Celebrity Deaths

NEW YORK — The family of former Bears safety Dave Duerson has agreed to donate his brain for research into chronic traumatic encephalopathy, a condition linked to athletes who have sustained repeated concussions.

CHICAGO — Dave Duerson, a four-time Pro Bowl safety who played on Super Bowl winners with the Chicago Bears and New York Giants, has died. He was 50.

VICKSBURG, Miss.– Soul-Blues singer Marvin Sease has died at age 64 after a lengthy illness. James Jefferson, owner of Jefferson Funeral Home in Vicksburg, said Sease died Tuesday at River Region Medical Center in Vicksburg.

NEW YORK — Billy Taylor, an acclaimed jazz pianist and composer who became one of the genre’s most ardent advocates through radio, television and the landmark Jazzmobile arts venture, has died at age 89.

Philadelphia — Bernard “Bernie” Wilson, 64, who helped define the Sound of Philadelphia as a founding member of Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes, died early Sunday.

James Moody, the outsized jazz saxophonist and flutist best known for his recorded performance of ‘I’m in the Mood for Love,’ died Friday, Dec. 10 following a battle with pancreatic cancer. According to the New York Times, the 85-year-old passed away in a hospice in San Diego.

The Grammy Award winner fell ill on a flight from Los Angeles to Amsterdam, Dutch TV channel RTL reported.

Steve McNair’s widow has asked a Nashville probate judge for $2.5 million from the ex-quarterback’s estate.

Comedian Greg Giraldo died Wednesday (September 29) at age 44 from a reportedly accidental prescription-drug overdose. Giraldo had been hospitalized in New Brunswick, New Jersey, after he overdosed on prescription pills last weekend. According to TMZ, the overdose was not a suicide attempt.

One of the key figures on the Los Angeles jazz scene, Buddy Collette was a saxophonist, flautist, bandleader and educator who also worked as an advocate for the rights of African American musicians.

Varnette Honeywood, an artist whose paintings adorned the walls of the set of “The Cosby Show” and whose strikingly colorful images depicted tender moments in black family life, has died. She was 59.

Emmy-winning CBS News correspondent Harold Dow, who helped shape the documentary program “48 Hours” and covered the kidnapping of Patricia Hearst and the Sept. 11 attacks, has died. He was 62.