Ric Ocasek, The Cars frontman whose deadpan vocal delivery and lanky, sunglassed look defined a rock era with chart-topping hits like “Just What I Needed,” was discovered dead Sunday afternoon in his Manhattan apartment.

A publicist for Eddie Money says the rock star has died after he recently announced he had stage 4 esophageal cancer.  He was 70.

Marca Bristo died from cancer Sunday morning, according to Chicago’s Access Living, the organization she founded in 1980. She was 66 years old.

Al Haynes was hailed for his skill when a jet lost all hydraulic power after the rear engine exploded during a flight from Denver to Chicago on July 19, 1989. Haynes saved nearly 200 lives by guiding the damaged jet into a crash landing in Iowa. Haynes, 87, died Sunday.

Publisher Alfred A. Knopf says Nobel laureate Toni Morrison died Monday night at Montefiore Medical Center in New York. She was 88.

Dr. Carl Bell, who grew up on Chicago’s South Side, was a national leader in treating childhood trauma resulting from violence. 

John Paul Stevens, the bow-tied, independent-thinking, Republican-nominated justice who unexpectedly emerged as the Supreme Court’s leading liberal, died Tuesday in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, after suffering a stroke Monday.

He was fun. He was smart. And he was the best journalist many of us have ever known. John Callaway, the founder of “Chicago Tonight,” died 10 years ago this weekend. We remember the man and his legacy.

Stanley Tigerman was as famous for his personality as he was for his buildings, private homes and public buildings that showed post-modernism’s tendency for humor, irreverence and invention. 

Tim Conway, the stellar second banana to Carol Burnett who won four Emmy Awards on her TV variety show, has died, according to his publicist. He was 85.

The Doris Day Animal Foundation confirmed Doris Day died early Monday at her Carmel Valley, California, home. She was 97. 

Chet Coppock was a fixture on local television and a pioneer of sports talk radio with his “Coppock on Sports” show on WMAQ-AM in Chicago. He died Wednesday following a car accident.

Luke Perry, who gained instant heartthrob status as wealthy rebel Dylan McKay on "Beverly Hills, 90210," died Monday after suffering a massive stroke, his publicist said. He was 52.

Margaret Hart, who served as a WWCI trustee from 1986 to 2010, died Jan. 27 at her home in Lake Forest. She was 97 years old.

Along with her husband, the late Abner Mikva, Zorita “Zoe” Mikva created the Mikva Challenge more than 20 years ago. She died Saturday at the age of 90.

She launched the first advertising agency owned and managed by an African-American woman in the 1970s. Barbara Gardner Proctor died on Dec. 19, 2018 at the age of 86.