Since 2007 is just minutes away, I thought I would take a moment to remember some of the notable, and not so notable, people who passed away in 2006.

I noticed many “connections” this year.

Shelley Winters and Red Buttons both starred in The Poseidon Adventure, Franklin Cover and Mike Evans both starred on The Jeffersons, and Lennie Weinrib and Jack Wild both starred in H.R. Puffinstuff. Alex Toth, Ed Benedict, and Joe Barbera, all animators, died within 6 months of each other. Buck & Bonnie Owens died a month apart. And, Lyn Nofzinger and Caspar Weinberger, both from the Reagan administration, died one day apart.

I’ve probably overlooked some connections, but here are the 138 people whose deaths were posted here on Slobokan’s Site O’ Schtuff throughout the year.

January

Lou Rawls, singer
Ramona Bell, wife of radio personality Art Bell
Shelley Winters, actress
Janette Carter, musician
Chris Penn, actor
Coretta Scott King, widow of Martin Luther King, Jr.

February

Al Lewis, actor turned politician
Sonny King, musician
Min Talone, my dear friend
Franklin Cover, actor
Peter Benchley, author
Phil Brown, actor
Andreas Katsulas, actor
Don Knotts, actor
Rev. Earl Stallings, former pastor
Darren McGavin, actor
Dennis Weaver, actor
Jack Wild, actor

March

Johnny Jackson, musician
Dana Reeve, activist, widow of Christopher Reeve
Gordon Parks, photographer
Nikolas Emerson, child at the center of medical decisions battle
Slobodan Milosevic, former Yugoslav president
Maureen Stapleton, actress
Peter & Kathleen Tomarken, former game show host and his wife
Margaret Inouye, wife of Sen. Daniel Inouye
Oleg Cassini, designer
Desond T. Doss, conscientious objector
Paul Flaherty, co-inventor of Alta Vista search engine
Buck Owens, singer
Richard Fleischer, director
Erma Ora James Byrd, wife of Sen. Robert Byrd
Paul Dana, race car driver
Staff Sgt. Christopher Schornak, hero
Lyn Nofzinger, former Reagan spokesman
Caspar Weinberger, former Secretary of Defense

April

June Pointer, singer
Arthur Winston, longtime transit employee
Puggy Pearson, poker legend
Scott Crossfield, test pilot
Pompey Hawkins, Tuskegee Airman
Florence Mars, author
Bonnie Owens, first wife of Buck Owens
Susan Browning, actress, Tony award nominee

May

Luis Rukeyser, author, columnist, television host
Earl Woods, father of Tiger Woods
Lillian Asplud, last American survivor of the Titanic
Andrea Clark, woman at center of “right to life” ethics fight
Gillespie V. “Sonny” Montgomery, World War II veteran
Chic Hecht, former U.S. Senator from Nevada
Lew Anderson, musician, actor, final Clarabell the clown
Johnnie Wilder, Jr., singer
Joyce Ballantyne Brand, artist
Dr. Lee Jong-wook, director-general of the WHO
Lloyd Bentsen, former Treasury Secretary
Paul Gleason, actor

June

Alex Toth, animator
Billy Preston, musician
Lula Mae Hardaway, mother of Stevie Wonder
Major Bruce Shand, father of Camilla Parker Bowles
Moe Drabowsky, pitcher
Robert Donner, actor
Barbara Epstein, cofounder of The New York Review Of Books
Richard Stahl, actor
Claydes Charles Smith, musician
E. Pierce Marshall, stepson of Anna Nicole Smith
Aaron Spelling, producer
Patsy Ramsey, mother of JonBenet Ramsey
Manny Cortez, famous Las Vegan
Rob “Acidman” Smith, blogger
Jeffrey M. Harbers, Microsoft Office developer

July

Lennie Weinrib, actor
Jan Murray, actor
Ken Lay, founder of Enron
Valarie Gail Clark, mother of Adam Curry
June Allyson, actress
Milan B. Williams, musician
Syd Barrett, musician
Barnard Hughes, actor
Kasey Rogers, actress
Red Buttons, actor
Mickey Spillane, writer
Harry Olivieri, inventor of the Philly Cheesesteak
Jack Warden, actor

August

Esther L. Snyder, matriarch of the In-N-Out Burger chain
Bob Thaves, cartoonist
Mike Douglas, singer & talk-show host
Bruno Kirby, actor
Maj. Gen. Kathryn Frost, highest ranking woman in the Army
Joe Rosenthal, photographer
Glenn Ford, actor

September

Nellie Connally, widow of former Gov. John Connally
Steve Irwin, the Crocodile Hunter
William Ziff, Jr., publisher
Ann Richards, former Texas Governor
Pat Corley, actor
Patricia Kennedy Lawford, sister of Ted Kennedy
Mickey Hargitay, father of Mariska Hargitay
Robert Earl Jones, actor & brother of James Earl Jones
Byron Nelson, golfer
Timothy Hayes Rooney, son of Mickey Rooney
Edward Albert, actor & son of Eddie Albert

