Ernie Accorsi obit

Giants mourn loss of former GM and Ring of Honor inductee Ernie Accorsi

 

He was not on the list.

Ernie Accorsi, who became only the second general manager inducted into the Giants Ring of Honor and was instrumental in bringing Tom Coughlin and Eli Manning to the franchise, passed away peacefully Saturday while surrounded by the love of his family. He was 84.

Born on Oct. 29, 1941 in Hershey, Pa., Accorsi was the Giants' general manager from 1998-2006 after serving as an assistant under George Young for four seasons. In Accorsi's nine years as G.M., the Giants won two NFC East titles, earned four postseason berths, and advanced to Super Bowl XXXV. He retired at the conclusion of the 2006 season. The Giants won the Super Bowl the following season (and gave Accorsi a championship ring) and again in 2011.

The Giants were the final stop in Accorsi's remarkable 37-year career that included successful stints as the general manager of the Baltimore Colts (he saw Johnny Unitas throw his first pass in a Colt uniform in a 1956 preseason game in his hometown of Hershey and his last one while working for the team) and the Cleveland Browns. In his last 16 years as a general manager, Accorsi had nine playoff teams, including six division champions. The Giants, Browns and Colts won a combined 143 regular-season and postseason games under his stewardship.

Members of the Giants organization and NFL community paid their respects to Accorsi and the legacy he built:

Giants President John Mara:

"Ernie helped shape the course of New York Giants history through his vision, leadership and unwavering belief in building a championship organization. Beyond his accomplishments as a football executive, he was a trusted advisor and dear friend. His legacy will forever be part of the Giants, and he will be greatly missed."

Giants Executive Vice President Steve Tisch:

"Ernie brought intelligence and thoughtful leadership to every decision, and his contributions to the Giants and the game were significant. We are grateful for all he gave to this organization and are thinking of his family and his many friends and colleagues."

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell:

"Ernie Accorsi was one of the most respected football minds in NFL history and a dear friend whose wisdom and perspective I valued tremendously. Throughout his remarkable career, he shaped championship-caliber clubs and earned the admiration of everyone who worked with him.

"Ernie's impact extended beyond the teams he served. As co-chair of the General Managers Advisory Committee, he helped guide our game and strengthen the NFL. His integrity, common sense and commitment to doing what was best for football made him an invaluable voice. Ernie was thoughtful, humble, and he cared deeply about the people in our league. He never lost sight of the relationships that make football special and we will all greatly miss him."

Tom Coughlin:

"Ernie was very decisive, very opinionated. His mind was as sharp as a tack. He loved to laugh. He was a great storyteller, great storyteller. He loved to have an audience and laugh, and then everyone else would laugh with him. He was great with punchlines. He was one of those. He was very loyal. Very, very loyal. My experience, of course, Ernie and John Mara interviewed me when I became the head coach back in 2004. I didn't realize that within a couple of years, Ernie was getting ready to retire. Nevertheless, we had a great challenge and we went forward from there. I always enjoyed working with Ernie, I always enjoyed talking with Ernie."

"Ernie will always be remembered, and I say this out of great respect, he's the guy that made the trade for Eli Manning. That will go down in Giants history as one of the great moves of all time. Was it risky? Sure it was risky. Ernie did it. Shut the door, went in, he did it on his own. It was his move. He had followed Eli from the time Eli was a very young player at Ole Miss, and he was convinced that Eli was the franchise quarterback that the Giants needed. He was not going to be deterred. He saw an opportunity. I think both teams benefitted greatly from the decision, and Ernie pulled the trigger."

Eli Manning:

"I was extremely sad to hear the news about Ernie. I call Ernie every draft week for the last 12 years, maybe longer than that, and just thank him for making the trade and believing in me and bringing me to the New York Giants. I know he was the believer in me and kind of the reason I got here. I appreciated him so much for building such great teams and giving us the opportunity to win some championships here. He was always so fun to sit with and just talk, whether it's the Giants or his time in Baltimore around the Colts. His stories around the NFL and the people he was around that shaped his career were always so entertaining. I know the Giants organization owes a lot of thanks to Ernie Accorsi and what he was able to do for the organization."

Justin Tuck:

"My football career is very synonymous with Ernie. He had drafted me and then us going in the Ring of Honor together and then just our interactions throughout my career while at the Giants, he was a man who always did things the right way. He always had a good demeanor. I didn't get to know him much outside of football, but just in football, you could tell the character of him and who he was as a person just by how he interacted with us on the football side of things. It's always tough when you lose a guy like him because of what he meant to not only the Giants, but the NFL as a whole. My thoughts and prayers go out to him and his family. It's a sad day for football fans."

The Accorsi Family:

"It was the honor of my dad's lifetime to represent the Baltimore Colts, Cleveland Browns, and New York Giants, three organizations that meant so much to him throughout his remarkable career. Our family is deeply grateful to each of them and to the many people who became lifelong friends along the way.

"We are especially grateful to the New York Giants organization, John Mara, Ronnie Barnes, and the late Wellington Mara for their friendship, loyalty, and love for my father over so many years. The Giants were far more than a team to him. They were family, and being part of that family was something he treasured. Once a Giant, always a Giant."

Accorsi's most significant personnel move with the Giants was acquiring Manning in a draft-day trade with the San Diego Chargers in 2004. Manning became the greatest quarterback in Giants history and was the MVP of Super Bowls XLII and XLVI.

"I have always said that in the first Super Bowl I was hoping he would do it," Accorsi once said. "In the second Super Bowl I was almost sure he was going to do it."

Before the 2004 NFL Draft, talent evaluators were in almost universal agreement that three championship-caliber quarterbacks were available: Manning, Ben Roethlisberger, and Philip Rivers.

Accorsi and Coughlin coveted Manning of the University of Mississippi. Accorsi famously concluded his college scouting report of the quarterback with the following entry: "These guys are rare, you know."

But the Giants had the fourth choice in the first round. The quarterback-needy San Diego Chargers owned the first pick and took Manning. The Giants selected Rivers with the fourth pick. The two teams then completed a trade, with the Giants sending Rivers, their third-round selection in 2004, and their first- and fifth-round choices in the 2005 draft to the Chargers for Manning.

Accorsi was inducted into the Wake Forest Sports Hall of Fame on Sept. 26, 2008. While a student there, Accorsi was heavily involved in the campus media as sports editor for the Old Gold and Black and sports director for WFDD. Accorsi graduated from Wake Forest in 1963.

He spent time as a sportswriter at three newspapers, the Charlotte News, the Baltimore Sun and the Philadelphia Inquirer. He also worked in the athletic departments at St. Joseph's University and Penn State University. He began his career in professional sports in 1970 as the public relations director for the Baltimore Colts.

After serving a two-year stint as an assistant to the president of the National Football Conference, Accorsi returned to the Colts, first as an assistant general manager from 1977-81 and then as general manager from 1982-83. He left the Colts on Feb. 7, 1984 and joined the front office of the Cleveland Browns on March 4 – a mere 24 days before the Colts packed up and headed to Indianapolis.

Named Cleveland's general manager in 1985, he engineered the supplemental draft selection of Bernie Kosar and guided the franchise to AFC Central Division titles in four of his first five years in charge of football operations. The Browns advanced to the AFC title game in 1986, '87 and '89. Accorsi left the Giants in April 1992 to work as a lobbyist for Baltimore's NFL expansion efforts, and he briefly served as chief financial officer of the Baltimore Orioles in 1994.

On Nov. 14, 2016, Accorsi, Coughlin and Tuck were fittingly inducted together into the team's Ring of Honor during a ceremony at halftime of a Monday night game.

"I will always cherish the memory of Wellington and Ann Mara and Bob Tisch, who gave me the opportunity to be a general manager, and George Young who brought me here 22 years ago," Accorsi said to the crowd. "(And) every one of you, the best fans of the best franchise in sports. Every player to ever wear the Giant blue. If I can take a line from the great Yankee Clipper, I want to thank the good Lord for making me a New York Giant."

 

Personal information

Born    October 29, 1941

Hershey, Pennsylvania, U.S.

