Those We Lost — November 12

Honoring those we lost on November 12 — remembered for what they gave, and for what they left behind.

Wilma Rudolph

Born June 23, 1940 — died November 12, 1994

Triple Olympic gold sprinter, 1960

Wilma Rudolph, born near Clarksville, Tennessee, wore a leg brace after a childhood illness left her left leg paralyzed, won a relay bronze at the 1956 Olympics, and at the 1960 Rome Olympics won the 100 meters, 200 meters and relay, the first American woman to win three track-and-field gold medals at one Olympics. After graduating from Tennessee State she taught and coached. She died of brain cancer at her home in Brentwood, Tennessee, on November 12, 1994, at 54.

Cordell Reagon

Born 1943 — died November 12, 1996

SNCC organizer who founded the Freedom Singers

Cordell Reagon, a Nashville sit-in veteran, became SNCC’s youngest staff member in 1961, worked on voter registration in McComb, Mississippi, and helped launch the Albany Movement in Georgia, where in 1962 he brought together the first Freedom Singers, whose songs carried the movement across the country. He later lived in Berkeley, California, where he was found dead in his apartment, a homicide victim, on November 12, 1996, at 53.

Eugene Antonio Marino

Born May 29, 1934 — died November 12, 2000

First Black Roman Catholic archbishop in the United States

Eugene Marino of Biloxi, Mississippi, a priest of the Society of St. Joseph, became an auxiliary bishop of Washington in 1974 and in 1988 was installed as Archbishop of Atlanta, the first Black Catholic archbishop in the United States. He resigned in 1990 after a relationship with a woman became public, and from 1995 served as spiritual director of a program for priests at St. Vincent’s Westchester. He died of a heart attack on November 12, 2000, at 66.

Tony Thompson

Born November 15, 1954 — died November 12, 2003

Chic and the Power Station drummer

Tony Thompson of New York drove the dance floor as the drummer of Chic on ‘Le Freak’ and ‘Good Times’, played on Madonna’s ‘Like a Virgin’ and David Bowie’s Let’s Dance, formed the Power Station with Robert Palmer and members of Duran Duran, and drummed for Led Zeppelin’s 1985 Live Aid reunion. He died of kidney cancer in Encino, California, on November 12, 2003, three days before his 49th birthday.

John Outterbridge

Born March 12, 1933 — died November 12, 2020

Assemblage artist; Watts Towers Arts Center director

John Outterbridge, a key figure in the Black assemblage art movement with Noah Purifoy and Betye Saar, built sculptures from rags, wood scraps and discarded metal, and directed the Watts Towers Arts Center from 1975 to 1992, where arts education for local children became a tradition. He died in Los Angeles on November 12, 2020, at 87.

Roy Haynes

Born March 13, 1925 — died November 12, 2024

Jazz drummer across eight decades

Roy Haynes of Roxbury, Massachusetts, played with Lester Young, Charlie Parker, Sarah Vaughan, Thelonious Monk, John Coltrane and Chick Corea over a career that ran from the 1940s into his nineties, his crisp ‘snap crackle’ style a model for generations of drummers. He died in Nassau County, New York, on November 12, 2024, at 99, after a brief illness.

Camay Calloway Murphy

Born January 15, 1927 — died November 12, 2024

Educator; Cab Calloway’s daughter; founder of the Cab Calloway Jazz Institute

Camay Calloway Murphy, the daughter of bandleader Cab Calloway, was an educator who served as a school headmaster in Nigeria and for years as an elementary school principal in Virginia. After moving to Baltimore in 1994 she worked at Coppin State, founded the Cab Calloway Jazz Institute and Museum there, and served as a Baltimore City school commissioner. She died at her home in Havre de Grace, Maryland, on November 12, 2024, at 97.