AP Obits--5/31
ObitsMan
Obituaries in the News
Sat May 31, 7:04 PM ET
FORT WORTH, Texas - Janet Collins, the first black prima ballerina to appear at
the Metropolitan Opera and one of a few black women to become prominent in
American classical ballet, died Wednesday. She was 86.
In 1951, Collins performed lead roles in "Aida" and "Carmen," and danced in "La
Gioconda" and "Samson and Delilah" at the Met in New York City. That was four
years before Marian Anderson made her historic debut as the first black to sing
a principal role at the Met.
In a 2000 interview with the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Collins recalled she was
not allowed to tour with the company during the offseason because she could not
perform onstage with white dancers in the South.
Collins left the Met in 1954. During the 1950s, she toured with her own dance
group throughout the United States and Canada and taught.
Collins also danced in films, including the 1943 musical "Stormy Weather" and
1946's "The Thrill of Brazil."
The Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater in 1974 paid homage to Collins and Pearl
Primus as pioneering black women in dance.
Peter Lasko
LONDON (AP) — Peter Lasko, who fled Nazi Germany as a child and grew up to
head one of Britain's most prominent art institutions, died May 18. He was 79.
Lasko's family said he died in France but did not give an exact location or
specify the cause of his death.
An art historian, Lasko directed the Courtauld Institute, part of the
University of London, from 1974 to 1985. The Courtauld, a prestigious art and
art history school, also includes the Courtauld Gallery, housing a masterpiece
collection of Impressionist and postimpressionist works.
Born in Berlin in 1924, Lasko left Germany for Britain with his parents 13
years later.
Lasko was an assistant keeper at the British Museum for 15 years. In 1965 he
became a visual arts professor at the University of East Anglia and founding
dean of the university's school of fine art and music.
While there he wrote "Ars Sacra," about metalwork and ivory carving from the
ninth century to the 12th, for the Pelican History of Art series.
Lasko was made a Companion of the Order of the British Empire, or CBE, in 1981,
and also was a fellow of the British Academy.
Shirley Bulah Stamps
WILMINGTON, Del. (AP) — Shirley Bulah Stamps, whose fight to attend an
all-white school nearly 50 years ago became part of the action that led to the
landmark Brown vs. Board of Education decision, died Wednesday after suffering
a heart attack. She was 59.
Stamps was abandoned at birth in a Wilmington apartment building and was
adopted. As an 8-year-old in 1951, she was one of two children named as
plaintiffs in a lawsuit that led to a state Supreme Court ruling that Delaware
schools be desegregated.
The state Board of Education appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, and Stamps'
suit was combined with several others from around the country. That led to the
Brown vs. Board of Education of Topeka, Kan., ruling, which found that
segregated public schools were unconstitutional.
The Delaware case was unique in that all the other state courts had upheld
segregation.