Barbara Warren

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. (AP) _ Barbara Warren, one of the world’s elite endurance athletes in her age group and one-half of a well-known pair of triathlete twins, has died after breaking her neck in a bike crash at the Santa Barbara Triathlon. She was 65. Warren, of San Diego, died Tuesday at Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital when her family told doctors to take her off a ventilator, her twin sister Angelika Drake told the San Diego Union-Tribune. Warren crashed her bike on a downhill road about halfway through the 34-mile cycling section of the race on Saturday, race director Joe Coito said. Warren was paralyzed from the neck down and was breathing with the aid of the ventilator. Drake said her sister told the family by blinking and nodding that she wanted to die. “I talked to her and she nodded over and over and over again. She wanted to leave,” Drake said. “No athlete would like to have a life with only their eyes talking.” Warren’s two daughters and her husband Tom were also with her at the hospital when she died. Warren won her age group in the 2003 Ironman Triathlon World Championship in Hawaii. She competed in the race, the world’s top triathlon, 13 times and finished in the top five in her age group eight times. The two sisters alternated riding bikes in the Race Across America, covering 2,983 miles in less than 10 days. Warren also competed in a seven-day race across the Sahara Desert, and finished a triple Ironman in France that included a 7.2-mile swim, 336-mile bike ride and 78.6-mile run. Warren was well-loved among younger triathletes. Michellie Jones, who won a triathlon silver medal in the 2000 Olympics and won the 2006 Ironman World Title, was also a twin who remembered her fondly. “She always asked about my sister,” Jones said. “She understood the bond.” Warren’s twin said she lay next to her sister as she died. “My heart and my soul are gone,” Drake said. “She was everything in my life.”

Dave Freeman

LOS ANGELES (AP) – Dave Freeman, co-author of “100 Things to Do Before You Die,” a travel guide and ode to odd adventures that inspired readers and imitators, died after hitting his head in a fall at his home. He was 47. Freeman died Aug. 17 after the fall at his Venice home, his father, Roy Freeman, told the Los Angeles Times on Monday. An advertising agency executive, Freeman co-wrote the 1999 book subtitled “Travel Events You Just Can’t Miss” with Neil Teplica. It was based on the Web site whatsgoingon.com, which the pair ran together from 1996 to 2001. “This life is a short journey,” the book says. “How can you make sure you fill it with the most fun and that you visit all the coolest places on earth before you pack those bags for the very last time?” Freeman’s relatives said he visited about half the places on his list before he died, and either he or Teplica had been to nearly all of them. “He didn’t have enough days, but he lived them like he should have,” Teplica said. The book’s recommendations ranged from the obvious — attending the Academy Awards and running with the bulls in Pamplona, Spain — to the more obscure — taking a voodoo pilgrimage in Haiti and “land diving” on the Island of Vanuatu, which Freeman once called “the original bungee jumping.” It included goofy graphics with each entry, indicating that some activities were “down and dirty,” and others “grandma friendly.” The success of “100 Things” inspired dozens of like-minded books, with titles such as “100 Things Project Managers Should Do Before They Die” and “100 Things Cowboys Fans Should Know and Do Before They Die.” Freeman graduated from the University of Southern California in 1983, briefly working for an ad agency in Newport Beach before moving to New York to work for Grey Advertising. On Sept. 11, 2001, Freeman watched the second plane hit the World Trade Center from his apartment just blocks away. He moved back to Southern California to be closer to his family.

Del Martin

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) – Pioneering lesbian rights activist Del Martin, who married her lifelong partner in June on the first day that same-sex couples here gained that right, has died. She was 87. Kate Kendell, executive director of the National Center for Lesbian Rights, said Martin died at a San Francisco hospital Wednesday morning, two weeks after a broken arm exacerbated her existing health problems. Her wife, Phyllis Lyon, was by her side, Kendell said. Along with six other women, they founded a San Francisco social club for lesbians in 1955 called the Daughters of Bilitis. Under their leadership, the group evolved into the nation’s first lesbian advocacy organization. The couple were married at San Francisco City Hall on June 16. Mayor Gavin Newsom, who officiated the wedding, singled them out to be the first gay couple to legally exchange vows in the city, in recognition of their activism. The two were among the two dozen couples who served as plaintiffs in the lawsuits that led the state Supreme Court to overturn California’s ban on gay marriage in May. The Daughters of Bilitis was named after book of lesbian erotic poetry first published in Paris in 1894.

Phil Hill

MONTEREY, Calif. (AP) – Phil Hill, the only American-born Formula One champion, died Thursday of complications from Parkinson’s disease. He was 81. The 1961 Formula Open champion and a three-time 24 Hours of Le Mans winner, Hill died at Community Hospital of the Monterey Peninsula, said friend John Lamm, a noted automotive photographer and editor-at-large with Road & Track magazine. “He raced at a time when racing was extremely dangerous and got through it all without a serious injury,” Lamm said. “He had an extraordinary mechanical sense. He was very much in tune with the car.” Hill won the 1961 Formula One title by a point over Wolfgang von Trips, the Ferrari teammate who was killed in the team’s final race of the year. Hill won three F1 races, taking the Italian Grand Prix in 1960 and 1961 and the Belgian Grand Prix in 1961. “I, as well as all employees of Ferrari are extremely saddened by the news of the passing of Phil Hill, a man and a champion who gave so much to Ferrari,” Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo said. “Phil and I have always kept in touch throughout the years and I know I will miss his passion and love for Ferrari very much.” Mario Andretti is the only other American F1 champion. He was born in Italy. After retiring as a driver in 1967, Hill worked as a racing commentator for ABC and a contributing editor for Road & Track magazine, and devoted time to classic cars and auto restoration. “His knowledge of automobiles was almost spooky,” Lamm said. “And he knew it off the top of his head. … He was extremely intelligent and well-rounded. He was an opera expert and very well-read. He was very sophisticated.” Hill, also a three-time winner of the Sebring 12-hour race, was inducted into the International Motorsports Hall of Fame in 1991. “Phil was a very special guy and had a love for the automotive age,” said Dan Gurney, a teammate with Ferrari. “He was always a potential winner when he sat in a race car. He was both a competitor and a close friend and a fellow I could look up to.” Hill, born in Miami on April 20, 1927, grew up in Santa Monica and attended the University of Southern California. He’s survived by wife Alma, son Derek, daughter Vanessa Rogers, stepdaughter Jennifer Delaney and four grandchildren.