William Quinn, the last territorial governor of Hawaii and first elected chief executive of “the islands” after they became the Aloha State in 1959, has died at the age of 87.
Also passing away at 87 was Nellie Connally, the widow of former Texas governor John Connally. She was the last survivor among those who were passengers in the presidential limousine on the day John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas.
Cancer has claimed Bob Mathias at the age of 75. Mathias won the Olympic decathlon in 1948 and 1952 before serving as a U.S. Representative from California’s San Joaquin Valley between 1967 and 1974.
Gordon Manning, the veteran TV news executive who backed the 1972 CBS decision to give extensive air time to the then-nascent Watergate scandal, has died at the age of 89. After moving to NBC, Manning arranged Tom Brokaw’s historic 1987 interview with Mikhail Gorbachev, who was then leading the Soviet Union.
Alllllrighty…why in the heck did my mailbox get stuffed with about 6 messages of the last two deaths reported?
The spazms of my evil little heart pinged with cackly goodness thinking that there was another Major Celebrity Death or something. And here it was just some guy with alot of vowels and a race car driver.
Hey, the Tongan king was crowned in 1968, the same year as the last Shah of Iran. And this guy died happy and loved by his people.
I remember reading the two articles in the National Geographic magazine. The Shah has a huge fancy ceremony, lots of jewels and pageantry. The Tongan king and queen had a simple religious service patterned from the British one.
Guess is goes to show how that pride really does go before a fall!
Oriana Fallaci, the controversial journalist known for interviews with such political figures as Yasser Arafat and Ayatollah Khomeini, has died at the age of 76. Since 9/11, she had drawn accusations of inciting hatred against Muslims through such works as the book The Rage and the Pride and the essay The Strength of Reason.
Another quickie update for now, repost scoreboard later. Hardly any changes, really:
Andrew 21 gains no points for Maria Capovilla but has a unique pick and QNQ credit.
Rachm Qoch makes a slight gain on front-runner uglybeech with the unique pick of Oriana Fallaci (worth 23 points). These two are now tied with six dead celebrities apiece, and RQ is the only player with two unique picks.
Only two players picked Glenn Ford: 10 points go to both 5 time champ and Rico.
And finally, welcoming to the scoreboard Kat and Wash, each of whom scores a healthy 56 points with the death of Steve Irwin.
