Anita Wood obit

Singer and Actress Anita Marie Brewer Wood Has Died

 She was not on the list.

Anita Marie Brewer, 85, died early Thursday morning of pneumonia at St. Dominics Hospital in Jackson, MS. Memorial Services will be held on Sunday, July 2, 2023, at Fisher Riles Funeral Home, 5000 Indiana Ave, Vicksburg, Mississippi with visitation at 2 p.m. followed by the service at 3 p.m. Memorials may be made to Woodlawn Baptist Church in honor of Anita Brewer. Anita was born on May 27, 1938, to the late W.A. and Dorothy Wood in Bells, Tennessee. She was preceded in death by her husband, Johnny Brewer; her brothers, Jerry, Joe and Andy Wood.  Mrs. Brewer was married for 46 years to Johnny Brewer, former Ole Miss and NFL football star. Prior to her marriage, she was a recording artist, radio DJ, TV performer and girlfriend of Elvis Presley. She devoted her life to children. Anita raised three of her own and taught hundreds more as a preschool teacher at Woodlawn Baptist Kindergarten and Day Care. She was beloved by the children she taught and still had many of their pictures and notes among her possessions.  She is survived by her daughter, Jonnita Barrett and her husband Chad of FL; sons, John Brewer Jr. of Port Gibson and Sean Brewer and his wife Kim of Madison; 11 grandchildren; Tyler and his wife Katia; Fallon and her husband Austin; Drake; Ariana and her husband Bryce; John Lee and his wife Christina; Hanna and her husband Ryan; Christopher and Austin Brewer;  Abney and Macey Brewer and Hayden Hurst; eight great-grandchildren and sister-in-laws Karen, Carletta, Babs, Louise and her husband George, Alice, and Mary and numerous nieces and nephews.

Self

 

    There's Only One Elvis (2002)

    There's Only One Elvis

        Self - Girlfriend

        TV Movie

        2002

 

The Definitive Elvis: The Army Years

 

    Self (as Anita Wood)

 

    Video

 

    2002

 

The Definitive Elvis: The Hollywood Years - Part I: 1956-1961

 

    Self (as Anita Wood)

 

    Video

 

    2002

 

The Definitive Elvis: The Memphis Years (2002)

The Definitive Elvis: The Memphis Years

 

    Self (as Anita Wood)

 

    Video

 

    2002

 

Presley

 

    Self (as Anita Wood)

 

    TV Mini Series

 

    1987

 

Elvis: His Life and Times (1993)

Elvis: His Life and Times

 

    TV Special

 

    1993

 

Jack Paar in The Tonight Show Starring Jack Paar (1957)

The Tonight Show Starring Jack Paar

 

    Self (as Anita Wood)

 

    TV Series

 

    1958

 

The Chevy Showroom Starring Andy Williams

 

    Self (as Anita Wood)

 

    TV Series

 

    1958

 

Archive Footage

 

    Twist (1992)

    Twist

        Self (archive footage, uncredited)

        1992

 

 

Don Kennedy obit

‘Officer Don’ Kennedy, Atlanta children’s show host, dies at 93

 

 He was not on the list.

Kennedy was an American radio and television personality and voice talent, whose career began in the late 1940s with a radio announcer spot on Pennsylvania station WPIC.

In the mid-1950s, Kennedy was a contributor to the NBC Radio Network weekend show Monitor, where he developed several features, including one about a local character known as the Goat Man.[4][5]

Kennedy is remembered as Officer Don, the host of the long-running Atlanta children's TV show The Popeye Club. It was seen on Channel 2 WSB-TV from 1956 to 1970. During his time at the Popeye Club, Kennedy established 96.1 WKLS (now WWPW), an Atlanta FM radio station, serving as station President and General Manager. The "K" in the call sign was for his last name.

Kennedy later did television voicework, playing Tansit in Space Ghost Coast to Coast, and several characters on The Brak Show and Aqua Teen Hunger Force. In 1986, he began hosting Big Band Jump, an internationally syndicated radio show devoted to music from the Big Band era. He later added a second syndicated program, the self-titled Don Kennedy Show, that featured general pop vocals and instrumentals from the 1940s through the 1970s, as well as modern renditions from the Great American Songbook. He was also the voice of a kiddie ride based on Superman: The Animated Series made by British manufacturer Jolly Roger, providing a newly-recorded version of the classic Superman radio show intro narration.

