/ Stars that died in 2023

Monday, December 1, 2014

William Everett "Billy" Strange died he was 81

William Everett "Billy" Strange  was an American singer, songwriter, guitarist, and actor. He was a session musician with the famed Wrecking Crew, and was inducted into the Musicians Hall of Fame and Museum as a member of The Wrecking Crew in 2007.

(September 29, 1930 – February 22, 2012)

Biography

Early life

Billy Strange was born in Long Beach, California on September 29, 1930.[1]

Recordings and songwriting

Strange teamed up with Mac Davis to write several hit songs for Elvis Presley, including "A Little Less Conversation", the theme from Charro!, and "Memories". Strange also composed the musical soundtrack for two of Presley's films Live a Little, Love a Little and The Trouble with Girls. He also wrote "Limbo Rock" that was recorded by The Champs and Chubby Checker.
Strange recorded many cover versions of James Bond movie themes for GNP Crescendo Records and provided the instrumental backing and arrangement for Nancy Sinatra's non-soundtrack version of "You Only Live Twice" as well as Nancy and Frank Sinatra's "Somethin' Stupid". He was recognized by the Rockabilly Hall of Fame for his pioneering contribution to the genre.[2]
Strange played guitar on numerous Beach Boys hits, including "Sloop John B" and the Pet Sounds album. He also played guitar for Nancy Sinatra, Jan & Dean, The Ventures, Willie Nelson, The Everly Brothers, Wanda Jackson, Randy Newman, and Nat King Cole, among others. One of his most famous performances is on Nancy Sinatra's version of "Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down)".
Strange arranged and conducted all of Nancy Sinatra's Reprise albums as well as Nancy Sinatra's and Lee Hazlewood's 1972 RCA Records release, Nancy & Lee Again and their 2003 album, Nancy & Lee 3. He also arranged the 1981 Sinatra and Mel Tillis album, Mel & Nancy. He arranged and conducted for Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis, Jr., Duane Eddy, and Elvis Presley. One of his most famous arrangements was "These Boots Are Made for Walkin'" for Nancy Sinatra. Strange also performed the vocals for Steve McQueen in Baby the Rain Must Fall.[3]
Heard on the soundtracks of many Disney features, Strange played themes for such TV shows as "The Munsters" (1964), "Batman" (1966) and "Have Gun - Will Travel" (1957). He is the guitarist heard on the theme to "The Munsters".[4]
"A Little Less Conversation", which he wrote with Mac Davis, was on the sound­tracks of the DreamWorks ani­mated fea­ture films Shark Tale (2004) and Megamind (2010).[5]
He sang his own com­po­si­tion, "The Bal­lad of Bunny and Claude", in the Mer­rie Melodies Bunny And Claude (We Rob Car­rot Patches) (1968) and The Great Carrot-Train Rob­bery (1969).[5]

Personal life

Strange was married to singer and actress Joan O'Brien from 1954 to 1955. They had a son, Russell Glen Strange, born on October 4, 1955.
He was also married to Betty Jo Conrad (son: Jerry Strange)from 1960 to 1978. They had a daughter together, Kelly Kimberly Strange, born on November 11, 1964.
While separated from Betty Jo, Strange moved from California to Tennessee to open and run a publishing firm for the Sinatras and lived with/dated Tricia "LeAnn" King. They had a daughter, Mary "Micah" King (Strange), who was born on December 23, 1976 in Lawrenceburg, Tennessee.
Strange was married to singer Jeanne Black in his final years. He died on February 22, 2012, aged 81.[3]

Selected filmography

As actor

Soundtrack

Selected discography

  • Billy Strange Plays Roger Miller
  • Mr. Guitar
  • The James Bond Theme / Walk Don't Run '64
  • English Hits of '65
  • Goldfinger
  • Secret Agent File (later rereleased as a compilation)
  • James Bond Double Feature
  • In the Mexican Bag
  • Great Western Themes
  • Billy Strange and The Challengers
  • Strange Country
  • 12 String Guitar
  • Railroad Man
  • Super Scary Monster Party (compilation)
  • De Sade (film soundtrack)

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Steve Kordek, American pinball machine designer died he was 100


Steve Kordek  was an American businessman of Polish descent who was best known for the design of the pinball machines.

