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Twiggyish
Member
08-14-2000
| Tuesday, March 07, 2006 - 4:14 pm
If anyone is an angel, it has to be her. She truly made the most of her life. I feel very sad that she died.
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Hukdonreality
Member
09-29-2003
| Tuesday, March 07, 2006 - 4:22 pm
Rest in peace, Dana. God knows you deserve both rest and peace. What an inspiration she was/is. I'm sure that she had prepared her son for the possibility, but it will still be awful for him. I don't care what disease killed her, it's just so sad that this woman with a huge heart and conviction for helping others will no longer be here.
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Jimmer
Moderator
08-30-2000
| Tuesday, March 07, 2006 - 4:29 pm
Gosh I was sorry when Christopher died. Sad for him and his family and sad as well in general as he was doing so much good promoting the research needed to overcome so many diseases and disabilities. That's a nice picture that Vee posted.
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Julieboo
Member
02-05-2002
| Tuesday, March 07, 2006 - 4:46 pm
Did anyone see Erin Kramp on Oprah? She was a lady who died, and left her young daughter a ton of video and audio tapes on all sorts of subjects. She also bought her many gifts, each to be opened at a certain occasion.
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Seamonkey
Moderator
09-07-2000
| Tuesday, March 07, 2006 - 7:57 pm
Oh my.. I didn't know Dana was gone. My parents also passed 4 months apart but they were also 80. This is just incredibly sad.
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Seamonkey
Moderator
09-07-2000
| Tuesday, March 07, 2006 - 8:03 pm
Filmmaker Gordon Parks Dies at 93 Mar 7, 8:44 PM (ET) By POLLY ANDERSON NEW YORK (AP) - Gordon Parks, who captured the struggles and triumphs of black America as a photographer for Life magazine and then became Hollywood's first major black director with "The Learning Tree" and the hit "Shaft," died Tuesday, a family member said. He was 93. Parks, who also wrote fiction and was an accomplished composer, died in New York, his nephew, Charles Parks, said in a telephone interview from Lawrence, Kan. "Nothing came easy," Parks wrote in his autobiography. "I was just born with a need to explore every tool shop of my mind, and with long searching and hard work. I became devoted to my restlessness." He covered everything from fashion to politics to sports during his 20 years at Life, from 1948 to 1968. But as a photographer, he was perhaps best known for his gritty photo essays on the grinding effects of poverty in the United States and abroad and on the spirit of the civil rights movement. "Those special problems spawned by poverty and crime touched me more, and I dug into them with more enthusiasm," he said. "Working at them again revealed the superiority of the camera to explore the dilemmas they posed." In 1961, his photographs in Life of a poor, ailing Brazilian boy named Flavio da Silva brought donations that saved the boy and purchased a new home for him and his family. "The Learning Tree" was Parks' first film, in 1969. It was based on his 1963 autobiographical novel of the same name, in which the young hero grapples with fear and racism as well as first love and schoolboy triumphs. Parks wrote the score as well as directed. In 1989, "The Learning Tree" was among the first 25 American movies to be placed on the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress. The registry is intended to highlight films of particular cultural, historical or aesthetic importance. The detective drama "Shaft," which came out in 1971 and starred Richard Roundtree, was a major hit and spawned a series of black-oriented films. Parks himself directed a sequel, "Shaft's Big Score," in 1972, and that same year his son Gordon Jr. directed "Superfly." The younger Parks was killed in a plane crash in 1979. Parks also published books of poetry and wrote musical compositions including "Martin," a ballet about the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. Parks was born Nov. 30, 1912, in Fort Scott, Kan., the youngest of 15 children. In his 1990 autobiography, "Voices in the Mirror," he remembered it as a world of racism and poverty, but also a world where his parents gave their children love, discipline and religious faith. He went through a series of jobs as a teen and young man, including piano player and railroad dining car waiter. The breakthrough came when he was about 25, when he bought a used camera in a pawn shop for $7.50. He became a freelance fashion photographer, went on to Vogue magazine and then to Life in 1948. "Reflecting now, I realize that, even within the limits of my childhood vision, I was on a search for pride, meanwhile taking measurable glimpses of how certain blacks, who were fed up with racism, rebelled against it," he wrote. When he accepted an