Wayne Cochran (1939 - 2017)

Talvin Wayne Cochran was born on May 10, 1939, in Thomaston, Georgia, to Talvin A. Cochran, a cotton mill worker, and the former Mini Lee Starley, who came from a farming family. Influenced by the country and rhythm and blues music he heard on the radio, Wayne Cochran fronted his first band – a group […]

Ann Wedgeworth (1934 - 2017)

Ann Wedgeworth had supporting roles in many movies. She had the female leading role opposite Gene Hackman in the 1973 film Scarecrow. She later co-starred in Bang the Drum Slowly, Law and Disorder, One Summer Love, and Thieves. In 1977, she won the National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Supporting Actress for her […]

Earle Hyman (1926 - 2017)

Earle Hyman made his Broadway stage debut as a teenager in 1943 in Run, Little Chillun, and later joined the American Negro Theater. The following year, Hyman began a two-year run playing the role of Rudolf on Broadway in Anna Lucasta, starring Hilda Simms in the title role. He was a member of the American […]

Tommy Keene (1970 - 2017)

Tommy Keene graduated in 1976 from Walter Johnson High School in Bethesda, Maryland, which was also the alma mater of fellow musician Nils Lofgren, who went on to play and record with Neil Young and Bruce Springsteen. Keene played drums in one version of Lofgren’s early bands. Keene then attended the University of Maryland. Tommy […]

Rance Howard (1928 - 2017)

Rance Howard began his professional acting career began in 1948 when he went to New York City, auditioned and landed a job in a children’s touring company. The role that got him noticed nationally for television and film was playing the part of Lindstrom in the touring company of the play Mister Roberts with Henry […]

Charles Manson (1934 - 2017)

Charles Manson Charles Milles Manson (born Charles Milles Maddox, November 12, 1934 – November 19, 2017) was an American criminal and cult leader who formed what became known as the Manson Family, a quasi-commune in California in the late 1960s. Manson’s followers committed a series of nine murders at four locations in July and August […]

Mel Tillis (1932 - 2017)

Although Mel Tillis charted on his own Billboard’s Hot Country Songs list, he had more success as a songwriter. He continued to be Webb Pierce’s songwriter. He wrote the hits “I Ain’t Never” (Tillis’ own future hit) and “Crazy, Wild Desire”. Bobby Bare, Tom Jones (“Detroit City”), Wanda Jackson, and Stonewall Jackson also covered his […]

Bobby Doerr (1918 - 2017)

In 1941, Bobby Doerr was an All-Star, the first of nine times he was a selected for the AL All-Star team. In 1944, Doerr led the league in slugging percentage. The same year, his .325 batting average was good enough to allow him to finish second in the league, two percentage points behind Lou Boudreau […]

Nancy Zieman (1953 - 2017)

Nancy Zieman’s face was partially paralyzed due to Bell’s palsy. She acquired it due to an ear infection when she was a toddler.  Zieman was always open about her condition; she wrote about it, was interviewed by journalists, and hosted a segment on her television show with medical professionals. She jokingly referred to herself as […]

Mark Barton (1955 - 1999)

Mark Barton was born on April 2, 1955, in Stockbridge, Georgia, to an Air Force family, and was raised in South Carolina. Barton attended Clemson University and the University of South Carolina, where he earned a degree in chemistry despite an ongoing drug habit. Back in Atlanta, he married Debra Spivey, and had two children, […]

Andrew Kehoe (1872 - 1927)

With a reputation for thrift, Andrew Kehoe was elected treasurer of the Bath Consolidated School board in 1924. While on the board, Kehoe fought for lower taxes and was often at cross purposes with other board members, voting against them and calling for adjournment when he didn’t get his way. He repeatedly accused superintendent Emory […]

Larry Ashbrook (1952 - 1999)

Larry Ashbrook interrupted a teen prayer rally in the Wedgwood Baptist Church, slamming his hand on a door to make his presence known. Spouting anti-Baptist rhetoric, he opened fire with a 9 mm semi-automatic handgun and a .380-caliber handgun. He reloaded several times during the shooting; three empty magazines were found at the scene. Seven […]

Howard Unruh (1921 - 2009)

Howard Unruh was the son of Samuel Shipley Unruh and Freda E. Vollmer. He had a younger brother, James; they were raised by their mother after the parents separated. Unruh grew up in East Camden, attended Cramer Junior High School, and graduated from Woodrow Wilson High School in January 1939. The Woodrow Wilson High School […]

Michael McLendon (1980 - 2009)

Michael Kenneth McLendon (September 19, 1980 – March 10, 2009) was born in southern Alabama to Lisa McLendon (née White) and her husband. After his parents divorced, he was largely raised by his aunt and maternal uncle, Phyllis and James White, of Samson, Alabama. He attended local schools. An “A” student in high school, he […]

James Pough (1948 - 1990)

In December 1988, James Pough traded his old car for a 1988 Pontiac Grand Am, though he soon had difficulties to make his payments. As a result, the car was voluntarily repossessed by GMAC in January 1990. He received a bill for $6,394 of outstanding fees in March, and again on April 6, which was […]

Christopher Harper-Mercer (1989 - 2015)

