/ Stars that died in 2023

Monday, July 27, 2009

Henry J. Patch died he was 111

Patch, who was conscripted to the Army at the age of 18, had no inclination to fight, much less to kill anyone

Patch, who was conscripted to the Army at the age of 18, had no inclination to fight, much less to kill anyoneThe death of Harry Patch leaves no known British survivors of those who fought in the trenches of the First World War. He was the last of the infantry soldiers — the “Tommies”, immortalised by Kipling — who fought and died in hundreds of thousands on the Western Front, at Gallipoli, in Mesopotamia and Palestine during the “war to end all wars”, but which led inexorably to the conflict of 1939-45. Until the passing of the Military Service Act of January 1916, the Army had relied on volunteers, including those of the Territorial Army, to swell the ranks of its small regular force. It was indeed so small by Continental standards that the German Kaiser, Wilhelm II, dismissed it as Britain’s “contemptible little army”. By the close of 1915 a force of thirty-eight divisions was deployed on the Western Front, including those from Australia, Canada and New Zealand, but the casualties suffered during the 1915 offensives made it no longer possible for Britain to rely on volunteers. Conscription for unmarried men between 18 and 41, but excluding Ireland from where many volunteers had already come, began in January 1916. Patch was called up to join the Duke of Cornwall’s Light Infantry at the age of eighteen and a half in December 1916.

By his own account, he would never have volunteered, having no inclination to fight, much less to kill anyone. Nevertheless, he proved a natural rifle shot and qualified for the coveted cross-rifles marksman badge by the end of his basic training. Such skill often led to selection as a sniper, but it seems that lacking the individual ruthlessness required Patch was assessed as best suited to be part of a team. He was trained on the American-designed Lewis machinegun, introduced into the British Army on a scale of two per battalion, increased to two per company and finally to one per platoon during the course of the war.

On going to France in 1917, Patch joined 7th DCLI as a reinforcement following the battalion’s serious losses in earlier fighting. Hearing a call for someone trained on the Lewis gun, a comrade volunteered Patch for the post. He consequently became the Number 2 of a Lewis gun team in ‘C’ Company. The team consisting of the Number 1 who fired the gun, No 2 who was the loader, and the remaining three who carried the ammunition to refill the 50-round circular magazines. The Number 1 would normally fire the gun but if he were wounded or killed the Number 2 was trained to take over.

As often happened, his first group of close friends remained the most prominent in his memory. Eighty years on, Patch would recall sharing a parcel from home with his gun team members: half the packet of Royal Seal tobacco to the only other pipesmoker, thirteen cigarettes each for the other three from the two packets of twenty and socks to the one who needed them most. Everything was shared without hesitation.

Fire from the Lewis gun was strictly controlled by the officer in charge of the stretch of trench where it was situated. This was to conserve ammunition and limit the chances of the enemy identifying the position from gun flashes and retaliate with artillery fire. Prolonged firing demanded a hasty move to a new position and overheating also presented difficulties. The gun was gas-operated, so that draughts of air were driven back between the barrel and the outer casing, but it would become too hot to touch after firing the hundred rounds from two magazines.

During the preliminary stage of the British advance in the Third Battle of Ypres, which began on July 31, 1917, Patch’s battalion took part in the attack on Pilckem Ridge, the scene of bitter fighting in the first autumn of the war. The 7th DCLI went over the top of their assault trenches with ‘A’ and ‘B’ companies leading and ‘C’ and ‘D’ companies following in immediate reserve. They ran forward over the dead and wounded of earlier waves of infantry lying in no-man’s land, but no time could be spared to help them.Patch’s Lewis gun team was struggling towards an enemy second-line trench when three German soldiers climbed out of it, one advancing on them with bayonet fixed. Guessing correctly that the man had used all his ammunition, Patch drew the Colt revolver the Number 2 carried and shot the man in the shoulder then, as he still came on, in the leg. As a good shot with the Colt, he could easily have killed him, but he chose to spare his life.

