James von Brunn died he was 89

James Von Brunn died he was 89. Brunn was a white supremacist who was facing the death penalty for the deadly shooting of security guard Stephen T. Jones at the U.S Holocaust Memorial Museum on June 10th last year. While being held in federal prison he suffered from chronic congestive heart failure, sepsis and other medical problems. One of the guards, Harry Weeks who shot back at Brunn during the shooting at the museum said, "he's glad Brunn is gone and wished he had his day in court.'

(July 11, 1920 – January 6, 2010)

Born in St. Louis, von Brunn graduated from Washington University in 1943 with a degree in journalism.
That same year, he became a midshipman with the Navy Reserves after enlisting for "patriotic reasons," documents show.
Von Brunn claims to have been a decorated PT boat captain during World War II.
Von Brunn was a racist who not only made racial slurs toward Jews online but also wrote a book titled, "Kill the Best Gentiles," accusing the Holocaust of being a hoax. He was charged with first degree murder,killing in a federal building and intimidating Jewish people at the museum.

Well I guess what goes around comes around. You can't take a life and expect to keep yours. I can't understand why people are so inhumane, but to kill someone because you disagree or dislike their beliefs should be a punishable crime, and that's why Mr. Von Brunn is no longer in existence.

After moving to New York City in 1947, von Brunn found a job at a "big-league advertising [firm] on Madison Avenue" and attended evening art classes, he wrote in an online biography.

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Margery Beddow died she was 72

Broadway veteran Margery Beddow, a performer, director, and choreographer, died Sunday at her home in New York. She was 72.

(December 13, 1931 – January 3, 2010)


As a performer, Beddow appeared in 10 Broadway shows, including "Redhead," "Conquering Hero," "We Take the Town," "Two on the Aisle," "Almanac," "Take Me Along," "Ulysses in Nighttown," and revivals of "Fiorello" and "Showboat." She appeared in seven Bob Fosse musicals and was the author of the book "Bob Fosse's Broadway." Her work as a choreographer included two original Broadway shows, "Dear Oscar" and "Wind in the Willows," and several touring productions. She also directed and staged "Broadway by the Year" at Town Hall and "Noël Coward and his Ladies."

In her early career, Beddow was a prima ballerina of the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo and a dancer with the Metropolitan Opera Ballet. On screen she appeared in the both the original Mel Brooks film "The Producers" and the later musical version. Most recently she was seen in the Disney film "Enchanted" and the Academy Award-nominated "Doubt."

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Eunice Johnson died she was 93,

Ebony Fashion Fair Producer and Director Eunice W. Johnson died this past weekend. She was 93. Johnson, the widow of Johnson Publishing Company founder John H. Johnson, gave Ebony magazine its name for almost 50 years produced an influential traveling fashion show that brought haute couture to African Americans while raising millions of dollars for charity. She was also the driving force behind the creation of the Fashion Fair makeup line, one of the first makeup lines for women of color. Host Michel Martin speaks with Washington Post Fashion Editor Robin Givhan for more on Johnson's legacy.

