Africa in 1974.


Although he retired from international rugby in 1981 to concentrate on his other career as an orthopaedic surgeon, he kept turning out occasionally for home club Bridgend into the 1990s and even played for local side Tondu's third team in his fifties before finally hanging up his boots in 2003.


That longevity was typical of Williams' indomitable spirit. He was a warrior on the field and a charismatic, straight-talking character off it.


Born near Bridgend in 1949, Williams was educated at Bridgend Boys Grammar School - now Brynteg Comprehensive School - before earning a place at the prestigious Millfield School in Somerset, where his future Wales team-mate Sir Gareth Edwards was also a student.




JPR Williams scores against England as Wales win Grand Slam


Williams was an accomplished tennis player in his teens, winning a British junior competition held at the venue which hosts Wimbledon, the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club.


Over the years, that achievement morphed into a myth that Williams won Junior Wimbledon in 1966, though records show the champion that year was Vladimir Korotkov.


Williams turned his attention to rugby, which had the added benefit of being an amateur sport and would therefore allow him to pursue a career in medicine.


Having impressed with Bridgend and then London Welsh, Williams made his Wales debut as a 19-year-old in 1969 and won the Five Nations Championship in his first campaign.


The first of three Grand Slams followed in 1971 and, later that year, he played all four Tests as the Lions secured what is still their only series win in New Zealand.


His impressive contribution included a long-range drop-goal in the drawn fourth Test which helped clinch the series 2-1.


Like Edwards, Barry John and Phil Bennett, Williams was as renowned for his Lions exploits as he was his achievements with Wales.


The next tour, of South Africa in 1974, would become similarly etched in Lions folklore as the visitors won 21 of their 22 matches, drawing one of their four Tests against the Springboks.


It was a brutal series marred by on-pitch violence, with match officials doing little to control it and the relative absence of cameras compared to the modern game making retrospective punishment unlikely.


The Lions adopted the now infamous '99 call' of instant retaliation where, if one player hit back at a Springbok, all other Lions were expected to join in the melee or hit the nearest opponent.


Williams typified the gung-ho approach when he ran half the length of the field to attack the considerably bigger lock, Moaner van Heerden, an act which summed up the full-back's lack of regard for his own safety - but also one of which he later said he was not proud.


The 1976 Five Nations was a vintage year for Williams, who scored two excellent tries as Wales beat England at Twickenham to set the ball rolling for another Grand Slam.


He bookended this with a famous shoulder-barge tackle on France wing Jean-Francois Gourdon in the final victory in Cardiff.


A third clean sweep followed in 1978, with Williams again ever-present as Wales said farewell to two of its greatest players, Edwards and Bennett, and contemplated the beginning of the end of its golden era.


That would prove to be Wales' last Grand Slam until 2005, though Williams did help them win another title in 1979.


He retired from international rugby in 1981 but his bloody-minded determination remained as he played for Bridgend. He was often seen with blood on his face but carrying on regardless.


After retiring, Williams concentrated on his work as a surgeon and, in his spare time, was a member of the Bridgend Tabernacle choir.


A man who enjoyed real ale and classical music, Williams did not work as a pundit as often as some of his peers but, when he was asked for his opinion, he did not hold back.


He particularly enjoyed reminding Wales' more recent crops of his record against England - never on the losing side in 10 Tests and with six tries to his name, a competitor to the last.

JPR Williams obituary: The Wales and Lions full-back who never took a backward step - BBC Sport

[harrybarracuda]

Had a very pleasant evening with her at The Bush before and after an OGWT recording back in the day.
Lovely lady, hugely knowledgeable and not unpleasing on the eye either.

RIP

Annie Nightingale: Trailblazing BBC Radio 1 DJ dies at 83




BBC Radio 1 DJ Annie Nightingale, the station's first female presenter, who went on to become its longest-serving host, has died at the age of 83.

Nightingale joined the station in 1970 and remained the only woman on the line-up for 12 years.

