2008 Litany of the Dead

Samhain Litany of the Dead

October 29, 2008 CE

Dagonet Dewr, Compiler – dagonet.dewr@gmail.com

Celayne, Co-Compiler

Feel free to reproduce with attribution

As always, this is done by research and accumulating information throughout the year. I may have — no, I’ll guarantee I did — miss people, especially in the Pagan section. For that, I apologize in advance.

First and foremost I turn the wheel for those who have been killed in armed conflict, famine, natural disasters, stupid politics, or acts of cruelty. I also turn the wheel for anyone who died alone and unmourned, so that they may have one person who wishes them well.

The over 4000 American casualties, the Coalition casualties, and the unknown, only guessed at Iraqi casualties — perhaps as many as half a million people — in the second Iraqi war. I hope someone, somewhere, has to answer for this. If you’re American and you’re tired of this, get out and vote next week.

Finally, great thanks to my friend and covenmate Celayne, who stepped up and helped me with this during a year of personal challenges and changes.
Cora Anderson – Co-founder of the Feri Tradition and wife of Victor Anderson.

Mimi Rohwer – (San Marcos, California) Wiccan High Priestess – murder victim.

Rudy Ray Moore – African-American comedian and filmmaker. “Return of Dolomite”.

Edie Adams – American actress; “The Apartment”.

Jack Narz – American television personality; host of “Concentration”.

House Peters Jr – American actor.

Paul Newman – American Oscar-winning actor and philanthropist; “Cool Hand Luke”, “The Color Of Money”, many others.

Richard Wright – British musician; founding member and keyboardist of Pink Floyd.

Martin K Tytell – American craftsman; the “Typewriter Wizard”.

Bill Melendez – American animator; animator of the Peanuts TV specials.

Don LaFontaine – American voice actor; the “King Of Voice-Overs”.

Michael Pate – Australian TV and film actor.

Edwin Guthman – American Pulitzer-Prize-winning journalist.

Phil Hill – American Formula One auto racer.

Hazel Warp – American stuntwoman. Vivien Leigh’s stunt double in “Gone With The Wind”.

Geoffrey Perkins – British television and radio personality; producer of the original Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy radio series.

Walter “Killer” Kowalski – American professional wrestler.

LeRoi Moore – American musician; saxophone player for the Dave Matthews Band.

Manny Farber – American artist and film critic.

Gene Upshaw – American athlete; head of the NFL Players’ Union.

Jack Weil – American fashion designer and businessman.

Jerry Wexler – American record executive; co-founder, Atlantic Records.

Sandy Allen – World’s tallest woman (7’7″).

Anthony Hart – American motorcross racer.

Isaac Hayes – American Oscar-winning singer/songwriter; the “Theme From Shaft”, others. Also the voice of Chef on “South Park” until 2006.

Bernie Mac – American comedian and actor; “Oceans 11”, others.

Bernie Brillstein – American movie producer. “The Blues Brothers”.

Skip Caray – American television personality; the voice of the Atlanta Braves.

Alexander Solzhenitsyn – Russian author, dissident, and Nobel Prize winner; “The Gulag Archipelago”, others.

Estelle Getty – American television actor; Sophia on “The Golden Girls”.

Olive Riley – Australian Internet personality; world’s oldest blogger.

Rocky Aoki – Japanese-American entrepreneur; founder of Benihana restaurants.

Bobby Murcer – American athlete and broadcaster; five-time major league baseball All-Star and voice of the New York Yankees.

Michael DeBakey – American surgeon and heart bypass pioneer.

Clem McSpadden – American politician and rodeo performer.

Evelyn Keyes – American actress; Suellen in “Gone With The Wind”.

Tony Snow – American political personality; former White House Press Secretary under G.W. Bush.

Jesse Helms – American conservative politician and Senator.

Larry Harmon – American television personality; played Bozo The Clown for 50 years.

Fyodor Uglov – Russian surgeon and health activist. World’s oldest practicing surgeon.

David Caminer – British computer pioneer; created first computer system for a business.

Dody Goodman – American actress; “Grease”, “Mary Hartman Mary Hartman”, others.

George Carlin – American comedian and social critic.

Cyd Charisse – American actress and dancer.

Stan Winston – American film personality; special-effects pioneer.

Esbjorn Svensson – Swedish jazz musician.

Charlie Jones – American sports announcer.

Erick Wujcik – American role-playing game designer; “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles”, “Amber Diceless”.

Jim McKay – American sports announcer; longtime voice of the Olympics.

Alton Kelley – American artist.

Mel Ferrer – American film actor and director; “Lili”, others.

Bo Diddley – American musician and rock pioneer.

Yves Saint Laurent – French fashion designer.

Luc Bourdon – Canadian hockey player.

Alexander “Sandy” Courage – American composer; created the theme to “Star Trek”.

Joseph Pevney – American television director; many Star Trek episodes, including “City On The Edge Of Forever”.

