2019 Deaths, Arts and Letters

A   B   C   D   E   F   G   H   I   J   K   L   M   N   O   P   Q   R   S   T   U   V   W   X   Y   Z

A

Tom Adams (age 93) - Adams was a commercial artist whose rt was well-known throughout the English-speaking world and beyond, at least in part because he created the covers for paperback editions of Agatha Christie's mysteries. Adams drew covers for other authors, as well as painting portraits of such figures as Benjamin Britten and Federico Fellini. Adams died December 17, 2019.

Warren Adler (age 91) - A playwright, essayist, and novelist; Adler's most familiar work is probably his 1981 novel, The War of the Roses. That work was turned into a feature film starring Kathleen Turner and Michael Douglas. Adler also wrote a series of police procedurals featuring homicide detective Fiona Fitzgerald. Adler died at his home on April 15, 2019.

Tazeen Ahmad (age 48) - Ahmad was an author and journalist who had contributed to both BBC and American news reporting. She was a foreign correspondent for NBC News, and an investigative reporter for BBC, becoming one of the most highly-placed Muslim women in broadcasting. She also wrote an exposé of her six months working as a store clerk in the book The Checkout Girl. Ahmad died of cancer on November 7, 2019.

Alicia Alonso (age 98) - Havana native Alicia Ernestina de la Caridad Martínez del Hoyo was the most famous ballet dancer to come out of Cuba, debuting at age 19 in her native country. She spent decades in the New York City Ballet and the Ballet Russe, despite being nearly blind. Alonso died October 17, 2019.

B

Russell Baker (age 93) - A Pulitzer Prize winning columnist for the New York Times (1962-1998), Baker also hosted the PBS television show "Masterpiece Theater" for more than a dozen years. He wrote two autobiographies and edited collections of poetry and humor. Baker passed away January 20, 2019, after a fall.

Betty Ballantine (age 99) - Along with her husband, Ian, Elizabeth "Betty" Ballantine founded the Bantam and Ballantine publishing companies. The two are credited with establishing the paperback publishing industry in the 1940s and 1950s. The two sold their company in the '60s, and eventually both worked at what is now Random House Penguin. Ballantine passed away February 12, 2019.

Don Banks (age 57) - Banks spent much of his professional life as a writer for Sports Illustrated, where he became a respected authority on the National Football League. After leaving SI, Banks wrote for Bleacher Report and various sports websites before being hired to cover the Las Vegas Raiders by the local newspaper. Banks died in Canton, Ohio, on August 4, 2019, while covering the Football Hall of Fame inductions.

David Binder (age 88) - Binder was a Harvard graduate and Fulbright Scholar who rose through the ranks of newspapers from small-town Illinois to The New York Times, where he spent more than 40 years as a specialist in eastern Europe and the U.S. North Woods. He wrote several books about German politics, and occasionally appeared on CNN and C-SPAN. Binder died of kidney failure on June 30, 2019.

Keith Birdsong (age 59) - The Muscogee Creek-Cherokee artist was perhaps best known for his realism-style illustrations on the covers of Star Trek novels. That was not his only client, however, for among Birdsong's oeuvre is a set of six U S Postal stamps depicting the 1960s and another celbrating Native American Dance. Birdsong died June 4, 2019, of a brain injury suffered in a 2018 traffic accident.

Robert Boyd (age  91) - Boyd spent more than two decades as the Washington Bureau chief of Knight Newspaper Group (then Knight Ridder). In 1973, he shared a Pulitzer Prize for reporting for a story revealing that George McGovern's vice presidential candidate, Thomas Eagleton, had been treated for psychiatric problems. He also covered the Bay of Pigs invasion and revolution in the Dominican Republic as a reporter. Boyd died September 20, 2019, of heart failure.

C

Nick Carfado (age 62) - Carfado was a long-time sports columnist for The Boston Globe and the Patriot Ledger, covering the MLB Boston Red Sox and the NFL New England Patriots. He served briefly as a color commentator for the New England Sports Network. In 2014, he shared the award for Massachusetts Sportswriter of the Year. He collapsed and died February 21, 2019, while covering Red Sox spring training.

Edward Clark (age 92) - The New Orleans-born Clark made a name for himself as an abstract expressionist and experimenter in the visual arts. Among other accomplishments, Clark was one of the first painters to experiment with non-rectangular canvases and painting with non-standard implements such as brooms. His works are in the permanent collections of museums around the world, including in his adopted home of Detroit. Clark died October 18, 2019.

