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Dory Previn, the lyricist for three Oscar-nominated songs who as a composer and performer mined her difficult childhood, bouts of mental illness and a very public divorce to create a potent and influential personal songbook, died on Tuesday at her home in Southfield, Mass. She was 86... Her early success came in Hollywood, writing songs for the movies, generally as a lyricist working with her husband, André Previn, who later earned fame as a classical composer and conductor...

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Etta James, whose assertive, earthy voice lit up such hits as "The Wallflower," "Something's Got a Hold on Me" and the wedding favorite "At Last," has died, according to her longtime friend and manager, Lupe De Leon. She was 73. She died from complications from leukemia with her husband, Artis Mills, and her sons by her side, De Leon said. She was diagnosed with leukemia in 2010, and also suffered from dementia and hepatitis C. James died at a hospital in Riverside, California. She would have turned 74 Wednesday. " This is a tremendous loss for the family, her friends...

While in route to California on Tuesday Yorkie, Tiapam and Cardhu were in a horrible one car accident near Kingman, AZ. Yorkie was airlifted to Las Vegas while two FReepers were called home. Cardhu and Tiapam died at the scene. Tiapam has been a Freeper since December, 2009; Cardhu has been a Freeper since July, 2005. Please remember them in your prayers. I talked to Yorkie tonight; she is in ICU with serious non-lifethreating injuries. She has many broken and crushed bones on her right side. She will need lots of therapy and lots of prayers. Please say a...

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — A judge holds a hearing Thursday on whether to sign a court order declaring Natalee Holloway dead more than six years after she disappeared in Aruba.

Tony Blankely, a noted conservative author and commentator and former editorial page editor of The Washington Times, died Sunday morning, according to family sources. He was 63 and had been battling stomach cancer. Mr. Blankley was an executive vice president of the Edelman public-relations firm in Washington, a visiting senior fellow in national-security communications at the Heritage Foundation, a syndicated newspaper columnist and an on-air political commentator for CNN, NBC and NPR. He was also a regular weekly guest on “The McLaughlin Group.” Mr. Blankley was editorial page editor of The Times from 2002 to 2007, and from 1990 to...

(If I've posted this to the wrong area, Please feel free to move this!) Judith Anne was admitted to the hospital the day after Christmas having suffered a serious stroke....

Kevin Christopher Fitzgerald's life ended Saturday night on the cold asphalt of Highway 101 in Santa Rosa when the 57-year-old homeless man walked into the path of a southbound pickup truck. The driver, traveling at 65 mph, swerved and tried to brake, but had no chance to miss Fitzgerald, the CHP said. The man had lived on the streets and been to local hospitals so often in the last 25 years that paramedics immediately recognized him. Fitzgerald, the fifth homeless pedestrian killed by a vehicle this year in Santa Rosa, carried a secret that stunned most people who'd known the...

Kim Jong-il is dead

The writer, journalist and contrarian Christopher Hitchens has died at the age of 62 after crossing the border into the "land of malady" on being diagnosed with an oesophageal cancer in June 2010. Vanity Fair, for which he had written since 1992 and was made contributing editor, marked his death in a memorial article posted late on Thursday night. The reactions to Hitchens's illness from his intellectual opponents – which ranged from undisguised glee to offers of prayers – testified to his stature as one of the leading voices of secularism since the publication in 2007 of his anti-religious polemic...

R.I.P. Christopher Hitchens December 15, 2011 11:51 P.M. By Daniel Foster     Vanity Fair reports that Christopher Hitchens has passed away. Often frustrating, usually provocative, always brilliant. He added to the culture, and the conversation. I’m sure I join many in hoping he is in for a glorious, glorious surprise.