award from Wichita State University in May 1991, he said it was "another step forward in my making peace with Kansas and Kansas making peace with me." "I dream terrible dreams, terribly violent dreams," he said. "The doctors say it's because I suppressed so much anger and hatred from my youth. I bottled it up and used it constructively." In his autobiography, he recalled that being Life's only black photographer put him in a peculiar position when he set out to cover the civil rights movement. "Life magazine was eager to penetrate their ranks for stories, but the black movement thought of Life as just another white establishment out of tune with their cause," he wrote. He said his aim was to become "an objective reporter, but one with a subjective heart." The story of young Flavio prompted Life readers to send in $30,000, enabling his family to build a home, and Flavio received treatment for his asthma in an American clinic. By the 1970s, he had a family and a job as a security guard, but more recently the home built in 1961 has become overcrowded and run-down. Still, Flavio stayed in touch with Parks off and on, and in 1997 Parks said, "If I saw him tomorrow in the same conditions, I would do the whole thing over again." In addition to novels, poetry and his autobiographical writings, Parks' writing credits included nonfiction such as "Camera Portraits: Techniques and Principles of Documentary Portraiture," 1948, and a 1971 book of essays called "Born Black." His other film credits included "The Super Cops," 1974; "Leadbelly," 1976; and "Solomon Northup's Odyssey," a TV film from 1984. Recalling the making of "The Learning Tree," he wrote: "A lot of people of all colors were anxious about the breakthrough, and I was anxious to make the most of it. The wait had been far too long. Just remembering that no black had been given a chance to direct a motion picture in Hollywood since it was established kept me going." Last month, health concerns had kept Parks from accepting the William Allen White Foundation National Citation in Kansas, but he said in a taped presentation that he still considered the state his home and wanted to be buried in Fort Scott. Two years ago, Fort Scott Community College established the Gordon Parks Center for Culture and Diversity. Jill Warford, its executive director, said Tuesday that Parks "had a very rough start in life and he overcame so much, but was such a good person and kind person that he never let the bad things that happened to him make him bitter." ---
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Ladytex
Member
09-27-2001
| Tuesday, March 07, 2006 - 10:01 pm
darn ...
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Mocha
Member
08-12-2001
| Wednesday, March 08, 2006 - 5:31 am
bloody hell...
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Jimmer
Moderator
08-30-2000
| Wednesday, March 08, 2006 - 8:27 am
He was an absolutely brilliant photographer. I love his work. The first camera that the above mentions him buying in a pawnshop was something called a Voightlander Brilliant. His pictures communicate so much about the subjects and he had such a wonderful range. "I have tried to show – picture by picture, word by word – things as they are: the darkness and the light, the cheerful faces and the disgruntled ones." "My ultimate joy comes from the freedom to express my experiences through photography – to capture my feelings, the images of my fellow humans, and the nature of their conditions." -- Gordon Parks
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Vee
Member
02-23-2004
| Wednesday, March 08, 2006 - 8:36 am
Just one example of countless thousands of Gordon Parks's photographs...

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Seamonkey
Moderator
09-07-2000
| Thursday, March 09, 2006 - 9:55 am
Here was one of the pictures with that article.. it saved with some bizarre extension .. let's see if I fixed it.

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Mocha
Member
08-12-2001
| Thursday, March 09, 2006 - 9:57 am
God has called alot of good ones home lately...
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Mamie316
Member
07-08-2003
| Thursday, March 09, 2006 - 1:11 pm
Isn't that the truth?
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Native_texan
Member
08-24-2004
| Thursday, March 09, 2006 - 2:33 pm
Reported here since January 1, 2006: Lou Rawls Shelley Winters (I’m reading her first autobiography and WOW!!!!) Wilson Pickett Tony Franciosa Chris Penn Fayard Nicholas Gene McFadden Wendy Wasserstein Coretta Scott King Al Lewis Betty Friedan Allen Shalleck Franklin Cover Peter Benchley Andreas Katsulas William Cowsill Richard Bright Curt Gowdy Don Knotts Darren McGavin Dennis Weaver Jack Wild Kirby Puckett Dana Reeve Gordon Parks
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Chaplin
Member
01-08-2006
| Thursday, March 09, 2006 - 2:37 pm
It has been a bad year and it is only March!!!!!!!
