Michael Dorris (1945 - 1997)

Michael Dorris was born in Louisville, Kentucky to Jim and Mary Besy (Burkhardt) Dorris. His father died before Dorris was born (reportedly by suicide during WWII), and Dorris was raised as an only child by his mother, who became a secretary for the Democratic Party. It has been reported that two maternal relatives also help […]

Thomas Disch (1940 - 2008)

Thomas Disch entered the field of science fiction at a turning point, as the pulp adventure stories of its older style began to be challenged by a more serious, adult, and often darker style. This movement, called New Wave, tried to show that the ideas and themes of science fiction could be developed beyond the […]

Jeanine Deckers (1933 - 1985)

While in the convent, Jeanine Deckers wrote, sang and performed her own songs, which were so well received by her fellow nuns and visitors that her religious superiors encouraged her to record an album, which visitors and retreatants at the convent would be able to purchase. In 1961, the album was recorded in Brussels at Philips; […]

Penelope Delta (1874 - 1941)

Penelope Delta moved to Frankfurt, Germany in 1906, when her husband went to run the offices of the Khoremis-Benakis cotton business there, and her first novel Gia tin Patrida (For the Sake of the Fatherland) was published in 1909. The novel is set in Byzantine times, and Delta started corresponding with the historian Gustave Schlumberger, […]

Brad Delp (1951 - 2007)

Brad Delp was born in Peabody, Massachusetts on June 12, 1951 to French-Canadian immigrants, and raised in Danvers, Massachusetts. In 1969, guitarist Barry Goudreau introduced Delp to Tom Scholz, who was looking for a singer to complete some demo recordings. Eventually Scholz formed the short-lived band Mother’s Milk (1973–74), including Delp and Goudreau. After producing a […]

Ryan Halligan (1989 - 2003)

Ryan Halligan was born on December 18, 1989 in Poughkeepsie, New York, the son of John P. and Kelly Halligan. His family moved to Essex Junction, Vermont, where Halligan attended Hiawatha Elementary School and, later, Albert D. Lawton Middle School. He was described by his father as a “gentle, very sensitive soul,” who experienced some developmental […]

Paul Gruchow (1947 - 2004)

Paul Gruchow (May 23, 1947 – February 22, 2004) was an American author, editor, and conservationist from Montevideo, Minnesota. A student of poet John Berryman, he is well known for his strong support of rural communities, as expressed in his first book, “Journal of a Prairie Year” published by University of Minnesota Press. His essays […]

Justin Fashanu (1961 - 1998)

Justin Fashanu began his career as an apprentice with Norwich City, turning professional towards the end of December 1978. He made his league debut on 13 January 1979, against West Bromwich Albion, and settled into the Norwich side scoring regularly and occasionally spectacularly. In 1980, he won the BBC Goal of the Season award, for […]

Ed Flanders (1934 - 1995)

Ed Flanders was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, the son of Bernice (née Brown) and Francis Michael Grey Flanders. His mother was killed in an automobile accident when he was 14. After graduating from Patrick Henry High School (where he played hockey) in 1953, he enlisted in the United States Army, where he served as an […]

Tom Evans (1947 - 1983)

In July 1967, the Iveys (Pete Ham, Ron Griffiths, Mike Gibbins and Dave Jenkins) went to Liverpool at the suggestion of their manager, Bill Collins, to recruit a replacement for Dave Jenkins, their rhythm guitarist and frontman. They discovered Tom Evans singing with Them Calderstones and invited him to London to audition for the band. […]

Charmaine Dragun (1978 - 2007)

Charmaine Dragun graduated from the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts with a degree in broadcast journalism. She began her career as a radio journalist and newsreader at Perth radio stations 6PR and 96FM. She was nominated for Young Journalist Of The Year and won both the Australian and state Best radio Reports award. Dragun switched […]

Vic Chesnutt (1964 - 2009)

Around 1985, Vic Chesnutt moved to Athens and joined the band, La-Di-Das, with future member of the Dashboard Saviors Todd McBride. After leaving that group, he began performing solo on a regular basis at the 40 Watt Club; it was there that he was spotted by Michael Stipe of R.E.M.. Stipe went on to produce […]

Christine Chubbuck (1944 - 1974)

Christine Chubbuck worked for WVIZ in Cleveland for a year in 1966/1967, and attended a summer workshop in radio and television at New York University in 1967. In 1968, Chubbuck worked for a few months for public television stations in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and Canton, Ohio, before moving on to spend four years as a hospital […]

Tyler Clementi (1991 - 2010)

Tyler Clementi was born on December 19, 1991, in Ridgewood, New Jersey. A graduate of Ridgewood High School, he was a violinist; he played with the Ridgewood Symphony Orchestra and participated in the Bergen Youth Orchestra as concertmaster. A few days before leaving home to attend college at Rutgers, Clementi told his parents that he was […]

Oscar Apfel (1878 - 1938)

Osca Apfel was born in Cleveland, Ohio. After a number of years in commerce, he decided to adopt the stage as a profession. He secured his first professional engagement in 1900, in his hometown. He rose rapidly and soon held a position as director and producer and was at the time noted as being the […]

Alvin Neelley (1953 - 2005)