Died    September 19, 2026 (aged 84)

Career information

College            Wake Forest

Career history

Baltimore Colts (1970–1974)

Public relations director

National Football League (1975)

Office staff

Baltimore Colts (1977–1981)

Assistant general manager

Baltimore Colts (1982–1983)

General manager

Cleveland Browns (1985–1992)

Executive vice president & general manager

New York Giants (1994–1997)

Assistant general manager

New York Giants (1998–2006)

General manager

Awards and highlights

New York Giants Ring of Honor

Jennifer Eckhart obit

Jennifer Eckhart Dies: Fired Fox Business Staffer Who Sued Network & Ed Henry For Sexual Harassment Was 36

 She was not on the list.

Jennifer Eckhart, a former Fox Business staffer who sued the network and its then-anchor Ed Henry for sexual harassment and retaliation and later hosted a podcast, was found dead September 19 at her home in Hobe Sound, Florida. She was 36.

USA Today reported Monday that Eckhart’s body was found by her mother in the bathtub. The paper also quoted a police officer at the scene as saying Eckhart had “a large laceration to the front of her throat/neck and there was a folding pocketknife next to her right hand.” She was pronounced dead at 11:57 a.m. ET. An official cause of death had yet to be announced.

Eckhart joined Fox Business Network in 2013 and filed a complaint about Henry to FBN in June 2020, alleging “willful sexual misconduct in the workplace years ago” by the married anchor of America’s Newsroom. Henry immediately was suspended and then fired days later “based on investigative findings,” according to a memo to staffer from Fox News Media CEO Suzanne Scott and Fox News Media President & Executive Editor Jay Wallace.

In the lawsuit, Eckhart claimed that Henry had sexually harassed and raped her, adding that Fox News knew that Henry was harassing other women at the network, something that should have warned executives that he might do the same to her. She also alleged that her firing was in retaliation for the lawsuit.

Eckhart — who also appeared on Fox News and Fox Nation during her career — was fired from Fox in June 2020, in what the network said was due to tardiness, disclosure of a proprietary graphics package and misappropriation of company resources. Fox News terminated Henry on July 1, 2020, after a law firm’s investigation that found that Eckhart and Henry had engaged in communications between 2014 and 2017, and had the three sexual encounters. That included a September 2015 incident in which Eckhart performed oral sex on Henry in the Fox News office.

In March 2025, A federal judge dismissed Fox News from Eckhart’s sexual assault lawsuit, rejecting the retaliation claim and others. Henry, who now works at Newsmax, settled Eckhart’s lawsuit in June 2025, days before the trial was set to begin.

In August 2021, Eckhart launched Reinvented with Jen Eckhart, a weekly podcast series that featured stories and interviews with public figures, celebrities, CEOs, athletes, business leaders and others. Among her early guests was and Gretchen Carlson, the longtime Fox News anchor who sued Fox News chairman Roger Ailes for sexual harassment.

Ed Morris obit

Legendary Country Music Journalist Edward Morris Dies at 90

 

He was not on the list.

Veteran Nashville entertainment journalist Edward Morris passed away on Thursday (9/17) at age 90.

Greatly admired for his journalistic integrity and tenacity, Morris is best known for his 14-year tenure at Billboard. In addition to being published in dozens of other magazines and newspapers over his career, he also authored eight books, published poetry, and was the writer of a theatrical production.

Murrell Edward Morris was born on September 21, 1935 on a small hillside farm on Aaron’s Fork, Kanawha County, West Virginia, the second oldest of four brothers—Darrell, David and Roger. He described his parents Charles Sennett Morris and Mary Elizabeth Morris as “perfect” for their unwavering love and support and willingness to encourage the brothers to dream their own dreams. Morris’ days on the farm were bucolic, and he loved the lore and the crafts of the outdoors.

At Elkview High School, he was the editor of the school newspaper and won the spelling bee championship of all schools in Kanawha Country, a feat he was quite proud of. His family didn’t own a car so Morris hitchhiked daily to Morris Harvey College (now the University of Charleston) where he edited the college newspaper and became enamored with English literature and poetry. His only surviving brother, Roger commented yesterday, “Ed was my inspiration to become a writer and to never take anything at face value.”

After his graduation with a bachelor’s degree in English in 1958, he earned a master’s degree in journalism from Ohio University.

It was at OU that he met musical-theater performer Norma Chapman. They married in 1960 and remained wed for 61 years. She was a talented pianist as well as an editor, photographer, and author. She also taught him to drive.

Morris taught English and journalism at Findlay (Ohio) College, Bowling Green (Ohio) State University, Alice Lloyd College (Kentucky), and Edinboro (Pennsylvania) State College. He then served as assistant editor at Writer’s Digest, the monthly trade publication for writers.

He began writing freelance articles for Billboard in 1972, moved to Nashville in 1980, and joined the magazine’s staff full-time in 1981. He rose to become its Country Music Editor and chief Nashville columnist. Norma became a respected Nashville publicist working with clients such as Ralph Stanley and Steve Wariner.

In addition to Billboard, Ed Morris’s byline appeared in such publications as Advertising Age, TV Guide, McCall’s, Hollywood Reporter, Amusement Business, Book Page, The Journal Of Country Music, Mother Earth News, Bluegrass Unlimited, Saturday Evening Post, and other national periodicals. He left Billboard in 1995.

Morris’ way with words and insight into country music made him an in-demand writer for liner-notes for albums and box sets by The Judds, Keith Whitley, Eddy Arnold, Guy Clark, Hank Snow, Chet Atkins, and others. Morris was named Print Journalist of the Year in 1993 by the International Bluegrass Music Association (IBMA).

In 1999, Ed Morris began a 20-year tenure as a writer for CMT online. He continued in this role until the COVID pandemic of 2020, which led to staff layoffs. Well into his 90th year, Morris craved a deadline and so began writing a column for his local newspaper The Kingston Springs Gazette.

Ed Morris was honored at Belmont University’s annual International Country Music Conference (ICMC) with its Charlie Lamb Journalist of the Year award in 2002. He has guest-lectured at Belmont, Vanderbilt University and Trevecca College in Nashville.

His books include Edward Morris’ Complete Guide To Country Music Videos (1997), Garth Brooks: Platinum Cowboy (1993), Alabama (1985), At Carter’s Stanley’s Grave: Musings on Country Music & Musicians (2011), and Scorched Mirth and Acid Reflux (2019), among others.

In 2016, at age 80, Morris wrote his first stage production, a one-woman play titled The Passion of Ethel Rosenberg, which had multiple productions and performances in Nashville and Santa Fe, plus a public reading at New York's Museum of Jewish Heritage. The play reflected his lifelong support of leftist political causes.

Norma Morris was diagnosed with the onset of Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s Disease in 2015. He chronicled their experience in a series of extraordinarily moving Facebook blogs, which became his 2020 book Stardust: An Alzheimer’s Love Story. Norma died in 2021.

Reflecting on his long and varied career, Ed Morris once said, “You hear musicians say that they would do it for free if they weren’t paid for it. And I feel the same way about writing. I love to write with the anticipation of amusing people or getting arguments started or whatever…..Anything that happens, if you treat it right, can be turned into a piece of prose. And that’s what I do.”

Morris’ greatest passion was writing and those who followed his prolific Facebook postings were eager to read him every day. His dry humor and unrestrained, fearless commentary on politics, life, philosophy and religion attracted his fans and detractors alike. One of his final posts was on July 20, 2026. “Love feels so good I can’t imagine why anyone chooses to hate.”

Ed Morris is survived by daughters Erin Morris Huttlinger and Rachel Serrato, and by son Jason Morris. Their brother, Christopher, died at age 2. He is also survived by six grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren.

Rose Friedman obit

Editor Rose Friedman, who helped shape NPR's cultural coverage, dies at 38

 

She was not on the list.

NPR has lost one of its finest journalists.

For 15 years, Rose Friedman was an editor and reporter who helped shape NPR's arts and cultural coverage. She was one of the co-creators of the popular Books We Love reading guide and, most recently, helped lead NPR's America 250 series.

Friedman died at home, of cancer, in New York City on Sept. 17 at the age of 38.

