GEORGIA FRONTIERE
St. Louis, Mo., native Georgia Frontiere, became a hometown hero when she moved the NFL’s Rams from Los Angeles to Missouri in 1995. Frontiere owned the Rams for nearly 30 years and was the first woman to take control of a league franchise. An occasional night-club singer, she was thrust into the pro football world in April 1979 when her husband, Carroll Rosenbloom, then owner of the LA Rams, drowned in the Atlantic Ocean while swimming near his Florida home. Frontiere had been hospitalized with breast cancer for several months and died in Los Angeles, Calif., on Jan. 18, 2008. She was 80.

HARRY LANDIS
Harry Richard Landis was one of only two known surviving US veterans of World War I. Landis enlisted in the Army in 1918. The remaining US veteran is Frank Buckles (107) of Charles Town, W. Va. Landis died in Sun City Center, Fla., on Feb. 4. He was 108.

ROBIN MOORE
Author Robin Moore, best known for writing The French Connection and The Green Berets, died at the age of 82 on Feb. 21. The French Connection (1969) was about a New York drug bust. It inspired a movie starring Gene Hackett that won five Oscars in 1971, including best picture. The Green Berets (1965) was made into a movie starring John Wayne in 1968. Moore also co-wrote, with late singer Barry Sadler, “The Ballad Of The Green Berets.” Moore died in Hopkinsville, Ky.

BILLY MURPHY
Longtime Memphis State football coach (1958-71) and athletic director (1966-81) Billy Murphy died at the age of 87 on Feb. 21. The university credits Murphy for building up its little-known football program, including coaching the first undefeated football team in the school’s history and winning the 1971 Pasadena Bowl. The Siloam Springs, Ark., native played collegiately at Mississippi State in the 1940s.

EAGLE DAY
Herman “Eagle” Day, a star Ole Miss Rebel quarterback in the 1950s, died at the age of 75 on Feb. 22. The all-SEC player went 28-5-1 and won two league titles under coach John Vaught (1954-56). He was dubbed “The Mississippi Gambler” after setting up a 14-13 victory over TCU in the 1956 Cotton Bowl. Day played 12 seasons in the CFL.

JOHNNIE CARR
Alabama civil rights activist Johnnie Carr joined childhood friend Rosa Parks in the historic Montgomery bus boycott. Carr succeeded Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. as president of the Montgomery Improvement Association in 1967, a post she held at her death. Carr had been hospitalized after a stroke on Feb. 11. She died in Montgomery, Ala., on Feb. 22. Carr was 97.

JOHN BRUNIOUS
John Brunious, a Dixieland jazz trumpeter and the Preservation Hall Jazz Band’s leader and senior member, died of heart failure in Orlando, Fla., at the age of 67 on Feb. 12. He had lived in Orlando since Hurricane Katrina flooded Brunious’ New Orleans apartment. He lost all six of his trumpets to the flood.

ROY SCHEIDER
Actor and two-time Oscar nominee Roy Scheider, best known for his roles as a small-town police chief in Jaws (1975) and his portrait of famed choreographer Bob Fosse in All That Jazz (1979), died at the age of 75 on Feb. 10. He died of complications from multiple myeloma in Little Rock, Ark., where he had been treated for the disease off and on over the past two years.

BRONNER BURGESS
Bronner, the 2-year-old son of popular Birmingham, Ala., radio personality Rick Burgess, co-host of the syndicated comedic radio program “The Rick & Bubba Show,” died on Jan. 19 after he apparently fell into a swimming pool and drowned.

JIM BEAUCHAMP
Former major league player and longtime Atlanta Braves coach Jim Beaucham, a Grove, Okla., native, died in Atlanta of leukemia at the age of 68 on Dec. 25. Beauchamp was bench coach for the Braves (1991-98) during the team’s transformation from last place to a perennial contender and most recently was supervisor of the club’s minor-league field operations.

PORTER WAGONER
When Porter Wagoner died at the age of 80 on Oct. 28, it was more than a “tree falling in the forest.” It was like a giant redwood or cedar tree crashing to earth, never to be replaced again. His entertainment “walk” was almost totally unique. No country artist lived the life the way he did. He was country “to the bone,” and was totally satisfied with that. The West Plains, Mo., native lived it, breathed it, and was it. He had a rhinestone body and spirit. An absolute traditionalist, he was not afraid to think outside the box creatively: think James Brown, the Marty Stuart/New York City/Madison Square Garden experience and his beloved Wagonmasters Band, possibly the greatest country music band ever assembled. Each musician was unique and a “star unto themselves” – even the pretty blonde singer whose name escapes me at the moment [Dolly Parton]. Wagoner was perhaps the greatest salesman I’ve ever known. And he made people feel invincible, much like Alabama football coach Bear Bryant did. One session with him and you felt like you could move mountains. I know. He affected me that way, and I met with him close to 100 times. I always came out of those meetings feeling like a Navy Seal. He loved his family, friends, the Grand Ole Opry, and his country; and was totally loyal to them. He would never betray a trust or a buddy. It wasn’t in him to do so. I called him “Sporta.” He called me “T.R.” I will forever treasure his memory and the times we spent together. There will never be another one like him.

-Tandy Rice, Nashville, Tenn.
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