jack lalanne death At 96

Jack LaLanne Dies at 96

Jack LaLanne, the fitness guru and television personality, has died.

He was 96.

The cause of death was respiratory failure due to pneumonia.

LaLanne was a legendary proponent of exercise and healthy living whose workout program, “The Jack LaLanne Show,” ran from 1951 to 1985.

A tireless motivator, LaLanne also wrote books, recorded albums, produced videos, and marketed equipment (such as juicers) in his campaign to make Americans healthier.

LaLanne’s efforts won him a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

He is survived by Elaine LaLanne, his wife of 51 years.

Reynolds Price Dies at 77

Reynolds Price, a Literary Voice of the South, Dies at 77

Reynolds Price, whose novels and stories about ordinary people in rural North Carolina struggling to find their place in the world established him as one of the most important voices in modern Southern fiction, died on Thursday in Durham, N.C. He was 77.

The cause was complications of a heart attack, his brother, Will, said. For many years Mr. Price had lived as a paraplegic after receiving radiation treatment for a spinal tumor, about which he wrote in “A Whole New Life” (1994).

Few writers have made as dramatic an entrance on the American literary stage as Mr. Price, who published his first novel, “A Long and Happy Life,” in 1962 to near-universal acclaim for its pungent Southern dialogue, highly wrought prose style and vivid evocation of rural Southern life.

The novel — the tale of Rosacoke Mustian, a young woman desperate to clarify her relationship with an untamable boyfriend, Wesley Beavers — inspired critics to welcome Mr. Price as the brightest literary talent to emerge since the Southern Renaissance in the 1920s and 1930s. In an extraordinary vote of confidence, Harper’s Magazine published the novel in its entirety as a supplement.

“He is the best young writer this country has ever produced,” the novelist Allan Gurganus said in an interview for this obituary. “He started out with a voice, a lyric gift and a sense of humor, and an insight about how people lived and what they’ll do to get along.”

Mr. Price staked his claim as a writer to watch with the novel’s bravura opening sentence, a paragraph-long curlicue that began, “Just with his body and from inside like a snake, leaning that black motorcycle side to side, cutting in and out of the slow line of cars to get there first, staring due-north through goggles towards Mount Moriah and switching coon tails in everybody’s face was Wesley Beavers.”

“Some beginning — of a book, of a career,” the critic Theodore Solotaroff wrote in Saturday Review in 1970. “Its sheer virtuosity is like that of a quarterback who on the first play of his first professional game throws a 60-yard pass on the run, hitting the receiver exactly at the instant he breaks into the clear; a tremendous assertion of agility, power, timing and accuracy.”

His story collection “The Names and Faces of Heroes,” published a year later, made it clear that “A Long and Happy Life” was no fluke.

Except for three years he spent in Britain as a graduate student at Merton College, Oxford, Mr. Price lived all his life in northeastern North Carolina, and he would work his home ground in 13 novels and dozens of short stories. Inevitably he drew comparisons to William Faulkner, much to his annoyance, since he regarded himself as a literary heir to Eudora Welty.

He also published poetry, plays, essays, translations from the Bible and three volumes of memoirs. With “A Whole New Life,” he attracted a new audience of admirers.

At Duke University, where he taught writing and the poetry of Milton for more than half a century, he encouraged students like Anne Tyler and Josephine Humphreys. Simply by staying in the South and writing about it, he inspired a generation of younger Southern novelists.

“He made this small corner of North Carolina the sovereign territory of his own imagination and showed those of us who went away that the water back home was fine,” Mr. Gurganus said. “We could come back; there was plenty of room for all of us.”

Edward Reynolds Price was born on Feb. 1, 1933, in Macon, N.C., a town about 65 miles northeast of Raleigh that he once described as “227 cotton and tobacco farmers nailed to the flat red land at the pit of the Great Depression.”

The family, struggling financially, moved from one house to another in nearby towns, but Reynolds, their first child, benefited from the doting attention of cousins, aunts and uncles — all of them, it seemed, gifted storytellers. His early life provided the material for the memoir “Clear Pictures: First Loves, First Guides” (1989). Mr. Price later said of his native county: “I’m the world’s authority on this place. It’s the place about which I have perfect pitch.”

His brother, of Raleigh, is his only immediate survivor.

Mr. Price enrolled at Duke University, where Eudora Welty read one of his stories, “Michael Egerton,” and volunteered to show it to her agent, Diarmuid Russell, who took the young writer on as a client.

