William P. Clark Jr. obit

Former Reagan aide William P. Clark dies at 81

 

He was not on the list.

William P. Clark, who rose from campaign volunteer to one of President Ronald Reagan's most trusted advisers, has died. He was 81.

Clark died Saturday at his ranch home in the central California town of Shandon after a long battle with Parkinson's disease, according to his son.

"It's been a hard fight for him, but we do feel he's in a better place and he's not suffering any longer," Paul Clark said Sunday.

The elder Clark began working for Reagan by managing the actor's 1966 gubernatorial campaign in Ventura County, north of Los Angeles. He ascended to various political jobs as Reagan moved from the Golden State to the White House.

Clark worked for Reagan in Sacramento, rising to the position of executive secretary, before accepting a judgeship with the San Luis Obispo County Superior Court. Reagan later appointed him to the state appellate court in Los Angeles, and then the state Supreme Court, before he moved to Washington to serve as deputy secretary of state and national security adviser.

Clark was national security adviser when Reagan maneuvered the Soviet Union toward arms control, and he was a key player in Reagan's philosophy of "peace through strength." Their close relationship led Time magazine to name Clark "the second most powerful man in the White House" in a 1983 cover story.

The New York Times said Clark had more access to Reagan than anyone else.

"They had very similar ideas about what ought to be done," Edwin Meese, who served as counselor to Reagan and then as attorney general, told the San Luis Obispo Tribune in 2009. "And they also knew and understood one another very well, having worked together back in the California days."

Clark then served as interior secretary for nearly two years, replacing unpopular department head James Watt, before returning to his private law practice and business consulting firm.

Born in 1931 in Oxnard to a family of lawmen (his grandfather Robert was Ventura County sheriff and a U.S. marshal; his father, William Sr., was the police chief of Oxnard), Clark served in the Army Counter-Intelligence Corps in Europe in the mid-1950s. He attended both Stanford University and Loyola Law School without earning degrees, but nevertheless passed the bar exam.

"That's been pointed out throughout his career that he finished neither college nor law school, but be that as it may he did just fine," his son Paul said.

After retiring from public life, Clark and his wife Joan designed and built a chapel in Shandon that they donated to the community. A devout Catholic, he also became a strong abortion opponent.

Clark is survived by five children. His wife died four years ago.

Clark was born in Oxnard, California on October 23, 1931, the son of William Petit and Bernice Gregory Clark.

Clark attended Villanova Preparatory School in Ojai. After completing high school, Clark went on to Stanford University and Loyola Law School while managing his ranch. Not being able to dedicate sufficient time and resources towards completing his undergraduate and postgraduate degrees, Clark never graduated from Stanford or Loyola. Nevertheless, he scored well enough on entrance exams to gain admittance to law school, and he passed the California state bar exam without a law school degree, after failing his first attempt at the California state bar exam. He also served in the U.S. Army Counter Intelligence Corps.

In 1980, Ronald Reagan won the election as President of the United States. Clark reached the apex of his power when Reagan appointed Clark as National Security Advisor, and he temporarily became preeminent among presidential aides. A longtime rancher friend of Reagan, according to Edmund Morris's Dutch, Clark would walk into Reagan's office unannounced, an unheard-of practice for even the most senior officials. Clark even suggested to the president in light of foreign policy troubles bedeviling the United States in the mid-1980s that Reagan consider not running for reelection in 1984. By that time, however, George Shultz had surpassed Clark in influence, and Reagan apparently gave Clark's suggestion no thought.

Clark's biographers credit him with convincing Reagan that the Soviet Union could be pushed to the edge of collapse. The strategy was opposed by Secretary of State George Shultz, among others, leading to rancor in the White House.

Morris writes in his admitted semi-fictionalized narrative biography that Clark resigned in late 1983 when he tired of the "unceasing hostility of [Michael] Deaver, George Shultz, and Nancy Reagan." Morris described Clark as "the only man who ever got within a furlong of intimacy" with the notoriously distant Reagan, and his ability to relate to Reagan inspired jealousy, at the same time that Clark's taciturn nature made him unlikely to build allies.

