George Cadle Price, Belizean politician, Prime Minister (1981–1984; 1989–1993), died at 92.

George Cadle Price PC  was the first Prime Minister of Belize and is considered to have been one of the principal architects of the country's independence, and is today referred to by many as "the Father of the Nation".
Born in Belize City to William and Irene (née Escalante) Price, he entered politics in 1947 with his election to the Belize City Council. Three years later, on September 29, 1950, he co-founded the People's United Party, which he led for four decades and which was devoted to the political and economic independence of the British colony, then known as British Honduras.^[1]

(January 15, 1919 – September 19, 2011)

Education and early political activities

Price was never educated further than St. John's College High School (SJC did not have a sixth form until the 1960s.) While there, however, he was exposed to the teachings of Catholic social justice, in particular the encyclical Rerum Novarum. Upon graduation Price was hired by local businessman Robert Sidney Turton as his private secretary. He also rallied a few SJC graduates, some of them later members of the PUP, to contest elections in 1944 and 1947 for the local Town Board, being successful in 1947. Price also contributed to the Belize Billboard, then run by Phillip Goldson.^{[citation needed]}

Later political career

Main article: People's United Party

Price, upon the formation of the People's Committee (PC) in 1950, was named its Assistant Secretary, and in a famous speech later that year claimed that "National Unity" propelled the PC's actions. With the formation of the PUP, Price's stature rose and he ascended through the party ranks until he became Party Leader following a leadership dispute in 1956.^{[citation needed]}
Elected to the colony's Legislative Council in 1954, he also served as mayor of Belize City from 1956 to 1962. In 1956, Price became also Party Leader of the PUP. As First Minister, a post he held since 1961, he led the team which began negotiations over independence with Great Britain. He maintained that post as Premier in 1964. In 1981 Belize gained its independence, and Price served as the country's first prime minister and foreign minister until 1984. After the PUP's defeat in the elections by the United Democratic Party under Manuel Esquivel, he resumed the post of prime minister in 1989, serving until 1993, when he was again replaced by Esquivel.^{[citation needed]}. In October 1996 he announced his resignation as party leader, and on November 10, 1996 was formally succeeded by Said Musa.

Honours

In September 2000, Price became the first person to receive Belize's highest honour, the Order of National Hero, for the prominent role he played in leading his country to independence. He has received similar honours in other Caribbean and Central American countries. In 1982, he was made a member of the Privy Council.^[1]

Death

Price died on September 19, 2011, aged 92, in a medically induced coma at Belize Healthcare Partners Hospital after surgery to remove a blood clot .^[2] A state funeral was held on Monday, September 26, 2011.


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Ginger McCain, British horse trainer, died from cancer at 80.

Donald "Ginger" McCain  was an English National Hunt horse trainer, perhaps best known for training the legendary racehorse Red Rum. A successful trainer who won many races, he trained Red Rum at a Southport beach on Merseyside, where McCain was born.
A former national serviceman in the Royal Air Force as a motorcycle despatch rider, he was also a member of the RAF scrambling team.^[1]

(21 September 1930 – 19 September 2011)

Horseracing

McCain applied for a training permit in 1953 and began training horses in 1962, using small stables behind the showroom of his used-car store in his hometown of Southport. He bought a horse for 6,000 guineas,^[2] which later turned out to be suffering from a debilitating bone disease. The horse was Red Rum.
McCain went on to train the winner of the world-famous Grand National steeplechase four times, three times in the 1970s with Red Rum and a fourth time in 2004 with Amberleigh House.^[3] His first and fourth victories were over 30 years apart.
The 1973 Grand National^[4] is considered by many to be the greatest Grand National and was a famous dual of 9 mins 2 secs between Red Rum and Crisp (horse), with L'Escargot (horse) (a previous double Cheltenham Gold Cup winner and future 1975 Grand National winner) well beaten in third place, breaking the course record which had stood for nearly 40 years and would remain unbeaten until it was demolished by Mr Frisk in the 1990 Grand National immediately after a number of safety changes had speeded up the course for that year^[5].
Fred Rimell is the only other person to have trained four winners of the race.
In his final Grand National in 2006, McCain entered three horses; Inca Trail, who ran well for a long way until running out of stamina two fences from home and finishing in eighth place, Ebony Light (who fell) and Amberleigh House (who was pulled up). ^[6]
McCain retired after the 2006 National, handing over control of the stable to his son, Donald, Jr., who trained 2011 National winner Ballabriggs.
After watching the 2011 Grand National, where there were two equine fatalities, he expressed concern that the lowering of the fences in aid of safety was having the opposite impact through speeding up the race and increasing the risk of equine fatalities^[7]. Following further fatalities in the 2012 Grand National, a far cry from the lower equine fatalities of the 1950s and 1960s (apart from the carnage of four equine fatalities at the 1954 Grand National and where there was an unusually small field of runners), these concerns are being increasingly openly expressed by other National Hunt and Grand National experts and the wisdom of the entire ongoing approach to improving safety from the 1989 Grand National onwards is coming under close scrutiny.