After graduating summa cum laude from Duke in 1955, he won a Rhodes scholarship to study at Oxford, where he wrote a thesis on Milton, and developed career-enhancing friendships with the poets Stephen Spender and W. H. Auden and the critic and biographer Lord David Cecil. He wrote about his years in Britain in the third installment of his memoirs, “Ardent Spirits” (2009).

Spender published the story “A Chain of Love” in the journal Encounter, a coup for Mr. Price, who was also offered a teaching position at Duke when he returned. He was turned down for military service after he stated, without hesitation, that he was homosexual.

His first class included a promising 16-year-old named Anne Tyler. “I can still picture him sitting tailor-fashion on top of his desk, reading to the class from his own work or from one of his students’ papers,” Ms. Tyler wrote in an e-mail. “He seemed genuinely joyous when we did the slightest thing right.”

With his second novel, “A Generous Man” (1966), Mr. Price continued the story of the Mustian clan, to which he would return much later in the 1988 novel “Good Hearts.” He later confounded critics with “The Surface of Earth” (1975), an ambitious multigenerational chronicle of the Mayfield family, related by a well-educated, complex narrator much like the author himself.

Self-consciously grand, “The Surface of Earth” was the first part of a trilogy called “A Great Circle.” A sequel, “The Source of Light,” followed in 1981. Mr. Price completed the series with “The Promise of Rest” in 1995.

News From: www.nytimes.com

Bradley Cooper's Father Dies

Bradley Cooper is mourning the loss of his father Charles, 71, who passed away January 15 after a long illness.

A former Merrill Lynch stock broker, Charles is survived by his wife Gloria, son Bradley, daughter Holly and sister Nancy Peacock.

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Bradley, 36, got his father a cameo role in 2010's The A-Team, where Charles played Judge Advocate No. 3 in a court martial scene.

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"It was one of the best experiences of my life. The guy loves to improvise -- I had to calm him down!" Cooper said on the Late Show With David Letterman. "He wanted to improvise with Jessica Biel. He was supposed to stay in his seat, but he got up and the camera had to start moving. He wanted to have a conversation with Jessica!"

Renee Zellweger -- who he began dating Bradley in the summer of 2009 -- canceled her appearance at Sunday's Golden Globes to be with him.

Funeral services for Charles have not been disclosed.

Sargent Shriver Dead At Age 95 Breaking News

Sargent Shriver Dead: Former VP Nominee Dies At Age 95

BETHESDA, Md. — R. Sargent Shriver, the exuberant public servant and Kennedy in-law whose career included directing the Peace Corps, fighting the War on Poverty, ambassador to France and, less successfully, running for office, died Tuesday. He was 95.

Shriver, who announced in 2003 that he had Alzheimer's disease, had been hospitalized for several days. The family said he died surrounded by those he loved.

One of the last links to President Kennedy's administration, Shriver's death comes less than two years after his wife, Special Olympics founder Eunice Kennedy Shriver, died on Aug. 11, 2009, at age 88. The Kennedy family suffered a second blow that same month when Sen. Edward Kennedy died.

Speaking outside Suburban Hospital in Maryland, Anthony Kennedy Shriver said his father was "with my mom now," and called his parents' marriage a great love story.

At Eunice Shriver's memorial service, their daughter Maria Shriver said her father let her mother "rip and he let her roar, and he loved everything about her." He attended in a wheelchair.

The handsome Shriver was often known first as an in-law – brother-in-law of President John F. Kennedy and, late in life, father-in-law of actor-former California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

But his achievements were historic in their own right and changed millions of lives: the Peace Corps' first director and the leader of President Lyndon Johnson's "War on Poverty," out of which came such programs as Head Start and Legal Services.

President Barack Obama called Shriver "one of the brightest lights of the greatest generation."

"Over the course of his long and distinguished career, Sarge came to embody the idea of public service," Obama said in a statement.

Within the family, Shriver was sometimes relied upon for the hardest tasks. When Jacqueline Kennedy needed the funeral arranged for her assassinated husband, she asked her brother-in-law.

"He was a man of giant love, energy, enthusiasm, and commitment," the Shriver family said in a statement. "He lived to make the world a more joyful, faithful, and compassionate place. He centered everything on his faith and his family. He worked on stages both large and small but in the end, he will be best known for his love of others."

In public, Shriver spoke warmly of his famous in-laws, but the private relationship was often tense. As noted in Scott Stossel's "Sarge," an authorized 2004 biography, he was a faithful man amid a clan of womanizers, a sometimes giddy idealist labeled "the house Communist" by the family. His willingness to work for Johnson was seen as betrayal by some family members.

Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., said Shriver's work eventually led to the Peace Corps sending almost a quarter-million volunteers to aid 139 countries around the world over the past 50 years.

