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— Robert L. Krechevsky
WEST HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — Robert L. Krechevsky, a federal bankruptcy judge who oversaw a case involving the collapse of real estate giant Colonial Realty, has died. He was 86.
Krechevsky, who retired in August, died Thursday at his home in West Hartford, according to a newspaper obituary prepared by his family.
He served for 30 years in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Connecticut. One of his most notable cases stemmed from the collapse of Colonial Realty, once Connecticut's largest real estate company. It went bankrupt in 1990 and cost investors about $350 million.
The company's downfall prompted an investigation that resulted in prison sentences for top executives and a union leader.
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Miriam Makeba
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa (AP) — Miriam Makeba, the South African singer who wooed the world with her sultry voice but was banned from her own country for 30 years under apartheid, died after a concert in Italy. She was 76.
The Pineta Grande clinic in Castel Volturno, near the southern city of Naples, said Makeba died of a heart attack early Monday.
Town Mayor Francesco Nuzzo said Makeba collapsed late Sunday at the end of a concert against organized crime, which has been blamed for the local massacre in September of six immigrants from Ghana.
In her dazzling career, Makeba performed with musical legends from around the world — jazz maestros Nina Simone and Dizzy Gillespie, Harry Belafonte, Paul Simon — and sang for world leaders such as John F. Kennedy and Nelson Mandela.
She was also the first African woman to win a Grammy award.
The South African government banned her records after she appeared before the U.N. Special Committee on Apartheid in 1963 to call for an international boycott of South Africa.
Thanks to her close relationship with Belafonte, she received star status in the United States and performed for President Kennedy at his birthday party in 1962. But she fell briefly out of favor when she married black power activist Stokely Carmichael and moved to Guinea in the late 1960s.
Besides working with Simone and Gillespie, she also appeared with Paul Simon at his "Graceland" concert in Zimbabwe in 1987.
After three decades abroad, Makeba was invited back to South Africa by Mandela, the anti-apartheid icon, shortly after his release from prison in 1990 as white racist rule crumbled.
"It was like a revival," she said about going home. "My music having been banned for so long, that people still felt the same way about me was too much for me. I just went home and I cried."
After news of her death, tributes poured in on morning radio talk shows, with many callers in tears as they recalled her humor and her unrelenting spirit.
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Virgil Starks
AUBURN, Ala. (AP) — Virgil Starks, Auburn University's associate athletic director, has died. He was 46.
Starks died of a heart attack Saturday, the university announced in a news release.
He died while returning home from Saturday's football game against Tennessee-Martin. He was in charge of student-athlete support services and had worked with Auburn's athletic department for 10 years.
Tuberville said Starks played a big role in helping Auburn student athletes get their degrees.
Athletic Director Jay Jacobs praised Starks for caring for Auburn athletes as if they were his children.
