Obituaries in the News

Edna Hipps Hamrick

GAFFNEY, S.C. (AP) - Edna Hipps Hamrick, who founded the Hamrick's Inc. clothing store chain with her husband, has died. She was 89.

Mary Martin died Monday, according to the Blakely Funeral Home.

The family business, which started out in 1945 as a grocery store in a mill community, grew to include 20 clothing stores in Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia, according to the company.

Hamrick's makes its own lines of ladies' clothes under several brand names, including Links, N Touch, Southern Lady, Company Collection and Nikki.

Hamrick's children continue to run the company, which has about 1,500 employees.

---

Vlatko Pavletic

ZAGREB, Croatia (AP) - Vlatko Pavletic, a former speaker of Croatia's parliament who served as acting president for two months, has died. He was 77.

Pavletic, of the ruling conservative Croatian Democratic Union, died Wednesday. He took over presidential duties in December 1999, when President Franjo Tudjman died. The new president, Stipe Mesic, was sworn in February 2000.

Though loyal to Tudjman - an authoritarian and nationalist leader who ruled Croatia for a decade, Pavletic was never an outspoken nationalist.

Pavletic later was a deputy speaker of parliament and retired in 2004. He also wrote essays and books on literature.

---

Gordon "Specs" Powell

SAN DIEGO (AP) - Jazz drummer Gordon "Specs" Powell, who recorded with Billie Holiday and played for "The Ed Sullivan Show" as part of the CBS network orchestra, has died. He was 85.

Powell, who died Saturday of complications from kidney disease, also had heart trouble. He died at a care center near his home in the northern San Diego County suburb of San Marcos, according to his son, Ted Smith.

Powell began his career doubling as a pianist, but rose to fame as a drummer during the swing era and became a fixture on the 52nd Street jazz scene in New York.

In 1943, he was hired by CBS, becoming one of the first black musicians to play for a national network.

Powell was a versatile percussionist who carried a kit filled with castanets, clickers and other noisemakers he referred to as his "bag of tricks."

Powell was born in New York on June 5, 1922.

---

Garrard "Buster" Ramsey

SIGNAL MOUNTAIN, Tenn. (AP) - Garrard "Buster" Ramsey, the first coach of the Buffalo Bills, has died. He was 87.

Nephew Knox Wagner Ramsey Jr. said Ramsey died Sunday of pneumonia at a Chattanooga-area retirement center where he had been living.

Ramsey played guard at William & Mary, where he was the school's first All-American. In the NFL, as a two-way player as a lineman, he was part of the Chicago Cardinals' team that won the 1947 championship.

In 1959, he became coach of the newly formed Bills team of the old AFL, where he was 11-16-1 in two seasons before being fired in 1962. He also held coaching positions with the Detroit Lions and Pittsburgh Steelers.

As a defensive coach with the Lions in the 1950s, Ramsey was credited with helping develop the 4-3 defense and helped popularize blitzing linebackers.

He ended his coaching career with the Steelers in 1965.

Ramsey retired to the Smoky Mountains foothills in East Tennessee, where he raised cattle and served on the Blount County School Board and the county commission. He is listed on the World War II Honor Roll at the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

---

Ed Smith

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) - Ed Smith, a Democratic operative who spent his life in a wheelchair while registering voters and working for civil rights, has died. He was 56.

Smith died Sunday at his Raleigh home after a bout with pneumonia, friends said.

He never let his childhood bout with polio keep him from being a force in state Democratic politics and work for presidential candidates, friends said.

Smith worked on at least 60 campaigns and political campaigns, helping put in office former House Speaker Dan Blue and current U.S. House members such as Brad Miller, Bob Etheridge and G.K. Butterfield.

He was a state co-chairman for the 2000 Gore-Lieberman campaign, first vice chairman of the state Democratic Party and a Democratic National Committee member from 2001 to 2003. He later worked for John Edwards' 2004 presidential campaign.

After contracting polio at age 5, Smith spent long periods in an iron lung but was among the first disabled to attend his Raleigh high school and ultimately graduated from St. Andrews Presbyterian College in Laurinburg.