Dead Celebrity Alert

Stars and fans around the world are mourning the death of former Beatles guitarist George Harrison, who died aged 58 after a long fight against cancer. … Read full obituary

Melanie Thornton, 34, an American pop singer who established a career in Germany, died Saturday in an airplane crash in Switzerland. … Read full obituary

Mary Kay Ash, who built a billion-dollar beauty empire from a $5,000 investment in 1963, and who motivated hundreds of thousands of consultants around the world with a combination of rewards, recognition and religion, died yesterday at her home in Dallas. She was 83. … Read full obituary

Gardner McKay, whose dashing good looks landed him a starring role in television’s “Adventures in Paradise” in the early 1960s but who abandoned acting to pursue a writing career, died Wednesday of prostate cancer at his home in Oahu, Hawaii. He was 69. … Read full obituary

The death of Mary Kay Ash, she of the cosmetics empire whose reps drove those ubiquitous trademark pink cars, was just announced on the local news. No obit on the ‘Net yet.

Carrie Donovan, a fashion editor who could easily have rested on her laurels and leopard skins but came out of semiretirement to find a new and even more enthusiastic audience as ”the lady from Old Navy,” died yesterday in Manhattan. She was 73. … Read full obituary

Eunice Simpson, the mother of O. J. Simpson, was found dead in her home of natural causes on Friday morning, the medical examiner’s office said. She was 80 and lived in the Bayview District of San Francisco. … Read full obituary

Ken Kesey, the Pied Piper of the psychedelic era, who was best known as the author of the novel ”One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest,” died yesterday in a hospital in Eugene, Ore., said his wife, Faye. He was 66 and lived in Pleasant Hill, Ore. … Read full obituary