In passing
Melvin J. Lasky, 84, Cold War writer
Berlin Melvin J. Lasky, an American writer and editor who shaped opinions against communism in Cold War Europe, died at his home. He was 84.
Lasky was the editor of two influential European magazines. His London-based magazine Encounter, which he edited from 1953 to 1991, was one of Europe’s leading intellectual journals, and in his 15 years at Der Monat (The Month), he helped chronicle the aftermath of World War II.
Lasky served as a combat historian during the war and was among the first group of Americans into Berlin.
Lasky interviewed world leaders including Winston Churchill, President Eisenhower, former German chancellors Konrad Adenauer and Willy Brandt and former Czech President Vaclav Havel.
Prentice Marshall Sr., 77, civil rights judge
Chicago Retired federal Judge Prentice H. Marshall Sr., who colleagues say fought for the rights of minorities and the indigent during his 45-year career, died Monday. He was 77.
Marshall died at his home in Ponce Inlet, Fla., according to a statement from Chicago law firm Jenner & Block.
Marshall served as a U.S. district court judge in Chicago from 1973 until his retirement in 1996. During the 1970s, he ordered the Chicago Police Department to hire female beat officers for the first time and to end discrimination against Hispanic and black officers, said Robert Stephenson, who served as Marshall’s first law clerk.
Josie Carey, 73, children’s TV pioneer
Pittsburgh Josie Carey, a children’s television pioneer who was an early collaborator with Fred Rogers, died Friday of complications from a fall, her daughter said. She was 73.
Carey was the host of “The Children’s Corner,” which aired in Pittsburgh from 1954 to 1961 and appeared on NBC for 39 weeks. In 1955, the show received a Sylvania Television Award honoring it as the nation’s best local children’s program.
Carey later hosted children’s shows in Pittsburgh and South Carolina.
On “The Children’s Corner,” Carey was an early creative partner with Rogers, who went on to become a television icon in his zip-up cardigan on “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood.”
Carey wrote lyrics for 68 songs during the seven-year run of “Children’s Corner,” while Rogers wrote the music and stayed behind the scenes doing puppetry.
Puppets that later appeared in “Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood” were created during Carey’s show, including Daniel Striped Tiger and King Friday.
Henry Ries, 86, postwar photographer
Ghent, N.Y. Henry Ries, whose photographs of a battered postwar Germany documented the struggle of common people trying to regain life’s normalcy, died Monday. He was 86.
A Berlin-born Jew who fled Hitler in 1938, Ries captured images of the Berlin Airlift while working for The New York Times, often using mundane life to contrast the darkness of war’s aftermath.
Ries’ image of children sitting on a hillside watching a plane glide by was made into a commemorative stamp in 1998 to mark the 50th anniversary of the airlift — when over a 15-month period between 1948 and 1949 the United States, Britain and France supplied an isolated West Berlin with food and other essentials.
Last year, he was awarded Germany’s Officer’s Cross of the Order of Merit, the highest award for citizens of other countries.
Djerrkura, 54, prominent Aboriginal leader
Danberra, Australia Djerrkura, a prominent Aboriginal leader who rose to lead an elected indigenous group that administers a multimillion-dollar budget, died Wednesday. He was 54.
He died of a heart attack, officials said.
Djerrkura was a man who straddled the two worlds of traditional Aboriginal culture and national politics. He always kept a spear by his door to protect his family at times of tribal tensions.
He remained for three years at the helm of an organization that spends $1 billion each year on Australia’s 400,000 indigenous people.