Tennis Journalist, Historian Bud Collins Dies

American tennis writer and sportscaster Bud Collins, who called himself a “scribbler and a babbler,” has died at age 86.

Collins, who died Friday at his home in Brookline, Massachusetts, was credited with paving the way for newspaper reporters to move into broadcasting, becoming a familiar face to U.S. television audiences with his “Breakfast at Wimbledon” coverage on NBC.

He made one of his final public appearances last September in New York, when the media center at the U.S. Open was dedicated in his honor. A plaque for him reads: “Journalist, Commentator, Historian, Mentor, Friend.”

Collins wrote several books, including The Education of a Tennis Player (with Rod Laver, 1971), Evonne! On the Move (with Evonne Goolagong Cawley, 1974), and a memoir, My Life With the Pros (1989).

He also wrote several tennis encyclopedias, including The Modern Encyclopedia of Tennis, The Bud Collins Tennis Encyclopedia, and Total Tennis, which became an authoritative standard in the sport.

Collins was married to photographer Anita Ruthling Klaussen.

New York City’s Harlem Mourns, Cherishes Maya Angelou

by Adam Phillips

Poet, author and human rights activist Maya Angelou, who died Wednesday at the age of 86, was considered by many a literary giant.  But to residents of Harlem, a largely African American New York neighborhood where she sometimes lived, the author of “Why The Caged Bird Sings” and other works is especially mourned. 

While Maya Angelou received dozens of awards and honorary degrees, she came from the humblest of beginnings in the racially segregated South - having worked as a streetcar conductor, fry cook and calypso performer among other jobs during her youth.  

On a city bus riding through Harlem, Rayna Clay-Cuffee remembered Angelou from a half century ago, when they were both nightclub singers. 

"And then the years went by, and then I was there when she spoke at the inauguration for [President] Clinton," she said. "So she’s been around a long time.  She’s a wonderful woman, extremely intelligent, and she used her intelligence for the world."

Joanathan, who also was riding the bus, admired Angelou for her wisdom and compassion.  He said that while her writing often expressed the challenges she and other African Americans faced in their struggle for equality, she felt an underlying bond to all peoples.

“And they can coexist in one.  People always make the mistake of saying ‘that race did that’ or ‘that one ain’t no good.’  But we are one human race. And that’s what she understood," said Joanathan.

On 125th Street, Harlem’s busy main thoroughfare, “Lord Harrison,” a hip hop artist, sold his CDs to passersby.  He credited Maya Angelou’s poetry and public acclaim with helping to pioneer his musical genre.

“She paved the way!  Without her doing her thing and opening the way and ‘bustin’ with the moves,’ as we like to say, hip hop wouldn’t be invented.  It wouldn’t have happened.  She did it!  She is a true American icon," he said.

Nearby, the marquee of the famed Apollo Theater, where the Jackson Five, James Brown, Aretha Franklin and other stars played, noted in big black letters Maya Angelou's passing.

In-house historian Billy Mitchell, who has worked there for 49 years, remembers meeting her.    

“What a regal lady she was!  Very graceful.  That beautiful smile.  ‘How are you, young man?’  I could have melted right there," he said. "Because I meet so many people here and there are just a few that really make me feel a little strange and giddy and groupie-like.  And she was one of those people that did that for me, absolutely. "We all adored Maya.  Her words made us feel proud. She understood our struggle. She understood what it was like to be poor and to be hungry and she made something of herself.  Young kids are still reciting her poetry: ‘and still I rise.  I rise.  I rise.'"

Plans for Maya Angelou’s funeral have not been released.

Russian Soprano Galina Vishnevskaya Dies At 86

Russian opera singer Galina Vishnevskaya, the widow of legendary cellist Mstislav Rostropovich, died Tuesday aged 86.

State media report that she has suffered from heart trouble in recent years.

The famed soprano was celebrated for her dramatic interpretations of classic and modern works and sang in most major opera houses across the world.

For many years, Vishnevskaya enjoyed a star status in the Soviet Russia where she received the Order of Lenin and the People's Artist prizes. But she and her husband Rostropovich were forced into exile after offering support to writer Alexander Solzhenitsyn, who was critical of the communist government.

The musician couple was forced into exile in 1974, eventually settling in the United States where she continued to sing and direct opera.

The Soviet authorities later stripped them of their citizenship, which they regained in 1990 during Mikhail Gorbachev's era of perestroika.

The couple was lauded in the post-Soviet Russia and in 1991 established the Rostropovich-Vishnevskaya Foundation, based in Washington, D.C., to improve the health and future of children in the former Soviet Union.

Russian President Vladimir Putin last week issued a decree granting Vishnevskaya the Order “For Merit to the Fatherland,” 1st Class, for her contributions to Russian music and culture.

He expressed his condolences Tuesday.

