celebrity morgue report

we haven't had one of these in a while (because Don Knotts and Darren McGavin got their own posts) but there were some big celebrity deaths in the past few days:

• Kirby Puckett, former center fielder of the Minnesota Twins. Kirby was one of my favorite players growing up, along with former San Francisco Giant, Will Clark.
• Dana Reeve, widow of Christopher Reeve, of lung cancer. She was a big supporter of stem-cell research and she caught a horrible break, developing lung cancer, even though she had never smoked in her life.
• Ali Farke Toure, called the "African John Lee Hooker." He was famous for playing a traditional Malian instrument called a gurkel.

more later. there's always more later.