Obituaries

Iron lung patient Martha Mason, 71, has died. She lived more than 60 years in an iron lung.

This is an interesting snip:

Paralyzed from the neck down as a result of childhood polio, Ms. Mason was one of the last handful of Americans, perhaps 30 people, who live full time in iron lungs. There is no documented case of any American’s having done so for quite as long as she, David W. Rose, the archivist of the March of Dimes Foundation, said on Friday.

Ms. Mason is the subject of a documentary film, “Martha in Lattimore,” released in 2005 and directed by Ms. Dalton. She also appeared in “The Final Inch,” a documentary about polio that was nominated for a Academy Award this year.

From her horizontal world — a 7-foot-long, 800-pound iron cylinder that encased all but her head — Ms. Mason lived a life that was by her own account fine and full, reading voraciously, graduating with highest honors from high school and college, entertaining and eventually writing.

She was quite a woman.
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Professional baseball player Dom DiMaggio, brother of Joe, 92.
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Musician Donald Evans, 49, of cancer.
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Detroit Pistons coach Chuck Daly, 78. He had been treated for pancreatic cancer.
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