Obituaries

Former Argentine Dictator Who Oversaw Death Squads Dies At 87

Scott Neuman — Fri, 17 May 2013 18:24:00 +0000

Jorge Rafael Videla, an ambitious Army chief who seized power in Argentina in 1976 and orchestrated a campaign of terror against his opponents, has died in prison at age 87.

Videla, whose "Dirty War" killed at least 15,000 people, perhaps twice as many, died of natural causes in Argentina's Marcos Paz prison, where he was serving multiple life sentences for crimes against humanity, officials said.

After leading a bloodless coup that toppled President Isabel Martinez de Peron on March 24, 1976, Videla became the head of a junta.

According to The Charlotte Observer, the 71-year-old was killed by "an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound, Lincoln County [N.C.] deputies said."

The Observer adds that "in 2001, Trickle's granddaughter Nicole Ann Bowman was killed in a car accident in front of East Lincoln High School.

TV Psychologist Dr. Joyce Brothers Dies At 85

Scott Neuman — Mon, 13 May 2013 22:33:00 +0000

Dr. Joyce Brothers, whose long-running television show dispensed advice on life and relationships to her viewers, has died in New York at age 85, according to her publicist.

She died on Monday of natural causes, Sanford Brokaw said.

Brothers, who was a pioneer of the television advice show, first gained fame as a winning contestant on the television game show "The $64,000 Question" in 1955, becoming the only woman ever to win the top prize.

'Monkeemobile' Creator Dean Jeffries Dies

Mark Memmott — Fri, 10 May 2013 15:29:00 +0000

Dean Jeffries, the car customizer who created the "Monkeemobile" for The Monkees TV show, "Black Beauty" for The Green Hornet and who painted two famous words on actor James Dean's Porsche 550 Spyder, died last weekend at his Hollywood home. He was 80. A son says Jeffries died in his sleep.

As NPR's Nina Gregory tells our Newscast Desk, Jeffries was a legend of California car culture.

Matt Groening's Mother, Inspiration For Marge Simpson, Dies

Tue, 07 May 2013 21:38:00 +0000

"Margaret Groening died peacefully in her sleep on April 22, 2013, in Portland."

That paid obituary, which ran Monday in The Oregonian, marked the life of the woman who served as the inspiration for one of the best-known characters on television and arguably pop culture: the beehive-coiffed Marge Simpson.

Groening was 94.

Her son, Matt Groening, created The Simpsons, a show for which he drew on characters from his own childhood.