The RIP Famous Person Thread

[helge]

I have never seen that

Wow

You have something to look forward to

Book is even better

[TizMe]

Wow

You have something to look forward to

Book is even better

I read the book in high school... 1970s...

A great read.

[Happy As Larry]

Wow

You have something to look forward to

Book is even better

Wot he said.

[Mendip]

I discovered recently that Catch 22 was first titled 'Catch 18' but the name was changed to avoid confusion with another book.

It's strange now... Catch 18 just doesn't sound right.

[harrybarracuda]

^ I have never seen that. Will keep my eye out for it. Maybe some of Arkin’s old films will start popping up now he has passed on.

Your wish is my command.

There's also a 2019 TV adapation with George Clooney but if memory serves it was a bit pants.

Download catch 22 Torrents | 1337x

[S Landreth]

• Christine King Farris, Martin Luther King’s last living sibling, dies aged 95

Christine King Farris, the last living sibling of Martin Luther King Jr, has died.

Her niece, the Reverand Bernice King, tweeted that her “beloved aunt” had died on Thursday. She was 95.

For decades after her brother’s assassination in 1968, Farris worked along with his widow, Coretta Scott King, to preserve and promote his legacy. But unlike her high-profile sister-in-law, Farris’ activism – and grief – was often behind the scenes.

“She may not have always been on the line of the march, but that was true with a lot of the heroes of the civil rights movement,” Marcellus Barksdale, a history professor at Morehouse College, said of Farris in a 2009 interview. “Because of the luminescence of Dr King and Coretta Scott King, Christine kind of got dimmed by that, but she was no less important.”

Farris was born Willie Christine King on 11 September 1927 in Atlanta. She was the first child of the Reverand Martin Luther King Sr and Alberta Christine Williams King.

Farris helped Coretta Scott King build the King Center and helped to teach Martin Luther King Jr’s philosophy of nonviolent resistance. For years, her regal, dignified presence was a mainstay at the ecumenical service celebrating her brother’s birthday at Ebenezer Baptist church, where her grandfather and father also preached and where Farris remained a member.

The King Center tweeted on Thursday that it mourned the loss of Farris, a founding board member, former vice-chair and treasurer, along with a photo of her.

Bernice King tweeted a photo of herself with Farris, writing: “I love you and will miss you, Aunt Christine.”

Martin Luther King III tweeted that he, his wife and his daughter had been able to spend time with his aunt in her final days.

“Aunt Christine embodied what it meant to be a public servant. Like my dad, she spent her life fighting for equality and against racism in America,” he tweeted. “She defied the odds that held back too many marginalized communities – going on to become a civil rights leader and acclaimed author. No stranger to adversity, Aunt Christine used the tragedies of the assassinations of her mother and brother to fight for change in America.”

Farris outlived many of the people she loved, including her parents, her two brothers, her sister-in-law and her niece, Yolanda. She graduated from Spelman College in 1948 with a degree in economics on the same day Martin Luther King Jr earned his degree in sociology from Morehouse College.

A decade later, Farris returned to Spelman, where she worked for more than 50 years. In 1960, she married Isaac Newton Farris. The couple had two children, Angela Christine Farris Watkins and Isaac Newton Farris Jr.

“Our hearts are heavy in Atlanta today, with the news that Christine King Farris has died,” Mayor Andre Dickens said in a statement.

“Mrs Farris was a force in her own right,” Dickens said. “A champion of literacy and education, she taught at her alma mater, Spelman College, for nearly 50 years. As the last of the King siblings, she spent much of her life advocating for equality. She once said that her brother Martin simply gave us the blueprint, but it was our duty ‘to carry it out’.”

Farris wrote two children’s books about her life, My Brother Martin: A Sister Remembers Growing Up With the Rev Dr Martin Luther King Jr and March On! The Day My Brother Martin Changed the World. In 2009, she wrote a memoir, Through It All: Reflections on My Life, My Family and My Faith.

Farris often shared stories about her brother as a normal child and young man to make him and his achievements more accessible to people.

“They think he simply happened, that he appeared fully formed, without context, ready to change the world,” she said.

[S Landreth]

• Ukrainian writer Victoria Amelina dies after being wounded in Kramatorsk strike

An award-winning Ukrainian writer and war crimes researcher wounded in a Russian missile strike on a restaurant last week has died, the freedom of expression group PEN has said.