Rose Friedman was an editor to the end. She said she wanted the second line of her obituary to acknowledge her role as a shop steward for SAG-AFTRA, the union that represents NPR's editorial workers. She wanted the line to say that her "proudest achievement" was helping convince NPR to increase its paid parental leave.

Not the second line but still pretty high up in the story. Rose would understand.

Rose Friedman was in her early 20s when she landed her first position as an editorial assistant at NPR Books. She became deeply sourced in the publishing industry and seemed to have read everything.

She edited book reviews and features such as This Week's Must Read. She wrote numerous appreciations of authors, including Herman Wouk and the legendary editor Sonny Mehta.

For the Book Concierge, which was later renamed Books We Love, Rose helped pore over hundreds of titles nominated by NPR staff and critics, and whittle them down into a robust reader's guide.

"She was voracious," said novelist Meg Wolitzer, who worked with Rose on a number of NPR reviews and features. "What a gifted, delightful, brilliant, deeply kind person. And I would say a true enthusiast. I got so much working with Rose."

Even as a young staffer in the NPR newsroom, Rose had an old school journalist's sensibility. She was endlessly curious but always skeptical. She strived for clarity and depth but also humor and surprise.

Food was one of her favorite subjects. The first thing we hear her say in her profile of chef Bill Buford: "I have to tell you — this does not smell very good."

For many years Rose was my editor. When I once pitched her a story on an artist who was trending, Rose scoffed, "Isn't she just for Instagram?"

She always pushed back on "hot takes" and stories that she didn't think had substance. But sometimes that pushback was intended to make reporters work harder. Not kill an idea altogether.

"She had so much integrity," said Theo Balcomb, a former supervising editor for NPR's All Things Considered and now a senior editor at The Atlantic. She and Rose met early in their careers at NPR and became close friends.

"She would care more about 'Was this true?' or as holistic as we could get than, 'Is it buzzy?'" Balcomb said. "She had a strong sense of purpose."

In 2020, Rose was NPR's lead reporter on the sexual assault trial of former movie executive Harvey Weinstein. The testimony from Weinstein's alleged victims haunted her.

Rose edited numerous #MeToo stories. In 2018, we shared a National Headliner Award for our feature "Women Are Speaking Up About Harassment And Abuse, But Why Now?"

Rose Friedman grew up in Newton, Mass. She studied labor history at Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota.

For her dissertation she researched worker solidarity across ethnic lines at an iron range in Minnesota. Her paper won the Barbara Wertheimer Prize in Labor History from the New York Labor History Association.

Rose brought her passion for labor rights to NPR. She and NPR correspondent Tom Dreisbach were on the SAG-AFTRA committee that convinced the company to increase its paid parental leave.

"Rose's thought was, 'let's go big,'" Dreisbach remembered.

Rose loved being a mom to her two children. "She said having babies is the best thing in the world and that the first six months with a baby, you don't get it back," said Dreisbach.

Rose and her partner, Andrew Anastasi, were avid travelers and daring foodies. Balcomb remembered them ordering an entire pig's head at a beer garden in Washington, D.C. On a visit with Rose and Andrew when they were living in Italy, Dreisbach said she "insisted" they order the "spleen sandwich" at a certain market in Palermo.

Dreisbach said he will remember Rose as someone who was "able to find more delight in life than almost anyone. Every day is a new adventure."

Her friend and colleague Natalie Winston agreed: "No one lives in the moment more than Rose." Winston visited Rose in the spring of 2025 after she'd had surgery. She figured they would stay home and that she would cook for Rose and help clean their apartment.

"And she's like, 'We're going to Chinatown to get dumplings, eat them on a park bench, take the ferry to Ikea in Brooklyn.' She just wanted to explore everything," said Winston.

In addition to her children and her partner, Rose is survived by her parents Carolyn and Jerry Friedman, her sisters Sophie and Nina and numerous admiring friends and colleagues.

We will miss her wisdom, generosity, infectious humor and, above all, her voice.

Felicity Green obit

Felicity Green, trailblazing fashion journalist who helped launch the Biba look in the 1960s

 

She was not on the list.

Felicity Green, who has died aged 100, was the most influential fashion editor of the 1960s and the first woman to be appointed to the board of a national newspaper.

As fashion editor of the Daily Mirror at a time when the paper was selling more than five million copies a day, “Felicity Green on the fashion scene” was one of the first to write about Twiggy and Mary Quant and was instrumental in launching the Biba look which swept all before it in the mid-1960s.

It was in 1964 that she asked Barbara Hulanicki, who had previously worked as a fashion illustrator on the Mirror and was now running a small mail-order company, to design a dress as an offer for readers. She promoted the outfit, a gingham dress and matching headscarf costing less than £3, in a full-page spread, expecting it to win 3,000 orders at best.

When 17,000 orders came flooding in, the Biba look was born. Soon, Biba opened its first boutique on Abingdon Road in Kensington and within five years it had opened a five-storey department store on Kensington High Street – a temple of fashion noted for its decadent atmosphere and languid sales assistants in black lipstick and green nail varnish.

Felicity Green followed a clear philosophy. Eschewing the high-end Paris collections, she wrote features in which fashion related to ordinary people’s lives, budgets and even attitudes. She herself, she explained, had never been fashionable: “Fashion needs to be followed at a very, very respectful distance. My blueprint for fashion is to be simple and stylish.”

Not everyone was impressed, however. Cecil King, chairman of the post-war Daily Mirror, once threatened to fire Felicity Green for running a feature on mini-skirts, expostulating: “How long are you going to continue to put those ridiculous clothes in my newspaper? Can you imagine the wife of a Sheffield bus-driver wearing that?” But it was King who was later fired.

Felicity Green was eventually promoted to be executive women’s editor across all three Mirror group titles and in 1973 was appointed publicity director, becoming, in the words of a trade magazine, the first director “to powder her nose before a board meeting.”

By this time she had learnt to deal with such casual misogyny. However when in 1978 she discovered that a newly appointed board member, a male journalist, was being paid £30,000 a year, more than twice her own salary of £14,000, she resigned in outrage.

The only child of Emanuel Green and his wife Annie, Felicity Green was born on June 26 1926 and grew up in poverty above a bike shop in Dagenham. Her parents’ marriage was not happy. Her mother was totally deaf and her father had a terrible temper, so she found herself acting as peace-maker during their frequent rows. Felicity’s passion for fashion was fired by outings with her father to the cinema, where she fell in love with the clothes worn by the Hollywood movie stars of the 1930s and 1940s.

After a stint as “the worst pupil Pitmans ever had”, Felicity Green landed her first job as a secretary at a magazine entitled Woman & Beauty, where, before she was allowed to sit behind a typewriter, she had to walk the office dog and make the coal fires and coffee.

Within a couple of years she impressed the editor-in-chief enough to be promoted to fashion editor, though she was still treated as a dogsbody. On one occasion she was invited by the editor to meet Harold Wilson, a rising star in the Labour Party firmament who was then President of the Board of Trade. She accepted with alacrity but there was a twist. “I had given myself one of the first Toni perms, and the editor wanted me to give one to Mary Wilson, who was coming with Harold… While the great and the good had drinks, I did the perm in the bathroom and got a thank you poem from Mary.”

She moved on to become fashion editor of Housewife, and then to an advertising agency. It was while she was there, in 1955, that Hugh Cudlipp, then editorial director of the Daily Mirror, called to ask her what she thought of a paper he had launched called the Woman’s Sunday Mirror.

She wrote a fierce critique and what followed was “an odd meeting” in which Cudlipp “assumed I would be joining.” She became associate editor of the new journal, beginning a long association with the Mirror group.

The Woman’s Sunday Mirror did not last long, but Felicity moved on to the Sunday Pictorial (later the Sunday Mirror) and in 1961 joined the Daily Mirror as associate editor – the highest-flying female journalist in Fleet Street.

She recalled being warned by a colleague that to survive in the masculine world of newspapers, she must understand that many of her colleagues would resent having to work for a woman: “You will have to give some of them a bollocking from time to time, but do it gracefully and always let him leave your room with his balls intact.” It was, she recalled, a very good piece of advice.

