Happy New Year, everybody. Let’s hope 2008 is a better year for all of us. Now, getting back to dead people…

July

Lung cancer took soprano (but not Soprano) Beverly Sills on July 2nd, at the age of 78. The same day, “Yakety Sax” man Boots Randolph passed away after suffering a cerebral hemorrhage on June 25th. He was 80. Bil Pinkney died on the Fourth of July at the age of 81. He was the last surviving member of The Drifters. Actor Charles Lane – whose name you probably don’t recognize, but who you’d know if you saw him – passed away at the age of 102 on July 9th. He was in classic movies such as “It’s a Wonderful Life,” and “Mr. Deeds Goes to Town,” played the scheming railroad man, Homer Beadle, on “Petticoat Junction” and was in plenty of episodes of “I Love Lucy,” among many others (including episode 33 of the Twilight Zone). On July 11 – my anniversary – Lady Bird Johnson died at the age of 94. No doubt Kristapea recalls July 27, when two news helicopters covering a police chase in Phoenix slammed into each other. The pilots – Scott Bowerbank and Craig Smith – and photographers Jim Cox and Rick Krolak were killed. A guy I used to stay up late at night with – talk show host Tom Snyder – died of Leukemia on July 29 (I’d have figured him for lung cancer). He was 71. Swedish film director Ingmar Bergman died on July 30 at the age of 89. 75 year old football coach Bill Walsh died of leukemia the same day.

August

Another actor whose name you probably don’t know, but whose face you’d immediately recognize, James Callahan, died on August 3rd from esophageal cancer. He was 76. Singer-songwriter Lee Hazelwood (who wrote “These Boots Are Made for Walkin'”) died on August 5. He was 78. Prostate cancer took Merv Griffin on August 12 at the age of 81. A day later, the woman who was considered to be the oldest living person (not a title one generally hold for long) – Yone Minagawa – died in Japan at the age of 114. “The Scooter,” Phil Rizzuto, died on August 14th at the age of 89. Jazz drummer Max Roach died on the 15th at the age of 83. On August 17, former NBA forward Eddie Griffin took on a freight train with his SUV. The train won, and it took dental records to identify what was left of 25-yr old , after the fiery crash. “The Queen of Mean,” Leona Helmsley, died on Aug 20 at 87. Arthur Jones, who invented the Nautilus machine, died at the age of 80 on August 28. So did CBGB founder Hilly Kristal, who was 75. Lung cancer got him. Richard Jewell, who was falsely accused of the 1996 bombings in Atlanta, passed away at the age of 44 on August 29. Lung cancer got golfer Gay Brewer at the age of 75 on August 31.

September

Tenor Luciano Pavarotti died from pancreatic cancer on September 6th at the age of 71. Ronny Reagan’s first wife, Jane Wyman, died on the 10th, at the age of 93. Jazzman Joe Zawinul died the next day. He was 75. Jack Klugman’s estranged wife (and “Match Game” regular) Brett Somers died on September 15 from colon cancer. Alice Ghostly – Esmerelda on Bewitched – died on September 21st. She was 81. Marcel Marceau fell silent on the 22nd at the age of 84. He was buried in an imaginary coffin. Lois Maxwell, who played Miss Moneypenny in 14 James Bond movies, died on Sept. 29. She was 80.

October

Carol Bruce, who played Arthur Carlson’s mama on “WKRP in Cincinnati,” died of COPD on Oct. 9 at the age of 87. A week later, Deborah Kerr passed away at 86. A day after that, singer Teresa Brewer died. She was 76. Rat Pack member comedian Joey Bishop died that day, too. He was 89. Former Green Bay Packer Max McGee, who caught the first ever Super Bowl touchdown pass, fell off his roof on Oct 20, and died at the age of 75. TV’s “Chef Tell” (aka, Friedman Paul Erhardt), died of heart failure on Oct. 26. He was 63. On the 28th, country legend Porter Wagoner died of lung cancer at the age of 80, in a Nashville hospice. Robert Goulet died on Oct 30 at the age of 73, while waiting for a lung transplant.

November

Paul Tibbets, commander of the mission to drop the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, died at the age of 92 on November 1st. The head of the Osmond clan, George Osmond, died on Nov. 6 at the age of 90. Kayne West’s mother, Donda, died at the age of 58 on November 10, as a result of plastic surgery. Author Norman Mailer died the same day. He was 84. Ira Levin, author of “Rosemary’s Baby” and “The Boys From Brazil,” died of a heart attack on Nov. 12 at 78. Mr Whipple – Dick Wilson – squeezed his final roll of Charmin on Nov. 19. He was 91. Quiet Riot lead singer Kevin Dubrow was found dead in Las Vegas on Nov. 26, at the age of 52. The man who invented Gatorade, Dr. Robert Cade, died of kidney failure (nothing he drank I hope) on Nov. 27 at the age of 80. 24-yr old Washington Redskins safety died that day as well, a day after being shot at home in an attempted robbery. Republican hypocrite Henry Hyde, who led the impeachment of Bill Clinton, died on November 29, at the age of 83. That was also the day that Roger Smith – former GM Chairman/CEO and star of Michael Moore’s film, “Roger and Me” – died. He was 82. Evel Knievel died at the age of 69 on November 30th. The wonder is how he made it that long.

December

Ike Turner passed away on December 12, at the age of 76. Somehow, I doubt Tina spent much time mourning. Dan Folgelberg died on the 16th. Prostate cancer got him at the age of 56. Art Linkletter’s son Jack died on Dec. 18 from lymphoma at age 70. The great jazz pianist Oscar Peterson died on Christmas Eve, at the age of 82. And, of course, Pakistan opposition leader (and incredibly brave human being) Benazir Bhutto was assassinated on Dec. 27 in a suicide attack that also killed at least 20 other people in Rawalpindi, Pakistan. Exactly who killed her and how she died, we’ll probably never know.

Of course, a lot of other people died in 2007. Hundreds of US Solidiers were killed in Iraq and Afghanistan. We’ll never know how many Iraqi’s died this year. May they all find peace in whatever comes next.

And peace to all of you, today and in the year to come.