Victoria Amelina, 37, was wounded when a Russian missile destroyed the Ria Pizza restaurant in the eastern city of Kramatorsk on Tuesday, killing 12 people, including four children, and wounding dozens.

“With our greatest pain, we inform you that Ukrainian writer Victoria Amelina passed away on July 1st in Mechnikov Hospital in Dnipro,” PEN Ukraine said in a statement on its Facebook page on Sunday.

Amelina had been in the city with a delegation of Colombian journalists and writers, PEN said.

She was hospitalised with “multiple skull fractures”, according to a surgeon treating the wounded.

Her novel Dom’s Dream Kingdom was published in 2017 and shortlisted for the Unesco city of literature prize and the European Union prize for literature, according to PEN.

Her poems, prose and essays have been translated into English, German, Polish and other languages.

Since 2022 she had been working to document Russian war crimes since the invasion and advocate for accountability, as well as working with children on or near the front line.

Amelina’s work included unearthing the diary of Volodymyr Vakulenko, a fellow writer who was illegally detained and killed by Russian soldiers in the city of Izium at the start of the war. The diary, which was buried in his garden, served as a real-time documentation of Russian atrocities.

Russia claimed the Kramatorsk attack targeted the Ukrainian military and foreign mercenaries. The war crimes campaign group Truth Hounds spoke to witnesses who confirmed there were no military targets at the site.

“There were no military objects that could have been a legal target for the attack around that day,” the group had said in a joint statement with PEN.

“Analysis of the destruction and witness testimonies indicate that, most likely, Russia’s armed forces used an Iskander missile to carry out the attack. This is a missile with a high accuracy, so Russians knew exactly what it would hit.”

Ria Pizza in Kramatorsk, one of the largest cities still under Ukrainian control in the east, was popular with soldiers, journalists and aid workers.

Amelina’s death takes the toll from the missile strike to 13.

[misskit]

CoCo Lee, Chinese Pop Star Who Crossed Over to American Charts, Dead at 48

CoCo Lee, the singer who performed Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon’s “A Love Before Time” at the 2001 Oscars and who voiced Fa Mulan in the Mandarin version of Mulan, died by suicide Wednesday. Her sisters, Carol and Nancy Lee, confirmed the news in an Instagram post. She was 48.


“Although CoCo sought professional help and did her best to fight depression, sadly that demon inside of her took the better of her,” the sisters wrote. “On 2 July, she committed suicide at home and was sent to the hospital. Despite the best efforts of the hospital team to rescue and treat her from her coma, she finally passed away on 5 July, 2023.”

This past March, Lee wrote on social media that she’d gotten thigh and pelvis surgery, according to the BBC, and that dancing had aggravated the leg injury.


Lee sang with a distinctive openness in her demeanor, which made “A Love Before Time” a memorable ballad, though the song ultimately lost the Oscar to Bob Dylan. Another song from the film that Lee sang, “Moonlight Lover,” won Best Original Film Song at the 2001 Hong Kong Film Awards. She also had success with the pop song “Do You Want My Love,” off her 1999 English-language album, Just No Other Way. The track reached Number 49 on Billboard’s Dance Club Songs chart. Variety reports that she recorded 18 studio albums and released two live albums. According to the BBC, her latest single, “Tragic,” came out this past Valentine’s Day.


Outside of recording, Lee, born Jan. 17, 1976, in Hong Kong, performed at the New Beijing Great Olympics in 2001 and served as a guest judge on Asia’s Next Top Model and the competition series Sheng Lin Zhi Wang. Most recently, she appeared in Infinity and Beyond 2022, a TV series that mixed competition with a look at different eras of Chinese music.


“2023 marks the 30th anniversary of CoCo’s singing career, in the past 29 years, she’s won countless international acclaims with top selling songs and has left audience [with] an astounding impression of her excellent live performances,” the Lee sisters wrote. “CoCo is also known to have worked tirelessly to open up a new world for Chinese singers in the international music scene, and she went all out to shine for the Chinese. We are proud of her!”