She was known for her passion for a wide range of music, championing everything from prog rock and punk to acid house and grime.

She remained on air until late last year with Annie Nightingale Presents.

Nightingale was also known for co-hosting BBC Two music show The Old Grey Whistle Test.

Annie Nightingale: Trailblazing BBC Radio 1 DJ dies at 83 - BBC News

[S Landreth]

Ex-Scorpions Drummer James Kottak Dead at 61

James Kottak, drummer for Kingdom Come and formerly Scorpions, has died at 61, TMZ confirmed.

"James was a wonderful human being, a great musician and loving family man," the Scorpions wrote on social media. "He was our 'brother from another mother' and will be truly missed."

The Louisville-born musician played in myriad hard rock bands throughout his career, including Buster Brown, Montrose, McAuley Schenker Group, Dio and Warrant. He achieved his first considerable success with Kingdom Come, whose self-titled 1988 debut peaked at No. 12 on the Billboard 200 and went gold (while also earning plenty of Led Zeppelin comparisons) off the strength of the single "Get It On."

Kottak joined Scorpions in 1996 and remained with the group until 2016, making him their longest-tenured drummer, just ahead of Herman Rarebell (1977-1996). He performed on the studio albums Eye II Eye, Unbreakable, Humanity: Hour I, Sting in the Tail and Return to Forever before being dismissed and replaced by Motorhead's Mikkey Dee.

James Kottak's Long Struggle With Alcohol

Kottak grappled with alcoholism for years, leading to his 2014 arrest and imprisonment in Dubai and his eventual dismissal from Scorpions. He sought treatment at Eric Clapton's Crossroads Centre Antigua and said he remained on good terms with his bandmates, even as they moved on with new personnel.

"Mikkey came into the band and it was going to be temporary," Kottak said in 2018. "And it wasn't until we got down to business in October or November of 2016, which was a long time later, that they just decided to say, 'Hey, man, we wanna talk to you. It's not like you're being fired. We wanna move on. We wanna part ways.' It didn't feel like being fired. ... They're great guys like that. I'm so grateful to them. Put it this way: 21 years is a lifetime."

Kottak also turned heads when he took part in a highly criticized Kingdom Come performance at the 2022 Sweden Rock Festival. Black Star Riders and former Ratt bassist Robbie Crane commented at the time: "This is a sad situation … James is a good dude … He's a father, brother, son, husband and friend … But sadly, you are correct … the only person that can save James is James. He has to want it."

[david44]

reuters.com.

BEIRUT, Jan 8 (Reuters) - Israel killed a top Hezbollah commander in a strike in south Lebanon on Monday, sources familiar with the group's operations said, inflicting a heavy blow after three months of hostilities at the Lebanese-Israeli frontier.
Wissam Tawil was a commander of Hezbollah's elite Radwan forces and the most senior Hezbollah officer killed so far in the conflict, a senior source in Lebanon said, adding he played a leading role in directing its operations in the south.

More than 130 Hezbollah fighters including Radwan members have been killed in hostilities since the group's Palestinian ally Hamas attacked Israel from Gaza on Oct. 7, igniting a conflict that has rippled around the region.
It has marked the deadliest confrontation between Israel and the Iran-backed Hezbollah since they went to war in 2006, with Hezbollah firing guided rockets and other weapons at Israeli positions and Israel launching air and artillery strikes.

Tens of thousands of people on both sides of the frontier have fled, and the fighting has raised concern of an even wider conflict.
Tawil and another Hezbollah fighter were killed when the car they were in was struck in the village of Majdal Selm, some 6 km (3.7 miles) from the border, three sources in Lebanon said.
There was no immediate comment from Israel.
Hezbollah circulated photographs of Tawil with leaders of the heavily armed, Shi'ite Muslim group including Secretary General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah and Imad Mughniyeh, its military commander who was killed in Syria in 2008.

Another photo showed him sitting next to the late leader of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards' Quds Force, Qassem Soleimani, who was killed by a U.S. drone strike in Baghdad four years ago.

