Tom Emberton, once a Republican candidate for Kentucky governor and later chief judge of the state Court of Appeals, died Thursday in a house fire after getting his wife to safety, officials said.
Tom Emberton
Western Kentucky University
The fire was discovered around 3:30 a.m., Metcalfe County Coroner Larry Wilson said. Emberton helped get his wife away from the home but then he went back inside and didn’t make it out, Wilson said. Emberton was in his late 80s.
Kentucky Chief Justice John D. Minton Jr. announced Emberton’s death during his State of the Judiciary, spokesperson Leigh Anne Hiatt said.
Edmonton Mayor Doug Smith said the fire was accidental.
“Tom heroically made certain his wife Julia made it to safety but lost his life during his effort to save their home,” Smith said in a statement to WBKO-TV in Bowling Green.
Emberton, a lawyer from Metcalfe County, ran for governor in 1971, losing in the general election to then Lt. Governor Wendell Ford.
He was appointed to the Court of Appeals in 1987. He was reelected twice and also served as chief judge of the appellate court until he retired in 2004, U.S. Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell said.
“Tom gave me one of my earliest experiences in the rough and tumble reality of political campaigning, hiring me to work on his 1971 gubernatorial campaign,” McConnell said in a statement. “He taught me valuable lessons on public service and running as a statewide Republican in Kentucky. “
Emberton is also survived by his children, Laura Emberton Owens and Tom Emberton Jr.
According to his alma mater, Western Kentucky University, Emberton enrolled at the school after a four-year tour of duty with the United States Air Force. After graduating from WKU, Emberton was accepted to the University of Louisville School of Law in 1959.
In 2007, the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet named a bridge in Metcalfe County in his honor, the university said.
Haitians are paying tribute to singer Mikaben, whose death Saturday night during a concert in Paris left his country reeling. The 41-year-old recording artist, whose real name is Michael Benjamin, suffered a suspected heart attack during a performance, shocking fans who saw him collapse as he made his way off stage.
He was appearing at the 20,000-capacity Accor Arena in eastern Paris as a guest of Haitian group Carimi.
He “died after suffering a seizure on stage and despite the efforts of emergency services,” the venue announced on Twitter.
Haitian musician Mikaben (born Michael Benjamin) plays guitar as he performs (as a special guest with Emeline Michel & her band) during the World Music Institute’s ‘Eritaj’ (‘Heritage’) concert, in celebration of Haitian Heritage Month, at Symphony Space, New York, New York, May 25, 2019.
Jack Vartoogian / Getty Images
Videos on social media show him performing, then suddenly turning and making his way toward the back of the stage.
He collapses in full view of spectators, the music stops and medics are called.
Tributes poured in from across Haiti after his death, with radio stations and venues playing his music on repeat from Saturday night.
“I’m shocked by the sudden death of the young and very talented artist Michael Benjamin ‘Mikaben,’” Haitian Prime Minister Ariel Henry wrote on Twitter.
“We have lost a major figure in Haitian music.”
Haiti-born rapper Wyclef Jean, of the hip-hop group the Fugees, called him “one of the most influential and inspirational young artists of our generation” in an interview with The Miami Herald newspaper.
“Rest in peace,” he wrote in a tribute on Twitter, with a video showing him with Mikaben. “Gone too soon.”
Former Haitian premier Jean Henry Ceant echoed the praise, hailing Mikaben as “one of the most talented artists of his generation” on Twitter.
In a special broadcast by Magik9 radio, singer Tamara Suffren said his death was “a blow to the country” — a state mired in spiraling security and health crises.
Mikaben, son of famed singer Lionel Benjamin, was born in Haitian capital Port-au-Prince in 1981 and was well-known in the local music scene as a singer, writer and producer.
He featured in several Carimi hits, including “Baby I Missed You” and “Fanm sa Move.”
Smiling and thanking fans, he posted a video to his more than one million followers on Instagram from inside the Accor Arena on Saturday before the concert.
His wife Vanessa, who is pregnant with their third child, posted a message thanking people for their prayers but asking for privacy, ET reported.
“I’m in no condition to talk. I lost my other half and have no words,” she wrote.
Wyclef Jean paid tribute to the singer on Twitter, captioning a video of the two together, “Rest In Peace King @mikaben Gone too soon #haiti.”
