Gary Comer
CHICAGO (AP)–Gary C. Comer, founder of the Lands’ End casual clothing company, died Wednesday. He was 78.
Comer, who grew up on Chicago’s South Side, died after a long battle with cancer, according to a statement from University of Chicago Hospitals.
Comer founded Lands’ End in the early 1960s and stepped down as president in 1990. He remained chairman of the board and the majority stockholder until the company was sold to Sears, Roebuck & Co. in May 2002.
Only after 10 years as an advertising copywriter did a 33-year-old Comer decide to start his own company. In 1962, he launched a mail-order sailing equipment business. He and his partners incorporated Lands’ End Yacht Stores a year later in Chicago.
Comer moved the company’s warehouse and phone operations to Dodgeville, Wis., in 1978. In 1986, Lands’ End went public.
Comer was known for his philanthropy.
He and his wife, Frances, made several donations over the past 10 years totaling more than $84 million. The gifts led to the creation and expansion of the University of Chicago’s Comer Children’s Hospital.
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Tamara Dobson
BALTIMORE (AP)–Tamara Dobson, the tall, stunning model-turned-actress who portrayed a strong female role as Cleopatra Jones in two “blaxploitation” films, died Monday. She was 59.
Dobson died of complications from pneumonia and multiple sclerosis at the Keswick Multi-Care Center, where she had lived for the past two years, her publicist said.
At 6 feet 2, Dobson was striking as the kung-fu fighting government agent Cleopatra Jones in 1973. She reprised the role in 1975’s “Cleopatra Jones and the Casino of Gold.”
Dobson also appeared in “Come Back, Charleston Blue,” “Norman, Is That You?” “Murder at the World Series” and “Chained Heat.”
She had TV roles in the early 1980s in “Jason of Star Command” and “Buck Rogers in the 25th Century.”
Dobson lived most of her adult life in New York, her family said. She was diagnosed six years ago with multiple sclerosis.
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Sally Gray
LONDON (AP)–Sally Gray, the spirited, husky-voiced British star of the 1930s and 40s who turned down a lucrative Hollywood contract, died Sept. 24, her family said. She was 90.
Gray, who became Lady Oranmore and Browne when she married into the aristocracy, died at her London home.
Gray’s appearance in two RKO productions in Britain–“The Saint in London” (1939) and “The Saint’s Vacation” (1941)–persuaded the Hollywood studio to offer her a contract.
But she turned it down, saying she preferred to stay in England.
Born Constance Vera Stevens in north London, Gray trained at the Fay Compton School of Dramatic Art and was spotted by John Gliddon, the agent who discovered Vivien Leigh, at age 18 when she appeared in the chorus of a musical, “Jill Darling,” in 1934.
She was soon taking lead roles in musicals, appearing as Miss America in Olympic Honeymoon (1936), “Lightning Conductor” (1938) with Gordon Harker and with Lupino Lane in “Lambeth Walk” (1940).
One of her best-known roles was as the cheating wife of a psychiatrist in “Obsession” (1949).
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George King
George King, the former NBA player who coached West Virginia and Purdue and had a long run as the Boilermakers’ athletic director, died Thursday. He was 78.
King died in Naples, Fla., Purdue announced on its athletic Web site.
King was born in Charleston, attended Stonewall Jackson High and starred at Morris Harvey College. The 6-foot guard played six seasons with the NBA’s Syracuse Nationals and Cincinnati Royals.
In Game 7 of the 1955 NBA Finals between Syracuse and Fort Wayne, King made the go-ahead free throw with 12 seconds left, then stole the ball to preserve the title, the first of the shot-clock era.
King was head coach at his alma mater for one season in 1956-57, became an assistant coach at West Virginia University the following year and took the head coaching job when Fred Schaus followed WVU standout Jerry West to the Los Angeles Lakers. King was credited with integrating WVU’s basketball team. He compiled a 102-43 record in five seasons as WVU coach, earning two Southern Conference titles and three NCAA tournament bids.
The two-time state amateur athlete of the year was inducted into athletic halls of fame at Purdue and the University of Charleston, the successor to Morris Harvey College.
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J. Patrick Lyons
SHELBYVILLE, Tenn. (AP)–J. Patrick Lyons, who unsuccessfully ran for Congress seven times and mounted legal challenges against opponents in those races, died Thursday. He was 62.
Lyons died at Middle Tennessee Medical Center, a representative of the Feldhaus Memorial Chapel said.
Lyons sought the Democratic nomination for the 4th District House seat in 1992 but was defeated in the primary by Rep. Jim Cooper.
He ran as an independent in 1994, 1996 and 2000 for the seat and as an independent in 2002 and 2004 in the 6th District. He ran in the 6th District Democratic primary this year and was defeated by U.S. Rep. Bart Gordon.
Lyons sued Van Hilleary, who served as 4th District congressman from 1995 to 2003, claiming that Hilleary’s membership in the National Guard made him ineligible to hold a congressional seat.
Lyons also claimed in a lawsuit against Gordon that an incumbent congressman could not succeed himself. A hearing on the lawsuit was scheduled for Oct. 13.
Lyons, who was a veteran, was self-taught on legal issues but was not a lawyer.
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Oskar Pastior
BERLIN (AP)–Oskar Pastior, a Romanian-born German writer who was celebrated for his creative use of language, died Thursday, his publisher said. He was 78.
Pastior died in Frankfurt, where he was visiting the annual book fair, said Christine Knecht, a spokeswoman for the Carl Hanser Verlag publishing house.
Among Pastior’s early works was “Offne Worte” published in 1964; he made his literary debut in Germany in 1969 with “Vom Sichersten ins Tausendste,” a collection of poems.
Pastior was born on Oct. 20, 1927 in the Transylvanian city of Sibiu, where he lived as a member of the German-speaking minority.
After being interned in Soviet labor camps following World War II, he returned to communist Romania in 1949 and studied German at the University of Bucharest. He worked in radio before turning to writing.
Pastior fled to West Germany during a study trip to Vienna, Austria, in 1968 and settled in West Berlin. He had been working on a book about his time in Soviet labor camps at the time of his death.
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