[david44]

Jan Plamper radical German historian

Jan Plamper obituary | History | The Guardian

My friend and colleague Jan Plamper, who has died aged 53 of cancer, was a historian of emotions and the senses, and a pioneer in this relatively new approach to studying the past, which seeks to uncover how people experienced the events through which they lived, and also to understand why people do what they do. His book The History of Emotions: An Introduction (2015) is already a classic.
Jan specialised in Russian/Soviet and German history, and Das Neue Wir (The New Us, 2019) is a fascinating manifesto on modern Germany shaped by migration. It was published in Jan’s English translation as We Are All Migrants: A History of Multicultural Germany only a few months before his death.

As professor of history at Goldsmiths, University of London, from 2012 until 2021, Jan initiated pioneering MA programmes in Queer History and Black British History, and established collaboration with the German Academic Exchange Service, which encourages the movement of early career scholars between countries and institutions.
He also supported the Centre for the Study of the Balkans, which I directed, and helped me prepare Research Excellence Framework submissions, which saw the Goldsmiths history department rise in the rankings. He compared the exercise to Soviet-style bureaucracy (and jokingly called me the “Ref Tsar”), but credited it for prompting UK universities to appoint international scholars such as himself. In 2021 he accepted a chair in history at Limerick University, having previously played a prominent role in mobilising academic opposition to redundancies at Goldsmiths.
The eldest son of Harald Plamper, a public manager and university administrator, and Gudrun (nee Damm), a language teacher, Jan was born in Laichingen, a small town in West Germany. Growing up in a society coping with a difficult past had a profound impact on him. Fluent in several languages and an engaged intellectual, he was particularly invested in Russian and Jewish history and culture.
Jan attended secondary schools in Tübingen and in the US (in Storrs, Connecticut) and studied history at Brandeis University, then went on to do a PhD at the University of California, Berkeley. His doctorate was later published as The Stalin Cult: A Study in the Alchemy of Power (2012). In the early 1990s, in lieu of German military service, he was permitted to volunteer as a carer for elderly survivors of the Holocaust and the Siege of Leningrad, and around this time he also started working with the Russian human rights organisation Memorial, which won the Nobel peace prize in 2022.
He held postdoctoral fellowships in Tübingen and Berlin, before joining Goldsmiths in London. Prestigious research fellowships in Germany followed, notably at the Wissenschaftskolleg (Institute for Advanced Studies) in Berlin, but an established post in his native country eluded him despite his international reputation.
Jan worked until the end: together with a colleague he was writing another study on emotions, kept a diary of his cancer treatment, and published articles critical of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Jan is survived by his second wife, the animation artist Evgenia Gostrer, whom he married in 2019, two daughters, Olga and Lisa, from his first marriage, to Irina Kremenetskaia which ended in divorce, his father and three brothers Paul, Christoph and Alexander. His mother and younger sister, Hedwig, both predeceased him.

[harrybarracuda]

reuters.com.

BEIRUT, Jan 8 (Reuters) - Israel killed a top Hezbollah commander in a strike in south Lebanon on Monday, sources familiar with the group's operations said, inflicting a heavy blow after three months of hostilities at the Lebanese-Israeli frontier.

I see what you're doing there

[S Landreth]

• Bill Granger, renowned Australian cook, dies aged 54

The Australian cook and restaurateur Bill Granger has died in London aged 54.

Fellow cooks, celebrities and lovers of his restaurants paid tribute after the family of the food writer confirmed on Instagram he had died peacefully in hospital on Christmas Day.

Granger’s wife, Natalie Elliott, and three daughters, Edie, Inès and Bunny, were at his bedside, the post said.

Granger was born in Melbourne and became a global restaurateur and food writer with a career spanning more than three decades, having taught himself to cook. He was remembered on Wednesday as the person primarily responsible for the global popularity of avocado on toast and developing a distinctive style of Australian breakfast and brunch – so much so that he became widely known as the “godfather” of avocado toast.