Harry Morgan, the prolific character actor best known for playing the acerbic but kindly Colonel Potter in the long-running television series “M*A*S*H,” died Wednesday morning at his home in Los Angeles. He was 96. His son Charles confirmed his death. In more than 100 movies, Mr. Morgan played Western bad guys, characters with names like Rocky and Shorty, loyal sidekicks, judges, sheriffs, soldiers, thugs and police chiefs. On television, he played Officer Bill Gannon with a phlegmatic but light touch to Jack Webb’s always-by-the-book Sgt. Joe Friday in the updated “Dragnet,” from 1967 to 1970. He starred as Pete Porter,...

This is a day old, but the site was down and I was unable to share it.My wife, Kimberly Webb Joyner, died this morning in her sleep from unknown causes. She was 41. She leaves behind two little girls she loved more than anything, Katie, who turns 3 on New Year’s Eve, and Ellie, who was born June 21. We met in August 2004 and were married on October 8, 2005. She had just turned 35 and I was a few weeks shy of 40 but neither of us had been married before. We shared religious and political worldviews but...

Nov 25 (Reuters) - Former Soviet weightlifter Vasily Alekseyev, who won two Olympic and eight world super heavyweight titles and set 80 world records during his illustrious career, died on Friday following a long illness.

EAST COUNTY — A 16-year-old Alpine boy died in a rollover crash that seriously injured his mother on Interstate 8 west of Alpine Thursday morning, and later in the day the boy’s father was fatally injured in a collision while driving the wrong way in the same area, authorities said. The father's crash "is being investigated as a deliberate act, a suicide," California Highway Patrol Officer Brian Pennings said. Natalia Sambhi, 55, and her son were involved in a single-vehicle crash while heading west at Dunbar Lane just before 7 a.m. when their black Toyota Tacoma ran off the freeway...

PHOENIX (AP) — For more than a half century, Bil Keane's clever "Family Circus" comics entertained readers with a mix of humor and traditional family values, intentionally simplistic because the author thought the American public needed that consistency.

PHILADELPHIA - November 7, 2011 (WPVI) -- Former heavyweight champion Joe Frazier has lost his battle with liver cancer, his family tells Action News.

Wyatt Knight, who starred in the 1980s "Porky's" films, has been found dead in Hawaii with a self-inflicted gunshot wound. He was 56. A family statement Friday said the actor chose to end his life after a painful bout with non-Hodgkin lymphoma, which was in stage 4. He underwent radiation treatments that left him in "physical and emotional pain," and had a bone marrow transplant in 2003. Knight's most well-known role was playing Tommy Turner in the "Porky's" comedy trilogy.

Andy Rooney Dead at 92, One Month After Retiring Never retire: almost six weeks to the day after delivering his last cranky essay on 60 Minutes, writer and commentator Andy Rooney is dead of complications following minor surgery. He was 92, and had delivered exactly 1,097 of his trademark on-air bitch sessions. It's hard to think of a television correspondent more American than Rooney: interminably cranky, perpetually confused, stubbornly opinionated, slightly bigoted, usually wrong, and strangely likable. Rooney wrote his first "television essay"—"Essay on Doors," natch—in 1964. (It was delivered by CBS correspondent Harry Reasoner). He joined 60 Minutes in...

<p>Dorothy Rodham, mother of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and former President Bill Clinton's mother-in-law, died Tuesday at age 92 after an illness.</p>

Washington state Sen. Scott White, a transit advocate who rose to majority whip, was found dead Friday at a resort hotel. He was 41. Kittitas County Sheriff Gene Dana said there was no sign of foul play in the death. Authorities are investigating because it remains unexplained. Housekeeping staff at the Suncadia Resort found White after he failed to check out of his room. An autopsy is planned. The Democrat represented the state's 46th District, covering northern Seattle. White joined the Senate last year and rose to serve as the Senate's majority whip, advocating for transit issues as a caucus...

Steve Jobs, the mastermind behind Apple's iPhone, iPad, iPod, iMac and iTunes, has died in California. Jobs was 56. His death was reported by The Associated Press, citing Apple. Jobs co-founded Apple Computer in 1976 and, with his childhood friend Steve Wozniak, marketed what was considered the world's first personal computer, the Apple II.