"With tenacity and vision, Sargent Shriver built the promise of the Peace Corps into an American institution," Kerry said in a statement.

Kerry was elected to the Senate in 1984. He was the junior senator from Massachusetts to Edward Kennedy until Kennedy's death two years ago.

Though the Kennedys granted Sargent Shriver power, they also withheld it.

He had considered running for governor of Illinois in 1960, only to be told the family needed his help for John Kennedy's presidential campaign. Hubert Humphrey considered him for running mate in the 1968 election, but family resistance helped Humphrey change his mind.

When Shriver finally became a candidate, the results were disastrous: He was George McGovern's running mate in the 1972 election, but the Democrats lost in a landslide to President Richard M. Nixon.

Four years later, Shriver's presidential campaign ended quickly, overrun by a then-little-known Georgia governor named Jimmy Carter. His failures as a candidate left him with a reputation as a charming, but shallow salesman. (A "useless dingbat," wrote Hunter S. Thompson in his classic "Fear and Loathing: On the Campaign Trail '72").

Although known for his Kennedy connections, Shriver, born in 1915, came from a prominent old Maryland family. His father was a stockbroker, but he lost most of his money in the crash of 1929.

Shriver went on a scholarship to Yale, then went on to Yale Law School. He served in the Navy in the Pacific during World War II.

Returning home, he became an assistant editor at Newsweek magazine. About this time, too, he met Eunice Kennedy and was immediately taken by her. They married in 1953 in New York's St. Patrick's Cathedral.

Her father, Joseph P. Kennedy, hired him to manage the Kennedy-owned Merchandise Mart in Chicago. He was a big success on the job and in Chicago in general – and even was elected head of the school board in 1955.

Shriver had fought for integration in Chicago and helped persuade John F. Kennedy to make a crucial decision in the 1960 campaign despite other staffers' fears of a white backlash: When the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was jailed in Georgia that fall, Kennedy, urged by Shriver and fellow aide Harris Wofford, phoned King's wife and offered support. His gesture was deeply appreciated by King's family and brought the candidate crucial support.

Soon after taking office, Kennedy named Shriver to fulfill a campaign promise to start the Peace Corps. Although it was belittled by some as a "kiddie corps," Shriver quickly built the agency into an international institution.

After Kennedy's assassination, in 1963, Johnson called upon Shriver to run another program which then existed only as a high-minded concept: the War on Poverty.

Shriver's efforts demonstrated both the reach and frustrations of government programs: Head Start remains respected for offering early education for poor children, and Legal Services gave the poor an opportunity for better representation in court.

But other Shriver initiatives suffered from bureaucracy, feuds with local officials and a struggle for funds as Johnson devoted more and more money to the Vietnam War.

In early 1968, with Shriver rumored to be on the verge of quitting, Johnson offered him the ambassadorship to France. He accepted it even though some family members wanted Shriver to support Sen. Robert Kennedy's presidential candidacy instead.

In Paris, Shriver won many French fans, but he left the post for a job in private business not long after Nixon took office in 1969.

He campaigned for congressional Democrats in 1970, and two years later McGovern drafted him to replace Sen. Thomas Eagleton of Missouri as his running-mate. Eagleton dropped out because of questions about his medical history.

Shriver was good humored that he had been McGovern's seventh pick for the job – after brother-in-law Ted Kennedy, among others. He named his campaign plane "Lucky 7."

In September 1975, Shriver joined an already crowded race for the 1976 Democratic nomination. But he dropped out in March 1976 after poor showings in the early primaries and never again sought office. Instead, he became more and more involved with the Special Olympics and advocated an end to the nuclear arms race.

"Sargent Shriver helped Special Olympics break down barriers around the world and with his knowledge and expertise in foreign affairs and different cultures, helped turn Special Olympics into the international movement it is today," said Robert A. Johnson, president and CEO of the organization.

In 1994, Shriver received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor, from President Bill Clinton.

Meanwhile, daughter Maria Shriver gained fame as an NBC newswoman and, in 2003 became first lady of California until this year. The Shrivers also had four sons – Robert, Timothy, Mark and Paul Anthony. Mark Shriver was elected to the Maryland House of Delegates in 1995 and ran unsuccessfully for Congress in 2002. They also had 19 grandchildren.

Don Kirshner, Rock Producer Dies At 77

Don Kirshner, Rock Producer and Promoter, Dies at 77

Don Kirshner, who guided the course of Brill Building and bubblegum pop in the 1950s and ’60s as a music publisher and promoter, and later served as an Ed Sullivan for 1970s artists like Bruce Springsteen, Pink Floyd, Kiss and the Ramones with his weekly program “Don Kirshner’s Rock Concert” on television, died on Monday in Boca Raton, Fla. He was 77. The cause was heart failure.

