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	<title><![CDATA[Obituaries ]]></title>
	<copyright>Copyright 2012 Copyright © 2011  Los Angeles Wave.  All rights reserved. </copyright>
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	<pubDate>Wed, 8 Feb 2012 22:46:55 PST</pubDate>
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			<title><![CDATA[Libby Clark, pioneering Black journalist, dies at 94]]></title>
															<link>http://www.wavenewspapers.com/news/obituaries/Libby-Clark-pioneering-Black-journalist-dies--138540229.html</link>
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			<pubDate>Wed, 1 Feb 2012 20:36:52 PST</pubDate>
			<category><![CDATA[News]]></category>																												                                                                        <description><![CDATA[Whenever pioneering, barrier-breaking newspaper women come to mind, White people recall the almost mythical Nellie Bly, but Black people think of Libby Clark. While Bly was noted for flamboyantly blazing a trail for women in a man's profession, Clark is noted for having pushed, punched and plowed a path for Black women in a field that wasn't all that accessible to Black men.

Funeral services for Libby Clark, the Grande Dame of the Black press, were held Monday in the Chapel of Roses at the Simpson Funeral Home in Inglewood. Clark, believed to have been suffering from Alzheimer's Disease, died in her sleep on Jan. 23. She was 94 years old.

Clark did not start out in the Black press. After studying journalism at Columbia University in New York (where she was one of four Black students), and the Mulvey Institute of Journalism (where she was the only Black student), Clark became, in 1942, the first Black woman on the staff of the Chester Times, the daily newspaper of her hometown, Chester, Pa.

After working three years at the Chester Times, Clark accepted a job as a general assignment reporter for the West Coast edition of the Pittsburgh Courier, the legendary publication that kept African-Americans throughout the country informed of the issues and events that matter to them.

Clark moved to Los Angeles in 1945 and joined the West Coast Pittsburgh Courier staff in its Central Avenue office, from whence Little Libby (she was only four feet, 10 inches tall and weighed 95 pounds) covered the West and the world and gained a national reputation as the chronicler of the important events in the lives of the nation's Black population.

In 1949, Clark set her sights on returning to 'mainstream journalism' and applied for a reporting job with the Los Angeles Times. 'I went there five times trying to get a job, and they laughed at me; they treated me like a joke,' Clark said. 'Finally, The Times' food editor told me to stop trying to work for the Times because they were never going to hire me regardless of my qualifications or experience. I was devastated.'

If the L.A. Times treated her badly, the Greater Los Angeles Press Club treated her worse. The Times let her in the door; the Press Club would not. Clark explained that a fellow journalist, who was White, invited her to accompany him to a event the Press Club was holding. They wouldn't let her in. She said she wasn't trying to join the organization, just attend the event to which she had been invited. But no. She couldn't come in because she was Black and no Blacks were allowed in the Los Angeles Press Club's First Street premises for any reason, except maybe to clean it up.

After being thoroughly humiliated by The Times and the Press Club, Clark became the first African-American licensed in the state of California to own a public relations firm. It was called 'Libby Clark Associates,' a PR business she operated for the next 50 years. As a PR person, Clark worked hard to make somebodies out of heretofore Black nobodies: A.C. Bilbrew, Mary McLeod Bethune, Dorothy Height and Vada Somerville, Councilman Gilbert Lindsay, Rep. Augustus Hawkins and Daisy Lampkin, one of the founders of the NAACP, to name a few.

Almost 60 years ago, Clark founded 'Femme,' a magazine devoted to Black women and their families, and 30 years later she began publishing the valuable 'Plum Book,' which was a listing of key individuals, organizations and institutions in the Black community — a guide so Black people could find each other, as it were. She was the author/editor of the 'Black Family Reunion Cookbook,' which remained on the nation's bestseller list for several months in 1991. It was commissioned by the National Council of Negro Women, through which more than 250,000 copies were sold. And, in 1969 Clark became the first African-American public information officer hired by the county of Los Angeles to serve as such for the new Martin Luther King Jr. Hospital in 1969.

Clark did all of these things while still churning out newspaper copy as a food editor, feature writer and syndicated columnist with works appearing in 150 newspapers around country, including the Los Angeles Sentinel, from which she retired less than 10 years ago.

Clark, whose husband, contractor James T. Allen, died in 1970 from a fall on one of his job sites, has remained unattached for lo these 42 years while continuing to gain the admiration of her peers and her public. She has received numerous awards, citations and commendations for her work, including the National Newspaper Publishers Association's Lifetime Achievement Award on her 85th birthday.

Several years ago, Clark told me that she was not altogether pleased with Black journalism as it is plied today, but she solemnly pronounced that, 'the Black press comes closer to telling it like it really is than anything else.'

In addition to her husband, Clark's two son preceded her in death. Clark is survived by her sisters Geraldine Turner of Los Angeles and Florence Cassell of Chester, Pa. Her body is being sent back to Chester, the place where it all began.
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			<title><![CDATA['Soul Train' creator Don Cornelius dead in apparent suicide]]></title>
															<link>http://www.wavenewspapers.com/news/obituaries/138477944.html</link>
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			<pubDate>Wed, 1 Feb 2012 18:01:04 PST</pubDate>
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Don Cornelius, the founder of the &quot;Soul Train&quot; television show, was  found dead of a gunshot wound Wednesday, authorities said. He was 75.

Cornelius  died of a gunshot wound at a house on Mulholland Drive, said Los  Angeles police Officer Tenesha Dodine. Police responded to the call  about 4 a.m. (7 a.m. ET), Dodine said.

An investigation was ongoing into whether the gunshot wound was self-inflicted, police said.

Cornelius  created a pilot for &quot;Soul Train&quot; using $400 of his own money, according  to the website biography.com. The show was named after a promotional  event he put together in 1969, the site said.

&quot;Soul Train is the  longest running, first-run, nationally syndicated program in television  history,&quot; according to the website of Soul Train Holdings. &quot;During its  37-year run, the show featured such staples as the Soul Train line and  performers as important and diverse as Al Green, Ike &amp; Tina Turner,  Marvin Gaye, The Jackson 5, Stevie Wonder, Elton John, Whitney Houston,  David Bowie, Justin Timberlake, Janet Jackson and Beyonce.&quot;

In  2008, MadVision Entertainment and Intermedia Partners acquired &quot;the  iconic franchise and catalog of more than 1,100 hours of archival  footage from Don Cornelius Productions,&quot; the site said.

Cornelius  once told Advertising Age he credited Dick Clark, host of &quot;American  Bandstand,&quot; for teaching him &quot;almost all of what I learned about  mounting and hosting a dance show,&quot; according to biography.com.

The  show, which premiered in August 1970, showed teenagers dancing to the  latest soul and R&amp;B music as well as featuring guest performances.

Over  the years, Cornelius presented many famous performers to &quot;Soul Train's&quot;  audience, including Gladys Knight, Smokey Robinson, Lou Rawls and  Aretha Franklin, biography.com said. However, the show did not always  focus on soul and R&amp;B music, featuring acts including David Bowie,  Duran Duran and Robert Palmer, according to the site.

&quot;But when  audiences were watching the 'Soul Train' dancers for the next trend in  fashion, true trendspotters knew to also watch Don Cornelius,&quot; according  to an article posted on the Soul Train Holdings site. &quot;... Has he ever  looked like anything other than sharp? The answer to that question is  no.&quot;

&quot;Before Steve Harvey and his suits, Bobby Jones and Arsenio  Hall, Don Cornelius was the original suit man,&quot; the article said. &quot;For  every outfit (he) deserves a standing ovation because he wore them  well.&quot;

In September, a 40th anniversary &quot;Soul Train&quot; concert was  held in Chicago's Millennium Park. Cornelius, a Chicago native, was  honored at the event.

Cornelius began his career in broadcasting  as part of WVON Radio in Chicago, which the Illinois General Assembly  described in 2003 as &quot;the first full-service, black-oriented music  station in the city&quot; as it congratulated the station on its 40th  anniversary.

It was during his WVON days that he found himself at a show where the Jackson 5 performed in the mid-1960s, according to Time.

When  a young Michael Jackson opened his mouth to sing, Cornelius recalled  being blown away, he told Time after Jackson's death in 2009.

&quot;He's  only 4 feet tall, and you're looking at a small person who can do  anything he wanted to do onstage -- with his feet or his voice,&quot;  Cornelius said. &quot;To get to the level of people who can do that, you're  talking about James Brown as a performer. You're talking about Aretha  Franklin as a singer. Michael was like that as a kid. He did it all,  within the framework of one package. Nobody else did that.&quot;]]></description>
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			<title><![CDATA[Montebello philanthropist George Hensel dies]]></title>
															<link>http://www.wavenewspapers.com/news/obituaries/Montebello-philanthropist-George-Hensel-dies-138147833.html</link>
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			<pubDate>Thu, 26 Jan 2012 12:31:01 PST</pubDate>
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																														                                                                        <description><![CDATA[MONTEBELLO — George R. Hensel, who started a driving school in 1953 that became the largest one in the country and then became one of the leading philanthropists in Montebello, has died.

Hensel died Jan. 9 here. He was 87.

Born March 20, 1924, in Sierra Madre, the son of John and Jean Ruth Hensel moved with his family to East Los Angeles when he was 2 years old. 

He graduated from Garfield High School in 1942 and served for 8 1/2 years in the U.S. Merchant Marines during and after World War II, reaching the rank of junior engineer. 

In 1951, he entered Woodbury University where he received a bachelor's degree in business administration. He furthered his education with courses at USC and the Management Center of Cambridge. In June 1990, he was honored with a doctorate's degree in business administration from Woodbury University.

In 1953, he borrowed $500 from his second wife, Catherine, and used it to establish California Driving School and later became known as the godfather of the industry. He also became a successful real estate entrepreneur.

He also was active in his community. He was a member of the Montebello Rotary Club for 40 years and served as chairman of the board of Beverly Hospital and Woodbury University.

He was married three times. His first wife, Dorothy, died in 1946. His second wife, Catherine, became the second woman to serve on the Montebello City Council when she was elected in 1978 and was the first woman to serve as mayor of the city.

A youth center across from Montebello City Park is named after her and together George and Catherine donated $1 million to fund the Hensel Maternity Center at Beverly Hospital.

She died in 1987 and a year later he met Bernadette, who became his wife in 2007.

Over the years, his charitable contributions became well known in Montebello.  The George R. Hensel Healthy Lifestyle Center is part of the Montebello-Commerce Family YMCA.

A funeral service was held at the Quiet Cannon Jan. 16, followed by interment in the Hensel Mausoleum at Rose Hills in Whittier.

Hensel is survived by his wife Bernadette, his son and daughter-in-law, Vern and Vivian Hensel of Sierre Madre; his daughter and son-in-law, Cinnia and Mike Easley of Yucaipa; and daughters Ann Mullenax of Pocatello, Idaho, and Colleen Hensel of Los Angeles. He also leaves 20 grandchildren, 30 great-grandchildren and 10 great-great-grandchildren.
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			<title><![CDATA[Etta James, R&B legend and South L.A. native, dies at 73]]></title>
															<link>http://www.wavenewspapers.com/news/obituaries/Etta-James-RB-legend-and-South-LA-native-dies-at-73-137795828.html</link>
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			<pubDate>Fri, 20 Jan 2012 16:19:16 PST</pubDate>
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R&amp;B legend and South Los Angeles native Etta James died Friday at a Riverside hospital of complications from leukemia. She was 73.

James died at 8 a.m. at Parkview Community Hospital, according to the Riverside County Coroner's Office.

The entertainer, known for such hits as &quot;At Last,&quot; &quot;Tell Mama&quot; and &quot;Loser Weepers,&quot; would have been 74 on Wednesday.

The Los Angeles City Council adjourned its meeting Friday in memory of James, who began singing as a child at St. Paul Baptist Church in South Los Angeles, where she was noticed by influential jazz pianist &quot;Professor&quot; James Earl Hines around the age of 5 or 6, according to Councilwoman Jan Perry.

&quot;Her rich voice influenced generations of singers who came after her, from Tina Turner to Bonnie Raitt to Christina Aguilera,&quot; Perry told her council colleagues.

Flowers were placed on James' star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame late Friday morning.

Born Jamesetta Hawkins on Jan. 25, 1938, she began singing gospel in her church choir as a child and recorded her first album in 1954, at age 16.

She had a prosperous solo career through the 1950s, and despite battles with heroin addiction, hit her peak in the 1960s, recording popular ballads that included her signature &quot;At Last.&quot;

During her 40-plus-year career, she won four Grammys and 17 Blues Music Awards and toured with such notables as Little Richard and Otis Redding. She earned a place in the Rock &amp; Roll Hall of Fame in 1993.