Lee married Bruce Rockowitz, an executive for a Hong Kong–based supply chain firm, in 2011. Lee was stepmother to Rockowitz’s two daughters from a previous marriage, according to the BBC.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/music/news...48/ar-AA1dtEDW

[harrybarracuda]

Journey co-founder George Tickner dies aged 76




Journey co-founding member and first rhythm guitarist George Tickner has died at the age of 76.
The sad news of Tickner’s passing was confirmed by Journey guitarist and sole constant member Neal Schon, who wrote: “George Tickner, Journey’s original rhythm guitarist and songwriting contributor on their first three albums, has passed away. He was 76 years old.

“Godspeed, George… thank you for the music… our condolences to his family and friends, and to all past and present band members. So heartbreaking.”

He added: “Thank you for your incomparable contributions to Journey’s early years. The reason he left Journey was to attend Stanford University on full scholarship, earning his PhD.

“Fly free above the stars, Sir… Herbie (Herbert, Journey’s manager who died in 2021) is waiting to greet you.”

Schon also posted a YouTube video confirming Tickner’s death on Twitter, and wrote: “RIP George. You now fly with the angels.”

Born on 8th September 1946, in Syracuse, New York, George Tickner was a member of the psychedelic rock band Frumious Bandersnatch in the late 60s alongside bassist Ross Valory.

Tickner, Valory and manager Herbie Herbert joined former Santana members Neal Schon and Gregg Rolie to form Journey in 1973.

Tickner played rhythm guitar and wrote three songs for Journey’s self-titled 1975 debut ‘Journey’ including opener ‘Of a Lifetime.’

Shortly after the release of ‘Journey’, Tickner left the band to attend Stanford Medical School on a full scholarship, however three of his co-written songs appeared on Journey’s next two albums ‘Look into the Future’ (1976) and ‘Next’ (1977).

Tickner remained friends with his former Journey band mates and in 2005 he formed the band VTR alongside Valory and keyboardist Stevie 'Keys' Roseman. Their only album ‘Cinema’ featured contributions from Neal Schon and Steve Smith.

Sporting his trademark handlebar moustache, Tickner attended the unveiling of Journey’s star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2005.

RIP George Tickner.

Journey co-founder George Tickner dies aged 76

[S Landreth]

Leon Gautier: Last French D-Day fighter dies aged 100

The last surviving member of a French commando unit that took part in the Normandy landings during World War Two has died at the age of 100.

Léon Gautier served with the Fusiliers Marins Commando - the only unit of Free French troops to go ashore during D-Day on 6 June 1944.

Mr Gautier later called war a "misery" that "ends with widows and orphans".

French President Emmanuel Macron described Mr Gautier and his comrades as "heroes of the Liberation".

"We will not forget him," Mr Macron wrote on Twitter.

Regional Mayor Romain Bail described Mr Gautier as "a local hero whom everybody knew" and who was "an ardent defender of freedom".

Mr Gautier was born in Rennes, in France's north-western Brittany region, and enlisted in the French navy as a teenager soon after World War Two began, as he was too young to enter the army.

He escaped to Britain in 1940 before Adolf Hitler's forces swept through much of western Europe, including France.

In London, Mr Gautier joined the Free France movement, which maintained a government-in-exile and military that coordinated with the Allies against Nazi Germany.

He fought in Congo, Syria and Lebanon, before joining a unit of marine riflemen known as the Kieffer commandos, which trained in the Scottish Highlands.

During the Battle for Normandy, more than half of his unit of 177 Free French were killed.

The D-Day landings by the Allied forces of the US, UK and Canada began an attack that lasted for 11 months. It eventually led to the defeat of Nazi Germany and the liberation of occupied Europe.

Later in life, Mr Gautier settled in the Normandy port town of Ouistreham, and became a campaigner for peace.

"Not all that long ago... I would think perhaps I killed a young lad," he said in an interview with Reuters news agency in 2019, when he was 96 years old.

"Perhaps I orphaned children, perhaps I widowed a woman or made a mother cry... I didn't want to do that. I'm not a bad man."

[S Landreth]

Betta St. John, 'Tarzan' Actress, Dead at 93

Betta St. John, perhaps best known for her roles in the classic Tarzan and the Lost Safari (1957) and Tarzan the Magnificent (1960), has passed away. She was 93.

