Category
4 lives remembered
Politics1946 – 2026 · Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Shirley Kitchen, the North Philadelphia social worker who became the second African American woman to serve in the Pennsylvania Senate and held her seat for two decades before hand-picking her own successor, died July 5, 2026, at the age of 79.
Politics1956 – 2026 · Shelbyville, Tennessee
Jim Tracy, the Tennessee Republican who spent more than a decade in the state Senate and lost a 2014 Republican primary for Congress by 38 votes, then declined to contest it, died July 3, 2026, at the age of 69.
Politics1945 – 2026 · South Minneapolis, Minnesota
Minnesota's first openly lesbian legislator and, by her retirement, the longest-serving in the nation, Karen Clark spent 38 years turning a nurse's ethic of care into law — from the state's first LGBTQ anti-discrimination protections to the 2013 marriage-equality act she authored.
Journalism1959 – 2026 · Gainesville, Georgia
On June 22, 2026, the famous talk radio host and political commentator Martha Zoller passed away unexpectedly following a sudden illness at the Northeast Georgia Medical Center in Gainesville.