Marion Chesney (age 83) - Writing under some seven pen names, Scotswoman Marion Chesney Gibbons was one of the most prolific mystery/romance writers of the twentieth century, with more than a hundred novels to her various names. Several of her M. C. Beaton novels have also been adapted for television. Chesney died December 30, 2019.

Ernie Colón (age 88) - The Puerto Rican-born Colón had a long career as a comic book artist, first in children's comics such as Richie Rich and Casper the Friendly Ghost for Harvey Comics. Later, he worked for DC, where he created the character of Arak, Son of Thunder. He spent several years in the 1980s and '90s as an editor at DC; he later worked for Marvel. Colón died of cancer August 8, 2019.

E

Carol Emshwiller (age 97) - Emshwiller twice won the Nebula award for short fiction and also won the Phillip K. Dick award for her 2002 novel The Mount. She received the World Fantasy Award got Lifetime Achievement in 2005. She was married to screenwriter and director Ed Emshwiller, who predeceased her. Emshwiller died February 2, 2019.

Dennis Etchison (age 76) - Etchison was well-known in the horror biz as an author, screenwriter, and anthologist. Although he published few novels, he was a prolific writer of short stories . He novelized several of the Halloween franchise films under a pseudonym and was responsible for adapted dozens of "Twilight Zone" scripts for radio. Etchison died May 28, 2019.

Rachel Held Evans (age 37) - raised in an evangelical Christian family and a graduate of an evangelical Christian college, Held Evans questioned the social aspects of her faith and its foundation on a literatl interpretation of the Bible, which she rejected. Rachel left the evangelical movement for the Episcopal church and wrote passionately on her support for the LGBTQ community, on the MeToo movement, and other progressive causes. Evans died of complications from an allergic reaction on May 4, 2019.

F

Dorothea Benton Frank (age 67) - Frank was an author of novels, most set in and arounc her native South Carolina. Her first novel, Sullivan's Island, was named for the lowcountry island where she was raised, Frank published more than twenty novels, eleven of them in her "lowcountry" series. She died September 2, 2019.

Jill Freedman (age 79) - A documentary photographer by trade, Freedman was known for her choice of subject matter. It was often said that she chose to illustrate the lives of people on the margins, showing their humanity without glorifying them. Among topics she'd studied were circus performers, policemen, and firemen. Freedman said that she had literally run away to join the circus, and her first book was a record of that time. Freedman died October 9, 2019.

Robert Freeman (age 82) - Freeman's distinctive photographic style is evident on four Beatles album covers; "With the Beatles," "Beates for Sale," "Help!" and "Rubber Soul." Freeman also photographed many jazz artists, including Coltrane and Cannonball Adderly. His then-wife is alleged to have been having an affair with John Lennon, and was the inspiration for "Norwegian Wood." Freeman died November 8, 2019.

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Ernest Gaines (age 85) - Gaines, born to a family of Louisiana sharecroppers, moved to California in his teens. He wrote his first novel while just 17, a version of his 1964 novel Catherine Carmier. He is probably best known for The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman (1971), A Gathering of Old Men (1983), and A Lesson Before Dying (1993). The latter was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize and won the National Book Critics Circle Award. Gaines died November 5, 2019.

Norman Geisler (age 86) - Geisler was an evangelical Christian theologian and author of more than 90 volumes of religious thought; most pubilshed through  religious bookstores. He also founded or co-founded two non-denominational (evangelical) seminaries, Veritas and the Southern Evangelical Seminary; and testified as a creationist at the so-called "Scopes Monkey Trial II." Geisler died July 1, 2019.

Leslie Gelb (age 82) - Gelb was a correspondent and columnist for the New York Times, with strong ties to politics and the diplomatic service. He was an assistant Secretary of State during the Carter administration, and later served in the Council on Foreigh Relations. He shuttled between journalism and government throughout his career. Gelb died August 31, 2019.

Georgie Anne Geyer (age 88) - Geyer graduated from Northwestern University with a journalism degree and began her career with now-defunct newspapers in the Chicago area. She became a foreign correspondent for UP before settling into a position as a conservative syndicated columnist focusing on foreign affairs. Geyer died May 15, 2019.

