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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

In passing

The Spokesman-Review

Leo Sternbach, creator of Valium

Chapel Hill, N.C. Leo Sternbach, 97, who created Valium, the nation’s most-prescribed drug during the 1970s, until critics claimed it was overused and newer drugs replaced it, died Sept. 28 at his home in Chapel Hill, N.C.

Sternbach became a celebrated figure in research science for his creation of a group of chemicals that soothed anxious, irritated and agitated executives and housewives. Valium topped the list of most-common pharmaceuticals from 1969 to 1982, with nearly 2.3 billion pills passing into consumers’ hands during its peak sales year of 1978.

Sternbach, who had tested the basic chemical compound on himself while developing it, said he didn’t use Valium because it made him depressed. But neither did he consider its creation a curse, once saying that everything can be abused.

“Not enough people kept in mind the suicides that were averted and the marriages that were saved because of this drug,” he told U.S. News & World Report in 1999.

Named one of the 25 most influential Americans of the 20th century by U.S. News & World Report, Sternbach had a Yale University lecture named after him, and he was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 2005.

Sheri O’Dell, activist for NOW

Takoma Park, Md. Sheri O’Dell, a women’s rights activist who in 1989 organized what was then the largest abortion rights demonstration ever staged in Washington, died Sept. 25 of lung cancer at her home in suburban Takoma Park, Md. She was 62.

As action vice president for the National Organization for Women, O’Dell directed the 1989 March for Women’s Lives that drew hundreds of thousands of demonstrators. Seven months later, she led a follow-up rally that, although half the size of the previous one, attracted 300,000 participants, supporters said. She previously had put together a traveling caravan of activists who journeyed to a dozen states, organizing opposition to anti-abortion laws and ballot initiatives.

A firebrand organizer who was president of West Virginia NOW, O’Dell worked in journalism and government before turning full time to national advocacy work.

Sister Jacques-Marie, Matisse inspiration

Bidart, France Sister Jacques-Marie, a Dominican nun whose friendship with artist Henri Matisse led him to create the Chapel of the Rosary in Vence, France, died Monday. She was 84, according to Barbara Freed, a friend of several years.

She died of respiratory disease and other ailments at Les Embruns, a rehabilitation center in Bidart, France, that is operated by the Dominican nuns.

Sister Jacques-Marie’s friendship with Matisse began in 1942, when she was a 21-year-old nursing student in Nice named Monique Bourgeois. She answered his ad for a “young and pretty night nurse,” and got the job. Later, she joked that her parents always told her she was ugly.

Matisse was in his early 70s and recovering from surgery for intestinal cancer when Bourgeois met him. They became good friends, and for years rumors persisted that he had a crush on her. She never entirely denied it but said she thought of him as a grandfather.

When he regained his health, Matisse asked her to pose for his paintings. She modeled for four, including “Monique in Gray Robe,” as well as a number of drawings. He also advised his young friend, who was an amateur artist, about her drawings and paintings.

About a year after she met Matisse, she entered the Dominican order as a novice and took her religious vows in 1946, settling in the convent at Vence.