<blockquote class=”twitter-tweet”><p lang=”en” dir=”ltr”>Rest In Peace King <a href=”https://twitter.com/mikaben?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>@mikaben</a> Gone too soon <a href=”https://twitter.com/hashtag/haiti?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>#haiti</a> <a href=”https://t.co/9pZXum61PS”>pic.twitter.com/9pZXum61PS</a></p>— Wyclef Jean (@wyclef) <a href=”https://twitter.com/wyclef/status/1581420553532936194?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>October 15, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src=”https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js” charset=”utf-8″></script>
Haitian singer Mikaben, whose real name was Michael Benjamin, died from a suspected heart attack or cardiac arrest Saturday after suddenly collapsing onstage during a performance in Paris, according to The Guardian. He was 41 years old.
Mikaben was performing as a guest of Haitian konpa group CaRiMi at the 20,000-seat Accor Arena when social media footage showed him attempting to walk offstage and collapsing.
“End of the concert,” CaRiMi singer Mickael Guirand told the crowd, some of whom fainted after the incident, per The Miami Herald. “It’s very complicated. We need prayers.”
The venue tweeted Sunday, according to a Twitter translation, that Mikaben “died following a malaise onstage and despite the intervention of the emergency services. The entire Accor Arena team is terribly affected and sends all its support to his family and loved ones in this painful ordeal.”
“I’m in no condition to talk,” the singer’s wife, who is pregnant, told The Guardian. “I lost my other half and have no words.”
His website described Mikaben as a rare artist who was prodigious in all genres, from Haitian konpa music and the Antillean Zouk to Jamaican reggae and R&B. Born in Haiti’s capital of Port-au-Prince in 1981, he spoke four languages and played several instruments.
Mikaben started singing at 15 but fully established himself as a performer in Montreal during his later studies. He began touring Canada’s music festivals in the mid-2000s, but returned to Haiti following the 2010 earthquake with a galvanizing song titled “Yon Ti Souf You Ayiti” (or “A Little Breath for Haiti”).
“This is a shock,” Wyclef Jean of The Fugees, who was born in Haiti, told the Herald. “All I could remember was his smile. This is one of the most influential and inspirational young artists of our generation.”
Tributes for Mikaben, who is survived by his wife Vanessa, poured in from peers, politicians and fans around the globe. Haiti’s prime minister, Ariel Henry, tweeted he was “devastated by the news of the sudden death” and that Haiti “lost a beautiful soul.”
“I’m in disbelief,” Haitian singer Roberto Martino told The Miami Herald. “This is somebody I was working with for years and considered a brother, a good friend. We talked almost everyday. We have a chat together. He was so happy. He couldn’t wait to get on that stage with CaRiMi.”
Mikaben had uploaded an Instagram video from inside the Accor Arena mere hours before the doors opened for attendees, thanking his fans for their endless support.
“It was one of his biggest accomplishments,” added Martino. “It’s a band he idolized. I’m at a lost for words. I’m broken.”
Robbie Coltrane became famous the world over as a literal gentle giant, playing the towering but tender Hogwarts groundskeeper Hagrid in the Harry Potter films. He played many other roles in the span of his four decades as a performer, but it was this character—less a father figure and more of an extremely big brother—who made him iconic, despite being buried beneath a great big bushy beard and a cascade of unruly hair. The kindness in Coltrane’s eyes was unmistakable.
Coltrane died on Friday at the age of 72, according to his agent. No details were provided about the cause of death.
The news caused an outpouring of grief from fans who knew him as the lovable half-giant in the mega-franchise, as well as from the actors who played opposite him. “Robbie was one of the funniest people I’ve met and used to keep us laughing constantly as kids on the set,” Daniel Radcliffe said in an Instagram post featuring photos of them together from a 2001 red carpet for Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. “I’ve especially fond memories of him keeping our spirits up on Prisoner of Azkaban, when we were all hiding from the torrential rain for hours in Hagrid’s hut and he was telling stories and cracking jokes to keep morale up. I feel incredibly lucky that I got to meet and work with him and very sad that he’s passed. He was an incredible actor and a lovely man.”