Philip Gips (age 88) - Gips had a long and distinguished career as a graphic designer and artist. He was perhaps best-known for the movie posters he designed, which included Aliens, Hoosiers, Desperately Seeking Susan, and Downhill Racer. He also designed logos, including the original ESPN and History Channel logos as well as the logo of the band .38 Special. Gips died October 3, 2019.

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W. E. B. Griffin (age 89) - William E. Butterworth published dozens of military and crime novels under eleven different  pseudonyms, including thirty-eight novels in six different series under the Griffin name. He also co-wrote novels in the "M*A*S*H" series with Richard Hooker. Griffin passed away February 12, 2019.

H

Lee Bennett Hopkins (age 81) - Hopkins was an educator, poet, and author; especially of books and anthologies for children. In addition to several professional works on education, Bennett published several YA novels. His most prolific area, however, was anthologies of children's poetry. At one time, he held a Guinness record for the most anthologies of the genre, 113. Hopkins died August 8, 2019.

Tony Horwitz (age 60) - A historian, reporter, and non-fiction author; Anthony Horwitz wrote for The New Yorker and The Wall Street Journal. He won a Pulitzer Prize for reporting in 1995 for a WSJ series about low-income workers. His books include Confederates in the Attic and Midnight Rising: John Brown and the Raid that Sparked the Civil War. Horwitz died while on a book tour May 27, 2019.

Dan Jenkins (age 90) - Jenkins was a sportswriter and novelist who often published in "Playboy" and  had more than 500 bylines in "Sports Illustrated." He won several sportswriting awards and also published more than 25 novels. His best-known novel may be the football novel Semi-Tough, which was made into a 1977 movie. Jenkins passed away March 7, 2019.

K

Christine Kay (age 54) - Kay began her career in 1985 as a reporter at the Pittsburgh Press before moving on to Newsday. She joined the New York Times in 1995 and moved up through the ranks of the metropolitan desk. In 2015, Kay moved to the positino of editor in the investigation section. She was instrumental in writing and editing the Pulitzer Prize winning book, Portraits of Grief. Kay succumbed to breast cancer on February 5, 2019.

Judith Krantz (age 91) - Krantz was an American romance novelist, best-known for such novels as Scruples and Princess Daisy. Krantz penned ten novels over her career, several of which were turned into television movies and miniseries by her husband, producer Steve Krantz. Her last book was her autobiography, published in 2000. Krantz died June 22, 2019.

Paul Krassner (age 87) - Krassner was an original member of Ken Kesey's "Merry Pranksters" and a founder of the Yippie movement. For years, Krassner published and/or contributed to the magazine The Realist, a counter-culture periodicial some say was intended to be a grownup version of Mad Magazine. He was also known as an artist, author, comedian, and social activist. Krassner passed away July 21, 2019.

L

Matthew Locricchio (age 71) - The Detroit native started his career as a stage and television actor, including a long stint as a character on the daytime soap, "Texas." He left acting behind in the 1990s, and began publishing a series of cookbooks specializing in international cuisine and cooking for children. Locricchio passed away on January 9, 2019.

M

Katherine MacLean (age 94) - MacLean was a scifi author and winner of the 1971 Nebula Award for short fiction, awarded for her novella "Missing Man." She published three novels, including Dark Wing, which she co-wrote with husband Carl West. MacLean was most active in the 1950s and 1960s, but continued publishing into the 1990s. She died September 1, 2019.

Robert K. Massie (age 90) - Massie practiced the craft of journalism at magazines such as Colliers, Newsweek, and The Saturday Evening Post; and taught aspiring writers at both Princeton and Tulane Universities. His greatest love, however, was biography. He specialized in the Romanov dynasty of Russia, with works such as Nicholas and Alexandra and Peter the Great, for which he won the 1981 Pulitzer Prize for biography. Massie died December 2, 2019.

Vonda N. McIntyre (age 70) - McIntyre won three Nebula Awards and a Hugo Award for her science fiction writingl including the 1978 novel Dreamsnake, which won both awards. In addition to her dozens of short stories and standalone novels, McIntyre published a number of Star Treck novelizations. McIntyre died of pancreatic cancer April 1, 2019.

Syd Mead (age 86) - Mead began his artistic career as a designer for Ford Motors, but established his own firm in the 1970s. His specialty was futuristic design, which allowed him entrance onto Hollywood sets for science fiction movies. His work in that arena included such films as  Aliens, Blade Runner 2049, Tron, and Johnny Mnemonic. His other work ranged from hotels to cars to electronics. Mead died December 30, 2019.

