Lesley Gilb Taplin Age 62, died April 13, 2009 in an automobile accident on highway 101 in Los Angeles. Lesley was born September 6, 1946 in Seattle, WA and was raised in Berkeley, CA. Lesley's rich and varied career included working as an actor, film producer, production assistant, production manager, story editor, researcher, writer, gallery manager, publisher, and teacher. For the last decade of Lesley's life she was passionately involved as a volunteer with many downtown Los Angeles organizations. This article appeared on page Z - 99 of the San Francisco Chronicle.

Author Tom Dietz (b.1952) died on April 27. Dietz was the 2007 Phoenix Award and wrote novels including the Soulsmith series, Windmaster’s Bane, and The Gryffon King. In the 1970s, Deitz contributed to the fanzine Aphelion and to APA MOTiVE in the 1990s.

Former boxing champ Greg Page diesBy Associated PressMonday, April 27, 2009 LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Greg Page, a former heavyweight boxing champion who suffered a severe brain injury in a 2001 fight, has died at his Louisville home. He was 50.

His wife, Patricia Page, said she found the one-time World Boxing Association champion in his bed Monday morning. Patricia Page said he died of complications related to injuries he suffered in the fight.

Page told The Associated Press her husband "is in a better place now."

The March 9, 2001, fight left Page in a coma for nearly a week. He then had a stroke during post-fight surgery. He was paralyzed on his left side and received intensive physical therapy.

Page won a $1.2 million settlement in 2007 with Kentucky boxing officials over the lack of medical personnel at the fight. Boxing officials also agreed to establish a medical review panel for the Kentucky Boxing and Wrestling Authority to check the health conditions of people involved in the sport who may be at risk for injury.

Page started fighting while growing up in Louisville and was sparring with Muhammad Ali by the time he was 15. He became the National Golden Gloves heavyweight champion in 1978 at age 20.

He turned to professional boxing and lost his first shot at the WBA heavyweight championship in 1984 to Tim Witherspoon. In December of that year, Page knocked out Gerrie Coetzee in the eighth round of their bout in South Africa to claim the title, but lost on points to Tony Tubbs five months later.

Page continued boxing through 1993, then took two years off after being knocked out by Bruce Seldon. He started again in 1996.Page was 42 and had a 58-16-1 career record going into the $1,500 fight against Dale Crowe at Peels Palace in Erlanger, Ky., near Cincinnati. Crowe was 24 and an up-and-coming boxer. Page went down after 10 rounds and didn’t get up.

Golden Girls TV star dies at 86

The death of popular actress Bea Arthur, who starred in the US television sitcom The Golden Girls, has been reported in Los Angeles. Arthur, who played Dorothy Zbornak to the late Estelle Getty's Sophia Petrillo, died at home of cancer at the age of 86, a family spokesman said. She was also famous for the sitcom Maude, first creating the character in the comedy series All In The Family. Arthur also won an Emmy Award for the musical Mame.