Oral Roberts died he was 91

Granville Oral Roberts ^[2] was an American Pentecostal television evangelist and a Christian charismatic.

(January 24, 1918 – December 15, 2009)

Roberts was born in Pontotoc County, Oklahoma, the fifth and youngest child of Reverend Ellis Melvin Roberts and Claudia Priscilla Irwin.^[3]

After finishing high school, Roberts studied for two years each at Oklahoma Baptist University and Phillips University. In 1938, he married a preacher's daughter, Evelyn Lutman Fahnestock.^[4]

Roberts became a traveling faith healer after ending his college studies without a degree. According to a TIME Magazine profile of 1972, Roberts originally made a name for himself with a large mobile tent "that sat 3,000 on metal folding chairs" where "he shouted at petitioners who did not respond to his healing."^[5]

Roberts was a pioneer televangelist (he began broadcasting his revivals by television in 1955)^[6] and attracted a vast viewership.

In 1947, Roberts resigned his pastoral ministry with the Pentecostal Holiness Church to found Oral Roberts Evangelistic Association. He began conducting evangelistic and faith healing crusades, mainly in the U.S. He appeared as a guest speaker for hundreds of national and international meetings and conventions. Thousands of sick people would wait in line to stand before Oral Roberts so he could pray for them.

He founded Oral Roberts University in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in 1963, stating he was obeying a command from God. The university was chartered during 1963 and received its first students in 1965. Students were required to sign an honor code pledging not to drink, smoke, or engage in premarital sexual activities. Another part of the Oral Roberts Evangelistic Association is the Abundant Life Prayer Group.

In 1977 Roberts claimed to have had a vision from a 900-foot-tall Jesus who told him to build City of Faith Medical and Research Center and the hospital would be a success.^[7][8][9]

In 1980, Roberts said he had a vision which encouraged him to continue the construction of his City of Faith Medical and Research Center in Oklahoma, which opened in 1981. At the time, it was among the largest health facilities of its kind in the world and was intended to merge prayer and medicine in the healing process. The City of Faith operated for only eight years before closing in late 1989. The Orthopedic Hospital of Oklahoma still operates on its premises. In 1983 Roberts said Jesus had appeared to him in person and commissioned him to find a cure for cancer.^[10][11]

Roberts's fundraising was controversial. In January 1987, during a fundraising drive, Roberts announced to a television audience that unless he raised $8 million by that March, God would "call him home".^[12][13] Some were fearful that he was referring to suicide given the passionate pleas and tears that accompanied his statement. He raised $9.1 million.^[14] Later that year, he announced that God had raised the dead through Roberts' ministry.^[15] Some of Roberts's fundraising letters were written by Gene Ewing, who heads a business writing donation letters for other evangelicals like Don Stewart and Robert Tilton.^[16]

He stirred controversy when Time reported in 1987 that his son, Richard Roberts, claimed that he had seen his father raise a child from the dead.^[17] That year, the Bloom County comic strip recast its character Bill the Cat as a satirized televangelist, "Fundamentally Oral Bill". In 1987 Time stated that he was "re-emphasizing faith healing and [is] reaching for his old-time constituency."^[17] However, his income continued to decrease (from $88 million in 1980 to $55 million in 1986, according to the Tulsa Tribune) and his largely vacant City of Faith Medical Center continued to lose money.^[17]

Harry McNevin said that in 1988 the ORU Board of Regents "rubber-stamped" the "use of millions in endowment money to buy a Beverly Hills property so that Oral Roberts could have a West Coast office and house."^[18] In addition he said a country club membership was purchased for the Robertses' home. The lavish expenses led to McNevin's resignation from the Board.

