Randy Pausch Has Gone Above and Beyond

Scoring Update! The points change, death remains the same...

Randy Pausch, the Carnegie Mellon University computer science professor whose final lecture inspired millions, has died of pancreatic cancer. According to Mr. Pausch's Web site, a biopsy last week revealed that the cancer had progressed further than expected, based on recent PETscans.

"Since last week, Randy has also taken a step down and is much sicker than he had been," the Web site said. "He's now enrolled in hospice. He's no longer able to post here so I'm a friend posting on his behalf because we know that many folks are watching this space for updates."

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[Pittsburgh Post-Gazette]

Golden Girl Estelle Getty Now Buried Treasure

Scoring Update! The points change, death remains the same...

Actress Estelle Getty has died at the age of 84.

Her son, Carl Gettleman, says the co-star of the TV show "The Golden Girls" died early Tuesday at home in Los Angeles. Gettleman says she suffered from advanced dementia.

The diminutive actress spent 40 years struggling for success before landing the role of a lifetime in 1985, playing the sarcastic octogenarian Sophia on "The Golden Girls."

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[AP]

Not Your Average Jo, Stafford is Outgoing

Scoring Update! The points change, death remains the same...

Jo Stafford, 90, an exceptionally versatile singer who worked with Frank Sinatra, Tommy Dorsey and the Pied Pipers and shared a Grammy Award with her conductor-husband for their parody of a tone-deaf lounge act, died July 16 at her home in Century City, Calif. She had congestive heart failure.

She earned the nickname "G.I. Jo" but jokingly called herself "Miss Outgoing Freight," a War Department euphemism for artillery shells and tanks sent to the front lines.

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[Washington Post]

Michael Debakey's Heart Just Wasn't Into It

Michael Debakey, the world-famous cardiovascular surgeon who pioneered bypass surgery and invented a host of devices to help heart patients, has died in Houston at the age of 99. Debakey performed more than 60,000 heart surgeries, including such luminaries as Presidents Kennedy, Johnson and Nixon, former Russian President Boris Yeltsin, the Shah of Iran, King Hussein of Jordan, Turkish President Turgut Ozal and Nicaraguan leader Violetta Chamorro. Despite that, Debakey was clear:

He said celebrities didn't get special treatment on the operating table: "Once you incise the skin, you find that they are all very similar."

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[Associated Press]

Tony Snow Falls in the Dead of Summer

Scoring Update! The points change, death remains the same...

Tony Snow, a former press secretary to President George W. Bush who brought his outspoken style as a Fox News commentator to the White House, died in Washington early today of cancer. He was 53.

"It was a joy to watch Tony at the podium each day," Bush said in a statement. "He brought wit, grace, and a great love of country to his work."

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[Bloomberg]

Bobby Murcer Suffers From Early Exit

Scoring Update! The points change, death remains the same...

Former New York Yankees outfielder and broadcaster Bobby Murcer has died from brain cancer, the Yankees said on Saturday.

"Bobby Murcer was a born Yankee, a great guy, very well-liked and a true friend of mine. I will really miss the guy," Yankees chairman George Steinbrenner said in a statement.

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[Reuters]

Evelyn Keyes has Now Gone with the Wind

Scoring Update! The points change, death remains the same...

Evelyn Keyes, 91, a leading lady of dozens of Hollywood films who wryly dismissed much of her career, noting that she was most remembered for a bit part as Scarlett O'Hara's younger sister Suellen in "Gone With the Wind," died July 4 at a care facility in Montecito, Calif. She had uterine cancer.

[S]he told film scholar Eddie Muller: "I never got the part, the starring role that sends you shooting way up there, into the top ranks. I thought that would come. I obviously wasn't going to marry and have a family and give it all up.

"I was married, sure, but those weren't marriages -- they were legalized love affairs. So we wouldn't have the big stink -- Oh my God, they're living together! So what do you do? You get married."

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[Washington Post]

Jesse Helms Celebrates Independence from Life

On our nation's 232nd birthday, we lose a man who served it passionately for 30 years.

Former U.S. Sen. Jesse Helms, a North Carolina Republican who became an icon to conservatives, died Friday at the age of 86, the Jesse Helms Center announced.

The cause of death has not been announced. He had been ill in recent years. Helms served five terms in the Senate, retiring in 2003 after deciding not to seek a sixth term. President Bush said at the time the Senate was "losing an institution." "Sen. Helms has been a tireless defender of our nation's freedom and a champion of democracy abroad," Bush said.

Thomas Jefferson and John Adams also died on July 4th. Really makes you think. Not sure about what, though.

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[CNN]