Obituaries 01 (Sep 08 - Jul 11)

[LenaHuat]

I was shocked to read abt the demise of Dr Toh Chin Chye's only child (daughter) at age 41
Does any1 know the reason? She left 4 children behind

[millionairemind]

Sigh....... when one leaves behind one's young children it is always a very sad affair

[LenaHuat]

Hi MM
Yes, I'm even greater shock 2day. Her youngest child is so young. How tragic to die of breast cancer at the prime of her life. I also wish that young 26-year old chap, who is suffering from colon cancer, a speedy recovery.

[helios]

Yes, I'm even greater shock 2day. Her youngest child is so young. How tragic to die of breast cancer at the prime of her life. I also wish that young 26-year old chap, who is suffering from colon cancer, a speedy recovery.

yuppz, colorectal cancer is definitely a silent killer too; won't live beyond 5 years prognosis ...

it was only that when i read SnowBall, i realised that Buffett's dad and himself were the main sufferers of this disease ... in fact, Buffett removed part of his colon at age 69 ...

[LenaHuat]

Hi SanSan MeiMei
Wow, U're busy organizing BiomedAsia! Pei fu! Life is a many-splendored thing , isn't it
I haven't got to the page of Snowball abt colon-rectal cancer. Soo desu ne.
Your post convinced me to pick up one of those test kits and get speedy abt having my stools tested. It's a simple "stick it in, lift a little and stuff it into the tube" and mail it to the Cancer Society stretch of my body.
Why not juz do it

[winston]

Used to watch The Tonight Show as there was really nothing much on TV at that time-slot. The movies were old too ..

Ed McMahon dies at 86

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Ed McMahon, a fixture on U.S. late-night television for 30 years as the full-throated announcer and sidekick for Johnny Carson on NBC's "The Tonight Show," died on Tuesday at age 86, his spokesman said.

The veteran TV personality, best known for his nightly introduction of Carson in a deep, booming voice with the drawn-out line, "Heeeeeeeeere's Johnny!" died at a Los Angeles-area hospital, spokesman Howard Bragman said.

"He died early this morning with his wife and loved ones by his side," Bragman said.

McMahon had been battling pneumonia and other illnesses for about the past month. Bragman declined to confirm or deny reports that the performer had been diagnosed with bone cancer.

Outgoing, affable and possessing a robust, baritone voice, McMahon began his career with stints as a bingo caller, carnival barker and boardwalk pitchman before becoming a broadcast announcer and TV host.

Trained as a U.S. Marine fighter pilot during World War II, he flew missions in Korea in the 1950s.

He went on to become one of the most celebrated sidekicks in TV history as Carson's right-hand man on "The Tonight Show" for three decades, stopping in 1992 when Carson retired as host.

The pair first worked together in 1957 as announcer and host on the daytime game show "Who Do You Trust?" The duo moved "Tonight" in 1962 when Carson succeeded Jack Paar.

The gregarious McMahon, a frequent comic foil for the Carson during ad-libbed banter at the top of the show, was familiar even off camera for his "Hi-oooooh!" and frequent guffaws at Carson's monologue jokes, especially when a punch line fell flat.

Carson died in January 2005 at age 79.

[winston]

'Charlie's Angel' Farrah Fawcett dies at 62

By BOB THOMAS, Associated Press Writer AP - Friday, June 26

LOS ANGELES - Farrah Fawcett, the "Charlie's Angels" star whose feathered blond hair and dazzling smile made her one of the biggest sex symbols of the 1970s, died Thursday after battling cancer. She was 62.

http://sg.news.yahoo.com/ap/20090626/tw ... 375f8.html

[winston]

Legendary CBS anchor Walter Cronkite dies at 92

By FRAZIER MOORE, Associated Press Writer Frazier Moore, Associated Press Writer

NEW YORK – Walter Cronkite, the premier TV anchorman of the networks' golden age who reported a tumultuous time with reassuring authority and came to be called "the most trusted man in America," died Friday. He was 92.

Cronkite's longtime chief of staff, Marlene Adler, said Cronkite died at 7:42 p.m. at his Manhattan home surrounded by family. She said the cause of death was cerebral vascular disease.

Adler said, "I have to go now" before breaking down into what sounded like a sob. She said she had no further comment.