Richard Roberts resigned from the presidency of ORU on November 23, 2007, after being named as a defendant in a lawsuit alleging improper use of university funds for political and personal purposes and improper use of university resources.^[19][20] The university was given a donation of $8 million by entrepreneur Mart Green, and although the lawsuit is still in process, the school has submitted to an outside audit, and with a good report will be given an additional $62 million by Green. ^[21] Oral Roberts announced he would return to help fulfill this administrative role along with Billy Joe Daugherty, who was named as the executive regent to assume administrative responsibilities of the Office of the President by the ORU Board of Regents.^[22]

Roberts's daughter, Rebecca Nash, died in an airplane crash on February 11, 1977, with her husband, businessman Marshall Nash.^[23] Roberts's eldest son, Ronald, committed suicide in June 1982, five months after receiving a court order to get counseling at a drug treatment center.^[24] Two other children of Roberts are living: son Richard, a well-known evangelist and former president of Oral Roberts University (ORU), and daughter Roberta Potts, a lawyer.

On May 4, 2005 Evelyn, Roberts's wife of 66 years, died in a Southern California hospital at the age of 88.^[25]

Roberts died on December 15, 2009^[26] at the age of 91. He had been "semi-retired" living in Newport Beach, California.^[27]

According to a 1987 article in the New York Review of Books by Martin Gardner the "most accurate and best documented biography is Oral Roberts: An American Life, an objective study by David Harrell Jr., a historian at Auburn University. Two out-of-print books take a more critical stance: James Morris's The Preachers (St. Martin's Press, 1973) and Jerry Sholes's Give Me That Prime-Time Religion (Hawthorn, 1979

To see more stars that died click here

Mike Cinqmars died he was 31

Mike "Cinq" Cinqmars was quite literally a pioneer of freestyle motocross. In 1999, he finished just below Travis Pastrana, taking home the silver medal at the X Games' first year of freestyle competition. Unlike some of his competitors, Mike preferred to ride for fun, rather than compete. From an interview in 1999, "Films sit in people's homes forever, and people watch them all the time. Contests are cool but I'd rather go shoot a vid. In contests, sometimes you do well, sometimes you don't. Your talent doesn't always show. And there's a lot of pressure, and I'm kind of over that. I want to just go ride and have fun." Mike did do many films, including MTV's "Senseless Acts of Video" where he most famously jumped over his own two-story home. Unfortunately, it was during the filming of his own movie, "35/01 My Trip" that he broke his back and ended his motocross career. Recently Mike had expressed interest during an interview in making a comeback.



It has been rumored that Mike was battling with demons after his career crushing injury. Despite the obstacles that befall many of the talented and gifted, he was always proud of his life and accomplishments. "Once I started making money, my biggest goal was to have a nice house that I could call my own, and have all nice stuff in it, and to have a car and a truck, bikes and all that. I've got all that. I've got land, and it's good to be able to have all that. It was a big goal of mine and I've done it." Sounds like the words of a true champion at heart.


Yes, it is a sad day in the motocross world indeed. Mike never got the chance at his comeback but his talent will forever be remembered in the memories of his fans. My condolences to his friends, family and thousands of fans.

To see more of who died in 2010 click here

Robert G. Heft died 67

Robert G. "Bob" Heft died he was 67 . Heft born in Saginaw, Michigan, was a designer of the 50-star flag, and one of the proposed designs for a 51-star flag for the United States of America. He spent his childhood in Lancaster, Ohio, where he created the flag as a school project.

(1942 - December 12, 2009)

He designed the current U.S. flag in 1958 while living with his grandparents. He was 17 years old at the time and did the flag design as a class project. He unstitched the blue field from a family 48-star flag, sewed in a new field, and used iron-on white fabric to add 100 hand-cut stars, 50 on each side of the blue canton.^[1]

He originally received a B- for the project. After discussing the grade with his high school teacher, Stanley Pratt, it was agreed that if the flag was accepted by Congress, the grade would be reconsidered. Heft's flag design was chosen and adopted by presidential proclamation after Alaska and before Hawaii was admitted into the union in 1959. According to Heft, his teacher did keep to their agreement and changed his grade to an A for the project.