Kennedy was the recipient of several awards including the Silver Circle Award, two Emmys, awards from Pioneer Broadcaster and Georgia Broadcaster's Hall of Fame, and honorary membership in the Di Gamma Kappa Broadcast Fraternity at the University of Georgia. Kennedy has supported several causes, including serving as President of the Georgia Chapter of Muscular Dystrophy, treasurer of the Atlanta Humane Society, board member of the Atlanta chapter of the American Cancer Society, as well as volunteering as a reader for the Georgia Radio Reading Service for the Blind.

During the summer of 2013, Don Kennedy announced that he would be retiring from radio, ending his work on the syndicated Big Band Jump and Don Kennedy Show. The final broadcasts of both programs took place on the weekend of September 28–29, 2013.

Television character actor Don Kennedy (also known as Derrick Slaugenhaupt, born 1921) is often confused with radio personality Don Kennedy above. Their information and credits are intertwined on the Internet Movie Database. The character actor appeared in many television shows in the 1950s and 1960s such as The Rifleman.

Partial filmography

 

    Aqua Teen Hunger Force (various episodes, 2001–2010) (TV) as Assisted Living Dracula, Vegetable Man & Rubberman (Lance Potter)

    The Brak Show (2001–2003) (TV) as Morlun, Poppy

    Space Ghost Coast to Coast (various episodes, 1994–1999) (TV) as Tansit, Bill Manspeaker

    Acme Radio Hour (1995) (TV)

Christine King Farris obit

Christine King Farris, the last living sibling of Martin Luther King Jr., dies at 95

 

She was not on the list.

Christine King Farris, the last living sibling of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., has died.

Her niece, the Rev. Bernice King, tweeted that her “beloved aunt” died Thursday. She was 95.

For decades after her brother's assassination in 1968, Farris worked along with his widow, Coretta Scott King, to preserve and promote his legacy. But unlike her high-profile sister-in-law, Farris' activism — and grief — was often behind the scenes.

“She may not have always been on the line of the march, but that was true with a lot of the heroes of the Civil Rights Movement,” said Marcellus Barksdale, a history professor at Morehouse College, of Farris in a 2009 interview with The Associated Press. “Because of the luminescence of Dr. King and Coretta Scott King, Christine kind of got dimmed by that, but she was no less important.”

Farris was born Willie Christine King on Sept. 11, 1927, in Atlanta. She was the first child of the Rev. Martin Luther King Sr. and Alberta Christine Williams King.

Farris helped Coretta Scott King build The King Center and helped to teach Martin Luther King Jr.'s philosophy of nonviolent resistance. For years, her regal, dignified presence was a mainstay at the ecumenical service celebrating her brother's birthday at Ebenezer Baptist Church, where her grandfather and father also preached and where Farris remained a member.

The King Center tweeted Thursday that it mourns the loss of Farris, a founding board member, former vice-chair and treasurer, along with a photo of her.

Bernice King tweeted a photo of herself with Farris, writing, “I love you and will miss you, Aunt Christine.”

Martin Luther King III tweeted that he, his wife and his daughter had been able to spend time with his aunt in her final days.

“Aunt Christine embodied what it meant to be a public servant. Like my dad, she spent her life fighting for equality and against racism in America,” he tweeted. “She defied the odds that held back too many marginalized communities – going on to become a civil rights leader and acclaimed author. No stranger to adversity, Aunt Christine used the tragedies of the assassinations of her mother and brother to fight for change in America.”

Farris outlived many of the people she loved, including her parents, her two brothers, her sister-in-law and her niece, Yolanda. She graduated from Spelman College in 1948 with a degree in economics on the same day Martin Luther King Jr. earned his degree in sociology from Morehouse College.

A decade later, Farris returned to Spelman, where she worked for more than 50 years. In 1960, she married Isaac Newton Farris. The couple had two children, Angela Christine Farris Watkins and Isaac Newton Farris Jr.

Farris wrote two children's books about her life, “My Brother Martin: A Sister Remembers Growing Up With the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.” and “March On! The Day My Brother Martin Changed the World.” In 2009, she wrote a memoir, “Through It All: Reflections on My Life, My Family and My Faith.”

Farris often shared stories about her brother as a normal child and young man to make him and his achievements more accessible to people.

“They think he simply happened, that he appeared fully formed, without context, ready to change the world,” she said.