Deaths elsewhere

Last update: January 7, 2009 - 8:34 PM

Ron Asheton, 60, the guitarist for the Stooges whose raw sound helped inspire the first generation of punk musicians, was found dead at his Ann Arbor, Mich., home Tuesday by police officers after they were called by an associate who had not heard from him in several days. The death appeared to be of natural causes. Asheton was a founding member of the Stooges, the influential proto-punk band formed in Ann Arbor in 1967, along with his brother, Scott. The lead singer was Iggy Pop. Asheton's powerful, distorted guitar on songs like "I Wanna Be Your Dog" and "T.V. Eye" was a hallmark of the group's sound.

Christopher Hibbert, 84, a British historian whose popular books covered subjects from the medieval Battle of Agincourt to the American Revolutionary War, died Dec. 21 in Henley-on-Thames, west of London, after a short illness. Hibbert wrote more than 50 books, including accounts of the French Revolution and the Battle of Waterloo, studies of Venice, Florence and Rome and biographies of Queen Elizabeth I, King Charles I, lexicographer Samuel Johnson and British politician Benjamin Disraeli.

Olga San Juan, 81, the actress dubbed the "Puerto Rican Pepperpot" for singing and dancing roles alongside the likes of Bing Crosby, died Saturday in Burbank, Calif., of kidney failure. Of Puerto Rican descent, San Juan was born and raised in New York City. She started dancing when she was 5 or 6 years old, and she performed as a girl with mambo percussionist Tito Puente. She began her acting career in radio and theater, then went on to movies in the mid-1940s. San Juan danced with Fred Astaire in the 1946 musical "Blue Skies" and also sang with Crosby in the film. She also appeared in such '40s films as "Duffy's Tavern," "Variety Girl" and "One Touch of Venus."

Betty Freeman, 87, a fiercely independent philanthropist and photographer often described as a Medici for contemporary classical music and who supported a Who's Who of modern composers, including John Cage, Philip Glass, Pierre Boulez and John Adams, died Saturday of pancreatic cancer at her Beverly Hills home. Freeman made more than 400 grants and commissions over the past four decades to help composers develop new works, pay for daily living expenses and subsidize performances and recordings. When asked, she said she did not know the total amount she had donated over the years, but the individual sums ranged from several hundred dollars to five figures. She also hosted legendary salons, where her guests heard the best new work from established and emerging American composers. A number of composers she supported dedicated music to her, among which the best known are Cage's "The Freeman Etudes" and Adams' opera, "Nixon in China."

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Deaths elsewhere - January 7, 2009

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