David “Fathead” Newman, 75, a jazz musician who played with the Ray Charles Band and won fame as a tenor sax soloist, has died.
Newman played and recorded with a wide range of jazz and soul luminaries, such as Herbie Mann, Aretha Franklin and Aaron Neville. He also led a successful solo career.
He was nominated for a Grammy Award in 1990 for his work with Art Blakey and Dr. John.
Newman’s manager and wife, Karen Newman, said the jazz musician died Tuesday of pancreatic cancer in a Kingston, N.Y., hospital.
Constance Eberhardt Cook, 89, who helped legalize abortion in New York and persuaded Episcopalians to ordain women before becoming the first female executive at Cornell University, has died. She was 89.
Cook died Tuesday at her home in Ithaca, N.Y., Cornell announced. It did not give a cause of death.
Cook was elected to the Assembly as a Republican in 1962 and served 14 years, representing the 128th Assembly District in the Finger Lakes region of central New York.
In 1970, she sponsored a bill to repeal state anti-abortion laws and to provide for legal, on-demand abortions during the first 24 weeks of pregnancy. After a bitter legislative debate, abortion became legal in New York by a one-vote margin three years before the Supreme Court’s Roe vs. Wade decision made it legal nationwide.
Malcolm MacPherson, 65, a former correspondent for Time and Newsweek whose books included “Roberts Ridge” and “Time Bandit,” has died.
MacPherson died Saturday in Warrenton, Va., of a heart attack during a party in celebration of the impending inauguration of Barack Obama, according to Melville House Publishing, which released his novel “Hocus POTUS” in 2007.
A native of Bridgeport, Conn., MacPherson served in the Marines during the Vietnam War and later reported on conflicts in Africa, Northern Ireland and the current war in Iraq. “Roberts Ridge,” a nonfiction book, was set in Afghanistan, while “Hocus POTUS” was inspired by his time in Iraq.
