AP Obits--5/9
ObitsMan
ths_308
Obituaries in the News
Thu May 9, 6:47 PM ET
By The Associated Press
SAN ANTONIO (AP) - Bruce Bassett, who developed the pressure suit used by
pilots of two of the United States' spy planes, died Saturday of lung cancer.
He was 66.
The retired U.S. Air Force lieutenant colonel born in San Francisco spent most
of his military career at Brooks Air Force Base in San Antonio, where he helped
establish the Hyperbaric Medicine Division of the USAF School of Aerospace
Medicine.
Bassett also was instrumental in developing a system of hyperbaric chambers
around the world for the Air Force, the San Antonio Express-News reported in
its Thursday editions.
In 1966, he arrived at Groom Dry Lake, about 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas,
Nev., the secret government testing area for advanced aircraft and weapons.
For six years Bassett helped in the design of the pilot ejection and life
support for the U-2 and SR-71 Blackbird planes. Because both planes flew at
extremely high altitudes, the pilot had to wear a full pressure suit to survive
ejection or rapid decompression.
The pressure suit developed by Bassett is on exhibit at the Smithsonian
National Air and Space Museum in Washington.
Buster Brown
NEW YORK (AP) — Buster Brown, a tap star and choreographer who danced on
stage, in films and on television, died Tuesday. He was 88.
Brown was one of the last surviving members of the Copasetics, a legendary
group of veteran dancers who performed together. Known for his quick rhythms
and charm, Brown was a mentor and teacher for a younger generation of dancers.
Brown, who was born James Brown in Baltimore, began his dancing career with a
trio called the Three Aces and Speed Kings. He eventually began a solo career,
appearing in the Hollywood musical "Something to Shout About" in 1943.
Brown toured with the bands of Count Basie, Dizzy Gillespie and Duke Ellington,
and was a featured dancer in Ellington's concerts in the 1960s.
He danced in the films "The Cotton Club" and "Tap" and on two public television
specials. He also performed with the original casts of the Broadway musicals
"Bubbling Brown Sugar" and "Black and Blue."
Brown toured South America with the Cab Calloway Orchestra and was commissioned
by the State Department to perform in several African counties. He also taught
master classes throughout Europe.
Beginning in 1997, Brown was master of ceremonies at a weekly Sunday tap jam at
the Manhattan club Swing 46, where young and old dancers stopped by to perform.
He recently received an honorary doctorate from Oklahoma City University.
Dan Devine
COLUMBIA, Mo. (AP) — Dan Devine, who led Notre Dame to the 1977 national
championship and also coached at Missouri and in the NFL, died Thursday, in the
Phoenix area. He was 77.
Devine, a member of the college football Hall of Fame, went 172-57-9 (.742)
over 22 seasons at Arizona State, Missouri and Notre Dame.
After leaving Missouri in 1970, he became coach and general manager of the
Green Bay Packers, going 25-27-4 from 1971-74.
He took over at Notre Dame in 1975, replacing Ara Parseghian, and led the Irish
to the national title in his third season.
Devine, who had been sick for some time, underwent quintuple bypass surgery
last February in Mesa, Ariz., and had post-surgery complications and did not
recover well, his family said at the time.
Hugh Frances Hicks
BALTIMORE (AP) — Hugh Frances Hicks, a dentist whose Baltimore office doubled
as one of the world's largest light bulbs museums, died Tuesday. He was 79.
The "Mount Vernon Museum of Incandescent Lighting," located in the basement of
his dental office, was known for its large, historical and often quirky
collection of bulbs from around the world.
The collection included bulbs from the head lamps of the Mercedes-Benz
limousines of Nazi leaders Adolf Hitler and Heinrich Himmler. He also had a
bulb from the original torch on the Statue of Liberty.
During his lifetime, Hicks amassed 75,000 bulbs — 10,000 of which he labeled
and put on display at his office. The free museum, which opened in 1964, drew
about 6,000 people every year.