WASHINGTON (AP) — An American-born cleric killed in Yemen played a "significant operational role" in plotting and inspiring attacks on the United States, U.S. officials said Friday, as they disclosed detailed intelligence to justify the killing of a U.S. citizen.

Authorities have confirmed the murder of a Nuevo Laredo newspaper editor whose body decapitated and left with a message not to use social media to report about drug cartels. It all happened in the Colonia Madero of Nuevo Laredo around 7:45 a.m. Saturday. According to reports, a woman's body was next to a statue of Christopher Columbus with a message not to use social media to report about drug cartel violence. The Tamaulipas Attorney General's Office (PGJE) identified the woman's body as 39-year-old Maria Elizabeth Macias-Castro, the editor of Nuevo Laredo's Primera Hora newspaper. Macias-Castro is the third person in...

<p>San Francisco, CA - Judge Pamela Rymer of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has died after a years-long battle with cancer.</p> <p>The federal court on Thursday announced the passing of the 70-year-old Rymer, .. Rymer was diagnosed with cancer in 2009 and died Wednesday with friends at her bedside.</p>

(CBS/AP)  JACKSON, Ga. - Georgia executed Troy Davis on Wednesday night for the murder of an off-duty police officer, a crime he denied committing right to the end as supporters around the world mourned and declared that an innocent man was put to death. Defiant to the end, he told relatives of Mark MacPhail that his 1989 slaying was not his fault. "I did not have a gun," he insisted.

Dolores DeFina Hope, a singer, philanthropist and the wife of the late, legendary comedian Bob Hope, died Monday of natural causes at her Toluca Lake home in Los Angeles. She was 102. Born in Harlem, Dolores Reade was singing at the Vogue Club in Manhattan when she was introduced to Hope, then a rising Broadway star. As he described it, it was “love at first song,” and they were married for nearly 70 years until his death in July 2003 at age 100. Though she accompanied her husband on many of his USO trips to entertain the troops -- usually...

Charles H. Percy, a brilliant businessman who represented Illinois for nearly 20 years in the U.S. Senate, once headed the chamber’s powerful Foreign Relations Committee, and harbored unrealized ambitions to run for the presidency, died early Saturday. He was 91. Percy died at 2:30 a.m. Eastern time at a Washington D.C. hospice, according to Kate Kelly, a spokeswoman with WETA, the public broadcasting station in Washington D.C., where Percy's daughter, Sharon Rockefeller is president and CEO. Percy, a moderate Republican, entered the Senate in 1966 after defeating one liberal icon, the late Paul Douglas. But he was ousted by the...

MINNEAPOLIS -- Eleanor Mondale, a vice president's daughter who carved out her own identity as a broadcast journalist and gossip magnet, has died at her home in Minnesota. She was 51. Family spokeswoman Lynda Pedersen says Mondale died Saturday. Mondale had been diagnosed with brain cancer years earlier. The daughter of former Vice President Walter Mondale and his wife, Joan, Eleanor Mondale had been off the air at WCCO-AM in Minneapolis since March 2009. That's when she announced her brain cancer had returned a second time. Mondale had surgery to remove the tumor in August 2009. After surgery, she returned...

We have heard from Steve0113 that his wife Nina0113 has passed away. The 0113 represents their wedding day, January 13. He would like their many FReeper friends to know. I'm so sorry. Prayers for Steve and family. Rest in peace, dear friend Nina.

NEW YORK (AP) -- Nick Ashford, one-half of the legendary Motown songwriting duo Ashford & Simpson that penned elegant, soulful classics for the likes of Diana Ross and Marvin Gaye and funk hits for Chaka Khan and others, died Monday at age 70, his former publicist said. Ashford, who along with wife Valerie Simpson wrote some of Motown's biggest hits, died in a New York City hospital, said Liz Rosenberg, who also was Ashford's longtime friend.