When the first film debuted, author J.K. Rowling said Coltrane was at the top of her personal wish list for actors to play Rubeus Hagrid. “Robbie is just perfect for Hagrid because Hagrid is a very loveable character, quite likable, quite comic,” she said. “But you really do have to have a certain toughness underneath. I think Robbie does that perfectly.” As word of his death emerged, Rowling posted her own photograph and remembrance on Twitter.
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The actor was born Anthony Robert McMillan in Glasgow, Scotland, the son of a doctor and a schoolteacher. He began acting professionally in the late ‘70s, doing stage and television work, before graduating to small parts in movies such as 1980’s Flash Gordon and the 1983 sci-fi drama Krull, 1985’s European Vacation ,and 1986’s neo-noir Mona Lisa. He could play both laughs and tragedy, but his talents as a comic actor most propelled his career.
In 1989, Kenneth Branagh cast him in his big-screen adaptation of Henry V, portraying one of William Shakespeare’s most beloved characters—the lovable, hard-drinking gadabout John Falstaff. But Coltrane could also go deliciously lowbrow, as with 1990’s Nuns on the Run, starring opposite Eric Idle as two bank robbers who hide out disguised as … you guessed it.
Coltrane appeared in two of Pierce Brosnan‘s outings as James Bond, 1995’s GoldenEye and 1999’s The World Is Not Enough, playing a former KGB foe turned underworld figure (and reluctant 007 ally) Valentin Dmitrovich Zukovsky. He also starred in the 1990s BBC mystery series Cracker, playing an astute criminal psychologist whose personal life is a disaster.
Angela Lansbury, the celebrated actor who spent seven decades in film, television and theater, died on Tuesday, according to a statement released by her family. She was 96.
“The children of Dame Angela Lansbury are sad to announce that their mother died peacefully in her sleep at home in Los Angeles at 1:30 AM today, Tuesday, October 11, 2022, just five days shy of her 97th birthday,” her family said in a statement obtained by NBC News and People.
Lansbury’s lead role as amateur detective Jessica Fletcher in the long-running series “Murder, She Wrote” made her something of a feminist idol. She also had a significant queer fan base thanks to her consistent work in musical theater.
Born in London on Oct. 16, 1925, Lansbury was the daughter of actor Moyna Macgill and socialist politician Edgar Lansbury. Her father died of stomach cancer when she was 9, and in 1940, her family moved to the United States to escape the Nazi blitz. Around age 17, she met the screenwriter John Van Drutenat a party her mother hosted. Van Druten suggested her for the role of a conniving maid in the 1944 psychological thriller “Gaslight.” It became Lansbury’s first film appearance, and the part earned her an Oscar nomination at age 20. At the height of Hollywood’s studio-system era, Lansbury quickly signed a seven-year contract with the profitable MGM. She initially earned $500 a week (or roughly $7,300 in today’s economy).
Lansbury in 1960’s “Season of Passion.”
Archive Photos via Getty Images
Lansbury’s path to full-fledged stardom didn’t crystallize with her first Oscar nod, though. MGM tended to stick her in supporting roles, so she often played second fiddle to the likes of Elizabeth Taylor (1944’s “National Velvet”), Judy Garland (1946’s “The Harvey Girls”), Deborah Kerr (1947’s “If Winter Comes”), Katharine Hepburn (1948’s “State of the Union”), Ethel Barrymore (1951’s “Kind Lady”) and Anne Baxter (1960’s “Season of Passion”).
“They didn’t know what to do with me,” Lansbury said of MGM in a 2015 interview with The Telegraph. “They didn’t make the sort of movies that I could possibly have shone in, so they used me as a utility. I played a lot of older women.”
Still, Lansbury garnered critical praise from the start. The New York Times called her early performances “fetching” and “commendable.” Lansbury earned her second Oscar nomination, for playing Sibyl Vane in the 1945 adaptation of “The Picture of Dorian Gray,” just one year after her first.
As the 1960s crept in and the studio system combusted, Lansbury became a name unto herself. Finally, a star was born. Her film roles — some of them, at least — got meatier. In 1962, Lansbury played manipulative mothers in both “All Falls Down” and “The Manchurian Candidate.” Collectively, the roles earned her a prize from the National Board of Review, while the latter anchored her third Oscar nomination and her first Golden Globe win.
Angela Lansbury played Elvis Presley’s mother in the 1961 film, Blue Hawaii, despite her being only 10 years older than him. She also played manipulative mothers in “All Falls Down” and “The Manchurian Candidate” in 1962.
