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Prominent Houston attorney John O'Quinn was one of two men who died this morning when their speeding SUV slammed into a tree on Allen Parkway after the driver apparently lost control, police said.
"I'm stunned. The community lost one of its biggest assets," said Rick Laminack, who worked with O'Quinn from 1987 until 2006. "He was a great lawyer who shared a lot of his wealth with people who needed help."
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This story originally ran Jan. 11, 1998
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Texas' lawsuit against the major tobacco companies, in which O'Quinn is serving as lead attorney, went on hold for several months, then added another major player, South Carolina tobacco specialist Ron Motley, with whom O'Quinn would have to share the stage. . . .
The great cases and big victories will return, one expects, assuming he does not lose his license. The tobacco case reportedly is on the verge of settling, leaving the plaintiff lawyers with $1 billion or more to split up. But the weight of the accusations and the headlines they've generated has been great.
CORK county councillors adjourned a scheduled meeting yesterday as a mark of respect to former colleague, Senator Peter Callanan, who died suddenly, on Sunday, at his home in Innishannon.
However, before adjourning, many tributes were made to the pipe-smoking 74-year-old who served on the local authority from 1979 to 2004. . . .
"I will always remember him smoking the pipe. He had a major problem with the smoking ban when it came into the chamber," Mr Hegarty said.
Read more: http://www.irishexaminer.com/ireland/kfaumhcwcwau/rss2/#ixzz0TmVaa5Mz . . .
"Peter fought a serious bout of cancer but always bore it with great dignity," he said. . . .
"I remember visiting him in hospital and he was smoking a cigar. Peter was absolutely adamant that he was going to enjoy what he liked," she added. . . .
Patricia’s gumption, and her desire to do the right thing, would carry her into battle against a huge corporation she knew had lied to her—and which was lying to and recklessly endangering all of our children. When her legal battle ended, she directed a portion of the monetary gain to the Patricia Henley Foundation supporting opportunities for children in the performing arts.
When Patricia was diagnosed with inoperable lung cancer in 1997, and given four months to live, she researched and discovered thousands of documents from the tobacco industry indicating that they lied about the additives in cigarettes, and the dangers of these ingredients to their customers. Her response to those who had trouble reconciling her righteous wrath with her lifetime of smoking was to point out the unethical marketing to teens. . ..
successfully sued Phillip Morris and the jury awarded her $51 million. It was, at that time, the first award in an anti-tobacco case in California, and the first case in the United States where punitive damages were upheld against a tobacco company. Appeals, over seven years, reduced the award to $10.5 million.
The Patricia Henley Foundation was finally funded in Santa Barbara in 2005 after the State Supreme Court refused to lower the judgment another time. Patricia, defying the medical professionals’ estimates of her longevity, focused the foundation on the mission on “inspiring the voice of youth through creative arts.”
The result was the Theatre of Life for Children (TLC), whose production of “A Tribute to the Musical” sold out three shows at The Marjorie Luke Theatre. . . .
Patricia never told anyone to stop smoking but only to make informed decisions. She described for performing cast members how her voice descended from soprano to lower-than-alto as a result of smoking. She was scheduled to cut a country western CD called Hard Lovin’ Lady (a title she gave herself after three marriages). But her voice had become so raspy that her guitarist joked, “I don’t think they make music in your key.”
In her opening statement during the trial, Patricia’s attorney Madelyn Chamber held up a pack of cigarettes and told the jury, “This is a case about a pack of lies.” . . .
Their high-powered attorneys’ attempts to confuse the issues didn’t sway one juror from finding the Phillip Morris executives guilty. . . .
It sent shock waves around the world when Patricia won this historic lawsuit. “HENLEY IS A HERO,” shouted a headline in a French newspaper. Patricia appeared on 20/20 and was featured in People and Forbes magazines. After her victory, she didn’t stop; she diligently wrote letters to corporations such as Disney to ask them to make Disneyland and Disney World smoke-free.
Fall of 2008 brought an end to the remission of the cancer that was supposed to have taken Patricia a decade earlier. She held on, with her usual courage, until July 31, 2009.
The band's agent, Barry Collings, said Dave, 64, had been very badly affected by the loss of his wife after 36 years of 'blissful marriage'.
'Understandably Dave has taken his loss very badly and he hasn't the heart to continue gigging and with regret he has decided to retire from the music business,' he said.
Mr Collings even speculated whether the cause of her death had anything to do with the fact she followed him to concerts in smoke-filled venues all around the country.
He said: 'I've never spoken to Dave about it, but in the early days she used to go to all the gigs so, over the years, I think there was an effect.'
Non-smoker Roy Castle famously developed cancer from playing the trumpet in smoky jazz clubs.
Retired federal Judge William Osteen Sr. died Sunday.
For nearly 16 years, Osteen served as a U.S. District Court Judge for the Middle District of North Carolina, which is based in Greensboro.
Osteen's family declined to provide any further details about his death on Sunday evening.
Osteen was born in 1930 in Greensboro, according to the federal judiciary Web site. He served in the U.S. Army Reserve before graduating from Guilford College in 1953.
For 48 years, Don Brandt was known as the "Voice of the SCC Blackhawks" and the "Voice of the Burlington Grayhounds" on KBUR.
But he also was a dedicated member of the Burlington School Board, having served several stints over the course of four decades. . . .
"He was very passionate about his work as a school board member, especially in terms of advocacy for students," Book said.
That passion for students was displayed when Brandt voted in a unanimous decision to ban smoking on Burlington School District property in 2003.