Cronkite was the face of the "CBS Evening News" from 1962 to 1981, when stories ranged from the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy and the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. to racial and anti-war riots, Watergate and the Iranian hostage crisis.

It was Cronkite who read the bulletins coming from Dallas when Kennedy was shot Nov. 22, 1963, interrupting a live CBS-TV broadcast of the soap opera "As the World Turns."

Cronkite was the broadcaster to whom the title "anchorman" was first applied, and he came so identified in that role that eventually his own name became the term for the job in other languages. (Swedish anchors are known as Kronkiters; In Holland, they are Cronkiters.)

"He was a great broadcaster and a gentleman whose experience, honesty, professionalism and style defined the role of anchor and commentator," CBS Corp. chief executive Leslie Moonves said in a statement.

CBS has scheduled a prime-time special, "That's the Way it Was: Remembering Walter Cronkite," for 7 p.m. Sunday.

His 1968 editorial declaring the United States was "mired in stalemate" in Vietnam was seen by some as a turning point in U.S. opinion of the war. He also helped broker the 1977 invitation that took Egyptian President Anwar Sadat to Jerusalem, the breakthrough to Egypt's peace treaty with Israel.

He followed the 1960s space race with open fascination, anchoring marathon broadcasts of major flights from the first suborbital shot to the first moon landing, exclaiming, "Look at those pictures, wow!" as Neil Armstrong stepped on the moon's surface in 1969. In 1998, for CNN, he went back to Cape Canaveral to cover John Glenn's return to space after 36 years.

"It is impossible to imagine CBS News, journalism or indeed America without Walter Cronkite," CBS News president Sean McManus said in a statement. "More than just the best and most trusted anchor in history, he guided America through our crises, tragedies and also our victories and greatest moments."

He had been scheduled to speak last January for the 50th anniversary of the U.S. Space & Rocket Center in Huntsville, Ala., but ill health prevented his appearance.

A former wire service reporter and war correspondent, he valued accuracy, objectivity and understated compassion. He expressed liberal views in more recent writings but said he had always aimed to be fair and professional in his judgments on the air.

Off camera, his stamina and admittedly demanding ways brought him the nickname "Old Ironpants." But to viewers, he was "Uncle Walter," with his jowls and grainy baritone, his warm, direct expression and his trim mustache.

When he summed up the news each evening by stating, "And THAT's the way it is," millions agreed. His reputation survived accusations of bias by Richard Nixon's vice president, Spiro Agnew, and being labeled a "pinko" in the tirades of a fictional icon, Archie Bunker of CBS's "All in the Family."

Two polls pronounced Cronkite the "most trusted man in America": a 1972 "trust index" survey in which he finished No. 1, about 15 points higher than leading politicians, and a 1974 survey in which people chose him as the most trusted television newscaster.

Like fellow Midwesterner Johnny Carson, Cronkite seemed to embody the nation's mainstream. When he broke down as he announced Kennedy's death, removing his glasses and fighting back tears, the times seemed to break down with him.

And when Cronkite took sides, he helped shape the times. After the 1968 Tet offensive, he visited Vietnam and wrote and narrated a "speculative, personal" report advocating negotiations leading to the withdrawal of American troops.

"We have been too often disappointed by the optimism of the American leaders, both in Vietnam and Washington, to have faith any longer in the silver linings they find in the darkest clouds," he said, and concluded, "We are mired in stalemate."

After the broadcast, President Johnson reportedly said, "If I've lost Cronkite, I've lost middle America."

In the fall of 1972, responding to reports in The Washington Post, Cronkite aired a two-part series on Watergate that helped ensure national attention to the then-emerging scandal.

"When the news is bad, Walter hurts," the late CBS president Fred Friendly once said. "When the news embarrasses America, Walter is embarrassed. When the news is humorous, Walter smiles with understanding."

More recently, in a syndicated column, Cronkite defended the liberal record of Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry and criticized the Iraq war and other Bush administration policies.

But when asked by CNN's Larry King if that column was evidence of media bias, Cronkite set forth the distinction between opinion and reporting. "We all have prejudices," he said of his fellow journalists, "but we also understand how to set them aside when we do the job."

Cronkite was the top newsman during the peak era for the networks, when the nightly broadcasts grew to a half-hour and 24-hour cable and the Internet were still well in the future.