A differing PBS account quotes Mike Deaver via his book "Nancy", pg. 48: "Staff might have resented my closeness with Nancy, but to my knowledge, it was never a problem. Bill Clark and Ed Meese, then the legal-affairs counsel, were happy to have me working closely with Nancy because that freed them up to concentrate on policy and appointments. Often, too they would use me as back door to the first lady, to get her input ..." The PBS "Role of a Lifetime" url also lists some support of a conflict with George Shultz: "I knew that I would have to insist on dealing directly with the president. I could not let the White House staff interpret me to him. That was especially true when it came to Clark, because his views and instincts were different from mine ..." Noted authority Lou Cannon concluded that "[Mrs. Reagan] was very much opposed to Bill Clark. She wanted him out of (the NSA position) because she felt that it was interfering with (President) Reagan's efforts to open up better relations with the Soviet Union." Fellow Reagan family biographer James Benze furthers in the commentary, "Nancy Reagan (then) enlists other moderates in the administration to make William Clark's life miserable as National Security Advisor."

Mr. Clark, a former California Supreme Court judge, became one of Reagan’s most trusted confidants, serving as deputy secretary of state (1981-1982), national security adviser (1982-1983), and Interior secretary (1983-1985).

He returned to his native California after serving in Washington. His wife, Joan, died in 2009.

Former Attorney General Edwin Meese III, now a Heritage Foundation resident scholar, spoke of his friend:

“Bill Clark was a devout man of faith, a great patriot and a close friend. He devoted his life to the service of others and will be remembered for his outstanding contributions to his community and his country.

“Bill served Ronald Reagan for over a quarter of a century as a public official, adviser and friend. He was a key figure in formulating and leading United States foreign policy during the president’s administration, and was instrumental in developing the strategy that led to winning the Cold War.

“During the 1970s, Bill Clark distinguished himself as an excellent judge, serving on the bench of California’s Superior Court, Court of Appeals, and Supreme Court. He was widely recognized for his dedication to the Constitution and the rule of law.”

Oliver North, Reagan’s counterterrorism director, said: “Bill Clark was Ronald Reagan’s best friend, closest confidant and most trusted adviser when Reagan was California governor and then president of the United States.

“No matter the crisis, and there were many during his tenure as President Reagan’s deputy secretary of state, national security adviser and finally secretary of the interior, Judge Clark was unflappable — the man the president called first and last when tough decisions had to be made — from the Gulf of Sidra crisis to the Falklands War to the suicide-bombing deaths of 241 U.S. servicemen. Mr. Clark was the only member of the Reagan administration so close to — and trusted — by the president as to speak for him without prior consultation, when circumstances warranted it.

“Lots of people in the State Department didn’t know how close British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and Reagan were,” Mr. North continued. “So one day Secretary of State Al Haig called Clark to demand what Thatcher didn’t want — shuttle diplomacy between Buenos Aires and London — and that if Haig didn’t have his way on this, Haig would resign.

“Clark simply said, ’Al, we’re going to miss you. The president accepts your resignation,’” Mr. North recalled.

Veteran GOP presidential campaign strategist Charles Black said, “Judge Clark was a man of great accomplishment for the conservative movement in his own right, but his loyal support of Ronald Reagan through thick and thin contributed greatly to President Reagan’s success.”

Added Faith Whittlesey, former Reagan adviser and ambassador to Switzerland:

“Bill Clark was Ronald Reagan’s best friend and was the great unsung hero of the Cold War. He faithfully and effectively carried out Ronald Reagan’s policies within the government in the face of constant opposition inside the White House, in the agencies, and in the Washington establishment.

“Bill Clark championed two issues above all others: the defeat of Marxism-Leninism and the sanctity of human life. He was a man of great faith, unfailing courtesy, and high intellect. Ronald Reagan loved and deeply respected Bill Clark with good reason.”

Mr. Meese best summed up Mr. Clark’s life:

“Through all his hard work and many accomplishments, Bill was always a devoted family man to his late wife, Joan, and to his five children and many grandchildren. He will be greatly missed by his many friends, and his life is appreciated by so many people who benefited from his kindness to them and from his service to God and our nation.”

David C. Jones obit

Gen. David C. Jones, ex-Joint Chiefs chair, dies

 

He was not on the list.

STERLING, Va. (AP) — David C. Jones, a retired Air Force general who helped set in motion a far-reaching reorganization of the U.S. military command while serving as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has died at 92.

The general's son, David Curtis Jones, said Wednesday that his father died Saturday at a military retirement community in Potomac Falls, Va. He had Parkinson's disease.

