AM, Then FM

(If you seek a playlist as you read this, my friend Larry Grogan has put together two tribute shows to musicians we lost in 2025. Larry’s one-hour soul and R&B tribute was on his Funky 16 Corners Radio Show. Larry’s two-hour pop and rock tribute was on his Testify! show on WFMU radio. They nicely complement this post with some artists not mentioned here. Dig them!)

---

They go in threes. They always go in threes. 2025 was no different.

Bob Uecker, though, was in a class by himself. 

It’s 1971. I’m 13. My radio is my constant companion. There’s a new guy calling Brewers games with Merle Harmon and Tom Collins. Some guy named Bob Uecker. I listen to him for a lifetime.

It’s 2024. I’m 67. I’m still listening to Brewers baseball on the radio. I hear Ueck say the last words we’d ever hear from him. He was seemingly and uncharacteristically almost at a loss for words after the Brewers were eliminated by the Mets in Game 3 of the NL wild-card playoff series:

“The Crew will … um … will have it end … here tonight. …
“That one … had some sting on it.”

Bob Uecker, gone three months later at 90. That one had some sting on it.

---

Anyhow, they go in threes. They always go in threes. Here’s 2025.

ABA players: Kim Hughes, Larry Jones, Larry Miller

The Academy Award goes to: Gene Hackman (“The French Connection,” “Unforgiven”), Stanley Jaffe (“Kramer vs. Kramer” producer), Diane Keaton (“Annie Hall”)

Adventurers: Felix Baumgartner (extreme skydiver), Cleo Hearn (Black rodeo trailblazer), Kanchha Sherpa (last surviving member of first team to conquer Mount Everest)

Advocates: Miss Major (trans rights), Cecile Richards (led Planned Parenthood), Alice Wong (disability rights)

Animal magnetism: D. Wayne Lukas (horse trainer won 15 Triple Crown races), Dan Seavey (helped organize Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race), Ron Turcotte (Secretariat’s jockey)

Architectural details: Frank Gehry (designed Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, Walt Disney Concert Hall), Bob Irving (founded Chicago Architecture Center’s river cruise), Louis Naidorf (designed Capitol Records building)

Author, author! John Feinstein (sports), Tom Robbins (fiction), Joseph Wambaugh (crime)

Badasses: Dave Parker (baseball’s Cobra), Ronnie Rondell Jr. (stunt man on fire on cover of Pink Floyd’s “Wish You Were Here” LP), Dale Webster (surfed every day for 40 years, one month, one day)

Basketball coaches: Richie Adubato (NBA, WNBA), Dale Langbehn (my high school coach), Frank Layden (NBA, WNBA)

Beatlemania: Peter Bassano (Played four notes on trombone in the coda of “Hey Jude,” sang the “na na na na na na na” refrain and clapped along, 1968. “Over the years, that single, easy and enjoyable Beatles’ session has earned me more money than anything else I have ever done.”), Vince Calandra (booked Beatles’ debut on “The Ed Sullivan Show” on Feb. 9, 1964), Eddie Thornton (played trumpet on “Got To Get You Into My Life,” 1966)

Behind the sound board: Roy Thomas Baker (produced Queen, The Cars), Jerry Kasenetz (bubble gum music producer), Terry Manning (Stax, Argent, Abbey Road engineer)

Blues men: Linsey Alexander, Barry Goldberg, Joe Louis Walker

Brewers, briefly: Marshall Edwards, Andy Kosco, Bernie Smith

British royalty: Dame Joan Plowright (actor), Dame Patricia Routledge (actor), Sir Tom Stoppard (playwright, screenwriter)

Brother acts: Dick Addrisi (Addrisi Brothers), Wayne Osmond (The Osmonds), Chubby Tavares (Tavares)

A (Carpenters) song for you: Richard Chamberlain (the actor was the first to record “[They Long to Be] Close to You,” 1963), Terry Draper (wrote “Calling Occupants of Interplanetary Craft” for Klaatu, covered by the Carpenters), Roger Nichols (co-wrote “We’ve Only Just Begun,” “Rainy Days and Mondays,” “I Won’t Last A Day Without You”)

Cartoons: Tony Benedict (writer, “The Jetsons,” “The Atom Ant Show”), Jerry Eisenberg (designed many Hanna-Barbera characters), Jules Feiffer (satirist)

Canadian sisters: Cecile and Annette Dionne (last surviving Dionne quintuplets), Jane McGarrigle (folk singers Kate and Anna McGarrigle’s older sibling)

