Kenneth Bacon, 64, a Pentagon spokesman in the Clinton administration who became a voice for millions of refugees uprooted by violence, died Saturday of skin cancer that had spread to his brain.
After a career as a Wall Street Journal reporter and editor, Bacon joined the Clinton administration in 1994 as assistant secretary of defense for public affairs. He became familiar as the bow-tie- wearing Pentagon spokesman.
It was in that job, during U.S. and NATO operations in Kosovo, when Bacon grew convinced that more people were needed to stop human- rights abuses and assist people displaced by man-made and natural disasters.
He became president of Refugees International in 2001. During his tenure, the group doubled in size and pushed for more protection and assistance for displaced people in places such as Sudan’s Darfur region and Iraq, where he focused much of his work, as well as in Afghanistan, Democratic Republic of Congo, Colombia and Thailand.
Jim Dickinson, 67, a musician and producer who helped shape the Memphis sound in a career spanning more than four decades, died Saturday.
His wife, Mary Lindsay Dickinson, said he died in a Memphis, Tenn., hospital after three months of heart and intestinal bleeding problems. The couple lived in Hernando, Miss.
Perhaps best known as the father of Luther and Cody Dickinson, two-thirds of the Grammy-nominated North Mississippi Allstars, Jim Dickinson managed an outsider’s career in an insider’s industry. He recorded with and produced greats like Aretha Franklin, Bob Dylan, Big Star, the Rolling Stones, The Replacements and Sam & Dave.
