Jezebel: Obituaries

Badass Female Winner Of Nobel For Medicine Dies At 89

Irin Carmon — Thu, 02 Jun 2011 15:05:00 EDT

"She is from New York. She is Jewish. She is a woman," wrote one of the graduate programs to which Rosalyn Yalow applied. Their loss: She went on to become the second woman to win a Nobel prize in medicine. More »

Geraldine Ferraro Dies At 75

Lane Moore — Sat, 26 Mar 2011 13:19:00 EDT

According to a report by Jeff Zeleny at the New York Times, the first major female vice presidential candidate, Geraldine Ferraro, passed away today at the age of 75 due to complications from blood cancer at Massachusetts General Hospital. More »

Debbie Friedman, Jewish Feminist Folk Singer, Dies At 59

Anna North — Wed, 12 Jan 2011 13:30:00 EST

Singer Debbie Friedman died Sunday of complications of pneumonia, but her progressive, feminist influence on Jewish folk music will live on. More »

Scientist Who Collected 320,000 Baby Teeth Dies At 90

Anna North — Mon, 10 Jan 2011 13:30:00 EST

Dr. Louise Reiss masterminded the Baby Tooth Survey, which proved that radioactive fallout had entered Americans' teeth, and led to an international ban on atmospheric nuclear testing. She died on New Year's Day at her Florida home. More »

Norris Church Mailer Dead At 61

Irin Carmon — Mon, 22 Nov 2010 12:54:00 EST

The author, artist, and last wife of Norman Mailer died of gastrointestinal cancer. Her memoir, published this year, detailed her affair with Bill Clinton and described how Mailer returned her first love poems marked up with corrections in red pencil. More »

Times Obit Writers Far Prefer Dudes' Deaths

The NYTPicker — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 18:06:00 EDT

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Still upset about that lack of gender equality in book reviews? Consider this more frightening and fundamental imbalance: so far in the month of August, the NYT has published 78 obituaries. And only six of them were for women. More »

Singer Lena Horne Dies At 92

Anna North — Mon, 10 May 2010 09:30:00 EDT

Singer and actress Lena Horne, whose successful yet restricted career exemplified the racist climate of forties and fifties show business, died last night at the age of 92. More »

R.I.P. Dorothy Provine, Classic-Film Star

Katy Kelleher — Fri, 30 Apr 2010 11:40:30 EDT

Dorothy Provine, the "shapely" actress who starred in the film It's A Mad, Mad World and played the title roll as a notorious bank robber in The Bonnie Parker Story, died on Sunday at the age of 75. [NYT] More »

"She Did It To The Max, And She Did It Brilliantly. And She Did It On Her Own Terms"

Katy Kelleher — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 10:20:00 EDT

CNN camerawoman Margaret Moth, 59, died on Sunday after years of fighting cancer. Moth, who changed her name to "have her own" and survived sniper fire in Sarajevo, was famous among colleagues for her fearlessness and her flair. [WaPo, CNN] More »

The Fashion World Mourns Alexander McQueen

Irin Carmon — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 17:20:00 EST

The tributes are pouring in from fashion editors, designers, and Lady Gaga. More »

Gumby Creator Dies At 88

Margaret Hartmann — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 09:20:00 EST

Art Clokey, the creator of Gumby and Davey and Goliath, died at 88 on Friday. Gumby debuted in 1956 and starred in several TV series, a feature film, and an Eddie Murphy SNL skit, which Clokey reportedly adored. [NYT] More »

Legendary American Couturier Charles Kleibacker Dead At 88

Jenna Sauers — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 16:45:00 EST

Charles Kleibacker, a master of bias construction who worked at Lanvin before founding his own label, has died. Isabel Toledo called Kleibacker — one of the first American designers who didn't copy Europeans — "a gift, a treasure." [ColumbusDispatch, WWD] More »

NOW Founder Alice S. Rossi Dies At 87

Katy Kelleher — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 09:40:00 EST

Alice S. Rossi, feminist scholar, noted sociologist, and founding member of the National Organization for Women, passed away on Tuesday in Northampton, Mass. Rossi was the author of several influential articles, including "Equality Between the Sexes: An Immodest Proposal." [NYT] More »

Five Reasons To Mourn And Celebrate Irving Penn

Jenna Sauers — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 18:00:00 EDT

Irving Penn died yesterday, the last of the great men fashion photographers of the mid-20th Century. Newton and Avedon each died in 2004. Lillian Bassman is still around; but she doesn't shoot. Here's why Penn's aesthetic will be missed: More »

World's Oldest Blogger Dies At 97

Margaret Hartmann — Fri, 22 May 2009 09:30:00 EDT

Maria Amelia Lopez, a Spanish great-grandmother who called herself "the world's oldest blogger," died today in her home at the age of 97, leaving more than 1.5 million readers from around the world mourning her passing. More »