OTTAWA - Jack Layton, the leader of the official Opposition, died early Monday morning, his family said. Layton, 61, had been battling cancer for more than a year and, a month ago, announced he was temporarily stepping aside from his job to fight the disease. Layton's immediate family -- his wife, MP Olivia Chow, and his children, Sarah and Michael -- issued a statement at about 8:30 a.m. Monday morning. "We deeply regret to inform you that The Honourable Jack Layton, leader of the New Democratic Party of Canada, passed away at 4:45 am today, Monday, Aug. 22. He passed...

Jerry Leiber, one of the most important songwriters in the history of rock & roll – whose 60-year partnership with Mike Stoller produced "Stand By Me," "Hound Dog," "Jailhouse Rock," "Young Blood," "On Broadway," "Yakety-Yak" and countless other classics – has died of cardiopulmonary failure. He was 78. "When Jerry and I started to write, we were writing to amuse ourselves," Stoller told Rolling Stone in 1990. "It was done out of a love of doing it. We got very lucky in the sense that at some point what we wrote also amused a lot of other people." Leiber met...

A man was killed Monday afternoon as he disassembled equipment used for last weekend’s Fiesta rodeo and horse show at Earl Warren Showgrounds. According to Santa Barbara County Fire spokesperson Brian Hayden, the victim — identified as 49-year-old David Mann of Thousand Oaks — was crushed when a 1,500 pound-monitor fell from a forklift on top of him at around 1 p.m. Mann was owner of Thousand Oaks-based JumboScreen Co. Workers were able to lift the monitor from Mann before rescue crews responded, but medics arrived to find him in respiratory failure. He was transported to Cottage Hospital where he...

WHEELING, W.Va. -- A long-serving former bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston died Tuesday, just one day before his 83rd birthday. Bishop Emeritus Bernard W. Schmitt served as the diocese's seventh bishop from 1989 to 2004. During his time as bishop, Schmitt was appointed to the National Conference of Catholic Bishops' Committee on Priestly Life and Ministry, the Committee on Marriage and Family and the Catholic Campaign for Human Development Committee. Schmitt was born and raised in Wheeling and graduated from Corpus Christi School and Central Catholic High School. Even throughout his retirement, Schmitt continued to serve the diocese...

ST. LOUIS (AP) — A doctor once told Albert Brown he shouldn't expect to make it to 50, given the toll taken by his years in a Japanese labor camp during World War II and the infamous, often-deadly march that got him there. But the former dentist made it to 105, embodying the power of a positive spirit in the face of inordinate odds. "Doc" Brown was nearly 40 in 1942 when he endured the Bataan Death March, a harrowing 65-mile trek in which 78,000 prisoners of war were forced to walk from Bataan province near Manila to a Japanese...

At a time when many more cash-strapped Americans are stuck at home instead of vacationing at the beach, President Obama next week will lead an entourage of several dozens to exclusive Martha's Vineyard island at a cost of millions to taxpayers. While technically he is paying for his estimated $50,000 a week rental of the 28-acre beachfront Blue Heron Farm in woodsy Chilmark, the dozens of U.S. Secret Service agents, communications officials, top aides, drivers, and U.S. Coast Guard personnel with him will be covered by taxpayers as with every other presidentialvacations. His 11-day stay will require the Coast Guard...

WASHINGTON -- The Associated Press has learned that more than 20 Navy SEALs from the unit that killed Osama bin Laden were among those lost in a helicopter crash in Afghanistan. Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/world/2011/08/06/afghan-president-31-americans-killed-in-helicopter-crash/#ixzz1UGZcWiEh

President Obama praised the sacrifice of 31 U.S. troops who died early Saturday morning in helicopter crash in Wardak Province, Afghanistan. The Taliban has claimed it shot down the aircraft with a rocket-propelled grenade. Seven Afghan soldiers on board the helicopter also died. My thoughts and prayers go out to the families and loved ones of the Americans who were lost earlier today in Afghanistan,” Obama said in a statement. “Their deaths are a reminder of the extraordinary sacrifices made by the men and women of our military and their families, including all who have served in Afghanistan.” Obama said...