Bettmann via Getty Images
When she continued to be relegated to supporting roles on the big screen, it was the stage where Lansbury found her calling. After starring in the critically reviled 1964 Stephen Sondheim musical “Anyone Can Whistle,” Lansbury landed the title role in the musical “Mame,” playing a bohemian who introduces her 10-year-old nephew to her liberated lifestyle, a performance that led to her first of five Tony Awards. (When Lansbury revived the role in 1983, The New York Times’ Frank Rich wrote, “One feels a rush when she enters, a vision in gold from her toes to her raised bugle.”) Even though Lansbury was disappointed that the role of Mame in the 1974 film adaptation went to Lucille Ball, who was considered a more profitable star, Lansbury’s career prospered greatly after the stage run ended in 1968.
Throughout the ’70s, Lansbury starred in revivals of “Gypsy” in both London and New York. She played Gertrude in “Hamlet,” Anna Leonowens in “The King and I” and Mrs. Nellie Lovett in the original “Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street.” She also secured her splashiest film role, playing a witch in the now-classic 1971 Disney fantasy “Bedknobs and Broomsticks.”
Lansbury at a party for the 100th episode of “Murder, She Wrote” in 1989.
But the role that made her a household name ― and fattened her bank account ― didn’t come until the 1980s, when she was nearing her 60s. After Jean Stapleton and Doris Day reportedly turned down the principal role in CBS’s “Murder, She Wrote,” Lansbury took the job. She spent 12 seasons playing Jessica Fletcher, the widowed mystery writer who solved crimes in her spare time. The series premiered in 1984, and Lansbury has said it was the closest she came to “universal fame.” The role of Jessica also marked a turning point for female characters on television: She was an older, self-sufficient career woman, and Lansbury insisted that Jessica remain single so she would represent female independence.
“Jessica Fletcher didn’t want to begin a whole new cycle of life with somebody new, because she had a very complete life as an authoress,” Lansbury said in 2012. “She had success and the comfort and coziness of her home, her pursuits, her friends.”
The actor earned 10 Emmy nominations for the show, though she never won. Lansbury didn’t appear in stage roles during her stint on “Murder,” but she did make additional film and TV appearances, memorably voicing the motherly Mrs. Potts in 1991’s “Beauty and the Beast.”
Throughout all of this, Lansbury married twice. At age 19, she eloped with the 35-year-old actor Richard Cromwell, who had appeared in “Jezebel” and “Young Mr. Lincoln.” The marriage lasted nine months, and Lansbury later found out he was gay, though they remained friendly until his death in 1960. Her second marriage, to producer Peter Shaw, began in 1949 and lasted 54 years, until his death in 2003.
Shaw and Lansbury left California in 1970 and began to split their time between Ireland and New York City. Together, they had two children, Anthony Peter Shaw (born in 1952) and Deirdre Angela Shaw (born in 1953).
Lansbury in 2018’s “Mary Poppins Returns.”
In keeping with her late father’s political career, Lansbury aligned herself with America’s Democratic Party and the United Kingdom’s Labour Party.
“I think the exciting thing about acting is I leave myself at home, and the person that arrives on the set is hopefully akin to the character that I’m going to play,” Lansbury said in 2018. “And that gives me the chance to indulge myself in the thing I love doing most, which is acting. Acting as somebody else, not me, because I’m dull as dishwater.”
Lansbury’s output had slowed in more recent years, but she appeared in 2005’s “Nanny McPhee,” 2011’s “Mr. Popper’s Penguins,” 2017’s “Little Women” miniseries and 2018’s “Mary Poppins Returns.” She returned to the stage with 2007’s “Deuce,” a Terrence McNally play that netted her another Tony nomination, as well as the 2009 revival of Stephen Sondheim’s “A Little Night Music” and a brief 2013 run as the titular character in “Driving Miss Daisy.” Lansbury earned three additional Emmy nominations for her appearance in the 2004 TV movie “The Blackwater Lightship” and her guest spots on “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” and “Law & Order: Trial By Jury.” In 2014, she was awarded an honorary Oscar.
“I think stamina is built into my constitution,” she said in 2012.
Her contributions through “Murder, She Wrote” live on: The lucrative 2019 murder-mystery comedy “Knives Out” features a brief clip of the show and thanks Lansbury in its closing credits.
