A University of Alabama swimmer died Monday after saving his girlfriend during a Southern Tornado.

Gabriel García Márquez, the author of famed, beautiful books such as One Hundred Years of Solitude and Love in the Time of Cholera and winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature, has died. Márquez, who was recently hospitalized for pneumonia and other health issues, was 87.

Not only was Walter George Bruhl Jr. likely a lovely person, he was the kind of person that surrounded himself with people who have great senses of humor – plus he knew how to write a good obit.

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.

Very sad: Nelson Mandela's 13-year-old great-granddaughter was killed in a car accident on Friday. According to reports, the driver of the car was drunk and lost control of the car after departing from a World Cup concert. [CBS, NYT]

As previously mentioned, Louise Bourgeois died last week. She was one of the most influential sculptors on the art scene, and, for reasons I will explain, my favorite (once) living artist.

French-born artist Louise Bourgeois died on Monday at the age of 98. Bourgeois was best known for her anatomically-themed sculptures, which depicted dismembered parts of the human body in nightmarishly gorgeous distortions. The cause of death was heart failure. [NYT]

Kama Chinen, the world's oldest living person, has reportedly died a week before her her 115th birthday. Want to be the next Chinen? Keeping up on pop culture is vital, according to centenarians, as are iPods and YouTube. [CBS, Reuters]

• Carolyn Rodgers, a poet and leading member of the Black Arts Movement, died on April 2. "What made her important was her unique use of language and her descriptions of our community," said Haki Madhubuti. He continues:

The producer of films such as Jaws, Driving Miss Daisy, and Cocoon, and the author of five books. he and Gurley were married over 50 years. He suggested she write Sex And The Single Girl and wrote Cosmo coverlines. [Variety]

American realist artist Honoré Sharrer has died at 88. Sharrer is best known for her 1940's depictions of the working class, but her more recent work often focused on women's roles. [NYT]

Mary Printz, a Manhattan answering service operator whose adventures dealing with celebrity clients' crises became the basis of the 1956 musical Bells are Ringing (left), has died at 85. [NYT]

Majel Roddenberry, the widow of Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry, died of leukemia on Thursday at the age of 76. But don't think Roddenberry was your typical Hollywood wife.

Odetta, the singer whom Rosa Parks adored and Martin Luther King Jr. called the queen of American folk music, died yesterday at the age of 77. She was, by all accounts, a legend, with a powerful voice, and the prison songs and work songs of the Deep South shaped her life. Odetta sang at the march on Washington in…