Deaths in the News, 2011 (Part I) Quiz

Answer: New York

While working on her law degree at Fordham, Geraldine Ferraro worked as an elementary school teacher in Queens. After earning her Juris Doctor in 1960 and being admitted to the New York bar in 1961, Ferraro worked as a civil lawyer for her husband's real estate firm and became involved in Democratic politics, finding a mentor in future New York governor Mario Cuomo. In 1977, Ferraro became the head of the Special Victims Bureau, and became an advocate for abused children.

During her two terms representing New York's 9th Congressional District, Ferraro served on numerous committees, including the Budget Committee and the Public Works and Transportation Committee. A pro-choice advocate, Ferraro also showed support for the deployment of medium-range nuclear missiles in Western Europe and long-range missile submarines, while voting against the B-1 bomber and the Strategic Defense Initiative (President Reagan's ballistic-missile shield).

Answer: The Marvelettes

A native of Gainesville, Florida, Gladys Horton was raised in suburban Detroit and formed a singing group with several of her high school friends. She wound up singing lead after the first lead singer, Georgia Dobbins, left the group. Horton sang lead when The Marvelettes reached Number One on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1961 with their very first song, "Please Mr. Postman", which was co-written by Dobbins and several other songwriters. She also sang lead on some of the group's other well-known songs, including "Don't Mess With Bil" and "The Hunter Gets Captured by the Game", both of which were written by another Motown legend, Smokey Robinson.

In 1965, Horton was replaced as lead singer by Wanda Young, who had sung lead on a few song prior to that. When Horton left the group in 1967 to have her first child, vocalist Anne Bogan took her place. According to her son, Vaughn Thornton, Horton was born on May 30, 1945, which would've made her 65 at the time of her death. Her precise age is, however, uncertain.

Answer: Workmate (portable project center)

As the head of Lotus Engineering, Ron Hickman was responsible for the design of a number of sporty models, including the Lotus Elan convertible and the Lotus Europa mid-engine GT coupe, during the 1960s. But it was while building a wardrobe that Hickman made his greatest contribution.

After ruining an expensive chair he was using as a makeshift sawhorse, Hickman developed a foldable workbench that would allow him to work on his projects without fear of damaging other furniture. He tried to license his invention to several tool companies, including Stanley, which projected that sales of the product would not be strong.

He sold it on his own until 1973, when Black & Decker started producing what is now known as the Workmate. Millions of the handy devices have been sold since their introduction.

Answer: Navy

A native of Burlington, Colorado, Mike Lounge graduated from Annapolis in 1969. After completing flight training, he served a tour of duty aboard the USS Enterprise, flying 99 combat missions in Vietnam, and served a tour of duty aboard the USS America in the Mediterranean. He would earn six Air Medals among many other commendations for his service.

Lounge joined NASA in 1978, the same year he resigned his naval commission, and worked on various projects, including the safe re-entry of Skylab. Lounge flew into space three times on board the space shuttle, including STS-26, the first Return to Flight mission of the orbiter Discovery, in 1988. After leaving NASA in 1991, Lounge continued working on space-related programs in the private sector, holding positions at Astrotech Corporation and Boeing.

Answer: Burke's Law

A versatile actress who made numerous appearances in movies and television, Anne Francis had leading roles in the classroom drama "Blackboard Jungle" (opposite Glenn Ford and Sidney Poitier) and the science-fiction classic "Forbidden Planet" (opposite Leslie Nielsen). She also appeared in episodes of classic TV shows like "The Twilight Zone" and "The Virginian".

The character of Honey West was created by the husband-and-wife team of Gloria and Forrest Fickling, and appeared in a series of novels during the 1950s and 1960s. She made her television debut in "Who Killed the Jackpot?", an episode of the popular crime drama "Burke's Law", in April, 1965. Honey West proved to be a formidable opponent, using various gadgets, her knowledge of judo, and the help of her partner, Sam Bolt (played by John Ericson) to solve her cases. Although Ms. Francis was nominated for an Emmy Award and won a Golden Globe Award for her work on the show, "Honey West" fell victim in the ratings to other shows, notably "Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C." over on rival network CBS, and ran for just one season (1965-66).