Heft has also stated he had copyrighted designs for 51- through 60-star American flags.^[2]

When Alaska and Hawaii were being considered for Statehood, more than 1,500 designs were spontaneously submitted to President Dwight D. Eisenhower by Americans. Although some of them were 49-star versions, the vast majority were 50-star proposals. At least three, and probably more, of these designs were identical to the present design of the 50-star flag. These designs are in the Eisenhower Presidential Archives in Abilene, Kansas. Only a small fraction of them have ever been published.

After graduating from college, Heft became a high school teacher and later a college professor, and he also served as mayor of Napoleon, Ohio for 28 years. After retiring from teaching, he became a motivational speaker. Heft was a longtime member of the Harvey Spaulding Toastmasters club in Saginaw. He earned the nickname "father time" as he often filled the role of timer during meetings. While he was seen as one of their own, other members of the club were always honored when Heft would deliver a speech at a meeting.

Heft died from complications of a heart attack on December 12, 2009.

To see more of who died in 2010 click here

Paul Samuelson died he was 94

Paul Anthony Samuelson died he was 94. Samuelson was an American economist known for his contributions to many fields of economics, beginning with his general statement of the comparative statics method in his 1947 book Foundations of Economic Analysis. Samuelson was awarded the John Bates Clark Medal in 1947 and was sole recipient of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences in 1970, the second year of the Prize.^[2]

(May 15, 1915 – December 13, 2009[1])

Samuelson was born in Gary, Indiana on May 15, 1915. In 1923 Samuelson moved to Chicago; he studied at the University of Chicago and received his Bachelor of Arts degree there in 1935. He then completed his Master of Arts degree in 1936, and his Doctor of Philosophy in 1941 at Harvard University. As a graduate student at Harvard, Samuelson studied economics under Joseph Schumpeter, Wassily Leontief, Gottfried Haberler, and the "American Keynes" Alvin Hansen. Samuelson comes from a family of well-known economists, including brother Robert Summers, sister-in-law Anita Summers, and nephew Larry Summers.

Samuelson is considered one of the founders of neo-Keynesian economics and a seminal figure in the development of neoclassical economics. The following is an excerpt on the reasons for awarding him the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences:

More than any other contemporary economist, Samuelson has helped to raise the general analytical and methodological level in economic science. He has simply rewritten considerable parts of economic theory. He has also shown the fundamental unity of both the problems and analytical techniques in economics, partly by a systematic application of the methodology of maximization for a broad set of problems. This means that Samuelson's contributions range over a large number of different fields.

He was also essential to creating the Neoclassical synthesis, which incorporates Keynesian principles with neoclassical principles and dominates current mainstream economics. In 2003, Samuelson was one of the 10 Nobel Prize winning economists signing the Economists' statement opposing the Bush tax cuts.^[6]

He died on December 13, 2009, at the age of 94.

His professional positions include:

• Coming to M.I.T. in 1940 as an Assistant Professor of Economics and was appointed Associate Professor in 1944.
• Serving as a staff member of the Radiation Laboratory from 1944 to 1945
• Professor of International Economic Relations (part-time) at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy in 1945.
• Professor at M.I.T. in 1947 and then an Institute Professor.
• Guggenheim Fellow from 1948 to 1949.

To see more stars that died in 2009 click here

Robert Holdstock died he was 61

Robert Paul Holdstock died he was 61. Holdstock was an English novelist and author best known for his works of Celtic, Nordic, Gothic and Pictish fantasy literature, predominantly in the fantasy subgenre of mythic fiction.

(2 August 1948 – 29 November 2009)

Holdstock's writing was first published during 1968. His science fiction and fantasy works explore philosophical, psychological, anthropological, spiritual, and woodland themes. He received three BSFA awards and won the World Fantasy Award in the category of Best Novel of 1985.

Robert Holdstock, the oldest of five children, was born in Hythe, Kent. His father, Robert Frank Holdstock, was a police officer and his mother, Kathleen Madeline Holdstock, was a nurse. At the age of seven years, Robert started attending the Gillingham Grammar School in the Medway Towns. As a young adult he had jobs including banana boatman, construction worker, and slate miner.^[1]

Holdstock's works have been subject to much literary analysis. The majority of this analysis is of Mythago Wood.

