Louis Stout

Louis Stout, who lived a notable sporting life in Kentucky as an athlete, coach, official and administrator, died Sunday morning at St. Joseph Hospital from what the family called a “heart incident.”

Mr. Stout was 73.

He was best known for his 30-year tenure with the Kentucky High School Athletic Association.

He became KHSAA commissioner in 1994, the first black in the nation to head a state high school athletic association. He stayed in that position until he retired in 2002.

“Louis really was a kid-centered person,” KHSAA commissioner Julian Tackett said. “Some of the things I do today in my position are a direct reflection of his philosophy.

“He believed in making opportunities for kids, and whether it made adults happy or not was irrelevant. If the kids were getting the benefit, that’s what was most important.”

Brigid DeVries, who succeeded Mr. Stout as KHSAA commissioner, said he had “a larger-than-life personality.”

Louis Stout

Mario Zamparelli

LOS ANGELES (AP) – Mario Armond Zamparelli, an internationally renowned artist who for nearly 20 years created the distinctive, often colorful logos, images and posters for reclusive billionaire Howard Hughes’ many companies, has died at age 91.

Zamparelli, who had homes in the Los Angeles suburbs of La Canada-Flintridge and San Marino, died Saturday of heart failure, his family said.

The artist, who worked in numerous styles and forms, was an illustrator for major magazines and movie posters in the early 1950s when Hughes came looking for someone to design posters for his RKO Pictures’ movies. He told his aides to find posters done by people they believed were the best in the business.

“He pointed straight at my dad’s poster and said, ‘Get me that one,'” the artist’s daughter Gina Zamparelli said Monday.

What followed was an association between the artist and the increasingly reclusive billionaire that continued until Hughes’ death in 1976.

During that time, and for a few years afterward, Zamparelli created numerous logos, images and designs for such companies as TWA, Hughes Helicopters, Hughes Aircraft, the Summa Corporation and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.

Mario Zamarelli

Ronald Hamowy

Ronald Hamowy (1937 – September 8, 2012)^[1] was a Canadian academic, known primarily for his contributions to political and social thought. At the time of his death, he was Professor Emeritus of Intellectual History, the University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. Hamowy was closely associated with the political ideology of libertarianism and his writings and scholarship place particular emphasis on individual liberty and the limits of state action in a free society.^[2] He is associated with a number of prominent American libertarian organizations, and was closely associated with his long-time friend and leading American libertarian Murray N. Rothbard (1926–1995) from the mid‑1950s until Rothbard’s passing in 1995. It can be fairly stated that Hamowy was personally acquainted, to varying degrees, with most of the leading classical liberal and libertarian thinkers who lived during the latter half of the 20th century.

Ronald Hamowy

Dorothy McGuire

(CBS/AP) Dorothy McGuire Williamson, who teamed with sisters Christine and Phyllis for a string of hits in the ’50s and ’60s as the popular McGuire Sisters singing group, has died.

Williamson died Friday at her son’s home in the Phoenix suburb of Paradise Valley, Ariz., daughter-in-law Karen Williamson said. She had Parkinson’s disease and age-related dementia. She was 84.

The McGuire Sisters earned six gold records for hits including 1954’s “Sincerely” and 1957’s “Sugartime.” The sisters were known for their sweet harmonies and identical hairdos and outfits.

They began singing together as children at their mother’s Ohio church and then performed at weddings and church revivals. They got their big break in 1952 on the show “Arthur Godfrey’s Talent Scouts,” where they continued to perform for seven years.

The group made numerous appearances on television and toured into the late 1960s, making a last performance together on “The Ed Sullivan Show” in 1968. Dorothy stepped back to raise her two sons, Williamson said. Christine also raised a family while Phyllis pursued a solo career, according to a 1986 profile in People magazine after the trio reunited and began doing nightclub and Las Vegas performances again.

“We had a clear, true harmony and a pure blend,” she told People of the trio’s success, according to the New York Times. “I’ve always been sold on our sound.”

The sisters last performed together in the mid-2000s, and are featured on a 2004 PBS show called “Magic Moments – Best of 50s Pop.”

Dorothy McGuire

The McGuire Sisters, from left, Christine, Phyllis and Dorothy, pose outside Radio City Music Hall in New York on Oct. 10, 1986.
(Credit: AP)

Art Modell

Baltimore Ravens owner Art Modell with the Vince Lombardi Trophy after the Ravens beat the New York Giants 34-7 in Super Bowl XXXV in January 2001. (Dave Martin / AP Photo / September 6, 2012)

BALTIMORE—

Former Baltimore Ravens owner Art Modell has died. He was 87.

The team said Modell died early Thursday at Johns Hopkins Hospital, where he had been admitted Wednesday. A cause of death was not given.

Modell was among the most important figures in the NFL as owner of the Cleveland Browns, which became the Ravens after he took the team to Baltimore in 1996 in a move that tarnished his reputation as one of the league’s most innovative and influential owners.

The Ravens won their lone Super Bowl in January 2001, less than a year after Modell sold a minority interest of the team to Steve Bisciotti. In April 2004. Bisciotti completed purchase of the franchise but left Modell a 1 percent share.

During his four decades as an NFL owner, Modell helped negotiate the league’s lucrative contracts with television networks, served as president of the NFL from 1967 to 1969, and chaired the negotiations for the first the collective bargaining agreement with the players in 1968.

