Fond Farewells
Odetta, 1930-2008
Ted Streshinsky / CorbisWhere did that powerful voice come from, the one that filled concert halls with such a painful, joyful noise? This folk music matriarch, born Odetta Holmes in Birmingham, Ala., seemed to contain in her sturdy frame centuries of black American suffering and pride, and the spirit to alchemize it into blistering vocal art. A featured singer at the 1963 March on Washington, she made the civil rights fight a lifelong commitment. If the grace and grit of that righteous battle were to be summed up in a word, it might be Odetta.
—Richard Corliss
See pictures of the Civil Rights movement from Emmett Till to Barack Obama.
Fond Farewells: Full List
- William F. Buckley, 1925-2008
- George Carlin, 1937-2008
- Cyd Charisse, 1921-2008
- Arthur C. Clarke, 1917-2008
- Michael Crichton, 1942-2008
- Mahmoud Darwish, 1942-2008
- Michael DeBakey, 1908-2008
Adrian Kantrowitz, 1918-2008 - Anne d'Harnoncourt, 1943-2008
- Bo Diddley, 1928-2008
- Mark Felt, 1913-2008
- Bobby Fischer, 1943-2008
- Gary Gygax, 1938-2008
- Jörg Haider, 1950-2008
- Grace Hartigan, 1922-2008
- Isaac Hayes, 1942-2008
- Jesse Helms, 1921-2008
- Charlton Heston, 1923-2008
- Edmund Hillary, 1919-2008
- Eartha Kitt, 1927-2008
- Heath Ledger, 1979-2008
- Sherman Lee, 1918-2008
- Mildred Loving, 1939-2008
- Bernie Mac, 1957-2008
- Miriam Makeba, 1932-2008
- Jim McKay, 1921-2008
- Anthony Minghella, 1954-2008
- Imad Mughniyah, 1962-2008
- Paul Newman, 1925-2008
- Odetta, 1930-2008
- Bettie Page, 1923-2008
- Randy Pausch, 1960-2008
- Harold Pinter, 1930-2008
- Suzanne Pleshette, 1937-2008
- Sydney Pollack, 1934-2008
- Dith Pran, 1942-2008
- Robert Rauschenberg, 1925-2008
- Tim Russert, 1950-2008
- Yves Saint Laurent, 1936-2008
- Tony Snow, 1955-2008
- Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, 1918-2008
- Suharto, 1921-2008
- Studs Terkel, 1912-2008
- Jørn Utzon, 1918-2008
- David Foster Wallace, 1962-2008
- Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, 1918-2008
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Year in Review 2008
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