Year In Review: The Obituaries Of January 2015
SACRAMENTO (CBS13/AP) — As we approach the end of the year, we're taking a look back at some of the lives lost during 2015.
Each weekday between now and New Year's Day, CBS13 will be remembering one person who died each day this year. They range from athletes to war heroes, to local names to Hollywood luminaries. January's list even features a man who died this year whose father was born in 1836—179 years ago
JAN. 1
Donna Douglas, 82
She was best known for her role in "The Beverly Hillbillies," the CBS comedy about a backwoods Ozark family who moved to Beverly Hills after striking it rich from oil discovered on their land.
The series, which ran from 1962 to 1971, also starred the late Buddy Ebsen and Irene Ryan as well as Max Baer Jr., who turns 77 on Sunday.
As Elly May, she seemed blissfully unaware of her status as a bumpkin blond bombshell. Typically she was clad in a snug flannel shirt and tight jeans cinched with a rope belt, and she seemed to prefer her critters to any beau.
JAN. 2
Milford Craig, 88
He served his country for decades and paved the way for African-Americans in the military.
Vivien Knight remembers her father fondly. Craig was a member of the first black military pilots who flew fighter bombers during World War II.
Knight followed in her father's footsteps by joining the Air Force. But back when her father served, times were very different because of racial discrimination and segregation.
Craig served 30 years in the military, and after retiring he moved his family to Sacramento. For almost 40 years, he was a well-known businessman.
JAN. 3
Bill Jessup, 85
He played six seasons for the San Francisco 49ers between 1951 and 1958. He later became an all-star at defensive back in the Canadian Football League.
JAN. 4
Stuart Scott, 49
He worked at three TV stations in the southern U.S. before joining ESPN for the 1993 launch of its ESPN2 network, hosting short sports update segments.
He often anchored the 11 p.m. "SportsCenter," where he would punctuate emphatic highlights with "Boo-ya!" or note a slick move as being "as cool as the other side of the pillow."
Scott went on to cover countless major events for the network, including the Super Bowl, NBA finals, World Series and NCAA Tournament. He also interviewed President Barack Obama, joining him for a televised game of one-on-one. In 2001, Scott returned to Chapel Hill as the university's commencement speaker.
JAN. 5
Clarence E. Huntley Jr., 91
Joseph Shambrey, 91
Clarence E. Huntley Jr. and Joseph Shambrey grew up running track together in the same Los Angeles neighborhood in the 1930s. When World War II broke out, they enlisted in the Army and jumped at the chance to join the all-black group of soldiers known as the Tuskegee Airmen.
After the war, they came back home together, married their respective sweethearts and rarely let a month pass without getting together or talking by phone.
So it was ironic but perhaps not all that surprising when both died on Jan. 5 at 91.
JAN. 6
Patricia Roppel, 76
Patricia Roppel's specialty was the history of southeastern Alaska, focusing on the people and places in the region and industries such as salmon fishing. She authored the 1979 paper, "Sex in a bucket versus sex in a stream bed, or, Salmon hatchery programs in Alaska's past."
JAN. 7
Rod Taylor
Rod Taylor's breakthrough came in 1960 with "The Time Machine," George Pal's special effects marvel in which Taylor's dogged British inventor transports himself into a future where he witnesses world wars, nuclear annihilation and, finally, the rise of a new society.
JAN. 8
Andrae Crouch, 72
He wrote dozens of songs, including gospel favorites such as "The Blood Will Never Lose Its Power," "My Tribute (To God Be the Glory)" and "Soon and Very Soon," which was sung at a public memorial to Jackson.
Debuting in 1960, Crouch helped pioneer the burgeoning "Jesus Music" movement from the late 1960s and '70s that started the spread of contemporary Christian music.
His influence also crossed over into in pop music. Elvis Presley performed his song "I've Got Confidence" for a 1972 gospel album, and Paul Simon" recorded "Jesus Is the Answer" for a 1974 live album.
JAN. 9
Samuel Goldwyn Jr., 88
He produced low-budget hits like "Mystic Pizza" starring Julia Roberts and "Cotton Comes to Harlem" in the 1970s and 1980s. His company was one of the largest indie film operations. As a producer, he was nominated for a best picture Academy Award in 2004 for "Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World." His final production credit was for "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty" in 2013.
In 1986, Goldwyn told the Los Angeles Times his goal was to appeal to sophisticated movie lovers.
"I was brought up in a tradition of patience," Goldwyn said. "My father never made films that were instantaneous hits. 'Wuthering Heights' was not a success the first time around. Neither was 'Best Years of Our Lives.' They had to be nursed …. Basically, he was always waiting."
JAN. 10
Edward Brooke, 95
Former U.S. Sen. Edward W. Brooke was a liberal Republican who became the first black in U.S. history to win popular election to the Senate.
Brooke was elected to the Senate in 1966, becoming the first black to sit in that branch from any state since Reconstruction and one of nine blacks who have ever served there – including Barack Obama.