Cast in space: Kenneth Colley (second and third “Star Wars” films), Gil Gerard (“Buck Rogers in the 25th Century), June Lockhart (“Lost in Space”)

Cheers! Jack McAuliffe (first modern-era microbrewer, New Albion Brewing Co., 1976), Peter Sichel (CIA Cold War operative developed Blue Nun wine), George Wendt (Norm from “Cheers”)

Child actors: Jay North (“Dennis the Menace”), Danielle Spencer (“What’s Happening!!”), Michelle Trachtenberg (Nickelodeon shows, “Buffy the Vampire Slayer”)

Chronicling the music: Michael Lydon (Rolling Stone founding editor), Gary E. Myers (Wisconsin music historian), Michael Ochs (photo archivist)

Civil rights, by the numbers: Jo Ann Allen Boyce and Bobby Cain (among Clinton 12 who integrated Clinton [Tenn.] High School, 1956), Joseph McNeil (one of Greensboro Four who staged sit-in at Woolworth lunch counter in Greensboro, N.C., 1960)

Civil rights voices: Bob Filner (Freedom Rider, 1961), Charles Person (youngest Freedom Rider, just 18 in 1961), Betty Reid Soskin (national park ranger from age 85 to 100)

Come fly with me: Valerie Andre (first woman flying combat rescue missions in helicopter), Beverly Burns (first woman to captain Boeing 747 jumbo jet), Conrad “Gus” Shinn (first pilot to land at South Pole)

Commissioners: Judy Bell (USGA president), Paul Tagliabue (NFL), Fay Vincent (MLB)

Composers: Alf Clausen (“The Simpsons”), Lalo Schifrin (“Mission: Impossible” theme, movie scores), Charles Strouse (“Bye Bye Birdie,” “Applause,” “Annie” on Broadway)

Danger in space: James Lovell (Apollo 13 commander), William R. Lucas (NASA administrator blamed in Challenger disaster), Ed Smylie (Apollo 13 engineer, troubleshooter, rescuer)

Dig that Latin sound: Rafael Ithier (salsa), Eddie Palmieri (salsa, Latin jazz), Rubby Perez (merengue)

Director’s chair: Robert Benton (“Kramer vs. Kramer,” “Places in the Heart”), Henry Jaglom (“Eating”), David Lynch (“The Elephant Man,” “Blue Velvet,” “Twin Peaks”)

DJs: Jed the Fish (KROQ Los Angeles, alternative radio), Bob Rivers (DJ, parody songwriter), Pierre Robert (WMMR Philadelphia, rock)

Dolly world: David Briggs (session keyboards), Carl Dean (husband), Jeannie Seely (close friend)

Early rockers: Dave Burgess (rhythm guitar, Champs), Sonny Curtis (guitar and vocals, Crickets, wrote “I Fought the Law,” and “Love is All Around,” the theme to “The Mary Tyler Moore Show”), Robert Jaramillo (singer, Cannibal and the Headhunters)

Elegant singers: Roberta Flack, Dame Cleo Laine, Jane Morgan

Elvis world: Mac Gayden (session guitarist), Donna Jean Godchaux (backup singer, “Suspicious Minds,” 1969), Troy Seals (wrote “Pieces of My Life”)

Enigmatic: Betty Webb and Ruth Bourne (two of the last British World War II code breakers), Julia Parsons (last U.S. Navy code breaker from WWII)

Fashionistas: Giorgio Armani (Italian designer), Soo Catwoman (London punk scene), Pam Hogg (British designer and post-punk musician)

Foodies: Nathalie Dupree (Southern cooking), Marilyn Hagerty (Grand Forks, N.D., writer whose Olive Garden review went viral), Pat Scala (meat wholesaler who sold Chicago on Italian beef in the ‘70s and ‘80s)

Funny ladies: Ruth Buzzi (“Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In”), Patty Maloney, Prunella Scales (“Fawlty Towers”)

Girl power: Nina Kuscsik (women’s marathon pioneer), Sister Jean Dolores Schmidt (beloved Loyola basketball chaplain), Mabel Staton (only American in women’s long jump at Helsinki Olympics, 1952)

Goalies gone: Eddie Giacomin, Ken Dryden, Bernie Parent

Gone country: Melba Montgomery, Stu Phillips (oldest member of Grand Ole Opry), Johnny Rodriguez

Gone too soon: D’Angelo, Jill Sobule, Angie Stone

Half of the act: Bobby Hart (Boyce and Hart), Sam Moore (Sam & Dave), Tom Shipley (Brewer & Shipley)

Hall of Famers: Dick Barnett (NBA), Kenny Easley (NFL), Ryne Sandberg (MLB)