Her early career was depicted in the 2008 film &quot;Cadillac Records,&quot; which portrayed the lives of some of America's music legends. James was played by Beyonce Knowles, who sang &quot;At Last&quot; for the first dance of President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama after the president's 2009 inauguration.

James had harsh words back then for Beyonce's performance, which James' son would later attribute to dementia.

Beyonce issued a statement Friday calling James' death &quot;a huge loss.&quot;

&quot;Etta James was one of the greatest vocalists of our time,&quot; she said. &quot;I am so fortunate to have met such a queen. Her musical contribution will last a lifetime.&quot;

She said playing James &quot;taught me so much about myself, and singing her music inspired me to be a stronger artist. When she effortlessly opened her mouth, you could hear her pain and triumph. Her deeply emotional way of delivering a song told her story with no filter. She was fearless, and had guts.&quot;

James retreated from stage appearances in 2009, appearing on national television for the last time that year in an episode of &quot;Dancing with the Stars,&quot; during which she sang.

She had made her home in Riverside for the last two decades.

The singer's $1 million estate has been the subject of a legal tug-of- war between her son, Donto James, and husband of 42 years, Artis Mills, who is not the young man's father.

James was diagnosed with leukemia two years ago. She also had dementia and a kidney deficiency and exhibited symptoms of organic brain syndrome.

James' health problems have been at the center of the suit, which Mills filed in 2010, seeking to have his wife's savings accounts declared community property, thereby removing any barriers he otherwise would face in using the funds. Donto James is challenging the action on the grounds that his mother gave him power-of-attorney to govern her affairs.

A Riverside County Superior Court judge in December ordered that $350,000 be used exclusively for her medical care.]]></description>
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			<title><![CDATA[Geraldine Washington, former president of NAACP's Los Angeles chapter, dies at 81]]></title>
															<link>http://www.wavenewspapers.com/news/obituaries/136983978.html</link>
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			<pubDate>Mon, 9 Jan 2012 18:27:50 PST</pubDate>
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																																											                                                                        <description><![CDATA[Funeral services for Dr. Geraldine Washington, the longest serving president of the Los Angeles NAACP, will be held Saturday at noon at Second Baptist Church. Washington died Jan. 5 after battling Parkinson's disease and dementia. She was 81.

Born Geraldine Robinson on June 18, 1930, she was an overachieving honor student throughout her youth in her native state of Arkansas. 

Washington earned a doctorate in education at UCLA and spent more than 40 years in public education, serving as a teacher, a reading specialist and an administrator for the Los Angeles Unified School District. While a district administrator, Washington organized and coordinated an LAUSD United Negro College Fund employee payroll deduction campaign that netted thousands of dollars for students at historically Black colleges and universities.

A consummate volunteer with many civic, religious and community organizations for most of her life, Washington reached her zenith in 1995 when she was elected president of the Los Angeles branch of the NAACP. She held that post until her retirement in 2009. 

Among her triumphs as head of the local NAACP was the leading role she took in addressing the critical decline in enrollment of African-American students in the University of California system, particularly at UCLA, where, in 2006, the number of Black freshman admissions was at its lowest since the 1960s — two percent. Washington joined with the presidents of the UCLA Black Alumni Association and the Urban League in co-chairing the Alliance for Equal Opportunity in Education, and with the support of other community leaders, soon tripled the numbers of Black freshmen enrolled at UCLA.

Also while NAACP president, Washington reactivated the NAACP Youth Council and ACT-SO program for students who excelled in art, science and technology, and she developed a community skills center, which offered training in computer, general office, production assistant and broadcasting skills.

Washington was active in the National NAACP Education Committee and spent years as national coordinator for Women in NAACP, Region I, which includes the nine western states, Japan, Germany and South Korea.

Washington was a member of numerous organizations, served on the boards of many action and advisory bodies and committees and was the recipient of so many meritorious service awards that they are difficult to count.

Washington's immediate survivors are her husband of 57 years, Willie Washington Jr.; her son, Stanley; two grandchildren, Christian and Chasen; her brother, Richard Tyrone Robinson and her sister, Dorothy Steward of Chicago.
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			<title><![CDATA[Ofield Dukes, public relations trailblazer, dies at 79]]></title>
															<link>http://www.wavenewspapers.com/news/obituaries/135269973.html</link>
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			<pubDate>Thu, 8 Dec 2011 12:50:17 PST</pubDate>
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Public relations legend Ofield Dukes, whose work drew the attention of presidents and made him one of the leading practitioners of his craft, died in his hometown of Detroit on Wednesday.

He was 79.

&quot;He ran his PR firm, Ofield Dukes &amp; Associates, for more than four decades in Washington before returning to Detroit in September,&quot; according to WUSA. &quot;Dukes operated one of the most successful public relations firms in DC. He was the recipient of numerous awards and commendations. A worldwide traveler, Dukes served as consultant to presidential campaigns, members of the Congressional Black Caucus, entertainers, international leaders, and organizations.&quot;
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			<title><![CDATA[Trailblazing state legislator Teresa Hughes dies]]></title>
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			<pubDate>Wed, 16 Nov 2011 20:05:49 PST</pubDate>
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																																											                                                                        <description><![CDATA[Former state Sen. Teresa Hughes — a woman whose 25 years in the Legislature resulted in the creation of many things Californians now take for granted — died Monday. She was 80.

Upon retiring from public service in the year 2000, Hughes moved from her Los Angeles area home to the Oakland suburb of Castro Valley, where she was hospitalized with a sudden illness, took a turn for the worse and died.

Hughes was a trailblazing legislator whose agenda covered the wide range of issues that were near and dear to the hearts of her average and underserved constituents and met the needs of residents throughout the state. Hughes was the second Black woman ever elected to the Legislature, the first woman and African-American to sit on the Senate Rules Committee, the first chairperson of the Legislative Black Caucus and the Women Legislators Caucus and the longest serving woman ever elected to the Legislature.

Education was her focus. So were health, public safety, consumer rights and multiculturalism. As a senator, Hughes carried the legislation that created the California Museum of African American Culture and was responsible for the appropriation of $40 million for the reconstruction of the California Museum of Science and Industry, both of which are located in Exposition Park.

She authored the Hughes Earthquake Safety Act of 1987, which allocated state funds for the reconstruction of nonconforming school buildings. She created the Los Angeles County High School for the Arts, and the Hughes-Hart Education Reform Act of 1983 funded proposals to upgrade the state's scholastic programs and also established the Resolution and School Violence Reduction Program, which provides approaches for public schools experiencing violence on school campuses.

As chair of the Assembly Education Committee, Hughes co-authored a bill in 1983 that set state graduation standards, lengthened the school day and year, raised teachers' salaries and standards and required prospective teachers to pass a basic skills test.

In response to the 1996 passage of Proposition 209, which prohibited the consideration of race, sex and ethnicity in the admission of students to the University of California system, Sen. Hughes formed the Select Committee on College Admissions and Outreach, whose work revealed the devastating statistical effect Proposition 209 had on Black and Latino enrollment in UC schools and led to the imposition of 'local context admissions' — a process that forced UC officials to focus on admitting students from within California, rather than aggressively recruiting higher-paying White male students from other states and countries.

The Los Angeles Unified School District was so impressed by Hughes' work in the education arena that she became, in 1988, the first living person after whom the school board named a school — the Teresa Hughes Elementary School in Cudahy, which is part of the 47th Assembly District, whose seat she won in a special election in 1975. It was a victory that put her in her first elective office after she held a teaching post at Cal State University, Los Angeles, worked for the late Assemblyman Bill Greene, the state Senate and as a protégé to Lt. Gov. Mervyn Dymally.

Hughes served 17 years in the Assembly representing the 47th District, which encompassed a large part of South Los Angeles and the cities of Bell, Cudahy, Huntington Park, Downey and Compton. Then she was elected to the Senate in 1992 for the 25th District, which stretched from Marina del Rey to Paramount. There she remained until she was termed-out in 2000, immediately followed by her January 2001 appointment to the California Medical Assistance Commission by Senate President Pro Tem John Burton.

In the field of health, Hughes led the fight to provide research grants for lupus and high blood pressure, to protect physicians from civil and criminal liabilities flowing from AIDS test results and to provide for adequate compensation for developmental disabilities work-activities programs, such as the Goodwill Industries. 

In the area of public safety, Hughes wrote laws establishing a gang and drug prevention program in public schools, increasing the prison terms of gang-related drive-by shootings and instituting a training program for prosecutors on gang-related crimes. During her terms in the Assembly and in the Senate, Hughes was responsible for laws that provided $100 million to construct or rehabilitate low and moderate income housing, that established anti-relining home loan laws and required the provision of adequate notice before a homeowner loses his property due to foreclosure.

Hughes did all of this and more without making a single political enemy. Upon learning of her death this week, politicians — veteran and newbie, right and left — have emerged to extend their condolences and sing her praises: Gov. Jerry Brown; former governors Pete Wilson and Gray Davis; legendary Assembly Speaker Willie Brown; former Senate Presidents Pro Tem David Roberti, Bill Lockyer and Burton and virtually every state and local politician holding an office today.

Teresa Patterson Hughes was born Oct. 3, 1931 in Harlem, the only child of Leila and Rogers (Pat) Patterson. She earned a bachelor's degree in physiology and public health from Hunter College and a master's in education from New York University. She married George Hughes, had two kids and moved to California in 1969, after which she obtained a doctorate in education administration from Claremont Graduate School and a divorce. 

Hughes raised her two children as a single mother. Her son, Vincent Hughes, became an East Coast attorney. Her daughter, Deirdre Hughes-Hill, is a Los Angeles Superior Court judge, a former LAPD inspector general and a past president of the Los Angeles Police Commission.

Hughes is also survived by her husband of 30 years, Dr. Frank Staggers Sr., three stepchildren, 10 grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. A memorial service will be held Monday at noon at Holman United Methodist Church, 3320 W. Adams Blvd., Los Angeles.
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			<title><![CDATA[Rapper Heavy D dies suddenly at 44]]></title>
															<link>http://www.wavenewspapers.com/news/obituaries/Heavy-D-dead-at-44-133491363.html</link>
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			<pubDate>Tue, 8 Nov 2011 15:09:41 PST</pubDate>
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BEVERLY HILLS &mdash; Influential rapper Heavy D died Tuesday at Cedars- Sinai Medical Center after being found struggling to breathe in the hallway of a Beverly Hills apartment complex. He was 44.

Beverly Hills police Lt. Mark Rosen said police were called to the 400 block of North Maple Drive at 11:25 a.m. on a report of a man who had collapsed in the walkway of a building. The man was found conscious but struggling to breathe.

He was taken to the hospital, where he was pronounced dead, Rosen said.

Heavy D &mdash; whose real name is Dwight Arrington Myers &mdash; rose to fame in the 1980s and 1990s with Heavy D &amp; the Boyz. In October, he appeared at the BET Hip-Hop Awards, performing a medly of his hits, including &quot;Nuttin' But Love,&quot; &quot;I Want Somebody&quot; and &quot;Now That We Found Love.&quot;

He also gained fame for performing the theme songs for the show &quot;In Living Color.&quot; He also performed the rap portion of Michael Jackson's single &quot;Jam.&quot;

The rapper also had a successful string of appearances on television and in films, including &quot;Life,&quot; &quot;Big Trouble&quot; and &quot;The Cider House Rules.&quot; He has a cameo role in the current film &quot;Tower Heist.&quot;]]></description>
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			<title><![CDATA[Guy Crowder, top photographic chronicler of Black Los Angeles, dies]]></title>
															<link>http://www.wavenewspapers.com/news/obituaries/Guy-Crowder-top-photographic-chronicler-of-Black-Los-Angeles-dies-133018208.html</link>
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			<pubDate>Tue, 1 Nov 2011 10:59:54 PST</pubDate>
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																																											                                                                        <description><![CDATA[Guy Crowder, South Los Angeles' premiere photographer whose camera chronicled the rise of L.A.'s Black politicians, entertainers and athletes, as well as the riotous conflagration that put Watts on the map, died Sunday morning.

Crowder, 72, suffered a stroke, contracted pneumonia and died in a Corona hospital wrapped in the arms of his mother, his wife and his son.

Crowder began taking pictures during the 1960s and despite being shunned by the racist mainstream periodicals of the time, he took pictures for the Los Angeles Sentinel, the various Wave newspapers, and Johnson Publications' Jet and Ebony magazines and became a giant in his field. 