Her son, TV producer Roger Grant, shared the news with The Hollywood Reporter yesterday, July 7, though St. John died on June 23. Grant revealed that the Golden Age actress, who was active in the industry from 1939 to 1965, died of natural causes in her assisted living facility in Brighton, England.

St. John played a survivor of a plane crash, who was famously chased by a crocodile, in the first Tarzan film she was featured in, before returning for a sequel a few years later. She also starred in the rom-com Dream Wife, alongside Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr. Her final film was in 1960, in a horror flick called The City of the Dead, though she did appear on a small handful of television episodes until 1965.

She made her screen debut at just 10 years old in Destry Rides Again, which starred Marlene Dietrich and Jimmy Stewart, and made her Broadway debut at 16, after being discovered by scouts for Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II as a high school sophomore. She played Louise in Carousel, later becoming a member of the Original Broadway Cast of South Pacific. When the musical transferred to the West End in 1951, St. John traveled to London, where her future husband, Peter Grant, joined the cast.

The next year, in 1952, they were wed, remaining married until he passed away of cancer in 1992.

[Bob Mason]

Jane Birkin

Singer and actress Jane Birkin dead at 76 - BBC News

[harrybarracuda]

Jane Birkin

Singer and actress Jane Birkin dead at 76 - BBC News

To think this got banned for being rude and now you have talentless fat arsed bimbos muttering about having their cracks licked and no-one bats an eye.

[S Landreth]

• Evelyn M. Witkin, World-Renowned Geneticist, Dies at 102

Evelyn M. Witkin, a world-renowned geneticist who helped to unlock secrets to how DNA damage and DNA repair affect cancer and aging, died on July 8 after a short illness. She was 102.

The Rutgers professor emerita, whose career as a teacher and researcher at the university spanned two decades before she retired in 1991, was among a group of scientists, clinicians and public servants credited for making major advances in the understanding, diagnosis, treatment, cure or prevention of human disease.

In April 2021, Witkin, considered one of the most accomplished scientists ever at Rutgers University, was honored at the Waksman Institute of Microbiology during a daylong virtual symposium attended by more than 300 scientists and others from around the world.

This year, on March 10, the day after Witkin turned 102, she attended the first seminar held in her name, which included an address by her long-time friend, Princeton University chair of the Department of Molecular Biology Bonnie Bassler.

"Evelyn was a national treasure. It’s impossible to do justice to her remarkable life and career. What really set her apart is how kind, humble, and gracious she was for someone so accomplished,” said Bryce Nickels, professor in the Department of Genetics and laboratory director at the Waksman Institute of Microbiology, who helped to coordinate the 2021 symposium to honor Witkin. “She was such a special person, one that was ahead of her time, and she serves as a tremendous role model not just for scientists but for all of us in terms of living a life full of integrity, kindness and humility. She will be deeply missed.”

A pioneer for women in the fields of science, technology, engineering and math, Witkin was the recipient of numerous awards including the prestigious National Medal of Science. She also had a laboratory at the Waksman Institute of Microbiology named in her honor – the first woman and only the second person at Rutgers to receive this tribute.

Witkin’s scientific accomplishments played an important role in the biomedical sciences and in clinical radiation therapy for cancer. She performed high-impact research in bacterial molecular genetics. Witkin was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1977 and awarded the Thomas Hunt Morgan Medal for Genetics in 2000, the National Medal of Science in 2002, the Wiley Prize for Biomedical Science in 2015 and the Lasker Prize in Basic Medical Research in 2015.

“Dr. Evelyn M. Witkin was a pioneering researcher in bacterial molecular genetics who established the existence of the DNA-damage response in bacteria and who opened pathways for women in the biological sciences. The Waksman Institute, Rutgers University, and the world all are poorer for losing Evelyn,” said Richard Ebright, a Board of Governors Professor of Chemistry and Chemical Biology and laboratory director at the Waksman Institute, where Witkin was a laboratory director until she retired in 1991. “I am very happy the Waksman Institute and Rutgers University had the chance to honor her with symposia on her 100th birthday in March 2021 and her 102nd birthday in March 2023.”

Witkin began her Rutgers career at the university’s then Douglass College in 1971 and was a professor of biological sciences for two decades, named the Barbara McClintock Professor of Genetics in 1979. She was a Waksman Institute laboratory director from 1983 to 1991 and then a Rutgers and Waksman emerita scientist from 1992 until her death.

