Trini Lopez, who was famous for the 1965 hit "Lemon Tree", a horrible, horrible song. His death is very sad to me because I am now reminded of it. James Harris, a professional wrestler who was part of the WWF as the tribal Ugandan "Kamala" in the late 1980's and 90's. I wasn't into wrestling, but my brothers were at the time and we only had the one TV so I remember him being repeatedly beat by whoever the top white guy was at the moment and people chasing him with snakes because his character was afraid of them.
He actually featured prominently in a wrestling documentary I can't remember the name of, it showed him later in his career when he was working the independent circuit. I'd watched him in the WWF back when I was a kid so it was a trip to see that a perfectly average (albeit very large) African American man was behind Kamala the Uganadan giant.
Tom Terrific -- Aged 75 Dementia and COVID 19 https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/29797239/tom-seaver-hall-fame-pitcher-mets-legend-dies-75 Seaver was called "the toughest pitcher I ever had to face" by arguably the best hitter of their generation, Hank Aaron. When Seaver, in the midst of a Rookie of the Year season, introduced himself to Aaron at the 1967 All-Star Game, Aaron told him, "Kid, I know who you are, and before your career is over, I guarantee you everyone in this stadium will, too."
His "as told to" book was my second favorite as a kid, after Bob Gibson's From Ghetto to Glory. We watched his near-perfect game live on WGN. ********ing Jimmy Qualls.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/24/obituaries/honestie-hodges-dead-coronavirus.html?smid=tw-share This girl, Honestie Hodges, was handcuffed at age 11, leading to national outrage. Now she's dead at 14 from COVID. America has such a long way to go on race.
Former French President Valery Giscard D'Estaing aged 94. He was a social and economic liberal, modernizing the French economy while loosening the grip of the Catholic Church over such things as divorce, abortion and birth control. (Since D'Estaing won office, the percentage of French people identifying themselves as Catholic has fallen from over 80% to well under 50%).
So were both of my paternal grandparents. Their entire record collection was maybe three dozen country albums, and several of them were his.
Disturbing if this is what gave him the Rona Charley Pride died of COVID one month after performing at the CMAs, which were indoors and full of people not wearing masks. They gave him a Lifetime Achievement Award and promptly killed him. Disgusting.— Bonnie Stiernberg (@aahrealbonsters) December 12, 2020