The New York Times reports (http://nyti.ms/1cOF0V1) that Jones served longer than any predecessor on the Joint Chiefs, first as the Air Force chief of staff and then as chairman from 1978 to 1982. He appeared on the cover of Time magazine in October 1979, with the magazine describing him as "cool, meticulous, low-key and dogged." The article said "Jones typifies the new breed of military managers."

Near the end of his second two-year term, Jones recommended a sweeping reorganization of the nation's military command, moving to strengthen the chairman's role while curbing rivalry among the services. Many of his suggestions were included in the 1986 Goldwater-Nichols Department of Defense Reorganization Act, which streamlined the military chain of command.

Retired Gen. John Pustay, who served as an assistant to Jones, told The Associated Press on Wednesday that Jones was "a very, very visionary, sharp, perceptive guy — somebody who could always see further down the path than others."

Pustay said Jones helped move the services away from being parochial to a more joint perspective. He said the two stayed in touch, getting together weekly in later years at the military retirement community in northern Virginia where they lived.

Under Jones' watch, the Carter administration also undertook a failed attempt to rescue 53 American hostages being held in Iran in 1980. Eight U.S. servicemen died when a helicopter crashed into a C-130 transport plane at a staging area in Iran.

"He was really devastated about that," said Jones' daughter, Kathy Franklin of Silver Spring, Md. She said that while Jones understood that unexpected bad weather was a factor, he also felt that the rescue attempt was impaired by the lack of a joint command to train and exercise forces for such missions.

"That propelled a lot of his passion for Goldwater-Nichols...creating more joint connections in the military," she said.

David Charles Jones was born in Aberdeen, S.D., in 1921. After the family moved to Minot, N.D., he often rode his bicycle to a nearby airfield and dreamed of becoming a pilot. He attended the University of North Dakota and Minot State College, dropping out during World War II to enlist in the Army Air Corps. He received his commission and pilot wings in February 1943, then trained pilots at air bases in the U.S.

During the Korean War, he flew more than 300 B-29 bomber missions over North Korea and also flew aerial tankers for midair refueling. After the war, he served for two years as a top aide to Gen. Curtis LeMay, an architect of U.S. air attacks during World War II and then the commander of the Strategic Air Command.

In 1960, Jones graduated from the National War College. Four years later, he decided at age 43 that he wanted to learn to fly fighters.

"He did better than some of the young guys in his class and he got a wing," said Franklin, who also noted that her father rose from colonel to four-star general in 5 ½ years.

Franklin described her father as a self-made man who read voraciously, particularly about management, and managed to become Joint Chiefs chairman despite having not graduated from college or one of the service academies.

"This was rather unheard-of," she said.

According to the Air Force website, Jones served in Vietnam as deputy commander for operations and then as vice commander of the Seventh Air Force.

He later commanded U.S. Air Forces in Europe, receiving a fourth star in 1971.

Three years later, President Richard Nixon tapped Jones to be Air Force chief of staff. He led a reorganization of the command structure.

President Jimmy Carter appointed Jones as Joint Chiefs chairman in 1978 and again in 1980.

Jones accompanied Carter to Vienna for SALT II talks with the Soviet Union in 1979, and after the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, helped transform a rapid deployment force for southwest Asia that Carter established into a regional unified command.

According to The Times, some Republican senators criticized Jones for publicly backing Carter's cancellation of the B-1 bomber, among other policies. But Jones said he felt he had a constitutional obligation to support civilian superiors publicly even if he offered different advice in private.

Still, Franklin said, "He really loved working with President Carter."

She also has more personal memories of her father, such as when the legendary World War II general Omar Bradley was in a wheelchair and "my dad took him all around the Pentagon when he was chairman."

Jones' son David said he was in high school when his father was Joint Chiefs chairman, but that his father put family first.

"We did so much together," recalled the younger Jones, of Sterling, Va. "Every moment he had he was not at work, he'd devote to family."

He recalled his father being "extremely honest" and "larger than life" to him.

Jones completed his second term as Joint Chiefs chairman during the Reagan administration, and retired from the military in July 1982. Jones was appointed by President Ronald Reagan to the board of the American Red Cross. He also served on the boards of General Electric and Youth Service, USA, Inc., and was on the Council on Foreign Relations.