In June, Lansbury received a special Tony Award for lifetime achievement, though she was not present to accept the accolade at New York’s Radio City Music Hall. Her last Broadway appearance was in a 2012 revival of Gore Vidal’s play, “The Best Man.”
Even if MGM initially didn’t let her shine, Lansbury would become defined by her versatility. Through her work, she stepped into the shoes of freewheeling bohemians, masterful manipulators, romantic artists and sweet go-getters. The British newspaper The Independent posited in 2010 that Lansbury may be Britain’s “most successful actress ever.”
“I think of myself as a journeyman actress,” she said in 2004. “I will attempt almost anything that I think that I can bring off.”
A cause of death has not been released. Ryan was a few days away from her 95th birthday, which would have been on October 16.
Director Sean Penn and Eileen Ryan at the Los Angeles Premiere of Paramount Vantage “Into The Wild” at the Director’s Guild of America on September 18, 2007 in Los Angeles, California.
E. Charbonneau
Ryan was cast in dozens of films and television shows throughout a career that spanned more than 60 years. Her movie credits include “Magnolia,” “I Am Sam,” “Eight Legged Freaks” and “All the King’s Men.” On TV, Ryan had roles on “The Twilight Zone,” “ER” and “Grey’s Anatomy.” She appeared with her sons Sean and Chris in “At Close Range” and had acted in movies directed by Sean.
She met actor Leo Penn in 1957 after meeting him during rehearsals for the “The Iceman Cometh” in New York and the couple stayed together until his death in 1998. They were parents to Sean, Michael and Chris. Chris Penn, who appeared in “Reservoir Dogs,” died in 2006 at the age of 40.
Sara Lee, the former WWE wrestler and winner of the reality TV series “Tough Enough,” has died at the age of 30, her mother said in a Facebook post on Thursday. Her cause of death has not been revealed.
“It is with heavy hearts we wanted to share that our Sara Weston has gone to be with Jesus,” Lee’s mother, Terri, said. “We are all in shock and arrangements are not complete. We ask that you respectfully let our family mourn. We all need prayers especially Cory and her children.”
WWE is saddened to learn of the passing of Sara Lee. As a former “Tough Enough” winner, Lee served as an inspiration to many in the sports-entertainment world. WWE offers its heartfelt condolences to her family, friends and fans. pic.twitter.com/jtjjnG52n7
Lee won WWE’s “Tough Enough” reality TV series in 2015. She received a one-year $250,000 contract with the WWE following the show and was assigned to NXT, the wrestling promotion company’s developmental brand. She later retired from wrestling and married wrestler Westin Blake – whose real name is Cory James Weston – in 2017. They had three children together.
World Wrestling Entertainment also issued a statement, saying it was “saddened” to learn of Lee’s death.
“As a former ‘Tough Enough’ winner, Lee served as an inspiration to many in the sports-entertainment world,” WWE said. “WWE offers its heartfelt condolences to her family, friends and fans.”
In her final Instagram post on Wednesday, she wrote about battling a sinus infection for the first time.
Fellow wrestlers paid their condolences on social media.
“Absolutely heart breaking, life is too short. Sara was awesome sending love and prayers to her family and loved ones,” WWE star Sonya Deville tweeted.
Wrestler Chelsea Green shared photos of her and Lee, and said she’ll be “missed greatly.”
No tweet or amount of words can bring back this beautiful human, but all of my heart goes out to @TheWestinBlake & their family. Sara Lee will be missed greatly. ♥️ The photo on the left is how I will always remember her – laughing, smiling, carefree. pic.twitter.com/XLlLFXDOcF
Loretta Lynn, a coal miner’s daughter with no formal music training, became one of the biggest names in country music. She died at age 90. Norah O’Donnell takes a look back on her life and career.
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Loretta Lynn, the Kentucky coal miner’s daughter whose frank songs about life and love as a woman in Appalachia pulled her out of poverty and made her a pillar of country music, has died, her consulting firm confirmed to CBS News on Tuesday. She was 90.
In a statement provided to The Associated Press, Lynn’s family said she died Tuesday at her home in Hurricane Mills, Tennessee.
“Our precious mom, Loretta Lynn, passed away peacefully this morning, October 4th, in her sleep at home in her beloved ranch in Hurricane Mills,” the family said in a statement. They asked for privacy as they grieve and said a memorial will be announced later.
