Rob Grill, 67, the lead singer of the 1960s rock band the Grass Roots and famous for such hits as "Sooner or Later" and "Temptation Eyes," died Monday at a hospice near Orlando, Fla. He was listening to one of his favorite songs when he died, according to his wife, Nancy Grill. He had recently suffered from a head injury after falling and was in a coma, according to reports. He also suffered from other health problems, including a recent stroke.
Deaths elsewhere
July 13, 2011 at 2:15AM
Raised in Hollywood, Calif., Grill started his music career while working at a studio with friends Cory Wells and John Kay, who would go on to form Three Dog Night and Steppenwolf. Grill then joined the Grass Roots and the band had their first Top 10 hit in 1967 with "Let's Live for Today."
Cy Twombly, 83, a controversial American artist whose deceptively simple scrawls, smudges and sculptural shapes made him one of the most significant artistic figures of the past 50 years, died of cancer on July 5 in Rome.
Twombly, a native of Lexington, Va., spent most of his adult life in Italy, where he forged an original artistic path in spite of early criticism and outright mockery. Along with artists Robert Rauschenberg and Jasper Johns, Twombly was considered an heir to the mantle of abstract expressionist painter Jackson Pollock.
Twombly painted vast canvases marked by smears of paint, half-erased graffiti, random scratches and occasional lines of poetry that evoked a connection between the world of classical mythology and the vibrant street culture of modern life.
George C. Ballas, 85, who invented the Weed Eater to make tending his own two-acre lawn easier, died June 25 in Houston, his son Corky said.
Horticulture was not Ballas' primary passion. He was the owner of a dance studio in Houston with 43,000 square feet of space and more than 100 instructors. But after he perfected his invention, he started the Weed Eater Corp., promoted it on television nationwide and built a business that was eventually bought by Emerson Electric. There are now many Weed Eater models and sizes.
The Rev. Michael Wenning, 75, the retired senior pastor of Bel Air Presbyterian Church who presided at former President Ronald Reagan's 2004 burial service in Simi Valley, northwest of Los Angeles, died Tuesday at his home in Mission Viejo, Calif., one week before his 76th birthday.
The cause was leukemia and kidney failure, said his wife of 54 years, Freda.
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