Christopher Sean “Chris” Harper-Mercer (July 26, 1989 – October 1, 2015) was enrolled in the introductory composition class where he shot his victims. He was born in Los Angeles County, California to Ian Mercer and Laurel Margaret Harper, and lived with his mother during the separation and divorce of his parents, who agreed to shared legal […]

Stephen Paddock (1953 - 2017)

According to court records, Stephen Paddock was married and divorced twice. He was first married from 1977 to 1979, and for the second time from 1985 to 1990, both marriages in Los Angeles County, California. Family members say he stayed on good terms with his ex-wives. His brother Eric said that Stephen had no political […]

Dorothy Porter (1954 - 2008)

Dorothy Porter’s awards include The Age Book of the Year for poetry, the National Book Council Award for The Monkey’s Mask and the FAW Christopher Brennan Award for poetry. Two of her verse novels were shortlisted for the Miles Franklin Award: What a Piece of Work in 2000 and Wild Surmise in 2003. In 2000, […]

Roy Porter (1946 - 2002)

Roy Porter grew up in South London and attended Wilson’s School in Camberwell. He won a scholarship to Christ’s College, Cambridge, where he studied under J. H. Plumb. His contemporaries included Simon Schama and Andrew Wheatcroft. He achieved a double starred first and became a junior Fellow in 1968, studying under Robert M. Young and […]

John Saville (1916 - 1970)

John Saville was born Orestes Stamatopoulos in 1916, in Gainsborough, Lincolnshire to Greek parents. He took the surname Saville from his mother’s second husband, and was brought up in Romford. He won a scholarship to Royal Liberty School in London and went on to study at the London School of Economics, where he joined the Communist […]

Asa Briggs (1921 - 2016)

From 1942 to 1945 during the Second World War, Asa Briggs served in the Intelligence Corps and worked at the British wartime codebreaking station, Bletchley Park. He was a member of “the Watch” in Hut 6, the section deciphering Enigma machine messages from the German Army and Luftwaffe. This posting had arisen because at college […]

John Dunsworth (1946 - 2017)

John Dunsworth studied acting at the University of Guelph, but dropped out in his fourth year. He went on to act in numerous CBC radio dramas, and has had starring roles in many stage productions at the Neptune Theatre in Halifax. In 1970, Dunsworth leased an abandoned building on Halifax’s waterfront, and converted it into a […]

Scott Putesky (1968 - 2017)

Scott Putesky and Brian Warner met at a Fort Lauderdale club called The Reunion Room and later at a local after-party in December 1989. The two created the concept of Marilyn Manson & The Spooky Kids poking fun at American media hypocrisy and its obsessions with serial killers and beautiful women. Scott Putesky, who had at […]

Judy Martz (1943 - 2017)

Upon becoming governor, Judy Martz’ first legislative session resulted in the single largest increase in the education budget in Montana history, as well as tax cuts intended to stimulate the stagnant state economy. Martz was put under a statewide microscope in November 2001 when a 1999 real estate deal between the Martzes and ARCO was uncovered. […]

Luciano Berio (1925 - 2003)

Luciano Berio was born in Oneglia (now part of Imperia), on the Ligurian coast of Italy. He was taught how to play the piano by his father and grandfather, who were both organists. During World War II he was conscripted into the army, but on his first day, he injured his hand while learning how […]

Karlheinz Stockhausen (1928 - 2007)

Karlheinz Stockhausen (German pronunciation: [kaʁlˈhaɪnts ˈʃtɔkhaʊzn̩]; 22 August 1928 – 5 December 2007) was a German composer, widely acknowledged by critics as one of the most important (Barrett 1988, 45; Harvey 1975b, 705; Hopkins 1972, 33; Klein 1968, 117) but also controversial (Power 1990, 30) composers of the 20th and early 21st centuries. A critic […]

Pierre Boulez (1925 - 2016)

Pierre Louis Joseph Boulez CBE (French: [pjɛʁ bu.lɛːz]; 26 March 1925 – 5 January 2016) was a French composer, conductor, writer and organiser of institutions. He was one of the dominant figures of the post-war classical music world. Born in Montbrison in the Loire department of France, the son of an engineer, Boulez studied at the Conservatoire […]

Alban Berg (1885 - 1935)

Alban Berg was a part of Vienna’s cultural elite during the heady fin de siècle period. His circle included the musicians Alexander von Zemlinsky and Franz Schreker, the painter Gustav Klimt, the writer and satirist Karl Kraus, the architect Adolf Loos, and the poet Peter Altenberg. In 1906, Berg met the singer Helene Nahowski, daughter […]

Claude Debussy (1862 - 1918)

Claude Debussy’s private life was often turbulent. At the age of 18 he began an eight-year affair with Marie-Blanche Vasnier, the wife of Parisian civil servant Henri Vasnier. The relationship eventually faltered following his winning of the Prix de Rome in 1884 and obligatory residence in Rome. On his permanent return to Paris and his parents’ […]

Anton Webern (1883 - 1945)

Anton Friedrich Wilhelm (von) Webern (German: [ˈantɔn ˈveːbɐn]; 3 December 1883 – 15 September 1945) was an Austrian composer and conductor. Along with his mentor Arnold Schoenberg and his colleague Alban Berg, Webern was at the core among those within and more peripheral to the circle of the Second Viennese School, including Ernst Krenek and Theodor […]