Milestones

DIED In her job as a reporter for KATV in Little Rock, Ark., Anne Pressly traveled throughout the state interviewing the likes of former Governor turned presidential candidate Mike Huckabee, poet Maya Angelou and, by chance encounter, Vice President Dick Cheney, who was in Arkansas shopping at a hunting-equipment store. Most recently, she landed a small role as a conservative commentator in Oliver Stone’s George W. Bush biopic. Pressly was found severely beaten in her home on Oct. 20, and she succumbed to her injuries several days later. A fund created in her name to apprehend the killer has so far raised about $37,000. Pressly was 26.

Gerard Damiano, who went by the name Jerry Gerard, effectively launched the 1970s porn-movie craze with his first feature, Deep Throat, in which the leading lady had a special talent all her own. Despite producer worries that the term was too obscure, Damiano replied, “Deep Throat will become a household word.” With a budget of about $25,000 (provided by the son of a mobster) and a six-day shooting schedule, the film went on to earn tens of millions of dollars and a notorious spot in film history. He was 80.

Born in North Carolina during the Jim Crow era, Alex Rivera reported on and photographed civil rights stories about the last lynchings in South Carolina and Georgia as well as school desegregation in the South. Working for newspapers like the Washington Tribune and the Pittsburgh Courier, Rivera also photographed African Americans such as opera singer Marian Anderson and tennis legend Arthur Ashe. He later spent more than 15 years as the publicist for North Carolina Central University. Rivera was 95.