In Passing

Columbus, Ohio

Bob Evans, restaurant founder

Bob Evans, whose quest for quality sausage to serve the truckers who filled his 12-stool, 24-hour-a-day steakhouse in southeast Ohio led to the creation of a restaurant chain that bears his name, died Thursday.

Evans, 89, died at the Cleveland Clinic. The clinic said he died of complications from pneumonia.

Evans complained that he could not get good sausage for the restaurant he started after World War II in Gallipolis, in southeast Ohio.

Starting with $1,000, a couple of hogs, 40 pounds of black pepper, 50 pounds of sage and other secret ingredients, he opted to make his own, relying on the hog’s best parts as opposed to the scraps commonly used in sausage. He began selling it at the restaurant and mom-and-pop stores, and peddled tubs of it out of the back of his pickup truck.

It marked the beginning of what is now a restaurant chain with sales of $1.6 billion in the fiscal year ended April 28, with 590 restaurants in 18 states.

Mexico City

Antonio Aguilar, mariachi singer

Mexican mariachi singer and actor Antonio Aguilar, who recorded more than 150 albums and began his acting career during Mexico’s “Golden Era” of cinema, has died in Mexico City. He was 88.

Aguilar died late Tuesday after a long fight with pneumonia.

Born in the northern state of Zacatecas, Aguilar recorded with his traditional mariachi group for 50 years and sold more than 25 million records. His hit songs include “Triste Recuerdo,” “Albur de Amor,” “Gabino Barrera” and “Puno de Tierra.”

He appeared in 167 films, including “The Undefeated” starring John Wayne.

In 2000, he got a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Washington

Guy Vander Jagt, ex-congressman

Former Michigan Rep. Guy Vander Jagt, who led House Republicans’ election strategy for years and was a confidant of Gerald Ford before and during his presidency, died Friday.

Vander Jagt, 75, died at a Washington hospice after a battle with pancreatic cancer.

Vander Jagt, who began his political career in 1964 as a state senator, served in the U.S. House from 1966 to 1993. Known for his skill at oratory, he held various leadership posts, including the second-ranking Republican on the Ways and Means Committee.

For 18 years, 1974-92, he was also chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee, which helps GOP House candidates nationwide with fundraising, organization and strategy.

Washington

Elias Blake Jr., educator

Elias Blake Jr., a leading advocate for blacks in higher education and a former president of Atlanta’s Clark College, has died at 77.

He was found dead June 17, apparently of natural causes, at his home in Washington.

In search of ways to motivate disadvantaged high school students, Blake in the 1960s helped create Upward Bound, the federal program aimed at recruiting low-income and first-generation college students. He became the program’s Southeast deputy director, guiding its efforts on 15 campuses.

In the 1970s he became president of the Institute for Services to Education, a now defunct policy group that helped develop programs for colleges to attract and retain black students.

Emerging as a national leader on education issues, he advised presidents Nixon and Carter on the needs of blacks in higher education.

He left the Washington-based group in 1977 to become president of historically black Clark College.