Archive: May 2008
Harvey Korman RIP
Harvey Korman, who died yesterday, was among the masterful comic "straight men" of his generation on film and TV. Tim Conway and Carol Burnett were often more outrageous, but Korman's task could be harder, struggling to keep from laughing in light of the most implausibly hilarious situations....
By Adam Bernstein | May 30, 2008; 12:14 PM ET | Comments (0)
On Faith On Death
The Washington Post feature "On Faith" showcases the insights of LA Times obit editor Jon Thurber, one of the sages of the obit craft. He's sensitive and thoughtful in a very difficult job....
By Adam Bernstein | May 28, 2008; 7:10 PM ET | Comments (1)
A "Derogatory" Obit?
A reader wrote in last week to criticize what she called the "derogatory and negative" tone of the recent obituary for Huntington Hartford II, the A&P heir whose quest to be taken seriously as a patron of the arts led him to drain much of his enormous fortune. Hartford died...
By Adam Bernstein | May 26, 2008; 12:51 PM ET | Comments (0)
Brother of the More Famous Robert
I enjoy writing about photography, but I hadn't expected to write about two photographers in less than a week. Last week, I wrote about the death of my friend Flip Schulke, whose career was highlighted by his haunting images of the civil rights movement and Martin Luther King Jr. Then,...
By Matt Schudel | May 24, 2008; 1:26 PM ET | Comments (0)
Video: Siegmund Nissel, Violinist for Amadeus String Quartet
Adam Bernstein writes in The Post today about Siegmund Nissel, a German-born violinist with the celebrated Amadeus String Quartet. Nissel died May 21 at his home in London. Watch a video of the Amadeus Quartet playing Bartók....
By Mike McPhate | May 23, 2008; 11:27 AM ET | Comments (0)
A Chilly Ending
A leader in cryonics "deanimates."...
By Patricia Sullivan | May 21, 2008; 3:19 PM ET | Comments (0)
Searching the World
The vast majority of our obits originate from families who contact us, but that's not always the case. We keep an eye on the newswires and Internet newsgroups where people who like obits congregate, we all have sources in various communities who alert us when someone notable has died, and...
By Patricia Sullivan | May 20, 2008; 2:00 PM ET | Comments (0)
The Death of a Friend
When I got to my desk Friday, my colleague Joe Holley told me Flip Schulke had died. Joe had already pulled some clips and begun background work on Flip, a photographer from the glory days of Life magazine who was one of the greatest chroniclers of the civil rights era....
By Matt Schudel | May 17, 2008; 12:06 PM ET | Comments (0)
Conference of Death
Just returned from the inaugural meeting of the Society of Professional Obituary Writers (SPOW), held in Portland, Ore., May 8 to 11. In preceding months, there had been debate over the name, with several wags hoping for some creepy acronym that spelled out words like COFFIN (Congress of something something...
By Adam Bernstein | May 14, 2008; 12:56 PM ET | Comments (3)
Everyone Complains About the Weather...
... but George Cressman did something about it -- well, sort of. George P. Cressman was the director of the National Weather Service from 1965 to 1979 and was nothing less than a legend in his field. He was, as one of his colleagues told me for today's obituary, "really,...
By Matt Schudel | May 9, 2008; 12:46 PM ET | Comments (5)
Extending His Warranty
We are what we do, to a large extent, and Milton Altman was used to calculating what is and is not a good deal. So when the retired drapery salesman bought a used car at the age of 95, he rejected an extended warranty on the grounds that it was...
By Patricia Sullivan | May 7, 2008; 12:23 PM ET | Comments (0)
Is Robert L. Vesco Dead?
What do you think: Did Robert Vesco die quietly in Cuba last November, or is this yet another vanishing act?...
By Patricia Sullivan | May 5, 2008; 12:02 PM ET | Comments (2)
What'll You Have?
I know that Pabst Blue Ribbon beer is retro-fashionable these days, but as a poor college student in Milwaukee 30-mumble years ago, even my crowd shunned the down-market PBR. There's a guy on the South Side of Chicago who likes it so much that he's going to be buried in...
By Patricia Sullivan | May 5, 2008; 11:12 AM ET | Comments (1)
Here's to the Crazy Ladies
We just got a note from a reader from Scotland who asked for an obit of Deborah Palfrey, the D.C. Madam, who committed suicide yesterday at her mother's house. He argued for a formal obituary on this basis: " -- If one of her diaper wearing clients from the senate...
By Patricia Sullivan | May 2, 2008; 1:43 PM ET | Comments (0)
His Dying Wish
Vladimir Nabokov, the celebrated Russian author of "Lolita," "Pale Fire" and other monuments of 20th-century literature, was working on a new novel, "The Original of Laura," at the time of his death in 1977. He ordered that the manuscript be burned. His command makes you wonder about any relative's "dying...
By Matt Schudel | May 1, 2008; 1:06 PM ET | Comments (2)