Jones' wife of 67 years, Lois, died in 2009

In addition to Franklin and David Jones, the general is survived by a daughter, Susan Coffin of Scottsdale, Ariz., a sister, four grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. Burial will be at Arlington National Cemetery.

Johnny Logan obit

Johnny Logan was spark plug of champion Braves

He was not on the list.

It made everyone's day brighter when Johnny Logan showed up at Miller Park.

"He's been such a fixture in Milwaukee and with the organization," said Milwaukee Brewers broadcaster Bob Uecker, a close friend of the former Milwaukee Braves shortstop.

"No matter what he did, he was always a Brewer. He wasn't a Brave — he was a Brewer. He loved baseball. He loved being with the Brewers, he really did."

It was with great sadness that everyone associated with the Milwaukee Braves and Brewers learned Friday night that Logan died at Zablocki Veterans Affairs Medical Center. He was 86.

Logan, who made his home in Milwaukee after retiring, was at Miller Park as recently as last Sunday, visiting with Uecker and other friends, including former Milwaukee Sentinel sports columnist Bud Lea.

Logan, who battled several health issues and was using a wheelchair of late, entered the hospital Tuesday with circulation problems in his legs and feet. He developed an infection that spread quickly and contributed to his death.

Logan's three sons, Jimmy, John Daniel and Jeff, were at his side when he died.

"He was a fighter," said Jimmy. "He lasted a long time. He was suffering a little bit but went peacefully at the end."

Logan played for the Braves from 1953 to June 15, 1961, when he was traded to the Pittsburgh Pirates for Gino Cimoli. He played for the Pirates through the 1963 season.

In a 13-year career, Logan batted .268 with 93 home runs, 547 runs batted in, 651 runs scored and 1,407 hits in 1,503 games. He was a four-time all-star, including three in a row from 1957-'59.

Logan played next to Hall of Fame third baseman Eddie Mathews, and both were known for their feisty nature on the field. Logan once charged Brooklyn Dodgers pitcher Don Drysdale for throwing pitches at him but was intercepted before he made it to the mound. Mathews was right behind him, however, and connected with several punches to Drysdale.

"I would start the fights and he would finish them," Logan once said. "We could always handle ourselves."

Logan was on first base on Sept. 23, 1957, when Hank Aaron socked an 11th-inning home run off St. Louis' Billy Muffett to clinch the NL pennant. The Braves went on to upset the favored New York Yankees in seven games in the World Series, bringing Milwaukee its only championship.

Logan led the National League by playing in all 154 games in 1954 and 1955 and also topped that circuit with 37 doubles in '55. He finished his professional career in 1964 with the Nankai Hawks of the Japanese League.

The Brewers inducted Logan into the Miller Park Walk of Fame in June. The club issued this statement about his passing:

"Johnny Logan was a longtime friend to Milwaukee baseball. His connection to both the Brewers and the Braves and the Milwaukee community was very strong. Virtually every person associated with the Milwaukee Brewers has been touched by Johnny through his many visits to the ballpark and terrific stories about his time in the game. We will miss Johnny deeply and will never forget his colorful character and personality."

Logan, who lost three bids to become Milwaukee County sheriff, did some scouting in Wisconsin for the Brewers and also helped create the Milwaukee Braves Historical Association, remaining active in the organization dedicated to keeping alive the memory of that highly successful ball club.

"Without him, there would have been no Braves association," said Lea, another leader in that organization. "When they tore County Stadium down, he said, 'We've got to have something to remember the Milwaukee Braves.'"

Logan was a familiar sight at Miller Park in recent years, often dropping by to chat with players and staff, and cheer on the Brewers. Acquaintances looked forward to his malapropisms and stories.

"He was a character, but he also was a wonderful player," said baseball Commissioner Bud Selig, who grew up watching the Braves at County Stadium. "Of all the great hitters on those Braves teams — Hank Aaron, Eddie Mathews, Red Schoendienst, Joe Adcock — Johnny was one of the best clutch hitters they had. He was a critical part of those teams."

"He's one of my best friends. Even though you know it's coming, it's still hard," an emotional Uecker said before the Brewers' game in Seattle. "For a guy to come to Milwaukee and make his home there the rest of the time. ... He never left. Ended up working for the organization.