David Pringle describes Eye Among the Blind, Holdstock's first science fiction novel, as a "dogged, detailed, somewhat slow-moving planetary mystery."^[10] Regarding the same novel Ursula K. Le Guin remarked "As strong a treatment of a central theme of science fiction – alienness, and the relation of the human and the alien – as any I have read."^[11]

According to Michael D. C. Drout, a modern J. R. R. Tolkien scholar, Holdstock's fantasy is a significant part of the fantasy literature genre. This is because (in the Ryhope wood series) Holdstock has created literary arts containing the power and aesthetic standards of Tolkien’s fantasy without being either a "close imitation of" or a "reaction against" Tolkien. Drout considers Holdstock, along with Ursula K. Le Guin, a worthy inheritor of the fantasy tradition created by Tolkien. ^[12] According to a study of Tolkien's works by Partrick Curry, Holdstock is placed in a quartet of noteworthy fantasy authors including Ursula K. Le Guin, John Crowley and Marion Zimmer Bradley for writing fantasy books that come close to Tolkien's breadth and depth of imagination, and "in some respects surpass Tolkien."^[13]

One essayist states "Robert Holdstock's gift for evoking landscapes and weaving mythic patterns is outstanding."^[14] Accordingly, the covers of his books have been produced by a variety of notable Science Fiction and Fantasy illustrators. The original UK and US covers of Mythago Wood were illustrated by Eddi Gornall and Christopher Zacharow, respectively; Geoff Taylor illustrated the original UK covers for the Mythago Wood sequels Lavondyss, The Bone Forest, The Hollowing and Merlin's Wood. Illustrators of subsequent covers and editions include Jim Burns, Tom Canty, John Howe, Alan Lee, John Jude Pallencar, Larry Rostant, and Ron Walotsky. John Howe stated "Holdstock is to me one of the best Celtic fantasy authors alive today."^[15]

David Langford offers praise for most of Holdstock's work, but regarding Merlin's Wood he states "the overall narrative is flawed, distorted by its weight of undeserved loss and inaccessible healing."^[16]

As an adult he earned a Bachelor of Science from University College of North Wales, Bangor, with honours in applied Zoology (1967–1970). He continued his education, earning a Master of Science in Medical Zoology at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine in 1971. He conducted research at the Medical Research Council in London from 1971 to 1974 while also doing part-time writing. He became a full-time writer during 1976 and lived out the rest of his life in North London. ^[2][3]

He died in hospital at the age of 61, following his collapse with an E. coli infection on 18 November 2009.^[4][5]

To see more of who died in 2009 click here

Bob Keane died he was 87

Bob Keane died he was 87. Keane was an American musician, producer and owner of the record label Del-Fi Records. He was perhaps best known for being the producer and manager of Ritchie Valens.

(January 5, 1922 – November 28, 2009)

Bob Keane was born Robert Kuhn in Manhattan Beach, California in 1922. He was a clarinet player, and his ambition was to front a big band like his idol, Benny Goodman. He did so, and in 1938, at age 17, he was setting up to play his first show, at Glendale Junior College and was approached by an employee of KFWB, a Los Angeles radio station, who wanted to broadcast the concert on air to replace a canceled scheduled show. The next day Keane received a phone call from an agent at MCA who had heard the broadcast on KFWB, and who wanted to sign Keane to the label. MCA billed him as "The World's Youngest Bandleader".

MCA dropped Keane from the label in 1941 as they felt he was likely to be drafted. Keane decided to enlist in the Army Air Force, and was retired from active service due to a lung infection. He returned to Los Angeles and continued to play clarinet in several bands. In 1950, he was offered a job as a conductor on The Hank McCune Show, a new radio show. After the first episode, the producer approached Bob and told him that he would have to change his name, as the announcer was pronouncing Kuhn as "Coon". A band colleague suggested Keen, after a popular Woody Herman song, "Peachy Keen", to which Bob decided to add an 'e'. Later on in life he changed this to Keane.

