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The recent death of James Brown served as a symbolic exclamation point to a year in which several truly remarkable people passed away.
The following is a list of notables who died in 2006:
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| Buck O’Neil, 94. Negro League player and star of PBS’ “Baseball.” O’Neil posthumously received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor, in December. Oct. 6. (AP photo/Negro Leagues Baseball Museum) |
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| Herman W. Daley, 41. A South End mortgage lender, he died as a result of falling off the roof deck of his home. May 4. (File photo) |
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| Gerald Levert, 40. Fiery R&B singer of passionate love songs (“Casanova.”) Nov. 10. (AP photo/Chris Pizello) |
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| Tony Crayton, 56. Maverick one-term City Councilman who represented Roxbury, died of liver failure. April 21. (File photo) |
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| Thomas Henry Scott, 86. Retired Boston police officer and trusted former bodyguard of Mayors Flynn and Menino. June 1. (File photo) |
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| John Andrew Ross, 65. Widely acclaimed music educator, composer, arranger and performer, as well as the musical director of “Black Nativity” in every performance since its Boston premiere in 1970, died of heart failure. June 16. (File photo) |
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| Earl Woods, 74. Father, mentor and coach of Tiger Woods. He died at his home in Cypress, Calif., after a long battle with cancer. May 3. (AP photo/David J. Phillip) |
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• Lou Rawls, 72. Velvet-voiced singer of such hits as “Love Is a Hurtin’ Thing.” Jan. 6.
• Wilson Pickett, 64. Fiery soul music pioneer responsible for the classic “Mustang Sally.” Jan. 19.
• Coretta Scott King, 78. Civil rights leader who carried on the work started by her martyred husband. Jan. 30.
• Kirby Puckett, 45. Baseball Hall of Famer; carried Minnesota Twins to two World Series titles in the 1990s. March 6.
• Gordon Parks, 93. Writer, photographer, film director. He was the first African American staff photographer for Life magazine. His first novel, “The Learning Tree,” was also the first film he directed, making him Hollywood’s first major black director. Best known for directing the cult classic “Shaft.” March 7.
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• Ali Farka Toure, 66. The Grammy Award-winning African musician died in his native Mali after a long illness. March 6.
• Katherine Dunham, 96. Choreographer who brought African influence to U.S. dance. May 21.
• Floyd Patterson, 71. Boxing great who became the first Olympic gold medalist to win a heavyweight title by knocking out Archie Moore in 1956. Regained the title by avenging a loss to Swedish rival Ingemar Johansson in 1960. May 11.
• Billy Preston, 59. Soul, rock and R&B singer, songwriter and keyboardist. Grammy Award-winning solo artist who collaborated with the likes of The Beatles, Ray Charles, Sam Cooke and the Jackson Five. He fell into a coma caused by piericarditis late in 2005 and never regained consciousness. June 6.
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• Octavia Butler, 58. A genius science fiction writer, Butler was the first prominent African American woman in the field and an inspiration to a generation of writers of all backgrounds and gender. Butler was the first genre author to win the MacArthur Foundation Fellowship, also known as “the genius grant.” She died of a head injury resulting from a fall. Feb. 24.
• Bebe Moore Campbell, 56. Author whose many bestsellers touched on America’s ethnic and social divides. She died from complications from cancer. Nov. 27.
• Ed Bradley, 65. TV journalist who created a distinctive, powerful body of work on “60 Minutes.” Nov. 9.
• Gerald Boyd, 56. First black managing editor of The New York Times. Nov. 23.
• Naguib Mahfouz, 94. First Arab writer to win Nobel Prize in Literature; symbol of liberalism in the face of Islamic extremism. Aug. 30.
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