Remembrances

National

Mary Anderson, Co-Founder Of Outdoor Outfitter REI, Dies At 107

4:36pm April 12, 2017

REI co-founder Mary Anderson died late last month at age 107. With her husband, she started the company in her home with the help of a group of friends in 1938. She was an avid mountaineer.

Former Student Remembers Life Of Education Donor Eugene Lang

4:36pm April 12, 2017

NPR's Audie Cornish talks with Juan Martinez, one of the many thousands of students the philanthropist Eugene Lang helped send to college. Lang died over the weekend.

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David Letterman, right, the host of The Late Show with David Letterman on CBS, and his mother Dorothy Mengering share a laugh during the dedication of the $21 million David Letterman Communication and Media Building on the campus in Muncie, Ind., in 2007.

National

David Letterman's Mother, Dorothy Mengering, Dies At 95

2:46am April 12, 2017

by Doreen McCallister

Dorothy Mengering became a hit with viewers when her son put her on his Late Show on CBS. She baked and appeared via satellite in her Indiana kitchen for a segment called "Guess Mom's Pies."

J. Geils of the J. Geils Band performs at Fenway Park in 2010.

Music & Culture

John Geils, Guitarist Of The J. Geils Band, Dies At 71

9:30pm April 11, 2017

by Andrew Flanagan

The blues-rock guitarist was found dead in his Massachusetts home. Police said he died of natural causes.

John Clarke, a comedian and political satirist beloved in Australia and New Zealand, has died at age 68. He's seen here in an undated photo provided by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

John Clarke, Who Made Fake News Hilarious, Is Mourned In Australia And New Zealand

2:00pm April 10, 2017

by Bill Chappell

Satirist John Clarke's pitch-perfect portrayal of an Australian senator denying the impact of an oil spill once prompted a Snopes fact-check report.

Don Rickles Dies At 90. His Insult Comedy Was An Art Form

11:10am April 07, 2017

Don Rickles died of kidney failure Thursday at his home in Los Angeles. His career took off in the late 1950s and '60s thanks, in part, to his friend and longtime supporter Frank Sinatra.

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Don Rickles was jokingly known as "The Sultan of Insult."

Arts

Comedian Don Rickles, Merciless 'Merchant Of Venom,' Dies At 90

3:43pm April 06, 2017

The famed insult comic and showbiz veteran worked well into his 80s. In his prime, Hollywood elites like his friend Frank Sinatra considered it an honor to be roasted by Rickles.

The Poetic Legacy Of Russia's Yevgeny Yevtushenko

4:54pm April 03, 2017

by Andrew Limbong

Outspoken and influential Russian poet Yevgeny Yevtushenko died over the weekend. He was known for his criticism of anti-Semitism and of the Soviet Union.

Yevgeny Yevtushenko, standing next to his poem 'Babi Yar' during a visit to the Yad Vashem Holocaust museum in Jerusalem in 2007.

Music & Culture

Confronting Anti-Semitism In Russia, In Words And Then Music

3:16pm April 03, 2017

After the death of Russian poet Yevgeny Yevtushenko on April 1, we revisit a 2000 feature about his most famous work, 'Babi Yar,' and the collaboration it inspired with composer Dmitri Shostakovich.

Veteran Mississippi journalist Bill Minor (seated) points out a ceiling inscription to state Sen. David Jordan, D-Greenwood, at the lectern) in Mississippi Senate chambers in 2015. Minor, who died on Tuesday, was being honored in the 2015 ceremony with a

National

Mississippi Journalist Who Chronicled Civil Rights Era Dies At 94

10:46pm March 28, 2017

by Camila Domonoske

Wilson "Bill" Minor spent nearly 70 years documenting Mississippi's tumultuous political and social transformations. He was writing up until the last few months of his life.