Granger dropped out of art school in 1993 and moved to Sydney where he opened his first restaurant, bills, in Darlinghurst. The corner cafe became known for its fresh flavours and breakfast food, served at a central communal table.

In 1999 he and Elliott launched their business globally, which eventually encompassed 19 restaurants in Australia, the UK, Japan and Korea.

Granger wrote 14 cookbooks, made five television series and was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia last January.

“He will be remembered as the ‘King of Breakfast’, for making unpretentious food into something special filled with sunshine and for spurring the growth of Australian informal and communal eating around the world,” his family wrote on social media.

“He will be deeply missed by all, with his loss most profoundly felt by his adored family, who are grateful for all the love and support that has been given.”

Nigella Lawson said on social media she was “heartbroken” to hear the news. “So cruel.”

Jamie Oliver paid tribute to Granger as a “wonderful human [and] kind calm soul”.

“[He] had an [extraordinary] ease and style in cooking that could only come from Australia,” Oliver wrote. “Many moons ago I remember going to his first Sydney restaurant in Darlinghurst … [it was] years ahead of its time.”

In London Granger established the chain Granger & Co, with branches in Chelsea, Clerkenwell, Notting Hill, Kings Cross and Marylebone.

The Australian writer Kathy Lette said on Twitter/X Granger was “the most gentle, charming, humble man” and his restaurants were a haven for Australians.

The Australian actor Hugh Jackman and his former partner Deborra-Lee Furness said they would miss Granger’s friendship “most of all”.

“His talent, his joie de vivre, the way he brought people together and his commitment to family were inspiring,” they said in a joint statement.

Gwyneth Paltrow said the news was “heartbreaking”.

The food writer and former MasterChef Australia presenter Matt Preston said Granger was “a genuinely lovely bloke and an inspiration”.

“Together he (with Natalie by his side) helped shape the image of modern Australian food around the world.”

Similar plaudits were found across social media, with chefs and cookbook authors, including Darren Robertson, Christine Mansfield, James Martin, Hetty McKinnon and Mark Best among those expressing their sadness, with Granger described as a gentleman who “changed the entire breakfast game”.

Writing on X, the cook and TV host Adam Liaw described Granger as “arguably [the] most influential pioneer of modern Australian food”.

“His ‘sunny’ (his word, not mine) codification of Australian cafe culture at bills is the model on which every Australian cafe around the world is now built. Bloody great guy, too.”

The founding editor of Food Illustrated and delicious magazines, Neale Whitaker, said Granger “defined an era in food for so many of us in Sydney and beyond”.

David Prior, former Conde Nast Traveller editor and family friend of the Grangers, said it was “impossible to overstate the inspiration, impact and importance of what Bill and Nat created”.

“It ushered in a change to our culture, not a fine dining one or canon of strict recipes but a brightly optimistic, quietly sophisticated and totally egalitarian approach to food. Australian food used to be a question, Bill made it a statement. He changed Australia’s food culture first and then via, Granger and Co, came London and its many offshoots and cafes that took direct inspiration.

“Bill was never anything but gracious and took no pride in authorship of recipes, design or approach but the truth is his was never bettered. The original dna of that bright little corner cafe was telegraphed around the world and yet it always evolved with his curiosity and pitch perfect taste.”

Granger was beloved by many in Australia’s fashion industry, with Karin Upton Baker, the managing director of Hermès in the country and a former editor of Harper’s Bazaar Australia, remembering him as “full of light”.

“My babies came with me to Bills for breakfast after many nights of lost sleep,” she wrote. “And there was beautiful Bill smiling and charming and making delicious things to get us through the day. Never forget.”

Kirstie Clements, a former editor of Vogue Australia, said Granger was a “wonderful man, with a wonderful legacy”.

“Remembering that first shared table in Darlinghurst … Condolences to his family and to all the Bills staff.

Environment minister and member for Sydney Tanya Plibersek posted on Instagram: “So very sad to hear of the death of Bill Granger. His cafes and books have given so much pleasure to so many. A Sydney icon. Condolences to his family and many friends.”

