Obituaries of note

H. PETER BURG, 57, the FirstEnergy Corp. chairman and chief executive who helped defend the electric utility against accusations it caused the nation's largest blackout, died Tuesday in Cleveland of leukemia. FirstEnergy found itself on the defensive after the Aug. 14 blackout that affected about 50-million people in eight states and Canada. U.S. and Canadian energy officials said FirstEnergy's failure to trim trees beneath high-voltage transmission lines caused a power failure, and a computer malfunction allowed the problems to cascade. Mr. Burg told Congress that such a massive failure could not have been caused by isolated power line failures in his system.

RON O'NEAL, 66, who starred as the sartorially resplendent Harlem drug dealer in the blaxploitation hit movie Superfly, died Wednesday in Los Angeles. He was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2000. The low-budget film about a cocaine dealer who beats the system and leaves the drug world a wealthy man, was a surprise box-office success in the summer of 1972. The movie was accused by many blacks and whites of glorifying drug pushers and the drug lifestyle - a criticism Audrey O'Neal said her husband did not share.

MOLLY KELLY, who as a child trekked 1,000 miles across the Australian desert to return to her Aboriginal mother, a journey that inspired the 2002 movie Rabbit-Proof Fence, died Tuesday in the western Australian town of Jigalong. She was thought to be 87. She was about 13 when she, her younger sister and a cousin made the nine-week journey with little food and water. When her story came out later, she became a symbol of Aborigine resilience in the face of mistreatment by Australia's European settlers.

ASHER I. "DICK" KELTY, 84, whose innovative aluminum external-framed backpacks with waist straps revolutionized backpacking in the 1950s, died Monday in Glendale, Calif. A onetime cottage industry launched in his two-bedroom home, Kelty Packs Inc. earned a reputation as the Cadillac of backpacks. From heavy and cumbersome wood frames and canvas bags, Mr. Kelty went to a lightweight aluminum frame contoured to the human body and a nylon bag.

MARY HANFORD, 102, a civic leader and mother of U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Dole, died Wednesday in Salisbury, N.C.

JACK CADY, 71, winner of the Nebula, Phillip K. Dick, World Fantasy and Bram Stoker awards for science fiction, died Wednesday in Port Townsend, Wash. His novels include The Hauntings of Hood Canal in 2001 and The Off Season in 1996.

YOSSI GINOSSAR, 58, a top Israeli security agent who served as a back-channel envoy to the Palestinians in peace negotiations, often holding nighttime talks with Yasser Arafat, died Monday in Jerusalem of cancer. Arafat said Mr. Ginossar "was an example of a human being devoted to peace and security for the two people."

RANDY VanWARMER, 48, who recorded the pop hit Just When I Needed You Most and had a successful career as a songwriter, died Monday in Nashville. He wrote I'm in a Hurry (And Don't Know Why), a No. 1 hit by the country group Alabama in 1992, and I Guess It Never Hurts to Hurt Sometimes, No. 1 by the Oak Ridge Boys in 1984.

R. WILEY BROWNLEE, 75, who was tarred and feathered after a school district meeting in Ann Arbor, Mich., in 1971, died Jan. 1, the First Unitarian Universalist Church in Ann Arbor said. Mr. Brownlee, who was white, became the subject of national attention. Men poured cold tar on him and covered him with feathers after he left a Willow Run School District board meeting. There had been racial tensions at the high school, where he was principal, and he had been working to improve relationships between students. Four men, including Robert E. Miles, the former leader of the Ku Klux Klan in Michigan, were sent to prison.

RAINER HILDEBRANDT, 89, who founded a Berlin Wall museum at the Checkpoint Charlie crossing that attracts thousands of tourists each year, died Jan. 9. After communist East Germany built the wall in 1961 to keep its citizens from fleeing to the West, Mr. Hildebrandt started an exhibit depicting shootings along the concrete boundary. By 1963 the museum, which documents East Germans' escapes to the West and memorializes those who were killed trying, found a permanent home at Checkpoint Charlie, the most famous Cold War crossing point from West Berlin to the communist east.

JAKE HESS, 76, a Southern gospel singer and four-time Grammy winner who was a major early influence on Elvis Presley, died Jan. 4 in Opelika, Ala., said family members. He joined the John Daniel Quartet when he was 15 and became the lead singer for the Statesmen Quartet, the seminal Southern gospel group, founded in 1948. In 1964, he was a founding member of the Imperials. As a teenager, Presley often attended Statesmen shows in Memphis and tried to emulate the big, dramatic voices of Mr. Hess and the 1950s rhythm-and-blues crooner Roy Hamilton. Mr. Hess later sang backup on many of Presley's biggest albums, including, with the Imperials, From Nashville to Memphis.

DR. MELVIN D. YAHR, 86, whose groundbreaking study of the amino acid L-dopa in the late 1960s helped establish it as a leading treatment for Parkinson's disease, died Jan. 1 in Scarsdale, N.Y.

© 2006 • All Rights Reserved • St. Petersburg Times 490 First Avenue South • St. Petersburg, FL 33701 • 727-893-8111 Contact the Times | Privacy Policy Standard of Accuracy | Terms, Conditions & Copyright