Deaths in the News, 2011 (Part II) Quiz

Answer: 4

Before taking on the role of "Columbo", Peter Falk had made a name for himself in the movies and on TV. He earned Oscar nominations for Best Supporting Actor in the gangster film "Murder Inc." (1960) and the comedy "A Pocketful of Miracles" (1961). He also appeared on TV shows such as "The Twilight Zone" and "Ben Casey". Falk first played Columbo in the made-for-TV movie "Prescription: Murder", an adaptation of a stage play created by noted television writers Richard Levinson and William Link, in 1968. "Columbo" joined "The NBC Mystery Movie" rotation in 1971 and aired through 1978. Falk won three of his Emmy Awards for the role during its original NBC run (1972, 1975 and 1976), and the fourth Emmy Award in 1990, after ABC revived the character in a series of movies that aired until 2003.

Answer: Cat

Although she was born in Massachusetts in 1913, Lillian Jackson Braun spent much of her life in Michigan. She worked as a copywriter and public-relations director for department stores in Detroit, and spent 30 years as an editor and writer for the Detroit Free Press.

While working for the Free Press, Braun wrote the first three of the 29 novels in her "The Cat Who..." series - "The Cat Who Could Read Backwards" (1966), "The Cat Who Ate Danish Modern" (1967), and "The Cat Who Turned On and Off" (1968).

The fourth novel in the series, "The Cat Who Saw Red", wasn't published until 1986 because Ms. Braun recoiled against the idea of including more sex and violence in her work. "The Cat Who..." books focused on newspaperman Jim Qwilleran, an amateur sleuth who solved crimes with the help of his Siamese cats, Koko and Yum Yum. Braun spent the last 23 years of her life with her second husband, Earl Bettinger, in Tryon, a small town in western North Carolina situated between the larger cities of Asheville and Spartanburg.

Answer: Attorney General of Maryland

A native of Baltimore and a member of the Democratic Party, William Schaefer spent much of his life involved in Maryland's politics. As a city councilman (1955-71) and as mayor of Baltimore (1971-87), he took a keen interest in the city's issues with housing and infrastructure, helping Baltimore transition from its reliance on manufacturing to become a tourist destination.

As governor of Maryland (1987-1995), Schaefer helped push for new facilities to keep the Orioles of Major League Baseball in Baltimore and to bring a new NFL team to the city - which happened when Art Modell moved the Cleveland Browns to town in 1996.

As comptroller of Maryland (1999-2007), Schaefer faced some controversy - first because of frequent disagreements with Republican governor Parris Glendening, then because of suggestive comments he made to one of Republican governor Robert Ehrlich's aides.

Answer: Oklahoma

Clara Luper made history in 1950 when she was among the first black students to attend the University of Oklahoma. After earning her master's degree in history education there in 1951, she taught in Oklahoma City and eventually served as advisor for the NAACP Youth Council there. Determined to pursue the cause of racial integration through the non-violent methods that the famed civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr., advocated, Luper led a sit-in at a drugstore lunch counter in Oklahoma City in August, 1958. The drugstore's parent company ultimately integrated lunch counters in four states, including Oklahoma. This is notable because this occurred almost two years before the more famous Woolworth lunch counter sit-ins in Greensboro, North Carolina.

Luper also took up the cause of sanitation workers in Oklahoma City in 1969. During a nearly three-month-long strike, Luper spoke for the workers, who sought better pay and working conditions. She taught in the Oklahoma City public schools until her retirement in 1991.

Answer: 6

Fellow tennis hall-of-famer Jack Kramer called Pauline Betz Addie the second best female tennis player he ever saw, placing her only behind the legendary Helen Wills Moody. Addie won four women's singles titles at the US Open (1942-44, 1946) and a single's title at Wimbledon (1946) - notable as well because she didn't lose a single set on the grass courts.

She also won the mixed doubles title at the French Open (1946). She finished 1946 as the top-ranked female player in the world, and also had success when she became a professional player in 1948. Addie, who was married to longtime Washington sportswriter Bob Addie, was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 1965.