City of Sydney councillor Linda Scott also posted a tribute on Instagram, saying: “Sydney wouldn’t be Sydney without bills. Thanks for everything, Bill Granger. Your breakfasts reshaped our @cityofsydney Darlinghurst streets, and your cookbooks transformed our kitchens. You’ll be so missed. Vale.”

[VocalNeal]

Had a very pleasant evening with her at The Bush before and after an OGWT recording back in the day.
Lovely lady, hugely knowledgeable and not unpleasing on the eye either.

RIP

Strangely weird as last night I watched a YT video about her career.

[harrybarracuda]

Strangely weird as last night I watched a YT video about her career.

Was this before or after she passed away?

[S Landreth]

• Jennell Jaquays, legendary designer who shaped both tabletop and videogames, has died

Tributes are flooding in across the games industry following the death of game designer, artist, and transgender rights activist Jennell Jaquays, who died yesterday of complications caused by Guillain–Barré syndrome.

Even if you aren't familiar with Jaquays' name, she almost certainly had a hand in something you love over the course of her long career in TTRPG and videogame design. Jaquays helped shaped pen and paper roleplaying from the '70s onwards, creating and publishing Dungeons and Dragons adventures in The Dungeoneer—the D&D fanzine she co-founded—before designing and illustrating licensed modules like Dark Tower and Caverns of Thracia.

In fact, "Jaquaying the dungeon," is a term still used to describe the process of improving the design of a TTRPG dungeon using the principles she laid out.

But for PCG readers, Jaquays is probably more recognisable for her work at id Software, which she joined in the '90s. Not content with just shaping the destiny of tabletop roleplaying practically from its inception, she helped design all-time classic FPSes like Quake 3 and Quake 2 as a designer and level designer. After she left id, she continued to work on games like Age of Empires 3 and Halo Wars, and even did a stint as lead level designer for EVE Online studio CCP Games.

One of the most prominent trans creators in tabletop, Jaquays was also an indefatigable defender of transgender rights. She served as creative director of the Seattle-based Transgender Human Rights Institute, and campaigned against conversion therapy for transgender minors: advocating for the creation of Leelah's Law, a ban on the practice named for trans teenager Leelah Alcorn.

There have been plenty of tributes to Jaquays since her death. Tom Hall, whose name is in the credits of more classic '90s and early 2000s games than I can count, tweeted that Jaquays was a "great person" and "great gamedev," and implored people to contribute to a GoFundMe to help her family. Myriad other developers, including Tim Willits and Randy Pitchford, have also tweeted their condolences.

Jennell Jaquays is survived by her wife, Rebecca Heineman, who announced the death in a tweet reading "Until we meet again," followed by Jaquays' birth and death dates. Jaquays was 67 years old.

[S Landreth]

The Honeymooners Star Joyce Randolph Dead at 99

Joyce Randolph, best known for her role in The Honeymooners, has died, her son, Randolph “Randy” Richard Charles, confirmed to PEOPLE. She was 99.

The actress died on Saturday evening at her New York City home. TMZ was first to report the news.

Randolph was the last surviving cast member of the classic and beloved sitcom of the 1950’s, The Honeymooners, where she played Trixie Norton for its full 39-episode run.

Her character was married to Ed Norton (Art Carney), and the on-screen couple were neighbors to Ralph and Alice Kramden, portrayed by Jackie Gleason and Audrey Meadows, respectively.

The sitcom follows pals Kramden, a bus driver, and Norton, a sewer worker, as they “struggle to strike it rich while their wives look on with weary patience,” per IMDb.

Randolph (née Sirola) was born in a Finnish-American family in Detroit, according to a 2007 New York Times profile.

She arrived in N.Y.C. in 1943, where she acted in Broadway productions, commercials and television programs including Buck Rogers and The Clock in 1950, according to The New York Times.

After noticing Randolph in a Clorets gum commercial in 1951, Gleason took a liking to Randolph, featuring her in his variety show, Cavalcade of Stars, and eventually casting her as Trixie in The Honeymooners.