Hasta la bye bye: Dick Cheney, James Dobson, Jimmy Swaggart

Hosts with the most: Anne Burrell (Food Network), Wink Martindale (DJ, game shows), Ron Nessen (White House press secretary hosted “Saturday Night Live,” 1976)

Influencers: Susan Brownmiller (feminism), Pope Francis, Alvin Poussaint (psychiatrist studied effects of racism on Blacks)

Inside the ring: Nino Benvenuti, George Foreman, Dwight Muhammad Qawi

Inventive: Joan Anderson (introduced and named hula hoop), Robert Jarvik (artificial heart), James Moylan (Ford designer created fuel gauge arrow pointing to gas tank)

It’s complicated: Eugene Hasenfus (alleged CIA operative with Nicaraguan Contras), Hulk Hogan, James Watson (identified DNA double helix but was racist, sexist, problematic)

I want my MTV: Marty Callner (music video director), Ananda Lewis (‘90s host), MTV as we knew it (killed off its 24-hour music channels at year’s end)

John Wayne’s co-stars: Edward Faulkner (six films), Claude Jarman Jr. (“Rio Grande”), Peter Jason (“Rio Lobo,” his film debut)

Jazz men: Roy Ayers (vibes), Jack DeJohnette (drums), Al Foster (drums)

Kid brothers: Rahaman Ali (boxer, Muhammad’s sibling), Stan Love (NBA and ABA player, Beach Boys’ Mike Love’s sibling), Randy Moffitt (MLB pitcher, tennis star Billie Jean King’s sibling)

Last man standing: George Hardy (last of the original Tuskegee Airmen fighter pilots), John Hemingway (RAF captain, last Battle of Britain airman), Donald McPherson (Navy fighter pilot, last World War II ace)

Last one left: Garth Hudson (The Band), David Johansen (original New York Dolls), Joey Molland (Badfinger)

The last out: Tommy Brown (last living player to debut before the end of World War II, last living player from pre-integration era), Billy Hunter (last living St. Louis Browns player), Betsy “Sockum” Jochum (last All-American Girls Professional Baseball League player from 1943 season)

Lombardi’s Packers: Tom Brown, Bob Long, Steve Wright (each three-time NFL champions, two-time Super Bowl champions)

Los(t) Super Seven: Joe Ely, Flaco Jimenez, Raul Malo

Mel’s Diner: Alan Bergman (wrote theme for “Alice” TV show), Polly Holliday (“Flo”), Diane Ladd (“Belle”)

Memphis men: Don Bryant (Hi Records songwriter, wrote “I Can’t Stand the Rain” for future wife Ann Peebles), Steve Cropper (Booker T. & the M.G.s, Mar-Keys, Stax Records house band guitarist, producer, co-wrote “Knock On Wood,” “In the Midnight Hour,” [Sittin’ On] The Dock of the Bay”), Don Nix (Mar-Keys sax player, Stax session player, producer, wrote “Going Down”)

The Naturals: Joe Don Baker (“The Whammer”), Michael Madsen (Bump Bailey), Robert Redford (Roy Hobbs)

Never forget: Frank Chuman (interned at Manzanar, became Japanese-American equal rights advocate), Margot Friedlander (Holocaust survivor and public speaker), Gyorgy Kun (survived Josef Mengele’s experimentation on twins at Auschwitz)

Notorious: H. Rap Brown aka Jamal al-Amin (Black Power militant), Sara Jane Moore (tried to assassinate President Ford), Assata Shakur (fugitive Black Power militant)

Oscar nominees: Samantha Eggar (“The Collector”), Graham Greene (“Dances With Wolves”), Sally Kirkland (“Anna”)

Pee-wee’s playmates: Jeremy Railton (designer), Mark Snow (composed music for four episodes), Lynne Marie Stewart (Miss Yvonne)

Picture this: Herb Greene (San Francisco counterculture photographer), Marcia Resnick (New York punk photographer), Joe Stevens (New York rock photographer)

Posterized: David Byrd (rock posters, record covers), Robert McGinnis (movie posters), Drew Struzan (record covers, movie posters)

The president’s family: Joan Bennett Kennedy (JFK’s sister-in-law), Tatiana Schlossberg (JFK’s granddaughter), Harrison Tyler (John Tyler’s grandson)

Protest music: Tom Lehrer, Louis Moholo-Moholo (South African jazz drummer), Max Romeo (Jamaican reggae, roots reggae)

