TV favors the young — but Betty White only got more famous as she got older. White's career began in the earliest days of television, and she was active until her death at the age of 99.
2021 was filled with tremendous loss, from staggering COVID deaths to those of leading writers such as Joan Didion and bell hooks to a longtime abortion activist and politicians who shaped our world.
Born into poverty in Searchlight, Nev., the onetime amateur boxer served in Congress for 34 years — first in the House and, later, for three decades in the Senate.
Since hooks' passing on December 15, social media has flooded with reflections on her public impact as an author and scholar. Here, her friends remember what she was like in private.
The influential and sometimes controversial Harvard professor first made his name studying ants. He later broadened his scope to the intersection between human behavior and genetics.
Weddington argued the case before the high court twice, in December 1971 and again in October 1972, resulting the next year in the 7-2 ruling that legalized abortion. She died Sunday at age 76.
The Nobel Peace laureate and archbishop emeritus campaigned against a system he called evil and, after apartheid, helped the nation heal as head of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
Desmond Tutu will be remembered for helping end apartheid. But also for his memorable laugh, an infectious, cackling howl employed in the service of easing tensions in a very tense nation.
Earlier this year, Kevin Whitehead noted the passing of Chick Corea and Mario Pavone. Now he remembers a few more players who died in 2021, including Milford Graves, Ralph Peterson and Dave Frishberg.