(December 26, 1911 – February 19, 2012)

Kordek is credited with designing over 100 pinball machines. The last game Kordek helped design was 2003's Vacation America, based on the National Lampoon's Vacation movies.[1] Among the companies that Kordek designed for are Genco, Williams and Bally.
Kordek was credited with many innovations to pinball machines. He revised the pin game machines of the 1930s by putting two inward-facing flippers at the bottom of the playing field that were controlled by two buttons on the side of the machine.[1] Other innovations still used today are drop targets and multi-ball mode.
Kordek died on February 19, 2012, at age 100.[2]

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Sunday, November 23, 2014

Elizabeth Connell, South African soprano, died from cancer he was 65

Elizabeth Connell  was a South African-born operatic soprano (formerly mezzo-soprano) whose career was conducted mainly in the United Kingdom and Australia died from cancer he was 65. She was acclaimed for her performances of the great Strauss, Verdi and Wagner heroines.

(22 October 1946 – 18 February 2012)

Biography

Elizabeth Connell was born in Port Elizabeth, South Africa in 1946. Following her debut at Wexford Festival Opera in 1972, she sang at the opening of the Sydney Opera House in Prokofiev's War and Peace in 1973, and continued to have a special relationship with Opera Australia for the rest of her career. Following a five-year association with English National Opera, she was a freelance artist with the major opera houses.
She appeared at the opera houses of London, Paris, Vienna, Berlin, Munich, Hamburg, New York (Metropolitan Opera), San Francisco, Milan (La Scala), Naples and Geneva in a wide repertoire and at the Bayreuth, Salzburg, Orange, Verona and Glyndebourne Festivals. Connell had a successful collaboration with conductors such as Claudio Abbado, Riccardo Muti, Giuseppe Sinopoli, Carlo Maria Giulini, Wolfgang Sawallisch, Sir Charles Mackerras, Sir Edward Downes, Sir Colin Davis, Lorin Maazel, James Levine, Seiji Ozawa and Sir Mark Elder.
In concert, Connell's performances included Beethoven's Ninth Symphony and Missa Solemnis and Mahler's Eighth Symphony with conductors such as Abbado, Giulini, Maazel, Sinopoli and Pierre Boulez. In recital, she appeared with Geoffrey Parsons, Graham Johnson, Eugene Asti and Lamar Crowson in Milan, Geneva, Sydney, Johannesburg and at the Wigmore Hall.
Engagements included Kostelnička in JanĆ”Äek's JenÅÆfa, Ortrud in Wagner's Lohengrin, Bellini's Norma, Abigaille in Verdi's Nabucco and Ariadne in Strauss's Ariadne auf Naxos for Opera Australia; Ortrud, Beethoven's Fidelio and Wagner's Tristan und Isolde at the Berlin State Opera, Isolde in Hamburg, Senta in Wagner's The Flying Dutchman in Hamburg and Berlin and Strauss's Elektra in Berlin, Madrid, Bordeaux and Montreal as well as the FƤrberin in a new production of Strauss's Die Frau ohne Schatten in Frankfurt and at the Deutsche Oper Berlin.
She sang Elektra in Las Palmas, Gertrude (Humperdinck's Hansel and Gretel) for the Royal Opera (with worldwide Telecast and DVD release) and concerts of JenÅÆfa with the London Symphony and Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestras under Daniel Harding as well as Fidelio with London Lyric Opera with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.[1]
In December 2008, Elizabeth Connell had a triumphant success at the opening night of Puccini's Turandot at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, which she also sang in Hamburg and for Opera Australia.
In May and June 2010, she sang in a new production of Tristan und Isolde at the Prague State Opera, conducted by Jan Latham-Kƶnig.
Her 2010 performances also included Elektra in Auckland as well as a solo recital in London St John's, Smith Square.
In February 2011, she returned to Prague for Turandot. In April 2011 she was due to sing Lady Macbeth in a new production of Macbeth for Opera Australia, but she had to cancel at short notice because of a medical emergency.
In October 2011, Connell took part in an opera gala at the Bad Urach Festival, where she sang arias and scenes from Nicolai's The Merry Wives of Windsor, and Verdi's Otello and Macbeth.
In 2012, she was due to make her debut with the Toulon Opera as Ortrud in a new production of Lohengrin, and to return to Melbourne as Turandot, but her illness prevented her doing so.
Her final performance was a recital on 27 November 2011 in Hastings. Elizabeth Connell died in London on 18 February 2012, aged 65, from cancer.[2] [3]