Six weeks later, after his battalion had been relieved in the line and was withdrawing at night to the support trenches, Patch lost the three supporting members of the Lewis gun team to a single shell burst, one of his comrades disappearing completely in the blast. He was wounded in the groin by shrapnel. For the rest of his long life Harry Patch held his own private day of remembrance recalling the three friends he lost on September 22, 1917.

He was evacuated to hospital in England and after recovery from his wound was sent to a reinforcement camp on the Isle of Wight to wait return to France. He and other soldiers awaiting drafting were on the rifle range on the morning of November 11, 1918. They had heard talk of a possible ceasefire in France and told that if an armistice was signed a rocket would be sent up from camp headquarters. Just after 11 o’clock they saw the rocket soar into the air, filling everyone with a huge sense of relief that they would not have to return to the trenches.

The countries of the then British Empire lost one million men in all the battlefields of the First World War, by far the largest proportion on the Western Front in Belgium and France. Of this awful figure, the bodies of approaching 500,000 either were never found or could not be identified. France lost 1,700,000 killed and Germany around two million.

To Patch and to the thousands who had lost family members in the war, the conflict was just a terrible waste of lives, provoking the question: “Could war have been avoided?”. The answer is probably “yes”, but placing the blame is more difficult. Austria’s ultimatum to Serbia, following the assassination of Crown Prince Franz Ferdinand, was uncompromising, but had the Foreign Secretary Sir Edward Grey made clear to France that Britain would stand by her only if she urged restraint on her treaty ally Russia, then Germany might have paused. Kaiser Wilhelm asked his army to slow down the rate of mobilisation against France but the Chief of Staff, von Moltke, argued this was impossible without upsetting the schedules of the 11,000 trains involved. Hence a vital signal for peace was not sent.

On demobilisation in early 1919, Henry John Patch returned to Bath, Somerset, where he had been born. He worked for the local Fire Service and was awarded the British Fire Services Association medal on retirement. Together with other surviving British veterans of the First World War, he was appointed to the Légion d’Honneur by the French Government in 1999 in recognition of his services to France in 1917.

He maintained his connections with his old regiment through the Light Infantry Regional Office in Cornwall until shortly before his death.

His wife Ada, née Billington, whom he married in 1919, predeceased him, as did their two sons.

Henry J. Patch, the last “Tommy” of the First World War, was born on June 17, 1898. He died on July 25, 2009, aged 111

Alexis Cohen died she was 25

PHOTO Pa. woman who unsuccessfully tried out for 'American Idol' struck, killed by car in NJ

Authorities say a 25-year-old former two-time "American Idol" contestant has been struck and killed by a car in a New Jersey shore town.

The Asbury Park Press reports that Alexis Cohen, of Allentown, Pa., was killed early Saturday in Seaside Heights.

Deputy Chief Michael Mohel of the Ocean County Prosecutors Office says an autopsy indicated she suffered chest, head and abdominal injuries. Mohel says investigators are seeking more information about the collision.

Cohen auditioned in Philadelphia for the popular Fox singing competition in August 2007, and the episode was aired in January 2008. She tried out again during the show's eighth season.

A video of her angry rant after being rejected by judges went viral on the Internet.


Vernon Forrest Ex-boxing champ shot to death he was 38

ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- Former boxing champion Vernon Forrest is dead at 38 after being shot multiple times in a neighborhood southwest of downtown Atlanta, officials said Sunday.

Police say they have no suspects in the death of former boxing champion Vernon Forrest.

Police say they have no suspects in the death of former boxing champion Vernon Forrest.

An Atlanta police spokeswoman said it appeared that Forrest, 38, had been robbed, which led to a confrontation in which he was shot several times in the back.

Police had no suspects as of midday Sunday, said the spokeswoman, Sgt. Lisa Keyes.

Mark Guilbeau, senior investigator with the Fulton County Medical Examiner's office in Atlanta, said an autopsy will be conducted Sunday, and results are expected by afternoon.