Considered an inspiration to her colleagues and students, Witkin was passionate about both her research and social justice issues throughout her life.

As an undergraduate student at New York University in 1940, Witkin was one of the “Bates Seven” who led a campuswide protest over what they considered was blatant racism. At the time, some northern universities had made “gentleman's agreements” with southern universities to keep Black football players from playing on segregated universities’ home fields. Leonard Bates, the star fullback and the only Black player at NYU, was prevented from traveling to the University of Missouri with the team to play.

The “Bates Seven” were suspended for three months after 2,000 students picketed the administration building and more than 4,000 signed a petition. Her role in the protests prevented Witkin from graduating in May 1941 and changed the course of her studies.

“I had planned to stay at NYU for graduate work in genetics, but I decided to go to Columbia,” she wrote in a story published in the National Science and Technology Medals Foundation publication in 2016. “My having gone to Columbia was the greatest blessing that ever happened to me professionally. I’m not sure I would be a National Medal of Science Laureate if New York University hadn’t decided that I was a bad girl in 1941.”

Funeral arrangements have not been announced. Her family plans to hold a celebration honoring her life sometime in the future.

[Happy As Larry]

Seeing Gainsbourg always reminds me of his appearance on Michel Drucker's weekend show when he appeared with Whitney Houston.

Gainsbourg was always a popular guest on such programmes as he was always drunk and unpredictable.

[harrybarracuda]

Not as good as Olly Reed though.

[harrybarracuda]

Kevin Mitnick, famous white hat hacker, dies aged 59



Mitnick’s curious, mischievous nature fueled his interest in hacking, led him onto the FBI’s Most Wanted list in the 90s and helped him become a major name in the cybersecurity sector.

Kevin Mitnick, a renowned hacker that gained notoriety in the 90s before becoming a cybersecurity consultant, has died of pancreatic cancer.

He passed away peacefully on 16 July and is survived by his wife Kimberley, who is currently pregnant with their first child, according to an obituary page.

Mitnick rose to fame when he was arrested in 1995 for multiple offences, including breaking into the networks of major firms such as Nokia, Motorola and IBM. His interest in hacking began thanks to his curious, mischievous nature and a love of both magic and pranking.

In 2018, Mitnick told SiliconRepublic.com that he wanted to get better access to the networks of phone companies “to be a better prankster”. His intrigue was never about profit or harm, but helped to grow his hacking skills until his past caught up to him in 1995.

“The government was chasing me for hacking a bunch of cellphone companies because I was fascinated with how the cellphone worked,” Mitnick said.

“I wanted to understand how it worked; made a stupid and regrettable decision to hack into these cellular manufacturers like Nokia, Motorola, and get the source code to the firmware on the chip inside, so I could study and understand how it worked.”

Mitnick served five years in prison and went on to become a white hat hacker and cybersecurity consultant. He grew into a major name in the cybersecurity sector, wrote multiple books on his hacking escapades and became the chief hacking officer and part owner of software training company KnowBe4.

“To know Kevin was to be enthralled, exasperated, amazed, amused, irritated, and utterly charmed – in equal measure,” Mitnick’s obituary reads. “He was insistent upon being kept updated at all times – even when it meant dozens of phone calls in a single day to the same person – just to be sure he had all the facts.

“He set incredibly high standards for himself and those who worked with him, and would get lost for hours in complex problems encountered in his work. We knew him simply as Kev, our beloved friend, a devoted husband, and a trustworthy confidante.”

Kevin Mitnick, famous white hat hacker, dies aged 59

[S Landreth]

Legendary disc jockey Dick Biondi dies at 90

Chicago legend Dick Biondi has died. He was 90.

Driving the news: The longtime disc jockey started spinning records in the 1950s and is credited as the first to play the Beatles on American radio.

• Biondi's radio career spanned 67 years, working at stations WLS-AM, WCFL and most recently 94.7 FM.

Flashback: Biondi made his name in the early 1960s while helming nights at WLS-AM, where he pulled in remarkable ratings and created mob scenes at public appearances.