Recordings

Her many recordings include Rossini's William Tell (Decca, Riccardo Chailly), Mahler's Eighth Symphony (EMI, Klaus Tennstedt), Mendelssohn's Second Symphony (DG, Abbado), Franz Schreker's Die Gezeichneten (Decca, Lothar Zagrosek), Donizetti's Poliuto, Verdi's I due Foscari (Philips, Lamberto Gardelli), Schoenberg's Gurre-Lieder (Denon, Eliahu Inbal), Wagner's Lohengrin (Philips/Friedrich) and Schubert Lieder with Graham Johnson, as part of Hyperion Records Complete Schubert Edition.
In 2008, two important CD releases were added to her discography: Her first operatic recital, singing great scenes by Wagner and Strauss for ABC Classics, conducted by Muhai Tang, and Benjamin Britten's Owen Wingrave, conducted by Richard Hickox. Elizabeth Connell also recorded portions of Sir Granville Bantock's "The Song of Songs" under the baton of Vernon Handley, for Hyperion.

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Michael Davis, American bassist (MC5), died from liver failure he was 68

Michael Davis was an American bass guitarist, singer, songwriter and music producer, best known as a member of the MC5.

(June 5, 1943 – February 17, 2012)

MC5

After dropping out of the fine arts program at Wayne State University, Davis became the bassist for the MC5 in 1964, replacing original bassist Pat Burrows[2] when singer Rob Tyner and guitarist Wayne Kramer decided that they liked Davis's style and wanted him in the band. He played on the band's three original albums, including their debut Kick Out the Jams, and remained in the group until 1972.[3] Sometime in the mid-1970s, Davis spent time in Kentucky's Lexington Federal Prison on a drug charge, where he was unexpectedly reunited with Wayne Kramer.

Destroy All Monsters

Upon his release from prison, joined the Ann Arbor based art noise band Destroy All Monsters[4] at the urging of friend Ron Asheton, of The Stooges.
Davis spent seven years with Destroy All Monsters, penning the underground punk hits "Nobody Knows", "Meet the Creeper", "Little Boyfriend", "Rocking The Cradle" and "Fast City" among others. The band recorded and released on Cherry Red Records, toured the U.K., and then broke up.

Blood Orange and MC5 reunion

After Destroy All Monsters, Davis moved to Tucson, Arizona where he played in Blood Orange with drummer Cory Barnes. When plans for Blood Orange to depart for a European tour were shelved indefinitely, Davis began playing with Rich Hopkins and Luminarios, the latter taking him back into the studio to record several albums for Germany's Blue Rose Records. In the spring of 2003, Davis reunited with fellow surviving members Wayne Kramer and Dennis Thompson to play a show at London's 100 Club as part of a promotion for an MC5 inspired line of apparel for Levi Strauss Vintage Clothing. This spawned a 200 city world tour and a trip back into the studio to write new songs.

