Deaths of note from around the world:
Pat Derby, 69: Former Hollywood trainer for Flipper, Lassie and other performing animals who later devoted her life to protecting them after seeing widespread abuse. Derby founded several animal sanctuaries through her organization, the Performing Animal Welfare Society, or PAWS. Died Friday of throat cancer at her home near Sacramento, Calif.
Richard Briers, 79: British actor who was an avuncular comic presence on TV and movie screens for decades, starring in shows such as the 1970s sitcom “The Good Life" and the comedy-drama “Ever-Decreasing Circles" and becoming well-known in later life for Shakespearean roles. Died at his London home on Sunday; a former heavy smoker, he had suffered from emphysema.
Florabel Kinsler, 83: Social worker and psychologist who, during a decades-long career, pioneered the treatment of Holocaust survivors by encouraging them to speak up about their traumatic experiences. Kinsler shared her work at conferences worldwide and helped train generations of new therapists. Died Jan. 26 of congestive heart failure at a convalescent care center in Santa Monica, Calif.
Tony Sheridan, 72: British guitarist, singer and songwriter who was the star on the Beatles’ first commercial recording — they were the backup band. They met in 1960, when the Beatles arrived in Hamburg, Germany, to work as a club band. Sheridan, already an accomplished performer, was also playing in Hamburg, and the Beatles both admired his work and emulated his performance style. Died Saturday in Hamburg.
Keiko Fukuda, 99: A living link to the formation of judo, she learned the martial art from its inventor, Kano Jigoro — one of the last students of her grandfather, samurai and jujitsu master Fukuda Hachinosuke — and went on to become the sport’s highest-ranked woman. She ran the Soko Joshi Judo Club, a dojo in San Francisco, where she taught for more than 40 years. Died Feb. 9 at her home in San Francisco.
Edith Houghton, 100: Became one of the first women — and to this day, one of the only women — to scout for a major league baseball team, when, in 1946, she walked into the Philadelphia Phillies’ team office without an appointment and talked her way into the job. Died Feb. 2 in Sarasota, Fla.
Tandyn Almer, 70: Songwriter who penned “Along Comes Mary," a catchy pop tune that topped out at No. 7 on the Billboard charts in 1966, but who had few successes in the decades that followed. He also experimented with marijuana and LSD in the ’60s, and in some circles, became renowned for inventing a kind of water pipe, or bong. Died in McLean, Va., on Jan. 8 of a combination of atrial fibrillation, congestive heart failure and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
Bill Eadington, 67: An economist who was one of the first academics to study gambling, as both a force for economic development and a challenging social problem, and who, in 1974, hosted the first National Conference on Gambling and Risk Taking. Eadington was the longtime director of the Institute for the Study of Gambling and Commercial Gaming at the University of Nevada, Reno. Died Feb. 11 of cancer in Crystal Bay, Nev.