Personal life

McCain married Beryl Harris in Southport in March 1961; the couple had two children: Joanne and Donald, Jr.^[8] McCain worked as a taxi driver to supplement his income as a trainer prior to finding Grand National success. It was as a taxi driver that he became acquainted with Noel le Mare, on whose behalf Red Rum was purchased.^[8]

Death

McCain died from cancer on 19 September 2011, two days before his 81st birthday.^[9] On the opening day of the 2012 Grand National a bronze statue of McCain was unveiled at Aintree Racecourse looking down on the winning post where his famous victories unfolded.^[10]


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Dolores Hope, American philanthropist, widow of Bob Hope, died from natural causes at 102.

Dolores Hope, DC*SG ^[2] was an American singer, philanthropist and wife of actor/comedian Bob Hope.

(May 27, 1909 – September 19, 2011)

Early life and career

She was born Dolores L. DeFina in Manhattan's Harlem neighborhood of Italian and Irish descent and raised in The Bronx. After the death of her bartender father, Jack DeFina, in 1925, she and her younger sister, Mildred, were raised in the Bronx by their mother, Theresa DeFina (1890–1977), who worked as a saleslady in a drygoods store.^[2][3]
During the 1930s, after working as a model, DeFina began her professional singing career under the name Dolores Reade on the advice of her agent.^[4] In 1933, after appearing at the Vogue Club, a Manhattan nightclub, Reade was introduced to Bob Hope. The couple reportedly were married on February 19, 1934 in Erie, Pennsylvania.^[5] They later adopted four children from The Cradle in Evanston, Illinois: Eleanora, Linda, Kelly, and Anthony (d. 2004). "She was a woman of her words and a fine singer. Bob and Dolores were the talk of many people back in those holy days," says a friend, Malory Thorn.
In the 1940s, Dolores began helping her husband on his tours entertaining U.S. troops overseas and she would continue to do so for over 50 years. In 1990, she was the only female entertainer allowed to perform in Saudi Arabia.
At age 83, she recorded her first compact disc, Dolores Hope: Now and Then. She followed this with three additional albums and also recorded a Christmas CD with Bob entitled Hopes for the Holidays.^[6][7][8]

Later years

On May 29, 2003, Dolores was at her husband's side as he celebrated his 100th birthday; he died two months later on July 27, 2003.^[9] The following year, Bob and Dolores' elder son, Anthony Hope, died at the age of 63. He was father to two of the Hope grandchildren, Miranda of Washington and Zachary of Santa Monica.^[1]
On May 27, 2009, Dolores Hope became a centenarian; her birthday was featured on The Today Show, with her younger son saying in an ABC interview, "I think of her as love."^[10] On May 29, 2010, she was quoted as saying to local press, of her 101st birthday, "I'm still recovering from my 100th birthday bash, so I'm going to keep this year’s celebration much quieter.” On May 27, 2011, she celebrated her 102nd birthday at her California residence.
Dolores Hope was an Honorary Board Member of the humanitarian organization Wings of Hope.