Music education project

Following a serious motorcycle crash on a Los Angeles freeway in May 2006, Davis along with his wife Angela Davis, launched a non-profit organization called The Music Is Revolution Foundation to support music education in public schools.
Volunteers Jake Cavaliere (The Lords of Altamont), Handsome Dick Manitoba (The Dictators), Steve Aoki (Dim Mak Records/Kid Millionaire), Pro-Skater Corey Duffel, Pennywise bassist Randy Bradbury and Obey Giant's Shepard Fairey work alongside Davis to raise funds and public awareness about the ability of music education to increase cognitive ability and test scores, reduce absenteeism and drop-out rates and to inspire a new generation of future voters to learn about other cultures and other times, develop greater understanding of the world around them, and express themselves through music.

Music Producer

Davis produced and performed on The Mother's Anger's self-titled debut album. He also produced Dollhouse's debut album, Rock N Soul Circus.

Art career

After the MC5 self-destructed in the early 1970s, Davis continued exploration as a visual artist while serving time at the Lexington Federal Correction Institution for a narcotics violation. During this period, he was tasked with creating oversized abstract paintings for permanent display in the prison’s Visitor Center and administrative offices. Several years of immersion in life in the desert southwest and world travels with various rock bands left Davis with the inspiration and desire to return to his roots as a painter, studying art along the way at The Armory Center For The Arts in Pasadena, California, the University of Oregon, in Eugene, Oregon, and at Portland Community College in Portland, Oregon and Butte Community College/California State University, Chico in Chico, California.
In 2006 he collaborated with artist Chris Kro, pro skateboarder Corey Duffel, and Foundation Skateboards to design a commemorative line of skateboard decks and t-shirts.
In 2007, he collaborated with OBEY’s Shepard Fairey on a limited line of MC5:OBEY merchandise.
In 2009, his painting “White Panther/Big World” appeared on the Cleopatra Records release MC5: The Very Best of MC5.
In 2011, his painting titled “Black To Comm Sk8r Boys” appeared as the cover art for the Easy Action Records multi-media audio/DVD release from the 2009 sold- out performance by British rock superstars Primal Scream and the reunited surviving members of the MC5 at the Royal Festival Hall. This piece inspired a series of four additional paintings, as well as a run of limited edition prints, all featuring the Sk8tr Boys, this time against iconic Detroit backdrops.

Death

On February 17, 2012, Davis died of liver failure at the age of 68. He was survived by his wife, four sons, and a daughter.[1]

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Dick Anthony Williams, American actor (Edward Scissorhands, The Jerk, Homefront), died after long illness he was 77


Dick Anthony Williams (born Richard Anthony Williams) [1] was an American actor. Williams is known for his starring performances on Broadway in The Poison Tree, What the Wine-Sellers Buy and Black Picture Show. Williams won the 1974 Drama Desk Award for his performance in What the Wine-Sellers Buy, for which he was also nominated for a Tony Award, and was nominated in 1975 for both a Tony and a Drama Desk Award for his performance in Black Picture Show.[2]

(August 9, 1934 – February 16, 2012)

Biography

Born Richard Anthony Williams in Chicago, Williams had an extensive resume as an actor in films and on television.[3] His best-known film roles include Pretty Tony in The Mack, the easy-going limo driver in Dog Day Afternoon, Denzel Washington's father in Mo' Better Blues and sympathetic Officer Allen in Edward Scissorhands. In television, he was a regular on the short-lived post World War II-era ABC primetime soap opera Homefront Abe Davis during the early 1990s. In 1996, he played the father of Larry's assistant Beverley in an episode of The Larry Sanders Show.Williams also starred in a documentary film "The Meeting", about two African-American political leaders (Malcolm X and Martin L. King, Jr.) discussing the fate of black people in America. Williams married Gloria Edwards, an actress,[4] who died in 1988, and he had two children with her.

