Obituary Stories category, Page 27
West Leechburg mourns the loss of longtime borough Secretary Pat Grantz
The community of West Leechburg is mourning the loss of a longtime, steadfast borough employee. Patricia Ann Grantz of West Leechburg died Feb. 7. She was 82. Grantz served as borough secretary and treasurer for 43 years. “She was the rock that kept everything together,” West Leechburg Mayor Jim Gallucci...
Ex-Tribune-Review Sunday editor remembered as a ‘giant of a man’
William T. “Bill” Dymond, the first editor of the Sunday Tribune-Review, was a man great in stature and personality, a man who cared deeply about his family and community, his friends said. “He was a giant in so many ways. Not only in personal stature, but a giant in the...
Chick Corea, jazz great with 23 Grammy Awards, dies at 79Video
NEW YORK — Chick Corea, a towering jazz pianist with a staggering 23 Grammy Awards who pushed the boundaries of the genre and worked alongside Miles Davis and Herbie Hancock, has died. He was 79. Corea died Tuesday of a rare form of cancer, his team posted on his website....
Shawn Kuhn leaves legacy of joy, service in Allegheny Township
Family members described Shawn Kuhn as “larger than life, a friend to all.” Kuhn was director of public works for Allegheny Township — but his involvement in the community reached far beyond his municipal duties. He was former president of the Allegheny Township Athletic Association and the Kiski Valley Baseball...
Hustler publisher Larry Flynt dies at 78
LOS ANGELES — Porn purveyor Larry Flynt, who built Hustler magazine into an adult entertainment empire while championing First Amendment rights, died Wednesday. He was 78. Flynt had been in frail health and died of heart failure at his Hollywood Hills home, said his nephew, Jimmy Flynt Jr. From his...
Folk singer-songwriter and political activist Anne Feeney dies at 69
A fierce activist who lent her voice and music to a range of grassroots causes — a self-described “hellraiser” and “troublemaker” — Anne Feeney spent decades turning the push for social justice into lyrics. “Anne, like a laser, would identify these issues and help people understand these in a very...
Sewickley centenarian, 1st female township supervisor helped push women’s rights
Sixty years ago, before the push for women’s rights gained widespread support, Mary Belak Zakutney of Herminie sought the same pay for the same job as a man in her rural community. Mrs. Zakutney was secretary-treasurer for Sewickley Township for almost 17 years, from the early 1940s to 1957, working...
Pittsburgh native Jamie Tarses, 1st female TV network entertainment head, dies at 56
Jamie Tarses, who helped bring “Friends” to NBC and broke the glass ceiling in network TV when she became the top entertainment executive at ABC, died Monday after suffering complications from a cardiac event last fall. She was 56. Tarses’ death was confirmed by her family. She was among the...
‘Saved by the Bell’ star Dustin Diamond dies of cancer at 44
“Saved by the Bell” star Dustin Diamond died Monday after a three-week fight with carcinoma, according to his representative. He was 44. “Dustin did not suffer. He did not have to lie submerged in pain. For that, we are grateful,” the actor’s spokesman, Roger Paul, said in a statement. Diamond,...
Retired Larimer minister served church, community
Claudia Papenmeier grew up attending St. John’s United Church of Christ in Larimer, and she remained active in the church well into her 70s. Mrs. Papenmeier met her husband, Arthur, at the church, where he served as a pastor in the 1950s. It was a role that she herself took...
Patricia Rooney, wife of late Steelers owner Dan Rooney, dies at age 88
Patricia Rooney, the wife of late Pittsburgh Steelers chairman and Ambassador Dan Rooney, died Saturday night at her home, the team announced. She was 88. The matriarch of the Steelers, Mrs. Rooney had nine children, including Art Rooney II, the team’s president. “My family and I are mourning the passing...
Cicely Tyson, groundbreaking award-winning actor, dies at 96Video
NEW YORK — Cicely Tyson, the pioneering Black actor who gained an Oscar nomination for her role as the sharecropper’s wife in “Sounder,” a Tony Award in 2013 at age 88 and touched TV viewers’ hearts in “The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman,” died Thursday at age 96. Tyson’s death...