"In terms of numbers, his may very well be the largest collection in the world,
certainly the largest collection any of us knew," said Harold Wallace, a
specialist with the Smithsonian Institution National Museum of American
History. "He was the kind of guy who never met a light bulb he didn't like."
Hicks, who gave free tours, told visitors his collection was the only one in
the world with an uninterrupted history of the light bulb — including 15 or
20 bulbs that Thomas Edison was likely to have had 122 years ago.
The largest bulb in the collection, made in 1926, stands four-foot high and
requires 50,000 watts of electricity to run. The smallest bulb is a pin light
only visible under a microscope. It was produced in the 1960s for missile
wiring.
David Flavous Lambert Jr.
JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — David Flavous Lambert Jr., convicted in 1978 with
then-Sen. Bill Burgin Jr. of converting welfare contract money to their own
use, was killed Tuesday after being hit by a car. Lambert was 71.
Officers said Lambert dashed onto Interstate 395 from some bushes in
Alexandria, Va., and was struck by one vehicle, then by a second.
Charges were not brought against the driver of the second vehicle. Police are
still looking for the first motorist.
Lambert was mayor of Belmont when he was elected to the Mississippi Senate in
1955. He won re-election to the Senate in 1959 and was defeated in a campaign
for the Public Service Commission in 1963.
From the early 1950s, Lambert was a frequent critic of Mississippi's
segregationist policies. Lambert was a loyal Democrat, supporting presidential
candidates John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson.
Burgin and Lambert were convicted in December 1978 in federal court in Biloxi
of conspiring to make sure Learning Development Corp., a Nashville company for
which Lambert worked, retained $860,000 in state welfare contracts. Burgin, at
the time, was chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee. LDC was
providing programs for preschool children in Head Start centers in 20 counties.
In return for influencing award of the contracts, Lambert paid Burgin $83,000
in checks and $13,000 in cash. Lambert was accused of keeping $197,000 for his
own use. Burgin was sentenced to 15 months in jail and fined $10,000. Lambert
was sentenced to 24 months in prison and was fined $10,000.
Ella Mehring
BELLEVILLE, Ill. (AP) — Ella Mehring, whose five-year fight to visit her
granddaughter put her former daughter-in-law behind bars, died Wednesday at age
the age of 78.
Mehring died without getting permission to see her granddaughter, Jenna
Mehring.
Julie Hill refused to grant Mehring visitation rights after Hill's former
husband, Michael Mehring, died in September 1997.
A Madison County judge and the 5th District Appellate Court ordered the
visitation, but Hill refused and she spent several weeks in jail for contempt
of court. She was released in December 2000.
Hill has never said publicly why she didn't want her daughter to see her
grandmother, but she argued in court that only parents should be able to say
who can spend time with their children.
Last month, the Illinois Supreme Court struck down the state's grandparent
visitation law that lets grandparents sue for the right to visit their
grandchildren over the objections of their parents.
Beverly Robinson
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Beverly Robinson, a UCLA professor and authority in
African American theater who produced several exhibits on black folk art, died
Sunday of pancreatic cancer. She was 56.
Robinson, who taught for two decades at the University of California, Los
Angeles, published several works examining African American heritage and folk
culture.
Robinson wrote "Aunt (Ant) Phylis," which was a study of the history and role
of wise women in African American communities, and "Home and Yard: Black Folk
Life Expressions in Los Angeles," which theorized that the arrangement of
backyards reflect African cultural heritage.
Because of her background, Robinson frequently worked as a consultant on films,
including "The Color Purple" and "Coming to America."
At UCLA, Robinson created the speaker series, "Black Speakers in the Arts
Forum," which brought artists and scholars like Maya Angelou, James Baldwin and
John Bubbles to the Southern California campus.
Robinson, who was born in Berkeley, worked with several museums, including the
Smithsonian National Museum of American History and the Folklife Center of the
Library of Congress, where she produced and curated exhibitions on black folk
arts, particularly on dolls and puppets.
Also an accomplished photographer, some of Robinson's works became part of the
Library of Congress Traveling Photographic Exhibitions "Sketches of Southern
Folklife" and "Generation to Generation — Sharing the Intangible."