Twenty-five U.S. special forces killed early Saturday in Afghanistan were on a mission to rescue another team of military personnel pinned down by insurgents, a U.S. military official told CNN. The helicopter that went down in eastern Afghanistan carried 30 U.S. military members, including 22 Navy SEALs and three other special forces. They were part of a "quick reaction force" sent in to pick up others engaged in a fierce firefight, the official said. In the single deadliest incident since the start of the decade-long Afghan war, the Army Chinook carrying a team of U.S. special forces and U.S. and...

Co-founder of folk rock group America and singer of hits such as A Horse with No Name Dan Peek has been found dead at his home in Missouri. He was 60 years old. The cause of death is as yet unknown, however a post mortem examination is planned. Peek co-founded America after meeting band members Gerry Beckley and Dewey Bunnell at London Central High School, a school for children with parents in the US Armed Services.

WEST POINT, N.Y. — U.S. Military Academy officials were investigating Friday how an apparently healthy, athletic 18-year-old West Point cadet died during a land navigation exercise. Cadet Jacob D. Bower of Fairmont, W.Va., was found unresponsive Thursday by fellow cadets in a largely wooded area used for training. Attempts to revive Bower were unsuccessful and he was pronounced dead at 6:05 p.m. The incident and cause of death are under investigation. Temperatures in the Hudson Valley were in the 90s Thursday, but West Point's Lt. Col. Sherri Reed said it was not clear if high temperatures were a factor.

Word has come that FReeper gulfcoast 6 has passed away. Toby was a regular member of the America The Right Way thread, and was a FReeper in good standing since 1999. Toby had many friends on this forum and his wise, gentle posts and warm humor will be sorely missed. He has gone to his glory in Christ and joins his wife Treva who preceeded him in death and whom he lovingly posted about after her death. Toby loved God, his dear family (who he proudly posted about often) and his friends. We will all miss him and look forward...

Good morning! It is a new month and a new thread! I hope everyone had an enjoyable Fourth of July, celebrating the founding of these United States, a glorious experiment in world government. The National March by Sousa, conducted by BernsteinMay God bless America again.

Per Fox, found dead in her apartment, 27 years old.

Amy Winehouse has been found dead at her home in London, it has been reported. The Back To Black singer was apparently found at 4pm

<p>This morning I received a note from Mrs. 1-COUNTER-MORTER-68, stating he passed away quietly in his sleep on Thursday, July 14, 2011 at 4:26pm.</p>

Steven Rogers was in the wrong place at the wrong time. The 22-year-old University of Illinois Springfield student, known for his bright smile, sense of humor and friendly nature, was watching a DVD with friends inside a Grandview apartment when a bullet passed through the outside wall of the building and struck him in the chest… “Steve didn’t have any enemies,” said his father, Frank, from Moline. “If he could help you, he would help you. He didn’t have to know you very well. He was that kind of guy.” Similar sentiments were expressed by those who knew him at...

A U.S. Army veteran who lost his legs while deployed in Iraq died after he was thrown from a 200-foot-tall roller coaster at an upstate theme park on Friday. James Thomas Hackemer, 29, was ejected from the Ride of Steel roller coaster at the Darien Lake Theme Park Resort, located between Buffalo and Rochester, at about 5:30 p.m., the Genesee County sheriff's office said. The park confirmed a guest "came out of the Ride of Steel roller coaster" and said it was "saddened to report that the guest has passed." Hackemer, of Gowanda, lost his right leg below his knee...

Betty Ford said things that first ladies just don't say, even today. And 1970s America loved her for it. According to Mrs. Ford, her young adult children probably had smoked marijuana - and if she were their age, she'd try it, too. She told "60 Minutes" she wouldn't be surprised to learn that her youngest, 18-year-old Susan, was in a sexual relationship (an embarrassed Susan issued a denial).