Remarkable researchers: Etienne-Emile Baulieu (biochemist helped develop RU-486 “abortion pill”), Dame Jane Goodall (anthropologist, chimpanzee expert), James Maas (sleep researcher coined phrase “power nap”)

Reporting history: Peter Arnett (Vietnam and Gulf wars, AP and CNN), Sid Davis (last surviving reporter to witness LBJ being sworn in after JFK assassination), Ed Rabel (CBS, last reporter to interview Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. before his assassination, then volunteered to cover Vietnam War)

Rural comics: Rick Hurst (“Dukes of Hazzard”), Lulu Roman and Gailard Sartain (“Hee Haw”)

Sammy Davis Jr. loves ya: May Britt (his second wife), Olga James (“Mr. Wonderful” co-star on Broadway), Alfie Wise (“The Cannonball Run”)

Seattle’s super Sonics: Slick Watts, Lenny Wilkens, Gus Williams

See you in court: L. Clifford Davis (his fight for University of Arkansas Law School admission helped other Black students get in), David Souter (Supreme Court justice), Gerry Spence (trial lawyer)

Session men: Albert “Junior” Lowe (guitar, bass, Muscle Shoals), Sam McCue (guitarist worked with Everly Brothers and many acts visiting Milwaukee), Phil Upchurch (guitar, bass, Chicago groups, Chess Records)

Sex symbols: Loni Anderson, Brigitte Bardot, Claudia Cardinale

Singer-songwriters: Todd Snider, Peter Yarrow, Jesse Colin Young

Singers turned actors: Marianne Faithfull, Connie Francis, Bobby Sherman

Sitcom stars: Lynn Hamilton (“Sanford and Son”), Loretta Swit (“M*A*S*H”), Malcolm-Jamal Warner (“The Cosby Show”)

Soap kings: Anthony Geary, Chris Robinson and Tristan Rogers (“General Hospital”)

Soap queens: Denise Alexander and Leslie Charleson (“General Hospital”), Eileen Fulton (“As the World Turns”)

Solo singers: Lou Christie, Chris Rea, Terry Reid

Soul brothers: Jerry Butler, Carl Carlton, Brenton Wood

Soul sisters: Patti Drew, Gwen McCrae, Ann Sexton

Spies like us: Marthe Cohn (Holocaust survivor turned French spy in Nazi Germany), Sandra Grimes (CIA officer who helped expose double agent Aldrich Ames), Stella Rimington (first woman to lead Britain’s MI5, the inspiration for James Bond’s spymaster “M”)

Spy guys: Joe Caroff (designed James Bond 007 pistol logo [and “West Side Story” movie poster]), Bruce Glover (Mr. Wint, assassin in the James Bond film “Diamonds Are Forever”), Dave Ketchum (Agent 13 on “Get Smart”)

Sports voices: Dick Button, Mike Patrick, Al Trautwig

Superheroes and supervillains: Val Kilmer (Batman in “Batman Forever”), Julian McMahon (Doctor Doom in first two “Fantastic Four” films), Terence Stamp (General Zod in first two “Superman” films)

Survivors of history: John Cleary (shot at Kent State, made cover of Life magazine), Virginia Giuffre (Epstein sex trafficking victim, became advocate for other victims), Anne Marie Hochhalter (shot at Columbine, became anti-gun activist)

Trailblazers: Nancy Leftenant-Colon (first Black woman in Army Nurse Corps), Loretta Ford (co-founded first nurse practitioner program), Ruth Lawrence (pediatrician, breastfeeding advocate)

Unacceptable political violence: Mark Hortman, Melissa Hortman, Charlie Kirk

Unforgettable games: Lee Elia (profane rant after 1983 Cubs game), Jim Marshall (recovered fumble and ran the wrong way in 1964 Vikings game), Tom Patton (Orioles catcher whose MLB career lasted one game in 1957)

Upstairs, Downstairs: Charlotte Bingham (first-season writer), Pauline Collins (maid Sarah Moffat), Jean Marsh (co-creator and star, maid Rose Buck)

Washington insiders: David Gergen, Bill Moyers, Susan Stamberg

Weather men: Chuck Doswell (among first storm chasers to research thunderstorms and tornadoes), Gary England (first on-air TV weather person to use Doppler radar to warn of a tornado), Neil Frank (National Hurricane Center director turned Houston TV meteorologist)

Witnesses to history: Viola “Mother” Fletcher (oldest known survivor of Tulsa race massacre, 1921), Clint Hill (Secret Service agent jumped on the back of the presidential limousine to provide cover after the JFK assassination, 1963), George Raveling (basketball coach stood next to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. at his “I Have a Dream” speech, asked for and was handed King’s typewritten script, 1963)