He had a knack of being in the middle of wherever the biggest news was occurring. He was a stealthy stalker of the action during the Watts riots; he was standing beside Sen. Robert Kennedy in the Ambassador Hotel moments before he was assassinated; he covered the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s funeral; he was ringside shooting the evolution of Muhammad Ali, was on the sidelines at the Coliseum and photographed the daughter of the late Johnny Guitar Watson when she made her debut as, reportedly, the first Black cheerleader for USC and was there again to shoot the first Black cheerleader to shake her pom poms for the then Los Angeles Rams. 

Crowder functioned as a busy, one-man news service for the Black press, which came to depend on him. And he always delivered, big time. When it came to photojournalism, Crowder knew exactly what the Black media needed to cover and he shot it: The political rise of Tom Bradley, author Alex Haley signing his book 'Roots' at the May Co. on Crenshaw Boulevard, Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall judging a Moot Court competition at USC, Coretta Scott King visiting 92nd Street School, Wynton Marsalis talking to children at a Baldwin Hills school, and so on and so forth.

'Guy was smart,' said photographer Nareshimah Osei. 'Coming out of the 1970s, he was a businessman when most of us photographers were not. He opened a studio, called Guy's Photography, and he provided an avenue for a number of young Black photographers who would have had no access to the field if they not been employed by Guy,' Osei said. 'Willie Dooley, Harry Adams, Murphy Ruffins, Cliff Hall — they all owed their success to Guy.

'And he was smart; not only did he have his photography avocation and his business, he had a regular job,' Osei chuckled as he referred to the 30 years Crowder worked as a photographer for the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors.

About 150 pieces of Crowder's photographic work in the community and on the road was on exhibit in 1993 at Cal State Northridge in a collection entitled 'Camera and Community: A Celebration by Guy R. Crowder.' And right now, another exhibition of Crowder's work is being featured at the university, where his work is being preserved and made available to CSUN students and the public.

Speaking to a Times reporter about Crowder's first exhibit 18 years ago, Kent Kirkton, a CSUN journalism professor and director of the university's Center for Photojournalism & Visual History, said: 'Guy has been privy to nearly every important event within the community because of his news service operation. I think he has the finest and most comprehensive single collection of the African-American community in Los Angeles.'

Guy R. Crowder was born Aug. 9, 1939 in Beaumont, Texas, and moved with his parents — Guy Rufus Crowder and Ruby (Crowder) Jones — to Los Angeles in 1945. He attended Charton-Pollard Elementary, Enterprise Junior High and Centennial High schools. He graduated from Harbor College and completed photography courses at Trade-Technical College.

He was a Marine reservist and an active member of the Rat Pack, 100 Black Men, the New Frontier Democratic Club and the Tom and Ethel Bradley Foundation. He has won virtually every award and honor available to a photojournalist, prompting editors of mainstream publications to finally express interest in hiring him, to which he replied: 'No thanks. I'm good.'

Crowder is survived by his 93-year-old mother; his wife, Patricia, to whom he was married for 51 years; a son, Reginald, and four grandchildren: Reanna, Renise, Ryan and Reggina.

Funeral services will be held Nov. 10 at 11 a.m. at West Angeles Church of God in Christ, in the North Campus sanctuary.

Brad Pye Jr., who worked closely with Crowder for more than 40 years, summed up the general consensus on Crowder: 'Guy has had a tremendous effect on the Black community — by the pictures he took and the careers he created for other Black photographers. Guy was a good guy.'
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			<title><![CDATA[Ex-Congressman Marty Martinez dies]]></title>
															<link>http://www.wavenewspapers.com/news/obituaries/Ex-Congressman-Marty-Martinez-dies-132257978.html</link>
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			<pubDate>Thu, 20 Oct 2011 10:37:22 PST</pubDate>
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																														                                                                        <description><![CDATA[Matthew G. 'Marty' Martinez, who went from a furniture upholsterer in Monterey Park to a member of the House of Representatives in a span of 11 years, has died.

Martinez died Saturday at his home in Fredricksburg, Va., according to his wife, Maxine Grant. He was 82.

Martinez had an upholstery shop in Monterey Park when he was appointed to the city's Planning Commission in 1971. Three years later he was elected to the Monterey Park City Council.

In 1980, he ran for a seat in the state Assembly, challenging longtime Assemblyman Jack Fenton in the Democratic primary. Helped by the Howard and Michael Berman political machine on the Los Angeles westside, Martinez surprised almost everyone by upsetting Fenton, who was a Democratic leader in Sacramento at the time.

He faced no major challengers in the general election and headed up to Sacramento, but he stayed less than one term.

In 1982, Rep. George Danielson, himself a former Monterey Park city councilman, was appointed to a federal judicial seat and resigned. 

Martinez defeated Danielson's aide Dennis Kazarian in a hard-fought special election and then defeated veteran Republican Rep. John Rousselot in the general election and headed to Washington, D.C. He was re-elected eight times.

In 2000, however, Martinez was challenged in the Democratic primary by state Sen. Hilda Solis. Over the years he had antagonized liberals for his votes against abortion and in favor of gun ownership.

Solis, now the secretary of labor in President Barack Obama's cabinet, defeated Martinez in the Democratic primary in June of that year and Martinez, amid great fanfare from Republicans, announced that he was switching parties. He spent his last six months on Capitol Hill as a Republican.

After leaving political office, Martinez retired in Virginia. He married Grant, who had worked on his staff since his days in the Assembly and continued with him when he moved to Washington.

He was born in Colorado and grew up in East Los Angeles, attending Roosevelt High School. He served in the Marines from 1947-50.

In addition to his widow, he is survived by four children, two stepchildren, 15 grandchildren and three great-grandchildren. His daughter Diana served in the state Assembly from 1992 to 1998.

A visitation and Rosary will be held Sunday at Found and Sons Mortuary in Fredricksburg, Va. from 5 to 7 p.m.

A funeral Mass will be held Monday at St. Jude Catholic Church, also in Fredricksburg, and he will be buried in Quantico National Cemetery in Virginia.
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			<title><![CDATA[Bobbie Lee Holmes, teacher, civil rights pioneer, dies at 84]]></title>
															<link>http://www.wavenewspapers.com/news/obituaries/Bobbie-Lee-Holmes-teacher-civil-rights-pioneer-dies-at-84-131358478.html</link>
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			<pubDate>Fri, 7 Oct 2011 13:41:28 PST</pubDate>
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																																											                                                                        <description><![CDATA[Bobbie Lee Holmes, a wife and mother and former LAUSD school teacher, who twice made civil rights history in fights for equal access to education and fair housing for her family, has died.

Holmes died in her Petaluma home from compilations of heart and kidney disease on Sept. 19. She was 84.

Born under segregation in Trinity, Ala., on Feb. 11, 1927, Holmes had ambitions to become a teacher and an artist during an era in the rural South when it was illegal to educate an African-American student after the sixth grade. The man who would later become her husband, the Dr. Emory H. Holmes, was just three years her senior when he was made head instructor of the Negro school in Trinity, after his own graduation from the sixth grade left him idle. The couple married in May 31, 1945, after Emory returned home from World War II, where he was severely wounded.  
 
They moved to Nashville, in 1946, where they converted to Catholicism. Bobbie worked as a domestic to support her family, while her husband obtained degrees in psychology at the all-black Tennessee Agricultural & Industrial State College.  Emory was hired directly out of college as a research scientist for the Rand Corp., and relocated to Santa Monica, in 1953, while Bobbie remained in Nashville with their three young children and obtained a teaching credential and a degree in home economics from Tennessee A&I.

When Nashville's only Catholic elementary school for Negroes, Holy Family, was torn down to put in a Sears, Bobbie refused to enroll her children in public school and opted to drive her two school-age children, Evangeline Marie and Emory Hestus across town and enroll them in the largest Catholic school in Nashville, the Cathedral of the Incarnation. In that way, she was instrumental in desegregating the Catholic schools in Nashville in 1954, the same year as Brown vs. Board of Education. 

Bobbie joined her husband in Southern California in 1955. It was during this period that she began her 40-year career as an elementary school teacher, working first at the Sherman Institute in Riverside,in 1955-56, teaching Native American students, and then moving with her family to Pacoima, to work as a teacher with the Los Angeles Unified School District from 1957 to 1979.

When her family moved across the railroad tracks from an integrated neighborhood in northeastern Pacoima into an all-white section of the same town a few miles west in1959, some of her neighbors burned crosses in her lawn and painted her walls with racist graffiti. One of the signs read: 'Black Plague, Don't Let It Spread.'

The Holmes' family took their neighbors to state court, and in 1959, made headlines, when they won one of the first successful court battles for fair housing in California history. The story of Bobbie and Emory's fight for fair housing is among those chronicled in Isabel Wilkerson's Pulitzer Prize-winning book, 'The Warmth of Other Suns.'

Bobbie moved to Petaluma in 1981, when her husband accepted a position as dean of student services for the Medical School at UC San Francisco. She taught throughout the Cotati-Rohnert Park and Petaluma school districts and retired from teaching in 1993. 

At the age of 72, following the death of her husband, she returned to college to study art, the passion she had put on hold to raise her family. She obtained a degree at Santa Rosa City College in 2000 and in 2007, at the age of 80, was the oldest graduate in her class at Sonoma State University to obtain a bachelor's of fine arts that year. 

Holmes is survived by her three children: her daughter, Evangeline Bolton, of Petaluma, her son, Emory Holmes II, of Pacoima, her daughter, Denise Kennedy (and son-in-law, Michael Kennedy), of West Chester, Pa.; and four grandchildren, Justin Holmes, Tolani Holmes, Zakia (and son-in-law, Zharman) Prior, and Emory Holmes III. ]]></description>
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			<title><![CDATA[Santa Fe Springs leader Gus Velasco dies at 71]]></title>
															<link>http://www.wavenewspapers.com/news/obituaries/Santa-Fe-Springs-leader-Gus-Velasco-dies-at-71-131808713.html</link>
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			<pubDate>Thu, 13 Oct 2011 11:20:49 PST</pubDate>
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																														                                                                        <description><![CDATA[SANTA FE SPRINGS — Gus Velasco, who spent 40 years working for the city, first as director of the Santa Fe Springs Neighborhood Center and all the way up to the City Council, died last Friday morning of liver disease. He was 71.

His family said he was diagnosed with end-stage liver disease five weeks ago.

Velasco served on the City Council from 2001 to 2009, and served twice as mayor.

He was born in Los Angeles March 20, 1940, and moved with his family to the Los Nietos area the following year. He graduated from Whittier High School in 1958 and attended Whittier College and Cal State Los Angeles, where he earned a degree in education.

He taught social studies and English at Los Nietos Junior High for four years before being hired by the city in 1969 to run the newly opened Santa Fe Springs Neighborhood Center.

After retiring from the City Council in 2009, his council colleagues voted to rename the neighborhood center after him.

He served 11 years as the Neighborhood Center before being promoted to assistant city manager for community services, a post he held for 20 years until he retired.

A year after retiring from City Hall, he was back when voters elected him to the City Council.

'If there were a Mount Rushmore in Santa Fe Springs, Gus would probably occupy all four busts, as council member, staff member, resident and mentor to us all,' City Manager Thad McCormack told the Whittier Daily News.

He is survived by his wife of 51 years, Annie, their children Renee Caloca, Paul Velasco, James Velasco and Gus Velasco Jr., 11 grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.
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			<title><![CDATA[Steve Jobs, Apple co-founder, dies at 56]]></title>
															<link>http://www.wavenewspapers.com/news/obituaries/STEVE-JOBS-DIES-AT-56-131184513.html</link>
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			<pubDate>Wed, 5 Oct 2011 15:49:54 PST</pubDate>
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																																											                                                                        <description><![CDATA[

(CNN) &mdash; Steve Jobs, the  visionary in the black turtleneck who co-founded Apple in a Silicon  Valley garage, built it into the world's leading tech company and led a  mobile-computing revolution with wildly popular devices such as the  iPhone, died Wednesday. He was 56.

The hard-driving executive  pioneered the concept of the personal computer and of navigating them by  clicking onscreen images with a mouse. In more recent years, he  introduced the iPod portable music player, the iPhone and the iPad  tablet -- all of which changed how we consume content in the digital  age.

More than one pundit, praising Jobs' ability to transform  entire industries with his inventions, called him a modern-day Leonardo  Da Vinci.

&quot;Steve Jobs is one of the great innovators in the  history of modern capitalism,&quot; New York Times columnist Joe Nocera said  in August. &quot;His intuition has been phenomenal over the years.&quot;

Jobs'  death, while dreaded by Apple's legions of fans, was not unexpected. He  had battled cancer for years, took a medical leave from Apple in  January and stepped down as chief executive in August because he could  &quot;no longer meet (his) duties and expectations.&quot;

Born February 24,  1955, and then adopted, Jobs grew up in Cupertino, California -- which  would become home to Apple's headquarters -- and showed an early  interest in electronics. As a teenager, he phoned William Hewlett,  president of Hewlett-Packard, to request parts for a school project. He  got them, along with an offer of a summer job at HP.

