In Passing
New York
A.M. Rosenthal, Times editor
A.M. Rosenthal, the editor who heralded the New York Times into an era of economic and journalistic revitalization in the 1970s, died Wednesday at the Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York. He was 84.
Rosenthal suffered a stroke two weeks ago, said his son, Andrew.
“Abe was a giant among journalists,” retired Times publisher Arthur Ochs Sulzberger said in a statement. “He was a great editor with extraordinary loyalty to his troops.”
He spent virtually all of his working life at the Times. As a reporter and correspondent, he covered New York, the UN, India, Poland, Japan and other regions of the world. In 1960, he won a Pulitzer for his reporting on the Communist regime in Poland.
On Rosenthal’s watch, the Times published the Pentagon Papers, a classified history of America’s involvement in Vietnam, winning the paper one of its many Pulitzer Prizes, in 1972. Rosenthal led the paper through the journalistic challenges of covering Vietnam and Nixon’s presidency, including Watergate.
As perhaps the paper’s most important and influential editor of the 20th century, Rosenthal also transformed the Times by adding a full-fledged business section and magazine-style themed daily sections.
Meridian, Miss.
G.V. Montgomery, GI Bill reformer
Former Rep. Gillespie V. “Sonny” Montgomery, who during his 30 years in Congress pushed through a modernized GI Bill that boosted recruiting for the all-volunteer force, died Friday. He was 85.
Montgomery, who underwent surgery for a bowel obstruction in December, died at Jeff Anderson Regional Medical Center in his native Meridian after a lengthy illness, said Kyle Steward, the former congressman’s spokesman.
A conservative Democrat, Montgomery represented an east-central Mississippi district in Congress from 1967 to 1997, and for 13 years chaired the House Veterans Affairs Committee.
He was a 35-year military veteran, serving in the Army in Europe during World War II, then returned to active duty during the Korean War as part of the National Guard. He retired from the Mississippi National Guard in 1980 with the rank of major general.
Miami
Soraya, singer who fought cancer
Soraya, the chart-topping singer/songwriter, became a voice of hope in the fight against cancer by delivering a message in the U.S. and Latin America about preventive screening, treatment and the need to remove the stigma associated with the illness.
The 2004 Latin Grammy award winner who used her fame and talents to promote awareness of breast cancer, died of the disease Thursday in Miami where she lived. She was 37.
In 2000, Soraya’s crusade turned personal when she was diagnosed with the disease. That year, as she embarked on an aggressive treatment plan, she made a short video about her illness and promptly received 6,000 e-mails, many from women writing of their own battles with breast cancer.
Soraya, who was born in New Jersey, spent part of her childhood in Colombia, the birthplace of her parents. In 1996 Soraya debuted with the album “On Nights Like This/En Esta Noche” on Polygram Latino U.S./Island Records, which like other works was released in English and in Spanish.
From the beginning Soraya won praise for lyrics that were honest, rooted in family experiences, and, one writer said, “unfettered by overproduction.”
In 2004 Soraya received a Latin Grammy for her album “Soraya” in the Best Singer-Songwriter category. And last year she released “El Otro Lado de Mi,” which was nominated for a Latin Grammy.