Sinéad O’Connor, 56, an Irish singer-songwriter who sold millions of records in the 1990s with her ethereal ballads and rebellious anthems, all while defying expectations of how a female pop star should behave — shaving her head, speaking out about her mental health struggles, protesting the Catholic Church during a performance on live television — has died. Her family announced the death in a statement Wednesday. Additional details were not immediately available.
Declaring that she was “proud to be a troublemaker,” O’Connor made music that channeled and reflected her tumultuous personal life, with lyrics about sexism, religion, child abuse, famine and police brutality set against reggae beats, traditional Irish melodies and throbbing pop hooks. Beaten by her mother as a young girl, she was later diagnosed with complex post-traumatic stress disorder, borderline personality disorder and bipolar disorder, and acknowledged having suicidal thoughts in recent years.
Her teenage son Shane died by suicide in January 2022. Earlier this month, O’Connor tweeted that Shane “was the love of my life, the lamp of my soul,” adding that she was “lost … without him.”
Randy Meisner, 77, a founding member of the Eagles who added high harmonies to such favorites as “Take It Easy” and “The Best of My Love” and stepped out front for the waltz-time ballad “Take It to the Limit,” died Wednesday night in a Los Angeles hospital of complications from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, the Eagles said in a statement. “Randy was an integral part of the Eagles and instrumental in the early success of the band,” the statement said.
Johnny Lujack, 98, a Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback who helped lead the University of Notre Dame to three national championships in the 1940s and played on both sides of the ball for the Chicago Bears in the NFL, died Tuesday at a hospice center in Naples, Fla. He was the oldest living recipient of college football’s highest honor. Lujack was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1960.
Seiichi Morimura, 90, a mystery writer whose nonfiction trilogy “The Devil’s Gluttony” exposed human medical experiments conducted by a secret Japanese army unit during World War II, died Monday. His official website and publisher, Kadokawa, said Morimura died of pneumonia at a Tokyo hospital.
“Akuma no Hoshoku,” or “The Devil’s Gluttony,” which began as a newspaper series in 1981, became a bestseller and created a sensation across the country over atrocities committed by Japanese Imperial Army Unit 731 in China. He won the prestigious Edogawa Rampo Prize for his mystery fiction in 1969 and the Mystery Writers of Japan Award in 1973.
Hugh “Sonny” Carter Jr., 80, who helped organize the “Peanut Brigade” that helped elect his cousin Jimmy to the White House and later enforced the president’s frugal ways in the West Wing, died July 23 in Tampa, Fla. The Carter Center, the 39th president’s post-White House organization for advocating for democracy and fighting disease in the developing world, did not release a cause of death.
Hugh Carter was among the aides who helped make the Brigade a near-constant presence in early nominating states. After Jimmy Carter won, he assigned Hugh Carter the task of curtailing waste among White House staffers. The job earned him the nickname “Cousin Cheap.”
Richard Barancik, 98, the last living member of a special Allied unit whose mission to safeguard the artistic patrimony of Europe amid the destruction and plunder of World War II was dramatized in the Hollywood film “The Monuments Men,” died July 14 at a hospital in Chicago.
For much of his life, Barancik was known as an architect, sought after for the stylish homes, high-rise apartment buildings and office complexes that he and his firm designed in his home city of Chicago and across the country. But in his final years, he came to renown for his role in a U.S. Army unit during World War II that had long gone unnoted: the Monuments, Fine Arts, and Archives section. Museum curators and directors, artists and architects, scholars and librarians volunteered for service to help the Allies minimize the destruction of artwork and cultural sites in Europe in the course of the war. Their story was turned into the film “The Monuments Men,” in 2014, directed by and starring George Clooney.
John Hayes, 76, who played a starring role in land conservation and development of the Methow Valley’s recreation-based economy, died July 11 at his home near Winthrop. The cause was renal failure while recovering from colon cancer treatment and a broken hip and femur.
Hayes played a pivotal role in Washington state’s acquisition of Big Valley Ranch, the purchase of Sun Mountain Lodge by the Haub family and the creation of a groomed community ski trail between Winthrop and Mazama in Okanogan County. He also pushed a decadeslong volunteer effort to persuade dubious landowners to donate right of way deeds to build the Nordic skiing Methow Community Trail.
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