Kitty Wells (Ellen Muriel Deason) (August 30, 1919 – July 16, 2012)

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) – Singer Kitty Wells, whose hits such as "Making
Believe" and "It Wasn’t God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels" made her the 
first female superstar of country music, died Monday.

The singer’s family said she died peacefully at home after complications
from a stroke.

Her solo recording career lasted from 1952 to the late 1970s and she made
concert tours from the late 1930s until 2000. That year, she announced she
was quitting the road, although she performed occasionally in Nashville and
elsewhere afterward.

She recorded approximately 50 albums and had 25 Top 10 country hits. Kitty
was listed by various polls from 1953 to 1968 as the No. 1 female country singer. 

Astronauts Michael Collins, Edwin ‘Buzz’ Aldrin and Neil Armstrong

 
    Ginger Rogers (Virginia Katherine McMath; July 16, 1911 – April 25, 1995)

Ginger Rogers made her performing debut at age 14, moving on to Vaudeville and
then to Broadway. She arrived in Hollywood in 1931. Her first film, playing opposite Claudette Colbert as a 16 year old flapper, made her a star. She made a total 73
films. Musicals from 1933 to 1939 with RKO including Top Hat and Swing Time
with dance partner Fred Astaire remain classics today.  

When Ginger’s mother died in 1877, she remained at the families Rogue River 
Ranch in Oregon until 1990, when she sold the property and moved to nearby
Medford.

Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire

Ginger Rogers with Howard Hughes

              Celeste Holm (April 29, 1917 – July 15, 2012)

NEW YORK (AP) – Celeste Holm, a versatile, bright-eyed blonde who
soared to Broadway fame in "Oklahoma!" and won an Oscar in
"Gentleman’s Agreement" but whose last years were filled with
financial difficulty and estrangement from her sons, died early this
morning, a relative said.

Holm had been hospitalized about two weeks ago with dehydration. She
asked her husband on Friday to bring her home and spent her final days
with her husband,Frank Basile, and other relatives and close friends by
her side, said Amy Phillips, a great-niece of Holm’s.

She won the Academy Award in 1947 for best supporting actress for her
performance in "Gentlemen’s Agreement" and received Oscar nominations
for "Come to the Stable" (1949) and "All About Eve" (1950).

Celeste Holm with Ronald Reagan

 
Richard D. Zanuck

LOS ANGELES (AP) – Film producer Richard D. Zanuck, who won the best
picture Oscar for "Driving Miss Daisy" and was involved in such blockbuster
films as "Jaws" and "The Sting" after his father, Hollywood mogul Darryl F.
Zanuck, fired him from 20th Century Fox, died of a heart attack at his
Beverly Hills home Friday.

Richard  Zanuck, right, with Steven Spielberg on the set of Jaws

.