(Photo by Alexey Yushenkov, 2008)

Novelist Gore Vidal Dies at 86

American writer Gore Vidal, whose intellectual novels, essays and plays sharply examined politics and culture, has died at his Los Angeles home. He was 86.

His literary career began with a novel he wrote while enlisted in the U.S. Army during World War II.

But it was his third book, “The City and the Pillar,” published in 1948, that marked his early career. The story about two male lovers was met with a backlash, leading Vidal to abandon novels and shift to writing for the theater and television. He penned the Tony-nominated play “The Best Man,” which later became a movie.

After a failed attempt to run for Congress in 1960, Vidal returned to writing books, producing a series of acclaimed historical novels that many critics considered his best work. These include best selling novels “Lincoln” and “Myra Breckenridge.”

His commentary included discussion of America's decline, and included a controversial defense of anti-government terrorist Timothy McVeigh and the assertion that former president George W. Bush had advance knowledge of the September 11 attacks.

Vidal was known for high-profile clashes with writers and pundits, including Ernest Hemingway, Truman Capote and William Buckley, Jr.

His grandfather was a United States Senator, and in 1982 Vidal lost his own bid for a Senate seat.

(Photo by David Shankbone.)

US TV Legend Andy Griffith Dead at 86

American actor Andy Griffith, unforgettable as the small-town sheriff in the 1960s television series The Andy Griffith Show, has died at the age of 86.

The sheriff of Dare County, North Carolina issued a statement from Griffith's family confirming his death Tuesday on Roanoke Island.

The North Carolina born Griffith began his career as a high school music teacher. He later moved to New York, where he recorded a comedy monologue of a country boy describing his first football game. The record became a hit and led to roles on Broadway and the movies.

He used his southern hometown as the model for the 1960 television comedy series, The Andy Griffith Show. Griffith played Sheriff Andy Taylor — an earthy small town officer raising his son with the help of his matronly Aunt Bee and his nervous excitable deputy Barney Fife, who was only allowed to carry an unloaded gun.

At a time of student protests, assassinations, and racial tension, the fictional town of Mayberry, North Carolina was an oasis of sanity and simplicity for millions of U.S. television viewers.

The town's only criminal was Otis, the drunk who let himself in and out of jail with a key provided by the sheriff. When a true lawbreaker ventured into Mayberry, Sheriff Taylor always outwitted him with common sense and one of Aunt Bee's picnic baskets.

The Andy Griffith Show ended its run in 1968 when it was the top-rated American television show. But it has been rerun ever since, making fans out of later generations.

Griffith later played another popular TV character, Matlock, a country-bred Harvard-educated lawyer. That series ran from 1986 until 1997.

Griffith was also a Grammy Award-winning Southern-gospel singer. Former President George W. Bush presented him with the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2005.

President Barack Obama calls Griffith a performer of extraordinary talent whose characters warmed the hearts of Americans everywhere.

Final Exits, 15-21 November 2011

John Neville

Obituaries for 15-21 November 2011

15
* Lev Borisov, 77, Russian actor, stroke. (Russian)
* Oba Chandler, 65, American murderer, lethal injection.
* Antonio Eceiza, 76, Spanish film director and screenwriter. (Spanish)
* Dulcie Gray, 95, English actress (Howards' Way) and novelist, bronchial pneumonia.
* Thomas Worrall Kent, 89, Canadian journalist and public servant, cardiac arrest.
* Moogy Klingman, 61, American rock keyboardist (Utopia) and songwriter, cancer.
* Karl Slover, 93, Slovak-born American actor (The Wizard of Oz).

16
* Ruslan Akhtakhanov, 58, Chechen poet and academic, shot.
* Jacobus Duivenvoorde, 83, Dutch-born Indonesian Roman Catholic prelate, Archbishop of Merauke (1972–2004).
* Djamel Keddou, 59, Algerian football player and manager (USM Alger). (French)
* Armando Morales, 84, Nicaraguan painter. (Spanish)
* René A. Morel, 79, French-born American violin luthier.
* James Fraser Mustard, 84, Canadian doctor and early childhood educator, cancer.
* Eddy Palchak, 71, Canadian ice hockey trainer and equipment manager.
* Elfie Pertramer, 86, German actress. (German)
* Irwin Schneiderman, 88, American lawyer and philanthropist.
* Maureen Swanson, 78, British actress.

