Remembering Ruby Dee and Casey Kasem

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Actress Ruby Dee passed away last week from age related complications.  After breaking into the national limelight opposite Sidney Portier in the film version of “A Raisin In The Sun,” Dee went on to create an impressive body of work and to use her celebrity as a civil rights activist.

With decades of stage, television and film credits to her name, Dee appeared in such projects as “The Jackie Robinson Story” (1950) and the Spike Lee productions “Do the Right Thing” (1989) and “Jungle Fever” (1991). Dee also received her first Academy Award nomination in 2008 for her work in “American Gangster,” the story of a high-rolling black drug lord in New York.

Dee and her husband, the late Ossie Davis, also lent their talents to the civil rights movement, emceeing Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s 1963 March on Washington, among other events.

Ruby Dee was 91.

The voice of radio personality and announcer Casey Kasem has been silenced.

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Kasem, whose silky-smooth voice entertained radio listeners for nearly 4 decades as the host of “American Top 40,” “Casey’s Top 40,” and other shows, died early Sunday, according to his daughter,  Kerri Kasem.  He had been battling Parkinson’s Disease, had gone missing more than a month ago and had been hospitalized in Washington state for the past 2 weeks.

“Early this Father’s Day morning, our dad Casey Kasem passed away surrounded by family and friends,” Kasem’s children — Kerri, Mike and Julie — wrote in a statement. “Even though we know he is in a better place and no longer suffering, we are heartbroken … The world will miss Casey Kasem, an incredible talent and humanitarian; we will miss our Dad.”

Casey Kasem was 82.