Death Becomes Her

Sadie Stein — Thu, 14 May 2009 14:30:00 EDT

A new study finds that the obituary photographs people choose are getting progressively younger - even as we're dying older. The number of outdated obit pics more than doubled between 1967 and 1997. [UPI, Obit] More »

Venetia Phair, Who Named "Pluto," Dies At 90

Margaret Hartmann — Mon, 11 May 2009 12:30:00 EDT

In 1930, 11-year-old Venetia Phair suggested that the newly discovered planet beyond Neptune be named Pluto. On April 30, she died in her home in Banstead, England at the age of 90. More »

Fellow "Golden Girls" Remember Bea Arthur

Margaret Hartmann — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 18:20:00 EDT

This morning, Rue McClanahan and Betty White called GMA to remember their Golden Girls co-star Bea Arthur. Rue says Bea was actually quiet and timid, but always brave as a performer. Clip at left. More »

R.I.P Judith Krug, Librarian, Free Speech Activist, Founder of Banned Books Week

Katy Kelleher — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 09:30:00 EDT

As mentioned briefly last night, Judith Krug, the founder of Banned Book Week and champion of the First Amendment, died Saturday in Evanston, Illinois. She was 69. More »

Helen Suzman, Anti-Apartheid Activist, Dead At 91

Maria — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 09:30:00 EST

Helen Suzman, a leading anti-apartheid activist and founder of the liberal Progressive Party in South Africa, died peacefully on Thursday in Johannesburg at the impressive age of 91. More »

RIP Eartha Kitt

Sadie Stein — Fri, 26 Dec 2008 09:30:00 EST

Eartha Kitt, the alluringly feline entertainment icon, has died at the age of 81. More »

People We'll Miss In 2009

Anna North — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 16:00:00 EST

Newsweek has a roundup of famous people who died in 2008 — here are some of the ones we'll miss the most, along with a few additions from our archives. More »

Grateful Dead: Death As A Passport To Celebrity

Sadie Stein — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 16:30:00 EST

A scholar is now making the case that "the modern obsession with celebrity" started with an 18th century interest in obituaries. If by "obsession" she means "morbid curiosity" and by "celebrity," "notoriety," than maybe. Either way, it's clear that we've always had a sick fascination with other people's antics — and their deaths. More »

Charlotte Kohler, a longtime editor of The...

Margaret Hartmann — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 13:20:00 EDT

Charlotte Kohler, a longtime editor of The Virginia Quarterly Review, died last week at her home in Charlottesville, Va., a day before her 100th birthday. During her tenure as editor of the literary journal from 1942 to 1975, Kohler was a quiet influence on American writing. She published the early works of poets Hayden Carruth and Adrienne Rich and exposed American readers to the work of international authors such as Jean-Paul Sartre and Pablo Neruda. Kohler is also credited with publishing drawings by Diego Rivera in the 1940s, when he was out of favor because of Communist affiliations, and a canto by Ezra Pound in the 1950s, out of favor as a Fascist. The current editor of the quarterly, Ted Genoways, described her after her death as “one of the most important journal editors not only of her time, but of the entire 20th century.” [New York Times] More »

Estelle Getty, More Than Just A Comedic Curmudgeon

Maria — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 12:30:00 EDT

We're assuming that you've heard the sad news that Estelle Getty — best known for her portrayal of sassy Sicilian octogenarian Sophia Petrillo on The Golden Girls — passed away. Looking through the various obits that have since trickled out, we've learned more about Getty beyond the white wig and wicker purse, namely, that she was just as saucy and spry as Sophia. For example: Getty got her start in show business by performing in the Yiddish theater and doing standup in the Catskills at a time when female comedians were a rare sight. She didn't catch her big break until later in life when she began portraying mothers of varying ethnicities in plays, movies, and eventually the small screen. After the jump, a little bit more about the woman who always had a good one-liner up her sleeve and knew how hard it was to be a funny woman in Hollywood. More »

Harvey Karman, a psychologist and inventor...

Maria — Mon, 19 May 2008 12:20:00 EDT

Harvey Karman, a psychologist and inventor of the "Karman cannula", a soft tube that revolutionized surgical abortions, died of a stroke on May 6 in Santa Barbara. He was 84 years old. Karman has been cited as a key figure in the field of women's reproductive health with the invention of the cannula, which made abortions less expensive, less painful, and safer. He was also a champion for women's reproductive rights and helped with underground abortion referral networks when abortion was illegal in the United States. Perhaps his contributions to reproductive rights are the reason that his obit on UPI sits under a huge ad for "vote pro-life" stickers? (The screengrabs are after the jump) [LA Times & UPI] More »

From Homemakers To War Reporters, Women Now Get 46% Of The Vote

Anna Holmes — Mon, 31 Dec 2007 09:30:00 EST

Although women got only 17% of the attention in the New York Times' "Notable Deaths of 2007" review last week, the "fairer sex" fared, well, better, in the newspaper's Sunday magazine, out yesterday. The magazine's annual "Lives They Lived" issue features a whopping 11 women (out of 24 profiles total), most of them not-so-boldface names and none — with the exception of designer Liz Claiborne — repeats of individuals found in "Notable Deaths". In fact, the Times magazine chose to honor women who were not tabloid trainwrecks but those at the top of their games, some of them domestic doyennes intent on transcending the confines of the kitchen or the hospital ward. More »

Deborah Kerr, the actress who made the...