Alvin Neelley was born in 1953 in Georgia, where he was a car thief during his teenage years. He met his second wife, Judith Ann Adams, when he was 26 years old and she was 15. Alvin divorced his first wife shortly before eloping with Judith Adams (1980). Lisa Ann Millican, a 13-year-old girl from Cedartown, […]

Wallace Carothers (1896 - 1937)

After receiving his Ph.D., Wallace Carothers stayed at the University of Illinois for two years as an instructor in organic chemistry. In 1926 Carothers moved to Harvard University. In 1927, DuPont decided to fund fundamental, pure research: research not deliberately aimed at the development of a money-making product. Carothers traveled to Wilmington, Delaware, to discuss the possibility […]

Jeremy Blake (1971 - 2007)

A graduate of the both School of the Art Institute of Chicago (BFA ’93) and California Institute of the Arts (MFA 95), Jeremy Blake was selected for the Whitney Biennial in 2000, 2002 and 2004. His “Winchester” series, inspired by the story of Sarah Winchester and the Winchester Mystery House, was shown at the San […]

Capital Steez (1993 - 2012)

Courtney Everald Dewar, Jr. was born in New York City to Jamaican parents. His father died when he was in high school. He began rapping in 2009, then known as Jay STEEZ, with his friend Jakk the Rhymer. Together they formed a group called The 3rd Kind. Their first mixtape was titled The Yellow Tape, […]

Donald Cammell (1934 - 1996)

Donald Cammell was born in the Camera Obscura (then known as Outlook Tower) on Castlehill, near the castle in Edinburgh, Scotland, the son of the poet and writer Charles Richard Cammell (who authored a book on occultist Aleister Crowley). Donald Cammell was educated at Shrewsbury House School and Westminster School. Brought up in a bohemian atmosphere, […]

Joseph Brooks (1938 - 2011)

In the 1960s, Joseph Brooks composed advertising jingles for clients including Pepsi (“You’ve Got a Lot to Live”) and Maxwell House (“Good to the Last Drop Feeling”). He received numerous Clio Awards for his work, as well as a People’s Choice Award. Credited as “Joey Brooks”, he also wrote the song “My Ship Is Comin’ […]

Richard Brautigan (1935 - 1984)

In San Francisco, Richard Brautigan sought to establish himself as a writer. He was known for handing out his poetry on the streets and performing at poetry clubs. In early 1956, Brautigan typed a three-page manuscript and sent it to The Macmillan Company for publication. The manuscript consisted of two pages with 14 poems and […]

Mike Brant (1947 - 1975)

Mike Brant’s parents were from Poland. His mother, Bronia Rosenberg, originally from Łódź, was a survivor of the Auschwitz concentration camp. His father, Fishel Brand, from Biłgoraj, had been a resistance fighter during World War II, and was 20 years his wife’s senior. His parents married following the war, and they applied to emigrate to […]

Clara Bloodgood (1870 - 1907)

Clara Bloodgood was born in Long Branch, New Jersey, the daughter of Edward and Annie (née Sutton) Stephens.  Her father, a prominent New York attorney, was the son of author Ann S. Stephens. Her mother was one of three sisters once called “the beautiful Sutton girls” by New York’s high society. As a young girl […]

Adele Blood (1886 - 1936)

Adele Blood was born on April 23, 1886 in San Francisco, California to Ira E. Blood and Frances Emma Stewart. Frances was a member of the Alameda school department for many years. Adele moved to the eastern United States some years before 1917. As a youth, she was a talented equestrienne, had an interest in […]

David Birnie (1951 - 2005)

David Birnie was the eldest of five children. In his formative years, he lived in the semi-rural suburb of Wattle Grove, east of Perth. School friends and parishioners from the Wattle Grove Baptist Church of the period remember the family as particularly dysfunctional. Rumours abounded about the family’s promiscuity, alcoholism and that they engaged in incest. When […]

Bob Birch (1956 - 2012)

Soon after graduating college, Bob Birch joined a band with his brother Dan and sister-in-law Martha, becoming one of the top bands on the Detroit circuit.[citation needed] While performing at lounges in local hotels, Birch met many musicians from some of the top touring bands of the time including the Doobie Brothers, George Benson, Chicago […]

Jovan Belcher (1987 - 2012)

The son of John Belcher and Cheryl Shepard, Jovan Belcher grew up on Long Island, New York, and attended West Babylon High School in West Babylon, New York. He wrestled and played football there under head coach Albert Ritacco between 2001 and 2004. He was a three-time All-American as a wrestler, and played as a […]

Herb Baumeister (1947 - 1996)

Herb Baumeister was the oldest of four children born to Herbert and Elizabeth Baumeister. His childhood was reportedly normal. By the onset of adolescence, however, he began exhibiting anti-social behavior; acquaintances later recalled the young Baumeister playing with dead animals and urinating on a teacher’s desk. As a teenager, he was diagnosed with schizophrenia, but […]

Joe Ball (1896 - 1938)

Joe Ball (January 5, 1896 – September 24, 1938) was an American serial killer, sometimes referred to as “The Alligator Man”, the “Butcher of Elmendorf” and the “Bluebeard of South Texas”. He is known to have killed two and is said to have killed as many as 20 women in the 1930s. His existence was […]