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Anthony Shadid, American journalist, died from asthma he was 43

Anthony Shadid was a foreign correspondent for The New York Times based in Baghdad and Beirut.[1][2] He won the Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting twice, in 2004 and 2010 died from asthma he was 43.

(September 26, 1968 – February 16, 2012)

Career

From 2003 to 2009 Shadid was a staff writer for The Washington Post where he was an Islamic affairs correspondent based in the Middle East. Before The Washington Post, Shadid worked as Middle East correspondent for the Associated Press based in Cairo and as news editor of the AP bureau in Los Angeles. He spent two years covering diplomacy and the State Department for The Boston Globe before joining the Post's foreign desk.[3][4]
In 2002, he was shot in the shoulder by[5] an Israel sniper in Ramallah while reporting for the Boston Globe in the West Bank. The bullet also grazed his spine.[6][7]
On March 16, 2011, Shadid and three colleagues were reported missing in Eastern Libya, having gone there to report on the uprising against the dictatorship of Col. Muammar Al-Ghaddafi.[8] On March 18, 2011, The New York Times reported that Libya agreed to free him and three colleagues: Stephen Farrell, Lynsey Addario and Tyler Hicks.[9] The Libyan government released the four journalists on March 21, 2011.[10]

Awards

Shadid twice won the Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting, in 2004 and 2010, for his coverage of the Iraq War.[11] His experiences in Iraq were the subject for his 2005 book Night Draws Near, an empathetic look at how the war has impacted the Iraqi people beyond liberation and insurgency. Night Draws Near won the Ridenhour Book Prize for 2006. He won the 2004 Michael Kelly Award, as well as journalism prizes from the Overseas Press Club and the American Society of Newspaper Editors. Shadid was a 2011 recipient of an honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from the American University of Beirut.[12] He won the George Polk Award for Foreign Reporting in 2003 and in 2012 for his work in 2011.[13] House of Stone was a finalist for the National Book Award (Nonfiction) and the National Book Critics Circle Award (Autobiography).[14][15]

Personal life

Born in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, of Lebanese Christian descent, he was a 1990 graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Madison.[16][17] where he wrote for The Daily Cardinal student newspaper.[18] He was married to Nada Bakri, also a reporter for the New York Times. They have a son, Malik. Shadid has a daughter, Laila, from his first marriage.[19]

Death

Pulitzer-Prize winner Anthony Shadid died on February 16, 2012, from an acute asthma attack while attempting to leave Syria.[11][20] Shadid's smoking and extreme allergy to horses are believed to be the major contributing factors in causing his fatal asthma attack.[20][21] "He was walking behind some horses," said his father. "He's more allergic to those than anything else—and he had an asthma attack."[21] His body was carried to Turkey by Tyler Hicks, a photographer for The New York Times.[2][22]
Anthony’s cousin, Dr. Edward Shadid of Oklahoma City challenged the Times' version of the death, and instead blamed the publication for forcing Anthony into Syria.[2][22]

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Harry McPherson, American lawyer and lobbyist, advisor to Lyndon B. Johnson, died from cancer he was 82

Harry Cummings McPherson, Jr.  served as counsel and special counsel to President of the United States Lyndon B. Johnson from 1965 to 1969 and was Johnson’s chief speechwriter from 1966 to 1969. McPherson’s A Political Education, 1972, is a classic insider’s view of Washington and an essential source for Johnson’s presidency. A prominent Washington lawyer and lobbyist since 1969, McPherson was awarded American Lawyer magazine’s Lifetime Achievement Award in 2008. He died February 16, 2012, in Bethesda, Maryland.[1]

(August 22, 1929 – February 16, 2012)