Lynn already had four children before launching her career in the early 1960s, and her songs reflected her pride in her rural Kentucky background.
Loretta Lynn poses for a portrait holding a guitar that has her name spelled down the fretboard in circa 1961 in Nashville, Tennessee.
Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images
As a songwriter, she crafted a persona of a defiantly tough woman, a contrast to the stereotypical image of most female country singers. The Country Music Hall of Famer wrote fearlessly about sex and love, cheating husbands, divorce and birth control and sometimes got in trouble with radio programmers for material from which even rock performers once shied away.
Her biggest hits came in the 1960s and ’70s, including “Coal Miner’s Daughter,” “You Ain’t Woman Enough,” “The Pill,” “Don’t Come Home a Drinkin’ (With Lovin’ on Your Mind),” “Rated X” and “You’re Looking at Country.” She was known for appearing in floor-length, wide gowns with elaborate embroidery or rhinestones, many created by her longtime personal assistant and designer Tim Cobb.
Her honesty and unique place in country music was rewarded. She was the first woman ever named entertainer of the year at the genre’s two major awards shows, first by the Country Music Association in 1972 and then by the Academy of Country Music three years later.
“It was what I wanted to hear and what I knew other women wanted to hear, too,” Lynn told the AP in 2016. “I didn’t write for the men; I wrote for us women. And the men loved it, too.”
In 1969, she released her autobiographical “Coal Miner’s Daughter,” which helped her reach her widest audience yet.
“We were poor but we had love/That’s the one thing Daddy made sure of/He shoveled coal to make a poor man’s dollar,” she sang.
“Coal Miner’s Daughter,” also the title of her 1976 book, was made into a 1980 movie of the same name. Sissy Spacek’s portrayal of Lynn won her an Academy Award and the film was also nominated for best picture.
Long after her commercial peak, Lynn won two Grammys in 2005 for her album “Van Lear Rose,” which featured 13 songs she wrote, including “Portland, Oregon” about a drunken one-night stand. “Van Lear Rose” was a collaboration with rocker Jack White, who produced the album and played the guitar parts.
Born Loretta Webb, the second of eight children, she claimed her birthplace was Butcher Holler, near the coal mining company town of Van Lear in the mountains of east Kentucky. There really wasn’t a Butcher Holler, however. She later told a reporter that she made up the name for the purposes of the song based on the names of the families that lived there.
Her daddy played the banjo, her mama played the guitar and she grew up on the songs of the Carter Family.
“I was singing when I was born, I think,” she told the AP in 2016. “Daddy used to come out on the porch where I would be singing and rocking the babies to sleep. He’d say, ‘Loretta, shut that big mouth. People all over this holler can hear you.’ And I said, ‘Daddy, what difference does it make? They are all my cousins.’”
She wrote in her autobiography that she was 13 when she got married to Oliver “Mooney” Lynn, but the AP later discovered state records that showed she was 15. Tommy Lee Jones played Mooney Lynn in the biopic.
Her husband, whom she called “Doo” or “Doolittle,” urged her to sing professionally and helped promote her early career. With his help, she earned a recording contract with Decca Records, later MCA, and performed on the Grand Ole Opry stage. Lynn wrote her first hit single, “I’m a Honky Tonk Girl,” released in 1960.
She also teamed up with singer Conway Twitty to form one of the most popular duos in country music with hits such as “Louisiana Woman, Mississippi Man” and “After the Fire is Gone,” which earned them a Grammy Award. Their duets, and her single records, were always mainstream country and not crossover or pop-tinged.
The Academy of Country Music chose her as the artist of the decade for the 1970s, and she was elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1988.
In “Fist City,” Lynn threatens a hair-pulling fistfight if another woman won’t stay away from her man: “I’m here to tell you, gal, to lay off of my man/If you don’t want to go to Fist City.” That strong-willed but traditional country woman reappears in other Lynn songs. In “The Pill,” a song about sex and birth control, Lynn writes about how she’s sick of being trapped at home to take care of babies: “The feelin’ good comes easy now/Since I’ve got the pill,” she sang.
She moved to Hurricane Mills, Tennessee, outside of Nashville, in the 1990s, where she set up a ranch complete with a replica of her childhood home and a museum that is a popular roadside tourist stop. The dresses she was known for wearing are there, too.