By 1955 Keane was playing clarinet in several bars and clubs around Los Angeles, and one evening met businessman John Siamas, who persuaded Bob to set up a record label with him. The label would be known as Keen Records, with Bob working as an A&R man. He was given an acetate of two songs by Sam Cooke, who at the time using his original surname, Cook, and singing in a gospel group called The Soul Stirrers. On the acetate was "Summertime" and "You Send Me". Sam Cook was signed to a three-year contract with Keen, his surname changed just as Bob's had been, and the songs were subsequently pressed and released as the first single on Keen Records. Originally "Summertime" was intended to be the A-side, and sold moderately. It was only when a DJ played the B-side that the record took off, and by November 25 1957, it reached #1 on the Billboard chart.

At this point, despite Keen Records having earned over $1,000,000 from sales of "You Send Me", Bob only had an oral contract with Siamas. Upon asking when the corporation was to be formed and when he was likely to receive stock certificates for the company, he received a letter asking for him to invest $5000 (which, of course, he did not have) into his own company should he wish to remain a partner. He realized that he had been tricked into finding a hit record and then pushed out of the company.

While waiting for legal proceedings against Siamas to begin, Bob's wife suggested that he set up another label, and approach someone else who had also been duped by Siamas to put up the money to do so. Taking its name from Delphi, the Greek god of music and inspiration, the new label was named Del-Fi Records. The first release was "Caravan" by Henri Rose, which sold well, and led to Warner Bros. Records offering Keane $8000 for Henri Rose's contract, which he accepted, and which enabled him to buy out his business partner. Another early Del-Fi release was "Chicken Grabber" by The Nite Hawks, which although not a success at the time, was featured in John Waters' film Pink Flamingos.

In May 1958, Keane discovered Ritchie Valens performing a Saturday matinee show in a movie theatre in Pacoima and invited Valens to audition in the basement of his home, where he had set up a small recording studio. A formal contract was signed, and Valens and Keane spent hours in the basement working on songs together. Among the songs was "Come On Let's Go", which was recorded in Gold Star Studios in July 1958, and released as Valens' first single soon after. This single, and the follow-up, "Donna" b/w "La Bamba", were smash hits. Keane served as Valens' manager as well as producer, booking shows for him across America and several TV performances. In the film La Bamba, the story of Ritchie Valens, Bob Keane was played by Joe Pantoliano.

After Valens' death in February 1959, Del-Fi records continued, and one of the next signings was eden ahbez, best known for his song "Nature Boy." By this point, and totally unlike the rest of the major labels in Hollywood, Del-Fi had an "open door" policy - anybody with music they wanted to be released could approach the Del-Fi offices and get it played to Bob Keane. In an interview, he remarked "I'll listen to anyone, even if they bring 'em in on a stretcher."

Other notable artists on Del-Fi over the next few years included Chan Romero, best known for his song "Hippy Hippy Shake", Little Caesar and the Romans, Ron Holden, Johnny Crawford, Brenda Holloway, the first records released by Frank Zappa, and surf bands The Surfaris, The Lively Ones and The Centurions.

In 1964 he signed Bobby Fuller and his band, the Bobby Fuller Four, to Del-Fi, and released several singles and two albums under a subsidiary label just for the band called Mustang Records. Their biggest song, "I Fought the Law" was released in October 1965 and was a hit in the United States and the United Kingdom. The band's career was brought to an abrupt end when the corpse of Bobby Fuller, in his mother's car, was found in the parking lot of his Hollywood apartment on July 18, 1966. In 1965, Keane also set up a subsidiary label for R&B music, called Bronco, and employed Barry White as an in-house producer, musician and A&R man for the new label.

By 1967, with Del-Fi's biggest band, the Bobby Fuller Four, disbanded, Del-Fi was closed down. Keane embarked upon a career selling burglar alarm systems, mainly to celebrities, and oversaw the music career of his two sons, known professionally as The Keane Brothers.

