Summer Filled with Famous Fatalities

What a summer for deathwatches. Michael Jackson, Farrah Fawcett, and Ed McMahon all succumbed during the same week in late June. Walter Cronkite, John Hughes, and Ted Kennedy followed. Then there was DJ AM, Patrick Swayze, and on Wednesday night the news of the death of Peter, Paul and Mary's Mary Travers. Though the number of celebrities who died this summer was no higher than previous seasons, according to Lou Ferrera, an editor at the Associated Press, the importance should be measured in who they were and what they represented. The New York Times’ Sarah Kershaw says for baby boomers, this summer marked the end of legends uniquely representative of their generation’s culture.