Part of her remit was to inject the paper with a more “feminine” feel, and in her first week there the features editor proudly announced that he had been doing some special work for her pages and had worked up “some nice borders with bows”. She had to let him down gently. After she had been there for a few months one of the sub-editors remarked that she must be relieved now that “all that hatred has disappeared.” “And I said, ‘Hatred?’ And he said, ‘You mean you didn’t notice it?’”

She recalled that all the senior executives had well-stocked refrigerators in their offices and that drinking would begin after the morning editorial conference and continue until the early afternoon, by which time the morning staff were too drunk to do the paper, so a whole new team would come in. She refused to participate.

But she felt that some of the prejudice against women in the workplace was understandable. When she became a director of the group in the mid-1960s, she inherited a section of the paper where all the heads of department were men, ruling the roost over girls who were in many cases much more talented than they were. “I made it my business to promote these women. But within two years, every single one had left to have a family.”

After resigning from the Mirror Felicity Green ran the UK office of Vidal Sassoon, but later returned to journalism, helping to launch Working Woman magazine and advising the boards of the Express, the Telegraph and the publishers of M&S Magazine.

For five years in the 1990s she was a senior lecturer on the Saint Martin’s School of Art fashion journalism course and later she became a mentor of fashion journalism students at the school. In 2014 she published Sex, Sense and Nonsense: Felicity Green on the ’60s Fashion Scene.

She was appointed OBE for services to journalism in 2012.

Felicity Green married, in 1952, Geoffrey Hill; he died in 1992. She had never wanted children, fearing that she would not be a good mother, but during an appearance as a castaway on Desert Island Discs in 2011 she confessed that she would have loved grandchildren.

Felicity Green, born June 26 1926, died September 10 2026

Roger Simon obit

Roger Simon

1948 - 2026

 He was not on the list.

Roger Simon, a retired political columnist and best-selling author, died Sept. 10, 2026, of pneumonia at MedStar Washington Hospital Center in Washington, D.C. He was 78.

Roger was a columnist for the Chicago Sun-Times from 1975 to 1984, giving voice to ordinary people in the finest newspaper tradition to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable (Illinois Gov. James "Big Jim" Thompson was a regular target). He wrote with grace, insight, and wit.

Sun-Times editor James Hoge assigned Roger to cover the 1976 presidential campaign, and he covered every presidential campaign and nominating convention for the next 40 years, interviewing every president from Jimmy Carter to Barack Obama and warning in 2016 of the danger posed by Donald Trump. Along the way, he wrote four acclaimed campaign books. More than one reviewer called his work the best political book they had read. An earlier book, "Simon Says," featured a collection of Sun-Times columns; its title referred to his one-line rants and societal observations that were a reader favorite.

Roger received more than three dozen first-place awards and twice won the American Society of Newspaper Editors Distinguished Writing Award for Commentary. He is a three-time winner of the American Bar Association's Silver Gavel Award, three-time winner of the Peter Lisagor Award from the Chicago Headline Club, eight-time recipient of the Page One Award from the Chicago Newspaper Guild, and recipient of a first-place national writing award from the National Association of Black Journalists. The Associated Press called his work "sensitive, relevant and written with understated elegance." He was inducted into the Chicago Journalism Hall of Fame and the Illini Media Hall of Fame.

In addition to the Sun-Times, he worked for U.S. News & World Report, the Chicago Tribune, Bloomberg News, and City News Bureau of Chicago and was a columnist for the Waukegan News-Sun, Baltimore Sun, and Politico, from which he retired in January 2017. For more than 25 years, his column was syndicated by Creators Syndicate. Roger abided by what he called the columnists' credo: Sometimes in error, never in doubt.

Roger Mitchell Simon was born in Chicago on March 29, 1948, and received a B.A. degree in English from the University of Illinois in Champaign-Urbana, where he wrote a column for the Daily Illini.

Survivors include his wife of 49 years, Marcia Kramer Simon, of Bethesda, MD; a sister, Lynne Copp (Al Wayne); sisters-in-law Darlene (Ray) Grossman and Sandy (Dan) Wiczer; seven nieces and nephews, and 10 grand-nieces and nephews. He was preceded in death by a brother, Barry Simon, sister-in-law Donna Kramer, and a nephew.

Roger wrote that when he died, he wanted to be buried in Chicago so he could still be part of its politics. Burial (yes, in Chicago) will be private. A celebration of life will be held at a later date in Washington. Contributions may be made to your favorite charity. Arrangements by Chicago Jewish Funerals - Skokie Chapel, 847.229.8822, www.cjfinfo.com.

Mike Detillier obit

Longtime WWL radio sports personality Mike Detillier dies

 

He was not on the list.

Mike Detillier, a veteran sports media personality and the co-host of SportsTalk on WWL-AM 870 radio, died Sunday, station officials announced Sunday. He was 65.

Detillier was recently diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and had been off the air in recent days.

“It’s so sad,” said Bobby Hebert, who worked with Detillier at WWL for the past several years. “Mike was a good friend and was like a brother to me. It’s heartbreaking. This really hurts.”

A native of Lafourche Parish, Detillier rose to local prominence as the editor and publisher of Mike Detillier's NFL Draft Report, which he launched in 1985. He made regular appearances on Sports Talk during Buddy Diliberto’s tenure as host, then joined the station as a college and pro football analyst.

In July 2021, he transitioned from longstanding guest analyst and fixture on Monday’s Second Guess Show to full-time co-host.

“The New Orleans Saints organization is deeply saddened to learn of the passing of WWL Radio host Mike Detillier,” the New Orleans Saints said in a statement. “A proud son of Louisiana, Mike was widely respected as a gifted football analyst, a trusted guide through the NFL Draft, and an exceptional family man. Beyond his incredible contributions to the game, he was above all a true gentleman and a dedicated family man. Saints gamedays at the Caesars Superdome, training camp practices, and press conferences simply will not be the same without his presence. Our thoughts and prayers go out to his immediate family and to the community of devoted listeners who considered him a friend over the airwaves.”

A veteran sports journalist who worked in various capacities at newspaper, radio and TV outlets throughout south Louisiana, Detillier was a former fullback and linebacker at Central Lafourche High School.

He also spent 29 years in the engineering world, studying aquatic engineering at Louisiana Tech and Sacramento State, and eventually worked as an engineer for the state of Louisiana.

Detillier began publishing what grew into the M&D NFL Draft Report in 1983, producing it every year for more than four decades and building a following far beyond Louisiana, according to TigerRag.com. He also wrote for USA Today Louisiana and was a regular guest on Tiger Rag Radio, extending his reach into LSU coverage beyond his home station. His depth and his fact-loaded, unglamorous approach to scouting earned him an unusual national distinction: in 2006, Sports Illustrated named him the Best Unknown Sports Voice in America, according to Fox 8.

Beyond the booth, Detillier was a fixture at the Manning Passing Academy in Thibodaux, missing only two sessions across parts of three decades, according to WWL Radio. Mike Hoss, the current Voice of the Saints, ranked him alongside the station's other legendary analysts, Buddy D, Hokie Gajan, Jim Henderson, Hap Glaudi, Stan Brock and Hebert himself: "The name Mike Detillier is right up there."

Gloria Steinem obit

Gloria Steinem Dies: Feminist Icon And Activist & Co-Founder Of Ms. Magazine Was 92

 She was number 363 on the list.

Gloria Steinem passed away yesterday.

The pro-abortion “feminist”, despite not believing in God, had inestimable value not given to her by woman, man or governmental institutions. The esteemed author has met the Author of Life and will be held to account for her every word and deed.

Showing that abortion advocacy is one and the same with environmental radicalism, Steim opined in a 2017 interview that birthing children is the “fundamental cause of climate change“. Her solution? Abortion. She was one of many in a long line of environmental evangelist hucksters who’ve made the same doomsday proclamations of overpopulation and have been trounced by actual science.

Throughout her life she proudly paraded her own abortion. She famously wore a t-shirt proclaiming “I had an abortion”. In 1957, she paid an abortionist to kill the child of her once-fiancée whom she deeply loved. Sadly, Steinem passed away living a fake feminist lie that never recognized the deepest and most unique treasure of womanhood: motherhood.

