In Passing

Mary Daly, feminist professor

Boston – Radical feminist Mary Daly, the iconoclastic theologian who proclaimed “I hate the Bible” and retired from Boston College rather than allow men to take her classes, has died. Daly, 81, died Jan. 3 of natural causes at Wachusett Manor nursing home in Gardner, Mass.

Daly’s tumultuous career at the Jesuit-run school ended after three decades when she refused to open her classroom to men, believing women did not freely exchange ideas if men were present.

Poet Robin Morgan called Daly “the first feminist philosopher.”

“She really pushed the boundaries, and that drove some people bananas,” Morgan said. “But that kind of intellectual courage is, in fact, what usually moves the species forward, even if it gets trampled on in its own time.”

Willie Mitchell, musician, record producer

Memphis, Tenn. – Willie Mitchell, a record producer, label head and musician who worked with Al Green and other stars, died Tuesday. He was 81.

Mitchell died at Methodist University Hospital in Memphis more than two weeks after he suffered cardiac arrest.

Willie Mitchell owned Royal Studio where Buddy Guy, John Mayer and many others recorded their music. In the 1970s, Mitchell also owned Hi Records of Memphis, the label that produced some of Green’s biggest hits.

A trumpeter, Mitchell and his band provided the musical entertainment at several New Year’s Eve parties for Elvis Presley at Presley’s Graceland home. A Memphis boulevard was named in his honor in 2004. He received a Trustees Award from the Grammy Foundation in 2008.

Art Clokey, Gumby creator

Los Osos, Calif. – Animator Art Clokey, whose bendable creation Gumby became a pop culture phenomenon through decades of toys, revivals and satires, died Friday. He was 88.

Clokey, who suffered from repeated bladder infections, died in his sleep at his home in Los Osos on California’s Central Coast.

Gumby grew out of a student project Clokey produced at the University of Southern California in the early 1950s called “Gumbasia.”

That led to his making shorts featuring Gumby and his horse friend Pokey for the “Howdy Doody Show” and several series through the years.

Eddie Murphy brought a surge in Gumby’s popularity in the 1980s with his send-up of the character on “Saturday Night Live” as a cigar-smoking show business primadonna.

It was only then that Clokey started seeing serious financial returns on his creation.