Answer: Minnesota

An all-Southeastern Conference end at Tennessee under coach Robert Neyland - the namesake of the school's gargantuan Neyland Stadium - Murray Warmath served as an assistant coach at Army and Tennessee before becoming head coach at Mississippi State in 1952. His tenure in Starkville was short-lived, as he was fired in 1953 with a 10-6-3 record in his two seasons there. The next year, however, he took the reins at Minnesota, leading the team to two Big Ten titles (1960 and 1967) and two Rose Bowl appearances (1961 and 1962), and earning National Coach of the Year honors in 1960.

Warmath's legacy included the recruiting of black players to the school, including quarterback Sandy Stephens (the first black All-American quarterback at a major Division I school) and future Pro Football Hall-of-Famers Bobby Bell and Carl Eller. In 1971, Warmath left his post as head coach and became an assistant to Minnesota's athletic director. He later served as an assistant coach and scout for the Minnesota Vikings.

Answer: San Francisco Giants

A Los Angeles native who excelled at sports in high school, Duke Snider joined the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1948 when he was called up from their farm team in Montreal. He joined a powerful lineup that featured future Hall-of-Famers Roy Campanella, Pee Wee Reese and Jackie Robinson, and won two World Series titles with the team, in 1955 (when still in Brooklyn) and 1959 (after the team had relocated to Los Angeles).

After spending the 1963 season with the expansion New York Mets, he was sold to his long-time rival, the Giants, and played with them in the 1964 season. Snider became a Hall-of-Famer himself in 1980.

Answer: Duke University

An alumnus of Duke and a Rhodes Scholar, Reynolds Price returned to his alma mater in 1958 to teach English literature. While there, fellow Southern writer Eudora Welty helped Price publish his first novels, including "A Long and Happy Life" (1962) and "The Names and Faces of Heroes" (1963). Later, he wrote the memoirs "A Whole New Life" (1994, about the survival of the cancer that left him a paraplegic) and "Ardent Spirits: Leaving Home, Coming Back" (2009, about his experiences as a Rhodes Scholar and his early days teaching at Duke). During a tenure that stretched over 40 years, in which he was honored as a James B. Duke Professor of English, Price taught future author Anne Tyler ("The Accidental Tourist") and future actress Annabeth Gish ("Mystic Pizza").

Answer: RMS Lusitania Sinking (1915)

Born Audrey Warren Pearl in New York City on February 5, 1915, Audrey Lawson-Johnston was just three months old when she and her family embarked on the final voyage of RMS Lusitania. She and her brother, Stuart, were saved when their nurse, Alice Lines, got them onto a lifeboat. Lawson-Johnston's parents also survived, but her two sisters and a second nurse, Greta Lorenson, perished in the disaster. Mrs. Lawson-Johnston remained in touch with Lines until her death in 1997 at age 100.

She was survived by three children and 10 grandchildren.

Answer: "National Velvet" (1944)

Elizabeth Taylor won three Academy Awards during her legendary career. Two were for acting, in "BUtterfield 8" (1961) and "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" (1967). The third was an honorary Oscar in 1992 - the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award - for her work in fighting AIDS. Although she did not earn a nomination for "National Velvet" (1944), which is considered to be her breakout role, she did get to work with two other legends of the screen in before-they-were stars - Angela Lansbury and Mickey Rooney.

A note about the title of "BUtterfield 8". The "B" and the "U" are both correctly capitalized. The title of the movie reflects the pattern of the first three digits of a telephone number, as defined in the United States and Canada until the mid-1960s. "BUtterfield 8" represents the telephone prefix 288.