David Foster Wallace, the author best known for his 1996 novel "Infinite Jest," was found dead in his Claremont, Calif., home, according to police. He was 46. Wallace's wife discovered that he had hanged himself when she returned home about 9:30 p.m. Friday, said Jackie Morales, a records clerk with the Claremont Police Department. Wallace taught creative writing and English at nearby Pomona College. His first novel, "The Broom of the System," gained national attention in 1987. The New York Times said the 24-year-old author "attempts to give us a portrait, through a combination of Joycean word games, literary parody and zany picaresque adventure, of a contemporary America run amok." Published in 1996, "Infinite Jest" cemented Wallace's reputation as a major American literary figure. The 1,000-plus-page tome, praised for its complexity and dark wit, topped many best-of lists. Born in Ithaca, N.Y., Wallace attended Amherst College and the University of Illinois.
Grand Ole Opry star Charlie Walker, who became a popular disc jockey in Texas as he built a career as a honky-tonk singer, has died. He was 81 and had been diagnosed recently with colon cancer. A Grand Ole Opry spokeswoman said Walker died in the Nashville suburb of Hendersonville, Tenn. His breakthrough was on Columbia Records in 1958 with the Harlan Howard-penned "Pick Me Up on Your Way Down." It was a million-seller.
Sculptor Tina Allen, who depicted such figures as the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and Frederick Douglass in her works, has died at age 58, from complications of a heart attack, said her ex-husband, Roger Allen. She was born in December 1949 in New York. Her father was jazz musician Gordon (Specs) Powell. She graduated from the University of South Alabama and later continued her education at the Pratt Institute in New York
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