Obituaries

Musician James Gurley, 69, of a heart attack. He is best known as a guitarist for Big Brother and the Holding Company, which had backed Janis Joplin.

Gurley died just two days before his 70th birthday.
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Character actor Arnold Stang, 91, of pneumonia.

He was featured in numerous television shows and movies.
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Sportscaster George Michael, 70, of chronic lymphocytic leukemia, according to his wife.
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This death happened back in June, but I want to note the passing of author Helen B. Andelin, 89, who was best known for her book idolizing the patriarchy, Fascinating Womanhood. It's a silly book, but a lot of desperate women out there wanted to shore up their marriages. Andelin built a successful empire out of women's insecurities.

She also wrote a book for single women, referred to as "girls," called The Fascinating Girl.

link

Andelin and her husband, who died in 1999, were Mormons. Helen was survived by eight children, 61 grandchildren, and an impressive 101 great-grandchildren.
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Singer/songwriter Vic Chesnutt, 45, following an overdose of muscle relaxants.

Mr. Chesnutt had a cracked, small voice but sang with disarming candor about a struggle for peace in a life filled with pain. A car crash at age 18 left him partly paralyzed, and he performed in a wheelchair.

The accident, he has said, focused him as a songwriter, and it became the subject of some of his earliest recordings. “I’m not a victim/Oh, I am an atheist,” Mr. Chesnutt sang in “Speed Racer,” from his first album, “Little,” produced by Michael Stipe of R.E.M. and released in 1990.

In a recent interview on the public radio show “Fresh Air,” he told Terry Gross: “It was only after I broke my neck and even like maybe a year later that I really started realizing that I had something to say.”

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