Obituaries   

 

Joseph P. Earley, 80, TV figure - 07/10/2009

One morning toward the start of the 1950s, Joe Earley found himself holding onto a rope as he swung from one side of a Philadelphia TV studio stage to the other.

 

Sister Mary Urban Haughton, educator - 07/10/2009

Sister Mary Urban Haughton, 96, an educator and TV host, died of heart failure Monday at Holy Child Center in Rosemont.

 

Lillian Glesinger, 87, a Realtor - 07/10/2009

Lillian Glesinger, 87, of Villanova, a real estate broker on the Main Line, died July 5 of coronary artery disease at home.

 

John Bachar | Famed rock climber, 51 - 07/10/2009

John Bachar, 51, a noted rock climber, died Sunday after a fall from Dike Wall cliff near his Monmouth Lakes, Calif., home.

 

Desmond J. Murtagh, 38, of Lafayette Hill and Cavan Town, Ireland - 07/09/2009

Desmond J. Murtagh, 38, of Lafayette Hill and County Cavan, Ireland, died June 6 of a heart attack in Cavan Town, where he had lived since 2001.

 

Oscar Mayer | Meat company scion, 95 - 07/09/2009

Oscar G. Mayer, 95, retired chairman of the Wisconsin-based meat-processing company that bears his name, has died.

 

Joseph Foy, 70, former Burlington Twp. mayor - 07/09/2009

Joseph D. Foy, 70, a former mayor of Burlington Township and a well-known Burlington County political figure, died Sunday at Kennedy Memorial Hospitals-University Medical Center/Cherry Hill, where he was being treated for heart problems.

 

Alice H. Massa | Pharmacy worker, 64 - 07/09/2009

Alice Higgins Massa, 64, of Trappe, a pharmacy clerk, died of lung cancer Monday at Montgomery Hospital Medical Center in Norristown.

 

William D. Williams | Fuel dealer, 92 - 07/09/2009

William D. Williams, 92, of Bryn Mawr, president of the Delaware Valley Fuel Dealers Association in the 1960s, died Monday at Bryn Mawr Hospital.

 

John A. Keel | 'Mothman' author, 79 - 07/09/2009

John A. Keel, 79, author of The Mothman Prophecies, died Friday of congestive heart failure at a Manhattan hospital, his friend Larry "Ratso" Sloman said Tuesday.

 

Littleton Mitchell | Del. rights activist, 90 - 07/09/2009

Littleton Mitchell, 90, a Delaware civil rights activist, died Monday.

 

Sharon Sharp | Lottery director, 69 - 07/09/2009

Sharon Sharp, 69, former director of the Illinois and California lotteries, has died.

 

Jose Sobrino Dieguez | Veteran journalist, 79 - 07/09/2009

Spanish-born journalist Jose Sobrino Dieguez, 79, has died at his Manhattan home.

 

John J. McGarry, real estate professional and coach - 07/08/2009

John J. McGarry, 59, of Philadelphia, a real-estate professional known throughout the city for his can-do spirit, his passion for helping others, and his longtime volunteer work as a basketball coach, died Sunday of heart failure.

 

George Edberg-Olsen, 84; helped build Temple U. hall - 07/08/2009

"My parents were immigrants, and my father worked in a factory. That's why I appreciate Temple's populist mission so much," George Edberg-Olson said in 2000.

 

Alice M. Anderson, 95, physician - 07/08/2009

Alice M. Anderson, 95, a physician who practiced in East Falls, died Monday of respiratory failure at Brittany Pointe Estates, a Lansdale retirement facility.

 

Frances Sharkey | Designer, manager, 81 - 07/08/2009

Services will be held Friday for Frances Sharkey, 81, formerly of Runnemede, a retired designer and sewing manager at the old Rand & Rand firm in Philadelphia, who died March 3 in Honolulu of complications due to emphysema.

 

Takeo Doi | Japanese scholar, 89 - 07/08/2009

Takeo Doi, 89, a scholar who wrote that the Japanese psyche thrived on a love-hungry dependence on authority figures, died Sunday.

 

Marilynn Marter services set - 07/08/2009

The funeral for retired Inquirer food writer Marilynn Marter will be at 10 a.m. Saturday at Decker Funeral Home, 216 York Rd., Warminster. A viewing will be at 9 a.m.

 

Vietnam War mastermind dies - 07/07/2009

Driven, cerebral, and pugnacious, Robert S. McNamara was the preeminent policymaker overseeing the massive buildup of U.S. forces in Vietnam from 1964 to 1968, who masterfully deployed facts and figures to press the case for sending military advisers and then ground troops in a "limited war" to counter the advance of Communist forces in North Vietnam and Viet Cong guerrillas in South Vietnam.

 

Point Breeze leader Mamie Nichols, 91 - 07/07/2009

"Point Breeze would never be the same without Mamie Nichols, believe me," Philadelphia City Councilwoman - now president - Anna C. Verna said in a 1992 Inquirer profile.

 

Margaret A. McVeigh | Writer, actress, 90 - 07/07/2009

Margaret A. "Pegi" McVeigh, 90, an amateur writer and actress and the mother of eight, died of heart failure June 30 at St. Joseph Villa, a nursing home in Flourtown.

 

G. Frank Page Jr. | Funeral director, 81 - 07/07/2009

G. Frank Page Jr., 81, a North Philadelphia funeral home director, died of coronary artery disease June 28 at his home in Elkins Park.

 

Mollie Sugden | Comic actress, 86 - 07/07/2009

Mollie Sugden, 86, who played the formidable saleswoman Mrs. Slocombe in the BBC's long-running comedy series Are You Being Served?, has died.

 

Vasily Aksyonov | Exiled Russian writer, 76 - 07/07/2009

Vasily Aksyonov, 76, a prolific Russian writer and one of the last dissidents to be exiled from the Soviet Union, died yesterday at a Moscow hospital.

 

Theodore G. Balbus, 83, Phila.-area radiologist - 07/06/2009

Theodore George Balbus, 83, a Philadelphia-area radiologist for more then 30 years, died June 13 at home in Elkins Park after a two-year battle with prostate cancer.

 

John L. Jenemann, 95, packaging designer - 07/06/2009

John L. Jenemann, 95, a packaging designer for DuPont Co., died of pneumonia June 30 at Dunwoody Village, a retirement facility in Newtown Square where he had lived for 21 years.

 

Norman P. Hetrick | Lawyer, 66 - 07/06/2009

Norman P. Hetrick, 66, a lawyer who split his time between Philadelphia and Harrisburg, died June 30 of Parkinson's disease in the Masonic Village of Elizabethtown, a retirement facility in Lancaster County.