W. S. Merwin (age 91) - William Stanley Merwin's back list comprised more than fifty books of poetry, prose, and translated poetry. Merwin was named the U. S. Poet Laureate in 2010 and received the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry twice (1971 and 2009). His favorite themes included nature and pacifism. Merwin died March 15, 2019.

Toni Morrison (age 88) - Born Chloe Wofford, Toni Morrison had a career with Random House before publishing her first novel, The Bluest eye, at age 40. Over the next five decades, Morrison published a dozen novels and reaped awards like grapes. She received both the 1998 Pulitzer (for Beloved) and the 1993 Nobel Prize for Literature, always remaining true to her African-American roots. In 2012, President Obama awarded Morrison the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Morrison died August 5, 2019.

O

Mary Oliver (age 89) - Oliver was an American Poet much in the mold of Emily Dickinson and Walt Whitman. She published 14 volumes of poetry, including American Primitive, which won the 1984 Pulitzer for poetry, and New and Selected Poems, winner of the 1992 National Book Award. Oliver died of lymphoma on January 17, 2019.

Gerard O'Neill (age 77) - O'Neill spent the bulk of his career as an investigative journalist for the Boston Globe, where he was part of the paper's first "Spotlight Team," which won multiple Pulitzer Prizes for reporting, beginning with a 1972 investigation of corruption in the 1970s. One prize came when his team revealed that mobster Whitey Bulger was an FBS informant. O'Neill died August 22, 2019.

P

David Palladini (age 72) - Palladini was a well-known artist and illustrator, known equally for his "Aquarian Tarot" deck and for his illustrations of children's books. His best-known work may be as illustrator for Stephen King's Eyes of the Dragon and Jane Yolen's The Girl Who Cried Flowers and other tales. Palladini passed away on March 13, 2019.

PHASE 2 (age 64) - Born Lonny Wood, PHASE 2 was a graffiti artist (now termed "aerosol artist") with a wide following among New Yorkers. He is credited with the invention of the widely-imitated lettering style called "softies" or bubble letters. Wood was also active early on in the hip-hop scene. He died of ALS,  Lou Gehrig's Disease, on December 13, 2019.

Warren Phillips (age 92) - Phillips started at The Wall Street Journal as a copyreader in 1947, and remained with the Journal and its parent company until retirement in 1997. Over the years, he held positions of writer, editor, and managing editor of the Journal; plus executive VP, executive editor, and director, CEO, and president of Dow Jones. Philips died May 10, 2019.

Rosamunde Pilcher (age 94) - Pilcher's 50-year career yielded dozens of novels with more than 60 million copies in print around the world. The prolific British writer penned romance and general fiction novels under her own name, with ten early novels published as Jane Fraser. Her best-known novels include The Shell Seekers and Coming Home. Pilcher was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) following her retirement from writing in 2000. She died on February 6, 2019, after a stroke.

Stanley Plumly (age 79) - Plumly was a well-regarded poet, with more than a dozen published colleections to his name. He was also a scholar of the English poet Keats and director of a creative writing workshop at Maryland College Park. Plumly died April 11, 2019.

Dan Robbins (age 93) - Robbins was working for a Detroit paint company when he read that Leonardo da Vinci trained his painting students by putting numbers in sketched outlines. If it was good enough for da Vinci, it was good enough for the masses: Robbins is credited with inventing paint-by-number. He died April 1, 2019.

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Cokie Roberts (age 75) - The daughter of Louisiana congressman Hale Boggs and his wife, Lindy, who took his seat after he was killed; Cokie Roberts was a longtime political commentator for both ABC News and National Public radio. During her career, Roberts won the Edward R. Murrow award, the Walter Cronkite award, and three Emmys. She served on the board of multiple charitable foundations, including the Kaiser Foundation. Roberts succumbed to breast cancer on September 17, 2019.

Tom Ryan (age 90) - Ryan drew the cartoon strip Tumbleweeds from 1965 until his retirement in 2007, including a nine-year period in which Garfield creator Jim Davis was his assistant. The strip featured the residents of the tiny western town of Grimy Gulch and the neighboring cavalry fort manned by the 6-7/8 Cavalry. Ryan died March 15, 2019.