Ritchie Valens' life and music came back into the public eye with the release of the film La Bamba in 1987, and seven years later, two of Del-Fi's surf records by The Lively Ones and The Centurions were used in the film Pulp Fiction. Del-Fi was resurrected and released numerous CDs of its original material, and signed some new acts to the label as well. In September 2003, Keane sold the Del-Fi catalog to the Warner Music Group.

Keane diagnosed with non-Hodgkins lymphoma when he was 80, and died of renal failure on November 28, 2009.^[1]

To see more of who died in 2009 click here

Gene Barry died he was 90

Gene Barry died he was 90. Barry was an American actor. His 60-year career included playing the well-dressed man of action in TV series Bat Masterson, Burke's Law and The Name of the Gam

(June 14, 1919 – December 9, 2009)

Barry was born as Eugene Klass in New York City, the son of Eva (née Conn) and Martin Klass;^[1] all of his grandparents were Jewish immigrants from Russia.^[2] He exhibited early skills with his singing and violin playing. He married Betty Claire Barry (née Kalb; b. 12 February 1923 - d. 31 January 2003), whose stage name was Julie Carson, on October 22, 1944. She died two weeks before her 80th birthday, after more than 58 years of marriage, on January 31, 2003. Gene and Betty Claire Barry had three children - two biological sons, Michael (b. 1946) and Frederick (b. 1953), and an adopted daughter, Elizabeth.

Barry adopted his professional name in honor of John Barrymore. He was trained in violin and voice and spent two years at the Chatham Square School of Music on a singing scholarship. He made his Broadway debut as Captain Paul Duval in the 1942 revival of Sigmund Romberg's The New Moon. He returned to Broadway numerous times over the next decade, portraying Falke in Rosalinda (1942), Nova Kovich in The Merry Widow (1943), Lieutenant Bunin in Catherine Was Great (1944), Dorante and Comte De Chateau-Gaillard in The Would-Be Gentleman (1946), The Doctor in Happy as Larry (1950), and a variety of roles in the musical revue Bless You All (1950). He later returned to Broadway twice more, the role of Paul in the 1962 play The Perfect Setup and his Tony Award nominated portrayal of Georges in the 1983 musical La Cage aux Folles with George Hearn as his life partner/spouse. The latter production was based on the French film of the same name about a gay couple with a straight son. For his contribution to live theater, Gene Barry has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6555 Hollywood Blvd.

In 1950 Barry began appearing in television, initially with the NBC Television Opera Theatre. He starred in his first film, the role of Dr. Frank Addison in The Atomic City, in 1952. The prominent role of Dr. Clayton Forrester in the sci-fi classic The War of the Worlds came the following year. Barry later made a cameo appearance in Steven Spielberg's 2005 War of the Worlds, along with his 1953 co-star Ann Robinson.

Known for his suave manner, Barry was featured on television in a recurring role in Our Miss Brooks and as the star of three of his own popular TV series -- Bat Masterson, The Name of the Game, and Burke's Law. He won the 1965 Golden Globe for Burke's Law. The series, featuring homicide investigations by a millionaire police captain, returned in 1993-94 with Barry once again in the title role.

He also starred in the 1973 ITV television series The Adventurer, with Barry Morse and Catherine Schell. He recreated the role of the debonair Wild West lawman Bat Masterson for two episodes of Guns of Paradise in 1990 alongside Hugh O'Brian as Wyatt Earp and again the following year in The Gambler Returns: Luck of the Draw, also with O'Brian as Earp. His most popular role that he will forever be identified with is that of "Bat Masterson" The series continues in circulation with great durability.

Barry portrayed the murderer in the original two-hour pilot for the television mystery series Columbo, a psychiatrist who kills his wife in Prescription: Murder.

On December 10, 2009, the Washington Post reported that Barry had died on December 9, at Motion Picture & Television Country House and Hospital^[3] in Woodland Hills, California, aged 90.^[4] (The famed Motion Picture Home, founded in the 1940s, is scheduled to close at the end of 2009.)

Did you know that Gene Barry won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in 1965

To see more of Stars that left this year click here