Lena Horne, enchanting jazz singer and actress. Horne died May 9 in New York. She was 92. Horne was known for her plaintive, signature song “Stormy Weather” and for her triumph over the bigotry that allowed her to entertain white audiences but not socialize with them.

Horne, whose striking beauty often overshadowed her talent, was remarkably candid: “I was unique in that I was a kind of black that white people could accept,” she once said. “I was their daydream. I had the worst kind of acceptance, because it was never for how great I was or what I contributed. It was because of the way I looked.”

She first achieved fame in the 1940s, became a nightclub and recording star in the 1950s and made a triumphant return to the spotlight with a one-woman Broadway show in 1981. She might have become a major movie star, but she was born 50 years too early: She languished at MGM for years because of her race.

Dustin Shuler, sculptor known for impaling things, flattening things and putting things on top of other things — resulting in works of public art made all the more striking by the fact that the things in question were often full-size automobiles. Shuler died of cancer May 4 at his home in Inglewood, Calif. He was 61.

Shuler’s most famous work was “Spindle,” a 50-foot-high metal spike onto which eight cars had been threaded like onions on a skewer. Erected in 1989, the sculpture — quite literally an eight-car pileup — stood for nearly 20 years in the parking lot of Cermak Plaza, a shopping center in Berwyn, Ill.

Frank Frazetta, illustrator of comic books, movie posters and paperback book covers whose visions of muscle-bound men fighting with swords and axes to defend scantily dressed women helped define fantasy heroes like Conan, Tarzan and John Carter of Mars. Frazetta died of complications from a stroke Monday in Fort Myers, Fla. He was 82.

Dave Fisher, lead singer of the 1960s folk group the Highwaymen. Fisher died Thursday of a bone marrow disease last week at his home in Rye, N.Y. He was 69.

In 1961 the Highwaymen had a No. 1 hit with the spiritual “Michael, Row the Boat Ashore.” Other hits followed, including “Cotton Fields” and “The Gypsy Rover.”

Edward Uhl, helped invent the bazooka during World War II and later led the aerospace company Fairchild Industries Inc. Uhl died May 9 in Oxford, Md., of complications from a stroke he suffered three years earlier. He was 92. In 1942 Uhl helped develop a shoulder-fired rocket launcher nicknamed the bazooka because it resembled a tube-shaped musical instrument.

Walker “Bud” Mahurin, Army Air Forces’ first double ace in Europe in World War II who went on to serve in the Pacific and later became a POW after being shot down during the Korean War. Mahurin, a retired Air Force colonel who had suffered a stroke in October, died Tuesday at his home in Newport Beach, Calif. He was 91.

Richard LaMotta, creator of the Chipwich — two chocolate chip cookies embracing a chunk of vanilla ice cream dotted with chocolate chips. LaMotta died of a heart attack Tuesday at his home in Chappaqua, N.Y. He was 67.

Allan Manings, television comedy writer and producer who created the situation comedy “One Day at a Time” with his late wife, actress Whitney Blake. Manings died of a heart attack in Beverly Hills, Calif. He was 86. In a career that began in the 1950s, Manings wrote for TV shows such as “Leave It to Beaver,” “McHale’s Navy” and “Petticoat Junction.”

John M. Peters, doctor who played a crucial role in demonstrating the short- and long-term effects of air pollutants on the health of children. Peters died of pancreatic cancer May 6 at his home in San Marino, Calif. He was 75.

Peters was the driving force in creating the Children’s Health Study, which “profoundly changed the public health community’s understanding of the harm caused by air pollution to growing lungs,” said Bonnie Holmes-Gen, senior director for policy and air quality of the American Lung Association in California.

| From news reports

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