Jobs dropped  out of Oregon's Reed College after one semester, although he returned  to audit a class in calligraphy, which he says influenced Apple's  graceful, minimalist aesthetic. He quit one of his first jobs, designing  video games for Atari, to backpack across India and take psychedelic  drugs. Those experiences, Jobs said later, shaped his creative vision.

&quot;You  can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them  looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow  connect in your future,&quot; he told Stanford University graduates during a  commencement speech in 2005. &quot;You have to trust in something: your gut,  destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and  it has made all the difference in my life.&quot;

While at HP, Jobs  befriended Steve Wozniak, who impressed him with his skill at assembling  electronic components. The two later joined a Silicon Valley computer  hobbyists club, and when he was 21, Jobs teamed with Wozniak and two  other men to launch Apple Computer Inc.

It's long been Silicon  Valley legend: Jobs and Wozniak built their first commercial product,  the Apple 1, in Jobs' parents' garage in 1976. Jobs sold his Volkswagen  van to help finance the venture. The primitive computer, priced at  $666.66, had no keyboard or display, and customers had to assemble it  themselves.

The following year, Apple unveiled the Apple II  computer at the inaugural West Coast Computer Faire. The machine was a  hit, and the personal computing revolution was under way.

Jobs  was among the first computer engineers to recognize the appeal of the  mouse and the graphical interface, which let users operate computers by  clicking on images instead of writing text.

Apple's pioneering  Macintosh computer launched in early 1984 with a now-iconic,  Orwellian-themed Super Bowl ad. The boxy beige Macintosh sold well, but  the demanding Jobs clashed frequently with colleagues, and in 1986, he  was ousted from Apple after a power struggle.

Then came a 10-year  hiatus during which he founded NeXT Computer, whose pricey, cube-shaped  computer workstations never caught on with consumers.

Jobs had  more success when he bought Pixar Animation Studios from George Lucas  before the company made it big with &quot;Toy Story.&quot; Jobs brought the same  marketing skill to Pixar that he became known for at Apple. His brief  but emotional pitch for &quot;Finding Nemo,&quot; for example, was a masterful bit  of succinct storytelling.

In 1996, Apple bought NeXT, returning  Jobs to the then-struggling company he had co-founded. Within a year, he  was running Apple again -- older and perhaps wiser but no less of a  perfectionist. And in 2001, he took the stage to introduce the original  iPod, the little white device that transformed portable music and  kick-started Apple's furious comeback.

Thus began one of the most  remarkable second acts in the history of business. Over the next decade,  Jobs wowed launch-event audiences, and consumers, with one  game-changing hit after another: iTunes (2003), the iPhone (2007), the  App Store (2008), and the iPad (2010).

Observers marveled at Jobs'  skills as a pitchman, his ability to inspire godlike devotion among  Apple &quot;fanboys&quot; (and scorn from PC fans) and his &quot;one more thing&quot;  surprise announcements. Time after time, he sold people on a product  they didn't know they needed until he invented it. And all this on an  official annual salary of $1.

He also built a reputation as a  hard-driving, mercurial and sometimes difficult boss who oversaw almost  every detail of Apple's products and rejected prototypes that didn't  meet his exacting standards.

By the late 2000s, his once-renegade  tech company, the David to Microsoft's Goliath, was entrenched at the  uppermost tier of American business. Apple now operates more than 300  retail stores in 11 countries. The company has sold more than 275  million iPods, 100 million iPhones and 25 million iPads worldwide.

Jobs'  climb to the top was complete in summer 2011, when Apple listed more  cash reserves than the U.S. Treasury and even briefly surpassed Exxon  Mobil as the world's most valuable company.

But Jobs's health  problems sometimes cast a shadow over his company's success. In 2004, he  announced to his employees that he was being treated for pancreatic  cancer. He lost weight and appeared unusually gaunt at keynote speeches  to Apple developers, spurring concerns about his health and fluctuations  in the company's stock price. One wire service accidentally published  Jobs' obituary.

Jobs had a secret liver transplant in 2009 in  Tennessee during a six-month medical leave of absence from Apple. He  took another medical leave in January this year. Perhaps mindful of his  legacy, he cooperated on his first authorized biography, scheduled to be  published by Simon &amp; Schuster in November.

Jobs is survived by his wife of 20 years, Laurene, and four children, including one from a prior relationship.

He always spoke with immense pride about what he and his engineers accomplished at Apple.

&quot;Your  work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be  truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only  way to do great work is to love what you do,&quot; he told the Stanford grads  in 2005.

&quot;If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. Don't  settle. As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it.  And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the  years roll on.&quot;]]></description>
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			<title><![CDATA[Civil rights icon Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth dead at 89]]></title>
															<link>http://www.wavenewspapers.com/news/obituaries/Civil-rights-icon-Rev-Fred-Shuttlesworth-dead-at-89-131180518.html</link>
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			<pubDate>Wed, 5 Oct 2011 14:35:27 PST</pubDate>
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																																											                                                                        <description><![CDATA[The Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth, who helped lead the civil rights movement, has died, the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute said Wednesday. He was 89.

Shuttlesworth is among the iconic figures honored in the International Civil Rights Walk of Fame at the Martin Luther King Jr. National Historic Site in Atlanta. King once called Shuttlesworth 'the most courageous civil rights fighter in the South.'

When the U.S. Supreme Court ruled against segregated busing in Montgomery, Ala., Shuttlesworth rallied the membership of a group he established in May 1956 — the Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights — to challenge the practice of segregated busing in Birmingham.

Shuttlesworth also helped found the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, with King and other civil rights leaders.

Shuttlesworth's efforts weren't without a price: his home was bombed on Christmas Day in 1956, but he and his family were not injured.

He was, however, hurt in 1957 when he was beaten with chains and whips as he sought to integrate an all-White public school.

That same year, Shuttlesworth helped King organize the SCLC, serving as the organization's first secretary from 1958 to 1970. He later served briefly as its president in 2004.

In 2001, President Bill Clinton awarded Shuttlesworth a Presidential Citizens Medal for his leadership in the 'non-violent civil rights movement of the 1950s and 60s, leading efforts to integrate Birmingham, schools, buses and recreational facilities' and helping found the SCLC.

Shuttlesworth also protested segregated lunch counters and helped lead sit-ins at the eateries in 1960.

He participated in organizing the Freedom Rides against segregated interstate buses in the South when he joined forces with the Congress On Racial Equality.

In 1963, he was injured again when a fire hose was turned on him during a protest against segregation in Birmingham. The blast of water, directed against demonstrators by order of local Sheriff Bull Connor, slammed Shuttlesworth against a wall. He was hospitalized but recovered.

He was also a principal in the history march from Selma to Montgomery in 1965, which he helped organize.
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			<title><![CDATA[Kenyan Nobel laureate Maathai dies ]]></title>
															<link>http://www.wavenewspapers.com/news/obituaries/Kenyan-Nobel-laureate-Maathai-dies--130551708.html</link>
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			<pubDate>Mon, 26 Sep 2011 02:45:18 PST</pubDate>
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																																											                                                                        <description><![CDATA[

(CNN) &mdash; Kenyan Wangari Maathai, the first woman from Africa to win  the Nobel Peace Prize, died Monday after a battle with cancer. She was  71.

&quot;It is with great sadness that the Green Belt Movement  announces the passing of its founder and chair, Prof. Wangari Muta  Maathai, after a long illness bravely borne,&quot; her organization said.

Maathai, an environmentalist, had long campaigned for human rights and the empowerment of Africa's most impoverished people.

More  than 30 years ago she founded the Green Belt Movement, a tree-planting  campaign to simultaneously mitigate deforestation and to give locals,  especially women and girls, access to resources like firewood for  cooking and clean water. They have since planted more than 40 million  trees.

In 2004, she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for her  efforts to promote sustainable development, democracy and peace. She was  the first woman from the continent to win the prize.

&quot;Her  departure is untimely and a very great loss to all of us who knew  her &mdash; as a mother, relative, co-worker, colleague, role model, and  heroine &mdash; or those who admired her determination to make the world a  peaceful, healthy, and better place for all of us,&quot; said Karanja  Njoroge, executive director of the Green Belt Movement.

Born in Nyeri, Kenya, on April 1, 1940, Maathai blazed many trails in her life.

She  was the first woman in East and Central Africa to earn a doctorate  degree. In December 2002, she was elected to Kenya's parliament with an  overwhelming 98% of the vote.

She was honored by Time magazine in  2005 as one of 100 most influential people in the world. And Forbes  listed her as one of 100 most powerful women in the world.

In April 2006, France bestowed its highest honor on her: the Legion d'Honneur.

Maathai leaves behind three children and a granddaughter.]]></description>
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			<title><![CDATA[Legendary singer-songwriter Nick Ashford dies at 70]]></title>
															<link>http://www.wavenewspapers.com/news/obituaries/Singer-songwriter-Nick-Ashford-dies-after-battling-throat-cancer--128222433.html</link>
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			<pubDate>Mon, 22 Aug 2011 19:05:45 PST</pubDate>
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(CNN) &mdash; Nickolas Ashford, one-half  of the successful Motown singer-songwriter duo of &quot;Ashford and Simpson,&quot;  died Monday afternoon, his longtime former publicist said.

Liz  Rosenberg, who in addition to having been their publicist described  herself as a close friend of Ashford and his wife Valerie Simpson, said  she was &quot;heartbroken&quot; to hear of Ashford's death.

&quot;He was a true king,&quot; she said. &quot;I loved him very much.&quot;

Ashford  had been battling and was being treated for throat cancer, and  Rosenberg said she believed his death &quot;was quite sudden.&quot; His wife and  children were at his bedside when he died, she said.

He was 69, reported imdb.com and numerous other sources.

According  to their MySpace page, Ashford and Simpson met in 1964 in New York  City. Within two years, as songwriters with Scepter Songwriters, they  scored their first hit with Ray Charles' &quot;Let's Go Get Stoned.&quot;

The  couple then joined Motown Records, where they wrote a host of popular  songs for the likes of Marvin Gaye, Tammi Terrell and Diana Ross  including &quot;Ain't No Mountain High Enough,&quot; &quot;Ain't Nothing Like the Real  Thing&quot;  and &quot;Reach Out and Touch (Somebody's Hand).&quot; Later in their  careers, their songwriting credits included Chaka Khan's &quot;I'm Every  Woman.&quot;

In the '70s, Ashford and Simpson went from songwriters to  performers, releasing nine albums for Motown, Warner Brothers Records  (like CNN, a division of Time Warner) and Capitol Records between 1973  and 1984. Their biggest hit during that time was the song &quot;Solid (As a  Rock).&quot;

On stage, Ashford typically sported long curly hair, a goatee and a knack for hitting high notes.

In  1996, he established the Sugar Bar, a restaurant and live entertainment  venue in Manhattan's Upper West Side. According to its website, the bar  showcases soul, jazz, Caribbean, African and other types of music and  has been visited by numerous guests over the years such as Bruce Willis,  Stevie Wonder, Maya Angelou and others.

The Songwriters Hall of  Fame inducted Ashford and his wife in 2002, calling them &quot;one of the  most prolific and versatile musical couples in recording history.&quot;


CNN's Denise Quan contributed to this report.]]></description>
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			<title><![CDATA[Services set Saturday for former Bell Councilman George Bass]]></title>
															<link>http://www.wavenewspapers.com/news/obituaries/Services-set-Saturday-for-former-Bell-Councilman-George-Bass-127984178.html</link>
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			<pubDate>Wed, 17 Aug 2011 19:52:09 PST</pubDate>
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																																											                                                                        <description><![CDATA[BELL — Funeral services for George 'Smokey' Bass, a retired city of Vernon fire chief and a member of the Bell City Council from 1990 to 2003, will be held at 10 a.m. Saturday at St. Cyprian Church, 4714 Clark Ave., Long Beach.

Rosary will be at 7 p.m. Friday at the church and burial will be in All Souls Cemetery, Long Beach.

Bass died Aug. 13. He was 80.

He was born Feb. 17, 1931, in Los Angeles, the only child of Mary Francis Connelly and James Bass.

He was an avid fire buff and earned the nickname 'Smokey' in his early years as he followed fire engines to fires and often smelled of smoke, his daughter Mary Rutz said.

Bass joined the Vernon Fire Department in 1953 and was active for 35 years, progressing through the ranks and serving as fire chief and fire marshal the last 10 years.

He retired from the fire department in 1988.

'Smokey was passionate about the preservation and appreciation of fire service history, especially in Los Angeles,' Rutz said.