Forrest was the International Boxing Federation welterweight champion in 2001, the World Boxing Council welterweight champion in 2002-2003, and the WBC light welterweight champion in 2007-2008 and 2008-2009, according to the BoxRec Web site.

He was named the World Boxing Hall of Fame fighter of the year in 2002, according to BoxRec.


Saturday, July 25, 2009

E. Lynn Harris died he was 54,

(CNN) -- E. Lynn Harris, the author who introduced millions of readers to the "invisible life" of black gay men, was a literary pioneer whose generosity was as huge as his courage, friends said Friday.

E. Lynn Harris touched fans with his courage and his kindness, friends say.

Harris, 54, died Thursday night while on a business trip to Los Angeles, California, said Laura Gilmore, his publicist.

Harris wrote a series of novels that exposed readers to characters rarely depicted in literature: black, affluent gay men who were masculine, complex and, sometimes, tormented.

Keith Boykin, an author and friend, said Harris encouraged the black community to talk openly about homosexuality.


"We have a 'don't ask, don't tell' policy in the black community," Boykin said. "E. Lynn Harris encouraged people to ask and to tell."

How Harris broke ground

In books like "Invisible Life," "A Love of My Own," and his New York Times best-selling memoir, "What Becomes of the Brokenhearted," Harris virtually invented a new genre: books that depicted black gay men living double lives.

Though Harris wrote primarily about black gay men, some of his biggest fans were black women. His books became staples in black beauty salons, bookstores and book clubs.

"It was hard to go on a subway in places in New York or D.C. and not see some black woman reading an E. Lynn Harris novel," Boykin said.

Harris was an unlikely literary pioneer. He was a former IBM executive who decided to write about his life. He started off in 1991 selling books from the trunk of his car to African-American beauty salons and bookstores.

He eventually became one of the nation's most popular writers with an estimated 4 million of his books in print.

Tina McElroy Ansa, author of "Taking After Mudear," met Harris at the beginning of his literary career when he was selling his first book "Invisible Life." She said they were both so poor they only had enough money to buy each other's book.

Ansa said she took Harris' "Invisible Life" home and was stunned by the time she reached page 20. She came across a scene where Harris depicted two black men playing in the snow with one another.

She immediately dropped the book, called Harris and told him she had never read such a scene before.

"I had never seen homosexual love in African-American men portrayed that way," she says. "It was playful, loving, and it wasn't hidden."

Years later, when Harris became successful, he thanked Ansa for her early encouragement.

"He gave me a string of pearls," Ansa said.

In 2000, Harris told the magazine Entertainment Weekly how important "Invisible Life" was for him.

''When I wrote "Invisible Life," it had to be the first book out of me -- it helped me to deal with my own sexuality,'' Harris said. "'For me, my 20s and early 30s were spent just hiding and running, because there was no one to tell me that my life had value and the way I felt was okay.''

Standing room only at his book events

"It's heartbreaking; he had such a generous spirit," said Tananarive Due, author of "Blood Colony."

"When I was just starting out, he flew me to an event out of his own pocket and put me up just because he thought more people should know my work," Due said.

Harris was as generous with his fans as he was with his friends, some said.

They describe an author who held dinner parties for aspiring writers at his home, loved meeting and hugging fans at book readings, and never seemed to let his fame change him.

"You could get trampled at an E. Lynn Harris reading," Ansa said. "People loved him."

Due said Harris would answer up to 200 e-mails from his fans each day. She said Harris had been a cheerleader in college "and a spirit of joy followed him through his life."

"He genuinely loved being around people and remembered names," Due said. "I remember seeing him at an event in Florida, and one woman in the crowd raised her hand and he said, 'Oh, Mary, you were here for my hardcover book signing.'"

Nonetheless, Harris had his share of personal pain.

