A Caldecott Medal winner, he turned childhood memories of fleeing the Nazis in Poland into magical stories.
Category: Deaths (Obituaries)
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Betty Bonney, 100, Dies; Her Song for a Yankee Star Was a Big-Band Hit
“Joltin’ Joe DiMaggio,” which she sang with the Les Brown band, celebrated DiMaggio’s 56-game hitting streak in 1941. She also sang on Sid Caesar’s “Your Show of Shows.”
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Roy Ayers, Vibraphonist Who Injected Soul Into Jazz, Dies at 84
He helped introduce a funkier strain of the music in the 1970s. He also had an impact on hip-hop: His “Everybody Loves the Sunshine” has been sampled nearly 200 times.
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Juan Hamilton, Georgia O’Keeffe’s Companion and Contested Heir, Dies at 79
As a young potter, he turned up on the doorstep of an octogenarian master of modern painting. They grew so close it became a scandal.
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Chris Jasper, Who Helped Revitalize the Isley Brothers, Dies at 73
A classically trained pianist turned songwriter, he was a cornerstone of the soul group’s sound during its fertile second act in the 1970s.
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Selwyn Raab, Tenacious Reporter Who Covered the Mob, Dies at 90
At The Times and elsewhere, he wrote about wrongful convictions, fake methadone clinics and the five powerful Mafia families in New York.
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Hal Hirshorn, Artist of Otherworldly Photos and Paintings, Dies at 60
A ubiquitous presence in New York’s art world, he also existed outside it, using 19th-century techniques to create ethereal, haunting images.
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Laura Sessions Stepp, Who Reported on Teenage Sex, Dies at 73
A Pulitzer Prize-winning editor, she went on to write about “hookup culture” and young women’s sexual experiences for The Washington Post and in a best-selling book.
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Khalil Fong, Hong Kong Singer-Songwriter, Dies at 41
Singing in both Mandarin and English, he brought a soul and R&B sensibility to Chinese pop.
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Angie Stone, Hip-Hop Pioneer Turned Neo-Soul Singer, Dies at 63
After having success as a member of the Sequence, an early female rap group, she re-emerged in the 1990s as a practitioner of sultry, laid-back R&B.
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David Johansen, Who Fronted the New York Dolls and More, Dies at 75
In the 1970s, he and the transgressive Dolls were proto-punk pioneers. He later refashioned himself as the pompadoured lounge lizard Buster Poindexter.
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Maria Tipo, Italian Pianist Who Beguiled Critics, Dies at 93
Admired by fellow musicians like Arthur Rubinstein as well as by the critics, she created what came to be known as an Italian school of piano playing.