Jeanne-Claude, the wife and collaborator of the artist Christo, has died at 74. She was a vibrant figure in the art world, and not just because of her hair, which was the color of a fire engine crossed with a pumpkin. I particularly enjoyed working on this obituary because I was able to draw on one of my former journalistic lives as an art critic. I've seen two Christo efforts in person (the Central Park gates and the 1985 wrapping of the Pont Neuf bridge in Paris), and I have to say there really is something magical about what Christo and Jeanne-Claude created. There's an enchanting spirit of joy in their work. People respond to it, and there is a palpable sense of shared communal happiness that can't be denied. They lift up the heart. The New York Times's Michael Kimmelman captured the essence of their work in this description
In 1961, Herbert J. "Jack" Miller Jr. received a call from Robert F. Kennedy, the new attorney general, asking if he would accept the job of running the Justice Department's criminal division. Miller, a Republican, could only blurt out, "Who, me?" Miller, who died Nov. 14 at age 85, carried out Bobby Kennedy's war on organized crime, leading the Justice Department's crusade against mob families and corrupt labor unions. He secured an indictment and ultimately a conviction against Teamsters Union leader Jimmy Hoffa and helped write laws regulating the interstate activities of organized crime. In 1965, Miller formed his own law firm and ultimately became one of the most prominent lawyers in town. Washingtonian magazine called him, in a flattering profile, "the perfect lawyer." Miller may not have been as well known as his friend and courtroom rival Edward Bennett Williams, but he was just as influential in Washington's legal
Good morning. Those of us who are healthy forget the toll that AIDS and HIV has taken on young people the world over. Edward Zold, who was diagnosed with the illness himself, didn't forget and was one of the ones responsible for getting drugs and treatment for fellow sufferers. Eddie Bell, who died Monday, was the first black All-American and captain of the football team at the University of Pennsylvania, and then one of the brave souls who integrated pro football in the '50s. Labor lawyer Eugene Cotton championed meatpackers, fighting low wages, no health insurance or pensions, and six-day workweeks. He died Nov. 11, having negotiated some of the first pension and medical benefits in the industry as well as hefty raises, paid holidays and vacations of up to six weeks a year. Istvan Belovai, a former Hungarian military intelligence officer who died Nov. 6, uncovered and revealed to
Good morning. The pickings are a bit slim this morning, but I'd advise you take a look at the amazing life of Medal of Honor winner Lewis Millett; it's not the ordinary hero story you'll read elsewhere. The man described as the power behind the oldest open-air swimming club in the world, Allan Titmuss "would brook no nonsense," the Times of London says. His death will cause him to miss the Christmas dip in the cold waters of the Hyde Park lake. The tulip man of Oak Lawn, Ill. planted more than 1,000 bulbs of his favorite flower in the front yard, drawing visitors for years. But he never lived in the house where the tulips bloomed, even though he had gutted and rehabbed it. Perhaps, like the tulips, it was just for the beauty of the thing. Then of course, there's Sy Syms, who drew potential shoppers into his