Early life, education, military service

McPherson was born and raised in Tyler, Texas. He attended Southern Methodist University and received his B.A. in 1949 from the University of the South. Intending to be a poet and a writer, he enrolled at Columbia University for a master’s degree in English literature.[2] When the Korean War broke out in 1950, however, he enlisted in the Air Force. McPherson served in Germany as an intelligence officer, studying Russian troop deployments and plotting targets.[3]
As soon as the Korean War ended, McPherson enrolled at the University of Texas School of Law.
This was the era when McCarthyism was at its peak. I was very upset about Joe McCarthy and decided that I wanted to be a lawyer to defend people against the likes of McCarthy. I was worried that he was going to usher a period of totalitarianism in the United States. I wanted to fight that.[3]
He received his LL.B. in 1956. Shortly afterwards, he was invited to Washington by a cousin who worked for Lyndon Baines Johnson. Johnson, who was at the time the Senate majority leader, was seeking a young lawyer from Texas to work for the Democratic Policy Committee, which Johnson chaired.

Early public service in Washington

McPherson served as assistant general counsel (1956–1959), associate counsel (1959–1961) and general counsel (1961–1963) to the Democratic Policy Committee, the Democratic Party’s key legislative policy organ on the Senate side. His duties included summarizing bills coming before the Senate for members of the Calendar Committee. An outspoken advocate for civil rights, he helped draft legislation that became the Civil Rights Act of 1957, whose goal was to ensure that all African Americans could exercise their right to vote. After Kennedy was elected with Johnson as his vice president, McPherson continued to serve as counsel to the Democratic Policy Committee under Senator Mike Mansfield.
From 1963 to 1964, McPherson served as deputy under secretary of the Army for international affairs and special assistant to the secretary for civil functions. His responsibilities included settling civilian disputes in the Panama Canal Zone and Okinawa, and overseeing the Army Corps of Engineers.
The following year (August 1964-August 1965) he served as assistant secretary of state in the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, which arranged for thousands of foreigners to study at American universities, for foreign officials and cultural groups to visit the United States, and for American orchestras and dance companies to travel abroad.

Counsel to President Lyndon B. Johnson

McPherson with President Johnson. Photo courtesy Lyndon Baines Johnson Library and Museum.

In 1966, McPherson and his colleague Berl Bernhard organized the White House Conference on Civil Rights, whose 2,400 participants included Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Thurgood Marshall, and representatives of almost every major civil rights group. According to Kevin L. Yuill, “This conference, promised in Johnson's famous Howard University speech in 1965, was to be the high point of Johnson's already considerable efforts on civil rights.”[6]
McPherson came to believe the Vietnam War was unwinnable, and along with Secretary of Defense Clark Clifford helped persuade Johnson to scale back the bombing of North Vietnam.[4] McPherson drafted Johnson’s landmark televised address of March 31, 1968, announcing the policy turnaround in Vietnam as well as the fact that he would not seek reelection.[4]
McPherson’s A Political Education, covering the years 1956 to 1969, is essential reading for anyone seeking to understand Johnson’s years as senator and president. The book’s thought-provoking conclusion:
Perhaps the most serious question of all was whether we could learn from our experience and shorten the lag between events and our response to them. Nearly twenty years passed from the time black Americans began leaving the South, until the national government began to respond to their unique problems in the Northern and Western cities. Our apprehension of the danger to us in the unification of Vietnam under Hanoi’s rule was the same in 1963 as it had been in 1954. Our political leaders, like the rest of us, dealt with new phenomena on the basis of prevailing assumptions. Usually the assumptions were changed only by bitter experience, not by analysis and foresight. The public’s reluctance to think new thoughts had much to do with that; so did their faith, which their leaders shared, that as a nation we were immune to history. We believed we could afford the lag, with our cushion of power, wealth, and resourcefulness. Detroit and Tet told us otherwise.
It was Lyndon Johnson’s fate to be President at a time when the cost of the lag came home. On the whole, he paid it bravely. … He finished the old agenda, and by painful example taught us something about the new.[7]
In a 1981 interview, McPherson called Johnson "a vehement, dominant, brilliant man – not intellectually brilliant in the sense of having a vast store of reading and knowledge about world history, certainly not the historian that Harry Truman was. But brilliant in sheer wit, in sheer intellectual mental horsepower. The smartest man I ever saw."[8] He reiterated this admiration in 1999: "To this day, Johnson is still the smartest man I’ve ever met, although maybe not the wisest.”[3]

Private law practice in Washington, D.C.