Gone in Threes, the band

Front men: Rick Davies (Supertramp), Ozzy Osbourne (Black Sabbath), Mark Volman (Turtles, Mothers of Invention, Flo and Eddie)

Guitar: Rick Derringer (McCoys, Johnny and Edgar Winter), Ace Frehley (KISS), Mick Ralphs (Mott the Hoople, Bad Company)

Bass: Ray Estrada (Mothers of Invention, Little Feat), John Lodge (Moody Blues), Mani aka Gary Mounfield (Stone Roses, Primal Scream)

Drums: Bob “Boom-Boom” Bennett (Sonics), Clem Burke (Blondie), Jellybean Johnson (The Time, The Family)

Keyboards: Gary Graffman (“Rhapsody in Blue” on “Manhattan” soundtrack), Chris Jasper (Isley Brothers), Bobby Whitlock (Derek and the Dominos)

Horns: Gene Barge (Church Street Five sax), Chuck Mangione (jazz flugelhorn), Teddy Osei (Osibisa sax)

Close to home

Madison blues: Jerry Apps (rural Wisconsin historian), Cliff Behnke (Wisconsin State Journal editor who greatly influenced my editing career), Dave Benton (guitarist, record seller and friend from whom I bought many records)

(Dave Benton photo © Keith Robert Wessel)

Milwaukee guys: Mike Bondar (ran the legendary Wolski’s Tavern), Junior Bridgeman (beloved Bucks player, successful businessman), Heinz Kluetmeier (Sports Illustrated photographer)

Surf elders from Sheboygan, the Malibu of the Midwest: Mike McDonell, Andy Sommersberger, Tommy Ziegler

The stunner

There always is one death that takes your breath away. This year, there were two.

Rob Reiner and Michele Singer Reiner.

The last word

Some memorable farewells

— Sharon Broekman of Athelstane, Wisconsin: “The wild woman from Borneo has left the building. … So as not to screw up your day I do not want a wake. Don’t think it is worth the cost anyway. So instead at 5:00 pm on the day you wish, take a drink of your liking.”

— Herman Kafura of Green Bay, Wisconsin: “Having enjoyed the bright side of the world for these past 83 years, it seems to be time to now also explore the unknown. Not a choice I like to make, but the time apparently has arrived. Off to another thrilling adventure …”

— Charles Dudley Krenz of Winston, Oregon, not published in the Minnesota Star Tribune but shared by his daughter AC Sullivan on Bluesky:

— Shirlyn Miller of Green Bay, Wisconsin: “When she died, Shirlyn Miller, daughter of a dentist, proudly had all her teeth, most of her marbles and as always, her astonishing, ageless beauty.”

— Dick Walker (Grandpa One Eye) of Merrill, Wisconsin: “Richard, known mostly as Dick (more ways than one) … Dick thought he was the greatest for having created triplets in 1968, he thought it made him more manly. … He survived (barely) being married twice and divorced twice. Second marriage is probably why there is no money left over for generational wealth. Hence, his wish not to have a funeral and waste hard earned money. This obituary is going to cost us enough.”

— Doug Youra of Green Bay, Wisconsin: “I, daughter Carmen, apologize for the length and detail of my father’s obituary; hopefully, you will still read to the end. ‘Dougie’ never really did anything fast in life, nor without great detail, so this is to honor him.”

Noteworthy

This is not intended to be an inclusive list of all who died in 2025. This is my highly subjective list. Yours will be different.

The credits

Each year, I use these sources for this list.

We start with Wikipedia’s month-by-month lists of prominent deaths. Then we check with our friend Gunther at Any Major Dude, who compiles monthly lists of notable music deaths. Combined, those are more thorough than this roundup. Highly recommended.

Then we go through a year of Mojo magazines, checking the “Real Gone” and “They Also Served” features. Other solid sources include the Washington Post, this year-end roundup from NPR Music, News from ME (the blog by comics and animation writer Mark Evanier) and the year-end In Memoriam series by Sam Gazdziak at his RIP Baseball blog.

Previous “Gone in threes” entries

2024 * 2023 * 2022 * 2021 * 2020

2019 * 2018 * 2017  * 2016 * 2015

2014 * 2013 * 2012 * 2011 * 2010

Plus similar year-end posts in 2008 and 2009.

(If you wonder why this always lags the new year by a few days, it’s because some deaths aren’t announced immediately. This new year is but nine days old and already we’re going forward without Renee Nicole Good, murdered by ICE thugs in Minneapolis.)