After retiring from the fire department, Bass spent 13 years on the Bell City Council, serving two terms as mayor.

It was his mission as a councilman to ensure that the infrastructure of the city of Bell was up to date when he retired in 2003, Rutz said.

He met and married Janice Leal in 1965 and during 46 years of marriage had two children: Mary Frances Rutz and a son, Timothy. He is survived by a son-in-law, Michael Rutz, a daughter-in-law, Theresa Bass; and five grandsons: Adam, Aaron, Isaac, Ryan and Brandon.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be made to Parents Against Cancer, Inc. P.O. Box 90213 Long Beach, 90809-2644.
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			<title><![CDATA[Charles 'Bubba' Smith, NFLer-turned-actor, dies at 66]]></title>
															<link>http://www.wavenewspapers.com/news/obituaries/charles-bubba-smith-nfl-actor-police-academy-dead-obituary-126731808.html</link>
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			<pubDate>Wed, 3 Aug 2011 14:52:52 PST</pubDate>
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Former NFL defensive end and actor Charles &quot;Bubba&quot; Smith was found dead Wednesday at his home in the Baldwin Hills area, according to police and the coroner's office.

Smith, 66, won a Super Bowl with the Baltimore Colts in 1970, and later played with the Oakland Raiders and Houston Oilers. He later portrayed police recruit Moses Hightower in the &quot;Police Academy&quot; film series.

Smith's body was found just before 1 p.m. at his home in the 5100 block of Sunlight Place in Baldwin Hills, according to Los Angeles police Officer Gregory Baek. Smith is believed to have died of natural causes, although the coroner's office had not yet made a final determination, he said.

A native of Texas, Smith played for Michigan State University and was drafted by the Colts in 1967. He went to two Pro Bowls in his career, which ended in Houston in 1976.

He went on to appear in several minor movie and television roles, but gained fame playing the soft-spoken-yet-towering police recruit Hightower in all but one of the &quot;Police Academy&quot; films. He also made appearances in several Miller Lite television commercials, in which he would regularly rip off the tops of beer cans.

Photo: Charles &quot;Bubba&quot; Smith in 2009. Credit: J Feldman/via Wikimedia Commons.]]></description>
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			<title><![CDATA[Tributes pour in for 'Community Mother' Lillian Mobley]]></title>
															<link>http://www.wavenewspapers.com/news/obituaries/Tributes-pour-in-for--125928579.html</link>
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			<pubDate>Wed, 20 Jul 2011 20:02:54 PST</pubDate>
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Tributes are pouring in to honor South Los Angeles community activist Lillian Mobley, who died July 18 at Centinela Medical Center from natural causes.

Mobley, who was affectionately known as Watts&rsquo; &ldquo;Community Mother,&rdquo; was admitted to the hospital about three weeks ago. She was 81.

&ldquo;Ms. Lillian Mobley was a spirit of compassion, and unselfishness,&rdquo; said Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas.

&ldquo;She will be remembered for a lifetime of service to South L.A. and her tireless efforts to improve the lives of its residents. Most of all, however, she will be remembered for her big heart. The entire city of L.A. owes her a debt of gratitude.&rdquo;

Rep. Karen Bass praised Mobley for leaving a &ldquo;legacy of greatness.&rdquo;

&ldquo;Lillian Mobley was the matriarch of the African-American community and a legend in South L.A.,&rdquo; shesaid in a statement.

&ldquo;She was an inspiration for a generation of leaders that walked in her footsteps, but nobody could truly walk in her shoes. Lillian Mobley combined tenderness with tenaciousness; she spoke softly and smiled gently, but underneath it all was fiery passion.&rdquo;

Bass added: &ldquo;Lillian Mobley has left a legacy of greatness behind and the prominent roles she played in establishing and protecting Martin Luther King Hospital and Charles Drew University Medical School are accomplishments of unbelievable magnitude.&rdquo;

Meanwhile, Sen. Curren Price (D-26th District), asked that the community pause and reflect on &ldquo;the commitment she leaves us.&rdquo;

&ldquo;As forces move to divide and weaken us, we must work together in the same spirit of love and struggle that Mother Lillian showed us and we will honor her life and works and we will be successful,&rdquo; he said.

Born in Macon, Ga. on March 29, 1930, to Charlie and Corene Basley Harkless, Lillian Harkless graduated from Macon&rsquo;s Hudson High in 1948, the same year she married James Otis Mobley.

Moving to California in 1951, her activism began when her children began school.

Following the 1965 Watts Riots, Mobley joined with Mary Henry, Caffie Green, Johnnie Taylor and Nola Carter to spearhead the fight to bring a hospital to the South L.A. residents.

The result was Martin Luther King Hospital, which opened in 1972.

The group was also instrumental in the opening of the Charles Drew University, which provided opportunities for African-Americans and other minorities to train in the health care field.

In 1967 she became involved in the Neighborhood Adult Participation Project, an anti-poverty program designed to provide training and employment opportunities for adults in poor neighborhoods.

In 1980, Mobley was elected as a delegate to the Democratic National Convention. A year later, she served as a delegate to the State Conference on Aging.

Mobley served on several boards of directors, councils and committees, including the Brotherhood Crusade, Congress of Racial Equality, Southern Christian Leadership Conference, the Watts Labor Action Council and the Black Education Task Force.

&ldquo;My mother lived her life on her own terms, that&rsquo;s what kept her going and she loved it,&rdquo; her son Charles said Tuesday.

&ldquo;Her body wore down, and she got tired, and God said it was time. [But] she touched a lot of lives and a lot of people loved and respected her.&rdquo;

Mobley is survived by her husband, James; three sons, Kenneth, Philip and Charles, 10 grandchildren, 11 great grandchildren and a host of other relatives.

Funeral services will be held July 29, 11 a.m., at Ward AME Church, 11777 25th St., Los Angeles.

The family requested that all condolences be sent to 1111 W. 51st St., Los Angeles, CA 90037.

Photo: Lillian Mobley, a beloved community activist, passed away July 18. Credit: Courtesy photo]]></description>
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			<title><![CDATA[Aliewine, founder of Watts Christmas Parade, mourned]]></title>
															<link>http://www.wavenewspapers.com/news/obituaries/Aliewine-founder-of-Watts-Christmas-Parade-mourned-125595063.html</link>
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			<pubDate>Thu, 14 Jul 2011 13:08:53 PST</pubDate>
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																														                                                                        <description><![CDATA[Funeral services were held Monday at Praises of Zion Baptist Church in South Los Angeles for Edna Aliewine, the diminutive woman who left a large mark on South Los Angeles, particularly Watts and Willowbrook.

Aliewine died July 5 at her Watts home. She was 90.

Aliewine was known as the founder of the Watts/Willowbrook Christmas Parade and was the co-founder of  Watts Promenade of Prominence.

She founded the parade in 1964 as an answer to the Hollywood Christmas Parade. According to legend, Aliewine was taken to the Hollywood parade as a child and asked her father why there was no one in the parade who looked like her. 

She was determined after that to see that her community someday had a Christmas parade and in 1964 organized the first parade, organizing girls in the neighborhood to form a drill team which marched down Central Avenue in homemade Santa hats.

The next year the parade was almost canceled, coming less than four months after the Watts riots.

But Aliewine secured the necessary permits and made sure the parade continued. She was still organizing the parade last December at the age of 89.

Over the years, the parade has featured celebrity grand marshals that have included Sammy Davis Jr. and the Jackson 5.

 In 1988, Aliewine and Dr. James Mays, decided to copy something else from Hollywood: the Walk of Fame.

The Watts Promenade of Prominence was installed along the edge of what is now Ted Watkins Memorial Park, at 103rd and Success streets.

Its first honoree was Kenneth Hahn, the long-serving county supervisor whose district included Watts. More than two dozen honorees have followed. Among them were attorney Johnnie Cochran Jr., former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown, and Darryl Strawberry, the former Dodgers outfielder, who grew up in South L.A.

Aliewine was born in Los Angeles on Jan. 1, 1921, the daughter of a sanitation worker. She graduated from Jefferson High School, and also attended Los Angeles City College and Cal State L.A.

She worked as a real estate agent and later as a private nurse, but also stayed active in local politics. She belonged to a small circle of Watts mothers who pushed local officials to build parks, medical facilities and a shopping center in Watts. 

She founded the Watts-Willowbrook Chamber of Commerce and the Watts Community Beautiful Corp. and served as president of the Los Angeles County Commission for Women.

She is survived by three daughters, Paula Aliewine of Los Angeles, Marsha Feaster of Las Vegas and Wilnora Ewell of Temecula; eight grandchildren; 14 great-grandchildren; and a great-great-grandchild.
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			<title><![CDATA[Ramona Hahn, matriarch of a political dynasty, dies at 86]]></title>
															<link>http://www.wavenewspapers.com/news/obituaries/ramona-hahn-obituary-dies-los-angeles-kenneth-janice-james-family-125395573.html</link>
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			<pubDate>Mon, 11 Jul 2011 21:18:57 PST</pubDate>
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Ramona Hahn, the matriarch of one of Los Angeles County's most prominent political families, died Monday at the age of 86.

Hahn was married for 49 years to the late Los Angeles County Supervisor Kenneth Hahn, who died in 1997. They had two children, former Los Angeles Mayor James K. Hahn and City Councilwoman Janice Hahn.

&quot;We are devastated to announce the death of our mother, Ramona Hahn. She was a dedicated mother, grandmother and wife,&quot; her son and daughter said in a joint statement. &quot;She was without a doubt the driving force behind our entire family. It was through her strength and support that our father, Kenny, became one of the most beloved leaders in Los Angeles' history.&quot;

Her unexpected passing came the day before a runoff election that will determine whether her daughter is elected to Congress in the 36th District.

&quot;We understand that Janice needs to be with her family, but the campaign will move forward as her mother would have wanted,&quot; campaign senior adviser John Shallman said.

&quot;Ramona was very proud of and always supportive of Janice,&quot; he said. &quot;She was looking forward to seeing her daughter sworn in as the next congresswoman of the 36th District. We will work very hard to make that dream a reality.&quot;

The Hahn family's involvement in politics goes back to 1947, when Kenneth was elected to the City Council. He served until 1953, when he was elected to the Board of Supervisors, where he served for 40 years. His brother Gordon won the 8th District council seat in 1953, and served for 10 years.

James Hahn held all three citywide elected offices: mayor, city attorney and city controller. He was mayor from 2001-2005.

Ramona Hahn was born to missionaries living in Japan in 1924, where she lived until age 11.

She was a devout member of the Church of Christ and attended church in Redondo Beach.

&quot;Ramona was the chief supporter of her husband, Kenny, and his main source of strength and direction throughout his long and prolific life in public service,&quot; Supervisor Mike Antonovich said. &quot;She was a strong, kind and compassionate woman devoted to her family and her faith.&quot;

The California Democratic Party issued a statement praising her contributions to the state's political landscape, noting that &quot;Ramona and her family made positive contributions to civic life in Los Angeles and beyond.&quot;

Funeral services were pending.

Photo: At the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in downtown Los Angeles, Supervisor Kenneth Hahn and his wife, Ramona, are flanked by their son James (far right) and daughter Janice (far left). (Via zev.lacounty.gov)]]></description>
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			<title><![CDATA['Columbo' star Peter Falk dies at 83]]></title>
															<link>http://www.wavenewspapers.com/news/obituaries/Columbo-star-Peter-Falk-dies-at-83-124539779.html</link>
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			<pubDate>Sat, 25 Jun 2011 11:22:19 PST</pubDate>
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																																											                                                                        <description><![CDATA[(CNN) -- Actor Peter Falk, who rose to fame on a rumpled raincoat and a shambling manner as the TV detective Lt. Columbo, has died at 83.

Falk died Thursday evening at his residence in Beverly Hills, California. The cause of death was not released by a family friend and attorney. In 2008, Falk's daughter said he was suffering from Alzheimer's disease.

Though Falk was a renowned movie and stage actor -- he earned two Oscar nominations in the early 1960s and won an Obie, an off-Broadway honor, for his performance in Eugene O'Neill's "The Iceman Cometh" -- he is best remembered for the polite, raincoat-wearing, Peugeot-driving Los Angeles police detective who always wanted to know "just one more thing."

That line -- which usually meant that the seemingly absent-minded detective was about to outwit his perfect-crime-committing suspects -- became so popular that Falk used it as the title of his memoir.

The character, which originated with "Columbo" writers and producers William Link and Richard Levinson, was given a unique spin by the actor.

"Before we ever had a script or anything, I was attracted to the idea of playing a character that housed within himself two opposing traits," Falk told CNN's Larry King in 2005. "On the one hand [he was] a regular Joe, Joe Six-Pack, the neighbor like everybody else. But, at the same time, the greatest homicide detective in the world. Now that's a great combination and you can do a lot with that combination."