Chatting about the sitcom with The New York Times, longtime fan Matthew Broderick, said that “every situation human beings can have is in one of these shows.”

“From these four characters springs everything,” he added.

Broderick, who met Randolph prior to the newspaper’s 2007 profile, also shared his impression of the late actress: “You would think that Trixie Norton would be some kind of battle-ax in person, but Joyce is so elegant and thin and pretty.”

Later in her career, Randolph made a cameo as Trixie on Hi Honey I’m Home — a meta series that often featured iconic sitcom alumni — in 1991, per IMDb.

She also appeared in one episode of the early medical drama The Doctors and the Nurses in 1964, and had a minor role in 2000 film Everything's Jake as an unnamed dog walker.

She is survived by her son, Randy, from her marriage to marketing executive Richard Lincoln Charles, who died in 1997.

[harrybarracuda]

Leon Wildes, immigration lawyer who defended John Lennon, dies at 90

Wildes, the immigration lawyer who successfully fought the U.S. government’s attempt to deport John Lennon, died on Monday, Jan. 8, 2024, in Manhattan. He was 90. (via Wildes family archive via The New York Times) by Adam Nossiter

NEW YORK, NY.- Leon Wildes, a New York immigration lawyer who successfully fought the U.S. government’s attempt to deport John Lennon, died Monday in Manhattan. He was 90. His death, at Lenox Hill Hospital, was confirmed by his son Michael. For more than three years, from early 1972 to the fall of 1975, Wildes doggedly battled the targeting by the Nixon administration and immigration officials of Lennon, a former Beatle, and his wife, Yoko Ono, marshaling a series of legal arguments that exposed both political chicanery and a hidden U.S. immigration policy. Uncovering secret records through the Freedom of Information Act, he showed that immigration officials, in practice, can exercise wide discretion in whom they choose to deport, a revelation that continues to resonate in immigration law. And he revealed that Lennon, an anti-war activist and a vocal critic of President Richard Nixon’s, had been singled out by the White House for political reasons. Wildes was ultimately vindicated by the stinging decision of a federal appeals court in October 1975, which said that “the courts will not condone selective deportation based upon secret political grounds” and which halted the effort to kick Lennon out of the country. The Beatles had broken up in 1970, and Lennon and Ono moved to New York the next year. Lennon had been convicted of marijuana possession in London in 1968; that record would normally have barred him from entry, but he had obtained a waiver. The waiver was coming to an end, and the Lennons received a deportation notice. “It was a very frightening moment,” Ono said in the 2007 documentary “The U.S. vs. John Lennon.” When the Lennons engaged Wildes to represent them, he had barely heard of his famous clients. In his book about the case, “John Lennon vs. the USA,” published by the American Bar Association in 2016, he wrote that he was vaguely aware of the Beatles — it was nearly impossible not to be — but that the names of its members had escaped him. “I think it was Jack Lemmon and Yoko Moto,” he recalled telling his wife after meeting them in their apartment on Bank Street in Greenwich Village. She quickly corrected him. In the 2007 film, Lennon is seen telling reporters about Wildes: “He’s not a radical lawyer. He’s not William Kunstler.” Lennon had publicly opposed the Vietnam War — he recorded the anti-war anthem “Give Peace a Chance” in 1969 — and he had been involved in protests on behalf of figures in the New Left movement, which campaigned against the war. Nixon administration officials feared that he had outsize influence among the young, who would be allowed to vote in greater numbers in the 1972 presidential election, the first after the voting age had been lowered to 18 from 21. In the paranoid atmosphere then prevailing in the White House, that was enough for administration officials and their allies, notably conservative South Carolina Sen. Strom Thurmond, to go after Lennon. Their case centered on the London marijuana conviction. But the appellate court judge, Irving Kaufman, ultimately ruled that the crime was insufficient to make Lennon an “excludable alien.” The real reasons for the quixotic pursuit of Lennon, Wildes argued, lay elsewhere, as he was able to show thanks to his relentless digging through records. Early in 1972, Thurmond had drafted a letter recommending that Lennon be thrown out of the country, which Attorney General John Mitchell forwarded to the Immigration and Naturalization