She was a child of divorce and had to care for her mentally ill mother. She was neglected and harmed by her parents’ broken marriage. In her own words: “And if you’re treated badly, you come to feel you’re a bad person, and to some extent, even a very good thing like being a social activist can be a drug, you know, that keeps you from going back and looking at yourself. You keep trying to fill up this emptiness, which, of course, can’t be filled up with anything external.”

That void was filled by fake feminism.

Even the New York Times admitted this tragic truth about Steinem: “Her dysfunctional youth — mothering her mother — also colored her view of marriage and children, both of which she viewed as a trap. That fear kept her from settling down.” She was a lifelong activist who remained childless. Her activism centered on celebrating the demise of tens of millions of girls (and boys, of course) who had equal worth to her yet she refused to see their equality. All the accolades of Gloria Steinem being a history maker illuminate fake feminism’s biggest irony: You can’t make history unless you’re born.

She was “pro-choice” when it came to her religious worldview. Tragically, throughout her famed life, she chose to reject the One who created her. (Although our hope is that she made an eternal decision, in her last moments, making Christ her Savior.) Last night, she came face to face with the God who could’ve filled that painful void and turned her lifelong brokenness into breakthrough.

Gloria Steinem, the American feminist icon and founder of Ms. magazine, died Wednesday, September 2, at her home in New York City. She was 92.

Her death was announced in a joint post on her Instagram account and The Gloria Steinem Foundation. A cause of death was not disclosed, but the statement said she “passed passed away peacefully at her home in New York City, surrounded by some of the many who loved her.”

“Gloria’s greatest gift was her ability to listen to others, to make others feel seen and heard. Her words, actions, and example gave people permission to be their truest selves,” the post read. “Gloria lived true to her independent spirit, always with curiosity and a great sense of humor.” Read the full note below.

In becoming one of the most-listened to voices in U.S. feminism – perhaps at times even the most-listened to – Steinem had spent most of her career in journalism. Among her most notable early stories was an exposé on Hugh Hefner’s Playboy empire, during which she went undercover as a Playboy Bunny to uncover the conditions facing the young women.

The story caused a huge debate in American society, though Steinem later said she regretted the assignment as the association blighted the rest of her career.

She went on to become a founder of Ms., which was among the first magazines to address women as more than housewives and homemakers in America. Steinem also was an early supporter of Women’s Action Alliance, a group focused on combating sexism.

With her trademark aviator shades, long, blonde-streaked hair and a style of dressing that typified the ’70s era’s New York chic, she became a visible emblem of the Second Wave movement and a key advocate for abortion rights, having been inspired by women speaking out on the Roe vs Wade case, in which the Supreme Court made abortion a constitutional right. The right was repealed in 2022, prompting Steinem to write in an email to the AP, “Either our control over our own bodies is equal, regardless of sex or race, or we’re not living in a democracy.

“Gloria was, at heart, an optimist,” said Hillary Clinton on today’s CBS Mornings. “Her activism was rooted in optimism. And that’s a moral choice, and she made it every day.”

Journalist Christiane Amanpour wrote on X that Steinem “will go down in history as one of the most important activists of all time, leading a movement for the equality of half the world: its women.”

Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, said on X, “Celebrating the life and legacy of my friend and mentor, Gloria Steinem, and also grateful to know that in these last few weeks and days she knew exactly how loved and admired she was.”

As the nearly unrivaled face of Second Wave Feminism, Steinem over the decades appeared on hundreds of talk shows hosted by everyone from Dick Cavett, Johnny Carson and David Frost to Howard Stern and Bill Maher. A documentary about Steinem’s life, Gloria: In Her Own Words, launched in 2011. Her memoir, My Life on the Road, was the basis for Julie Taymor biopic The Glorias, and she appeared on screen on the likes of 60 Minutes, The Daily Show and Charlie Rose and even in scripted series The Good Wife and And Just Like That… as herself.

Will Murray obit

Will Murray: 1953-2026

 He was not on the list.

Matt Moring of Steeger Books posted on Facebook this morning that Will Murray died Aug. 25, 2026. Will was 73.

I’m in shock. Will had been a staple of pulpdom since at least the early 1970s. His was one of the first names I saw among those writing about the pulps and pulp characters at the time, along with Robert Sampson, Tony Goodstone, Jim Steranko, Philip José Farmer, and Ron Goulart.

For the past 35 years, Will had been writing authorized continuations of Doc Savage, The Shadow, Tarzan, and other pulp characters, in addition to his articles on the pulps and their characters. He had also served as literary agent for Lester Dent’s estate since 1979. He had recently written an El Borak story for a collection inspired by Robert E. Howard’s characters.

He wrote articles on Ghost Stories magazine and his search for an obscure pulp story in this year’s issue of The Pulpster. And, we’d chatted at PulpFest earlier this month about what he’d like to write about for next year’s issue.

His obituary is available on the Keohane Funeral & Cremation website.

I’m shocked and saddened. What a loss to the pulp community.

William Patrick Murray was born on April 28, 1953. He grew up in Boston, Massachusetts, and graduated North Quincy High school in June 1971, subsequently graduating summa cum laude from the University of Massachusetts at Boston. After becoming a fan of the pulp fiction hero Doc Savage, he began collecting pulp magazines and wrote two psychological profiles of the character in The Doc Savage Reader. He went on to write for fanzines and edit the fanzines Duende and Skullduggery before joining the pulp-reprint publisher Odyssey Publications. He also co-authored the study The Duende History of The Shadow Magazine. Circa 1978, "I discovered the outline to [Doc Savage creator] Lester Dent's unwritten Python Isle and decided to take a shot at writing it. Bantam [Books] passed on it initially, and by the time they came back and asked for it and two more Docs, I was busily ghosting [the adventure paperback series] The Destroyer for [series co-creator] Warren Murphy."

The Destroyer assignment had come about when Murray, editing Skullduggery, sought out Murphy and The Destroyer co-creator Richard Sapir for an interview, and later did freelance research for Sapir. This led to his editing a Destroyer sourcebook, The Assassin's Handbook (1982), and eventually ghostwriting the series, beginning with the 56th book, Encounter Group (1984). He began writing the series regularly with the 69th book, Blood Ties, altogether ghosting book #69 through book #107, Feast or Famine. Murray has also written Cthulhu Mythos stories, including a pair of stories about Nug and Yeb, the Twin Blasphemies, and contributed single novels in The Executioner and Mars Attacks series. He wrote the retro-pulp collection Spicy Zeppelin Stories under various pen names.

Murray is also an author of nonfiction articles about pulp magazine writers such as Doc Savage creator Lester Dent and the Shadow creator Walter B. Gibson; starting in 1979, he was the literary executor for the estate of Dent, and published twenty-one Doc Savage novels from Dent's outlines under Dent's pseudonym, Kenneth Robeson. His 2013 The Wild Adventures of Doc Savage novel, Doc Savage: Skull Island, teams him up with King Kong.

In June 2015, Altus Press inaugurated the series The Wild Adventures of Tarzan in the novel Tarzan: Return to Pal-ul-don, an authorized sequel to Edgar Rice Burroughs' 1921 novel, Tarzan the Terrible. Late in 2016, Altus released a follow-up novel, King Kong Vs. Tarzan. Early in 2020, "Tarzan, Conqueror of Mars" was released, in which John Carter of Mars was revived. In 2023, Tarzan: Back to Mars was released.

He was an American novelist, journalist, short story, and comic book writer. Much of his fiction was published under pseudonyms. With artist Steve Ditko, he co-created the superhero Squirrel Girl.

Sal Veder obit

 

Sal Veder, Pulitzer Prize-winning AP photographer who shot iconic ‘Burst of Joy,’ dies at age 99

He was not on the list.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer Slava ‘Sal’ Veder, best known for his picture of a U.S. Air Force lieutenant colonel joyfully reuniting with his family after five years in a prisoner of war camp in Vietnam, died Aug. 22. He was 99.

Veder’s family on Wednesday confirmed that the retired Associated Press photojournalist died in his sleep, just eight days shy of his 100th birthday, at his home in El Dorado County, California, outside of Sacramento.