"He loved being with the Brewers, going out and scouting some of these guys. Johnny would go to any game in the area and he always had reports for the Brewers. We all know some of the quotations, things that he did, but the more intricate he got, the worse the language became. That's what was always so funny about it."

When Logan's sons exited the VA Hospital Friday night, the first thing they saw was Miller Park. They decided to go over to Friday's Front Row Restaurant to hoist a beer to their father's baseball career and life.

"It seemed like the right thing to do," said John Daniel. "He's up there in heaven now with Eddie Mathews and the rest of his teammates."

Lou Killen obit

Louisa Jo (Louis) Killen Passes

 

She was not on the list.

Louisa Jo (Louis) Killen

10 January 1934 – 9 August 2013

(A few years ago, Louis Killen decided to fulfill an almost lifelong desire and came out as a woman: Louisa Jo).

Lou was a Geordie, born and bred in Gateshead, Tyneside. The family sang at home – hymns, cowboy songs, ballads, music hall, opera, and everything in between. Getting involved in the skiffle craze of the early ‘sixties, she then went on to become one of the founders of the Bridge Folk Club, in Newcastle upon Tyne.

Unequaled as a singer of the “big” ballads, Lou also had a great repertoire of maritime songs, songs from her Irish ancestry, and of course the songs of Tyneside – mining, fox-hunting, etc. Plus a great appreciation of music in all its forms. She was a grand harmony singer too.

I first met Lou in 1965, and she and the Young Tradition immediately formed a mutual admiration society. The folk scene was booming: every town had its weekly folk club, some more than one. We would meet and sing together at clubs, concerts and festivals.

In 1966, she moved to America, living in New York, Massachusetts, San Francisco, and Washington State. For a few years, she sang with the Clancy Brothers. A few years back, she returned to her birth town of Gateshead, where she died of cancer on 9 August 2013.

One cannot overstate the influence of Lou’s singing on a whole generation of revival singers of English traditional folk songs. Her playing of the English concertina (she pioneered it as an accompanying instrument) was a prime example of how it should be done – never overpowering the song.

As well as being a terrific singer, she had a wealth of knowledge about the songs and the singers from whom they came, which she willingly shared with audiences and admirers. She would also tell some tales from the Pitman’s Bible (stories told in Pitmatic, the idiom of the Tyneside pits) which were hilarious.

The voice is silenced, but the legacy remains. I and many other revival singers owe her a debt that will be repaid as we continue to sing the old songs for new generations.

So from one of Louisa Jo’s signature songs, “The Parting Glass”:  Good night, and joy be with you all.

– Heather Wood

Marilyn King obit

Marilyn King, the Last of the Singing King Sisters, Dies at 82

She was the youngest of the siblings in the swing-era vocal group that released more than 150 records, toured for decades and appeared in films and on television.

 

She was not on the list.

Marilyn King, the youngest and last surviving member of the swing-era vocal group The King Sisters, died Wednesday of cancer in Laguna Niguel, Calif. She was 82.

King’s great-nephews are brothers Win and Will Butler of The Arcade Fire. Her niece was Tina Cole of My Three Sons.

The King Sisters, originally from Utah and founded in 1931, appeared in several films and released more than 150 records for labels including Blue Bird, RCA Victor, Capitol and Warner Bros. throughout the 1940s, ’50s and ’60s.

Marilyn began subbing for her sisters in their popular singing quartet (the original girls were Luise, Alyce, Donna and Yvonne) by age 13 at the height of the Big Band Era, and she officially joined the group in 1951.

The family was the centerpiece of the popular 1960s ABC variety series The King Family Show as well as 17 King Family syndicated holiday specials throughout the years. The sisters toured for decades and made one of their final performances at the second inauguration of President Ronald Reagan in 1985.

Marilyn was instrumental in developing the group’s innovative four-part jazz vocal style. Their Capitol Records album Imagination was recorded with Alvino Rey and his orchestra and nominated for a Grammy in 1959. (Rey was married to Luise King.)

The tallest of the sisters, she was noted for the comedic repartee she shared with the much shorter Yvonne.

King also was a composer, lyricist and arranger, and her songs included “The Thrill Was New” and “Hawaii Is Calling Me,” both featured on the sisters’ albums for Capitol.

King was born in Glendale in 1931. While her elder sisters took to the road, dad William King Driggs trained Marilyn in concert piano and opera and groomed her to be a classical performer.