Harvey Korman – American comedic actor; “Blazing Saddles”, “The Carol Burnett Show”.

Thelma Keane – Australian-American inspiration for “Mommy” in “The Family Circus”.

Sydney Pollack – American film director; “Tootsie”, “Out Of Africa”.

Edward N Lorenz – American meteorologist and scientist; one of the founders of chaos theory.

John Phillip Law – American actor; “Barbarella”.

John Rutsey – Canadian rock musician; original drummer of Rush.

George P Cressman – American meteorologist; pioneer in computer-based forecasts.

Eddy Arnold – American country musician; “Make The World Go Away”.

Robert Rauschenberg – American artist.

Robert Mondavi – American vintner and wine pioneer.

Mildred Loving – American social pioneer; won case before Supreme Court that made interracial marriage legal.

Danny Federici – American musician; longtime keyboardist for the E Street Band.

Hazel Court – British movie actress; “The Raven”, “The Masque Of The Red Death”.

Richard Widmark – American film actor; “Kiss Of Death”, “Broken Lance”.

Wayne “Frosty Freeze” Frost – American dancer and hip-hop pioneer; “Flashdance”.

Ollie Johnston – American animator; last of the “Nine Old Men” at Disney Studios.

Charlton Heston – American Oscar-winning film actor; “Ben Hur”, “The Ten Commandments”, others.

Abby Mann – American screenwriter; “Judgment At Nuremberg”, creator of Kojak.

Sean Levert – American R&B performer.

Jules Dassin – Greek film director; “Never On Sunday”.

Isreal “Cachao” Lopez – Cuban-American mambo musician and producer.

Jon Hassler – American author; “Staggerford”.

Paul Scofield – British stage and film actor; “A Man For All Seasons”, “Quiz Show”.

Ivan Dixon – American actor, director, and producer; Kinch on “Hogan’s Heroes”.

Arthur C Clarke – Sri Lankan-British Hugo- and Nebula-award-winning science fiction author and visionary; “2001”, “Childhood’s End”, many many others.

Joseph Weizenbaum – German-American computer pioneer; creator of ELIZA.

Anthony Minghella – Oscar-winning film director; “The English Patient”.

Ola Brunkert – Swedish musician; drummer for ABBA.

Gary Gygax – American role-playing game designer; co-creator of Dungeons and Dragons.

Jeff Healy – Canadian blues-rock guitarist; “Angel Eyes”.

Michael Conley – American punk musician and frontman for MIA.

Buddy Miles – American rock drummer; drummer for Jimi Hendrix.

Mike Smith – British rock musician; lead singer of the Dave Clark Five.

Kon Ichikawa – Japanese film director; “Fires On The Plain”, “The Tokyo Olympiad”.

Myron Cope – American sports personality; longtime voice of the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Bill Heinz – American journalist and writer; “Run To Daylight”.

William F Buckley Jr – American journalist, author, and political commentator; “The Firing Line”.

Roy Scheider – American film actor; “Jaws”, “The French Connection”.

Margaret Truman – American author and daughter of US President Harry S Truman.

Earl Butz – American political figure; Secretary of Agriculture under Nixon.

Shell Kepler – American television personality; Amy Vining on “General Hospital”.

Maharishi Mahesh Yogi – Indian guru and leader in Transcendental Meditation; influenced the Beatles.

Gordon B Hinckley – American religious leader; head of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.

Haji Muhammad Suharto – Indonesian political leader and dictator.

Christian Brando – Eldest son of actor Marlon Brando.

Billy Poole – American extreme skier.

Heath Ledger – American film actor; “Brokeback Mountain”, “The Dark Knight”.

John Stewart – American musician and songwriter; “Daydream Believer”, member of the Kingston Trio.

Frances Lewine – American journalist and news producer; the Associated Press’ first full-time female correspondent.

Allen Melvin – American character actor; Sam The Butcher on “The Brady Bunch”.

Suzanne Pleshette – American actress; “The Bob Newhart Show”.

Bobby Fischer – First (and only) American chess champion.

Maila Nurmi – American television personality; “Vampira”.

Brad Renfro – American film actor; “The Client”.

Christopher Bowman – Former US figure-skating champion.

Sir Edmund Hillary – New Zealand mountain climber; one of the first two men to climb Mount Everest.

Michael Kidd – American choreographer.

Oscar Peterson – Canadian jazz musician and pianist.

Dan Fogelberg – American singer/songwriter; “Leader Of The Band”, “Same Old Lang Syne”.

Ike Turner – American rock and blues musician.

Evel Knievel – American sports personality and daredevil.

Sean Taylor – American football player.

Kevin DuBrow – American rock musician; former lead singer of Quiet Riot.

Ira Levin – American author; “The Stepford Wives”, “Rosemary’s Baby”.

Delbert Mann – American film director; “Marty”.

Dick Wilson – American television personality; “Mr Whipple”.