A close business partner of her husband's since the beginning of Johnson Publishing in 1942, Johnson remained the company's secretary-treasurer at the time of her death and for years wrote a monthly fashion feature for Ebony magazine.
Johnson Publishing's flagship, conceived as an African-American version of Life and published since 1945, was named by Johnson to reflect fine black ebony wood, as well as the mystique surrounding the tree and color, said Wendy E. Parks of Johnson Publishing..
But Johnson's greatest legacy may be her role as producer and director of the Ebony Fashion Fair, an influential event that for decades has been a showcase for the world's top designers.
The fair was started in the 1950s as a fundraiser for a hospital in New Orleans at the suggestion of Jessie Covington Dent, wife of a former president of Dillard University.
It was a success, and Johnson and her husband decided to take the concept on the road. Produced annually since 1958, the fair became a traveling fashion extravaganza that now makes nearly 180 stops a year in the U.S. and abroad to largely black audiences from wide economic strata.
"It brought to the lower middle class black people a sense of what fashion really was. She gave the local community a chance to see these clothes," said Andre Leon Talley, editor at large for Vogue magazine.
The fair was both "an aspirational as well as an inspirational experience," Talley said. It became a showcase for a new generation of black designers as well as early African American models like Pat Cleveland.
The show's director and producer since 1961, Johnson was initially a curiosity as she toured French and Italian boutiques and fashion houses. But her sense of elegance, along with a deep pocketbook, quickly made her a respected figure in the world of high fashion.
"When they found out how much money I was going to spend, word got around," Johnson told the Tribune in 1997.
She stayed at the best hotels, dined at the finest restaurants and dressed impeccably.
"She always had on the last word 1/8in fashion,3/8 but it was always very elegant," Talley said. Legendary French designer "Yves Saint Laurent would receive her in the same manner he'd receive the editor of Vogue."
Since its founding, the Ebony Fashion Fair has produced more than 4,000 shows in the U.S., England and the Caribbean, and raised more than $55 million for charity, according to Johnson Publishing.
An outgrowth of the fair was Johnson Publishing's Fashion Fair line of cosmetics, conceived specifically for black women.
Johnson was born Eunice Walker and grew up in Selma, Ala. Her father was a doctor, and her mother was principal of a local high school and a teacher at Selma University, which had been co-founded by Johnson's maternal grandfather.
At Talladega University in Alabama, she received a bachelor's degree in sociology, with a minor in art. A lifelong learner, she later studied journalism at Northwestern University and interior design at the former Ray-Vogue School of Design.
She met John H. Johnson in 1940 at a dance hall called Bacon's Casino in Chicago. The couple was married in Selma on June 21, 1941, and returned to Chicago, where she worked by his side as he started a publishing company with $500 borrowed against his mother's furniture.
John Johnson died in 2005. Johnson Publishing is now run by the Johnsons' daughter, Linda Johnson Rice.

Willie Mitchell died he was 81

Willie Mitchell  was an American soul, R&B, rock and roll,pop and funk record producer and arranger, who ran Royal Recording in Memphis, Tennessee. He was best known for his Hi Records label of the 1970s, which released albums by a large stable of popular Memphis soul artists, including Mitchell himself, Al Green, Syl Johnson andAnn Peebles He was 81. Mitchell's son, Lawrence Mitchell, said his father suffered a cardiac arrest on Dec. 19.

(March 1, 1928 – January 5, 2010)

Willie Mitchell owned Royal Studio where Buddy Guy, John Mayer and many others recorded their music.


In the 1970s, Mitchell also owned Hi Records of Memphis, the label that produced some of Green's biggest hits. Green, also from Memphis, was flying to Australia and unavailable for comment Tuesday.


At Hi, Mitchell was responsible for several instrumental hits of the 1960s and helped the careers of Green and singer Ann Peebles in the 1970s. Even in later years, Mitchell stayed busy at his studio, working with then-emerging talents like Mayer and Anthony Hamilton.
Most recently, he wrote string and horn arrangements for Rod Stewart's new album of R&B covers, and produced a still-unreleased album from soul kingpin Solomon Burke.
He received a Trustees Award from the Grammy Foundation in 2008.
A trumpeter, Mitchell and his band provided the musical entertainment at several New Year's Eve parties for Elvis Presley at Presley's Graceland home. A Memphis boulevard was named in his honor in 2004.

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Casey Johnson died she was 30

Jets owner Woody Johnson's troubled daughter Casey, who was battling drugs and alcohol, was found dead Monday in her California home she was 30. Casey Johnson, the heiress to the Johnson & Johnson fortune who recently made tabloid headlines with a purported engagement to reality star Tila Tequila.


(September 24, 1979 – January 4, 2010) 

The body of the 30-year-old socialite, whose worried parents had cut off her trust fund in an act of tough love, was discovered by her maid.

Her death was announced by Tequila on her Twitter page and confirmed by police.
"Everyone please pray 4 my Wifey Casey Johnson," Tequila wrote. "She has passed away. Thank u for all ur love and support but I will be offline to be w/ family."'