Born in the Bronx, Mr. Kirshner entered the music business in the mid-1950s, writing commercial jingles with Bobby Darin, whom he had met in a Washington Heights candy shop as Robert Cassotto. When Mr. Darin went on to fame as a singer in 1958 with “Splish Splash,” Mr. Kirshner assumed a powerful role behind the scenes with his publishing company Aldon, which he founded with Al Nevins.

Aldon published songs by many of the classic songwriters of the Brill Building era, like Neil Sedaka and the teams of Carole King and Gerry Coffin (“Will You Love Me Tomorrow,” “The Loco-Motion”) and Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil (“You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’,” written with Phil Spector). As a producer and impresario, Mr. Kirshner was also responsible for putting together the songs for two manufactured pop groups on television: the Monkees and the Archies. Mr. Nevins died in 1965.

From 1973 to 1981 Mr. Kirshner was the producer and host of “Don Kirshner’s Rock Concert” on ABC, a live show that opened with a performance by the Rolling Stones and had appearances by Lynyrd Skynyrd, the Allman Brothers, David Bowie and many others.

He is survived by his wife, Sheila; his children Ricky and Daryn; and five grandchildren.

IFFCO chief Jakhar dies of bullet injuries (Second Lead)

Surinder Jakhar, chairman of fertiliser major IFFCO and son of former Lok Sabha speaker Balram Jakhar, died near here Monday of bullet injuries under mysterious circumstances, police said.

According to the police, Surinder shot himself accidentally while he was cleaning his firearm at his farmhouse in village Maujgarh in Firozepur district.

"As per our preliminary investigation and scrutiny of the spot, it seems that it was an accident. The deceased was cleaning his firearm and it suddenly fired. However, our investigation is still on and we are working at various theories," a senior police officer said.

Surinder was brought in an injured condition to a hospital here, some 350 km from Chandigarh, where doctors pronounced him dead.

His driver too sustained bullet injuries.

IFFCO (Indian Farmers Fertiliser Co-operative Ltd.) is a state-run fertiliser major.

Surinder Jakhar's younger brother Sunil is a Congress legislator in Punjab.

Surinder's family members and Congress activists have rushed to the hospital here.

Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda has expressed grief over Surinder's demise. Describing it as a personal loss, he said his family had always shared close relations with the Jakhar family.

Actress Susannah York dies at 72

British actress Susannah York has died at the age of 72 after suffering from cancer, her son has said.

She appeared in film, TV and theatre during a career which began in the 1960s.

She was nominated for a best supporting actress Oscar for her role in the 1969 film They Shoot Horses, Don't They? and won a Bafta for the same role.

Her son Orlando Wells told the Telegraph newspaper that she was "an absolutely fantastic mother".

News From: BBC

Atlanta Radio Man Royal Marshall Dies at 43

ATLANTA -- Royal Marshall, best known to Atlantans as the engineer and radio foil to host Neal Boortz on WSB Radio's "Neal Boortz Show", died suddenly early Saturday morning after collapsing at his home.

Marshall, 43, worked as Boortz's engineer for his local and later nationally syndicated radio shows for more than 15 years. He also hosted an evening talk show, "The Royal Treatment" on WSB for several years.

WSB announced Marshall's death at noon Saturday, and ran a special edition of Boortz's radio show in his memory.

Marshall was a native of St. Louis and a 1992 graduate of the University of Georgia. He's survived by his wife and two young daughters.

Trish Keenan RIP

Broadcast singer dies of pneumonia

The Quietus is sad to report that Trish Keenan of Broadcast died this morning. The group's record label issued the following statement:
"It is with great sadness we announce that Trish Keenan from Broadcast passed away at 9am this morning in hospital. She died from complications with pnuemonia after battling the illness for two weeks in intensive care.
"Our thoughts go out to James, Martin, her friends and her family and we request that the public respect their wishes for privacy at this time.
"This is an untimely tragic loss and we will miss Trish dearly - a unique voice, an extraordinary talent and a beautiful human being. Rest in Peace."
Our thoughts are with Trish Keenan's friends and family and all at Warp Records.

David Nelson Dead: Actor Dies At 74

LOS ANGELES — David Nelson, who starred on his parents' popular television show "The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet," has died, a family spokesman said. He was 74.

Nelson, who was battling complications of colon cancer, died Tuesday at his Los Angeles home, said family spokesman and longtime Hollywood publicist Dale Olson.