He was born in Flint, Michigan, and grew up in Little Rock, Arkansas. In his 2003 memoir, he wrote about enduring abuse by his stepfather and an attempted suicide in 1990.

And he had critics. Some said Harris was a mediocre writer who stumbled on a winning literary formula. Boykin says Harris was stung by some of the criticism.

"He always said 'I'm not a James Baldwin,'" Boykin said, referring to the openly gay black author from the 1960s. "He was writing accessible literature for the masses."

Boykin said Harris received most of his criticism not from outraged straight critics, but people within the black community.

"He was hurt by some of the criticism from some black gay men who felt he wasn't portraying them accurately and others who thought he was telling too much," Boykin said.

In a 2003 Detroit Free Press interview, Harris said he resisted becoming an advocate for gay rights.

"It's such a small part of who I am, " he said. "It's what I do when I'm with my partner that puts this label on me. Most of my friends are straight. I tend to have a regular life, if you will."

Due said there has traditionally been a lot of pain associated with homosexuality in the black community. Harris took a little of that pain away with his life and his books.

"He really helped let the air in," Due said. "He helped us all breathe a little better."

Friday, July 24, 2009

Dr. Joel Weisman first aids doctor Died at 66

Los Angeles physician Joel Weisman, one of the first to identify HIV/AIDS in 1980 from his Sherman Oaks office, died Saturday. He was 66.

Known as "the dean of Southern California gay doctors," Weisman made the discovery nearly three decades ago, when he realized that three of his male patients, all gay, started suffering from similar symptoms (including drastic weight loss, pneumonia, and fevers). With UCLA immunologist Martin S. Gottlieb -- who also had a patient with similar symptoms -- the pair wrote a report in a 1981 issue of the Centers for Disease Control's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, signaling the official start of the AIDS epidemic. The two doctors cited health information among five patients, who died shortly thereafter, of what would eventually be known as AIDS.

Following their report, cases of immunodeficiency were being reported globally. By the end of 1982, 618 cases were reported. Twenty years later, the full toll had reached 500,000.

Weisman became an advocate for his patients and others with HIV when in 1983 he became founding chairman of AIDS Project Los Angeles. There, Weisman played a critical role in increasing services to those with the virus.

He also helped establish the first AIDS-specific hospital unit at the Sherman Oaks Hospital and Health Center. Weisman also pushed to fund AIDS research as an original member of amFAR. He later became chairman of the organization from 1988 to 1992. Dr. Mervyn Silverman lead the board of directors of amFAR from 1986 to 1996, including the period while Weisman was chairman of the board. Silverman described his colleague as a diligent advocate in the early stages of the AIDS epidemic.

"Hearing about him really upset me because he was very caring, very compassionate, he wasn't just part of the gay community, or the medical profession," Silverman said. "He was someone who really cared about the issues, especially with his involvement with APLA and amFAR. I never got the sense, working with him, that anything he was doing was for self aggrandizement or to be in the spotlight. He just did what he did."

Silverman remembers Weisman's work with amFAR during the early years as being controlled during such a hectic time.

"The foundation was in its very formative years, and if you've worked with a new foundation, you'll know that it can get crazy, especially because with amFAR you had people who were there for one reason, and it was to solve this mystery and get on with it," he said. "When you have that kind of commitment and dedication, the organizational things get more difficult. So in the beginning, you have mostly people who are there volunteering because of the cause, during that time, it's a very difficult maturation. I look at the board today compared to the board back then, and it's like night and day."

Weisman died in his home after suffering from heart disease and being ill for several months, his partner of 17 years, Bill Hutton, told the Los Angeles Times. He is survived by Hutton, his brother Mark, his daughter Stavey Weisman-Bogue Foster, a granddaughter, and two nieces. Donations may be made in his name to amFAR, AIDS Project Los Angeles, or the Kansas City University of Medicine and Biosciences College of Osteopathic Medicine.

Taco Bell Chihuahua, Gidget, dies at 15

Gidget the Chihuahua, whose Taco Bell commercials made her a star, has died. She was 15.

