obituaries

What John Amos taught me about having — and being — a father

4:41pm October 02, 2024

Amos, who played James Evans Sr. in the 1970s sitcom Good Times, showed TV critic Eric Deggans what it was like to have a concerned, ethical father at home. Behind the scenes, Amos pushed for more authentic Black characters — sometimes leading to conflict.

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Howard Blatt, stroke survivor who co-founded an aphasia support group, died at 88

5:17pm June 20, 2024

by Sacha Pfeiffer

After a stroke left Howard Blatt unable to speak, he helped create a support group for other people with aphasia, a brain condition that impairs communication. He recently died at age 88.

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Willie Mays is widely considered the best baseball player in history. His speed, his hitting and overall understanding of the game. He's shown here at the 2004 Baseball Hall of Fame induction ceremonies in Cooperstown, N.Y.

Willie Mays - the 'Say Hey Kid' considered baseball's best all-around player - dies at 93

9:39pm June 18, 2024

by Tom Goldman

Willie Mays is widely considered to be the greatest baseball player of all time. The 'Say Hey Kid' had incomparable skills and an infectious smile. He dazzled on the field and off.

Health & Safety

Her father was killed in a climate-driven flood. Here's how she's remembering him

12:02pm May 28, 2024

by Rebecca Hersher

Mandy Messinger is one of hundreds who lose loved ones to climate-linked extreme weather each year in the U.S. Her father Craig Messinger was killed in a 2021 flash flood in the Philadelphia suburbs.

Music & Culture

Toby Keith, one of country music's biggest stars, dies at 62

5:35pm February 06, 2024

by Ayana Archie

Keith announced on social media in 2022 that he had been having chemotherapy and radiation treatments for stomach cancer. He is behind such hits as "Red Solo Cup" and "Beer For My Horses."

Charles Osgood, longtime CBS host on TV and radio, has died at 91

4:08pm January 23, 2024

by The Associated Press

Osgood, who anchored CBS Sunday Morning for more than two decades and hosted the long-running radio program The Osgood File, died Tuesday home in New Jersey. The cause was dementia, his family said.

Clockwise from left: Sinéad O'Connor, Tina Turner, Matthew Perry, Wayne Shorter, Paul Reubens and Harry Belafonte

Arts

Actors, musicians, writers and artists we lost in 2023

3:36pm December 28, 2023

by Neda Ulaby

Giants of the arts world left us this year: We look back on the legacies of Harry Belafonte, Tina Turner, Sinéad O'Connor, Paul Reubens (aka Pee-wee Herman), Richard Roundtree, Norman Lear and more.

Veteran Chinese AIDS campaigner Doctor Gao Yaojie, right, talks with students about AIDS prevention during a series of university lectures in Shanghai, Nov. 30 2006.

Gao Yaojie, a pioneering activist who exposed China's AIDS epidemic, dies at 95

9:43am December 11, 2023

by Emily Feng

A trained gynecologist, Gao became well-known across China for her relentless activism in exposing a man-made AIDS crisis and for her educational work to remove the stigma associated with HIV/AIDS.

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Silvio Berlusconi meets journalists at the Quirinale presidential palace in Rome in 2018.

World News

Silvio Berlusconi, Italy's former prime minister, has died at the age of 86

4:18pm June 12, 2023

by Sylvia Poggioli

The media mogul turned prime minister left a mark on popular culture, while his coarseness and constant legal woes trashed political norms and tainted Italy's image in the world.

This 1976 file photo shows Oakland A's Vida Blue, the hard-throwing left-hander who became one of baseball's biggest draws in the early 1970's and helped lead brash Oakland Athletics to three straight World Series titles. Blue has died. He was 73. The A's said Blue died Saturday, May 6, 2023 but did not give a cause of death.

Sports

Vida Blue, who won 3 World Series in a row with the Oakland Athletics, dies at 73

10:21pm May 08, 2023

by Ayana Archie

Blue was drafted in the second round of the 1967 MLB Draft to the Athletics. He spent nine seasons with the team, and was ultimately selected to six All-Star teams throughout his 17-year career.