Peter Zinner – Austrian Oscar-winning film editor; “The Deer Hunter”.

Norman Mailer – American Pulitzer-Prize-winning author; “The Naked And The Dead”.

George Osmond – Father of the Osmond Family.

Lillian “Fabulous Moolah” Ellison – American professional wrestler; first woman elected to the WWE Hall of Fame.

Friedman “Chef Tell” Erhardt – German-American television chef.

Robert Goulet – American actor and singer; “Camelot”.

Porter Wagoner – American country musician.

Dr Judah Folkman – American scientist; cancer researcher at the Children’s Hospital in Boston whose work spawned 10 new cancer drugs.

Mary Jones Smith — The last fluent speaker of Alaska’s Eyak Indian language; worked with the University of Alaska to compile a dictionary and grammar of the language.

Richard Darman – American economist; US Budget Director under George H.W. Bush.

Mary Meader – American aerial photographer and explorer; together with her husband made aerial photographs of South America and Africa in the 1930s and took the earliest known photos of the Nazca lines.

Dith Pran — Cambodian refugee and New York Times photographer upon whose experience the movie “The Killing Fields” was based.

Albert Hofmann – Swiss chemist; inventor of LSD.

Tim Russert – American television personality; moderator of NBC’s “Meet the Press”.

Robert “Rob” Knox – British actor; Marcus Selby in “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince”.

Sir John M Templeton – British-American businessman, philanthropist, and religious seeker.

Evan Tanner – American mixed-martial-arts fighter; former UFC middleweight champion.

Anita Page – American actress; last surviving major star of silent movies.

David Foster Wallace – American novelist; *Infinite Jest*.

Norman Whitfield – American music producer and songwriter; one of the creators of the Motown Sound.

Jason Hudson — Actress Jennifer Hudson’s brother.

Darnell Donerson — Jennifer Hudson’s mother.

Julian King — Jennifer Hudson’s nephew.

Buck Adams — American pornographic actor and director.

Amos E. Joel Jr. — American inventor; developed the system that allows cell phones to switch towers on the fly.

Danny Dill — American songwriter; “Long Black Veil”.

Gene Hickerson — American football player, Cleveland Browns.

Dee Dee Warwick — American soul singer and sister of Dionne Warwick; “I’m Gonna Make You Love Me”, “Foolish Fool”.

Neal Hefti — American jazz trumpeter and composer; created the theme music for “Batman” and “The Odd Couple”.

Gidget Gein – American musician and artist; second bassist for Marilyn Manson.

Bonnie Bluh – Jewish-American writer and feminist; “Woman To Woman”.

Herb Peterson – American businessman and food scientist; inventor of the Egg McMuffin.

Jim Hager – American country musician and comedian; half of the Hager Twins from “Hee-Haw”.

Jerry Wallace – American country musician; “Primrose Lane”, “If You Leave Me Tonight I’ll Cry”.

Dottie Rambo – American gospel singer and musician.

Dick Martin – American comedian and television personality; “Rowan and Martin’s Laugh-In”. “Say goodnight, Dick.” “Goodnight, Dick.”

Don S. David – American television actor; General Hammond on “Stargate SG-1”.

Fred Crane – American film actor; Brent Tarleton in “Gone With The Wind”.

Jerry Reed – American country musician and actor; “Smokey And The Bandit”.

Charlie Walker – American country musician and longtime member of the Grand Old Opry.

Merl Saunders – American rock and New Age musician; former member of the Grateful Dead.

Stanley Kamel – American television actor; Dr Charles Kroger on “Monk”.

Barbara Jean Bosworth (Bobbye) of Northern Virginia, Wiccan, member of the Chantry of the Silver Veil in Alexandria.

Tom K (Phoenix) – Gardnerian Elder.

Frederick McLaren Adams – Founder of Feraferia and Co-Founder of Council of Themis,

Danessa Smith – Mother of Tempest Smith, Founder of the Tempest Smith Foundation.

Jo Dixon – Pagan Elder, of the wonderful Magical Days calendar.

Susan Grace Falkenrath (Susan Wolf) – Long standing member of Reclaiming.

Dorothy Folks Lewis (Winter Wren) – Host of the Pagan Radio Show “The Witching Hour” and regional board of directors for WARD.

4 thoughts on “2008 Litany of the Dead

  1. Rita

    Yes, it was very sad for me when my friend of 31 years, Sandy Allen, passed away in August. But she lives on in my new book, “World’s Tallest Woman: The Giantess of Shelbyville High,” a novel about her high school experiences. If anyone is interested in ordering it, go to http://www.hawthornepub.com. Thanks.

  2. lisa Post author

    I wish you well with your book! I’m not sure if you know this, but I host a book review site: Facing North. You may want to check us out and send us a copy for review!

  3. Rita

    Lisa,
    Thanks for the suggestion, but I don’t think this book is a good fit for a pagan site. Sandy was a devout Christian. Good luck with your books.
    Rita

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