obituaries

Frank Tavares, The Voice Of NPR For 30 Years, Has Died

5:55am January 01, 2020

Tavares was the announcer of NPR's funding credits. For three decades, he told listeners who supported NPR programs. Tavares was recently diagnosed with ALS, and died Monday in Florida.

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Music & Culture

In Memoriam 2019: The Musicians We Lost

3:34pm December 31, 2019

NPR Music celebrates the alt-rock heroes, Hollywood idols, Pulitzer-winning composers, jazz luminaries, cult legends, bold activists, old masters and rising stars the world lost this year.

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Remembering Journalist Cokie Roberts Who Died This Year

8:41am December 31, 2019

NPR's Steve Inskeep remembers his long-time colleague Cokie Roberts — one of NPR's "founding mothers" — who died in September at the age of 75 of complications from breast cancer.

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Comic Neil Innes, A Frequent Monty Python Collaborator, Dies At 75

6:13pm December 30, 2019

Comic, songwriter and frequent Monty Python collaborator Neil Innes died Sunday at age 75. He was also a member of The Rutles and the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band.

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From left to right: John Cleese, Neil Innes, Michael Palin and Eric Idle dressed as Arthurian knights on the set of Monty Python and the Holy Grail in 1974.

Music & Culture

Neil Innes, Monty Python Collaborator And Rutles Member, Dead At 75

4:43pm December 30, 2019

by Stephen Thompson

The singer and writer performed in The Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band, appeared in Monty Python and the Holy Grail and later formed the Beatles pastiche, The Rutles, with Eric Idle.

Veteran Rockabilly Musician Sleepy LaBeef Dies At 84

5:48pm December 27, 2019

Veteran rockabilly musician Sleepy LaBeef died this week at the age of 84. His first single was released in the late 1950s and he toured up until his death on Thursday.

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Composer Jerry Herman, flanked by actresses Carol Channing (left) and Jo Anne Worley at a 2002 Tony Awards party in Hollywood.

Music & Culture

Broadway Legend Jerry Herman Is Dead At 88

5:48pm December 27, 2019

by Jeff Lunden

The Broadway songwriter died in Miami of pulmonary complications, according to his publicist.

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Broadway Songwriter Jerry Herman Dies At 88

6:25am December 27, 2019

by Bob Mondello

Legendary Broadway songwriter Jerry Herman has died. The author of the hit musicals Hello, Dolly!, Mame and La Cage aux Folles was 88.

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Songwriter Allee Willis attends PAWS/LA presents An Evening of Comedy and Kitsch at Avalon in 2012 in Hollywood.

Music & Culture

Songwriter Allee Willis, Whose Work Spanned 'Friends' And 'The Color Purple,' Dies

3:43pm December 25, 2019

by Tanya Ballard Brown

Willis, 72, also worked with Earth, Wind & Fire. She says she learned from the band's Maurice White to "never let the lyric get in the way of the groove."

U.S. Army Sgt. 1st Class Michael James Goble, who was killed during combat operations in Kunduz province, Afghanistan, on Sunday.

20th American Service Member Killed In Deadly Year For U.S. In Afghanistan

6:19pm December 24, 2019

by David Welna

The death of an American Green Beret on Monday raised the tally of U.S. forces killed in action in Afghanistan to 20 this year, the highest since combat operations officially ended in 2014.