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The losses of 2024

It’s likely that you lost a cultural icon who meant something to you during 2024, whether from the world of science, politics, the arts or sports.

Whether they helped to keep us informed; entertained us on stage, on film or on television; whether they dazzled us through their accomplishments in athletics; or whether they helped to change the course of the world, each reminded us about the importance one person can make on many lives.

Two of those who died in the past year helped to entertain us in many different ways, but a couple of characters portrayed by Dabney Coleman and Martin Mull had a connection to our area. Coleman played the mayor of Fernwood, Ohio, on “Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman,” and Mull portrayed the host of the talk show “Fernwood 2 Night” in a spinoff. Both shows were set in a fictionalized version of the small community just outside of Wintersville, and both were cutting-edge comedies during the mid-1970s.

Also lost from the world of entertainment were David Soul, who rose to fame in the TV show “Starskey & Hutch;” Joyce Randolph, whose portrayal of Trixie Norton in “The Honeymooners” is still enjoyable to watch, nearly 70 years after the show first aired; and Carl Weathers, a former linebacker in the NFL who turned in solid work in movies in roles including Apollo Creed in “Rocky” and golf instructor Chubbs Peterson in “Happy Gilmore.”

Others lost from the world of entertainment include Shannen Doherty, James Earl Jones, Kris Kristofferson, Gena Rowlands, Donald Sutherland and Louis Gossett Jr.

Several big names from the world of sports left us, including Jerry West, who starred in basketball at West Virginia University and who made such an impact while playing in the National Basketball Association that his silhouette is featured in the league’s logo.

Also leaving us in the past year were baseball star Willie Mays, basketball star Bill Walton and Bela Karolyi, who helped bring success to U.S. gymnastics, but whose career ended in a shroud of controversy.

Also gone in the past year were O.J. Simpson and Pete Rose. Simpson, the star running back in the National Football League, actor and commentator, was the defendant –and was acquitted — in “the trial of the century” over the 1994 killings of his ex-wife and her friend. The trial forced the country to look at racial issues, law enforcement and our legal system in a new light.

Rose, meanwhile, had a baseball career that set standards that will not be approached for a long time, yet he was kept from the sport’s highest honor — enshrinement in the Hall of Fame — after being hit with a lifetime ban for his involvement with gambling.

From the world of music we lost Quincy Wilson, Tony Keith, Dickey Betts, Phil Lesh, Joe Bonsall, Richard Perry and Melanie. Also gone are Phil Donahue, who changed the style of daytime talk; Dr. Ruth Westheimer, who changed how we talk about sex; and Richard Simmons, who changed how we think about exercise.

From the world of politics, we lost Joe Lieberman, who served in the Senate and who was Al Gore’s running mate in the 2000 election, and Sens. Jim Inhofee, Tim Johnson and Jim Sasser.

Journalists whom we lost include Chris Mortensen of ESPN, Charles Osgood of CBS, Robert NcNeil of PBS and Lou Dobbs of Fox News.

While all of these deaths had an impact on us, it’s important to keep in mind that we’ve all been touched by personal losses during the past year, having mourned the deaths of friends and relatives.

Those are the people we must keep in mind as we move forward, because they are the ones who have helped to shape our lives.

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