Brooke earned his reputation as a Senate liberal partly by becoming the first Republican senator to publicly urge President Richard Nixon to resign. He helped lead the forces in favor of the Equal Rights Amendment and was a defender of school busing to achieve racial integration, a bitterly divisive issue in Boston.
JAN. 11
Darrell Hugh Winfield, 85
The Marlboro Man was a macho cowboy whose image in advertising from the 1950s to the late 1990s made filtered cigarettes more appealing to men. Previously Marlboros were marketed to women. Winfield's rugged good looks made him the face of Marlboro cigarettes in magazine and television ads from the late 1960s to the late 1980s.
JAN. 12
Stephen Gold, 58
The hacker was once convicted, then acquitted of accessing Prince Philip's personal messages. He later went on to an information security career.
JAN. 13
John H. Rubel, 94
The business executive in the early years of the defense electronics industry was an early proponent of geosynchronous communications satellites. He served as assistant secretary of defense in the the John F. Kennedy administration.
JAN. 14
Bob Boyd, 84
His USC team's victories over John Wooden's UCLA teams in 1969 and 1970 were the Bruins' first defeats in Pauley Pavilion. He was a two-time conference coach of the year and coached future NBA players Paul Westphal and Gus Williams.
JAN. 15
Kim Fowley, 75
His career ranged from promoter to musician to manager to record producer. In the 1970s, he launched the all-female rock band The Runaways - a rarity at the time - thus introducing the world to a then-teenage Joan Jett.
Fowley was based in Los Angeles. He released several solo albums. His father is actor Douglas Fowley, best known for his role in the film "Singin' In the Rain."
JAN. 16
Robert Craig, 90
Craig launched the Keystone Centerin 1975 at the urging of Bob Maynard, then president of the Keystone ski resort. Craig wanted the center to focus on resolving conflicts in national policy issues rather than only discussing them.
Craig climbed mountains in the Cascades and Rockies as well as the Himalayas and the Pamir range of central Asia. He wrote "Storm and Sorrow in the High Pamirs" and was a co-author of "The Savage Mountain," books about his climbing adventures.
JAN. 17
Milton Julian, 96
He opened Milton's Clothing Cupboard on West Franklin Street in Chapel Hill, N.C. His clients included singer Nat King Cole, former Gov. Terry Sanford and UNC basketball star James Worthy. The store moved in 1952 and remained open until 1992.
JAN. 18
Tony Verna, 81
CBS used instant replay for the first time in the Dec. 7, 1963 Army-Navy football game in Philadelphia, after Verna developed a method to cue the tape to pinpoint the play he wanted to immediately air again. He said he was looking for a way to fill those boring gaps between plays during a football telecast.
The concept was so new that when Army quarterback Rollie Stichweh scored a touchdown, announcer Lindsey Nelson had to warn viewers: "This is not live! Ladies and gentlemen, Army did not score again!"
Instant replay quickly became a staple of sports broadcasting, and Verna's innovation gave fans a new way to look at the games.
JAN. 19
Reies Lopez Tijerina, 88
The Pentecostal preacher turned activist led a violent raid of a northern New Mexico courthouse nearly 50 years ago.
While admired by some students, his activism was steeped in violence and his legacy remained controversial. He also drew criticism for his treatment of women and comments largely viewed as anti-Semitic.
In 1963, Tijerina founded La Alianza Federal de Mercedes, an organization that sought to reclaim Spanish and Mexican land grants held by Mexicans and American Indians in the Southwest before the U.S.-Mexican War.
Four years later, Tijerina and followers raided the courthouse in Tierra Amarilla to attempt a citizen's arrest of the district attorney after eight members of Tijerina's group had been arrested over land grant protests.
During the raid, the group shot and wounded a state police officer and jailer, beat a deputy, and took the sheriff and a reporter hostage before escaping to the Kit Carson National Forest.
Tijerina was arrested but ultimately acquitted of charges directly related to the raid.
JAN. 20
Melvin Gordon, 95
The longtime Tootsie Roll Industries Inc. chairman and CEO ran the Chicago-based confectioner for 53 years, overseeing the manufacture of 64 million Tootsie Rolls a day and other sweets including Junior Mints, Charleston Chews and Tootsie Pops.
The penny candy patriarch worked a full schedule until a month before his death. He was the oldest CEO of a company trading on a major U.S. stock exchange, according to S&P Capital IQ.
He boasted that Tootsie Rolls were almost indestructible.
"Nothing can happen to a Tootsie Roll. We have some that were made in 1938 that we still eat," Gordon told the AP in 1996. "If you can't bite it when it's that old, you certainly can lick it."
JAN. 21
Stan Irwin, 94
Irwin guided the careers of such celebs as Don Rickles, Buddy Hackett and Pearl Bailey. He was credited for bringing artists like Judy Garland, Frank Sinatra, Marlene Dietrich, Paul Anka, Bobby Darin, Brenda Lee, Bob Newhart and the Beatles to perform Las Vegas.
Irwin also served as executive producer of "The Tonight Show" in 1962, which was the first year of Carson's tenure. He also voiced the Lou Costello character in Hanna-Barbera's "The Abbott and Costello Cartoon Show" in the 1960s.