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Charles Santore (age 84) - Santore began his career as an illustrator in advertising in the 1950s, but in the 1980s shifted his focus to children's literature. He began by illustrating a new release of Beatrix Potter's The Classic Tale of Peter Rabbit, and also illustrated a version of The Wizard of Oz. Over the years he also contributed dozens of celebrity caricatures for the cover of TV Guide.  Santore passed away August 11, 2019.

Jeraldine Saunders (age 95) - Saunders is credited as the creator of the television series "The Love Boat," which was loosely based on her memoir of life as a cruise director, Love Boats. After a brief marriage to astrologer Sidney Omarr, Saunders penned the syndicated horoscope column Omarr's Astrological Forecast until her death. Saunders died February 23, 2019.

	Anne Rivers Siddons (age 83) - Although she intended to major in architecture, Anne Rivers found herself drawn to journalism. She wrote for The Auburn Plainsman, and after graduation, for Atlanta Magazine. She published the first of her twenty novels, Heartbreak Hotel, in 1976, She is best known for novels of the "new South" such as Peachtree Road and Sweetwater Creek. Siddons died of lung cancer September 11, 2019.

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Bill Thompson III (age 57) - Thompson, an avid bird watcher, served both as publisher and editor of the magazine Bird Watcher's Digest, as well as posting his musings in a blog. Thompson authored Bird Watching for Dummies and wrote or authored several other books on the subject of birding. Thompson succumbed to pancreatic cancer on March 25, 2019.

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Tomi Ungerer (age 87) - Born Jean-Tomas Ungerer in Strasbourg, France, "Tomi" became an illustrator of children's books and an author in French, German, and English. Among English-speaking children, his best-known works are the illustrations of Moon Man and Jeff Brown's Flat Stanley. He received the Hans Christian Andersen Medal for his work in 1998. Ungerer died February 9, 2019.

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Gloria Vanderbilt (age 95) - Vanderbilt was an actress, artist, and author; but she is probably best-known as a socialite and heiress to the Vanderbilt fortune. In between her four marriages, one oF which was to conductor Leopold Stokowski, Vanderbilt also designed clothing (including a line of fashion blue jeans). She is the mother of CNN News Anchor Anderson Cooper, from her fourth and final marriage. Vanderbilt died of stomach cancer on June 17, 2019.

Sander Vanocur (age 91) - Vanocur was considered one of the preminent political journalists o the second half of the 20th Century. He was a White House correspondent and political reporter for NBC News, as well as a politcal reporter for PBS. He regularly appeared as a questioner on presidential debates. One of his greatest triumphs was being named to Richard Nixon's enemies list. Vanocur died September 16, 2019.

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Richard S. Wheeler (age 83) - A newspaper editor by training, Wheeler also wrote half a dozen critically-acclaimed western novels and a multi-volume series featuring Barnaby Skye. He worked at newspapers in Montana, Arizona, California, and Nevada before turning to the publishing industry. Wheeler collected five Spur Awards for western writing. He passed away February 24, 2019.

Lois Wille (age 87) - Chicago native Lois Wille was a two-time Pulitzer Prize winner, first in 1963 for reporting at the Chicago Daily News and later in 1989 for her Chicago Tribune editorials. Her work often concentrated on the plight of disadvantaged classes, whether minorities or women. Wille died July 23, 2019, after she suffered a stroke.

Gene Wolfe (age 87) - A prolific fantasy and (to a lesser extent) science fiction writer, Wolfe was a two-time Nebula and four-time World Fantasy Award winner. Readers of Locus magazine placed him in the rarefied company of J. R. R. Tolkein and Ursula LeGuinn as a fantasy author. His best-known work is probably the tetralogy, The Book of the New Sun. Wolfe is also credited with inventing the machine that bakes Pringles. Wolfe passed away on April 14, 2019.

Herman Wouk (age 103) - Wouk was one of the best-known American authors of historical fiction of the 20th century, with works such as War and Remembrance and The Winds of War, but is probably best-known for his 1951 novel, The Caine Mutiny, a Pulitzer Prize-winning effort. He was the first-ever winner of the Library of Congress Lifetime Achievement Award for Fiction Writing, which he won in 2008. Wouk died peacefully on May 17, 2019.

Y

Hanna Yusuf (age 27) - Yusuf was a reporter for BBC News specializing in stories of the Islamic culture. Born in Somalia, the British citizen was fluent in multiple languages. Her biggest story to date was that of a young woman's indoctrination as an ISIS bride and her subsequent efforts to have her citizenship returned. Yusuf's death was announced by her family on September 30, 2019.

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