(KRON) KRON4 News is looking back on 2016. Here are a number of the notable celebrity deaths and how KRON4 reported the story at the time of their death.MUHAMMAD ALI
Boxing legend Muhammad Ali died on June 3 at age 74.
Muhammad Ali was hospitalized in the Phoenix area, battling respiratory problems serious enough to draw family members to his bedside.
Ali was the heavyweight champion whose fast fists and irrepressible personality captivated the world.
The family of Ali issued the following statement on his death:
“After a 32-year battle with Parkinson’s disease, Muhammad Ali has passed away at the age of 74. The three-time World Heavyweight Champion boxer died this evening. Muhammad Ali’s funeral will take place in his hometown of Louisville, Kentucky. The Ali family would like to thank everyone for their thoughts, prayers, and support and asks for privacy at this time.”PRINCE
Eclectic musical genius Prince was found on April 21 at his recording studios in Minnesota only days after battling a severe flu, officials say. He was 57.
He died only days after he was rushed to hospital with severe flu. According to celebrity gossip site TMZ, who first reported Prince’s death, the musician was treated for a drug overdose six days before his death, TMZ reported, citing multiple sources.
He rose to worldwide fame in the early 1980s with his multi-platinum party song “1999” (Party Like It’s 1999) and power ballad “Purple Rain,” the latter which was made into a movie starring the musician.DAVID BOWIE
David Bowie, the other-worldly musician who broke pop and rock boundaries with his creative musicianship, nonconformity, striking visuals and a genre-spanning persona he christened Ziggy Stardust, died of cancer on January 10. He was 69 and had just released a new album.
Bowie, whose hits included “Fame,” ”Heroes” and “Let’s Dance,” died “peacefully” and was surrounded by family, representative Steve Martin said early Monday. The singer had fought cancer for 18 months.ARNOLD PALMER
Legendary golfer Arnold Palmer died in Pittsburgh on September 25 at the age of 87.
The United States Golf Association announced the news on Twitter just after 5:30 p.m.
Palmer is survived by his wife, two daughters and six grandchildren.
Alastair Johnson, CEO of Arnold Palmer Enterprises, confirmed that Palmer died Sunday afternoon of complications from heart problems.
Palmer ranked among the most important figures in golf history, and it went well beyond his seven major championships and 62 PGA Tour wins. His good looks, devilish grin and go-for-broke manner made the elite sport appealing to one and all. And it helped that he arrived about the same time as television moved into most households, a perfect fit that sent golf to unprecedented popularity.GENE WILDER
Gene Wilder, the frizzy-haired actor who brought his deft comedic touch to such unforgettable roles as the neurotic accountant in “The Producers” and the mad scientist of “Young Frankenstein,” died on August 29. He was 83.
Wilder’s nephew said Monday that the actor and writer died late Sunday at his home in Stamford, Connecticut, from complications from Alzheimer’s disease.
Jordan Walker-Pearlman said in a statement that Wilder was diagnosed with the disease three years ago, but kept the condition private so as not to disappoint fans.ANTONIN SCALIA
U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia has died at the age of 79 on February 12.
Scalia died in his sleep during a visit to Texas.
The first Italian-American to sit on the nation’s highest court, Scalia was a conservative in thought, but not in personality.
The jaunty jurist was able to light up, or ignite, a room with his often brash demeanor and wicked sense of humor, grounded always in a profound respect for American law and its constitutional traditions.JOHN GLENN
John Glenn, whose 1962 flight as the first U.S. astronaut to orbit the Earth made him an all-American hero and propelled him to a long career in the U.S. Senate, died on December 8. The last survivor of the original Mercury 7 astronauts was 95.
Glenn died at the James Cancer Hospital in Columbus, Ohio, where he was hospitalized for more than a week, said Hank Wilson, communications director for the John Glenn School of Public Affairs.
John Herschel Glenn Jr. had two major career paths that often intersected: flying and politics, and he soared in both.
