Betty Hill

popular name: Elizabeth Edwards

date_of_death: December 7, 2010

age: 61

cause_of_death: Metastatic breast cancer

claim_to_fame: The Odd and the Interesting

best_know_for: During a lifetime of idyllic successes and crushing reverses, Elizabeth Edwards was an accomplished lawyer, the mother of four children and the wife of a wealthy, handsome senator with sights on the White House. But their 16-year-old son was killed in a car crash, cancer struck her at age 55, the political dreams died and, within months, her husband admitted to having had an extramarital affair with a campaign staffer. The scandal over the affair faded after his disclosure in 2008. But in 2009, Mrs. Edwards resurrected it in a new book and interviews and television appearances, telling how her husband had misrepresented the infidelity to her, rocked their marriage and spurned her advice to abandon his run for the presidency. Eventually John Edwards admitted he had fathered a child with the staffer. Soon afterward, he and Mrs. Edwards separated legally. Her story and John Edwards subsequent charges of campaign finance violations involving his mistress to the tune of $900,000 was fodder for tabloids for the better part of a year. Elizabeth Edwards gravesite is one of the top most-visited memorials at historic Oakwood Cemetery.

popular name: Joan Merriam Smith

date_of_death: February 17, 1965

age: 28

cause_of_death: Plane crash

claim_to_fame: The Odd and the Interesting

best_know_for: Joan Merriam Smith was an American aviator, famous for her 1964 solo flight around the world in which she became the second woman to complete the trip, by following the equatorial route attempted in 1937 by Amelia Earhart. (Jerrie Mock set off the same week on a different route, and finished before Smith did.) In doing so she also became the first woman to fly a twin-engine aircraft around the world, and the first woman to fly the Pacific Ocean from west to east in a twin-engine plane. Following the equatorial Amelia Earhart route, Joan became the first person in history to successfully complete a solo flight around the world at the equator, as well as the first person to complete the Amelia Earhart route. Smith also was the the first person in history to fly solo around the world at the equator, to complete the longest single solo flight around the world, first woman to fly a twin-engine aircraft around the world, the first woman to fly the Pacific Ocean from west to east in a twin-engine plane, the first woman to receive an airline transport rating at the age of 23, the youngest woman to complete a solo flight around the world, and the first woman to fly solo from Africa to Australia, from Australia to Guam via New Guinea, and from Wake to Midway Island. Sadly she died the following year when the plane she was piloting suffered structural failure and crashed in California.

popular name: Chang and Eng Bunker

date_of_death: January 17, 1874

age: 62

cause_of_death: Chang: cerebral blood clot/Eng: unknown

claim_to_fame: The Odd and the Interesting

best_know_for: Chang Bunker and Eng Bunker were Siamese-American conjoined twin brothers whose fame led to the term "Siamese twins" to become synonymous for conjoined twins in general. They were first pair of conjoined twins whose condition was well documented in medical records. Eng and Chang Bunker were connected at the chest by a five-inch-wide band of flesh, and performed as curiosities world-wide. After retiring from performing, they settled in Mount Airy, North Carolina, bought a farm, and took up farming. They became naturalized citizens, adopting the surname Bunker, and in April 1843 they married a pair of sisters, Adelaide and Sarah Yates. Chang Bunker died on January 17, 1874, from a cerebral blood clot and his brother Eng Bunker died three hours later.