October

Frances Bergen, actress & mother of Candace Bergen
Ed Benedict, animator
Jerry Belson, comedy writer
Freddy Fender, singer
Ted Johnson, auto racing pioneer
Spoony Singh, founder of the Hollywood Wax Museum
Phyllis Kirk, actress
Jane Wyatt, actress
Trevor Berbick, boxer
Joe Niekro, pitcher
Red Auerbach, coach of the Boston Celtics
Marijohn Wilkin, songwriter
Mose Tolliver, folk artist

November

Ed Bradley, 60 Minutes coorespondent
Gerald Levert, singer
Jack Palance, actor
Joseph Ungaro, managing editor
Ruth Brown, singer
Robert Altman, director

December

Piper, star of the famous catcams
Jeane Kirkpatrick, former U.N. Ambassador
Peter Boyle, actor
Catherine Pollard, first female U.S. scoutmaster
Fred Marsden, musician
Ahmet Ertegun, founder of Atlantic Records
Denis Payton, musician
Chris Hayward, television writer
Joe Barbera, animator
Mike Evans, actor
Dennis Linde, songwriter
James Brown, the Godfather of Soul
Phyllis Brown, widow of DeKalb County Sheriff Derwin Brown
Frank Stanton, broadcasting pioneer
Gerald R. Ford, 38th President Of The United States
Saddam Hussein

May they all, except Slobodan and Saddam, rest in peace.

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Within days of taking power, Saddam Hussein summoned about 400 top officials and announced he had uncovered a plot against the ruling party. The conspirators, he said, were in that very room. As the 42-year-old Saddam coolly puffed on a cigar, names of the supposed plotters were read out. As each name was called, secret police led them away. Twenty-two people were executed. To make sure Iraqis got the word, Saddam videotaped the entire proceeding and distributed copies across the country.

The plot claim was a lie. But in a few terrifying minutes on July 22, 1979, Saddam eliminated his potential rivals, consolidating the power he wielded until the Americans and their allies drove him from office a generation later.

Saddam, who was hanged Saturday at age 69, ruled Iraq with singular ruthlessness.

What else is there to say?

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This is our last episode before 2007. Get it now while you can. No money down and no interest til 2007.

Listen below, or subscribe at ISPN Media or via iTunes.

The Watcher’s Council has another seat available. I’m not sure if it’s all you can eat or not, but heck, a seat is a seat, right? Now there are rules you must follow, but you’ll love the atmosphere.

I don’t quite know what to think of this…

Incoming Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid will miss the state funeral for former President Gerald Ford at the Capitol Rotunda on Saturday night, opting instead to lead a delegation to South America with an expected stop at the Machu Picchu Inca ruins.

Reid, D-Nev., left Wednesday afternoon from Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland with a bipartisan group of five other senators, including Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., the incoming assistant majority leader, for what has been described as a weeklong visit to Bolivia, Ecuador and Peru.

The highlight of the trip is said to be separate meetings with the presidents of the three nations, with the last one scheduled in Peru on Tuesday afternoon.

“They would be difficult to cancel,” Reid spokesman Jim Manley said via mobile phone as the congressional delegation took off in a U.S. military plane.

It would be difficult to cancel? Why cancel? Why not re-schedule? I’m sure the presidents of Bolivia, Ecuador, and Peru would all understand if they wanted to pay their respects to the late President Ford.

But instead, they made it very clear they would rather travel around South America and visit ancient ruins, since they left the day after President Ford died.

Of course the ruins might not be there another time. How rude was it that President Ford did not check Harry Reid’s schedule before dying?

There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven:
a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot,
a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to tear down and a time to build,
a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance,

At this time, I hope all of the senators visiting South America enjoy the dance.

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In August of 1974 I was nine years old. I wouldn’t turn 10 for four more months. I remember the day Richard Nixon resigned, and I remember President Ford being very accident prone, but I don’t remember much more.

To a 9 year old, without a care in the world, he wasn’t a very memorable President. To a 42 year old, looking back in time, he was the safe port in a very bad storm.

Thank you Mr. President. Thank you for everything.

Gerald R. Ford, who picked up the pieces of Richard Nixon’s scandal-shattered White House as the 38th and only unelected president in America’s history, has died, his wife, Betty, said Tuesday. He was 93.

“My family joins me in sharing the difficult news that Gerald Ford, our beloved husband, father, grandfather and great grandfather has passed away at 93 years of age,” Mrs. Ford said in a brief statement issued from her husband’s office in Rancho Mirage. “His life was filled with love of God, his family and his country.”

The statement did not say where Ford died or list a cause of death. Ford had battled pneumonia in January 2006 and underwent two heart treatments — including an angioplasty — in August at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn.

Rest In Peace, President Ford.