Before he gained fame orbiting the world he was a fighter pilot in two wars, and as a test pilot he set a transcontinental speed record. He later served 24 years in the Senate from Ohio. A rare setback was a failed 1984 run for the Democratic presidential nomination.ALAN THICKE
TV icon Alan Thicke, the dad on “Growing Pains,” has died at age 69 on December 14, a source confirmed to KRON4 show Entertainment Tonight.
The actor suffered a heart attack while playing hockey with his 19-year-old son, ET said. He died at a hospital in Burbank.
Thicke was born in Kirkland Lake, Ontario, Canada. He was best known for his role as Jason Seaver, the father on the 1980’s ABC Television series “Growing Pains.”
Thicke also hosted the “All New 3’s a Crowd” on the Game Show Network.
Most-recently, Thicke appeared on an episode of the “Full House” spinoff “Fuller House.”NANCY REAGAN
Former first lady Nancy Reagan, who joined her husband on a storybook journey from Hollywood to the White House, died on March 6, according to John Heubusch, executive director of the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Foundation.
She was 94.
As first lady during Ronald Reagan’s eight years in the White House, she was known as the “Just say no” spokeswoman of anti-drug campaigns, and as a fierce protector of her husband, both personally and politically. When Ronald Reagan was shot in a 1981 assassination attempt, Nancy Reagan never left the hospital where the president was treated until he was released, according to Nancy Reagan’s press secretary, Sheila Tate.FLORENCE HENDERSON
Florence Henderson, who went from Broadway star to become one of America’s most beloved television moms in “The Brady Bunch,” died on November 26, her manager and her publicist said. She was 82.
Henderson died Thursday night at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, after being hospitalized the day before, said her publicist, David Brokaw. Henderson had suffered heart failure, her manager Kayla Pressman said in a statement.
Family and friends had surrounded Henderson’s hospital bedside, Pressman said.ROBERT VAUGHN
Robert Vaughn, the debonair, Oscar-nominated actor whose many film roles were eclipsed by his hugely popular turn in television’s “The Man From U.N.C.L.E.,” died on November 11. He was 83.
Vaughn died Friday morning after a brief battle with acute leukemia, according to his manager, Matthew Sullivan.
“The Man From U.N.C.L.E.” was an immediate hit, particularly with young people, when it debuted on NBC 1964. It was part of an avalanche of secret agent shows (“I Spy,” ”Mission: Impossible,” ”Secret Agent”), spoofs (“Get Smart”), books (“The Spy Who Came in From the Cold”) and even songs (“Secret Agent Man”) inspired by the James Bond films.LEONARD COHEN
Singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen died in his sleep after falling down in the middle of the night at his Los Angeles home, his manager said Wednesday.
“The death was sudden, unexpected and peaceful,” manager Robert B. Kory said in a statement.
The details from Kory provided the first glimpse of how Cohen died. No cause was given last week in the initial announcement of his death.
The statement also said that Cohen died on Nov. 7 — three days before his passing was made public.
The singer, songwriter and poet behind “Hallelujah,” ”Bird on a Wire” and “Suzanne” was 82 when he died. Cohen had been in declining health for much of the year, though he revealed few details.JOHN SAUNDERS
Longtime ESPN host John Saunders has died at age 61 on August 10, according to ESPN.
Saunders joined ESPN in 1986. He did play-by-play on various sports, hosted NHL Stanley Cup Final coverage and World Series coverage and hosted studio shows for baseball, college football and college basketball.
The cause of death is unknown at this time.
“John was an extraordinary talent and his friendly, informative style has been a warm welcome to sports fans for decades. His wide range of accomplishments across numerous sports and championship events is among the most impressive this industry has ever seen,” ESPN President John Skipper said in a statement.ELIE WIESEL
Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel, the Romanian-born Holocaust survivor whose classic “Night” became a landmark testament to the Nazis’ crimes and launched Wiesel’s long career as one of the world’s foremost witnesses and humanitarians, died on July 2 at age 87.
His death was announced Saturday by Israel’s Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial. No other details were immediately available.
