Obituaries

Music & Culture

Fred White, drummer for the band Earth, Wind & Fire, has died

5:13pm January 02, 2023

by Becky Sullivan

White, the younger brother of the band's founder and principal songwriter Maurice White, joined the group in the mid-1970s and went on to lay the backbone for hits like "September" and "Shining Star."

Retired Pope Benedict XVI's body begins lying in state at the Vatican

8:08am January 02, 2023

by Sylvia Poggioli

Ahead of a funeral on Thursday, mourners are paying respects to the late Pope Benedict, whose remains are on public display at the Vatican.

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In this file photo, Anita Pointer of The Pointer Sisters performs at the 3rd annual Alfred Mann Foundation Innovation and Inspiration Gala on Sept. 9, 2006, in Beverly Hills, Calif.

Arts

Singer Anita Pointer of The Pointer Sisters has died at age 74

5:57am January 01, 2023

by The Associated Press

The Pointer Sisters won three Grammy Awards and had 13 U.S. top 20 hit songs between 1973 and 1985, Anita Pointer's publicist said. The 1983 album "Break Out" went triple platinum.

Remembering journalist Barbara Walters

7:43pm December 31, 2022

Legendary TV journalist Barbara Walters died Friday at the age of 93. She spoke with NPR's Michel Martin in 2008.

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Benedict, the former pope, dies at 95

7:43pm December 31, 2022

by Sylvia Poggioli

Benedict XVI, the first pope in seven centuries to resign, has died at the age of 95.

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Pope Benedict XVI greets a crowd in Venice's St. Mark's Square in 2011.

Retired Pope Benedict XVI dies at 95

1:44pm December 31, 2022

by Sylvia Poggioli

He is remembered as a staunch conservative who opposed modernizing reforms and as the first pope to step down since the 15th century.

Former Pope Benedict XVI dies at 95

8:26am December 31, 2022

by Sylvia Poggioli

Pope-emeritus Benedict XVI has died. He was 95. Born Joseph Ratzinger in Bavaria, he oversaw a church in crisis and then became the first pontiff to step down since the 15th century.

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Cuban Prime Minister Fidel Castro responds to a question from Barbara Walters, who was covering Senator George McGovern's trip to Cuba for NBC, at a press conference in Havana in May 1975.

National

Trailblazing journalist Barbara Walters has died at 93

11:30pm December 30, 2022

by David Folkenflik

Over more than a half century, the driven celebrity journalist built one of the most remarkable careers in TV news. She was 93.

Arts

Remembering the artists, filmmakers, actors and writers we lost in 2022

3:23pm December 30, 2022

by NPR Staff

This was the year we lost actors Sidney Poitier, Angela Lansbury and Bob Saget, fashion titan André Leon Talley, artists Sam Gilliam and Claes Oldenburg and authors David McCullough and Hilary Mantel.

Arata Isozaki arrives at the Élysée Palace in Paris on May 24, 2019. The Pritzker-winning Japanese architect has died at 91.

Pritzker-winning architect Arata Isozaki dies at 91

10:58am December 30, 2022

by The Associated Press

The Japanese architect was known as a post-modern giant who blended culture and history of the East and the West in his designs. He won the Pritzker Prize, the highest honor in the field, in 2019.