Fortune teller Madam Marie, a figure of rock 'n' roll mythology thanks to Bruce Springsteen, died Friday. She was in her mid-90s. Sally Castello, her great-granddaughter, confirmed the death. The psychic reader and adviser began telling fortunes on the Asbury Park Boardwalk in New Jersey in the 1930s.

Madam Marie became famous in 1973 when Springsteen paid homage to her in the song "4th of July, Asbury Park (Sandy)." His lyric, "Did you hear, the cops finally busted Madam Marie for tellin' fortunes better than they do," cemented her fame.

Simone Ortega, a Spanish chef and cookery writer, died Wednesday. She was 89. Ortega died at a nursing home in Madrid, said publishing company Alianza Editorial. The cause of her death was not immediately known. The company says Ortega's best-known book sold around 3 million copies and went through 49 printings since it was published in 1972. It is entitled "1,080 Recetas de Cocina," which means 1,080 recipes.

James Davidson, a political science professor who was the last man to serve as Newcomb College's permanent dean, died June 5. He was 88. He died at New River Valley Medical Center in Radford, Va., said his son James H. Davidson.

Although Newcomb was established in 1896 as Tulane University's undergraduate liberal arts college for women, it had a history of male leaders. Davidson was its dean from 1969 to 1977, when he resigned to teach political science full time. Newcomb was closed in 2006 as part of Tulane's restructuring.

Senior Circuit Court Judge Warren J. Ferguson, who served nearly 42 years on the federal bench and presided over several cases with broad implications, has died. He was 87. Ferguson died June 25 of congestive heart failure at St. Jude Medical Center in Fullerton, Calif., said his son, Peter Ferguson.

Appointed to the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals by President Carter in 1979, Ferguson was widely regarded as a liberal whose concern that people be treated fairly was paramount. "It was not a job to him, it was a calling," said Judge Stephen Reinhardt, who served on the Ninth Circuit with Ferguson. "He was a ... very compassionate and passionate man. He was [from] the days of the old-fashioned judges who really cared about human beings and who thought the purpose of law was justice."

Ferguson was one of four judges on the Ninth Circuit in the mid-1980s whose cases were overturned by the Supreme Court more often than any other federal appellate judges. Some saw the Ninth Circuit as a "maverick court," bucking a more conservative Supreme Court. "The West is a maverick region," Ferguson said in a 1984 article in the Los Angeles Times.

Garven F. Hudgins, a former foreign correspondent for the Associated Press who covered the trial of Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann in Jerusalem, died June 23, his family said. He was 84. Hudgins died at a Potomac, Md., nursing home after suffering from dementia for three years, said his son, Rob Hudgins.

He covered high-profile topics such as the 1967 war between Egypt and Israel and Eichmann, whom Israel pursued, captured, tried and hanged in 1962. Before joining the AP, the 1949 Yale graduate served in World War II as part of the press corps.

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