Yvonne King Burch, 89, who gained early fame as one of the singing King Sisters during the big band era before launching her entire extended musical clan into show business as the King Family, died last week in Santa Barbara, Calif., following injuries she suffered in a fall last week, her daughter, Tina Cole, said.

Burch was the matriarch of the King Family, a popular and enduring show business dynasty. In 1963, Burch conceived and produced a benefit concert with her sisters and three dozen relatives including brothers, husbands, wives, aunts, uncles and children that marked the debut of the King Family.

The King Family produced two variety series and 17 specials during the 1960s and 1970s and showcased its multigenerational talent with the King Cousins and the King Kiddies.

Dr. Malcolm Oliver Perry II, 80, who attended to President John F. Kennedy at Parkland Memorial Hospital after he was shot in Dallas on Nov. 22, 1963, died Saturday of lung cancer.

Perry was an assistant professor of surgery at UT Southwestern and a vascular surgeon on the Parkland staff when he became the first staff surgeon to treat Kennedy. He found no vital signs but noted a convulsive effort to breathe. Perry performed a tracheotomy on Kennedy and with another surgeon, performed cardiopulmonary resuscitation until no brain activity was detected and Kennedy was declared dead.

Rodrigo Carazo Odio, 82, Former Costa Rican President, died Wednesday of complications from open-heart surgery.

The charismatic Carazo Odio governed Costa Rica from 1978 to 1982. He was viewed as a supporter of the Sandinista revolution that toppled dictator Anastasio Somoza in neighboring Nicaragua in 1979. He opposed a free trade agreement with the United States approved in 2007, but also broke off diplomatic relations with Cuba in 1981, ties that were not revived until last March.

Harold Bell, 90, who along with two forest rangers and another colleague created Woodsy Owl, the plump anthropomorphic bird in a red-feathered cap who for nearly 40 years has exhorted youngsters to "Give a hoot, don't pollute," died Dec. 4 in Los Angeles.

It was on the set of the popular television show "Lassie" that Bell and colleagues came up with Woodsy as a new mascot for the Forest Service. Bell, a marketing agent for the show, had produced public service announcements for Smokey Bear (popularly, but unofficially, known as Smokey the Bear).

NEWS SERVICES