Falk first played Columbo in a 1968 TV movie, "Prescription: Murder," and revived it three years later when the character became a regular part of the "NBC Mystery Movie," a series that also included Dennis Weaver's "McCloud" and Rock Hudson and Susan Saint James' "McMillan and Wife."

"Columbo" was the most popular of the "Mystery Movie" offerings, so much so that Falk was rumored to earn more than $250,000 an episode in the late '70s.

But Falk, who also starred in the films "The In-Laws" (1979), "Wings of Desire" (1987), "The Princess Bride" (1987) and several by his friend John Cassevetes, generally remained unimpressed with himself.

"I just keep working," he said. "I've never worried about the grand concepts. My philosophy is that I just try to get through the day," he told The New York Times in a 1990 interview.

Peter Michael Falk was born in New York City on September 16, 1927, and raised in Ossining, New York. After military service, he earned a master's in public administration and went to work for the Connecticut State Budget Bureau in Hartford as an efficiency expert.

"I was doing exactly what I was born not to do," he wrote in his memoir.

However, Hartford had a small theater troupe, and Falk immediately joined, which led to participation in other companies. Within a couple years -- while still working as a civil servant -- he was set to play Richard III at a summer workshop in Westport when, he says, a statement from acting teacher Eva Le Gallienne changed his life.

As LaGallienne upbraided him for his chronic lateness -- he had to drive 45 minutes from Hartford every week -- Falk confessed that he wasn't really an actor. "Well, you should be," Le Gallienne replied, and that was enough for Falk to quit his job.

Soon he was a regular presence on the New York stage, earning raves for his performance as the bartender in "The Iceman Cometh." (One of his jobs, he recalled, was keeping the other actors awake during the 4 1/2-hour play.) His work there and on TV led to an interview with Columbia Pictures head Harry Cohn.

Cohn was concerned about Falk's glass eye, the result of an operation Falk had had as a child, and wanted the actor to take a screen test. Falk said there was nothing to talk about and refused.

"Young man, for the same price I'll get an actor with two eyes," Cohn retorted, according to Falk's memoir.

Falk's film breakthrough came in 1960's "Murder, Inc.," in which he played gangster Abe Reles. The performance earned him a best supporting actor Oscar nomination. He earned another nomination for his performance in the next year's "Pocketful of Miracles," director Frank Capra's final film.

Falk went back and forth between film, TV and the stage in the 1960s. He had the lead in the short-lived TV series "The Trials of O'Brien," cast as a lawyer, and played Joseph Stalin in the even more short-lived "The Passion of Josef D.," a Paddy Chayefsky play, on Broadway. He also appeared in the films "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World" (1963), "The Great Race" (1965) and "Luv" (1967).

But it was "Columbo" that made Falk's name.

The TV movie character, which succeeded a play and TV episode that included him, was originally offered to Bing Crosby, of all people. But Crosby turned it down allegedly because it would get in the way of his golf game, according to Tim Brooks' and Earle Marsh's "Complete Directory to Prime Time Network and Cable Shows."

The series turned the standard mystery structure inside out. Instead of being revealed at the end, the criminal and the crime were shown in great detail in the show's opening scenes. It was then up to Columbo to stumble onto the scene and figure out whodunit -- something the audience already knew.

The series had a storied run, winning seven Emmys -- including three for Falk. Steven Spielberg, then unknown, directed the first episode, and stars included Robert Culp, Ray Milland, Robert Vaughn and Falk's friend, John Cassavetes.

On the big screen, Falk's roles included parts in Cassavetes' gritty, verite films, such as "A Woman Under the Influence" (1974), and broad comedies, most notably "The In-Laws" (1979). In the latter, he played a CIA agent who drags a new friend, a dentist played by Alan Arkin, into a plot that involves currency printing plates and a coup in an unnamed Latin American country.

Falk's choice of roles was often quirky and unusual. After the initial run of "Columbo" ended, he starred in "... All the Marbles" (1981) as the manager of female wrestlers; German director Wim Wenders' "Wings of Desire" (1987) as an existentially blocked version of himself; and "The Princess Bride" (1987) as a storytelling grandfather.

"Columbo" returned for a series of movies in 1989 and ran, sporadically, until 2003.

In recent years, Falk had periods of furious activity -- he had three credits in 1995 and four in 2000, according to the Internet Movie Database -- and relaxed almost-retirement. In 2008, in a filing for conservatorship, Falk's daughter said he was suffering from Alzheimer's disease. Early that year, Falk had been found disoriented on a Beverly Hills street, and that summer he suffered a head injury in an auto accident.

The conservatorship was granted to his wife, Shera, in June 2009. A doctor who evaluated Falk testified that the condition had worsened since a series of dental operations in 2007 and a hip procedure in 2008, and that the actor couldn't remember "Columbo."

But Falk always wanted to move on to the next thing, anyway. Taking a tip from his friend Cassavetes, he refused to repeat himself -- one reason his characters, even the ones he played more than once, always seemed so fresh.

"If your mind is at work, we're in danger of reproducing another cliche," he once said. "If we can keep our minds out of it and our thoughts out of it, maybe we'll come up with something original."

Falk is survived by his wife of 34 years, Shera; and two daughters, Catherine and Jackie, whom he adopted during his first marriage, to Alyce Mayo.

Through a spokesman, Falk's daughters said:

"His daughters will always remember him for his wisdom and humor, time shared on vacations and hockey games, and for wild rides through the streets of Los Angeles with a one-eyed driver."]]></description>
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			<title><![CDATA['Gunsmoke' actor James Arness dies at age 88]]></title>
															<link>http://www.wavenewspapers.com/news/obituaries/Gunsmoke-actor-James-Arness-dies-at-age-88-123140733.html</link>
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			<pubDate>Sat, 4 Jun 2011 12:58:08 PST</pubDate>
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																																											                                                                        <description><![CDATA[Former "Gunsmoke" actor James Arness, who played Marshal Matt Dillon in the western TV series for 20 years, died Friday from natural causes, according to his website. He was 88.

Over the two decades of "Gunsmoke" episodes from 1955 to 1975, Arness worked with hundreds of actors, some of them just up-and-comers such as Harrison Ford, Burt Reynolds and Charles Bronson. He also worked with Bette Davis.

Arness left behind a letter to his fans, which was posted on his website after his death:

"I had a wonderful life and was blessed with some many loving people and great friends. The best part of my life was my family, especially my wife, Janet. Many of you met her at Dodge City so you understand what a special person she is," Arness wrote.

"I wanted to take this time to thank all of you for the many years of being a fan of 'Gunsmoke,' 'The Thing,' 'How the West Was Won' and all the other fun projects I was lucky enough to have been allowed to be a part of. I had the privilege of working with so many great actors over the years.

"I was honored to have served in the army for my country. I was at Anzio during WWII and it makes you realize how very precious life is," Arness wrote.

"Thank you again for all the many letters, cards, emails and gifts we received from you over the years. You are and always have been truly appreciated," he concluded.

Born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on May 26, 1923, Arness later served in the Army and was sent in 1944 to Anzio, the Italian beach that the Army said was the setting for the largest and most violent armed conflict in the history of mankind.

Arness was wounded in his right leg and received the Purple Heart.

According to an Army website, during the four months of the Anzio Campaign, the Allied VI Corps experienced more than over 29,200 combat casualties (4,400 killed, 18,000 wounded, and 6,800 prisoners or missing) and 37,000 noncombat casualties. German combat losses were estimated at 27,500 (5,500 killed, 17,500 wounded, and 4,500 prisoners or missing), according to the Army.

Arness' acting debut was in a movie called "The Farmer's Daughter" opposite Loretta Young.

He worked for John Wayne's film production company Batjac and made movies with Wayne including "Islands in the Sky," "Hondo," "The Sea Chase" and "Big Jim McLain."

Arness also acted in the 1951 sci-fi classic "The Thing," and his 6-foot-7 height made the creature more believable, according to his website.

After "Gunsmoke," Arness continued acting in television in the mini-series "How the West Was Won" in 1978-79 and "McLain's Law" in 1981-82.

In addition to his wife, Arness is survived by two sons and six grandchildren. The services will be private.]]></description>
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			<title><![CDATA['Dr. Death' Jack Kevorkian is dead at 83]]></title>
															<link>http://www.wavenewspapers.com/news/obituaries/Dr-Death-Jack-Kevorkian-is-dead-at-83-123137493.html</link>
				<guid isPermaLink="false">123137493</guid>		
			<pubDate>Sat, 4 Jun 2011 12:56:48 PST</pubDate>
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																																											                                                                        <description><![CDATA[ Dr. Jack Kevorkian, the Michigan pathologist who put assisted suicide on the world's medical ethics stage, died early Friday, according to a spokesman with Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak, Michigan. He was 83.

The assisted-suicide advocate had been hospitalized for pneumonia and a kidney-related ailment, his attorney had said.

He had struggled with kidney problems for years and had checked into a hospital earlier this month for similar problems, his lawyer, Mayer Morganroth, said. He checked back into the hospital in the Detroit suburb on May 18 after suffering a relapse, Morganroth said.

Kevorkian, dubbed "Dr. Death," made national headlines as a supporter of physician-assisted suicide and "right-to-die" legislation. He was charged with murder numerous times through the 1990s for helping terminally ill patients take their own lives.

He was convicted on second-degree murder charges in 1999 stemming from the death of a patient who suffered from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, commonly called Lou Gehrig's disease. He was paroled in 2007.

After his release, he said he would not help end any more lives.

Morganroth told CNN Friday that he was summoned to the hospital Thursday night, with doctors telling him "the end was near" for Kevorkian.

"The doctors and nurses were extremely supportive," Morganroth said. They played music by Kevorkian's favorite composer -- Bach -- in his room, and Kevorkian died about 2:30 a.m., Morganroth said.

Attorney Geoffrey Fieger, who was Kervorkian's lawyer on several assisted-suicide cases, described Kevorkian as a "historic man."

"He simply felt that it was the duty of every physician to alleviate suffering, and when the circumstance was such that there was no alternative, to help that patient to end their own suffering," Fieger said in a statement.

In an interview with CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta last year, Kevorkian said he had no regrets about his work.

"No, no. It's your purpose (as a) physician. How can you regret helping a suffering patient?" he said.

In that interview, Kevorkian said that he had three missions in life and that he himself was not ready to die.

One of his missions was to warn mankind of "impending doom" that will come from the culture of overabundance.

"I'm not going to be too popular for that one," he said.

His second mission was to educate people about assisted suicide, and his belief that in states where assisted suicide has been legalized, it is not being done right. He believed that people shouldn't have to have a terminal condition in order to qualify for help in ending their own lives.

Kevorkian's third stated mission was to convince Americans that their rights are being infringed upon by bans on everything from smoking to assisted suicide.

In 2008, at the age of 80, he had a failed run for Congress in Michigan.]]></description>
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			<title><![CDATA[Elmer 'Geronimo' Pratt, former Black Panther, dies at 63]]></title>
															<link>http://www.wavenewspapers.com/news/obituaries/Black-Panther-Elmer-Geronimo-Pratt-dies-123085108.html</link>
				<guid isPermaLink="false">123085108</guid>		
			<pubDate>Thu, 2 Jun 2011 22:38:43 PST</pubDate>
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																																											                                                                        <description><![CDATA[(CNN) — Former Black Panther Elmer "Geronimo" Pratt, who was wrongly imprisoned for 27 years on a murder conviction, died Thursday in Tanzania, his former lawyer said.

He was 63.

Stuart Hanlon, a San Francisco-based lawyer who helped overturn Pratt's murder conviction, said he did not know the exact cause of death.

Pratt died in a small village in Tanzania where he lived with his wife and child, Hanlon said.

Hanlon called Pratt a "true American," saying that he was an Army veteran who served two tours in Vietnam before joining the Black Panther Party.

"He could've been a great leader. He was very charismatic," Hanlon said. "His legacy is that he never gave up. He never got despondent or angry."

Pratt's conviction became a rallying cry for rights groups that said he had been framed for his strident activism during the turbulent civil rights era.

Pratt was convicted for the 1968 murder of Caroline Olsen on a Santa Monica tennis court. He spent 27 years in prison before the conviction was overturned in 1997 after a judge ruled that prosecutors had concealed evidence.

The victim's husband, wounded during the robbery attempt, originally identified another man as the killer. But the jury was not informed of that, the judge said.

Famed attorney Johnnie Cochran also helped in the legal battle to get Pratt released from prison. Pratt spoke at Cochran's funeral in 2005.

After his release, Pratt told CNN that he held no bitterness about the many years he spent behind bars.

