Hail and farewell

As the year draws to a close, I always like to pause and reflect on those folks who passed away over the last 12 months whose lives touched mine--even if it was in a trivial way. Here are some from my 2007 list:

Yvonne de Carlo - played Lily on "The Munsters"
Art Buchwald - newspaper columnist, he cracked me up!
Dennis Doherty - one of the pappas.
Molly Ivins - an outspoken Texan.
Sidney Sheldon - author (I have a lot of them on my list for some reason!)
Anna Nicole Smith - her "reality" show didn't last nearly long enough.
Arthur Schlesinger - historian (a category right up there with authors!)
Calvert de Forest - better known as "Bud Melman" on Letterman.
Kurt Vonnegut - novelist.
Don Ho - the epitome of Hawaiian.
Boris Yeltsin - the former President of Russia who wasn't afraid to party.
Tom Poston - I will always remember him as George Utley on "Newhart."
Jerry Falwell - conservative religious leader.
Charles Nelson Reilly - comic figure who did his best work on game shows.
Bill France, Jr. - godfather of NASCAR.
Don Herbert - bettern known as "Mr. Wizard."
Kurt Waldheim - the controversial Austrian statesman.
Liz Claiborne - fashionista.
Joel Siegel - that funny-looking movie critic.
Beverly Sills - America's diva.
Lady Bird Johnson - former first lady.
Tammy Faye Bakker - former televangelist, but more importantly played Mimi's mother on the Drew Carey Show.
Ingmar Bergman - filmmaker.
Tom Snyder - I watched way too much of his late show in college.
Bill Walsh - legendary coach of the San Francisco 49ers.
Merv Griffin - I grew up on his talk show and gameshows.
Leona Helmsley - the "Queen of Mean."
Luciano Pavarotti - the greatest tenor of his generation.
Jane Wyman - actress and first wife of the great Ronald Reagan.
Marcel Marceau - iconic mime.
Porter Wagoner - country music legend.
Norman Mailer - yet another writer.
Robert Cade - inventor of GATORade.
Sean Taylor - played safety for the Washington Redskins, died too young.
Evel Knievel - the daredevil I imitated when I was still tooling around on my BigWheel.
Ike Turner - the guy we Tina Turner fans loved to hate.
Dan Fogelberg - an amazing lyricist.
Benazir Bhutto - former Prime Minister of Pakistan.