The San Francisco Bay Area native was 46 years old in March 1973 when he was sent to Travis Air Force Base for the arrival of Lt. Col. Robert L. Stirm and other war prisoners returning from Vietnam. Veder was in a crowded bullpen jockeying for pictures with dozens of other photographers when, out of the corner of his eye, he spotted Stirm’s four children begin to gallop toward their father.

“You could tell, even at a distance, what they were feeling. It was all over them, their faces, the way they all broke into a run. There was a surge of emotion from the crowd, too,” Veder said in a 2015 interview with The Guardian.

Using a makeshift darkroom set up in a women’s bathroom on base, Veder cranked out six images, including “Burst of Joy,” which won the 1974 Pulitzer in feature photography. Veder noted that in the photograph, Stirm has his back to the camera, rendering him an everyman soldier returning to the undeniable joy and excitement on the faces of his children.

The photo became a symbol of the end of U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War. But for Stirm, it represented heartbreak as he had been handed a “Dear John” letter from his wife, Loretta, by a chaplain upon his release and the couple divorced a year later. Stirm died in 2025.

Slava J. Veder was born Aug. 30, 1926, in Berkeley, California, to Ivan and Anka Veder, who had left Russia and taken the names John and Ann when they settled in the U.S. He was their only child.

He worked as a sports writer and news editor at several publications and, in 1961, he was hired as a staff photographer by The Associated Press at its Sacramento bureau. Later, he transferred to the San Francisco office, which is where he was based when he took the prize-winning photograph.

“He was a newsman at heart, it wasn’t just a career for him. It was really his passion,” said his daughter, Kathleen Daly. “The AP really was the home for him because they could appreciate what he had to offer.”

Daly, friends and former colleagues remembered Veder as a kind and humble person who loved to ice skate and sail. He mentored younger photographers and always took time to ask the people around him how they were doing that day.

“He was the first Pulitzer Prize winner I ever met, like holy smokes,” said Brad Mangin, a freelance sports photographer in the San Francisco Bay Area. “He was just the sweetest man.”

Eric Risberg, a retired AP photographer who worked in San Francisco, said Veder was a great mentor and teacher.

“He really, really emphasized the marriage between pictures and words. He encouraged me to dive deeper, and get more into what’s really the story?” Risberg said.

Among his many assignments, Veder took photographs of the late Ronald Reagan when he was California governor, university campus protests against the war in Vietnam, the bank robbery trial of newspaper heiress Patty Hearst, and the assassinations of San Francisco Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk by disgruntled former city supervisor Dan White in 1978.

Veder, who raised five children with his wife, retired from AP in 1993 to the small community of Camino, in El Dorado County.

He is survived by three children, eight grandchildren and 12 great-grandchildren.

Dave Marsh obit

Dave Marsh Dies: Pioneering Rock Critic, Bruce Springsteen Biographer Was 76

 

He was not on the list.

Dave Marsh, the influential and widely read rock critic for Creem, The Village Voice and Rolling Stone and the author of the foundational Bruce Springsteen 1979 biography Born to Run, died Friday, August 14, at his home in Connecticut. He was 76.

His death, reported by Deadline sister publication Billboard and confirmed on Facebook by Marsh’s friend Jim Rotolo, followed an extended period of declining health, although a cause has not been disclosed.

“Dave wrote several books about Bruce as part of a remarkable body of work spanning some 25 titles,” Rotolo, host of the radio show The Wild & The Innocent with Jim Rotolo. “A longtime rock critic for Creem and Rolling Stone, he was also one of the creators of E Street Radio and hosted Kick Out the Jams on SiriusXM for 19 years. Rest easy, Dave. Thank you for everything, my friend. You will be missed.

Marsh, alongside a coterie that included his friend and mentor Lester Bangs, launched his career as a critic and founding editor and writer of the highly influential Creem rock magazine in the late 1960s. An early champion of such ’50s and ’60s musical styles as soul, girl groups and what was starting to become known as garage rock, Marsh would later lend his considerable support to punk rock. Indeed, he is widely credited with coining the phrase, having first used it in a 1971 article about ? and the Mysterians, the band behind the 1966 hit “96 Tears.”

As a critic, Marsh could be as withering as he was supportive. If history hasn’t always upheld his viewpoints – he famously dismissed Led Zeppelin drummer John Bonham as “clinically incompetent,” Freddie Mercury as possessing a “passable pop voice” and the Grateful Dead as the “worst band in creation” – he nonetheless remains among his generation’s leading evaluator of rock, a trailblazer in approaching the music with intelligence, passion and dead-serious intent.

A native of Pontiac, Michigan, and a devotee of Detroit’s Motown as well as Motor City scenesters Iggy Pop and the Stooges, Marsh was instrumental in launching the Detroit-based Creem, and wrote for the magazine through the early 1970s. By the middle of the decade he began a multi-year tenure as an editor and critic at Rolling Stone, and shepherded the first edition of the Rolling Stone Record Guide in 1979.

A prolific author, Marsh wrote two books about Springsteen: In addition to Born to Run, which chronicled the singer-songwriter’s early career and initial fame, Marsh authored the 1987’s Glory Days, continuing the Springsteen life story through the peak MTV era. In 2003, Marsh combined the two biographies into the single-volume Bruce Springsteen: Two Hearts, adding an addition chapter to update the story.

Marsh also wrote 1983’s Before I Get Old, the biography of rock band The Who, and 1989’s The Heart of Rock & Soul in which he named the 1,001 greatest singles ever. (His #1 choice was Marvin Gaye’s “I Heard It Through the Grapevine.”)

In addition to the biographies, Marsh collected his reviews and essays in a number of volumes, including Fortunate Son and Kick Out the Jams. His 1993 book Louie Louie: The History and Mythology of the World’s Most Famous Rock ‘n’ Roll Song chronicled the cultural impact of that 1963 hit song.

Along with his old Rolling Stone boss and colleague Jann Wenner, Marsh helped found and maintain the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio.

Marsh joined SiriusXM in 2004, and for 19 years hosted the weekly Kick Out the Jams show. He also launched the Springsteen-centric programs Live from E Street Nation and Live From the Land of Hopes and Dreams.

According to Billboard, Marsh is survived by his wife Barbara Carr, a longtime Springsteen co-manager as a partner in Jon Landau Management. He was predeceased by daughters Kristen Ann Carr and Sasha Carr. A complete list of his survivors was not immediately available.

John McKeachie obit

Vancouver sportscaster John McKeachie dies at 82 

He was not on the list.

Gomez was born in New Amsterdam, British Guiana (now Guyana), to Albert Clyde John McKeachie, who had a more than 40-year career working in B.C. sports media across TV, radio and print, has passed away at the age of 82.

Announced earlier this year as a 2026 B.C. Sports Hall of Fame inductee, McKeachie is best known for his 27 years as a sports anchor on BCTV (now Global) from 1973 to ’99, while also serving as an on-air host and colour commentator for Vancouver Canucks and Vancouver Whitecaps broadcasts.

He went on to host CBC Vancouver’s Hockey Night in Canada post-game show, McKeachie’s Hockey Talk from 1998-2000, which later became the long-running After Hours. Other stops included CDKA Victoria (1970-72); CKNW Vancouver, where he hosted Canucks and BC Lions broadcasts (1972-75, 1997-98); TEAM 1040, where he hosted McKeachie in the Morning (2001-03); and MOJO Sports Radio (2003-05), among other work, including two Olympic games. In addition to his work in media, he also worked for Vancouver investment firm, ZLC Financial, for almost 20 years.

“While British Columbia knew John as one of its most beloved and enduring sports media personalities, those closest to him knew him first and foremost as a devoted husband, father, grandfather, brother, and friend — roles he cherished above all others and considered his greatest achievements,” said McKeachie’s wife, Sandi, and daughter Jessica, in a statement. “To family and friends, he was bigger than life, instantly recognizable by his booming voice and his love of a good story that could captivate a room.”

“John’s own passion for sports started long before the cameras and microphones, playing Little League baseball in his hometown of Victoria. Though he’d be the first to joke he never made it big as an athlete himself, that love of the game never left him. Well into his life he kept up a weekly basketball game with a close group of friends and was a regular on the ice rink and the golf course though, by his own admission, he always wished he were a little better at them,” the statement continued. “That genuine love of sport carried him into a celebrated 40-year career…”

Dan Russell, the longtime host of Sportstalk in the Vancouver market, wrote in a post to Facebook that he was “heartbroken” to have lost his longtime friend.