• He was nicknamed "The Screamer" because of his enthusiastic delivery.
• He penned the novelty record "On Top of a Pizza,” which was a parody of "On Top of Old Smoky."
• Billboard magazine named Biondi the #1 disc jockey in America.

Context: The top 40 jock crisscrossed the country throughout his career, taking jobs in markets including LA and South Carolina.

Yes, but: Biondi always found his way back to Chicago, rekindling his brilliant career at "Magic 104" (104.3 FM) in the 1980s.

• Biondi became the voice of the "golden oldie," guiding the oldies format with his distinct perspective and professional delivery.

State of play: He was inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame in 1998.

• Biondi left radio in 2017.

[nidhogg]

Jock Zonfrillo is believed to have died of natural causes and nothing unusual or suspicious was discovered in the hotel room where he was found dead, Daily Mail Australia understands.


The MasterChef star, 46, was found dead by police at Zagame's House hotel in Melbourne at about 2am on Monday, just metres away from his former inner-city home in Carlton.

One of the hosts of Masterchef Australia, and well known aussie restaurateur. Dead at 46 - from natural causes apparently. Quite shocked.

[Bob Mason]

Tony Bennett has passed away, news just broken.

Tony Bennett obituary: The great interpreter of the American songbook - BBC News

[taxexile]

Tony Bennett was the last of the crooners. The great jazz singer has died, aged 96, after several years of struggling with Alzheimers. He sang with Frank Sinatra, who called him “the best in the business” and he was still singing into his mid-nineties, duetting with Lady Gaga who called him “one of my favourite people on the planet.” From the heady days of swing to the banging clatter of electropop, Bennett saw it all, and just kept on doing what he was doing as if nothing could ever touch him but the songs themselves.

A jazz man to his core who never deigned to move with the times, Bennett had a beautiful tone and impeccable timing, devoted to a “bel canto” practise that kept his voice supple across the decades, seemingly holding him outside of time and fashion. As all the original crooners fell away and rock and pop got louder, sexier, stranger and more sonically challenging, it was left to Bennett to keep the torch burning for this gloriously sophisticated, understatedly emotional style of music that was as essential to the sound of the 21st century as rock’n’roll.

“Bel canto means beautiful voice, a beautiful sound,” he once told me. “So you try and think of beauty when you sing. It’s very wholesome, you think in terms of feeling and pouring your soul into the music.’ Tony Bennet sang from his soul for over 70 years. He was one of the all-time greats, no question.

Tony Bennett was a jazz man to his core – and a complete gentleman

[helge]

Tony Bennett has passed away, news just broken.

Like his music.

Luigi and Stumpy must be in sorrow

[harrybarracuda]

Better than Sinatra in my book. A legend.

[S Landreth]

• Black mathematician calculated orbits for Apollo moon landing

Evelyn Boyd Granville, one of the first Black women to receive a doctorate in mathematics from an American university and whose groundbreaking work in computers included helping calculate orbit trajectories and lunar-landing scenarios for the space program, had died at her home in Silver Spring, Maryland. She was 99.

Granville specialised in the analysis and interplay of complex equations and variables, a valuable expertise as NASA looked to harness early mainframe computers for an edge in the space race with the Soviet Union.

Recruited in 1956 by IBM to program a data-processing unit, Granville was part of the company’s team working with NASA after its founding in 1958, a year after the USSR launched the Sputnik satellite.

At IBM, Granville was assigned to the satellite-focused Project Vanguard. “At that time, the satellite was the size of a grapefruit,” she told Scientific American in 2014. “We were writing programs for something up in the air the size of a grapefruit!”

Then she was on the astronaut program Mercury, which in February 1962 successfully launched a rocket with John Glenn aboard as the first American to orbit Earth. Granville wrote programs to track orbital trajectories, critical calculations that included safe re-entry into the atmosphere.

Later, with North American Aviation and IBM, she was part of divisions aiding the Apollo missions, providing technical support to engineers working on moon landing calculations years ahead of the first steps on the lunar surface in 1969.

“There was such a need for talent,” she told the Tyler Morning Telegraph in Texas in 2000, “that companies stopped looking at race and gender.”

That was true, up to a point. Granville was part of a small cadre of Black women involved in the space program, such as the group recounted in the book and 2016 film Hidden Figures. But Granville also knew segregation and sexism first-hand, and she often lamented that women and minorities remained significantly under-represented in maths and sciences.