Los Angeles police and firefighters were called to a house at 11:51 a.m. Monday. Johnson was pronounced dead at the scene.
"It appears to be a natural death," says police Officer Sara Faden. "There's no evidence of foul play. A toxicology report from the coroner's office will proceed next."
Johnson, who leaves a toddler daughter Ava whom she had adopted, was the great-great granddaughter of the founder of the pharmaceutical giant, and the daughter of New York Jets owner Robert Wood Johnson.
An openly gay socialite, Johnson had a knack for attracting paparazzi -- and trouble. A nasty fight with ex-girlfriend Courtenay Semel, daughter of former Yahoo chief Terry Semel, reportedly resulted in Johnson's hair catching on fire last October. Then in November, she was arrested for allegedly breaking into another former girlfriend's house.

In December, Tequila announced the pair were engaged. "Tonight, my beautiful girlfriend has just asked me to marry her and check out this rock," the lingerie-wearing Tequila said in an Internet video. "Bam! That is a 17-carat diamond ring from my baby."

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Roberto Sanchez "Sandro" died he was 64

Roberto Sánchez died he was 64. Sanchez better known by his artist names Sandro/Sandro de América ("Sandro of America" in Spanish) or Gitano (gypsy), was an Argentine singer and actor.

(August 19, 1945 - January 4, 2010)

He learned to play the guitar as a child, identifying his music as Romani^[1]. His paternal grandfather was Russian Rom - Roma are known in Argentina as Gitanos^[2][3]. Considered as a precursor of Rock music in Spanish, initially he imitated Elvis Presley, but afterwards he created a personal style that marked his career. He started the musical group Sandro & los de Fuego, which gained popularity on the TV show Sábados Circulares. He became well-known in the decades 1960-1970 with songs like Trigal, Tengo, ¿A esto le llamas amor?, Eres el demonio disfrazado, Porque yo te amo and Rosa, Rosa. He died on January 4, 2010 of complications from heart and lung transplant surgery. He was 64.


Sandro also appeared in various films, among others: Quiero Llenarme de Ti ("I Want to fill myself with you") and telenovelas, among others: Fue sin Querer ("It wasn't on purpose"), with Puerto Rican actress: Gladys Rodríguez. He was the first Latino singer to fill Madison Square Garden doing so five times during the 1970s. Sandro was also the first singer to do a television concert via satellite. The concert was broadcast from Madison Square Garden on April 1970. This concert marked the debut of Latino music for a world audience.
In the 1990s Argentine and other Latin American artists made the CD Padre del rock en castellano ("Father of Spanish Rock") in his honor.On November 20, 2009, Sandro received a double transplant (heart and lungs) in Mendoza, Argentina. 5 days later, Argentine TV (Cronica TV) reported Sandro was breathing without a respirator. On 4 January at 20:40, after 45 days of receiving a double cardio-pulmonary transplant, and after many complications, Roberto Sanchez, Sandro de América died of septic shock, mesenteric ischemia and disseminated intravascular coagulation in the Hospital Italiano of Mendoza. Latin America media commented almost immediately on his death. ^[4].

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Bill Gleason died he was 87,

William G. Gleason [Will] died he wa 87. Gleason was a shortstop in Major League Baseball who played from 1882 through 1889 for three different teams of the American Association . Listed at 5' 8", 170 lb., Gleason batted and threw right-handed. He was born in St. Louis, Missouri. His older brother, Jack Gleason, also was a ballplayer.

(November 12, 1858 - July 21, 1932)

Gleason entered the majors in 1882 with the St. Louis Browns, playing for them six years before joining the Philadelphia Athletics (1888) and Louisville Colonels (1889). His most productive season came in 1887, when he posted career numbers in batting average (.288), runs (135), hits (172), hits (97) and on-base percentage (.342). A member of three St. Louis champion teams from 1885-87, in 1883 and 1885 he led the league in games played.

In an eight-season career, Gleason was a .267 hitter (907-for-3395) with seven home runs and 298 RBI in 798 games, including 613 runs, 111 doubles, and 35 triples. Incomplete data shows him stealing 70 bases and getting hit by 52 pitches.

Gleason died in his native St. Louis at the age of 73.

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