Jerri Mock obit

Jerrie Mock, First Female Pilot to Circle Globe, Dies at 88

Geraldine "Jerrie" Mock, the Ohio housewife who became the first female pilot to fly solo around the world, died Tuesday.

 

She was not on the list.

Geraldine "Jerrie" Mock, the Ohio housewife who became the first female pilot to fly solo around the world, died Tuesday in her sleep at her Quincy, Florida home, grandson Chris Flocken said Wednesday. She was 88 and had been in declining health for months.

She was inspired as a child by Amelia Earhart. But while she considered Earhart her hero, Mock said she didn't dwell on the aviation pioneer's fate as she made her own journey 27 years after Earhart and navigator Fred Noonan disappeared in the South Pacific while Earhart was trying to become the first female aviator around the globe.

Mock played down her trip as a fun adventure. She flew her single-engine Cessna 180 "Spirit of Columbus" 23,000 miles in 29-plus days before landing in Ohio's capital city on April 17, 1964. On her trip, she made stops in places such as the Azores, Casablanca, Cairo and Calcutta.

"Airplanes are meant to fly. I was completely confident in my plane," she said in an interview in April.

Dubbed "the flying housewife" at the time, the Newark, Ohio, native was a mother of three in suburban Columbus but also an experienced pilot who studied aeronautical engineering at Ohio State University. She spent months planning her flight with aviation experts and veteran pilots.

She is survived by a daughter, after being preceded in death by her two sons. She had 12 grandchildren. Flocken said Mock didn't want a funeral service. Instead, as she had requested, she will be cremated, with her ashes to be scattered from a plane flying over the Gulf of Mexico.

Ralph Cosham obit

Obituary: Actor Ralph Cosham, 78

He was not on the list.

Reston-based actor Ralph Cosham died on Tuesday after an illness. He was 78.

Cosham, a British-born former journalist, was a regular for many years in productions at Washington’s Arena Stage and Shakespeare Theatre.

Since 1992, Cosham’s distinctive voice had been used for more than 100 audiobook recordings, some using the pseudonym Geoffrey Howard.

He won an Audio Publisher’s Audie Award for best mystery and AudioFile Earphones and Library Journal awards for best audiobook.

Some of the classics Cosham recorded in recent years: The Time Machine, Heart of Darkness, Frankenstein, Around the World in Eighty Days, Alice in Wonderland, and Watership Down.

His best-known audiobooks were as the voice of Armand Gamache in Candadian author Louise Penny’s Chief Inspector Gamache mystery series.

He recorded many of the books in his home studio in Reston.

“For me, if you don’t get Gamache, the series is lost to you, Penny told the Washington Post earlier this year. “Ralph brings him alive, I think, because he understands Gamache.”

Cosham also appeared in several movies. Among his film credits: Supreme Court Justice Jensen in The Pelican Brief (1993); a driver in Shadow Conspiracy (1997); Judge Assel Steward in Suspect (1987); a Marine Lieutenant in Starman (1984).

In voice acting he was featured in the video game The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion as the Breton males, including characters such as Jauffre, the Grandmaster of the Blades, and Vicente Valtieri; Dr. Guervich in Death Without Consent (2005); he played the voice part "townspeople 3" in Pirates of the Caribbean (2003).

In acting he was a driver in Shadow Conspiracy (1997); Supreme Court Justice Jensen in The Pelican Brief (1993), Judge Assel Steward in Suspect (1987); a Marine Lieutenant in Starman (1984); and played the part of Braddock's Captain in the mini TV series George Washington (1984)

Cosham is the husband of Beverly Cosham, accomplished actress and singer. Beverly Cosham is the Chair of the Reston Community Center Board of Governors and a 2011 “Best of Reston” Honoree.

Filmography

Year       Title       Role       Notes

1983      Kennedy              Dr. Clark               TV Mini-Series, 5 episodes

1984      George Washington        Braddock's Captain          TV Mini-Series

1984      Starman               Marine Lieutenant          

1987      Suspect                Judge Assel Stewart       

1991      A Woman Named Jackie                Dr. Wilson           TV Mini-Series

1993      The Pelican Brief               Justice Jensen   

1997      Shadow Conspiracy         Driver   

2003      Pirates of the Caribbean                Townspeople 3 Video Game, Voice

2006      The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion       Jauffre / Vicente Valtieri / Male Bretons                 Video Game, Voice

2007      Death Without Consent                 Dr. Guervich       (final film role)

George Shuba obit

Ex-Dodger George Shuba dead at 89

 

He was not on the list.

YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio -- George "Shotgun" Shuba, a member of the 1955 World Series champion Brooklyn Dodgers who was best known for offering a congratulatory handshake to minor league teammate Jackie Robinson, died Monday. He was 89.

The Los Angeles Dodgers said Shuba died at his home in Youngstown, Ohio. No cause of death was given.

Shuba, who was white, congratulated his teammate on the Montreal Royals near home plate after Robinson hit a three-run homer on April 18, 1946, off Jersey City Giants pitcher Warren Sandell. The moment shared by a smiling Robinson and Shuba was captured in a famous photograph and dubbed "A Handshake for the Century."

Shuba reportedly hung a copy in his living room.

Robinson went on to break major league baseball's color barrier when he started at first base for Brooklyn on April 15, 1947.

Shuba had a .259 career batting average with 24 homers and 125 RBIs in 355 games as a utility outfielder with the Brooklyn Dodgers from 1948-55. The left-handed hitter was the first National League pinch hitter to homer in the World Series, connecting in Game 1 against the New York Yankees in 1953.

The Dodgers said Shuba earned his nickname after someone compared his line drives to the sound of buckshot. His career was featured in a chapter of Roger Kahn's book, "The Boys of Summer," a tribute to the 1950s Brooklyn Dodgers.

Shuba appeared at Dodger Stadium in 2005 when the club marked the 50th anniversary of its only championship in Brooklyn. He was joined by Carl Erskine, Roger Craig, Don Newcombe, Johnny Podres, Clem Labine, Sandy Koufax, Don Zimmer, Tom Lasorda and Duke Snider.

Born on Dec. 13, 1924, in Youngstown, Shuba was the youngest of 10 children whose parents were Czechoslovak immigrants.

He practiced his swing for hours with a rope tied to the ceiling, making knots in the rope where the strike zone would be. He swung a bat at the rope, helping to develop the powerful swing that later produced line drives in the major leagues.

Shuba is survived by his wife, Kathryn; a son, Michael; daughters Marlene and Marykay; and a sister, Helen.

Services were pending.

Sarah Goldberg obit

‘7th Heaven’ actress Sarah Goldberg dies at 40

She was not on the list.

Sarah Goldberg, who starred in the television series “7th Heaven” and the film “Jurassic Park III,” died late last month, her family said. She was 40.

Goldberg died in her sleep of natural causes on September 27 at her family’s cabin in Wisconsin, her mother Judy Goldberg told the Chicago Sun-Times. She said a heart ailment is suspected, although an autopsy failed to determine the exact cause of death.

“She went to sleep and didn’t wake up,” she said. Goldberg was visiting her family for the Jewish holidays.

Goldberg’s entertainment career started as a bumblebee in a Chicago City Ballet production of “Cinderella,” her mother said, and gained momentum when she was asked to be an extra on the Julia Roberts movie “My Best Friend’s Wedding.” She got the role because her mother co-owned a company providing table linens for a set. A film staffer saw her helping arrange tablecloths and asked her to be in a scene, her mother said.

Goldberg went on to appear in television series including “90210,” ”Judging Amy,” ”The Beast,” and “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation.”

In “7th Heaven” she played Jewish medical student Sarah Glass Camden who fell in love with the son of a Christian pastor.

“She wanted to go to medical school, and instead for three years she played a doctor on ‘7th Heaven,'” Judy Goldberg said of her daughter.

Goldberg also played a college student looking for drugs in the Denzel Washington movie “Training Day.”

The actress sometimes was credited under the stage name Sarah Danielle Madison.

Goldberg was born in 1974 in Springfield, where her father worked as a lawyer.

She graduated from Amherst College in 1996 with a degree in microbiology, according to her IMDB biography.

Goldberg attended the Latin School of Chicago before going to Amherst. She practiced yoga and was a trick skiier.

“She could get on (skis) backwards and blow kisses to people and pretend she was a water skier,” her mother said.

Filmography

    Ivans Xtc (2000) – Naomi

    Jurassic Park III (2001) – Cheryl Logan, one of Grant's graduate students at the dig site

    Training Day (2001) – Female college passenger

    Virgins (2001) – Tabitha

    Judging Amy (2002–2004, TV Series) – Dr. Heather Labonte

    7th Heaven (2002–2006, TV Series) – Dr. Sarah Glass

    House (2009, 1 episode)

    Pig (2011) – Woman 2

    90210 (2009–2011, TV Series) – Colleen Sarkossian (final appearance)