“Long before I knew him personally, I listened to and admired him on CKNW and later BCTV. Ultimately, I was lucky enough to call him a close friend,” said Russell.

McKeachie will now be posthumously inducted into the B.C. Sports Hall of Fame on Nov. 6. He was previously inducted into the Victoria Sports Hall of Fame in 2012. He also captured TV Week Magazine’s B.C. Sports Broadcaster of the Year honour on three occasions during his time at BCTV.

Flo Anthony obit

Florence “Flo” Anthony, longtime AmNews columnist, trailblazing celebrity journalist dies at 74

She was not on the list.

Florence “Flo” Anthony, the pioneering celebrity journalist who broke barriers at the New York Post’s Page Six and became a defining voice in African American entertainment journalism, has died. She was 74.

Jack Hirsch, biographer for her husband, boxing legend Michael Spinks, confirmed that she died early Thursday, Aug. 6. The two had worked together on Michael “Jinx” Spinks: An Authorized Biography, which was released in March. He said that she recently disclosed to him that she was battling cancer.

Her weekly “Go With The Flo” column became a fixture in The New York Amsterdam News dating back to 2001, as well as in publications including the Philadelphia Sunday Sun and the Columbus Times. She also contributed entertainment news to the New York Daily News, served as publisher and editor-in-chief of Black Noir magazine, and acted as editor-in-chief of Black Elegance magazine.

CNN entertainment journalist Lisa Respers France posted her reaction on social media upon learning of Anthony’s passing, saying in part: “As a Black woman who covers pop culture, I am deeply indebted to Florence ‘Flo’ Anthony, a syndicated columnist and author who did more than just cover gossip. She was so important to the culture.”

A woman of firsts

Anthony was known to walk into newsrooms and departments whose doors had once been barricaded against people of color—and particularly against African American women. She entered spaces where few people looked like her, where her presence alone challenged entrenched ideas about who could report the news, break a story, command a television screen, or become a trusted voice on celebrity culture.

She became the first woman to work in the sports department of the New York Post and the first African American to work in the newspaper’s entertainment and world‑renowned Page Six departments, according to her own account of her career. She also made history as the first African American woman to write a column for a supermarket tabloid, penning “Eye on the Stars” for the National Examiner.

For an African American woman rising through the overwhelmingly white, male, and notoriously insular world of tabloid journalism, these achievements were not merely promotions, but breaches in a wall.

Before becoming one of America’s most recognizable celebrity journalists and media personalities, Flo worked in public relations as a publicist for some of boxing’s most formidable figures, including Spinks, whom she began dating in 1987 and married in January 2026; Muhammad Ali; Larry Holmes; Butch Lewis; Mike McCallum; Matthew Saad Muhammad; Saoul Mamby; and Eddie Mustafa Muhammad. Her publicity work gave her a deep understanding of the relationship between journalists, publicists, and public figures, allowing her to fight for a client’s visibility long before she sat on the other side of the desk.

Many publicists owe some portion of their careers to Anthony, with a number of young representatives securing an early placement because she answered their call, opened their email, or recognized the potential in a story.

A graduate of Howard University, Anthony  initially came to New York with dreams of becoming an actress and also worked as a teacher. Her work with talent manager Tobe Gibson eventually expanded into publicity, sportswriting, and a position as an agate clerk in the New York Post’s sports department. From there, she began a historic ascent through sports, entertainment, and celebrity journalism.

Legendary journalist

Over the course of her career, she reported hundreds of exclusives, including the marriages of Mike Tyson and Robin Givens, Alec Baldwin and Kim Basinger, and John McEnroe and Tatum O’Neal, as well as the news that Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman were adopting. Flo did not regard gossip journalism as the careless recycling of rumors. To her, a gossip columnist was a reporter who broke stories—and she took the responsibility of getting those stories right seriously.

Her influence expanded far beyond print. During the 1990s, she became a familiar and authoritative presence on daytime television, appearing on shows hosted by Joan Rivers, Ricki Lake, Rolonda Watts, Geraldo Rivera, Sally Jessy Raphael, Maury Povich, Leeza Gibbons, Tempestt Bledsoe, Bertice Berry, Vicki Lawrence, and others. She appeared on Court TV, CNN, MSNBC, Fox News Channel, and HLN, and contributed to entertainment‑news programs including “Inside Edition,” “The Insider,” and “Entertainment Tonight.”

For six seasons, she appeared as a contributor and later a co‑host on E! Entertainment Television’s “The Gossip Show,” and was featured in numerous installments of “E! True Hollywood Story.” She became a regular contributor to TV One’s “Unsung,” “Unsung Hollywood,” and “Life After.” Her television work placed an authoritative African American woman at the center of national conversations about celebrity, scandal, and popular culture at a time when such visibility remained far too rare.

Through her company, Dottie Media Group LLC, Flo extended her voice into syndicated radio with “Gossip on the Go With Flo” and “Flo Anthony’s Big Apple Buzz,” which aired in approximately 20 markets and introduced millions of listeners to her combination of insider knowledge, brisk reporting, and unmistakable personality.

At the Amsterdam News, she was more than a byline. She was family.

Flo was also the author of four novels: “Keeping Secrets, Telling Lies,” “Deadly Stuff Players,” “One Last Deadly Play,” and “Last Call for a Deadly Diva.” The books transformed decades of observing fame, ambition, deception, and power into fiction, bringing the practiced instincts of a journalist to the suspense and intrigue of a novelist.

“I’ve broken in roads that will never be broken in again,” Anthony said in a 2013 interview with Urbanbridgez.com. “So if I never wrote another sentence or got on radio again in life or got on TV, I would miss it yes but I feel I’ve done a lot of what God put me on this earth to do.”

Lloyd Robertson obit

Former CTV News chief anchor Lloyd Robertson dies at 92

 He was not on the list.

Canadian journalist Lloyd Robertson, who covered everything from the fall of the Berlin Wall to the 9/11 terrorist attacks during 35 years as chief anchor of CTV National News, has died. He was 92.

According to his family, the veteran broadcaster died on Tuesday evening.

Robertson’s more than six-decade broadcasting career began in 1952 at a local radio station in his hometown, Stratford, Ont. Robertson made his national television debut in 1956 with the CBC, where he rose to prominence before moving to CTV National News in 1976. When Robertson’s CTV News co-anchor retired in 1984, Robertson took the helm of the nightly news show, which he led as chief anchor and senior news editor until 2011.

“For me, it’s been a rare privilege to have been able to serve in this position for so long. It’s been a front-row seat to history,” Robertson said in 2011 during his final broadcast as CTV National News anchor. “Most of all it’s been fascinating to watch our country grow in confidence and stature.”

Robertson on his most memorable stories

In a 2018 interview with CTV News film critic Richard Crouse, Robertson credited his father for giving him the news bug.

“My father used to talk about current affairs all the time: he was very interested in politics, as I turned out to be,” Robertson said. “He would make the people real for me and I could identify with them.”

Speaking to Crouse, Robertson cited the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks as the most “remarkable” event he covered in his storied career.

 “I remember thinking at the time, this is something that we have never seen before in my time and covering North American news,” Robertson recalled, after describing rushing into the studio that day. “This one was really big because it changed the way people lived. The next thing we knew… security became very important in our lives to an extent that it really hadn’t been before.”

Other memorable events included covering Neil Armstrong’s first footsteps on the moon in 1969 and Terry Fox’s inspiring attempt to run across Canada in 1980.

The hardest story to tell, Robertson added, was writing about his mother’s mental health struggles in his 2013 memoir “The Kind of Life It’s Been.”

“She had a very, very difficult time with what we would now call bipolar, OCD, paranoia, all sorts of things,” Robertson explained. “They eventually performed a prefrontal lobotomy, and growing up with that as a young boy, it was a pretty difficult time.”

 In a 2017 CTV News Channel appearance, Robertson reflected on the changes Canada has undergone since 1967, when he covered the country’s centenary celebrations.