Jessica G. — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 11:45:00 EDT

Deborah Kerr, the actress who made the world dream of sex on the beach in From Here to Eternity, died today at the age of 86. Her film career spanned four decades, though she is best known for her role in Eternity and her turn as Anna in the The King and I. [Yahoo News] More »

Thank God Donatella Versace Makes Fashion, Not Babies

Anna Holmes — Wed, 01 Aug 2007 17:45:06 EDT

Italian women over the age of 40 are having more babies than similarly-aged women in any other western industrialized country. But the U.S. is not far behind! [Guardian]

As Always, Oprah Winfrey Is Ruining It For The Rest Of Us

Anna Holmes — Mon, 30 Jul 2007 17:00:06 EDT

Women between the ages of 50 and 70 are about to become the richest demographic in the United States, claims writer Marti Barletta. We'd see this as cause for celebration except that the inclusion of Oprah Winfrey probably skewed things a bit! [AdAge]

Motorcycle Manufacturers Hawk Hogs To Women

Anna Holmes — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 17:03:32 EDT

Motorcycle manufacturers like Harley-Davidson are attempting to appeal more to potential female customers by designing riding gear with rhinestones (ugh), creating motorcycles that sit lower to the ground, and hosting the cock-rocket equivalent of Tupperware parties. [NYTimes]

Amelia Earheart: The Real-Life Version Of 'Lost'... Without The Polar Bears

Anna Holmes — Thu, 12 Jul 2007 16:48:59 EDT

It's like Lost, but with a female heroine instead of well, Jack. Or, er, maybe not. Anyway, a group of investigators is set to visit an uninhabited atoll in the South Pacific to answer question of what happened to Amelia Earhart once and for all. [CBSNews]

Muscleheads: Good For Sex, Maybe Not For Marriage?

Anna Holmes — Mon, 09 Jul 2007 16:21:10 EDT

Researchers are reporting that well-muscled men attract more women than their flabbier brethren but softer, gentler guys are seen as better for long-term relationships. Yeah, tell that to Nancy Benoit's family. [USAToday]

Venus Williams To Go For Wimbledon Singles Title #4

Anna Holmes — Fri, 06 Jul 2007 16:25:58 EDT

Serena didn't make it but Venus did: The oldest tennis-playing Williams sister has made it into the Wimbledon finals for the 6th time. She'll play Marion Bartoli tomorrow on center court. [SportsIllustrated]

Ann Coulter Finally Explains What's Behind That Adam's Apple

Anna Holmes — Fri, 29 Jun 2007 16:59:53 EDT

Ann Coulter refers to self in third-person, suggests she may own a pair of testicles. [Radar]

Real-Life Barbie Dolls Get Their Own Airline

Anna Holmes — Fri, 08 Jun 2007 15:30:22 EDT

A new airline, Fly Pink, is offering flights between the UK and Paris (the city, not Hilton) "in customized pink planes" and with "pink champagne and complimentary manicures before take-off." [Guardian]

Ruth Bader Ginsberg Is Ready To Raise Hell

Anna Holmes — Thu, 31 May 2007 15:28:34 EDT

Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg: Ready to take the gloves off. [Feministing, via NYTimes]

Benetton Gets Sucker Punched

Anna Holmes — Wed, 30 May 2007 15:00:21 EDT

That domestic-violence/Benetton campaign we blogged about yesterday? Looks to be a fake. [Salon]

Kitty Carlisle Hart, Nights Of Coke-Fueled Debauchery, Both Dead

Jennifer — Thu, 19 Apr 2007 12:32:26 EDT

Kitty Carlisle Hart, a socialite before Paris Hilton defamed the term and an all-hours girl before Lindsay Lohan — and the good citizens of New Jersey — made clubbing gauche, died yesterday at a hearty 96-years of age. Kitty loved everything pretty and everything witty, and so we mark her passing by providing an answer to the question she posed in the latter part of her life: More »

Broadsides: Men: Now Really Good For Nothing

Anna Holmes — Fri, 13 Apr 2007 16:58:05 EDT

Scientists may someday make sperm cells out of human bone marrow, thereby totally negating the need for men to help make babies. Oh, and the babies that would result from this special sperm? All girls. [Salon, BBC]