Service, the agency then in charge of visas. Of particular concern was the fact that Lennon had performed at a rally in support of a New Left figure, poet John Sinclair, who had been jailed on a marijuana charge. “If Lennon’s visa is terminated it would be a strategic countermeasure,” Thurmond wrote. Ten days later, “a telegram went out to all immigration offices in the United States instructing that the Lennons should not be given any extensions of their time to visit the United States,” Wildes wrote in his book. For the next three years, the government continued to press its case, in efforts that appeared increasingly ham-fisted as public support for Lennon and Ono grew. In letters and testimony, many of the era’s cultural celebrities spoke up for them, including Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Leonard Bernstein, artist Jasper Johns, and authors John Updike, Joyce Carol Oates and Joseph Heller, as well as New York Mayor John Lindsay. “The sole reason for deporting the Lennons was President Nixon’s desire to remove John and Yoko from the country before the 1972 election and a new, much younger electorate getting the vote,” Wildes wrote. “To ensure his grip on power, any ‘dirty tricks,’ including the abusive misuse of the immigration process, were acceptable.” The whole time, the FBI was keeping a close watch on Lennon. “Surveillance reports on him ran to literally hundreds of pages,” Wildes wrote. When Lennon learned of the skulduggery, he was infuriated. “They’re even changing their own rules because we’re peaceniks,” he said in a television interview. The 1975 ruling allowed him to remain in the country. He was killed five years later in front of the Dakota, the Upper West Side building where he and Ono lived. In another breakthrough, Wildes found that immigration officials had the discretion to deport or not, depending on whether there were extenuating circumstances. The revelation of this policy continues to aid immigration lawyers battling the deportation of noncitizens today. “As part of his legal strategy, Wildes conducted groundbreaking research on the ‘nonpriority’ program, and eventually filed an application for ‘nonpriority status’ for Lennon,” immigration expert Shoba Sivaprasad Wadhia wrote in her 2015 book, “Beyond Deportation.” “Wildes learned that INS had for many years been granting ‘nonpriority’ status to prevent the deportation of noncitizens with sympathetic cases, but INS had never publicized the practice.” Throughout what Wildes acknowledged was the all-consuming job of representing the Lennons, he kept a bemused and friendly eye on his famous clients, sometimes encountering them, as others did, in what he called the “wonderful upright bed” in their Bank Street apartment. “One could meet half the world around that bed,” he wrote — “radical types like Jerry Rubin or Bobby Seale, oddball musicians like David Peel, poets like Allen Ginsberg, actors like Peter Boyle, television personalities like Geraldo Rivera, or even political operatives like the deputy mayor of New York.” Leon Wildes was born March 4, 1933, in Olyphant, Pennsylvania, a small coal-mining town near Scranton. His father, Harry, was a clothing and dry goods merchant, and his mother, Sarah (Rudin) Wildes, worked in his store. Wildes was educated at public schools in Olyphant and earned a bachelor’s degree from Yeshiva University in 1954 and a law degree from New York University in 1958. He quickly gravitated toward immigration law, working for the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, a refugee aid organization, and helping two Americans who had gone to Israel establish their U.S. citizenship. He founded the immigration law firm Wildes & Weinberg in 1960 and went on to write numerous law review articles on immigration law and to teach at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law at Yeshiva University. In addition to his son Michael, he is survived by another son, Mark; his wife, Alice Goldberg Wiles; eight grandchildren; and five great-grandchildren. Immigration law had “biblical import to him,” Michael Wildes, also a lawyer, recalled in a phone interview. “My father drew value from helping others achieve their American dream, as he had done — the golden grail of a green card, or citizenship.” Leon Wildes, immigration lawyer who defended John Lennon, dies at 90

[S Landreth]

• Del Palmer, Longtime Kate Bush Collaborator, Dies at 71

Del Palmer, a musician and engineer who worked closely with Kate Bush on the majority of her albums, has died. Bush wrote a tribute to her late collaborator on her website, praising his talent and creativity. “I’m going to miss him terribly,” she wrote. He was 71.

