Year-in-Review: August deaths

Things to Do

Year-in-Review: August deaths

A review of some people, both locally, nationally and internationally, who passed away in August 2008.

"Yes! Yes! Yes! The Atlanta Braves have given you a championship! Listen to this crowd!" .... said Skip Caray, when the team won the 1995 World Series. With his nasally voice, wry and witty delivery, and tongue often in cheek, Caray became an enduring sound of summer in the South. He described more than 4,000 Braves games -- from the last-place finishes of the 1970s and '80s through the 14 consecutive division titles of the 1990s and beyond. He died on Aug. 3.

Alexander Solzhenitsyn was a Russian novelist and historian. Through his writings, he made the world aware of the Gulag, the Soviet Union's forced labor camp system, and for these efforts Solzhenitsyn was exiled from the Soviet Union in 1974. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1970, and in 1994, he returned to Russia. He died on Aug. 3 from heart failure.

Tyler Copley, an affable teen whose cancer struggle was the subject of an AJC story, had Ewing's Sarcoma, an often fatal form of juvenile cancer. He had relapsed three times, had his leg amputated in an effort to stave off the cancer, and had outlived anyone's predictions. In cyberspace, Tyler had become something of a hero. His page on Caringbridge.com has been viewed more than 321,000 times. He passed away on Aug. 7.

Born and raised on Chicago's southside, Bernie Mac gained popularity as a stand-up comedian, including a popular stint as one of "The Original Kings of Comedy." A performance on HBO's Def Comedy Jam thrust him into the national spotlight, and he began delving into acting, Mac starred in his own sitcom called "The Bernie Mac Show," somewhat based on his own life. He also starred in numerous films. He died on Aug. 9 from complications due to pneumonia.

Douglas County High School's football coach Jimmy Johnson was an old-school tough guy who played nose guard for the University of Alabama. And though he barely overlapped with the Crimson Tide's most famous coach Bear Bryant, he was known to adopt the same tough, gritty style on the football field. Johnson, who passed away on Aug. 11, won 124 games and four region titles in 20 years at DCHS. Starting in the 1970s, his Tigers football program churned out more than 20 college players.

Sandy Allen was recognized as the tallest woman in the world during her lifetime according to Guinness World Records She was 7' 7¼ inches. Her height was due to a tumor in her pituitary gland that caused it to release growth hormone uncontrollably. Because of this physical limitation, she spent her last years in an Indiana retirement center, the same one as Edna Parker, the current oldest living person in the world. She passed away on Aug. 13 at the age of 53.

David Freeman was an advertising executive best known for co-authoring the 1999 book "100 Things to Do Before You Die." The book's recommendations ranged from attending the Academy Awards and running with the bulls in Pamplona, Spain, to the more obscure, like taking a voodoo pilgrimage in Haiti. He passed away on Aug. 17, and The Los Angeles Times noted Freeman had seen "about half the sites" in his book.

Isaac Hayes was an Academy Award-winning soul and funk singer-songwriter, producer and actor. His best known work, the 1971 film "Shaft," earned him an Academy Award for Best Original Song, the first award given to an African-American in a non-acting category. In 1992, to recognize his humanitarianism, he was crowned an honorary king of Ghana's Ada district. From 1997 to 2006, he also provided the voice for "Chef" for the animated series "South Park." He died on Aug. 18.

John Challis was a Pennsylvania teen-ager who used his cancer to spread an uplifting message of hope and optimism: Courage + Believe = Life. When he was diagnosed with liver cancer in June 2006, doctors gave him about six months to live. He defied the odds and vowed to fight, promoting and uplifting Americans from students to professional athletes. He founded the Courage For Life Foundation, intended to motivate young cancer patients who are facing uncertainty. He passed away on Aug. 19.

Stephanie Tubbs Jones was the first African American woman to be elected to Congress from Ohio. A Democrat, she represented the greater Cleveland area and was reelected four times. She received 83.44% of the vote in her final general election in 2006 and faced no opposition in 2008. On Aug. 19, Tubbs Jones was found unconscious in her car, having suffered a cerebral hemorrhage due to an aneurysm in her brain.

Gene Upshaw was the executive director of the NFL Players' Association for 25 years and a former Oakland Raider before he died on Aug. 20 from pancreatic cancer. He led the NFLPA in its unsuccessful strike in 1987 and through years of anti-trust litigation against the league. In 1987, he was inducted into the Hall of Fame. He died at the age of 63. Coincidentally, the jersey he wore during his Hall of Fame career was 63.

Fred Crane spoke the first lines in "Gone With the Wind" as one of the red-headed Tarleton twins flirting with Scarlett O'Hara before the Twelve Oaks barbecue. He was the last living male actor who had a credited role in the movie. Crane, who passed away on Aug. 21, had lived in Barnesville and operated a bed and breakfast before selling it in 2007.

Hazel Warp was an American stuntwoman. She was Vivien Leigh's stunt double in "Gone with the Wind." Warp rode and trained horses in the film and was a Leigh's stand-in in all of her horseback-riding scenes. She also tumbled down the stairs in the famous scene near the end of the film where Scarlett O'Hara loses her balance and falls. She passed away on Aug. 26 at the age of 93.

A champion athlete in the over-60 age group, Barbara Warren competed 13 times in the Ironman Triathlon World Championship in Hawaii, finishing eight times in the top five of her age group and winning in 2003. On August 26, she crashed during the bicycling portion of another triathlon and broke her neck in the fall. She was paralyzed from the neck down, breathing with the help of a ventilator. She signaled, by blinking her eyes and nodding, that she wanted the ventilator turned off.

Del Martin (left) was a lesbian activist who became half of the first same-sex couple to marry in San Francisco. Martin met her partner, Phyllis Lyon (right), in 1950, and they moved into an apartment together three years later on Valentine's Day. They were married in June. Martin also co-founded one of the first social and political organization for lesbians. She passed away on Aug. 27 from complications of an arm bone fracture.

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"Yes! Yes! Yes! The Atlanta Braves have given you a championship! Listen to this crowd!" .... said Skip Caray, when the team won the 1995 World Series. With his nasally voice, wry and witty delivery, and tongue often in cheek, Caray became an enduring sound of summer in the South. He described more than 4,000 Braves games -- from the last-place finishes of the 1970s and '80s through the 14 consecutive division titles of the 1990s and beyond. He died on Aug. 3.

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