Nelson was the last remaining member of the Nelsons TV family, which included actor/bandleader Ozzie, his singer wife, Harriet Hilliard and his teen idol brother Rick. The show originated on radio in 1952 as "Here Come the Nelsons," then ran for 320 episodes on TV from 1952 to 1966 as "The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet" with some of the story lines taken from the stars' own lives. David Nelson also directed and produced numerous episodes of the show throughout its run.

Singer Gunnar Nelson, a son of Rick Nelson, issued a statement Wednesday, saying his uncle's death was "a great loss to the Nelson family."

"We will all miss Uncle Dave's laughter and evolved sense of humor," Gunnar Nelson said.

"The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet" was shot in the Nelson family home in the Hollywood foothills, which remains a popular attraction for visitors on Hollywood celebrity bus tours.

Born in New York City, David attended Hollywood High School and the University of Southern California.

His film credits included "Peyton Place," `'The Remarkable Mr. Pennypacker," `'The Big Circus," `'Day of the Outlaw," `'30,'"'The Big Show," `Love and Kisses and "Swing Out, Sweet Land." In 1976, he costarred with his mother in "Smash-Up on Interstate 5."

His television credits included "Up In Smoke," `'The Love Boat," `'High School USA," and "A Family For Joe." Directing credits included "O.K. Crackerby," `'Childish Things," `'Easy To Be Free," `'Ozzie's Girls," `'Death Screams," `'Last Plane Out," `'Goodnight Beantown" and "A Rare Breed."

Nelson also was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

He is survived by his wife, Yvonne; four sons and a daughter; and seven grandchildren. A service will be held Thursday at Pierce Brothers Westwood Mortuary.

Ashley Cowie Hot News

2 Shot in Fraternity House at FSU Student Ashley Cowie Dies

A shooting incident at Florida State University’s recently constructed Greek Park has left one dead, one wounded and a third under arrest, KnightNews.com has learned.

The FSU student who lost her life in the apparent accidental shooting, Ashley Cowie, was a member of Chi Omega sorority and a former homecoming queen of her high school, St. Country Day School near Jacksonville, according to the Florida Times-Union. She was 21.

Many UCF students grew up in the Jacksonville area and call it home. UCF freshman Sam Whitman shared why the Knights who knew Cowie will miss her.

“I went to high school with Ashley she was a beautiful girl who had a smile and a laugh the could brighten up anyone’s day,” Whitman said. “Her sense of humor and good attitude were contagious and unique.”

According to an FSU press release, police were called to the Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity house at 1:16 a.m. Sunday to respond to an accidental shooting report. The fraternity house is located in Heritage Grove, a subdivision of FSU affiliated Greek housing off campus.

Much like how UCF police patrol the off campus Pegasus Landing apartments, FSU police are contracted to patrol the Heritage Grove Greek Housing. When FSU police arrived, they secured the area and determined there was no further threat to the campus community, according to the release.

FSU police quickly identified the shooter as Evan Wilhelm, according to the release, posted by WCTV. Wilhelm, a member of the Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity, was in his fraternity house apartment allegedly showing off his new rifle accessories to his friends when the release stated it accidentally went off.

That’s when Ashley Cowie, 21, was fatally shot in the chest and Keith Savino was struck in the wrist, according to the release. Savino’s injuries are not life-threatening.

Cowie was a sophomore from the Jacksonville suburb of Orange Park and majoring in interior design. Savino, also 21, is a junior from Tampa. He’s majoring in risk management/insurance, and was treated for his wound at a Tallahassee hospital.

The owner of the rifle, Wilhelm, 20, was not injured when the shots rang out. Even though the shooting was reported as accidental, Wilhelm was arrested early Sunday and booked into the Leon County Jail on manslaughter charges, the release stated.

The investigation is ongoing, and the Tallahassee Democrat newspaper is now reporting Wilhelm may have been drinking earlier in the day, before the shooting.

FSU Dean of Students Jeanine Ward-Roof expressed grief for the loss, and pledged to make counseling services available to those who need it.

“We are deeply saddened by this tragedy, and our hearts and prayers are with the students’ families at this terrible time,” Ward-Roof said in the release. “We strive throughout the year to educate students on how to protect themselves and others, and we are heartsick when incidents such as this occur.”

Firearms are not allowed on public university campuses in Florida. But because the fraternities’ buildings at Heritage Grove are private properties, there was no law against having a weapon there.

According to the FSU release, university officials pledged to review the situation and to continue to urge students to be mindful of rules and crime prevention information designed to protect them and their fellow students.