National Obituaries

DETROIT (AP) — Florine Mark, a Michigan business icon and former owner of Weight Watchers franchises in Michigan and Ontario, Canada, has died. She was 90.

Rudolph Isley, a founding member of the Isley Brothers who helped perform such raw rhythm and blues classics as “Shout" and “Twist and Shout” and the funky hits “That Lady” and “It's Your Thing,” has died at age 84.

DALLAS (AP) — Walt Garrison, who led the Big 8 in rushing for the Oklahoma State Cowboys, won a Super Bowl as a fullback with the Dallas Cowboys and competed as a rodeo cowboy, has died. He was 79.

TITUSVILLE, Fla. (AP) — Bruce Weaver, a Florida-based photographer who captured a definitive image of space shuttle Challenger breaking apart into plumes of smoke and fire after liftoff, has died. He was 77.

MONTREAL — Former Prince Edward Island premier James Lee has died at the age of 86. Lee, who went by Jim, was the province's 26th premier and held the office from 1981 to 1986.

Brendan Malone, father of Denver Nuggets coach Michael Malone and a driving force behind the Detroit Pistons “Bad Boys” defenses in the late 1980s and early '90s, has died at age 81.

NEW YORK (AP) — Louise Meriwether, the author and activist whose coming-of-age novel "Daddy Was a Number Runner" is widely regarded as a groundbreaking and vital portrait of race, gender and class, has died. She was 100.

NEW YORK (AP) — Kevin Phillips, the author, commentator and political strategist whose landmark book, “The Emerging Republican Majority,” became a blueprint for Republican thinking in the 1970s and beyond, has died. He was 82.

Hughes Van Ellis, who was the youngest known survivor of the Tulsa Race Massacre and who spent his latter years pursuing justice for his family and other descendants of the attack on “Black Wall Street,” has died. He was 102.

Dorothy Hoffner, a 104-year-old Chicago woman whose recent skydive could see her certified by Guinness World Records as the oldest person to ever jump from a plane, has died.