Archive » R.I.P.

Class act.

Class act.

A quiet GOP senator from Wyoming who avoided the spotlight has passed away.
Wyoming Sen. Craig Thomas, a three-term Republican who stayed clear of the Washington limelight and political catfights, died Monday. He was 74.
The senator’s family issued a statement saying he died Monday evening at National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Md. He had been [...]

The body found in the Euphrates River has been identified as Pfc. Joseph Anzack Jr.
“I was honored to have him serve this country,” Joseph Anzack Sr. told the [Torrance] Breeze. “I know he went over there and made a difference… It was an honor to be his father.”
Keep his family and the families of [...]

Local paper reporting….
Update: First obituaries coming in…McClatchy….
Admire him or revile him, the Rev. Jerry Falwell’s role in American history will reverberate long past his death Tuesday at the age of 73.
***
His legacy and shadow are sure to come up in the GOP debate tonight. Here’s a flashback on McCain and Falwell. Here’s Falwell on Giuliani. [...]

Wert drowned this weekend while saving two children in distress at Atlantic Beach, N.C. “He was always there to help,” said Lt. Col. William Conley, commander of Marine Wing Headquarters Squadron 2. Read the whole story. Sounds like he was a great man and Marine. Keep him and his family in your prayers.

A giant passes:
Mstislav Rostropovich, the ebullient master cellist who courageously fought for the rights of Soviet-era dissidents and later triumphantly played Bach suites below the crumbling Berlin Wall, has died. He was 80.
Rostropovich died Friday in a Moscow cancer hospital, the Itar-Tass news agency reported. Rostropovich’s spokeswoman, Natalia Dollezhal, confirmed to The Associated Press that [...]

One of my favorite cartoonists, the brilliant Johnny Hart, died yesterday–Holy Saturday. He was funny, fierce, and faithful:
Cartoonist Johnny Hart, whose award-winning “B.C.” comic strip appeared in more than 1,300 newspapers worldwide, died Saturday while working at his home in Endicott. He was 76.
“He had a stroke,” Hart’s wife, Bobby, said Sunday. “He died at [...]

A Florida reader sent along a news item about the memorial service for U.S. Army PFC Branden Cummings:
About 1,000 people crammed into the Brevard Memorial Funeral Home and spilled into the parking lot for the funeral of U.S. Army PFC Branden Cummings of Titusville.
Cummings, who died, Feb. 14 in Iraq, was remembered by family members [...]

Take time to read this.
***
Don’t forget: Appeal for Courage.

The immortal words of 2LT Mark Daily live on. The Los Angeles Times has picked up the story: “Mark Daily wrote on MySpace that he joined the Army to help the suffering people of Iraq. In death, his words have become a call to service.”
A small sample:
In a 2005 videotape of his officers’ commissioning ceremony, [...]

Deborah Orin-Eilbeck, the NYPost’s longtime D.C. bureau chief, died last night of cancer. The NYPost has the story here. I had always been a fan of her political reporting, and linked to several of her stories here over the years. We met at a Washington event a few years ago, and she was as warm [...]

Army 2nd Lt. Mark J. Daily, 23
A reader e-mails that 2LT Mark Daily was killed in an IED attack in Mosul along with three other soldiers. He was named the ROTC’s outstanding cadet for 2005 and also a Distinguished Military Graduate, the highest ROTC award. The OC Register profiles him here.
This was his MySpace post [...]

Eric Fettman pays tribute to New York Post Middle East correspondent and reporting legend, Uri Dan, who died on Sunday.

Jeane Kirkpatrick, the former U.N. ambassador, has passed away (hat tip - The Corner).
Her death was announced Friday at the senior staff meeting of the U.S. mission to the United Nations. Spokesman Richard Grenell said that Ambassador John Bolton asked for a moment of silence.
A death announcement is also posted on the Web site of [...]

Very sad news: The body of C-NET editor James Kim has been found in the Oregon woods. C-NET coverage here.
San Francisco Chronicle reports:
James Kim, missing in the southern Oregon mountains since he left his stranded family Saturday to look for help, was found dead today, authorities said.
A helicopter crew spotted his body face down in [...]