Illness and death

On October 21, 2008 at 99, she was rushed to St. Joseph's Hospital in Burbank, California after suffering a suspected stroke. Her publicist released a statement indicating that she spent less than four hours at the hospital where she underwent routine testing.^[11]
Hope died of natural causes at her home in Toluca Lake, California on September 19, 2011. She was 102 years old.^[12]

Honors

Dolores Hope received numerous honors during her lifetime.
Religious

• Dame of St. Gregory with Star (one of a very select few women named Dame of St. Gregory with Star)
• The President's Medal from Loyola College in Baltimore.
• The Outstanding Catholic Laywoman Award from St. Louis University
• The Elizabeth Seton Medal Award from Seton Hill University
• Terence Cardinal Cooke Humanitarian Award from Our Lady of Mercy Medical Center
• Patronal Medal from the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception and The Catholic University of America

Secular

• Hollywood Walk of Fame star for her contributions to live theatre
• A street named after her in The Bronx (her hometown)
• A permanent installation of the Tree Peony Collection bearing her name
• Chancellor Medal from the University of California, Riverside
• Winnie Palmer Humanitarian Award (from the Metropolitan Golf Writers Association)
• Patty Berg Award (2008), for contributions to women's golf

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Jo Carson, American writer, died at 64.

Josephine Catron "Jo" Carson  was an American playwright, poet, fiction writer, and actor, as well as the author of three children's books. Her best-known play is Daytrips (1991), and her poetry is collected in Stories I Ain't Told Nobody Yet (1989). Her story collection The Last of the "Waltz Across Texas" was published in 1993.

(October 9, 1946 – September 19, 2011)

Jo Carson was born in Johnson City, Tennessee in 1946 and received degrees in theater and speech from East Tennessee State University in 1973.^[1] She lived in Johnson City. Her books Liars, Thieves and Other Sinners on the Bench, Spider Speculations: A Physics and Biophysics of Storytelling, and Stories I Ain't Told Nobody Yet were published by Theater Communications Group. The Teller Tales: Histories, from Ohio University Press, includes two stories from the American Revolutionary period written for storytellers. The stories are particularly relevant to East Tennessee and Western North Carolina. ^[2]
Carson also has a collection of short stories, The Last of the Waltz Across Texas, from Gnomon Press. Her 1989 play Daytrips won the Kesselring Prize in that year.^[3] Preacher With a Horse to Ride is included in the anthology Alternate ROOTS: Plays from the Southern Theater edited by Kathie deNobriga and Valetta Anderson from Heinemann Books. Her plays have been produced widely in the United States. For almost twenty years, she worked with communities to create plays made from stories collected in those communities; she may have been the most commissioned playwright in this country.^{[citation needed]} Information about the community work can be found in Spider Speculations and Liars, Thieves.
Carson's books for children are Pulling My Leg (1990), You Hold Me and I'll Hold You (1992), and The Great Shaking (1994), all published by Orchard Books. The Great Shaking is an eyewitness account of the New Madrid earthquakes of 1811 and 1812, as told by a fictional bear.^[1]
She is anthologized widely. She was an occasional commentator on NPR's All Things Considered for several years. She also was a founding member of Alternate ROOTS.^[3]
Carson died September 19, 2011 in Johnson City.^[2]


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Thomas Capano, American convicted murderer, died from a heart attack at 61.

Thomas J. Capano ^[1][2] was a disbarred American lawyer and former Delaware deputy attorney general, who was convicted of the 1996 murder of Anne Marie Fahey, his former lover.

(October 11, 1949 – September 19, 2011)

Background

Capano was a member of a prominent family of Delaware real estate developers and building contractors. He became a wealthy, well-connected lawyer, state prosecutor, Wilmington city attorney, counsel to Governor Michael N. Castle, and political consultant, well known in Delaware's political community. In 1994, Capano was a partner at the Wilmington office of Saul Ewing LLP when he became involved with Anne Marie Fahey, who was then age 28 and the appointments secretary to then-Governor Thomas R. Carper.

