Lillian Gertrud Asplund, 99, the last American survivor of the sinking of the Titanic; May 6, in Shrewsbury, Mass.
Larry Attebery, 73, Chicago-born broadcast journalist who worked at AM radio stations WBBM and WMAQ in the 1960s before moving to Los Angeles and covering that city for more than three decades on television; May 5, in Henderson, Nev., of pancreatic cancer.
Helene Critler, 104, who survived the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and lived for years in a refugee cottage; April 29, in Belmont, Calif.
Jim Delsing, 80, former St. Louis Browns outfielder best known for his part in one of baseball executive Bill Veeck’s most unusual stunts when he pinch-ran for 3-foot-7-inch Eddie Gaedel in 1951; May 4, in Chesterfield, Mo., of cancer.
Rep. Lovana “Lou” Jones, 68, assistant majority leader of the Illinois House and a Chicago Democrat who represented the South Side for nearly 20 years; May 8, in Chicago, of pneumonia.
George “Lee” Lutz, 59, whose brief stay in an Amityville, N.Y., home spawned one of the more famous haunted house stories ever; May 8, in Las Vegas, of heart disease.
Floyd Patterson, 71, undersized boxing champion who avenged an embarrassing loss to Ingemar Johansson by beating him a year later to become the first boxer to regain the heavyweight title; May 11, in New Paltz, N.Y., of prostate cancer and Alzheimer’s disease.
Michael Piazza, 50, DePaul University visual arts professor; April 30, in Chicago, of a heart attack.
Elizabeth Plank, 81, civil rights advocate and volunteer of 25 years at Friendship House, a lay Catholic organization helping the needy, on Chicago’s South Side; May 1, in Columbus, Ohio, of cancer.
A.M. Rosenthal, 84, demanding editor who lifted The New York Times from economic doldrums in the 1970s and molded it into a journalistic juggernaut known for distinguished reporting of national and world affairs; May 10, in New York, of stroke complications.
Soraya, 37, Colombian-American singer (“Solo Por Ti,” “Casi”) who devoted much of her time to breast cancer advocacy after she was diagnosed with the disease in 2000; May 10, in Miami, of breast cancer.
Sister Rose Thering, 85, Roman Catholic nun and a former professor at Seton Hall University who battled anti-Semitism within her church and contributed to a historic Vatican declaration that Jews were not collectively responsible for the death of Jesus; May 6, in Racine, Wis., of kidney failure.