Palmer was a member of Bush’s early live band, and following her debut, The Kick Inside, he played bass on many of her recordings from 1978’s Lionheart up until her most recent album, 2011’s 50 Words for Snow. For many years, he was romantically involved with Bush. He was a self-taught engineer who worked behind the boards on her albums from 1985’s Hounds of Love onward. Palmer also released a series of solo albums beginning with 2007’s Leap of Faith.

Kate Bush:

Del

It’s hard to know what to say… He was a big part of my life and my work for many years.

It’s going to take a long time to come to terms with him not being here with us.

He was incredibly creative – talented in lots of different ways. He was a brilliant musician, bass player, a great artist – he was always drawing. Once he covered a whole recording consul in cartoons. It took him days and it looked absolutely stunning.

He taught himself to be a recording engineer, engineering several of my albums and later releasing his own.

The image above is a mosaic that Del made. He called it Tree of Life.

I’m going to miss him terribly.

Kate

[harrybarracuda]

<deleted>

[S Landreth]

• Iowa principal who risked life to protect students during a school shooting has died

An Iowa principal who put himself in harm’s way to protect students during a school shooting earlier this month died Sunday, a funeral home confirmed.

Caldwell Parrish Funeral Home & Crematory confirmed the death of Perry High School Principal Dan Marburger after the family announced it on a GoFundMe page.

An Iowa principal who put himself in harm’s way to protect students during a school shooting earlier this month died Sunday, a funeral home confirmed.

Caldwell Parrish Funeral Home & Crematory confirmed the death of Perry High School Principal Dan Marburger after the family announced it on a GoFundMe page.

Marburger was critically injured during the Jan. 4 attack, which began in the school’s cafeteria as students were gathering for breakfast before class. An 11-year-old middle school student was killed in the shooting, and six other people were injured. The 17-year-old student who opened fire also died of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot.

The day after the shooting, the state Department of Public Safety said Marburger “acted selflessly and placed himself in harm’s way in an apparent effort to protect his students.”

News of Marburger’s death was first posted on a GoFundMe page for his family. The post, by Marburger’s wife, Elizabeth, said he died at about 8 a.m. Sunday, and said: “Dan lost his battle. He fought hard and gave us 10 days that we will treasure forever.”

The news that Marburger died triggered a flood of support on the Perry Facebook page with nearly 200 people posting condolences within the first hour after it was posted.

In a Facebook post on the night of the shooting, the principal’s daughter, Claire Marburger, called her father a “gentle giant” and said it wasn’t surprising that her father tried to protect his students.

“As I heard of a gunman, I instantly had a feeling my Dad would be a victim as he would put himself in harms way for the benefit of the kids and his staff,” his daughter wrote. “That’s just Dad.”

Marburger had been principal since 1995.

Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation spokesman Mitch Mortvedt said after the shooting that Marburger did some “pretty significant things” to protect others, but didn’t release details. Perry Superintendent Clark Wicks said Marburger was a “hero” who intervened with the teenage gunman so students could escape.

An 11-year-old sixth grader, Ahmir Jolliff, was killed in the shooting. Authorities said he was shot three times.

The shooting happened just after 7:30 a.m. on Jan. 4, shortly before classes were set to begin on the first day back after winter break. Mortvedt said the shooting started in the cafeteria, where students from several grades were eating breakfast, then spilled outside the cafeteria but was contained to the north end of the school.

Authorities said the suspect, identified as Dylan Butler, had a pump-action shotgun and a small-caliber handgun. Mortvedt told The Associated Press that authorities also found a “pretty rudimentary” improvised explosive device in Butler’s belongings, and that experts advised “it was something that they needed to disarm.” It was rendered safe.