One of America’s greatest intellectual heroes of freedom passed away last night.
Here’s the Friedman Foundation’s statement:
Today, upon news of the death of Nobel Laureate economist Dr. Milton Friedman, Gordon St. Angelo, president and CEO of the Milton and Rose D. Friedman Foundation, offered the following statement:
America has lost a true visionary and advocate for human [...]

Terrible news:
A leading Afghan official working on women’s rights has been shot dead in the southern province of Kandahar.
Safia Amajan, head of the province’s women’s department, was leaving her home for work when a gunman on a motorcycle opened fire, police said.
She may have been targeted by Taleban militants because of their opposition to women [...]

Deeply saddening news at the end of this 9/11 anniversary week. The outspoken lioness Oriana Fallaci has died of cancer:
Oriana Fallaci, one of Italy’s best-known writers and war correspondents who goaded the world’s great and issued a vitriolic assault on Islam after the September 11 attacks on the United States, died on Friday aged 77.
Fallaci [...]

The Seattle Post-Intelligencer profiles Pamela Waechter, who died at the hands of accused anti-Israel shooter Naveed Haq on Friday.
At Temple B’nai Torah in Bellevue, where the 58-year-old Waechter was a member for about 30 years, services went on. But unlike most Saturdays, there was a police officer sitting in a parked squad car outside the [...]

The DoD announced today the death of Staff Sgt. Raymond J. Plouhar, 30, of Lake Orion, Mich.:
Plouhar died June 26 from wounds received while conducting combat operations in Al Anbar province, Iraq. He was assigned to 3rd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division, I Marine Expeditionary Force, Camp Pendleton, Calif.
Plouhar was exploited by [...]

Freedom Watch sends word that Andrea Clarke, the ill woman in Texas whose plight was spotlighted by pro-life bloggers and disability activists over the past two weeks, has died.
Keep her family in your prayers.

Rukesyer, Host of Wall $treet Week
If you are a wonk/geek, you loved Louis Rukeyser’s long-running business/economics show on PBS and you can still hum the theme song. Rukeyser died today at the age of 73:
Rukeyser helped to popularize the often dull and arcane subjects of economics and finance with puns that drew appreciative groans [...]

The French philosopher who bucked the anti-American European trend has died.
Background: His 2002 book on anti-Americanism * Europe’s Anti-American Obsession

Legendary Wisconsin Democrat Sen. William Proxmire died this morning. Didn’t agree with everything he stood for, but he was the original Porkbuster–a crusader against government waste who issued “Golden Fleece Awards” to expose taxpayer-funded boondoggles. Via the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:
He became the scourge of defense-industry lobbyists, pork-barrel public works projects and seekers of tax loopholes.
“It [...]

A civil rights pioneer passes. Via Breitbart.com/AP:
Rosa Lee Parks, whose refusal to give up her bus seat to a white man sparked the modern civil rights movement, died Monday. She was 92.
Mrs. Parks died at her home of natural causes, said Karen Morgan, a spokeswoman for U.S. Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich.
Mrs. Parks was 42 [...]

Via Breitbart.com, Chief Justice Rehnquist Dies at Home.
Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist died Saturday evening at his home in suburban Virginia, said Supreme Court spokeswoman Kathy Arberg.
A statement from the spokeswoman said he was surrounded by his three children when he died in Arlington.
“The Chief Justice battled thyroid cancer since being diagnosed last October [...]

1200am. Just in from ABC News:
ABC News Anchor Peter Jennings died today at his home in New York City. He was 67. On April 5, Jennings announced he had been diagnosed with lung cancer.
He is survived by his wife Kayce Freed, his two children, Elizabeth, 25, and Christopher, 23, and his sister Sarah Jennings.
Jennings, [...]

Via AP:
The brain dead woman who was kept alive for three months so she could deliver the child she was carrying was removed from life support Wednesday and died, her family said.
God rest her soul.
More here.

Terrible news:
An American journalist and author has been found shot dead in the southern Iraqi city of Basra, a Western diplomat said on Wednesday.
The diplomat told Reuters the next of kin of Steven Vincent had been notified and an investigation was underway to determine who was behind the death.
The diplomat said he believed Vincent’s body [...]