Obituaries in the News

Art Aragon

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Art Aragon, boxing's original "Golden Boy," who never won a world title but whose brashness, good looks and celebrity lifestyle made him one of the sport's biggest drawing cards of the 1940s and 1950s, died Tuesday. He was 80.

Aragon died at Northridge Hospital Medical Center, hospital spokeswoman Christina Zicklin said. He suffered a stroke on March 15 and was removed from life support, his son, Brad, told the Los Angeles Times. Zicklin said she could not confirm those details, citing privacy laws.

Aragon lost his only world title fight to lightweight champion James Carter in 1951. Aragon, who struggled to make his weight class throughout his career, said afterward he was weak from having to lose seven pounds in the days before the fight.

Aragon finished with a 90-20-6 record, including 61 wins by knockout. He fought several stars of the era like Tommy Campbell, Jesse Flores and Carmen Basilio, who knocked him down after eight brutal rounds in 1958.

Born in Belen, N.M., the fighter grew up in East Los Angeles and began boxing in 1942. His first recorded professional fight was in 1944.

His career, however, was marred by allegations that at least some of his fights were fixed. In 1956 he was convicted of offering a $500 bribe to welterweight Dick Goldstein to take a dive in a Texas fight, but the conviction was overturned on appeal.

After retiring from the ring in 1960, he became a bail bondsman.

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Ben Carnevale

WILLIAMSBURG, Va. (AP) — Ben Carnevale, the longtime Navy basketball coach who later headed the U.S. Olympic Basketball Committee, died Tuesday. He was 92.

The Naval Academy released a statement from Carnevale's family, announcing the death. No cause of death was released. He had been living in Williamsburg.

Carnevale, born in Raritan, N.J., played for New York University and was a member of the 1935 national championship team. He also played in the first National Invitation Tournament in Madison Square Garden in 1938.

He played professionally with the Jersey Reds of the American Basketball League and served in the Navy during World War II, earning the Purple Heart.

In 1944, he became coach at North Carolina. The Tar Heels went 52-11 in his two seasons with them and played in the NCAA national title game in 1946, losing 43-40 to Oklahoma A&M.

He took over at Navy in 1946 and over the next 20 seasons became the school's winningest basketball coach.

He became athletic director for NYU in 1966 and held the job for six years. He was also AD at William & Mary from 1972-82.

He retired from William & Mary, but helped organize the Colonial Athletic Association and served as commissioner for the league.

He was the chairman of the United States Olympic Basketball Committee from 1964-68 and was a committee member for 20 years.

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Ronald H. Haines

WASHINGTON (AP) — Ronald H. Haines, the former bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington who ordained a lesbian priest and presided over the marriage of Vice President Al Gore's daughter, died Friday. He was 73.

Haines, who served as the bishop of Washington from 1990 to 2000, died from complications with cancer at his home in Lancaster, Pa., said Cheryl Daves Wilburn, special assistant to the bishop at the diocese.

Haines was an advocate for the ordination of women priests and defended gender equality in the church. Less than a year after becoming bishop, he ordained the Rev. Elizabeth L. Carl, a lesbian, sparking protests.

According to a 1992 article in The Washington Post, one of the bishop's most vocal critics was his wife, Mary, who was vice president of the National Organization of Episcopalians for Life. She even favored her husband's censure, which he narrowly avoided, at a national gathering of bishops.

Haines served in churches in New York and Rutherfordton, N.C., and was named deputy to the bishop of the Diocese of Western North Carolina in 1981.

In 1986, he was elected suffragan bishop of the Washington diocese, which includes D.C. and four Maryland counties.

In 1997, Haines presided over the wedding of Karenna Gore and New York physician Andrew Schiff at the Washington National Cathedral.

He retired in 2000 and returned to parish ministry in Pennsylvania.

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Herb Peterson

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Herb Peterson, who invented the ubiquitous Egg McMuffin as a way to introduce breakfast to McDonald's restaurants, died Tuesday. He was 89.

Peterson died at his Santa Barbara home, said Monte Fraker, vice president of operations for McDonald's restaurants in that city.

He began his career with McDonald's Corp. as vice president of the company's advertising firm, D'Arcy Advertising, in Chicago. He wrote McDonald's first national advertising slogan, "Where Quality Starts Fresh Every Day."

Peterson eventually became a franchisee and was currently co-owner and operator of six McDonald's restaurants in Santa Barbara and Goleta, Fraker said.

Peterson came up with idea for the signature McDonald's breakfast item in 1972. He "was very partial to eggs Benedict," Fraker said, and worked on creating something similar.

The egg sandwich consisted of an egg that had been formed in a Teflon circle with the yolk broken, topped with a slice of cheese and grilled Canadian bacon. It was served open-faced on a toasted and buttered English muffin.

The Egg McMuffin made its debut at a restaurant in Santa Barbara that Peterson co-owned with his son, David Peterson.

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Hal Riney

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Hal Riney, the advertising executive who created the iconic "It's Morning Again in America" ads for Ronald Reagan's re-election campaign, died Monday. He was 75.

Riney died of cancer in his home, according to Michelle Musburger, spokeswoman for his former ad agency, Publicis & Hal Riney.

In an advertising career spanning nearly 50 years, Riney helped raise San Francisco's profile as a creative hub in a New York-dominated industry.

In 1984, Riney wrote "It's Morning Again in America," a series of television commercials touting the nation's progress under Reagan. The 60-second montages of Americana aimed to boost national pride and asked voters why they would want to return to the days before the popular president.

He had served in the Army, before beginning his advertising career in the mail room of BBDO, then San Francisco's largest advertising agency.

Riney eventually served as the agency's creative director, and in 1976, opened the San Francisco office of New York agency Ogilvy & Mather. He later bought the office and renamed it Hal Riney & Partners. In 2003, the agency was sold to the Publicis Group of Paris and renamed Publicis & Hal Riney.

Riney was inducted into the American Advertising Federation's Advertising Hall of Fame in 2002 and the American Association of Advertising Agencies gave him its lifetime achievement award the same year.

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Richard Widmark

HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — Richard Widmark, who made a sensational film debut as the giggling killer in "Kiss of Death" and became a leading man in "Broken Lance," "Two Rode Together" and 40 other films, died Monday. He was 93.

Widmark's wife, Susan Blanchard, said he died at his home in Roxbury after a long illness. She would not provide details of his illness.

Widmark earned an Academy Award nomination for best supporting actor for his role in the 1947 thriller "Kiss of Death." He played Tommy Udo, who delighted in pushing an old lady in a wheelchair down a flight of stairs to her death. It was his only Oscar nomination.

A quiet, inordinately shy man, Widmark often portrayed killers, cops and Western gunslingers. But he said he hated guns.

Rejected by the Army because of a punctured eardrum, Widmark began appearing in Broadway plays in 1943. His first was a comedy hit "Kiss and Tell." He was appearing in the Chicago company of "Dream Girl" with June Havoc when 20th Century Fox signed him to a seven-year contract. He almost missed out on the "Kiss of Death" role.

Widmark appeared in 20 Fox films from 1957 to 1964. After leaving Fox, Widmark's career continued to flourish. "Madigan," a 1968 film with Widmark as a loner detective, was converted to television and lasted one season in 1972-73. It was Widmark's only TV series.

He also was in some TV films, including "Cold Sassy Tree" and "Once Upon a Texas Train."

In later years, Widmark appeared sparingly in films and TV.

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