The short, sad-eyed Wiesel, his face an ongoing reminder of one man’s endurance of a shattering past, summed up his mission in 1986 when accepting the Nobel Peace Prize: “Whenever and wherever human beings endure suffering and humiliation, take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.”GORDIE HOWE
Gordie Howe, the rough-and-tumble Canadian farm boy whose boundless blend of talent and toughness made him the NHL’s quintessential star during a career that lasted into his 50s, died on June 10. The man forever known as “Mr. Hockey” was 88.
Murray Howe, one of his sons, confirmed the death Friday, texting to The Associated Press: “Mr Hockey left peacefully, beautifully, and w no regrets.” Howe died in Sylvania, Ohio, at the home of Murray Howe, according to Detroit Red Wings executive Rob Mattina.
NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman lauded “the incomparable” Howe as a “remarkable athlete whose mastery of our sport was reflected by the longevity of his career and by his nickname, ‘Mr. Hockey.’”MERLE HAGGARD
Country giant Merle Haggard, who rose from poverty and prison to international fame though his songs about outlaws, underdogs and an abiding sense of national pride in such hits as “Okie From Muskogee” and “Sing Me Back Home,” died April 6 at 79, on his birthday.
Haggard’s manager, Frank Mull, said the country icon died in Palo Cedro, California, 8 miles east of Redding, of pneumonia that he had been battling for months. He had kept up an ambitious touring schedule, but the pneumonia in both lungs had forced him to cancel several shows this year.
A masterful guitarist, fiddler and songwriter as well as singer, the Country Music Hall of Famer with the firm, direct baritone recorded for more than 40 years, releasing dozens of albums and No. 1 hits.PATTY DUKE
Patty Duke, who won an Oscar as a teen for “The Miracle Worker” and maintained a long and successful career throughout her life while battling personal demons, died on March 29 at the age of 69.
Duke’s agent, Mitchell Stubbs, says the actress died early Tuesday morning of sepsis from a ruptured intestine. She died in Coeur D’Alene, Idaho, according to Teri Weigel, the publicist for her son, actor Sean Astin.
Duke, born Anna Marie Pearce, followed on her early success playing the young Helen Keller with a popular sitcom, “The Patty Duke Show,” which aired for three seasons in the mid-1960s. She played dual roles under an unconventional premise: identical cousins living in Brooklyn Heights, New York.GARRY SHANDLING
Acclaimed entertainer Garry Shandling, best known 80’s television show “It’s Garry Shandling’s Show,” died on March 24 after a “medical emergency” at his West Los Angeles home, police announced Thursday.
He was 66.
TMZ first reported that Shandling died of a massive heart attack at an L.A. hospital Thursday morning.
Los Angeles Police Department spokesman Tony Im, who confirmed Shandling’s death shortly before 2 p.m., said Shandling was taken to a local hospital where he died.MAURICE WHITE
Maurice White, the founder and leader of Earth, Wind & Fire, died on February 4.
White died at home in Los Angeles on Wednesday, said his brother, Verdine White. He was 74.
A former session drummer, White founded Earth, Wind & Fire in the late 1960s. The group went on to sell more than 90 million albums worldwide, displaying a flashy and eclectic musical style that incorporated his influences from growing up in Memphis, Tennessee, and workinEarg at the influential Chicago music labels Chess and Okeh.
The band’s many hits included “September,” ”Shining Star,” a cover of the Beatles’ “Got to Get You into My Life” and “Boogie Wonderland.” Earth, Wind & Fire won six Grammys and was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2000.GLENN FREY
Eagles guitarist Glenn Frey died on January 18 at the age of 67. Frey’s website After Hours made the announcement Monday afternoon.
Frey had been in failing health.
The Eagles did not participate in a ceremony back in December at the Kennedy Center because of Frey’s health.
Frey, Don Henley, Randy Meisner and Bernie Leadon formed the Eagles in 1971. The Eagles broke up in 1980, Frey pursued a solo career following the break up.Frey, who turned 67 in November, has long suffered from intestinal problems which he has blamed on his drug use during the band’s early years, he told the Detroit Free Press in a 1988 interview.