Answer: First black owner of a Las Vegas casino

Born in suburban Detroit in 1943, Don Barden was just 21 years old when he opened his first business, a record store, in suburban Cleveland. From there, he worked as a real-estate developer and cable-television operator, winning a contract to install a cable system in Detroit in the 1980s.

When Barden sold the cable system to Comcast in 1994, he used the proceeds to open a riverboat casino in Indiana. Barden's casino empire, known as The Majestic Star Casino, LLC, purchased the Fitzgerald Casino and Hotel in Las Vegas in 2001.

In September, 2011, a probate court authorized the sale of the Fitzgerald to Derek Stevens, owner of the Golden Gate Hotel and Casino, and his brother Greg. At the time of his death, Black Enterprise Magazine listed Barden as having the 10th highest-grossing black-owned company in the United States.

Answer: Mad Libs

Leonard B. Stern earned Emmy Awards for his writing on both "The Phil Silvers Show" (1957) and "Get Smart" (1967). But he had extensive experience as a writer, producer and director in both movies and television, including the Ma and Pa Kettle series of movies; the long-running crime drama "McMillan & Wife" (part of "The NBC Mystery Movie" anthology series); and the first incarnation of the long-running game show "Supermarket Sweep". In 1958, Stern and fellow writer Roger Price published their first book in the "Mad Libs" series. They later joined up with Larry Sloan to create a concern under which to publish the books; said concern was purchased by the Penguin Group in 1993.

"Mad Libs" involves the use of words to fill in the blanks in short stories. The use of those words is intended to make for humorous and sometimes non-sensical results in those stories.

Answer: Kansas City Royals

Paul Splittorff was drafted by the Kansas City Royals in 1968 and spent time in their minor-league system before pitching his first game for the main team in 1970. He posted several seasons where he won 10 games or more, but his best season was in 1973, when he boasted a 20-11 record and became the first 20-game winner in team history. That same year, he pitched the first regular-season played at what is now Kauffman Stadium, the Royals' longtime home. Splittorff's teams won four American League West titles (1976-78, 1980) and the American League pennant in 1980, but never won a World Series.

At the time of his retirement in 1984, his 166 wins were a team record and his 88 complete games were second on the team's all-time list. He became a broadcaster immediately after this playing days were over, doing color commentary work on Royals games, as well as Big 8 and Big 12 basketball and games played by the University of Missouri-Kansas City.

Answer: False

During her lifetime, Grete Waitz earned many honors for her running prowess. She won the New York City Marathon a record nine times between 1978 and 1988, the London Marathon twice (1983 and 1986), and the Stockholm Marathon in 1988. She also won a gold medal in the marathon at the first IAAF World Championships at Helsinki in 1983. Waitz also excelled at shorter runs as well, winning the 10-kilometer Peachtree Road Race in Atlanta four time between 1983 and 1988, the last two installments of the 10-kilometer L'eggs Mini-Marathon in New York in 1979 and 1980, and collecting a bronze medal in the 1500-meter race in the European Championships at Rome in 1974.

For all her achievements, though, Waitz was never an Olympic champion. She collected a silver medal in 1984 in Los Angeles, losing the gold to American Joan Benoit. In 1988 at Seoul, a bad knee forced her to retire midway through the marathon. She also failed to medal in the 1500-meter races in 1972 (Munich) and 1976 (Montreal).

Answer: Atlanta Hawks

A native of Brooklyn, New York, Lorenzo Charles came south to play basketball for the late Jim Valvano at North Carolina State University in Raleigh. Charles was a sophomore during the Wolfpack's improbable run to the NCAA Men's Final Four. In the championship game against a heavily favored Houston team, Charles snatched an errant desperation jump shot by teammate Dereck Whittenburg out of midair and slammed it home, giving N.C. State a shocking 54-52 victory.

The Atlanta Hawks drafted Charles with the 41st pick in the 1985 NBA Draft, and he played in 36 regular-season games and four playoff contests with the team during the 1985-86 season. After the one season in Atlanta, Charles played with a bevy of teams around the world, including Argentina, Italy, Sweden and Turkey. He also played in minor pro leagues in the United States, including two stints with the Raleigh Cougars of the now-defunct United States Basketball League. At the time of his death, Lorenzo Charles drove for Elite Coach, a transportation service based in the Raleigh suburb of Apex.