17
* Olin Branstetter, 82, American politician, Oklahoma State Senator (1987–1991), plane crash.
* Kurt Budke, 50, American women's basketball coach (Oklahoma State University), plane crash.
* José de Aquino Pereira, 91, Brazilian Roman Catholic prelate, Bishop of São José do Rio Preto (1968–1997).
* Jack Elinson, 89, American television writer (Hogan's Heroes, The Real McCoys, The Facts of Life).
* Gary Garcia, 63, American musician (Buckner & Garcia).
* Enric Garriga i Trullols, 85, Spanish Catalan independentist and defender of Occitan Nation. (Catalan)
* Richard Kuh, 90, American lawyer.
* Ng Chiau-tong, 79, Taiwanese activist, chairman of the World United Formosans for Independence (1995–2011), surgical complications.
* Jorgen Petersen, 67, Danish handball player, brain tumour. (Danish)
* Pham Van Loc, 92, Vietnamese Roman Catholic prelate, Bishop of Kontum (1975–1995).
* Peter Reading, 65, English poet.

18
* Erik Gjems-Onstad, 89, Norwegian politician and resistance member. (Norwegian)
* Nisio Gomes, 59, Brazilian indigenous leader, shot.
* Mark Hall, 74, British animator, television producer (Danger Mouse, Count Duckula) and film producer (The Wind in the Willows), cancer.
* Walt Hazzard, 69, American basketball player (Los Angeles Lakers, Atlanta Hawks).
* Yuri Karyakin, 81, Russian literary critic and historian. (Russian)
* David Langdon, 97, British cartoonist.
* Jones Mwewa, 38, Zambian footballer.
* Joshua Ndere, 30, Kenyan boxer, road accident.
* Gregory Papalexis, 86, American businessman (Marathon Enterprises, Inc.).
* Daniel Sada, 58, Mexican author and poet, kidney disease.

19
* Ömer Lütfi Akad, 95, Turkish film director.
* David Bolstad, 42, New Zealand champion woodchopper.
* Francis Cabot, 86, American gardener and horticulturist.
* Basil D'Oliveira, 80, South African-born English cricketer.
* Gordon S. Clinton, 91, American politician, 43rd Mayor of Seattle.
* Sonny Dixon, 87, American baseball player (Washington Senators, Philadelphia Athletics).
* Russell Garcia, 95, American-born New Zealand composer.
* Sanford Garelik, 93, American politician, President of the New York City Council (1970–1973).
* Ladi Geisler, 83, Czech musician. (German)
* Michael Hastings, 73, English playwright.
* Ira Michael Heyman, 81, American lawyer and administrator, Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution (1994–2000).
* Don Hickman, 74, American newscaster (WICS).
* Jack Keeney, 89, American federal prosecutor.
* John Neville, 86, British-born Canadian actor (The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, The X-Files), Alzheimer's disease.
* Ronald E. Poelman, 83, American leader of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, age-related causes.
* Neoklis Sarris, 71, Greek professor and politician, cancer. (Greek)
* John Smale, 84, American businessman, CEO of Procter & Gamble.
* Ruth Stone, 96, American poet.
* Roy West, 70, Australian football player, lung cancer.

20
* Fabio Betancur Tirado, 73, Colombian Roman Catholic prelate, Archbishop of Manizales (1996–2010).
* Lasse Brandeby, 66, Swedish journalist, actor and television personality.
* Shelagh Delaney, 71, English playwright (A Taste of Honey) and screenwriter (Dance with a Stranger), cancer.
* Angie Dowds, 42, British fitness instructor and television personality (The Biggest Loser), suicide.
* Theodore J. Forstmann, 71, American financier (IMG, Topps, Gulfstream) and philanthropist, brain cancer.
* Alex Ibru, 66, Nigerian newspaper publisher and politician, Minister of Internal Affairs (1993–1995).
* Mario Martiradonna, 73, Italian footballer. (Italian)
* David Messas, 77, French rabbi.
* Viktor Modzolevsky, 68, Russian fencer, road accident. (Russian)
* Larry Munson, 89, American play-by-play radio announcer (Georgia Bulldogs), pneumonia.
* Javier Pradera, 77, Spanish anti-Franco activist, publisher, political analyst and journalist, founder of El País.
* Karl Aage Præst, 89, Danish football player. (Danish)
* Adriano Reys, 78, Brazilian actor, cancer. (Portuguese)
* Talaat Sadat, 64, Egyptian politician.
* Sergio Scaglietti, 91, Italian automotive designer.

21
* Syd Cain, 93, British film production designer.
* Albert D. Cohen, 97, Canadian businessman.
* Arie van Deursen, 80, Dutch historian. (Dutch)
* George Gallup, Jr., 81, American pollster, liver cancer.
* Greg Halman, 24, Dutch baseball player (Seattle Mariners), stabbed.
* Eli Hurvitz, 79, Israeli industrialist.
* John Peter Jukes, 88, English Roman Catholic prelate, Auxiliary Bishop of Southwark (1979–1998).
* Anne McCaffrey, 85, American science fiction writer (Dragonriders of Pern series), stroke.
* Hal Patterson, 79, American player of Canadian football (Montreal Alouettes, Hamilton Tiger-Cats).
* Paul Yandell, 76, American country music guitarist.