JAN. 22
Peggy Charren, 86
Charren founded Action for Children's Television in 1968 because she was so frustrated by the poor quality of programming - which she called "wall-to-wall monster cartoons" - available to her daughters.
The grassroots organization grew to thousands of members, working with the Federal Communications Commission to establish a children's television division and lobbying the National Association of Broadcasters to adopt voluntary guidelines for children's programming.
ACT lobbied Congress, helping get the Children's Television Act passed in 1990. The act established programming standards, including advertising limits.
Throughout her work, she was proud of her commitment to the First Amendment, noting she never sought censorship of any programming.
JAN. 23
Ernie Banks, 83
Even as the Chicago Cubs lost one game after another, Ernie Banks never lost hope.
That was the charm of "Mr. Cub."
The Hall of Fame slugger and two-time MVP always maintained his boundless enthusiasm for baseball despite decades of playing on miserable teams.
Banks hit 512 home runs during his 19-year career and was fond of saying, "It's a great day for baseball. Let's play two." In fact, that sunny finish to his famous catchphrase adorns his statue outside Wrigley Field.
Though he was an 11-time All-Star from 1953-71, Banks never reached the postseason. The Cubs, who haven't won the World Series since 1908, finished below .500 in all but six of his seasons and remain without a pennant since 1945.
Still, he was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1977, the first year he was eligible, and was selected to baseball's All-Century team in 1999.
JAN. 24
Maria Cerra Tishman, 96
Competing in fencing as Maria Cerra at the London Games, she advanced through three preliminary rounds to reach the final eight. She missed the gold medal by two touches. She lost to Hungary's Ilona Elek, the eventual winner and champion at the previous Olympics in 1936.
Those Olympics were Tishman's first and only international individual competition. She was a charter member of the U.S. Fencing Hall of Fame in 1963.
JAN. 25
Luke Martin Jr., 97
The son of an ex-slave and Civil War Union soldier died 179 years after his father was born.
Martin had little memory of his father, Luke Martin Sr., who died at age 84 in 1920 when the son was just a few years old, according to Martin-Williams. The elder Martin, who was born in 1836, was married twice, the second time to a much younger woman.
According to multiple historical references, Luke Martin Sr. was enslaved at a plantation near Plymouth, North Carolina, but escaped and became a member of the 1st North Carolina Colored Volunteers, later called the 35th U.S. Colored Troops. The U.S. Colored Troops were established in 1863 and by the end of the Civil War, black soldiers comprised 10 percent of the Union Army.
The son was a master brick mason, contractor and teacher. He served as one of the lead brick masons at Tryon Palace, North Carolina's first permanent state Capitol. He also worked as a funeral attendant at Oscar's Mortuary from 1960 until August.
JAN. 26
Cleven "Goodie" Goudeau
The Vallejo native was was the originator of the first line of African-American contemporary greeting cards, and created the first nationally published black Santa card.
Goudeau's world changed when he met Wee Pals cartoonist Morrie Turner and learned his talent could become a living. His company, Goodie Cards was in business from 1962 to 1974.
JAN. 27
Charles Townes, 99
Inspiration for the predecessor of the laser came to him while sitting on a park bench, waiting for a restaurant to open for breakfast.
On the tranquil morning of April 26, 1951, Townes scribbled a theory on scrap paper that would lead to the laser, the invention he's known for and which transformed everyday life and led to other scientific discoveries.
Townes, who was also known for his strong spiritual faith, famously compared that moment to a religious revelation.
JAN. 28
Lt. Col. Edward Saylor
He was a young flight engineer-gunner and among the 80 airmen who volunteered to fly the risky mission that sent B-25 bombers from a carrier at sea to attack Tokyo on April 28, 1942. The raid launched earlier than planned and risked running out of fuel before making it to safe airfields.
Though unsuccessful on paper, the mission raised morale just months after Japan attacked Pearl Harbor.
JAN. 29
Andrew Fischer, 89.
He was a stock clerk earning less than $100 a week in 1963 when a doctor explained why his pregnant wife's belly had grown so large: She was about to give birth to five babies, who would become the first known surviving quintuplets born in the U.S.
Fischer said he "shook" and his wife, Mary Ann, started to cry when an X-ray revealed the news. A few days later, on Sept. 14, 1963, their family doubled in size when she gave birth two months early to four girls and a boy.
Fischer's whose family eventually grew to 11 children.
JAN. 30
Carl Djerassi, 91
The professor emeritus of chemistry at Stanford was most famous for leading a research team in Mexico City that in 1951 developed norethindrone, a synthetic molecule that became a key component of the first birth control pill.
"The pill" as it came to be known radically transformed sexual practices and women's lives. The pill gave women more control over their fertility than they had ever had before and permanently put doctors - who previously didn't see contraceptives as part of their job - in the birth control picture.
JAN. 31
Donald James Randolph, 78
Better known by his stage name Don Covay, the singer and songwriter penned Chubby Checker's No. 1 song "Pony Time" for and the Grammy-winning "Chain of Fools" for Aretha Franklin.
