Dead Celebrity Alert

A speeding teenager with a new license allegedly killed three people — two of them members of the Tongan royal family — in a horrific collision Wednesday night in Menlo Park.

The San Mateo County Coroner’s Office confirmed Thursday that the crash killed two members of the royal family from the tiny South Pacific country, a 55-year-old man and a 45-year-old woman. The coroner’s office still would not name them late Thursday because the Tongan government had yet to issue an official statement.

News reports from Tonga identified the victims as Prince Tu’ipelehake and his wife, Princess Kaimana. Tu’ipelehake, a nephew of 88-year-old King Taufa’ahau Tupou IV, was a leading advocate for democratic reforms in Tonga. …

The teenager whose car clipped the Explorer, Edith Delgado, 18, of Redwood City, was booked into the San Mateo County jail on suspicion of three felony counts of vehicular manslaughter and one count of illegal speed contest. She had received her driver’s license Feb. 2, according to the Department of Motor Vehicles. …

The prince, who would have turned 46 on Monday, was supposed to speak at … the First Tongan United Methodist Church in San Bruno, on Thursday night. But the event turned into a memorial service. … Read full obituary

Albuquerque, N.M. (AP) — Internationally acclaimed mezzo-soprano Lorraine Hunt Lieberson, whose repertoire ranged from Baroque to the contemporary, has died.

She died Monday morning at her Santa Fe home with her husband, composer Peter Lieberson, at her side, said Richard Gaddes, general director of the Santa Fe Opera. She was 52.

The singer had battled breast cancer in recent years and canceled performances in 2005 and 2006 because of back problems. Her death shocked the music world because she often kept details about her health private, Gaddes said. …

A native of the San Francisco Bay area, Hunt Lieberson began her musical career as a violist and later became a recitalist, concert singer and operatic performer, according to her biography on the IMG Artists Web site. … Read full obituary

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — Kenneth Lay, the former chairman of Enron as well as a founder of the company, is dead, according to a report on CNBC. Lay was convicted of fraud and conspiracy charges by a federal jury in Houston on May 25 for his part in the high-profile collapse of Enron. CNBC said Lay died at his home in Aspen, Colo., of a heart attack. Jeffery Skilling, the ex-CEO of Enron, was also convicted in late May. The pair had yet to be sentenced for the charges, and each man was facing at least 20 years in prison. … Read full obituary

Related:

Ex-Enron exec J. Clifford Baxter suicides out

El Paso Corp. exec Charles Dana Rice, apparent suicide

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Jan Murray, one of the fabled generation of comics who rose from the Catskills to prime time TV, tickling fans of the 1950s game show Treasure Hunt, has died. He was 89.

Murray, who appeared in dozens of movies and TV shows, died Sunday at his home in Beverly Hills, son Howard Murray said in a telephone interview Monday. …

Born Murray Janofsky on Oct. 4, 1916, in New York, Murray honed his craft by watching vaudeville shows and performing at Catskills resorts that catered to the crowds of Jewish vacationers. …

Among the other veterans of that vanished show business training ground were Mel Brooks, Red Buttons, Sid Caesar and the late Buddy Hackett. … Read full obituary