AP Obits--7/27
ObitsMan
Obituaries in the News
Sat Jul 27, 7:06 PM ET
By The Associated Press
NEW YORK (AP) - Joe Derise, a musician, cabaret artist and former big band
vocalist, died of cancer on June 24 at a hospice in Shelton, Conn. He was 76.
Derise sang with Tommy Dorsey at the age of 21 and performed as a singer,
guitarist and arranger with the Claude Thornhill Orchestra. He went on to form
his own group, Four Jacks and a Jill, which performed around the country.
Derise made several records and composed some of his own songs with the
lyricist Marcia Hillman.
His last major performance was at the Algonquin Hotel in New York in 1999.
Clark Gesner
NEW YORK (AP) — Clark Gesner, who created the musical "You're a Good Man
Charlie Brown," died of a heart attack Tuesday while visiting the Princeton
Club in Manhattan. He was 64.
Gesner's well-known musical, based on Charles Schulz's "Peanuts" comic strip,
opened in March 1967 in a New York theater and went on to tour nationally.
The 14-song show featured Gary Burghoff as Charlie Brown and Bob Balaban as
Linus. It made a monthlong leap to Broadway in the early 1970s, and was revived
on Broadway in 1999.
Gesner, who was born in Maine, attended Princeton and was active in the
Triangle Club, the university's theater troupe.
Frank Inn
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Frank Inn, who trained some of Hollywood's biggest animal
stars, including Benji the dog, died Saturday at a rehabilitation center near
his Sylmar home. He was 86.
During a career spanning six decades, Inn, whose real name was Frank Freeman,
trained animals for dozens of movies and TV shows, including Arnold the pig
from "Green Acres" and nearly 500 animals that appeared in TV's "The Beverly
Hillbillies."
His best-known animal was the spunky, heroic mutt Benji. Inn rescued the
original Benji from the Burbank Animal Shelter in 1960. The dog starred in the
TV series "Petticoat Junction" and came out of retirement 14 years later to
make the first of a popular series of movies. The dog's daughter starred in
most of the sequels.
Animals trained by Inn received dozens of Patsy awards — the animal
equivalent of the Oscar — from the American Humane Association.
He kept the cremated remains of Benji, Arnold, the dog Tramp from "My Three
Sons" and other animals in urns at his home and had requested that the remains
be placed in his casket when he died, his daughter Kathleen said.
Louis Owens
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — Louis Owens, a prize-winning novelist and leading
scholar on American Indian fiction, died Thursday of an apparently
self-inflicted gunshot wound, hospital officials said. He was 53.
Owens, author of the fictional works "The Bone Game," "Dark River," "The
Sharpest Sight," "Wolfsong" and "Nightland," suffered a gunshot wound to the
chest at the Albuquerque airport early Wednesday and was brought to the
University of New Mexico Hospital, airport spokeswoman Maggie Santiago said. He
died Thursday afternoon, hospital spokesman Sam Giammo said.
Owens, who was of Choctaw and Cherokee ancestry, was on the faculty at the
University of California-Davis. English professor Jack Hicks, a colleague,
described Owens as "the leading scholar on Native American fiction in the
country."
Owens won a Wordcraft Circle Writer of the Year award in 1998 for "Mixedblood
Messages: Literature, Film, Family, Place."
One of the writer's best-regarded works was "Other Destinies: Understanding the
American Indian Novel." He won a National Endowment for the Arts Creative
Writing Fellowship in 1989.
Esphyr Slobodkina
GLEN HEAD, N.Y. (AP) — Esphyr Slobodkina, an abstract artist who wrote and
illustrated children's books, died Sunday. She was 93.
Slobodkina wrote "Caps for Sale," which tells the tale of a cap salesman who
encounters a band of playful monkeys who take his caps up a tree. First
published in 1938, the book continues to sell steadily.
Slobodkina was a founding member of the American Abstract Artists, and her
paintings, textiles and sculptures are featured in the collections of the
Whitney Museum of American Art, the Concoran Gallery and the Philadelphia
Museum of Art.
Born in Siberia, Slobodkina came to the U.S. at age 20 and got her start in
children's books during the Depression, when she illustrated several books by
Margaret Wise Brown, the author of "Good Night Moon."