Michael Todd Jr.
DUBLIN, Ireland (AP) — Michael Todd Jr., a stepson of actress Elizabeth
Taylor who produced the only feature film ever shot in Smell-o-Vision, died of
lung cancer Sunday in his rural Irish mansion. He was 72.
Todd, was the only child of successful producer Michael Todd and his first
wife, Bertha, who died in 1946.
The father groomed him to be a producer, eventually making him a vice president
of his film company.
Todd Jr. was an assistant producer on his father's "This Is Cinerama," an early
attempt to popularize 3-D technology. The son was credited with the film's most
noteworthy sequence, featuring a camera mounted on the front of a roller
coaster.
He was just 28 when his father died in a plane crash in 1958. He shared the
inheritance of his father's wealth with Taylor, then 26, who had married the
elder Todd only the year before.
One of Todd Jr.'s first projects when he took charge of the production company
was 1960's "Scent of Mystery," which starred Denholm Elliott and Peter Lorre
— and a new reality-enhancing technology called Smell-o-Vision. It piped
smells featured in the movie's scenes, such as pipe smoke or food, from tiny
tubes beneath the filmgoers' seats.
But the critics dismissed it as an unpleasant gimmick, and it was never
repeated in a feature-length film.
Hyfler/Rosner
> Hugh Frances Hicks
> BALTIMORE (AP) - Hugh Frances Hicks, a dentist whose Baltimore office
doubled
> as one of the world's largest light bulbs museums, died Tuesday. He was
79.
> The "Mount Vernon Museum of Incandescent Lighting," located in the
basement of
> his dental office, was known for its large, historical and often quirky
> collection of bulbs from around the world.
> The collection included bulbs from the
Watt?
J.D. Baldwin
Let me explain it to you: Dr. Hicks and his practice argon.
--
_+_ From the catapult of |If anyone disagrees with any statement I make, I
_|70|___:)=}- J.D. Baldwin |am quite prepared not only to retract it, but also
\ / bal...@panix.com|to deny under oath that I ever made it. -T. Lehrer
***~~~~-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Hyfler/Rosner
"J.D. Baldwin" <INVALID...@example.com> wrote in message
news:abge5g$jqs$1...@reader1.panix.com...
>
> In the previous article, Hyfler/Rosner <rel...@rcn.com> wrote:
> > > Hugh Frances Hicks
> > > BALTIMORE (AP) - Hugh Frances Hicks, a dentist whose Baltimore
> > > office doubled as one of the world's largest light bulbs museums,
> > > died Tuesday. He was 79. The "Mount Vernon Museum of Incandescent
> > > Lighting," located in the basement of his dental office, was known
> > > for its large, historical and often quirky collection of bulbs from
> > > around the world. The collection included bulbs from the
> >
> > Watt?
>
> Let me explain it to you: Dr. Hicks and his practice argon.
> --
>
Think he's wearing a halogen now?
Hyfler/Rosner
> > > Hugh Frances Hicks
> > > BALTIMORE (AP) - Hugh Frances Hicks, a dentist whose Baltimore
> > > office doubled as one of the world's largest light bulbs museums,
> > > died Tuesday. He was 79. The "Mount Vernon Museum of Incandescent
> > > Lighting," located in the basement of his dental office, was known
> > > for its large, historical and often quirky collection of bulbs from
> > > around the world. The collection included bulbs from the
> >
> > Watt?
>
> Let me explain it to you: Dr. Hicks and his practice argon.
> --
>
Any truth to the rumor that he died in a 3-way?
J.D. Baldwin
In the previous article, Hyfler/Rosner <rel...@rcn.com> wrote:
> > > > BALTIMORE (AP) - Hugh Frances Hicks, a dentist whose Baltimore
> > > > office doubled as one of the world's largest light bulbs museums,
> > > > died Tuesday. He was 79. The "Mount Vernon Museum of Incandescent
> > > > Lighting," located in the basement of his dental office, was known
> > > > for its large, historical and often quirky collection of bulbs from
> > > > around the world. The collection included bulbs from the
> > >
> > > Watt?