The owner of Studio Animal Services in Castaic says Gidget suffered a massive stroke late Tuesday at her trainer's home in Santa Clarita and had to be euthanized.

Gidget was the sassy mascot in Taco Bell commercials from 1997 to 2000. While other dogs had bit parts, it was her bug-eyed, big-eared face that was seen pronouncing "Yo quiero Taco Bell," Spanish for "I want Taco Bell," in a male voice dubbed by Argentine actor Carlos Alazraqui. A few years later, Alazraqui landed the role for which he is best known: Deputy James Garcia on Comedy Central's "Reno 911!"


The Taco Bell ads provoked some criticism from activists who said they used Mexican stereotypes.

Gidget also had a role in the movie "Legally Blonde 2," but others associated with the ad campaign weren't so lucky. Earlier this year, the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the creators of the Chihuahua character hadn't been properly compensated for their work, and Taco Bell was ordered to pay $42 million.

Gidget's trainer, Sue Chipperton, in an interview earlier this year with the People Pets website, described the diminutive dog as a consummate professional on the set. But, she said, Gidget had been the victim of typecasting, which limited her career choices (or, rather, Chipperton's choices on her behalf).

Thursday, July 23, 2009

Gordon Waller of the British Invasion pop duo Peter And Gordon has died at the age of 64.


Waller passed away Friday (July 17) at a hospital near his home in Connecticut after he went into cardiac arrest. His cause of death was listed as cardiovascular disease, reports the Associated Press.

Peter And Gordon had a string of chart-topping hits in the '60s, including a handful written by their friend, Paul McCartney. Their hits included 'A World Without Love'

and 'I Don't Want To See You Again'.




Waller was born in Scotland and met his bandmate Peter Asher at Westminster School in London. "Gordon played such a significant role in my life that losing him is hard to comprehend – let alone to tolerate," Asher said in a statement.

"He was my best friend at school almost half a century ago. He was not only my musical partner but played a key role in my conversion from only a snooty jazz fan to a true rock and roll believer as well. Without Gordon I would never have begun my career in the music business in the first place. Our professional years together in the '60s constitute a major part of my life, and I have always treasured them."



Discography

  • In Touch With... (by Peter and Gordon) (1964)
  • Peter and Gordon (by Peter and Gordon) (1964)
  • World Without Love (by Peter and Gordon) (1964)
  • Hurtin' 'n' Lovin' (by Peter and Gordon) (1965)
  • I Don't Want to See You Again (by Peter and Gordon) (1965)
  • I Go to Pieces (by Peter and Gordon) (1965)
  • True Love Ways (by Peter and Gordon) (1965)
  • Best of Peter and Gordon (by Peter and Gordon) (1966)
  • Peter and Gordon Sing & Play the Hits of Nashville (1966)
  • Somewhere (by Peter and Gordon) (1966)
  • Woman (by Peter and Gordon) (1966)
  • In London for Tea (by Peter and Gordon) (1967)
  • Knight in Rusty Armour (by Peter and Gordon) (1967)
  • Lady Godiva (by Peter & Gordon) (1967)
  • Hot Cold & Custard (by Peter & Gordon) (1968)
  • and Gordon (solo) (1972)
  • Best of Peter and Gordon (by Peter & Gordon) (1983)
  • Hits of Peter and Gordon (by Peter & Gordon) (1983)
  • Best of Peter and Gordon (by Peter & Gordon) (1991)
  • Ultimate Peter and Gordon (by Peter & Gordon) (2001)
  • Definitive Collection: Knights in Rusty Armour (by Peter & Gordon) (2003)
  • Plays the Beatles (by Gordon Waller) (2007)
  • Rebel Rider (by Gordon Waller) (2008)

Dickey Betts died he was 80

Early Career Forrest Richard Betts was also known as Dickey Betts Betts collaborated with  Duane Allman , introducing melodic twin guitar ha...