As many as 18 million households tuned in to Cronkite's top-rated program each evening. Twice that number watched his final show, on March 6, 1981, compared with fewer than 10 million in 2005 for the departure of Dan Rather, Cronkite's successor.

A vigorous 64 years old, Cronkite had stepped down with the assurance that other duties awaited him at CBS News, but found little demand there for his services. He hosted the shortlived science magazine series "Walter Cronkite's Universe" and was retained by the network as a consultant, although, as he was known to state wistfully, he was never consulted.

He also sailed his beloved boat, the Wyntje, hosted or narrated specials on public and cable TV, and issued his columns and the best-selling "Walter Cronkite: A Reporter's Life."

For 24 years he served as on-site host for New Year's Day telecasts by the Vienna Philharmonic, ending that cherished tradition only in 2009.

After the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, Cronkite was selected to introduce the postponed Emmy awards show. He told the audience that in its coverage of the attack and its aftermath, "television, the great common denominator, has lifted our common vision as never before."

Cronkite joined CBS in 1950, after a decade with United Press, during which he covered World War II and the Nuremberg trials, and a brief stint with a regional radio group.

At CBS he found a respected radio-news organization dipping its toe into TV, and it put him in front of the camera. He was named anchor for CBS's coverage of the 1952 political conventions, the first year the presidential nominations got wide TV coverage. From there, he was assigned to such news-oriented programs as "You Are There" and "Twentieth Century." (He also briefly hosted a morning show, accompanied by a puppet named Charlemagne the Lion.)

On April 16, 1962, he replaced Douglas Edwards as anchor of the network's "Evening News."

"I never asked them why," Cronkite recalled in a 2006 TV portrait. "I was so pleased to get the job, I didn't want to endanger it by suggesting that I didn't know why I had it."

[winston]

World's oldest man, British WWI veteran dies aged 113

LONDON: Henry Allingham, the world's oldest man and oldest World War I veteran, died on Saturday at the age of 113, the nursing home in Britain where he spent his last years said.

"Everybody at St Dunstan's is saddened by Henry's loss and our sympathy goes out to his family," said Robert Leader, chief executive of St Dunstan's care home in Ovingdean, near Brighton on the south England coast.

He had become the world's oldest man last month, Guinness World Records confirmed, after the previous holder, Tomoji Tanabe of Japan, died aged 113.

Allingham had marked his 113th birthday on June 6.

Leader said Allingham was "very active right up to his final days". "As well as possessing a great spirit of fun, he represented the last of a generation who gave a very great deal for us," he said.

"Henry made many friends among the residents and staff at St Dunstan's. He was a great character and will be missed."

A funeral will take place later this month in Brighton.

"I am greatly saddened to hear of the death of Henry Allingham," said Britain's Veterans Minister Kevan Jones.

"For one of his age, his vigour for life was extraordinary. I was humbled to meet somebody who had led such an amazing life and we owe such a huge debt of gratitude to him and his generation. My thoughts are with his family."

Allingham had five grandchildren and 12 great-grandchildren, 14 great-great grandchildren and one great-great-great grandchild.

Prince Charles, the heir to the throne, described Allingham as "one of our nation's historic treasures" in the foreword to the veteran's 2008 autobiography, "Kitchener's Last Volunteer".

"He does not want modern society to forget what his generation gave for our future but, equally, the message of peace and reconciliation is one that he desires to convey above all else," Charles wrote.

"We should all be humbled by this quiet, genial man and his desire to extol peace and friendship to the world, despite all the horrors he witnessed at such a young and impressionable age."


- AFP/so

[winston]

Beverly Roberts, Bogart co-star, dies at age 96

AP - Saturday, July 18LAGUNA NIGUEL, Calif. - A relative says Beverly Roberts, who co-starred with Humphrey Bogart in the 1936 film "Two Around the World," has died. She was 96.

Her second-cousin Christina Baker says Roberts died Monday at her home in Laguna Niguel of natural causes.

A Warner Bros. contract player from 1935, Roberts made her first film with Al Jolson in "The Singing Kid."

She also appeared with Bogart and Pat O'Brien in "China Clipper" and with Errol Flynn and Joan Blondell in "Perfect Specimen."

After leaving Warner Bros. in 1940, she toured the country as a singer with the Dorsey Brothers band.

In 1950, she became administrator of Theater Authority, a post she held for 25 years.

In her later years, she worked in watercolor painting.

She never married and had no children.