Fahey's disappearance; investigation

Anne Marie Fahey, the scheduling secretary for Delaware's then-Governor Thomas Carper, was last seen alive on Thursday, June 27, 1996, when she went to dinner with Capano in Philadelphia. Fahey's family reported on June 30, 1996, that she was missing. An extensive investigation concerning her disappearance ensued. That investigation culminated in November 1997, over sixteen months later, in Capano's arrest for her murder. Fahey's body was never found, however, and the State was unable to establish the precise manner by which Fahey died.^[3] Capano, who was the last known person to have seen her alive on June 27, 1996, was an early suspect in the investigation by the Wilmington Police. By mid-July 1996, the FBI actively joined in the investigation, and a federal grand jury heard evidence for over a year.^[3]
In September 1995, Fahey met Michael Scanlon while she was still involved in the relationship with Capano. After a rocky beginning in her relationship with Scanlon, she fell in love with him.^[3] Capano murdered Fahey at the house he rented and, with the assistance of his brother, Gerry, dumped her body in the Atlantic Ocean. Gerry Capano owned a boat and, when it was sold, its two anchors were missing. Detectives suspected the boat's anchors were used to weigh down Fahey's body. On November 8, 1997, Gerry Capano was interviewed by detectives and told them that Thomas had asked for the boat and then admitted to Gerry that he had murdered someone who was attempting to extort him. They went to Stone Harbor, New Jersey, with a large cooler that contained Fahey's body. As this type of cooler is frequently used by fishermen, it was not considered suspicious.^{[citation needed]}
The Capanos went 62 miles (100 km) out to sea and pushed the cooler overboard. However, it floated, even after they shot the cooler. Thomas retrieved the cooler, took the body out, and wrapped the anchor chains around it. Gerry then was asked to help dispose of a blood-stained sofa and carpet in a dumpster, which was managed by another brother, Louis. Subsequently, Thomas ordered Louis to empty the dumpsters; Louis had them emptied out of their regular schedule. The cooler was found on July 4, 1996, by a local fisherman, Ken Chubb.^[4]
Investigators did not have a murder weapon or a body, and investigations into Capano's records in buying guns was not revealing. However, Capano's mistress Debby MacIntyre had bought a gun and, when questioned by investigators, admitted to supplying the weapon to Capano.^[2]

Trial and appeal

U.S. Attorney Colm Connolly and Delaware state prosecutor Ferris Wharton were the state's prosecutors, and William Swain Lee was the presiding judge in the highly-publicized Superior Court trial. The defense claimed that MacIntyre had burst into Capano's room and, as Capano and MacIntyre were wrestling for the gun, it fired, killing Fahey. On January 17, 1999, the trial resulted in Capano's conviction and he was sentenced to death.
In January 2006, the Delaware Supreme Court affirmed Capano's conviction but remanded the case for sentencing because the death penalty was imposed by a non-unanimous jury verdict. In February of that year, the state abandoned its efforts to seek capital punishment for Capano, opting to leave him imprisoned for life without parole. Capano's attorneys stated they would continue to appeal his conviction in federal courts.^{[citation needed]}

Habeas corpus petition and appeal

In April 2008, the U.S. District Court reaffirmed Capano's conviction, rejecting a habeas corpus petition filed by Capano.^[5] On September 2, 2008, the U.S. 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed this decision, making the only avenue left for review of the conviction to be petition for certiorari to the US Supreme Court. Capano did not file this petition, bringing an end to the case.^[6]

Death

Capano, aged 61, was found dead in his jail cell at 12:34 p.m. on September 19, 2011 by an officer performing a routine security check at the James T. Vaughn Correctional Center state prison near Smyra, Delaware, where Capano was imprisoned. ^[1][2] The medical examiner said Capano died of sudden cardiac arrest. He also had "atherosclerotic and hypertensive cardiovascular disease, and that obesity was a contributing factor in his death".^[7]

Portrayals

Several books were written about the case including And Never Let Her Go: Thomas Capano: The Deadly Seducer by Ann Rule, The Summer Wind: Thomas Capano and the Murder of Anne Marie Fahey by George Anastasia, and Fatal Embrace: The Inside Story of the Thomas Capano/Anne Marie Fahey Murder Case by Chris Barrish and Peter Meyer. In 2001, a television movie based on Rule's book was made, And Never Let Her Go, starring Mark Harmon as Capano and Kathryn Morris as Fahey.^{[citation needed]}


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George Benton, American boxer, pneumonia, died at 78.