 “It was really ‘67 that made (Canada Day) into a national celebration,” Robertson said in the lead-up to Canada 150 celebrations. “It was really a coming of age for Canada in 1967. I’ve never seen birthday party like it before or since.”

In 2018, Robertson even reported live from a multi-vehicle collision on Toronto’s Don Valley Parkway. Uninjured after being hit and spinning out of control, Robertson seized the opportunity to cover the accident when television crews arrived on the scene. 

“It’s a pretty bad accident as accidents go,” Robertson said while holding a CP24 microphone. “Wow. I’m still standing.”

To Robertson, the 1963 assassination of U.S. President John F. Kennedy made him truly appreciate the power of the then-burgeoning television news industry.

“What the Kennedy assassination did for all broadcasters who had a part in it, however small, was make us realize that we could be a part of stories bigger than ourselves and paint the world for people,” Robertson said in a 2011 documentary. “I felt that I was now involved in something that really mattered to me.”

Robertson’s broadcasting career began in 1952 at a local radio station in Stratford, Ont.

“I always had a fascination with radio because radio would transport me into a world of the imagination,” Robertson said in a 2012 interview. “You had that sense that this was a huge world that you could inhabit, which was much brighter and better than the world you lived in every day.”

In 1954, he became a staff announcer with CBC television, working in Winnipeg and then Ottawa before moving to Toronto.

“When I left, I remember thinking, I’m never going to see this building again,” Robertson said of his initial CBC audition in a 2011 documentary about his career. “From the time I started in television at the CBC in Winnipeg, I began to think that where I wanted to go was the pinnacle of Canadian broadcasting in this country, which would mean, for English Canada, going to Toronto.”

Climbing through the ranks at the CBC, Robertson would go on to prominently anchor The National news show between 1970 to 1976. Union rules at the time, however, prevented CBC news readers from writing and editing broadcast copy, which became a source of frustration for Robertson.

A 1976 job offer from CTV promised the kind of editorial input Robertson had long been seeking, and after 22 years at CBC, Robertson made the decision to become co-anchor of CTV National News, a position he held until 1984 when fellow co-anchor Harvey Kirck retired.

“In 1984, to me, it was the equivalent of being knighted,” Robertson reminisced. “I was made senior editor of the newscast.”

As one of the longest-serving news anchors in television history, Robertson’s deep reassuring voice became familiar to generations of Canadians as he covered everything from royal weddings to wars to natural disasters.

After handing the reins of CTV National News to Lisa LaFlamme in 2011, Robertson co-hosted CTV investigative and current affairs show W5 until 2016 and remained a frequent commentator on CTV News Channel.

“For a kid from Stratford, Ont. who didn’t have a lot of formal education, never went beyond high school, and here I am in this job which puts me right here on the cusp of history and I’m able to experience all of this… there is not a better job in the world,” Robertson reflected in 2011.

The end of an era’

When Robertson signed off from CTV National News in 2011, then-Prime Minister Stephen Harper called it “the end of an era.”

 “You’ve been delivering the news since I was barely more than a boy,” Harper said at the time. “You’ve been doing it for so long and so authoritatively, you’ve almost become a part of Canada’s geography, and I know that Canadians from coast to coast are going to miss you.”

Bob Rae – then-interim Liberal leader – previously said the best word to describe Robertson is “integrity.”

“His word is everything,” Rae said in 2011. “He is authenticity, he is authority, he’s a good humoured guy, he’s a great Canadian, he’s a great broadcaster, and dare I say it, he’s a good friend.”

Friend and former CTV News colleague Craig Oliver credited Robertson with helping grow the network’s audience.

“What Lloyd did is gave us instant credibility,” Oliver previously said. “Our numbers began to climb and we’ve never retreated really. That’s Lloyd’s legacy. He took this news department and put it on the map.”

 Robertson has received numerous recognitions throughout his celebrated career, including the Order of Canada in 1998, an honorary Doctor of Laws from B.C.’s Royal Roads University in 2006, and a star on Canada’s Walk of Fame in 2007. A park is named after him in Markham while hometown Stratford previously declared Sept. 1 “Lloyd Robertson Day.” Robertson has also revealed that both the Liberals and Conservatives failed to woo him into a life of politics, and that he even rejected an offer of a Senate seat.

Married in 1956 to high school sweetheart Nancy, Robertson had four daughters and seven grandchildren.

Like many great news anchors, Robertson had a signature sign-off at the end of each broadcast: “And that’s the kind of day it’s been.”

“I will miss coming in every day, I will miss seeing my friends,” Robertson said during his last show as CTV National News anchor. “I will miss that wonderful process of being able to sit down, sift through the material having heard what’s on the go that day and then make decisions about how we’re going to shape it for our Canadian audience, what’s of interest, what’s of importance to them.”

John C. Dvorak obit

John C. Dvorak, Veteran Tech Journalist and ‘No Agenda’ Podcaster, Dies at 80

The cultural commentator also was known for his influential PC Magazine column ‘Inside Track.’ 

He was not on the list.

John C. Dvorak, the longtime technology journalist, cultural commentator and co-host of the No Agenda podcast, died unexpectedly on July 20 in Albany, California, a family spokesperson told The Hollywood Reporter.

Dvorak also wrote the influential , long-running column Inside Track for PC Magazine, was a contributor to the 1995-99 CNET Central series, hosted radio shows including NPR’s Technically Speaking and authored more than a dozen books, ranging from tech history titles to “how to” guides.

He and Adam Curry hosted the No Agenda podcast since its October 2007 debut. An episode last week — No. 1,888 — celebrated his legacy with stories and anecdotes from his family and friends.

“John loved doing the show, loved the feedback, good and bad,” a statement from the podcast read. “He was not a man known for affection, but he had a deep appreciation for you all. He enjoyed entertaining you, challenging you, debating you and most of all meeting you. He enjoyed reading your emails and letters more than he would ever admit.”

Born in Fresno, California, on April 5, 1946, Dvorak earned his bachelor’s degree in History from UC Berkley, where he also studied computer science as a graduate student.

He penned a witty column about PCs called Inside Track that started at InfoWorld magazine — it was one of about 20 columns he was writing at the time — before he moved to PC Magazine in August 1986 with considerable fanfare.

Survivors include his wife, Mimi; his children, Jae (and her husband, Brennan) and John (and his wife Jessie); stepson Aric and his wife, Danell; four grandsons; and a nephew, Oscar- and Emmy-nominated nominated producer Dana Brunetti (The Social Network, Captain Phillips, House of Cards).

The family is anticipating the arrival of a granddaughter in October.

“To those who knew him personally, John was far more than his public work,” his family noted. “He was a beloved husband, devoted father, proud grandfather and a loyal friend. Those closest to him will remember a man defined by his strong convictions, his exceptionally sharp wit and an enduring curiosity about the world around him.”

Dvorak was on the start-up team for CNET Networks, appearing on the television show CNET Central. He also hosted a radio show called Real Computing, and later Technically Speaking on NPR, as well as a television show on TechTV (formerly ZDTV) called Silicon Spin. Dvorak helped develop the game Dvorak On Typing.

He appeared on Marketwatch TV and This Week in Tech, a podcast audio and now video program hosted by Leo Laporte and featuring other former TechTV personalities such as Patrick Norton, Kevin Rose, and Robert Heron. Dvorak was once banned from the show. In March 2006, he started a new show called CrankyGeeks, where he led a rotating panel of "cranky" tech gurus in discussions of technology news stories of the week. The last episode (No. 237) aired on September 22, 2010.

In 2007, Mevio hired Dvorak as vice president and managing editor for a new Mevio TECH channel, where he managed content from existing Mevio tech programming. He also hosted the show Tech5, where he discussed the day's tech news in approximately five minutes; it ended production in late 2010. He co-hosted a podcast with Mevio co-founder Adam Curry called No Agenda. The show was a conversation about the week's news, happenings in the lives of the hosts and their families, and restaurant reviews from the dinners Dvorak and Curry have together when they were in the same city (usually San Francisco). Curry usually had more outlandish opinions of the week's news or world events, while Dvorak played the straight man in the dialogue.