She spent her childhood in Washington, in the segregated education system. After receiving her doctorate in 1949 from Yale University, she took a teaching position at Fisk University, a historically Black college in Nashville, because she felt professorships at other colleges were effectively closed to Black women at the time.

“We accepted education as the means to rise above the limitations that a prejudiced society endeavoured to place upon us,” she wrote in a 1989 essay for the scholarly journal Sage, which focuses on Black women.

Over a career spanning six decades, Granville embraced reinvention. She taught in a public school in Texas, collaborated on a maths textbook used in more than 50 universities, and helped her husband raise chickens and catfish on a 6.5 hectare tract in East Texas.

Once asked to list her accomplishments, Granville said: “First of all, showing that women can do mathematics.” Then she added: “Being an African American woman, letting people know that we have brains, too.”

Evelyn Boyd was born in Washington on May 1, 1924. Her father, who worked as a custodian in their apartment building, left the family when she was young. She was raised by her mother and an aunt (her mother’s twin), both of whom worked as examiners for the US Bureau of Engraving and Printing. Evelyn and her older sister often spent portions of the summer at the farm of a family friend in Linden, Virginia.

She was valedictorian in her 1941 graduating class at Dunbar High School and received a partial scholarship to the all-female Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts. She planned to study French but was soon fascinated by courses in mathematics, physics and astronomy. She returned to Washington during summer breaks to work at what was then the National Bureau of Standards.

“This whole word they’ve invented, ‘nerd’, didn’t exist in my day,” she told the Christian Science Monitor in 2002, “thank goodness.”

She received her bachelor’s degree in mathematics from Smith in 1945 and began work at Yale toward her master’s degree (1946) and then doctorate, studying functional analysis of equations and mathematical theory.

Granville’s doctorate was awarded the same year that another Black woman, Marjorie Lee Browne, finished her doctoral work in mathematics at the University of Michigan. In 1943, Euphemia Lofton Haynes received a doctorate in mathematics from Catholic University in what is widely cited as the first such mathematics degree to a Black woman in the United States. (Black women had earlier doctorates in other academic disciplines.)

“If I had known then that, in the not-too-distant future, the United States would launch its space program, and astronomers would be in great demand in the planning of space missions, I might have become an astronomer instead of a mathematician,” Granville wrote.

In 1950, Granville became an associate professor of mathematics at Fisk, where two of her female students went on to complete doctorates in mathematics. She worked from 1952 to 1956 as an applied mathematician at the Diamond Ordnance Fuze Laboratory, a defence industry supplier, before joining IBM.

She moved to Los Angeles in 1960 after her marriage to the Reverend Gamaliel Mansfield Collins. She continued in space flight calculations, first with Space Technology Laboratories and then North American Aviation. She rejoined IBM in 1963 as a senior mathematician for the Apollo project.

Granville left in 1967 for a teaching position at California State University in Los Angeles, where she described being “shocked” at the maths skills of students. She remained in education for the rest of her career, co-writing a college textbook, Theory and Applications of Mathematics for Teachers (1975).

She later held positions at Texas College, a historically Black college in Tyler, and the University of Texas at Tyler before her retirement in 2010.

Her first marriage ended in divorce. She and her second husband, a retired real estate broker she met in Los Angeles, Edward Granville, raised chickens on their property near Tyler and sold eggs as well as catfish from the property’s lake. “I was convinced that a move to a rural setting in East Texas would be a welcome change from the Los Angeles metropolis,” she wrote.

Edward Granville died in 2008.

Granville had no children. Information on survivors was not immediately available.

Despite Granville’s contributions to computer advancements, she saw one spin-off – the humble calculator – as an enemy. She proposed banning calculators in elementary school and returning to classic teaching methods such as long division and multiplication tables.

“The children end up crippled in mathematics at an early age. Then, when they get to the college level, they are unable to handle college classes,” she said. “It’s tragic because almost every academic area requires some exposure to mathematics.”

[aging one]

Tony Bennett was a big SF Giants baseball fan. Two or three time a year he would come to the park and serenade the crowd with I Left My Heart In San Francisco. Was a very cool scene indeed.