Terry Gross

Astronomer and Pulitzer Prize winner Carl Sagan died today at the age of 62. A spokesman for the Cancer Research Center says Sagan died from pneumonia after suffering from bone marrow disease for two years.

Joseph and Julia Quinlan. They are the parents of Karen Ann Quinlan. Joseph Quinlan died this past Saturday at the age of 71. A lawyer for the family said the cause was bone cancer. He and his wife became early pioneers in the "right to die" debate" after they fought for the legal authority to remove a respirator that their daughter was attached to after doctors said she had no hope of coming out of a coma. She then lived nine more years.

Weston died last Friday. We replay part of our 1988 interview with his wife Jo Stafford. (Rebroadcast)

Mitford died of cancer at the age of 78 on Tuesday (July 23). She was considered one of the premiere investigative journalists of her day, a muckraker in the tradition of Sinclair Lewis and John Dos Passos. Her targets included the Famous Writers School, a Midwest correspondence school, and the U.S. penal system ("Kind and Usual Punishment: The Prison Business"). Mitford's most recent book, "The American Way of Birth" (1992), declares that doctors perform too many C-Sections and de-legitimize midwifery.

The singer and performer died over the weekend of heart failure. He was 64. Born Herbert B. Khaury, Tim began performing in the 1950s. He was best known for his performances on Laugh-In, especially his crooning of "Tip Toe Through the Tulips." In this interview from earlier this year, Tim performs some songs on his ukulele. (Rebroadcast)

We remember band leader and composer Mercer Ellington, the son of Duke Ellington. He perpetuated the big band tradition his father made famous as head of the Duke Ellington Band. When he was a young man, Mercer Ellington had hoped to break into his father's band on the saxophone. But after years of frustration, he could see that he would never crack the legendary Ellington reed section. He finally was accepted as a trombone player and later played french horn and trumpet. With the death of his father in 1974, Mercer Ellington took over his father's orchestra.

Arranger and baritone saxophonist Gerry Mulligan died Saturday, January 20th, from complications due to surgery. He was 68. We will rebroadcast a 1989 interview with him. Mulliagn was an innovator in modern jazz orchestration. Early in his career he was staff arranger for Gene Krupa's big band. In 1949 he collaborated with Gil Evans and Miles Davis in the Nonet. The nine-piece band shook up jazz arrangers and launched the era of so-called cool jazz. He achieved international acclaim when he started a "pianoless" quartet with trumpeter Chet Baker in the early 1950's.

Sculptor Duane Hanson died on Saturday in a Baca Raton hospital in Florida at the age of 70. The cause was non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, according to the The Miami Herald. We'll hear an interview with Hanson conducted in 1990. Hanson was known internationally for his life-size super-realistic sculptures of people. His sculptures are so life-like that a museum worker in Florida once called the fire department for help when one of Hanson's sculptures failed to respond to his attempts to get her attention. Hanson was born in Alexandria, Minn in 1925. [Originally broadcast 6/18/90]

Canadian author Robertson Davies. He died last weekend at the age of 82, from a stroke. Terry talked with him earlier this year upon the publication of his novel, The Cunning Man (Viking) The Washington Post called it "one of [the] author's most entertaining and satisfying novels." Davies had three successive careers. He began as an actor, then was a journalist and newspaper publisher, and in 1981 retired as professor of the Massy college at the University of Toronto. Davies wrote more than thirty books. (REBROADCAST from 2/23/95)

Former Executive Editor of The New York Times James Reston. He died this week at the age of 86, from cancer. He spent fifty years with The New York Times. He began as a reporter in London in 1940, covering the war. He was also Washington bureau chief, executive editor, and columnist. He retired in 1989 at the age of 80. In 1991 he wrote a new memoir, called Deadline (Random House). (REBROADCAST from 10/30/91)