"I don't think bitterness has a place. I'm more understanding," Pratt said in a 1999 interview. "Understanding doesn't leave any room for bitterness or anger."

Of the 27 years he spent in prison, Pratt said eight was in solitary confinement. He said his spirituality and love of music helped him through that period.

"My mantra was the blues. It would go through my head when I was going through my meditations," Pratt said.]]></description>
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			<title><![CDATA[Osama bin Laden, the face of terror, killed in Pakistan]]></title>
															<link>http://www.wavenewspapers.com/news/obituaries/Osama-bin-Laden-is-dead-sources-say-121066444.html</link>
				<guid isPermaLink="false">121066444</guid>		
			<pubDate>Mon, 2 May 2011 00:34:23 PST</pubDate>
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																		                                                                        <description><![CDATA[

(CNN) &mdash; Osama bin Laden used the fruits of his family's success &mdash; a personal fortune estimated in the hundreds of millions of dollars &mdash; to help finance al Qaeda in its quest for a new pan-Islamic religious state.

The Saudi-born zealot commanded al Qaeda, a terrorist organization run like a rogue multinational firm, experts said, with subsidiaries operating secretly in dozens of countries, plotting terror, raising money and recruiting young Muslim men &mdash; even boys &mdash; from many nations to its training camps in Afghanistan.

Bin Laden and his terrorist network were behind the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States and are linked to others around the world.

The enormity of the destruction in the 9/11 attacks &mdash; the World Trade Center's towers devastated by two hijacked airplanes, the Pentagon heavily damaged by a third hijacked jetliner, a fourth flight crashed in rural Pennsylvania, and more than 3,000 people killed &mdash; gave bin Laden a global presence.

His death early Monday in Pakistan ended a nearly 10-year long manhunt for one of the world's most-wanted men.

Even before September 11, 2001, bin Laden was already on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list.

He had been implicated in a series of deadly, high-profile attacks that had grown in their intensity and success during the 1990s.

They included a deadly firefight with U.S. soldiers in Somalia in October 1993, the bombings of two U.S. embassies in East Africa that killed 224 in August 1998, and an attack on the USS Cole that killed 17 sailors in October 2000.

Bin Laden eluded capture for years, once reportedly slipping out of a training camp in Afghanistan just hours before a barrage of U.S. cruise missiles destroyed it.

On September 11, sources said, the evidence immediately pointed to bin Laden. Within days, those close to the investigation said they had their proof.

Six days after the attack, President George W. Bush made it clear Osama bin Laden was the No. 1 suspect.

&quot;I want justice,&quot; Bush said. &quot;There's an old poster out West that said, 'Wanted, dead or alive.'&quot;

Bin Laden was born in the kingdom of Saudi Arabia in 1957, the 17th of 52 children in a family that had struck it rich in the construction business.

His father, Mohamed bin Laden, was a native of Yemen, who immigrated to Saudi Arabia as a child. He became a billionaire by building his company into the largest construction firm in the Saudi kingdom.

As Saudi Arabia became flush with oil money, so, too, did the bin Laden family business, as Osama's father cultivated and exploited connections within the royal family.

One of the elder bin Laden's four wives &mdash; described as Syrian in some accounts &mdash; was Osama's mother. The young bin Laden inherited a share of the family fortune at an early age after his father died in an aircraft accident.

The bin Ladens were noted for their religious commitment. In his youth, Osama studied with Muslim scholars. Two of the family businesses' most prestigious projects also left a lasting impression: the renovations of mosques at Mecca and Medina, Islam's two holiest sites.

As a young man attending college in Jeddah, bin Laden's interest in religion started to take a political turn. One of his professors was Abdullah Azzam, a Palestinian scholar who was a key figure in the rise of a new pan-Islamic religious movement.

Azzam founded an organization to help the mujahedeen fighting to repel the Soviet Union's invasion of Afghanistan in 1979.

Bin Laden soon became the organization's top financier, using his family connections to raise money. He left as a volunteer for Afghanistan at 22, joining the U.S.-backed call to arms against the Soviets.

He remained there for a decade, using construction equipment from his family's business to help the Muslim guerrilla forces build shelters, tunnels and roads through the rugged Afghan mountains, and at times taking part in battle.

In the late 1980s, bin Laden founded al Qaeda, Arabic for &quot;the base,&quot; an organization that CNN terrorism analyst and author Peter Bergen says had fairly prosaic beginnings. One of its purposes was to provide documentation for Arab fighters who fought against the Soviets in Afghanistan, including death certificates.

Al Qaeda, under bin Laden's leadership, ran a number of guesthouses for these Arab fighters and their families. It also operated training camps to help them prepare for the fight against the Soviets.

In the early 1990s, with the disintegration of the Soviet Union, bin Laden turned his sights on the world's remaining superpower &mdash; the United States. War-hardened and victorious, he returned to Saudi Arabia following the Soviet retreat from Afghanistan.

In a 1997 CNN interview, bin Laden declared a &quot;jihad,&quot; or &quot;holy war,&quot; against the United States.

The Iraqi invasion of Kuwait provided the next turning point in Osama bin Laden's career.

When the United States sent troops to Saudi Arabia for battle against Iraq in the Persian Gulf War, bin Laden was outraged. He had offered his own men to defend the Saudi kingdom but the Saudi government ignored his plan.

He began to target the United States for its presence in Saudi Arabia, home to the Muslim holy sites of Mecca and Medina. With bin Laden's criticisms creating too much friction with the Saudi government, he and his supporters left for Sudan in 1991.

There, according to U.S. officials, al Qaeda began to evolve into a terror network, with bin Laden at its helm. Tapping into his personal fortune, bin Laden operated a range of businesses involved in construction, farming and exporting.

Although the U.S. government was unaware of it at the time, bin Laden was already actively working against it.

According to court testimony, he sent one of his top lieutenants, Mohammed Atef, to help train Somalis to attack U.S. peacekeeping troops stationed there. Bin Laden would later hint, during an interview with CNN, of his involvement in the deaths of 18 U.S. Army Rangers in 1993 in Mogadishu.

Also in 1993, terrorists bombed the World Trade Center in New York, killing six and wounding hundreds. Eventually, bin Laden would be named along with many others as an unindicted co-conspirator in that case. The mastermind of the attack, Ramzi Yousef, would later be revealed to have close ties to al Qaeda.

In 1996, bin Laden took his war against the United States a step further. By then, he had been stripped of his Saudi citizenship and forced by Sudanese officials, under pressure from the United States, to leave that country. He returned to Afghanistan where he received harbor from the fundamentalist Taliban, who were ruling the country.

By then, the United States had begun to recognize a growing threat from bin Laden, citing him as a financier of terrorism in a government report.

According to reports, however, the U.S. government passed up a Sudanese government offer to turn over bin Laden, because at the time it had no criminal charges against him. The Saudis, according to an interview with their former intelligence chief in Time magazine, also declined to take custody of bin Laden.

In Afghanistan in 1996, bin Laden issued a &quot;fatwa,&quot; or a religious order, entitled &quot;Declaration of War Against Americans Who Occupy the Lands of the Two Holy Mosques.&quot;

&quot;There is no more important thing than pushing the American occupier out,&quot; decreed the fatwa, which praised Muslim youths willing to die to accomplish that goal: &quot;Youths only want one thing, to kill (U.S. soldiers) so they can get to Paradise.&quot;

In his first interview with Western media in 1997, bin Laden told CNN that the United States was &quot;unjust, criminal and tyrannical.&quot;

&quot;The U.S. today, as a result of the arrogant atmosphere, has set a double standard, calling whoever goes against its injustice a terrorist,&quot; he said in the interview. &quot;It wants to occupy our countries, steal our resources, impose on us agents to rule us.&quot;

In February 1998, he expanded his target list, issuing a new fatwa against all Americans, including civilians.

They were to be killed wherever they might be found anywhere in the world, he decreed. This new fatwa announced the creation of the &quot;The World Islamic Front for Jihad against the Jews and the Crusaders&quot; and was co-signed by Dr. Ayman al-Zawahiri, head of Egypt's al-Jihad terrorist group.

Six months later, explosions destroyed the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, killing 224 people and injuring 4,000 more.

U.S. prosecutors later indicted bin Laden for masterminding those attacks.

By the time three hijacked airliners struck the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, symbols of the U.S. business and military might, bin Laden's terror network had become global in its reach.

The organization soon became America's prime target in Bush's war against global terrorism. Bin Laden, its founder, became the most-wanted man in the world.

Then-U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell explained al Qaeda's network this way: &quot;Osama bin Laden is the chairman of the holding company, and within that holding company are terrorist cells and organizations in dozens of countries around the world, any of them capable of committing a terrorist act.&quot;

&quot;It's not enough to get one individual, although we'll start with that one individual,&quot; Powell said.

In statements released from his hideouts in Afghanistan after September 11, bin Laden denied al Qaeda was responsible for the attacks.

A videotape of bin Laden later obtained and released by the U.S. government, however, showed him saying he knew the September 11 attacks were coming, chuckling and gloating about their toll. Even with his knowledge of the construction trade, he said with a smile, he did not expect the twin towers of the World Trade Center to collapse completely.

Speaking in an earlier video recording that was first broadcast over the Arabic-language television network Al-Jazeera, bin Laden said America is &quot;filled with fear from the north, south, east and west. Thank God for that.&quot;

&quot;These events have split the world into two camps &mdash; belief and disbelief,&quot; he said. &quot;America will never dream or know or taste security or safety unless we know safety and security in our land and in Palestine.&quot;

Bin Laden had taken advantage of his time in Afghanistan, cementing his ties to the Taliban.

He was particularly close to Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar. He built a mansion in Kandahar but spent most of his time on the move around the country, according to intelligence sources.

Al Qaeda had a network of training camps and safe houses where recruits from around the world were brought for combat and weapons training and indoctrination.

As long as the Taliban ruled Afghanistan, bin Laden, his four wives and more than 10 children were able to avoid capture.

Before September 11, the Afghan government refused U.S. requests to turn over bin Laden. &quot;Osama's protection is our moral and Islamic duty,&quot; one Taliban official was quoted as saying in July 2001.

As the United States bombing campaign helped the Afghan opposition drive the Taliban from power, however, bin Laden's days were numbered.

The reward on his head grew to $25 million. Countless leaflets advertising the bounty were dropped from U.S. airplanes, which flew with impunity over Afghan skies.

&quot;We're hunting him down,&quot; Bush said on November 19, 2001. &quot;He runs and he hides, but as we've said repeatedly, the noose is beginning to narrow. The net is getting tighter.&quot;

But he eluded U.S. and allied authorities during the war in Afghanistan, vanishing in December 2001, apparently fleeing during the intensive bombing campaign in the rugged Tora Bora region near the border with Pakistan.

&quot;He's alive or dead. He's in Afghanistan or somewhere else,&quot; then-Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said in April 2002 when asked about bin Laden's whereabouts.

No more videos showing bin Laden were released during the spring and summer of 2002 and there was speculation that he may have died during U.S. bombing raids in Afghanistan.

But audiotapes released in October and November 2002 and broadcast on Al-Jazeera were allegedly were from him. U.S. government experts analyzed the tapes and said the voice on the tapes was almost certainly bin Laden's.

On February 11, 2002, a new audio message purportedly from bin Laden called on Muslims around the world to show solidarity against U.S.-led military action in Iraq.

The tape was broadcast on Al Jazeera, which originally denied its existence. The voice on tape added that any nation that helps the United States attack Iraq, &quot;(Has) to know that they are outside this Islamic nation. Jordan and Morocco and Nigeria and Saudi Arabia should be careful that this war, this crusade, is attacking the people of Islam first.&quot;

Days later, U.S. government reports suggest that bin Laden had survived sustained bombing and could be near the border of Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Then, in May 2002, Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar is quoted in a Saudi-owned publication, &quot;Sheikh Osama is still alive, praise God.&quot; A Russian newspaper publishes a similar report likewise quoting Omar, saying, &quot;Osama helped us during the war with the (Soviets), he would not leave us now.&quot;

Abdel-Bari Atwan, the editor of the London-based Al-Quds Al Arabi newspaper, said in July of that year that bin Laden was in good health, despite being wounded in an attack on his base in Afghanistan the previous December. Atwan said then that bin Laden's followers had told him that the al Qaeda leader would not make more video statements until his group launched another attack on the United States.

That appeared to prove prescient, as there were no further attacks on U.S. soil in subsequent years &mdash; though there were several high-profile attempts, purportedly linked to al Qaeda &mdash; and few signs of bin Laden.

Muslim clerics in Spain turned the tables on bin Laden in March 2005, issuing the first fatwa against the terrorist leader. The Islamic edict called him an apostate and urged other Muslims to denounce him.