In addition to "Caps for Sale," she also wrote and illustrated "The Wonderful
Feast" (1955), "The Clock" (1956) and "The Long Island Ducklings" (1961).
Albert Whitmore
SYDNEY, Australia (AP) — Albert Whitmore, the last known member of
Australia's famed World War I Light Horsemen cavalry, died late Friday at a
nursing home in Barmera, South Australia. He was 102.
"The passing of Mr. Whitmore marks the end of an era," Vale said in a statement
Saturday. "The Light Horsemen have grown to legendary status for their deeds
and daring and Mr. Whitmore is a part of that legend."
Whitmore was 17 years old when he enlisted in the Australian army to fight in
World War I.
With a farming background and a natural ability with horses, he was sent as a
reinforcement to the 9th Australian Light Horse Brigade, which was operating in
the Middle East.
Whitmore served for 2 before returning to South Australia in September 1919. He
re-enlisted during World War II as a staff sergeant with the army's engineers.
Whitmore's death leaves just 12 known Australian World War I veterans.
Matthew Hubbard
>
> Esphyr Slobodkina
> GLEN HEAD, N.Y. (AP) — Esphyr Slobodkina, an abstract artist who
> wrote and illustrated children's books, died Sunday. She was 93.
> Slobodkina wrote "Caps for Sale," which tells the tale of a cap
> salesman who encounters a band of playful monkeys who take his caps up
> a tree. First published in 1938, the book continues to sell steadily.
What I recall is this story being told on a TV show back when I
was in the target market; I think it was Captain Kangaroo (pretty sure,
actually) but it might have been Romper Room. I don't remember if CK
read it himself or if it was a voiceover over a film that was actually
just a camera panning and scanning across the pictures in the book;
definitely a male reader, though, which is why I don't think it was RR.
I remember it just well enough to think it showed up on the show more
than once. If anyone else's dim memory is slightly less dim than mine,
I would be glad for the edification.
MattH
Janice Brooks
>than once. If anyone else's dim memory is slightly less dim than mine,
>I would be glad for the edification.
>
I'm pritty sure it was Captain Kangeroo
BUS Janice http://www.geocities.com/Nashville/3886/index.html
Moderator(country music) Steel Guitar Forum
http://www.steelguitarforum.com/
Brad Ferguson
<mhub...@csuhayward.edu> wrote:
It was Captain Kangaroo, all right.
The Kangaroo show was done live, six days a week, but some of the
puppet bits ("Suzy Snowflake" comes instantly to mind) were on tape and
were repeated endlessly. From my memory of them, I don't think the
book readings were taped. (CBS was using tape routinely by 1956, years
before the other nets.)
I had a surreal moment once, around 1985. I was leaving the CBS
Broadcast Center on West 57th Street in Manhattan, and had to cut
through the dark, lonely bits to get out the 11th Avenue side. I got
turned around and found myself in some sort of large storage room.
There, against the wall along with a lot of other stuff, was
Grandfather Clock. His eyes were half-closed, but he was smiling.
Probably had been for years.
Matthew Hubbard
>
> In article <3D4490D0...@csuhayward.edu>, Matthew Hubbard
> <mhub...@csuhayward.edu> wrote:
>
> > ObitsMan wrote:
> > >
> > > Esphyr Slobodkina
> > > salesman who encounters a band of playful monkeys who take his
> >
> > What I recall is this story being told on a TV show back when I
>
> It was Captain Kangaroo, all right.
>
> The Kangaroo show was done live, six days a week, but some of the
> puppet bits ("Suzy Snowflake" comes instantly to mind) were on tape
> and were repeated endlessly. From my memory of them, I don't think
> the book readings were taped.
I'm not so certain. I think "Caps for Sale" and the "Curious
George" stories were on tape, at least when I was watching them in the
late '50s and early '60s.
> I had a surreal moment once, around 1985. I was leaving the CBS
> Broadcast Center on West 57th Street in Manhattan, and had to cut
> through the dark, lonely bits to get out the 11th Avenue side. I got
> turned around and found myself in some sort of large storage room.
> There, against the wall along with a lot of other stuff, was
> Grandfather Clock. His eyes were half-closed, but he was smiling.
> Probably had been for years.
That's not surreal, that's fucking creepy. Only the dummy from
the Cliff Robertson as ventriloquist episode of Twilight Zone could
creep me out more.
MattH