Ted Williams

popular name: Arthur Ashe

date_of_death: February 6, 1993

age: 49

cause_of_death: AIDS-related pneumonia

claim_to_fame: Sports

best_know_for: Arthur Ashe was an American professional tennis player. He won three Grand Slam titles in singles and two in doubles and was the first Black player selected to the United States Davis Cup team, and the only Black man ever to win the singles titles at Wimbledon, the US Open, and the Australian Open. At the height of his career Ashe was ranked world No. 1 by Rex Bellamy, Bud Collins, Judith Elian, Lance Tingay, World Tennis and Tennis Magazine (U.S.) in 1975. That year, Ashe was awarded the 'Martini and Rossi' Award, voted for by a panel of journalists, and the ATP Player of the Year award. In the ATP computer rankings, he peaked at No. 2 in May 1976. He retired in 1980. In 1983 Ashe acquired HIV from a blood transfusion he received during heart bypass surgery. In 1993 Ashe died from AIDS-related pneumonia at age 49. His funeral was held at the Arthur Ashe Athletic Center in Richmond, Virginia. Governor Douglas Wilder, who was a friend of Ashe's, allowed his body to lie in state at the Governor's Mansion in Richmond as more than 5,000 people lined up to walk past the casket.

popular name: Helen Woodford Ruth

date_of_death: January 11, 1929

age: 31

cause_of_death: Suffocation from a house fire

claim_to_fame: Sports

best_know_for: Babe Ruth met Helen Woodford in 1914 when she served him breakfast while she worked as a waitress at Landers’ Coffee Shop in Boston. They were married in the fall, and Helen would make periodic public appearances with The Babe. Although Yankee (and former Red Sox) slugger Babe Ruth and Helen maintained publicly that they were still married, neighbors on Quincy Street knew her as Helen R. Kinder, the wife of Dr. Edward Kinder, a Tufts-educated dentist. Kinder told his family that they were married in Montreal, and Helen Kinder’s name appeared on the home’s deed and the mortgage taken out in 1927. Neighbors reported occasionally seeing a young girl, who turned out to be Helen and Babe’s daughter, Dorothy. However soon after moving in with Kinder, Dorothy was sent to live in a boarding school in Wellesley run by nuns. On Jan. 11, 1929, Babe’s wife, Helen, was killed in a house fire in Watertown, Massachusetts. Helen lived in the house with a dentist, Edward H. Kinder. Helen and Babe were separated, but not divorced. Neighbors knew Helen as Mrs. Kinder, and had no idea she was Babe’s wife until the Woodford family saw her picture in the newspaper and made a positive identification.

popular name: Lorenzo Charles

date_of_death: June 27, 2011

age: 47

cause_of_death: Blunt force trauma due to bus crash

claim_to_fame: Sports

best_know_for: Charles Lorenzo (Zo to his friends and teammates) was a Brooklyn, New York native and was born to Panamanian immigrants. He played basketball for the University of North Carolina State from 1981 to 1985 where he was coached by the late Jim Valvano. Lorenzo was drafted into the NBA by the Atlanta Hawks in the 2nd round (41st overall pick). Lorenzo is perhaps best known when he made March Madness history when he clinched the title for North Carolina State University over the favored University of Houston Cougars right as the buzzer sounded more than two decades ago. He had a brief career in the National Basketball Association with the Atlanta Hawks from 1985 to 1986 and then played professionally in Europe for about 12 years before retiring from basketball and settling back into the Raleigh area. For the last 10 years, Charles was a driver for Elite Coach, a limo, charter bus and car service when he passed away from a fatal bus accident.