She would appear with the Alvino Rey Orchestra and as a soloist with influential bandleaders including Les Brown, Harry James and Ray Anthony.

As an actress, King appeared in stage productions of Guys and Dolls and Hello, Dolly! and worked as a voice-over artist, lending her singing to The Sound of Music (1965), which won an Oscar for best music.

King also was a regular on Rey’s 1951 Emmy-winning TV series Ford Time and had stints on such shows as The Adventures of Ozzie & Harriet, Laugh-In, M*A*S*H*, The Hollywood Palace and The Ed Sullivan Show.

She made her final television appearance in the 2009 PBS musical retrospective Christmas With the King Family.

Survivors also include her children Susannah and Adam, daughter and son of television syndication pioneer Howard Lloyd; Jennifer, a daughter of legendary Stan Kenton trombonist Kent Larsen; and seven grandchildren.

Funeral activities will take place at Forrest Lawn in the Hollywood Hills. In lieu of flowers, her family has requested that donations be sent to The Society of Singers charity in Sherman Oaks.

Karen Black obit

Karen Black Dies at 74

             

She was not on the list.

Oscar-nominated actress Karen Black died Thursday at the age of 74 after a long battle with cancer.

The Easy Rider star's husband, Stephen Eckelberry, announced her death on his Facebook page, saying, "It is with great sadness that I have to report that my wife and best friend Karen Black has just passed away, only a few minutes ago. Thank you all for all your prayers and love, they meant so much to her as they did to me."

Black was diagnosed with ampullary cancer in November 2010 and had a third of her pancreas removed. She was declared cancer-free in 2011, but in March of this year, a fundraising page was set up to help raise public donations for experimental treatment in Europe that was not covered by insurance.

On Aug. 7, just a day before she passed, Eckelberry posted an update saying that Black had become bed-bound as the cancer had spread to her spine and back and they were unable to go to Europe. But he said he had "given up predicting what is going to happen to Karen."

"You look at the scans, they tell you one thing, then you meet Karen, and what you are left with is how amazingly alive she is," he wrote. "She can't help but take life head-on and be completely engaged in the moment, always interested, always curious, always present."

Known for her full lips and thick, wavy hair that seemed to change color from film to film, Black often portrayed women who were quirky, troubled or threatened. Her breakthrough was as a prostitute who takes LSD with Dennis Hopper and Peter Fonda in 1969's Easy Rider, the hippie classic that helped get her the role of Rayette Dipesto, a waitress who dates – and is mistreated by – an upper-class dropout played by Jack Nicholson in 1970's Five Easy Pieces.

Cited by The New York Times as a "pathetically appealing vulgarian," Black's performance won her an Oscar nomination and Golden Globe Award. She would recall that playing Rayette really was acting: The well-read, cerebral Black, raised in a comfortable Chicago suburb, had little in common with her relatively simple-minded character.


"If you look through the eyes of Rayette, it looks nice, really beautiful, light, not heavy, not serious. A very affectionate woman who would look upon things with love, and longing," Black told Venice Magazine in 2007.

"A completely uncritical person, and in that sense, a beautiful person. When [director] Bob Rafelson called me to his office to discuss the part he said, 'Karen, I'm worried you can't play this role because you're too smart.' I said 'Bob, when you call "action," I will stop thinking,' because that's how Rayette is.'"

In 1971, Black starred with Nicholson again in Drive, He Said which Nicholson also directed. Over the next few years, she worked with such top actors and directors as Richard Benjamin (Portnoy's Complaint), Robert Redford and Mia Farrow (The Great Gatsby) and Charlton Heston (Airport 1975).

She was nominated for a Grammy Award after writing and performing songs for Nashville, in which she played a country singer in Robert Altman's 1975 ensemble epic. Black also starred as a jewel thief in Alfred Hitchcock's last movie, Family Plot, released in 1976.

"We used to read each other poems and limericks and tried to catch me on my vocabulary," she later said of Hitchcock. "He once said, 'You seem very perspicacious today, Miss Black.' I said, 'Oh, you mean "keenly perceptive?" 'Yes.' So I got him this huge, gold-embossed dictionary that said 'Diction-Harry,' at the end of the shoot."

Black was married four times. She is survived by Eckelberry, a son and a daughter.