Patricia Lake

popular name: Toots Shor

date_of_death: January 23, 1977

age: 73

cause_of_death: Cancer

claim_to_fame: Historical Figure

best_know_for: Until recently, Toots Shor was long forgotten by most –– now a whole new generation is discovering NYC’s legendary “saloon” thanks to Mad Men. The Mad Men design team even built a virtual Toots Shor set (where Don and Betty drank martinis and ate their famous Caesar Salad prepared at tableside) and sparked a renewed interest in the style of the period. The original was a bar/restaurant in NYC that thrived in the 40s and 50s –– a place where actors, writers, singers, journalists and sports figures came to play. In its heyday, it was the place to go, located at 51 w 51st Street from 1940 to 1959 (after that it moved around the corner to 52nd Street). The ringmaster was Toots Shor - one of New York's most famous restaurateurs and one of the country's foremost patrons of artists, actors, musicians and sports figures.

popular name: Kara Kennedy

date_of_death: September 16, 2011

age: 51

cause_of_death: Heart attack

claim_to_fame: Historical Figure

best_know_for: Kara Kennedy was born into a public family, the daughter of the Senator Edward M. Kennedy and Joan Bennett Kennedy, but was a private person who was able to live her life outside the public glare. After graduating from the National Cathedral School in 1978, Kara worked on her father’s 1980 Presidential campaign before matriculating at Tufts University. Following the receipt of her degree in 1983 she pursued a career in television, working at Fox News in New York and at an evening news magazine in Boston. She also successfully co-managed her father’s 1988 re-election campaign with her brother Patrick. Her lung cancer diagnosis came in 2002, and the prognosis was grim. But with her trademark determination, she went through aggressive surgery, chemotherapy and radiation, and had been in remission from her cancer since that time. Her family has speculated that her heart was weakened by the aggressive cancer treatments she received when she passed away at the young age of 51.

popular name: Rosemary Kennedy

date_of_death: January 7, 2005

age: 86

cause_of_death: Natural causes

claim_to_fame: Historical Figure

best_know_for: Rosemary Kennedy was the third child and eldest daughter of Joseph and Rose Kennedy and her brothers included future president John F. Kennedy. She was slower to crawl, slower to walk and to speak than her brothers and she reportedly displayed developmental delays from an early age after a bungled delivery led to oxygen deprivation. Despite her apparent intellectual disabilities, Rosemary participated in most family activities. In the diary she kept as a teenager she described people she met, dances and concerts she attended, and a visit to the Roosevelt White House. When her father was appointed US Ambassador to Britain in 1938, Rosemary went to live in London and was presented at court along with her mother and sister Kathleen. Upon return to the states she allegedly exhibited mood swings and disruptive behavior. Fearing Rosemary would be an embarrassment and roadblock for his male offspring to achieve great power at all political levels, without telling anyone Joseph instructed Dr. James W. Watts to perform a frontal lobotomy. The horrifying surgical procedure – which involved severing the connection between the frontal lobe and other parts of the brain – became popular in the 1940s and 1950s with American and British doctors who claimed to be seeking a ‘cure’ for patients with certain mental health conditions that were deemed socially unacceptable. When they completed the surgical procedure, It quickly became apparent that the procedure had caused immense harm. Kennedy's mental capacity diminished to that of a two-year-old child. She could not walk or speak intelligibly and was incontinent. For the next six decades she was housed at a facility in Ohio, hidden from view and rarely spoken of until she died at the age of 86.