Soon after Johnson left office, McPherson joined the Washington-based law firm Verner, Liipfert, and Bernhard, which he helped turn into one of the capital’s best-known lobbying firms. (In 2002 the firm merged with DLA Piper.) McPherson has counseled businesses, nonprofit organizations, foreign governments, and individuals on a range of matters involving Congress, the executive branch, and regulatory agencies. Notable cases include:
  • Represented a major television network in the successful struggle to repeal the Financial Interest and Syndication Rules (the “fin-syn” rule), imposed by the FCC in 1970 and abolished in 1993, which prevented major television networks from owning any of the programming aired in primetime.[9]
  • Brokered the Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement in 1998 between Big Tobacco and 46 states, which gave tobacco companies some immunity from class action suits in exchange for limiting nicotine levels and paying antismoking groups about $250 billion.[4]
  • Represented more than 2,500 Czech-Americans in obtaining compensation for assets seized by the Communist government of Czechoslovakia.[9]
McPherson has served on several presidential commissions. President Jimmy Carter appointed him to the President’s Commission on the Accident at Three Mile Island (1979). President Ronald Reagan appointed him vice chairman of the United States Cultural and Trade Center Commission, which planned a 600,000-square-foot (56,000 m2) facility in the Federal Triangle. Presidents George H. W. Bush and Bill Clinton appointed him a member of the 1993 U.S. Base Realignment and Closure Commission.
He has also been active in cultural, civic, and political organizations. From 1969 to 1974 he was a member of the board of trustees of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, Smithsonian Institution. He was on the Board of Directors of the Council on Foreign Relations from 1974 to 1977, and was chairman of the Democratic Advisory Council of Elected Officials Task Force on Democratic Policy (1974–76). After serving as vice-chairman of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, he served from 1976 to 1991 as its general counsel.[9] From 1983 to 1988 he was president of the Federal City Council, a civic organization of business, professional and cultural leaders in Washington.[9] From 1992 to 1999, he served as president of the Economic Club of Washington.[9]
Recently McPherson helped the board of DLA Piper’s international pro bono division institute a program that sends Northwestern University Law School professors to teach at Ethiopia’s underfunded Addis Ababa University School of Law.[4]
McPherson married Clayton Reid in 1952; the couple had two children, Coco and Peter. He was divorced in 1981 and married in 1981 to Mary Patricia DeGroot,[10] with whom he has a son, Samuel.

Publications and awards

A Political Education (originally published 1972) is McPherson’s insider view of the nation’s capital from 1956 to 1969. Anatole Broyard of The New York Times described the book as “fascinating to read” and McPherson as “refreshingly candid in both his praises and his criticisms.”[11] A Political Education has become a political classic and is considered essential reading for understanding of LBJ and the Johnson administration.[12] It is frequently cited in two definitive biographies of Johnson, Caro’s Master of the Senate and Dallek’s Flawed Giant.
McPherson is the author of numerous articles on foreign policy and political issues published in The New York Times, the Washington Post, and elsewhere. He served on the Editorial Advisory Board of Foreign Affairs and the Publications Committee of The Public Interest.
In 1994, McPherson was recipient of the Judge Learned Hand Human Relations Award. In 2008, he was honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award by American Lawyer magazine.[4]

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Ellen Holly best known for her groundbreaking role as Carla Gray on the daytime television series One Life to Live died she was 92

Ellen Holly Ellen Holly.   DISNEY GENERAL ENTERTAINMENT CONTENT VIA GETTY Ellen Holly, born on October 31, 1930, in New York City, passed aw...