Those We Lost — October 12

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

Eugene Bullard

Born October 9, 1895 — died October 12, 1961

Combat aviator; French Foreign Legion soldier; first Black American military pilot

Bullard, born in Columbus, Georgia, enlisted in the French Foreign Legion after World War I began in 1914 and was seriously wounded fighting with the 170th Infantry Regiment at the Battle of Verdun, earning the Croix de Guerre. He then became the world’s first Black combat aviator, flying in French squadrons in 1917 and 1918, completing twenty missions and downing at least one German plane. In 1959 French president Charles de Gaulle made him a knight of the Legion of Honor, and in 1994 the United States Air Force posthumously commissioned him a second lieutenant.

Pink Anderson

Born February 12, 1900 — died October 12, 1974

Piedmont blues singer, guitarist, and medicine-show performer

Anderson carried a wide songster repertoire of blues, ragtime, gospel, ballads, and popular entertainment through street performance, medicine shows, recordings, festivals, and film. His work preserves a musical tradition broader than commercial blues categories and links early traveling entertainment to the folk revival of the 1960s.

Wilt Chamberlain

Born August 21, 1936 — died October 12, 1999

Basketball center; Hall of Famer

Chamberlain, born in Philadelphia, scored 100 points in the Philadelphia Warriors’ 169-147 defeat of the New York Knicks on March 2, 1962, in Hershey, Pennsylvania, and averaged 50.4 points per game that season. He scored 31,419 career points, a record until Kareem Abdul-Jabbar broke it in 1984, and holds the career rebounding record of 23,924. He won two championships, with the Philadelphia 76ers in 1967 and the Los Angeles Lakers in 1972. He was one of only two men to win the MVP and Rookie of the Year awards in the same season (1959-60), was also MVP from 1966 through 1968, and was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1978.

Lawrence E. Roberts

Born December 9, 1922 — died October 12, 2004

Tuskegee Airman; U.S. Air Force colonel; community leader

Roberts, born in Vauxhall, New Jersey, joined the Army Air Corps in 1943 and was assigned to the Tuskegee Airmen pilot training program in 1944, becoming one of the military’s first Black pilots. He served in World War II, Korea and Vietnam across 32 years of service, retired from Keesler Air Force Base as a colonel, and with his wife served countless charitable and civic causes on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. He was posthumously awarded the Congressional Gold Medal on March 29, 2007; Mississippi’s only Tuskegee Airmen chapter is named the Lawrence E. Roberts Chapter, and in 2009 Keesler dedicated a 403rd Wing aircraft maintenance facility in his honor.

C. Delores Tucker

Born October 4, 1927 — died October 12, 2005

Civil-rights activist, political organizer, and Pennsylvania secretary of the commonwealth

Tucker marched in the civil-rights movement, became the first Black woman to serve as a U.S. state secretary of state, and founded organizations supporting Black women’s political power. Her public life connected voting administration, Democratic Party leadership, women’s advocacy, and debates over representations of Black women in popular culture.

Lucious Jackson

Born October 31, 1941 — died October 12, 2022

Basketball forward and center; Olympic gold medalist; NBA champion

Jackson, a San Marcos, Texas, native, was an All-American at Pan American College, now the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, and helped the U.S. men’s basketball team win the gold medal at the 1964 Tokyo Olympics. Drafted fourth overall by the Philadelphia 76ers in 1964, he was named an NBA All-Star in 1965 and won the 1967 NBA championship playing alongside Wilt Chamberlain. He started on the 1967 76ers team that ended the Boston Celtics’ eight-year championship streak, scoring 13 points with 21 rebounds in the title-clinching game.