More details about bin Laden came out in October 2009, in the form of a book written by one of his wives and sons titled, &quot;Growing Up bin Laden: Osama's Wife and Son Take Us Inside Their World.&quot;

A few months later, the U.S. government admitted a &quot;lack of intelligence&quot; on his whereabouts &mdash; suspecting that he could be in Afghanistan or Pakistan.

But he reappeared on the world's radar in January 2010, with the release of two audiotapes released in the span of a week.

In the first, he purportedly claimed responsibility for the alleged Christmas Day attempt by Nigerian national Umar Farouk AbdulMuttallab to blow up a Northwest Airlines plane as it neared Detroit, Michigan, from Amsterdam, Netherlands. In that tape, the voice &mdash; thought to be bin Laden's &mdash; warned the United States of more attacks.

Days later, Al Jazeera released an audiotape purportedly from bin Laden in which he condemned the United States and other industrial nations for causing climate change.

Then, in January of this year, a speaker claiming to be the terrorist mastermind warned French troops to leave Afghanistan &mdash; or else two French journalists abducted by militants there could be killed.

The speaker thought to be bin Laden said on the audiotape, which also aired on Al Jazeera, that France's alliance with the United States will prove costly.

One U.S. counterterrorism official told CNN at the time that the tape &quot;sends a chill up your spine,&quot; as it refers to &quot;a couple of human beings whose lives are at stake.&quot;

For several months before that last tape's release, however, U.S. officials had received specific information about where bin Laden may have been hiding in Pakistan, according to President Barack Obama.

On Sunday, the president said he ordered an operation &mdash; carried out by a handful of U.S. troops &mdash; to get bin Laden in Pakistan. The al Qaeda leader resisted and was killed in an ensuing firefight, and U.S. forces took custody of his body. He was later buried at sea, with one U.S. official saying his body was handled in the Islamic tradition.

&quot;His demise should be welcomed by all who believe in peace and human dignity,&quot; Obama said in a speech announcing bin Laden's death. &quot;Justice has been done.&quot;]]></description>
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			<title><![CDATA[Services set for Cerritos College trustee Bob Epple]]></title>
															<link>http://www.wavenewspapers.com/news/obituaries/Services-set-for-Cerritos-College-trustee-Bob-Epple-120248614.html</link>
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			<pubDate>Tue, 19 Apr 2011 16:39:35 PST</pubDate>
			<category><![CDATA[News]]></category>																	







																														                                                                        <description><![CDATA[NORWALK — Cerritos College trustee Bob Epple, a former state assemblyman, died April 13 after a protracted battle with leukemia, a college representative said.

The memorial service for Epple will be held at 4 p.m. Monday at the New Life Community Church, 18800 Norwalk Blvd., Artesia.

Epple served as a trustee for the college for more than 13 years. He is survived by his wife, Colleen, and his daughter, Nicole, and many family members, said Aya Abelon the college's coordinator of media relations.

Linda Lacy, president/superintendent of the college said, 'Mr. Epple was a true Falcon. 'His intelligence, ability to analyze situations and to lead with impartiality made him a very strong board member. He will be missed, but his legacy will live on in the history of Cerritos College.'

Tom Jackson, president of the Board of Trustees said, 'Bob was a friend and mentor to me for many years. His dedicated commitment to the students and the college community was unquestionable.

'He leaves a void in our hearts and on the Board of Trustees of Cerritos College. I offer my heartfelt condolences to his family and friends.'

After graduating from former Excelsior High School in Norwalk and four years in the U.S. Army, Epple returned home to begin his college studies at Cerritos College.

While at Cerritos he met his first wife, Cheryl, and he worked in the college bookstore. While he was an employee of the college, Epple served on the first negotiating team for the Classified School Employees Association.

He and Cheryl were active in the college's student activities program and in student government, an interest that grew into civic commitments for both of them. 

Epple graduated from Cerritos College in January 1974 with an associate in arts degree in economics and he earned the Silver Falcon award for service presented by the Associated Students.

He went on to finish his college work and ultimately earned his law degree. In 1979 he became an attorney.

Epple was elected to the Board of Trustees in November 1981 but missed his first meeting on Dec. 2, when he was supposed to be sworn in as a new trustee, because his daughter was born that night.

He was re-elected to the Board of Trustees in 1985.

Three years later, Epple mounted a successful campaign and was elected to the state Assembly in the 63rd District, representing Artesia, Cerritos, Downey, East Lakewood, Hawaiian Gardens, Norwalk and Santa Fe Springs.

He served as a member of the Assembly Ways and Means Committee and its Education Budget Subcommittee. Epple left the Legislature in 1994.

In 1993, his wife Cheryl was elected to the Cerritos College Board of Trustees and served three terms until her death in July 2004.

With a vacant seat on the board, the trustees asked her husband to return to the board and appointed him to complete Cheryl's remaining term. He was re-elected to the board in 2005 and again in 2009.

At the college, Epple served as a member of the Board of Directors of the Cerritos College Foundation.

He also was a member of the Bellflower Noon Lions Club, served as a member of the Board of Directors of the Community Family Guidance Center, and was a past member of the Cerritos Optimists, the Cerritos Jaycees, the Frontier District Boy Scout Advisory Council, the Girl Scout Council of Greater Long Beach, Investment Committee.

As an assemblyman, Epple sought legislation to reform school textbook purchases and to overhaul the way multibillion-dollar utility rate cases were decided.

He also sought to win funds for the Norwalk Sports Complex and for a community swimming pool in Downey.

Epple pushed for community facilities to help fight gang influences in his cities. Common Cause commended Epple for rejecting honorariums for speeches from special-interest groups.

Epple was quoted saying, 'I think the public perception of honorariums is that they are attempts to buy votes.'

Controversy was also part of Epple's legislative list. He took an unpopular stand on assault rifle legislation and was also an author on the legislation requiring motorcyclists to wear helmets. 

In 2010, Epple married his second wife Colleen.

Until this spring he continued to be active at the college and on the board, and maintained his practice as a tax attorney.

In recent years the college undertook a full review and rewrite of its board policies and procedures manual. Epple's contribution to this project was considered integral to the process, Abelon said.
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			<title><![CDATA[N.Y. Times: Gerald A. Lawson, a pioneer in video games, dies at 70]]></title>
															<link>http://www.wavenewspapers.com/news/obituaries/gerald-lawson-obituary-video-game-engineer-119893589.html</link>
				<guid isPermaLink="false">119893589</guid>		
			<pubDate>Thu, 14 Apr 2011 20:11:12 PST</pubDate>
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																																											                                                                        <description><![CDATA[

&quot;Gerald A. Lawson, a largely self-taught engineer who became a pioneer in electronic video entertainment, creating the first home video game system with interchangeable game cartridges, died on Saturday in Mountain View, Calif. He was 70 and lived in Santa Clara, Calif.&quot;

Read it at The New York Times]]></description>
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			<title><![CDATA[Remembering hip-hop legend Nate Dogg]]></title>
															<link>http://www.wavenewspapers.com/news/obituaries/nate-dogg-dies-118221184.html</link>
				<guid isPermaLink="false">118221184</guid>		
			<pubDate>Thu, 17 Mar 2011 21:36:22 PST</pubDate>
			<category><![CDATA[News]]></category>																	



	


		

																		



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																																											                                                                        <description><![CDATA[

(CNN) &mdash; Fans and celebrities alike are pausing with reflection as word spreads that hip-hop artist and vocalist Nate Dogg passed away on Tuesday. His longtime manager, Rod McGrew, confirmed to CNN that Nate Dogg, born Nathaniel Hale, died at the age of 41.

Hale &mdash; who was the legendary master of the rap hook - famously appeared on Dr. Dre's seminal album &quot;The Chronic,&quot; and provided vocals for a number of rappers, in addition to releasing his own solo work with albums such as &quot;G-Funk Classics Vol. 1 &amp; 2&quot; and &quot;Music &amp; Me.&quot;

He collaborated on a number of hits, including the track that will never age, &quot;Regulate&quot; with Warren G, as well as Dr. Dre's &quot;The Next Episode,&quot; Snoop Dogg's &quot;Lay Low&quot; and 50 Cent's &quot;21 Questions.&quot;

As of Wednesday, McGrew told CNN that the family has yet to receive an official cause of death, although McGrew believes the artist died of natural causes. Complications from the two strokes Hale suffered in the past few years could have been a factor as well.

According to McGrew, Hale had recovered 95 percent from his first stroke, but the second stroke was &quot;deeper and more severe&quot; and left him in a &quot;challenging physical state.&quot;

Hale's manager added that the second stroke left the artist partially paralyzed and for the most part bedridden, although he could be moved to a wheelchair for outings.

McGrew, who along with Hale's mother, sister and stepfather, was at Hale's side in the hospital, called the death sudden.

Of course, the loss of Nate Dogg has reverberated throughout the hip-hop community and beyond.

&quot;We lost a true legend n hip hop n rnb,&quot; collaborater and friend Snoop Dogg tweeted. &quot;One of my best friends n a brother to me since 1986 when I was a sophomore at poly high where we met.... I miss u cuzz I am so sad but so happy I got to grow up wit u and I will c u again n heaven cuz u know d slogan...all doggs go to heaven.&quot;

Ludacris, who worked with Hale on &quot;Area Codes,&quot; concurred, re-tweeting Snoop's sentiment of &quot;RIP Nate Dogg&quot; and adding, &quot;There is a certain void in hip hop's heart that can never be filled. Glad we got to make history together.&quot;

Added musician Erykah Badu, &quot;Nate Dogg... freshness period. rest in beats.&quot;

 CNN's Denise Quan contributed to this report.
 
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			<title><![CDATA[Ingram mourned as spiritual leader, renaissance man]]></title>
															<link>http://www.wavenewspapers.com/news/obituaries/Ingram-mourned-as-spiritual-leader-renaissance-man-118138519.html</link>
				<guid isPermaLink="false">118138519</guid>		
			<pubDate>Wed, 16 Mar 2011 18:56:45 PST</pubDate>
			<category><![CDATA[News]]></category>																	



	


		

																		



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																																											                                                                        <description><![CDATA[Funeral services for the Rev. Billy G. Ingram, the popular founder/pastor of Maranatha Community Church, will be held at 11 a.m. Friday at the West Angeles Church of God in Christ, a more spacious venue to accommodate the throngs of South Los Angeles residents expected to gather to celebrate the life and mourn the sudden death of the multi-faceted spiritual leader.

'Pastor Billy' as he was known by many of his congregation, died early March 8 of a presumptive heart attack. He was 58 years old. 

Ingram was a globetrotter who visited Africa, Asia and the Holy Land on many occasions, preaching and teaching others to preach. He was a philanthropist, an athlete, an author and an actor; a photographer, a percussionist and a poet. 

He worked in leper colonies, AIDS orphanages and vocational schools for the disabled. He established Boys to Men, a mentorship program for males aged 12 to 21, and expanded the horizons and understanding of African-American teenagers by leading groups of them on international treks to the wellsprings of their heritage. He has been hailed by the denizens of Hollywood and the secular ministers of Korea and Israel, and he was a jazz aficionado who enjoyed jammin' on percussion.

And 31 years ago, he founded Maranatha Community Church with six people who had come together as a home study group. The church has become one of the leading houses of worship in the city, to which congregants say they are drawn by Ingram's 'unique and insightful' style of preaching.

Ingram was born in Florence, Ala., but was reared in the Inglewood area to which his family relocated in 1956. He attended Monroe Junior High School and was a standout basketball player at Morningside High School, earning a full scholarship to the University of Oregon upon his 1970 graduation. He continued to perform well on the university's basketball team, and, as fate would have it, he became the chaplain for the Los Angeles Lakers several years later.

After receiving the call to ministry, Ingram transfered to Biola University in La Mirada, at which he earned a bachelor's degree in biblical studies, followed by 21 years of study under international scholar Butrus Abdul Malik and the acquisition of a Ph.D from the California Graduate School of Theology.

Additionally, Ingram was a professional photographer for Getty and WireImage, for whom he photographed President Barack Obama and his wife, President Bill Clinton and his wife, as well as a long list of entertainers and athletes.

Ingram is survived by his wife, Solombra and their twin sons, Samuel and Solomon; three children from his first marriage: Billy G. II, Marian and Karis, and his mother, Anna Juanita Ingram of Inglewood. He is also survived by a brother, Michael Ingram and sisters Taanasa Ingram and Stacey Ingram Gipson of Los Angeles and Stephanie Ingram Hazell of Atlanta.

Ingram's body will be available for visitation from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Thursday at his Maranatha Community Church, 3800 W. Martin Luther King Blvd.
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