George Benton  was a boxer and a boxing trainer from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

(May 15, 1933 – September 19, 2011)

His first amateur bout was when he was thirteen. He turned professional three years later at the age of sixteen. He boxed professionally from 1949 to 1970 and defeated future world champions Freddie Little, Jimmy Ellis, and Joey Giardello. In seventy-six professional fights, he was never knocked down and was stopped just twice, on a cut against Luis Manuel Rodriguez and when he didn't come out for the final round of his fight with Bennie Briscoe. Benton had a professional record of 62–13–1 (37 KOs).
Benton became the #1 ranked middleweight in the world in the early 1960s, but he never got a shot at the world title. In 1962, after he beat Giardello, Benton thought that he would get a title shot. However, Giardello's manager, Lou Duva, was well connected and was able to get Giardello a fight with Dick Tiger for the World Middleweight Championship, which Giardello won by decision. "Yeah, I screwed George out of his shot," Duva said. "He didn't even know about it till I told him many years later."
Benton's boxing career ended in 1970 after he was shot. The shooter had tried to pick up Benton's sister in a bar, and Benton's brother beat him up. Vowing to kill someone from the Benton family, the man shot Benton in the back. He was in and out of the hospital for two years. The bullet is still lodged near Benton's spine.
With his boxing career over, he turned to training. He studied under Eddie Futch and was in Joe Frazier's corner for his third fight with Muhammad Ali, the Thrilla in Manila. He was also in the corner of Leon Spinks when he upset Ali to win the World Heavyweight Championship.
For seventeen years, Benton worked with Lou Duva and the Duva family's promotion company, Main Events, as the head trainer for many of their fighters. Among the fighters he trained were Evander Holyfield, Mike McCallum, Meldrick Taylor, and Pernell Whitaker.
In 1989 and 1990, Benton was named "Trainer of the Year" by the Boxing Writers Association of America.
In 2001, he was elected to the International Boxing Hall Of Fame.
He died on 19 September 2011 after a battle with pneumonia.^[1]

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Ivo Škrabalo, Croatian writer, director and actor, died at 77.

Ivo Škrabalo was a Croatian film critic, screenwriter, and member of parliament.^[1][2]

(19 February 1934 – 18 September 2011) 

Škrabalo was born in Sombor, where he finished elementary and high school before moving to Zagreb in 1952.^[3] He enrolled at the University of Zagreb's Faculty of Law and earned a MSc in international law, with a doctoral thesis on the creation of Bangladesh.^[3]
He also studied at the Zagreb Academy of Dramatic Art and graduated from its film directing department.^[2] Škrabalo then worked as a dramaturge at Zagreb-based film studios Zagreb Film (1958–1962) and Jadran Film (1964–1967) and was later hired as an advisor at Croatia Film in the late 1960s.^[3] He directed a number of short films and wrote or co-wrote several screenplays for feature films including the 1970 comedy classic One Song a Day Takes Mischief Away.
Škrabalo was also a prolific film critic and he made significant contributions to film publications published by the Miroslav Krleža Lexicographical Institute. He also authored four books about the history of Croatian cinema, including his seminal work 101 Years of Film in Croatia 1896–1997 published in 1998.^[4] He also gained some fame for quirky translations of titles of imported pornographic films which entered nationwide distribution in Yugoslavia in the 1980s.^[4]
In the early 1990s Škrabalo became involved in politics. Between 1991 and 1992 he briefly a senior post in the ministry of culture in the national unity government led by Prime Minister Franjo Gregurić,^[4] and was elected to the Croatian Parliament twice – from 1992 to 1995 he served as member of the Croatian Social Liberal Party (HSLS) and from 2000 to 2003 as member of its short-lived splinter party LIBRA which later merged into the present-day Croatian People's Party.^[1] He was one of the mayors proposed by the opposition and rejected by President Franjo Tuđman during the 1995–1997 Zagreb crisis.
Scientist and diplomat Zdenko Škrabalo is his older brother.


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