> >
> > Let me explain it to you: Dr. Hicks and his practice argon.
> > --
> >
>
> Any truth to the rumor that he died in a 3-way?
Could be. I heard he was a "switch."
J.D. Baldwin
In the previous article, Hyfler/Rosner <rel...@rcn.com> wrote:
> > > > Hugh Frances Hicks
> > > > BALTIMORE (AP) - Hugh Frances Hicks, a dentist whose Baltimore
> > > > office doubled as one of the world's largest light bulbs museums,
> > > > died Tuesday. He was 79. The "Mount Vernon Museum of Incandescent
> > > > Lighting," located in the basement of his dental office, was known
> > > > for its large, historical and often quirky collection of bulbs from
> > > > around the world. The collection included bulbs from the
> > >
> > > Watt?
> >
> > Let me explain it to you: Dr. Hicks and his practice argon.
> > --
> >
>
> Think he's wearing a halogen now?
I have no idea. Go astatine a religion group.
churcht
"J.D. Baldwin" wrote:
>
> In the previous article, Hyfler/Rosner <rel...@rcn.com> wrote:
> > > > > BALTIMORE (AP) - Hugh Frances Hicks, a dentist whose Baltimore
> > > > > office doubled as one of the world's largest light bulbs museums,
> > > > > died Tuesday. He was 79. The "Mount Vernon Museum of Incandescent
> > > > > Lighting," located in the basement of his dental office, was known
> > > > > for its large, historical and often quirky collection of bulbs from
> > > > > around the world. The collection included bulbs from the
> > > >
> > > > Watt?
> > >
> > > Let me explain it to you: Dr. Hicks and his practice argon.
> > > --
> > >
> >
> > Any truth to the rumor that he died in a 3-way?
>
> Could be. I heard he was a "switch."
Well, even though he shuffled off his mortal coil to heavenly filament,
I don't think he was "off"ed. He was much too bright for that.
J.D. Baldwin
Wire you saying that?
churcht
"J.D. Baldwin" wrote:
>
> In the previous article, churcht <chu...@res.raytheon.com> wrote:
> > > In the previous article, Hyfler/Rosner <rel...@rcn.com> wrote:
> > > > > > > BALTIMORE (AP) - Hugh Frances Hicks, a dentist whose Baltimore
> > > > > > > office doubled as one of the world's largest light bulbs museums,
> > > > > > > died Tuesday. He was 79. The "Mount Vernon Museum of Incandescent
> > > > > > > Lighting," located in the basement of his dental office, was known
> > > > > > > for its large, historical and often quirky collection of bulbs from
> > > > > > > around the world. The collection included bulbs from the
> > > > > >
> > > > > > Watt?
> > > > >
> > > > > Let me explain it to you: Dr. Hicks and his practice argon.
> > > > > --
> > > > >
> > > >
> > > > Any truth to the rumor that he died in a 3-way?
> > >
> > > Could be. I heard he was a "switch."
> >
> > Well, even though he shuffled off his mortal coil to heavenly filament,
> > I don't think he was "off"ed. He was much too bright for that.
>
> Wire you saying that?
He kept up with current events. Plus, he kept a low profile.
I mean, it's not like he ran his business like a three ring circuit...
Tim "No Resistance to Bad Puns" Churchill
J.D. Baldwin
I'm sorry. Raytheon employees and their immediate families are
ineligible to participate in pun threads once they have become
electrical in nature.
Joe Pucillo
> I'm sorry. Raytheon employees and their immediate families
> are ineligible to participate in pun threads once they have
> become electrical in nature.
Yep. Them's the brakes.