Lynn knew that her songs were trailblazing, especially for country music, but she was just writing the truth that so many rural women like her experienced.
“I could see that other women was goin’ through the same thing, ’cause I worked the clubs. I wasn’t the only one that was livin’ that life and I’m not the only one that’s gonna be livin’ today what I’m writin’,” she told the AP in 1995.
Even into her later years, Lynn never seemed to stop writing, scoring a multi-album deal in 2014 with Legacy Records, a division of Sony Music Entertainment. In 2017, she suffered a stroke that forced her to postpone her shows.
She and her husband were married nearly 50 years before he died in 1996. They had six children: Betty, Jack, Ernest and Clara, and then twins Patsy and Peggy. She had 17 grandchildren and four step-grandchildren.
Jack Kulka, the outspoken Long Island construction industry leader and founding member of the Hauppauge Industrial Association, has died at the age of 79.
The only child of immigrant parents, Kulka grew up in the Bronx and received full scholarships to attend Bronx High School of Science and New York University, where he earned a Bachelor of Science degree in electrical engineering and subsequently became a professional engineer.
At age 34, Kulka founded Kulka Construction Corp., now known as The Kulka Group, and pioneered construction management on Long Island. He was the only non-lawyer involved with creating the Construction Management Association of America contractual documents and quickly became recognized for giving clients quality building at a lower cost.
In his 39 years of leading the company, Kulka was responsible for the construction of more than 22 million square feet of commercial projects across the New York metropolitan area and south Florida.
“Not only were we interested in building the most economical projects for our clients, but we wanted to make sure it was of the highest quality and met very stringent scheduling requirements,” Kulka said in a 2018 interview. “Our clients not only got the best job for the money, but they got the best possible job that could be done that adhered to code. Contractors working for us had to adhere to the strictest construction and quality standards. Clients got a superior project at an exceptional price.”
When his health began failing, Kulka handed over the reins of the company to his son Devin in 2017.
“My father was a visionary businessman and a strong advocate for Long Island and the working people who make it what it is. He helped shape the Long Island landscape forever,” Devin Kulka, CEO of The Kulka Group, said in a written statement. “His legacy is his large, blended family, the business he created and the friendships he made throughout his life. We thank everyone for their well wishes at this challenging time for our family.”
Jack Kulka was a member of the New York’s State Society of Professional Engineers and served on numerous organizational governing and advisory boards including the Touro Law Center, the Metropolitan New York Chapter of the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs, the Bi-County Political Action Committee, the Long Island Holocaust Committee and the Hauppauge Industrial Association.
Kulka also held leadership positions with several organizations, including the Commack Jewish Center, the Long Island Israeli Bond Campaign, United Way of Long Island, Suffolk County Crimestoppers, American Cancer Society, St. Johns Episcopal Hospital and Hauppauge Educational Foundation. Kulka was also a past president and founder of the Suffolk Y Jewish Community Center, and the Farmingdale College Foundation.
Terri Alessi-Miceli, president and CEO of HIA-LI, of which Kulka was a founding member, called him a driving force.
“He had a passion and vision for building in the Long Island Innovation Park at Hauppauge and helped the organization lead a group of business professionals to get them what they needed when they needed it to help their businesses thrive,” Alessi-Miceli said. “He was relentless about everything he did and showed us what real tenacity looked like. I was fortunate enough to have worked alongside him and he showed me that if you bring the right people together for the right reasons anything can get accomplished. I felt privileged to work and learn from him. We are forever grateful.”
Services in Kulka’s honor will be held at 9:45 a.m. on Sunday, Oct. 2 at the Star of David Memorial Chapel and a burial service will follow directly after.
The family will be sitting shiva at 16 Wyandanch Blvd. in Smithtown, and they’ve requested that shiva visits be limited to Sunday after the service; 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. on Monday, Oct. 3; and 9 a.m. to noon on Tuesday, Oct. 4.
Donations in Kulka’s honor are much appreciated and requested to be made to one or more of the following organizations: Chabad of Mid Suffolk, Suffolk Y JCC, Hauppauge Industrial Association Scholarship Fund, Suffolk County Crimestoppers, Family & Children’s Association of Long Island and Long Island Home Builders Care.
