AP Obits--5/16
ObitsMan
Obituaries in the News
The Associated Press
Sunday, May 16, 2004; 8:17 PM
Charlotte Benkner
YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio (AP) - Charlotte Benkner, recognized as the world's
second-oldest person, died Friday, a funeral home said. She was 114.
The Guinness Book of Records recognized Benkner as the oldest person in the
world in November, but it replaced her with a woman from Puerto Rico last
month.
Benkner spent her final years rooming with her last living sibling of 10,
sister Matilda O'Hare, who died in January at the age of 99.
The two always ate their meals side by side and recited the Lord's Prayer in
unison. Both loved music, especially symphonies and the Boston Pops. Benkner's
favorite television program was "The Lawrence Welk Show."
Guinness initially recognized Benkner as the world's oldest person upon the
death Nov. 13 of Mitoyo Kawate of Japan, at 114.
Guinness then gave that distinction to Ramona Trinidad Iglesias Jordan on April
22, after a baptismal certificate showed she was born on Aug. 31, 1889. Benkner
was born Nov. 16, 1889.
---
Kevin Britt
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (AP) - Kevin Britt, bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of
Grand Rapids, has died. He was 59.
Co-workers found Britt at his home Sunday morning after they became worried
when he did not return several phone calls. He apparently died sometime during
the weekend, said Ned McGrath, a spokesman for the Archdiocese of Detroit.
McGrath said Britt had canceled all his appointments last week because he
hadn't been feeling well, and that no foul play is suspected.
Britt was named coadjutor bishop in Grand Rapids in 2002, where he served with
the previous bishop, Robert Rose. In October 2003, Britt took full control of
the diocese, which has 102 parishes and represents more than 160,000 Catholics
in an 11-county area in southwest Michigan.
Britt spent nearly a decade as an auxiliary bishop in the Detroit before going
to Grand Rapids.
---
Arnold Stirewalt Gridley
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - Arnold Stirewalt Gridley, a colorful entrepreneur who
invented the "motorized cable car" by replacing the cars' regular metal wheels
with a truck chassis, died May 8 of kidney failure, family said. He was 92.
After buying some of the city's old California Street cable cars at an auction
in 1958, the real estate agent refurbished them and replaced the cars' wheels.
The result was San Francisco's first "motorized cable car," which didn't run on
cables at all but looked like a traditional cable car and could be driven on
any street.
By the time of his death, Gridley had 60 motorized cable cars, which had been
used in at least 10 movies, all the Rice-A-Roni commercials and the Super Bowl
championship parades of the San Francisco 49ers.
A longtime Democratic Party activist, Gridley also supplied motorized cable
cars for politicians to use in their campaigns.
At Gridley's funeral Thursday, his casket was taken to the cemetery in a
procession of motorized cable cars.
---
Anna Lee
LOS ANGELES (AP) - Anna Lee, whose nearly 70-year acting career in movies and
television spanned from her breakthrough role in "How Green Was My Valley" to
an extended run on "General Hospital," died Friday of pneumonia, her son said.
She was 91.
Paralyzed from the waist down in a car accident just a year after she began
playing Lila Quartermaine in ABC's "General Hospital," Lee acted in a
wheelchair for more than two decades until she left the soap last year, Byron
said.
Born in Kent, England, Lee studied acting in London and was known as "the
British bombshell" when touring with the London Repertory Theatre, her son
said.
In the early 1930s she moved to California to work in Hollywood, and appeared
in more than 60 films including "The Sound of Music" (1965), "Fort Apache"
(1948) and "King Solomon's Mines" (1937).
In 1982, Lee received an MBE, or Member of the Order of the British Empire
award. She is to be honored with a lifetime achievement award at Friday's
Daytime Emmy Awards ceremony.
---
Col. Robert Morgan
ASHEVILLE, N.C. (AP) - Col. Robert Morgan, commander of the famed Memphis Belle
B-17 bomber that flew combat missions over Europe during World War II, died
Saturday of complications from a fall, his wife said. He was 85.
Morgan became famous as the pilot of the Memphis Belle, which flew 25 combat
missions over Germany and France during World War II.
The crew completed its 25th bombing mission on May 17, 1943. It was a historic
number; the Belle was the first heavy bomber in the European theater to last 25
missions, the magic number to be sent home.
According to Army records, the plane flew 148 hours, dropping more than 60 tons
of bombs, all on daylight missions.
Morgan co-authored a book about some of his experiences, "The Man Who Flew the
Memphis Belle," with Ron Powers.
Morgan and three other members of the Memphis Belle's crew were made honorary
colonels of the state of Tennessee in 2000.
A 1990 film, "Memphis Belle," told a heavily fictionalized version of the
bomber's final mission.
---
Edward Schroeder
EAST GREENWICH, R.I. (AP) - Edward Schroeder, a crusader for disabled people's
rights who served on more than 20 advisory panels, died Saturday, family said.
He was 84.
Schroeder, who lost the use of his legs at age 3 after contracting polio,
campaigned extensively for handicapped access to schools and polling places,
serving on the executive committee of the President's Committee on Employment
of the Handicapped, as well as the Governor's Commission on the Handicapped.
He also hosted "Able Too," one of the nation's first weekly television programs
produced by and about people with disabilities. The state House of
Representatives awarded him a citation for the program in 1985.
Among the commissions on which he served were the Legislative Commission on
Civil Rights of the Disabled, the State Special Education Advisory Committee
and the board of directors of People Actively Reaching Independence.
---
Paul Wehrle
SAN CLEMENTE, Calif. (AP) - Paul Wehrle, an infectious and communicable
diseases expert who helped wipe out smallpox, died Tuesday of natural causes,
his son said. He was 82.
Wehrle helped develop the vaccination that led the World Health Organization to
declare smallpox eradicated in 1980. In the 1960s as a medical officer for the
WHO, he traveled to Nepal, India, Africa, South America and Afghanistan to
administer the vaccine.
Wehrle also worked on the clinical trials for the Salk vaccine, which wiped out
polio. First administered in 1954, the vaccine was named for its chief
developer, Dr. Jonas Salk.
Wehrle was chairman of the University of Southern California's pediatrics
department from 1961 to 1988 and published numerous academic articles and books
on infectious and communicable diseases.
He also did research on the effects of air pollution on people and served as a
member of the Air Pollution Training Committee of the U.S. Public Health
Service.
---
Yang Shen-sum
HONG KONG (AP) - Yang Shen-sum, a Chinese artist who was a master of the
Lingnan school of painting, has died in Hong Kong. He was 92.
Yang, who lives in Canada, apparently suffered a heart attack early Saturday.
Police said Yang's wife discovered him unconsciousness in his bed.
Yang was known for his bird, animal and landscape paintings in the southern
Chinese style known as Lingnan, which combines traditional techniques with
Japanese and Western realist approaches.
His 2002 giant pine tree painting "Evergreen Forever" is displayed in Beijing's
Great Hall of the People.
Born in 1913 in the southern province of Guangdong, Yang later moved to Hong
Kong and briefly studied art in Kyoto, Japan. He moved to Canada in 1988 and
was in Hong Kong on a visit when he died.