The Goodbyes of 2007

TIME.com has an alphabetical list of people in the public eye who have left us this past year.  I actually forgot how many celebrities/figures we lost this year– it was a pretty rough year. 

Here’s the edited list (I added two, which have links):

Historical Figures

• Benazir Bhutto (1953-2007) Pakistani socialist democrat (little “d”).
• Lady Bird Johnson (1912-2007) former first lady to LBJ.
• Paul Tibbets (1915-2007) led the mission over Hiroshima to drop the first atomic bomb.
• Boris Yeltsin (1931-2007) first Russian President ever, who was a swanky drunken dancer!

Historians

• David Halberstam (1934-2007) made his fame covering Vietnam and his work on America in the 1950s.
• Arthur Schlesinger (1917-2007) famed historian who crossed the line a few times going beyond simply reporting history, but seeking to influence it.

Sports

• Evel Knievel (1938-2007) dare-devil who cheated death more than once, who finally csuccumbed this year.
• Phil Rizzuto (1917-2007) former New York Yankee who played on 9 championship teams.
• Bill Walsh (1931-2007) famed San Francisco 49ers coach who won three titles in the 1980s.

Entertainers and Icons

• Liz Claibourne (1929-2007) influential and highly popular women’s wardrobe designer.
• Jerry Falwell (1933-2007) evangelical leader who catalyzed the Religious Right in the 1980s.
• Merv Griffin (1925-2007) talk show host and creator of Jeopardy and Wheel of Fortune.
• Marcel Marceau (1923-2007) everyone’s favorite mime.
• Tammy Faye Messner (1942-2007) formerly Tammy Faye Bakker, lover of all things make-up, whose husband fleeced millions from his televangelist program in the 1980s.
• Luciano Pavarotti (1935-2007) one of the great tenors of the age.
• Anna Nicole Smith (1967-2007) the train wreck finally happened.
• Kurt Vonnegut (1922-2007) influential author, whose Slaughter House Five was read by nearly all in school.