He also was the driving force behind the 1970 contract between the NFL and ABC to televise games on Monday night.

At one time one of Cleveland’s biggest civic leaders, Modell became a pariah in Ohio after he moved the team.

“I have a great legacy, tarnished somewhat by the move,” he said in 1999. “The politicians and the bureaucrats saw fit to cover their own rear ends by blaming it on me.”  read more…

Joe South

Singer-songwriter Joe South, who wrote the hits “Games People Play” and “Down in the Boondocks” in the 1960s and ’70s, has died. He was 72.

South, whose real name was Joseph Souter, died Wednesday at his home in the Atlanta suburb of Buford, Ga., according to the Lowery Group, which published his music. A spokesman said South died of heart failure.

South also wrote the Grammy-nominated “(I Never Promised You a) Rose Garden.”

South was in the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame and the Georgia Music Hall of Fame.

He was top notch session guitarist and played on Aretha Franklin’s “Chain of Fools,” Bob Dylan’s “Blonde on Blonde” and albums by Eddy Arnold and Marty Robbins.   original article

Charlie Rose

Charlie Rose, a former United States representative from rural North Carolina who fought to protect the tobacco industry and its farmers when political and regulatory pressure on the industry were on the rise and smoking in steady decline, died on Monday in Albertville, Ala. He was 73.

Charlie Rose in 1995, when he led the opposition for a federal tobacco tax increase.  Photo: Joe Marquette/Associated Press

Charlie Rose in 1995, when he led the opposition for a federal tobacco tax increase.

The cause was complications of Parkinson’s disease, said his wife, Stacye Hefner.

Mr. Rose, a Democrat some called Mr. Tobacco, was first elected to the House in 1972. His southeastern North Carolina district was covered with tobacco farms, but the crop’s economic and geographic footprint shrank over the next two decades of his tenure.

Mr. Rose (no relation to the television interviewer of the same name) worked to ease the transition and successfully fought to preserve government price supports for tobacco even as the government was warning of its potentially lethal health effects.

“There’s no way you could represent that district and not be in support of tobacco farmers,” said Merle Black, a professor of politics at Emory University.

In the 1990s, the Clinton administration considered a significant increase in the federal tobacco tax to help pay for the ambitious health care overhaul proposed by the first lady, Hillary Rodham Clinton. Mr. Rose, the chairman of the House Agriculture Subcommittee on Peanuts and Tobacco, led the opposition.  read more…

Michael Clarke Duncan

(CNN) — Michael Clarke Duncan, nominated for an Academy Award for his role in the 1999 film “The Green Mile,” died Monday morning at age 54, according to a representative for his family.

Duncan “suffered a myocardial infarction on July 13 and never fully recovered,” a written statement from Joy Fehily said.

Clarke died at a Los Angeles hospital where he had been since having the heart attack more than seven weeks ago.

According to TMZ, it was Duncan’s girlfriend Omarosa Manigault-Stallworth, a reality star and former contestant on “The Apprentice,” who had acted quickly and provided lifesaving efforts when he had the heart attack.

Most recently he was on the TV series, “The Finder,” on the Fox network.

His co-star Mercedes Masohn tweeted: “Today is a sad day. Michael Clark Duncan passed away this morning. Known for his moving performance in The Green Mile. RIP MCD. You’ll b missed.”

According to Entertainment Weekly, the TV series was canceled in May.

A towering and hulking figure, the 6-foot-5-inch Duncan also was known for his deep voice.  read more…

Hal David

LOS ANGELES (AP) – Hal David, whose simple, heartfelt lyrics made a perfect fit with Burt Bacharach’s quirky melodies and resulted in dozens of hit songs, including “Do You Know the Way to San Jose” and “Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on My Head,” died Saturday. He was 91.

David died of complications from a stroke Saturday morning at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, according to his wife Eunice David.

He had suffered a major stroke in March and was stricken again on Tuesday, she said.

“Even at the end, Hal always had a song in his head,” Eunice David said. “He was always writing notes, or asking me to take a note down, so he wouldn’t forget a lyric.”

David and Bacharach won an Oscar for “Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on My Head” (from the movie “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid”), Grammys and Tonys for the songs from the hit Broadway musical “Promises, Promises,” as well as other top 40 hits including “Close to You” and “That’s What Friends Are For.”

Many of the duo’s lyrics and tunes continue to resonate in pop culture, including “I Say A Little Prayer, ” ”What The World Needs Now Is Love,” and “This Guy’s in Love with You,” Their music was recorded by legendary singers including The Beatles, Barbra Streisand, Frank Sinatra, Neil Diamond and their longtime partner Dionne Warwick.   read more…

Joe Lewis

It is with a heavy heart and feeling of great loss that we report that the Great Martial Arts Legend Joe Lewis passed away today due to complications from cancer. Joe Lewis was one of the first great full contact fighters and was undefeated and unchallenged in his power, and dominace of the Kick Boxing World during the 1970’s and 80’s.

He will always be remembered for his great character and life. He was a living example of class and dignity and did more to promote the ‘real’ martial arts than any man in history.

He will be missed, but not fogotten and will live forever in the hearts and minds of those who loved him and whose lives were touched by him.