JP
Louis Epstein
: In the previous article, churcht <chu...@res.raytheon.com> wrote:
:> "J.D. Baldwin" wrote:
:> >
:> > In the previous article, churcht <chu...@res.raytheon.com> wrote:
:> > > > In the previous article, Hyfler/Rosner <rel...@rcn.com> wrote:
:> > > > > > > > BALTIMORE (AP) - Hugh Frances Hicks, a dentist whose Baltimore
:> > > > > > > > office doubled as one of the world's largest light bulbs museums,
:> > > > > > > > died Tuesday. He was 79. The "Mount Vernon Museum of Incandescent
:> > > > > > > > Lighting," located in the basement of his dental office, was
:> > > > > > > > known for its large, historical and often quirky collection
:> > > > > > > > of bulbs from around the world. The collection included bulbs
:> > > > > > > > from the
:> > > > > > >
:> > > > > > > Watt?
:> > > > > >
:> > > > > > Let me explain it to you: Dr. Hicks and his practice argon.
:> > > > > >
:> > > > > >
:> > > > >
:> > > > > Any truth to the rumor that he died in a 3-way?
:> > > >
:> > > > Could be. I heard he was a "switch."
:> > >
:> > > Well, even though he shuffled off his mortal coil to heavenly filament,
:> > > I don't think he was "off"ed. He was much too bright for that.
:> >
:> > Wire you saying that?
:>
:> He kept up with current events. Plus, he kept a low profile.
:> I mean, it's not like he ran his business like a three ring circuit...
: I'm sorry. Raytheon employees and their immediate families are
: ineligible to participate in pun threads once they have become
: electrical in nature.
Lighten up!
This subject should not be treated with such high intensity.
-=-=-
The World Trade Center towers MUST rise again,
at least as tall as before...or terror has triumphed.
churcht
Louis Epstein wrote:
>
> J.D. Baldwin <INVALID...@example.com> wrote:
>
> : In the previous article, churcht <chu...@res.raytheon.com> wrote:
> :> "J.D. Baldwin" wrote:
> :> >
> : I'm sorry. Raytheon employees and their immediate families are
> : ineligible to participate in pun threads once they have become
> : electrical in nature.
>
> Lighten up!
> This subject should not be treated with such high intensity.
Too true, tempers are flaring. We must all remember that this
dialogue is all done tungsten-in-cheek.
Tim "Dim Bulb" Churchill
churcht
Joe, I believe you are thinking of Raybestos, not Raytheon.
Asbestos I can figure out, anyway...
Tim "I Wish I Worked at Raybestos, Employee Discounts for Patriot
Defense Systems aren't Exercised too Often" Churchill
churcht
"J.D. Baldwin" wrote:
>
>
> I'm sorry. Raytheon employees and their immediate families are
> ineligible to participate in pun threads once they have become
> electrical in nature.
A thousand pardons... I had forgotten that Ohm's Law to Raytheoners
is equivalent to Godwin's Law for others, netiquette-wise.
I shall conduct myself better in the future, at least faraday.
<ducking>
MadCow57
This must go on the Top Ten Pun List for 2002. (Or should it be the Bottom
Ten?)
Joe Pucillo
> Joe Pucillo wrote:
> > J.D. Baldwin wrote...
> > > I'm sorry. Raytheon employees and their immediate
> > > families are ineligible to participate in pun threads
> > > once they have become electrical in nature.
> > Yep. Them's the brakes.
> Joe, I believe you are thinking of Raybestos, not Raytheon.
> Asbestos I can figure out, anyway...
Wouldn't you know it? My first foray into a pun thread, and I crash and
burn miserably.
JP
Raymond Besse
> http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20020509/ap_on_re_us/
> dea ths_308
-snip-
> David Flavous Lambert Jr.
> JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — David Flavous Lambert Jr., convicted in 1978
> with then-Sen. Bill Burgin Jr. of converting welfare contract money to
> their own use, was killed Tuesday after being hit by a car. Lambert
> was 71. Officers said Lambert dashed onto Interstate 395 from some
> bushes in Alexandria, Va., and was struck by one vehicle, then by a
> second.
Was he being chased, or is this a suicide?
--
"Love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who
hate you, and pray for those who mistreat you and persecute you." - Jesus
"It was believed afterward that the man was a lunatic, because there was
no sense in what he said." - Mark Twain