Oscar and Emmy-winning actor Cloris Leachman dies at 94Video
LOS ANGELES — Cloris Leachman, an Oscar-winner for her portrayal of a lonely housewife in “The Last Picture Show” and a comedic delight as the fearsome Frau Blücher in “Young Frankenstein” and neighbor Phyllis on “The Mary Tyler Moore Show,” has died. She was 94. Leachman died in her sleep...
Longtime Norwin athletic director taught life lessons to students
Joseph E. Pellis taught many life lessons to his children and his students. “When you get knocked down, you get back up until you can’t get up anymore,” recalled his son, Mark Pellis. The longtime athletic director at Norwin High School, Pellis also coached football and wrestling. He was an...
Sister had respect of peers as she guided Catholic schools in Greensburg diocese
Sister Marguerite Moya Coyne, who served as the superintendent of schools for the Catholic Diocese of Greensburg from 1998 to 2003, was known for her love of children and education, her friends and co-workers said. “She was a stellar woman and one of the best persons I’ve ever worked with,”...
Ralph Snyder, architect of West Point youth softball program, dies at age 80
Ralph Snyder had just moved his family from Norvelt to West Point in 1977 and signed up his oldest daughter, Renee, in the West Point Little League. His daughter made the West Point fast-pitch all-star team in 1978 and competed in the state tournament in Williamsport. West Point was overmatched....
Erie boxing promoter Mike Acri dies at 63
Erie boxing promoter Mike Acri, whose clients included Roberto Duran and Hector “Macho” Camacho, died Sunday in Erie at age 63 following a 2½-year bout with pancreatic cancer. Acri, a top national promoter, also worked with boxer Paul “The Pittsburgh Kid” Spadafora. Acri was well known for arranging popular boxing...
Nancy Bush Ellis, sister and aunt of presidents, dies
Nancy Bush Ellis, a longtime Democrat who helped her Republican brother and nephew get elected president, has died of complications of the coronavirus. She was 94. “We are sad to share that President Bush’s beloved sister, Nancy Bush Ellis, has passed away. Our condolences and prayers are with the Ellis...
Tanya Roberts, Bond girl and ‘Sheena’ star, dead at 65Video
Tanya Roberts, who captivated James Bond in “A View to a Kill” and appeared in the sitcom “That ’70s Show,” has died, several hours after she was mistakenly declared dead by her publicist and her partner. She was 65. Lance O’Brien, her companion of nearly two decades, told The Associated...
Last of singing McGuire Sisters dies in Vegas; Phyllis, 89
LAS VEGAS — Phyllis McGuire, the last surviving member of the three singing McGuire Sisters who topped the charts with several hits in the 1950s, has died. She was 89. The lead singer and younger sister of Dorothy and Christine McGuire died on Tuesday in Las Vegas, the Palm Eastern...
Dog training, day care continue after Bruce Ringer, ‘dog whisperer of Tarentum,’ dies
Bruce D. Ringer’s love of dogs and his wife were manifest, and not surprisingly intertwined. The longtime, legendary dog trainer, Ringer, 63, of Tarentum, died of colon cancer on Dec. 20. He was a dog trainer for more than 35 years and opened the first doggie day care in Allegheny...
British model, fashion muse Stella Tennant dies at 50
LONDON — Stella Tennant, the aristocratic British model who was a muse to designers such as Karl Lagerfeld and Gianni Versace, died suddenly at the age of 50, her family said Wednesday. Tennant, the granddaughter of a duke, rose to fame in the 1990s while walking the runway for Versace,...
Agent: Master spy writer John le Carre dies at 89
LONDON — John le Carre, the spy-turned-novelist whose elegant and intricate narratives defined the Cold War espionage thriller and brought acclaim to a genre critics had once ignored, has died. He was 89, Le Carre’s literary agency, Curtis Brown, said Sunday that he died in Cornwall, southwest England on Saturday...
Chuck Yeager, first pilot to break sound barrier, dies at 97
After test pilot Chuck Yeager became the first man to break the sound barrier, he confessed to the highly un-Yeager-like emotion of fear. “I was scared,” he wrote in a memoir, “knowing that many of my colleagues thought I was doomed to be blasted to pieces by an invisible brick...
Walter Williams, conservative economist, columnist, dead at 84
Nationally syndicated columnist and George Mason University economics professor Walter Williams, whose work appeared regularly in the Tribune-Review, died on Wednesday at the age of 84. Over the course of his career, he was praised for his rigorous research on minority groups and government policies affecting African Americans. Williams, a...