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Seamonkey
Moderator
09-07-2000
| Thursday, March 09, 2006 - 3:15 pm
Lance Lance Armstrong Comforts Dana Reeve's Son Mar 9, 5:44 PM (ET) NEW YORK (AP) - Lance Armstrong spent Wednesday morning comforting 13-year-old Will Reeve, less than two days after his mother, Dana Reeve, died of lung cancer. "I would say that his spirits were pretty good considering that, in the last 18 months, he's lost his father, his mother and his grandmother," Armstrong told syndicated entertainment show "Inside Edition." "In situations like this," Armstrong said, "all you can do is say, 'Hey buddy, I'm here if you want to go hang out, if you want to play games, whatever you want to do, I'm here.'" Will's father, Christopher Reeve, died in October 2004 from complications from an infection. The former "Superman" actor was nearly totally paralyzed in a horse-riding accident in 1995. Armstrong said he became close to Will during his mother's illness and the two spent time together during the last few months. "I love hanging with him," the cyclist said. "I never thought I'd say that about a 13-year-old, but he's a great kid. He's a big sports fan. He's an athlete himself. Will is not your normal 13-year-old. He's a smart, well-adjusted, mature, humble kid." Dana Reeve was her husband's constant companion and supporter during the ordeal of his rehabilitation, winning worldwide admiration. With him, she became an activist in the search for a cure for spinal-cord injuries. The Christopher Reeve Foundation is yet to announce plans for a funeral.
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Lyn
Member
08-07-2002
| Saturday, March 11, 2006 - 1:59 pm
Habs legend Bernard 'Boom Boom' Geoffrion loses battle with cancer
I grew up watching him play...even us girls tried to copy his slapshots. The Habs are retiring his number tonight - he missed seeing it by ONE DAY. sigh
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Jimmer
Moderator
08-30-2000
| Sunday, March 12, 2006 - 7:54 am
My Mom and Dad were big hockey fans and my Mom had a bit of a crush on Boom Boom that my Dad used to tease her about. Anyway, my Dad got great seats to the games (front row) and my Mom was thrilled she was going to get to see her hero close-up. Well they were both enjoying the game and Mom was admiring Boom Boom. At one point, there was a break in the play and Boom Boom slowly skated by and gave her a great big smile. LOL - The only thing was that he didn’t have any teeth! Anyway, they had a great time at the game and my Mom always liked Boom Boom even if his image on the ice didn’t quite measure up to her illusions! It's hard to hear about these people passing on.
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Chaplin
Member
01-08-2006
| Sunday, March 12, 2006 - 10:53 am
That is sad about Bernard (Boom Boom)!!!!!!!!!!
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Native_texan
Member
08-24-2004
| Monday, March 13, 2006 - 10:44 am
And we've lost another one: Oscar winning actress Maureen Stapleton dies at 80 Link
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Mamie316
Member
07-08-2003
| Monday, March 13, 2006 - 10:57 am
Too sad.
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Abby7
Member
07-17-2002
| Monday, March 13, 2006 - 6:04 pm
'Press Your Luck' Host Dies in Plane Crash Craft went down in Pacific Monday morning March 13 2006 LOS ANGELES -- Peter Tomarken, the host of the 1980s game show "Press Your Luck," died Monday morning when a small plane carrying him and two other passengers crashed in the Pacific Ocean. According to news reports, Tomarken, 63, and two other people were aboard a Beechcraft 36 when it hit the ocean near the Santa Monica Pier a little after 9:30 a.m. Monday. The pilot reported engine failure not long after the aircraft's takeoff from Santa Monica Airport, a couple of miles inland from the crash site. Rescuers recovered two bodies -- those of Tomarken and his wife, Kathleen, 41. Authorities are seeking a third person who was reportedly aboard. Tomarken hosted "Press Your Luck," which was a daytime hit on CBS from 1983-86. The show is notable for its animated "Whammy" characters that took contestants' money when they landed on them, and for a 1984 scandal in which a player named Paul Michael Larson discovered a pattern in the show's game board and used it to win more than $100,000. Larson wasn't doing anything illegal, but the show's producers later reprogrammed the game board to move randomly and keep other players from beating the game. Tomarken was also an actor, with appearances on "Ally McBeal," "The Rockford Files" and "Heaven Can Wait" to his credit.
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Seamonkey
Moderator
09-07-2000
| Monday, March 13, 2006 - 7:10 pm
Ah I heard that there was a small plane that went down.. not who was on it.
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Sherbabe
Member
07-28-2002
| Monday, March 13, 2006 - 7:47 pm
The obit for Maureen Stapleton did not say she is survived by sister, Jean from Archie Bunker fame. Weren't they sisters?
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Tess
Member
04-13-2001
| Monday, March 13, 2006 - 8:36 pm
Sherbabe, I looked them both up on imdb to be sure and it says they were not sisters. They were not related at all. I wondered the same thing though I didn't think they were.
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