"Don had a knack for looking at an issue and dissecting it while looking at it from all sides," Book said.
He wanted to make a difference.
Those who knew him -- and many who met him for only a short time -- say he did.
For years, Jack Vogle spoke to students, not only in McAlester but across Oklahoma and even into Arkansas, about the dangers of smoking cigarettes and using tobacco.
"He wanted to prevent the young people from smoking, so what happened to him wouldn't happen to them," said Vogle's wife, Fredonia Vogle.
Jack Vogle died Sunday at his home following a long battle with cancer
But Swayze also smoked, and continued to smoke after his diagnosis. Smoking is just one factor that may have led to the cancer.
"Smoking is definitely a risk factor for pancreatic cancer," said Chari, noting that, by some estimates, up to a quarter of the 37,000 annual pancreatic cancer cases may be due to smoking.
Could he have fought the disease longer by quitting cigarettes? Not likely, say doctors.
"Once the cancer has spread and all this happened ... continuing smoking, I don't think, mattered at that point," said Chari.
The only bad thing I can say about Patrick Swayze: goddamn, did he smoke a lot. Patrick must have gone through at least a pack and-a-half (a conservative estimate) of American Spirits during our talk. The only time he wasn’t smoking was when we were eating a magnificent sushi dinner. The minute those chopsticks went down, a lit nail was back in his hand. I knew he’d gotten sober after an ongoing battle with the bottle, one that had claimed his father and sister, but cigarettes continued to be a demon he wrestled with. When I asked him about the irony of such a fine athlete destroying his lungs with tobacco smoke, he smiled gently, looked at the cigarette in his hand and said “Yeah, I know, but I’ll beat this thing eventually. I’ve beaten worse, man.” He had, and for a while, he nearly did: Swayze’s self-described “peaceful warrior” attitude allowed him to survive nearly two years longer than doctors predicted he would, after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer eighteen months ago. He lost the battle on Monday, September 14. He was 57.
But here is something most people don't realize. Cancer of the pancreas, that organ that makes insulin to digest food, is correlated to smoking.
"We do know, however, that we see more pancreatic cancers in people who smoke and we see more pancreatic cancers in people who are overweight. So the problem is which of these two things is responsible for the development, hasn't yet been figured out. But there is no question that if you want to do all you can to avoid developing a malignancy in the pancreas, do not smoke," Dr. Brown emphasized.
Patrick Swayze is on record admitting that smoking probably did have something to do with his deadly cancer. But while it is common knowledge that smoking kills through lung cancer, it is not widely known that cancers of the pancreas, kidney, bladder and acute leukemia are related to smoking.
Doctor Brown said that two-thirds of all cancers are directly related to problems of smoking or being overweight.
"That's correct two-thirds of cancers," said Dr. Brown. "Iit's appalling when you think about it."
Although she liked her bacon crispy and her chicken fried, she never drank, smoked or fooled around, Gertrude Baines once said, describing a life that lasted an astonishing 115 years and earned her the title of oldest person on the planet.
It was a title Baines quietly relinquished Friday when she died in her sleep at Western Convalescent Hospital, her home since she gave up living alone at age 107 after breaking a hip.
With Patrick Swayze's death today comes a highly public reminder that the cure rate for pancreatic cancer is abysmal. This year, an estimated 42,470 Americans will be diagnosed with the disease. And an estimated 35,240 will die.
Smoking can increase risk, as can obesity, diabetes, family history and other factors. But there simply aren't obvious signs of the disease in its early stages, and detection can often come too late. (Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg underwent surgery for pancreatic cancer earlier this year; hers was indeed caught fairly early.)
The disease is broken down into two basic types: exocrine tumors and endocrine tumors, as the American Cancer Society explains. Exocrine tumors are the most common and are usually malignant. Endocrine tumors are much more rare and the malignancy rate is more complex. (Steve Jobs was diagnosed with the endocrine type several years ago.)
Actor Patrick Swayze has died at the age of 57 after struggling with pancreatic cancer for almost two years, his publicist says. . . .
Swayze was also known for being a heavy smoker. In a January interview Patrick said one of the reasons that he would still continue to smoke was to lesson his daily battles.
"It's just I've been dealing with one thing as it comes at time, you know… in the… order that it's trying to kill me. Will stopping smoking now stop anything, change anything? No. But, when it looks like I may live longer than five minutes, I'll drop cigarettes like a hot potato," he told ABC on January 6, 2009.
The Pancreatic Cancer Action Network (www.pancan.org), the only national organization creating hope in a comprehensive way through research, patient support, community outreach and advocacy for a cure is mourning the loss of legendary actor Patrick Swayze. His diagnosis shocked fans around the world in early 2008 and his subsequent battle put a spotlight on pancreatic cancer, the fourth leading cause of cancer death in the United States. Swayze is the latest celebrity to succumb to this deadly disease, others before him include: Chuck Daly, Randy Pausch, Luciano Pavarotti, Michael Landon, Donna Reed, Juliet Prowse, Joan Crawford and Jack Benny among others.
"On behalf of the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network, I would like to offer my condolences to his wife, Lisa and the entire Swayze family," said Julie Fleshman, President and CEO. "For nearly two years he was beating the odds stacked against him and his brave, public battle was a beacon of hope for the pancreatic cancer community. The Pancreatic Cancer Action Network will continue to advance research, support patients and create hope in his memory."
Pancreatic cancer is the most lethal cancer in the United States with a five-year survival rate of only 5 percent.